Wellington, Somerset Family History Guide

Wellington is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Somerset. West Buckland is a chapelry of Wellington.

Other places in the parish include: Rockwell Green, Holywell Lake, and Farthing Pits.

Alternative names: Wellington with West Buckland

Parish church: St. John the Baptist

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1683
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1612

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Bible Christian Methodist, Christians, Independent/Congregational, Methodist, Particular Baptist, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterian, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

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Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WELLINGTON, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Somerset. The town stands on a gentle elevation, near the Bristol and Exeter railway, at the foot of the Blackdown hills, 6½ miles SW by W of Taunton; gives the titles of Viscount, Earl, and Duke to the family of Wellesley; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; is governed by a portreeve and some other officers; publishes two weekly newspapers; carries on woollen manufacture and iron-founding; comprises five streets, containing many respectable residences; and has a head post-office, designated Wellington, Somerset, a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, two chief inns, a police station, a market house and town hall, a library and reading room, a fine ancient church with graceful later English tower, a handsome modern church, a neat Independent chapel of 1861, five other dissenting chapels, national and British schools, alms houses with £149 a year, a workhouse, a weekly market on Thursday, and two annual fairs. Pop. in 1861, 3,689. Houses, 793. The parish includes three hamlets, and comprises 5,195 acres. Real property, £21,088; of which £30 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 6,415; in 1861, 6,006. Houses, 1,261. The manor belonged to Alfred the Great; was given to the see of Wells; passed to the Somersets and the Pophams; and belongs now to the Duke of Wellington. A pillar, monumental of Wellington and Waterloo, stands on a lofty hill, 2½ miles S of the town; figures conspicuously over an extensive picturesque landscape; and was designed to be surmounted by a bronze statue of the hero of Waterloo. The living is a vicarage, united with Trinity and West Buckland chapelries, in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £1,084. Patron, Mrs. Pulman.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

WELLINGTON (St. John the Baptist), a markettown and parish, and the head of a union, forming, with the parish of West Buckland, one of the two unconnected portions which comprise the W. division of the hundred of Kingsbury, in the W. division of Somerset, 149 miles (W. S. W.) from London; containing 5595 inhabitants. The town is situated on the main road from Bath to Exeter, and of late years has been much improved, many of the streets having been paved, and a few of the old houses removed. The manufacture of druggets and serges was formerly carried on to a considerable degree, and still prevails, though on a limited scale. The Grand Western canal, from Bridgwater to Tiverton, passes near the place, and affords much facility for the increase of its trade; the Bristol and Exeter railway, also, runs through the parish. During the possession of the manor by the bishops of Wells, a charter was obtained for a market and two fairs; the former is held on Thursday, principally for corn, and the latter on the Thursdays before Easter and Whitsuntide. The market-house being in a very dilapidated condition, and not affording suitable accommodation, his Grace the Duke of Wellington, lord of the manor, granted a lease for 99 years, and the inhabitants erected a new edifice, by subscription on shares. The government of the town is in a bailiff and subordinate officers, chosen at the annual court leet held for the manor. The powers of the county debt-court of Wellington, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Wellington. The parish comprises 4710 acres, of which 42 are common or waste land.

The living is a vicarage, with the living of West Buckland annexed, valued in the king’s books at £15. 10. 2½.; net income, £894; patron, the Rev. W. P. Thomas. The church is a handsome edifice, with an embattled tower crowned by pinnacles; and has two sepulchral chapels, in one of which is a splendid monument to the memory of Sir John Popham, Knt., lord chief justice of England in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., ornamented with a profusion of effigies and carved work. The Rev. Mr. Thomas has erected an elegant chapel, at his own expense, near the west end of the town; it is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans; also almshouses, for six men and six women, founded in 1604, and endowed with land by Sir John Popham; the master and matron being directed to instruct children. The poor-law union comprises 24 parishes or places, 19 of which are in Somerset, and 5 in Devon; and contains a population of 21,777. Wellington confers the titles of Viscount, Earl, Marquess, and Duke, on that distinguished military commander, Arthur Wellesley, Prince of Waterloo; the first title created Sept. 4th, 1809; the second, Feb. 28th, 1812; the third, August 18th, of the same year; and the fourth, May 3rd, 1814. At a short distance from the town is a magnificent pillar, erected by public subscription, in commemoration of the signal victory obtained by his Grace on the plain of Waterloo, in 1815.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

Sarah Hawkins Genealogy Site – Wellington Somerset

FamilySearch

Maps

Old maps of Britain and Europe from A Vision of Britain Through Time

Administration

County: Somerset
Civil Registration District: Wellington (Somerset)
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Taunton
Diocese: Bath and Wells
Rural Deanery: Taunton
Poor Law Union: Wellington
Hundred: West Kingsbury
Province: Canterbury

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Somerset Archives & Family History Groups

Newspaper Archives

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Somerset

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Administration