Ribchester, Lancashire Family History Guide
Ribchester is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.
Other places in the parish include: Hothersall, Alston, Hatherall, Dutton, and Dilworth.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin: 1598
Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, and Roman Catholic.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
Ribchester
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
RIBCHESTER, an ancient small town, a township, and a parish, in Preston district, Lancashire.
The town stands on the river Ribble, 3¼ miles NW of a station of its own name on the Blackburn and Clitheroe railway, and 5½ NNW of Blackburn; occupies the site of the Roman station Coccium or Rigodunum; was reached, in ancient times, by the tide coming up the Ribble; has yielded multitudes of ancient relics, including Roman altars, columns, statues, marbles, coins, and armour, besides anchors and part of a vessel’s hull; carries on hand-loom weaving; and has a post-office under Preston, and fairs on 16 March, 16 April, the Monday before Holy Thursday and 5 Nov.
The township comprises 2,093 acres. Real property, £3,459; of which £89 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 1,650; in 1861, 1,357. Houses, 261. The decrease of pop. arose from the removal of hand-loom weavers to towns.
The manor belongs to J.and J. Fenton, Esqs.
A workhouse of Preston district is here; and, at the census of 1861, had 113 inmates.
The parish contains also the townships of Hothersall, Dutton, Alston, and Dilworth. Acres, 8,150. Pop., 3,885. Houses, 751. The property is much subdivided.
Cotton-spinning and various manufactures are carried on at Longridge and Knowl-Green.
The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Stidd, in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £175. Patron, the Bishop of Manchester. The church is ancient but good; consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and chapel, with a tower; and once had two chantries. The vicarage of Longridge is a separate benefice.
There are an Independent chapel at Knowl-Green, places of worship at Longridge, an endowed school with £20 a year, and charities £52.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Dutton
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Dutton, a township in the parish of Rochester, hund. of Blackburn, co.-palatine of Lancaster; 6½ miles north by west of Blackburn; west of the river Ribble. Acreage with the parish. Houses 85. A.P. £1,961. Pop., in 1801, 388; in 1831, 490. Poor rates, in 1837, £214.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
DUTTON, a township, in the parish of Ribchester, union of Preston, Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, 7 miles (N. by W.) from Blackburn; containing 563 inhabitants.
This place gave name to a family, which occurs in charters without date; and lands here were possessed by numerous other ancient families, among whom were the Tounleys, whose surviving heiress died of extreme old age in 1799: the manor afterwards became the property of the Fentons, by purchase from the Welds. Within the township was the ancient “Hospitale subtus Langrig,” with its chapel of Stidd, dedicated to God and Our Holy Saviour; it existed as early as the reign of John, and shared the fate of the religious houses at the Reformation.
Stidd chapel, now a chapel of ease, is one of the oldest entire buildings in the county; the edifice is of grey stone, with a porch of primitive simplicity, and a fine-pointed semi-Saxon arch with slender clustered columns.
The site of the chapel is a croft, formerly a cemetery, now overgrown with grass; and the eastern gable is richly clothed with ivy, festooning the window inside and out. For many ages, an ancient stone coffin-tomb was to be seen on the north side of the altar, inscribed with the double cross of the Hospitallers (the establishment having been at one period a commandery of the Knights); but it is now covered up: one of the lords of Salesbury, and his lady, are interred beneath the altar; and immediately before it lie the remains of the Roman Catholic bishop of Armorium (Petre), who died in 1725.
The township comprises 1665 statute acres, whereof 847 customary acres are arable, 59 wood, and 122 waste.
The village is situated about a mile north-by-east of the village of Ribchester. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £90.
The Roman Catholics have a place of worship, built in 1795, with almshouses adjoining.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Registers
Ribchester Parish Registers 1598 to 1694
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Lancashire
- Civil Registration District: Preston
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Commissary of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Western Deaneries – Amounderness
- Diocese: Manchester
- Rural Deanery: Amounderness
- Poor Law Union: Preston
- Hundred: Amounderness; Blackburn
- Province: York