Harborne Staffordshire Family History Guide

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Harborne (St Peter) an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Harborne was originally a chapelry in Edgbaston parish becoming a separate parish no later than 16581.

The following parishes were created from Harborne Ancient Parish as follows2:

  • 1842 Smethwick Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1842 North Harborne Holy Trinity Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1858 Harborne St John the Baptist Ecclesiastical Parish (refounded in 1859 as Harborne Heath)
  • 1933 Harborne St Faith and St Lawrence Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1958 Quinton Road West Ecclesiastical Parish

Harborne Heath Ecclesiastical Parish, originally Harborne St John the Baptist which was refounded in 1859 as Harborne Heath. In 1906 Harborne Heath Ecclesiastical Parish gained part of Edgbaston St Augustine Ecclesiastical Parish3.

Harborne St Faith and St Lawrence Ecclesiastical Parish was created in 1933 from Harborne Ancient Parish and The Quinton Ecclesiastical Parish in Worcestershire4.

Other places in the parish include: Harborne Heath.

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1538
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1660

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Harborne Parish Registers

Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of baptism, marriage, and burial records.

Harborne St Peter, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1538-1813

Harborne St Peter, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms 1813-1922

Harborne Birmingham Confirmations 1915-1931

Harborne St John the Baptist, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms 1858-1922

Marriage and Banns Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of marriages and banns records.

Harborne St John, Birmingham Church of England Marriages and Banns 1859-1949

Harborne St Peter, Birmingham Church of England Marriages and Banns 1762-1937

Death and Burial Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of deaths and burial records.

Harborne St Peter, Birmingham Church of England Burials 1813-1954

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HARBORNE, a village, a parish, and a sub-district in the district of Kings-Norton and county of Stafford. The village stands near the boundaries with Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Birmingham borough, 3 miles SW of Birmingham; was to have a railway, after 1866, to Birmingham r. station. It forms a pleasant suburban residence; is connected with Birmingham by a continuous series of villas and other genteel residences along Harborne road; and has a post office under Birmingham, a police station, a public library, a steel mill, tin ware works, and a spectacles manufactory.

The parish includes also the hamlet of Smethwick. Acres, 3,296. Real property, exclusive of Smethwick, £13,286; inc. of S., £60,418. Pop. in 1851, exc. of S., 2,350; in 1861, 3,617. Houses, 704. Pop. inc. of S. in 1851, 10,729; in 1861, 16,996. Houses, 3,292. The increase of pop. arose from participation in the prosperity of Birmingham. The manor belongs to the Marquis of Anglesey. Metchley Abbey is the seat of Lord Calthorpe. Much of the area is occupied by suburban outskirts of Birmingham; and a good deal is disposed in market and strawberry gardens.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £600. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The church is ancient, with a later English tower; and has been extremely disfigured by modern alterations. The churchyard commands a fine view, over parts of Worcestershire, to the Clent Hills and the Bromsgrove Lickey.

The chapelries of North Harborne, Harborne-Heath, Smethwick, Smethwick-St. Matthew, and West Smethwick, are separate charges. North Harborne was constituted in 1842, Harborne Heath in 1859; and the other three will be noticed in the article SMETHWICK. Pop. of North Harborne in 1861, 5,550; of Harborne-Heath, 2,289. Houses, 1,090 and 473.

North Harborne is a vicarage. Value, £300. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. Harborne Heath is a vicarage. Value, £100. Patron, the Rev. T. Smith. H. H. church was built in 1859, at a cost of upwards of £3,000; is in the geometric decorated style; and consists of nave, aisles, transept, and chancel, With lofty octagonal turret terminating in a spirelet.

There are national schools, with £28 from endowment; four almshouses for families, and one for aged individuals; and other charities, amounting with these, to about £200.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

HARBORNE, or Harbourn (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of King’s-Norton, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 3 miles (S. W. by W.) from Birmingham; containing, with the hamlet of Smethwick, 6633 inhabitants.

This place, which, from its proximity to Birmingham and the salubrity of the air, is the occasional resort of invalids from that town, is pleasantly situated, and contains several handsome mansions, occupied by the proprietors of land, among whom are Theodore Price, J. W. Unett, and W. Spurrier, Esqrs., and the Rev. Thomas Green Simcox, M.A., the first vicar of North Harborne.

The parish comprises about 3300 acres, of which, with the exception of about 100 acres in woodland and plantations, the whole is arable and pasture in nearly equal portions; the surface is elevated, and the scenery pleasingly varied.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £4; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield: the great tithes have been commuted for £262, and the vicarial for £514; the appropriate glebe contains nearly 26 acres, and the vicarial 25 acres. The church, which has a tower in the later English style, was enlarged in 1827, at an expense of £2000.

The separate incumbencies of Smethwick and North Harborne are noticed under the head of Smethwick. The Baptists and Wesleyans have places of worship. A national school, endowed with £30 per annum, by Mr. Henry Hinckley, was rebuilt in 1837: there are four almshouses; and 50 acres of land, vested in trustees, and producing a rental of £200, belong to the poor.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

  • County: Staffordshire
  • Civil Registration District: Kings Norton
  • Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield
  • Diocese: Lichfield
  • Rural Deanery: West Bromwich
  • Poor Law Union: Kings Norton
  • Hundred: South Offlow
  • Province: Canterbury

References

  1. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎
  2. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎
  3. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎
  4. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎