Wincanton, Somerset Family History Guide

Wincanton is an Ancient Parish in the county of Somerset.

Alternative names:

Parish church: St. Peter and St. Paul

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1636
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1593

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WINCANTON, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Somerset. The town stands on the river Cale, and on the Dorset and Somerset railway, 5 miles SSE of Bruton; was known to the Saxons as Wyndcaleton; suffered great devastation by the plague in 1553; was the scene of a skirmish between the troops of the Prince of Orange and some dragoons of James II. in 1688; contains a house in which the Prince of Orange slept after the skirmish; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; occupies steep ground at the head of the broad vale of Blackmoor; and has a post-office under Bath, a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a police station, a town hall, a reading room, a good church, Independent and Baptist chapels, a national school, a workhouse, charities £6, a brewery, a weekly market on Wednesday, and fairs on Easter Tuesday and 29th Sept. The parish comprises 4130 acres. Real property, £15,150. Pop., 2,450. Houses, 476. The manor was given, at the Norman Conquest, to W. de Douay; and passed to the Lovells, the Zouches, the Seymours, and the Daubenys. Marsh Court was the manor house, and is now occupied by a farmer. A priory was founded at Stavordale, by R. Lovell, in 1263; and has left some interesting remains, now incorporated with a farm stead. Mineral springs, similar to those of Cheltenham, are at Horwood. The site of an ancient British fort, called Kennewilkins Castle, is in the middle of a wood. Roman coins have been found. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £130. Patrons, Messrs. G. and J. Messiter.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

WINCANTON (St. Peter and St. Paul), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Norton-Ferris, E. division of Somerset, 34 miles (E.) from Taunton, and 108 (W. by S.) from London; containing 2296 inhabitants. This place, which is of great antiquity, was anciently called Wyndcaleton, and derived that name from its situation on the windings of the river Cale, by which it is bounded on the west. It was the scene of many sanguinary conflicts between the Britons and the Saxons, and subsequently of numerous encounters between the latter and the Danes, who made frequent irruptions into this part of the country. During the parliamentary war, some of the earliest engagements between the contending parties took place in the immediate vicinity of this town; in which, according to Burnet’s History of his own Times, was shed the first blood in the Revolution of 1688, though some state this to have occurred at Cirencester. In 1747, a considerable portion of the town was destroyed by fire, to which may be attributed the uniform appearance it afterwards assumed.

The town is pleasantly situated on the declivity of a hill rising gently from the river Cale, and consists principally of four regular streets, containing some well-built houses. The environs abound with interesting scenery, and on the south is an uninterrupted view of the fine Vale of Black more, extending for many miles: the land is extremely fertile, and within a short distance of the town are several gentlemen’s seats. The manufacture of linen and bed-ticking was formerly carried on to a considerable extent, but within the last few years has greatly declined: a branch of the silk manufacture has been introduced. The market is on Wednesday, and is well supplied with corn, cattle, cheese, and butter; the fairs are on Easter-Tuesday and September 29th. The town is divided into the Borough and the Tything; two constables for the former are appointed at the manorial court, and a court leet for the hundred is held annually, at which a tything-man is chosen for the latter. The powers of the county debt-court of Wincanton, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Wincanton. The parish comprises by measurement 4130 acres: there are quarries of stone for building, and for mending the roads.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £123; patrons, the Messiter family, as owners of the rectory: the tithes have been commuted for £490, and the glebe comprises 45 acres. The church, a spacious and neat edifice, with a square embattled tower, was enlarged in 1835. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Independents; also a national school. Various charitable bequests have been made for distribution among the poor. The union of Wincanton comprises 39 parishes or places, 37 of which are in the county of Somerset, and two in that of Dorset; and contains a population of 21,286. At Stavordale, the north-eastern extremity of the parish, a small priory of Augustine canons, dedicated to St. James, is said to have been built by Sir William Zouch, which, in the 24th of Henry VIII., was annexed to the priory of Taunton: the remains, especially the richly-groined roof and some portions of the chapel, are in good preservation. The Earl of Ilchester, among his inferior titles, takes that of Baron Stavordale from the place. At Horwood, about a mile south-east of the town, are two mineral springs, resembling those at Cheltenham. An urn, containing several Roman coins, was discovered in the parish many years since. Sir James Dyer, chief justice of the court of common pleas in the reign of Elizabeth, was a native of Wincanton.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Registers

Marriages Out of Parish

Details	Place of Marriage
Bartholomew Ivey, of Wincanton, & Deborah Bidlecomb, of M. 14 Dec. 1702	Mere Wiltshire
John Watts, of Sherborn, Dorset, & Mary Taswell, of Wincaunton, Somerset, lic. 7 July 1706	Mere Wiltshire
John Chant, of M., & Jane Davys, of Wincanton 1 Apr. 1716	Mere Wiltshire
Christopher Alford, of M., & Jane Bendal, of Wincaunton 21 Apr. 1720	Mere Wiltshire
John Davis, of Wincaunton, & Hannah Wobourn, of Sherbourn 1 Aug. 1736	Mere Wiltshire
Robert Wadman, of Castle Cary, & Eleanor Sheppard, of Wincanton 8 Aug. 1740	Mere Wiltshire
James Parsons, of Wincanton, & Judith Turner, of M. 5 Aug. 1753	Mere Wiltshire

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Administration

County: Somerset
Civil Registration District: Wincanton
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Wells
Diocese: Bath and Wells
Rural Deanery: Cary
Poor Law Union: Wincanton
Hundred: Norton Ferris
Province: Canterbury