Shepton Mallet, Somerset Family History Guide

Shepton Mallet is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Somerset.

Other places in the parish include: West Shepton, Oakhill, and Charlton Woodlands.

Alternative names: Shepun

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1635
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1566

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

SHEPTON-MALLET-popularly Shepun-a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Somerset. The town stands on the East Somerset rai1way, under the Mendip hills, 5 miles E by S of Wells; was known to the Saxons as Sepeton; figured as a place of considerable trade in the 14th century; was twice visited, in 1685, by the Duke of Monmouth and his troops; witnessed the execution of twelve persons, by order of Judge Jeffreys; underwent great vicissitudes at various periods; began to run a course of steady prosperity, about 1851; numbers, among its natives, Hugh Inge who died in 1528, the physician Carlton who died in 1709, and the theologian S. Browne who died in 1732; occupies a number of small elevations, with its chief street crossing a valley from N to S; consists of about ten streets, of rather mean appearance, but recently much improved; includes a considerable market place, with a fine hexagonal Gothic market-cross, erected in 1500, and restored in 1841; is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling place; publishes a weekly newspaper; and has a head post-office, a r. station, two banking offices, two chief inns, a police station, a county jail with capacity for 169 male and 52 female prisoners, excellent waterworks, an ancient cruciform church recently restored and enlarged, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a public cemetery of about 5 acres with two mortuary chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £30 a year, national and British schools, a mechanics’ institute, a literary institution and reading room, a horticultural society, endowed alms houses with £359 a year, a workhouse with capacity for more than 400 persons, and general charities £105. A weekly market is held on Friday; a cattle-market, on the third Friday of every month; and fairs, on Easter-Monday, 18 June, and 8 Aug-Brewing, boot and shoe-making, and the manufacture of silk, crape, and velvet are carried on in the town; and rope-making, brick and tile making, and bacon-curing, in the neighbourhood. Pop. of the town in 1861, 4,868. Houses, 1,036.

The parish contains also part of Oakhill hamlet, and comprises 3,572 acres. Real property, £16,972; of which £150 are. in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 5,116; in 1861, 5,347. Houses, 1,143. The manor belonged, before the Norman conquest, to Glastonbury abbey; went, soon after the conquest, to Roger de Curcelle; passed to the Malletts till the time of King John; went then to the Crown; and was attached in 1536 to the Duchy of Cornwall. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £788. Patrons, alternately the Prince of Wales and the Wickham family. The vicarage of Oakhill is a separate benefice.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

Parish Records

Somerset Archives & Family History Groups

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Somerset

Records for England

Births and Baptism Records

Marriage Records

Death Records

Non-Conformist Records

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