Williton, Somerset Family History Guide
Williton is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Somerset, created in 1784 from a chapelry in St Decuman’s Ancient Parish.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. Peter
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1792
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1750
Nonconformists include: Strict Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
WILLITON, a small town, a chapelry, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Somerset. The town stands near the West Somerset railway, under the Quantock hills, 1½ mile from the coast, and 14½ NW of Taunton; belonged, in the time of King Stephen, to the Fitzurses: passed to the Demboroughs and the Wyndhams; is a seat of county courts, and a polling place; publishes a weekly newspaper; presents a neat appearance, with cottages embowered in shrubs; comprises two long streets; and has a post-office under Taunton, a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, a hotel, remains of two old crosses, an early English church restored in 1858, two dissenting chapels, a national school, a workhouse, and two annual fairs. The chapelry seems to be identical with the town, and is in St. Decumans parish; but the pop is not separately returned. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £70. Patron, the Vicar of St. Decumans.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
WILLITON, a chapelry, in the parish of St. Decuman, union of Williton, hundred of Williton and Freemanners, county of Somerset, 6¼ miles (E. S. E.) from Dunster; containing 1318 inhabitants. This place is situated about a mile and a half from the coast of the Bristol Channel. It is a polling-place for the western division of the county, and has a county debt-court, established in 1847, whose powers extend over the registration-district of Williton. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of St. Decuman; net income, £53. The chapel is dedicated to St. Peter. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
Somerset Archives & Family History Groups
Weston-super-Mare & District FHS
Somerset Online Parish Clerk Project
Newspaper Archives
Bath Chronicle Newspaper 1770-1800
Forums
Somerset
Roy Parkhouse’s indexed parish register transcriptions
Somerset Pages Parish Register Transcripts
West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions
Prisoners for Trial at Assizes 1810-1905
Prisoners in Ilchester Gaol 1821-44
Somerset Quarter Sessions 1625-1639
Visitations of Somerset 1531 & 1573
Somerset Historical Directories
Somerset Workhouse Admissions and Discharges
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.1
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.2
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.3
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.4
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.5
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Vol.6
Somerset Medieval Wills 1501-1530
Records for England
Births and Baptism Records
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
Great Britain, Births and Baptisms, 1571-1977
England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
Marriage Records
Great Britain Marriages, 1797-1988
England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
Death Records
England Death Records, 1998-2015
England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991
Great Britain Deaths and Burials, 1778-1988
England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957
England and Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1640-1660
Non-Conformist Records
England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977
Census
England and Wales Census, 1841
England and Wales Census, 1851
England and Wales Census, 1861
England and Wales Census, 1871
England and Wales Census, 1881
England and Wales Census, 1891
England and Wales Census, 1901
England and Wales Census, 1911
Occupations
United Kingdom, Merchant Navy Seamen Records, 1835-1941
War and Conflict
Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935
United Kingdom, Chelsea Pensioners’ Service Records, 1760-1913
United Kingdom, Royal Hospital Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners 1760-1887 (WO 122)
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
United Kingdom, Militia Service Records, 1806-1915
United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920
United Kingdom, World War I Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Records, 1917-1920
Newspaper Archives
British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices
British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries
Administration
- County: Somerset
- Civil Registration District: Williton
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Taunton
- Diocese: Bath and Wells
- Rural Deanery: Dunster
- Poor Law Union: Williton
- Hundred: Williton and Freemanors
- Province: Canterbury