Rothbury Northumberland Family History Guide

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Rothbury is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Northumberland.

Other places in the parish include: Newtown, Newton, Mount Healey, Little Tosson, Lee Ward, Hollinghill, Holdinghill, High and Low Trewhitt, Hesleyhurst, Hesley Hurst, Hepple Demesne, Hepple, Hellinghill, Great Tosson and Ryehill, Great Tosson and Rye Hill, Flotterton, Fallowlees, Debdon, Cartington with Bankhead and Sandylands, Cartington, Caistron, Bickerton, Wreighill, Wreigh Hill, Whitton, Warton, Thropton, Snitter, Sandylands, Rye-Hill, Rye Hall, Raw, Pauperhaugh, Paperhaugh, Newtown near Alnwick, and Bankhead.

Alternative names: Rothbury with Thropton and Hepple

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1653
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1760

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Rothbury Parish Registers

Bishops Transcripts

Explore the Bishops’ Transcripts for the Diocese of Durham (1639–1919) – This collection offers parish register copies submitted annually to the Bishop, covering baptisms, marriages, and burials across Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. Ideal for tracing ancestors when original registers are missing or incomplete.

Rothbury Bishops Transcripts 1760-1831

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ROTHBURY, a small town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Northumberland. The town stands on the river Coquet, and on the Northumberland Central railway, 11 miles S W of Alnwick; was anciently called Robire, Rathbury, and Routhbyrig; is supposed, by some writers, to occupy the site of a Roman settlement; was once surrounded by many miles of forest; is situated in a romantic hollow, almost entirely engirt with rugged hills.

It consists chiefly of three streets, diverging from a market-place and irregularly built; presents indications of great antiquity, in many arched windows and massive doorways; underwent much improvement, by introduction of water-supply, the reconstruction of buildings, and the erection of several fine edifices, in 1866-7; was formerly a place of much resort for the drinking of goat’s milk; is still frequented by many summer visitors, for sake of its fine climate, and for sport in the neighbouring waters.

It is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; and has a post-office under Morpeth, a banking office, two good inns, a quaint old bridge, a market-cross, a church, an Independent chapel, a mechanics’ institute, an endowed grammar-school with £85 a year, an endowed girls’ school with £25, general charities £154, a workhouse, malting and brewery establishments, and fairs on Easter-Friday, Whit-Monday, 2 Oct., and 1 Nov.

The church includes early English chancel and transept, nave and tower of 1850, and a ruined chantry of the Cartingtons; contains a piscina, a credence-table, and a richly-sculptured font; and was the scene of Bernard Gilpin’s assuaging a deadly fend between two clans.

Whitton Tower, a fortified residence, built in the 15th century, by one of the Umfravilles, is now the parsonage. Rumney, author of “Ecky’s Mare,” Dr. J. Brown, a theological writer who died in 1766, and Dr. Sharp, Dr. Drummond, and the Rev. G. V. Harcourt, all sons of the Archbishop of York, have held the living.

The township comprises 4, 923 acres. Pop. in 1851, 895; in 1861, 798. Houses, 161.

The parish contain also the townships of Whitton, Newtown, Great Tosson and Ryehill, Little Tosson, Bickerton, Caistron, Fallow-lees, Hollinghill, Hesley-Hurst, Raw, Paperhaugh, Mount-Healey, Lee-Ward, Debdon, Snitter, Thropton, Warton, Flotterton, Cartington, High and Low Trewhitt, Hepple, Hepple-Demesne, and Wreighill. Acres, 34, 798. Real property, £19, 309. Pop. in 1851, 2, 545; in 1861, 2, 387. Houses, 475. The property is divided among a few.

The manor was given to the Percys in 1330, and belongs now to the Duke of Northumberland. Hepple is the seat of Sir W. Riddell, Bart. Cartington Castle was the seat of the Cartington family. A Roman camp, with double vallum, is at Old Rothbury. Many of the farm-houses are old peels, with thick walls and low narrow doors.

The land, to the extent of 7 miles, was formerly all forest, and is now, for the most part, wild uncultivated moor. The rocks include coal, limestone, iron ore, and lead ore; and the surface, in many places, is strewn with scoriæ, supposed to attest the workings of Roman miners.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £1, 106. Patron, the Bishop of Carlisle. An English Presbyterian church and a Roman Catholic chapel are at Thropton.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Historical Maps

Rothbury 1921 Northumberland Sheet 41.16 This detailed map gives good coverage of the small town of Rothbury. Features include town centre with individual buildings shown, All Saints church, Jubilee Institute, County Hotel, Whitton Grange, railway station, Rothbury Poor Law Institution. Cover extends west to Old Rothbury, Beggars Rigg and the Steeplechase Course. View Map Details*
Rothbury 1921 Northumberland Sheet 41.16

Administration

  • County: Northumberland
  • Civil Registration District: Rothbury
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Rothbury
  • Poor Law Union: Rothbury
  • Hundred: Coquetdale Ward
  • Province: York