Tamworth, Staffordshire Family History Guide

Tamworth is an Ancient Parish partly in Staffordshire and partly in Warwickshire. Wilnecote Warwickshire is a chapelry of Tamworth.

Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire until 1889, when the town was placed entirely in Staffordshire.

Other places in the parish include: Almington with Stone Delph, Bolehall with Glascote, Syerscote, Biddescote.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin: 1558

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

Fairs: April 23, Sep. 24

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

Tamworth

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

TAMWORTH, a town, a township, and a parish in Stafford and Warwick, and a sub-district and a district partly also in Derby, but all registrationally in Stafford. The town stands at the confluence of the rivers Tame and Anker, and on the Trent Valley railway, at the intersection of the line from Burton to Bickenhill, 14½ miles NNE of Birmingham.

It was known to the Saxons as Taman-weorthege or Tamaweorthige; had a palace and a mint of the Mercian kings; was burnt by the Danes in 911, and rebuilt immediately afterwards by the Princess Ethelfleda; was the death-place and the burial-place of that princess in 920; was also the marriage-place of Athelstan’s sister in 924; had a castle which was held at the Norman conquest by R. de Marmion, which passed to the Frevilles, the Ferrerses, and the Comptons, and which still stands in tolerable repair.

It declined in the 16th century, but began soon afterwards to revive; received a charter of incorporation from Elizabeth; was visited, in 1619, by James I.; gives the title of Viscount to Earl Ferrers; is governed, under the new municipal act, by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors; has sent two members to parliament from the time of Elizabeth; is a seat of sessions and a polling place.

It presents a well built and pleasant appearance; and has a head post-office, a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, four chief inns, a town hall enlarged and beautified in 1812, a public reading room and library, a bronze statue of the late Sir Robert Peel, two bridges, a church of decorated English date, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, an endowed grammar-school with £34 a year, another endowed school with £14, alms houses with £191, a workhouse, and general charities £395.

A weeky market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on the; last Monday of Jan., the first Monday of March, 5 April, 4 May, 26 July, the first Monday of Sept., 24 Oct., and 15 Dec.; and cotton manufacture, calico-printing, wool-stapling, dyeing, and bleaching are carried on.

The municipal borough is conterminate with T. township; but the parliamentary borough includes also 7 other townships and a liberty. The corporation revenue is about £380. Electors in 1833, 586; in 1863, 463. Pop. of the m. borough in 1851, 4,059; in 1861, 4,326. Houses, 923. Pop. of the p. borough in 1851, 8,655: in 1861, 10,192. Houses, 2,103.

The township is partly in Stafford and partly in Warwick. Pop. in 1861, of the S. portion, 1,989; of the W. portion, 2,337. The parish includes also two other townships and a hamlet in Stafford, and four townships and five liberties in Warwick. Acres, 11,900. Real property, £31,573. Pop. in 1851, 8,649; in 1861, 10,190. Houses, 2,102. Drayton Manor, the fine seat of Sir R. Peel, Bart., is 2 miles SSW of the town. Bricks, tiles, and drain-pipes are extensively made.

The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of Almington and Hopwas, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £300. Patron, H. W. Repington, Esq. The p. curacies of Fazeley, Wigginton, and Wilnecote, are separate benefices.

The sub-district excludes part of the parish, but includes 8 other parishes, part of another , and 2 extra-parochial tracts. Acres, 26,176. Pop., 8,647. Houses, 1,853. The district contains also Fazeley sub-district, and comprises 46,740 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £8,748. Pop. in 1851, 13,996; in 1861, 15,504. Houses, 3,240. Marriages in 1863, 106; births, 514, of which 47 were illegitimate; deaths, 441, of which 187 were at ages under 5 years, and 11 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 900; births, 4,733; deaths, 2,917.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 21 of the Church of England , with 6,467 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 550 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 215 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 150 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 160 s.; 6 of Wesleyans, with 921 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 30 s.; and 3 of Roman Catholics, with 340 s. The schools were 23 public day-schools, witli 1,785 scholars; 24 private day-schools, with 535 s.; and 26 Sunday schools, with 1,977 s.

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

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Tamworth (in Staffordshire and Warwickshire), 115¼ miles N.W. London. P. 7746

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Almington with Stone Delph

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Almington and Stone-Delph, near Tamworth (Stafford). P. 276.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1840

Almington, and Stone-Delph, a township in the parish and union of Tamworth, county of Warwick; 1 3/4 miles north-east of Tamworth, on the Coventry canal. Pop., in 1831, 264. Houses 58. A. P. £3,969. Poor rates, in 1837, £105.

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1840.

Biddescote

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Biddescote, a township in the parish of Tamworth, southern division of the hund. of Offlow, county of Stafford; ½ mile south-west of Tamworth, in the immediate vicinity of the Birmingham and Derby railway, and the Coventry canal. Pop., in 1801, 84; in 1831, 11. Houses 2. Acres 350. Other returns with the parish.

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.

Bolehall with Glascote

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Bolehall and Glascote, 1½m. S.E. Tamworth (Stafford). P. 495.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

England’s Gazetteer 1752

Bole-Hall, (Warw.) a hamlet in the p. of Tamworth. It was formerly the estate of the Clintons, ’till in the R. of Hen. VIII. it was conveyed to William Levison, merchant of the staple; from whom it passed, by the marriage of his daughter, to Walter Aston, Esq; whose son, Sir Walter Aston, Kt. of the Bath, sold it to William Anson, of Lincoln’s- Inn, Esq; of whom William Cumberland, of Tamworth, Esq; purchased it, and left it to his son William, who was possessed of it in 1640.

Source: England’s Gazetteer; Stephen Whatley; 1752.

Syerscote

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Syerscote, a township, in the parish and union of Tamworth, N. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 3 miles (NNE) from Tamworth; containing 46 inhabitants.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Parish Registers

Marriage Allegations

The following people have been recorded in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837.

Ringsmill, Henry, of Tamworth, co. Stafford, clerk, 30, b., & Charlotte Powell, of St. Michael’s, Southampton, under 20, with the c. of her f., Samuel Powell, of the s., grocer, at St. M., 26 Dec., 1821.

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Bankrupts

Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.

Berrie Chas. James, Tamworth, Warwickshire, grocer & tea dealer, June 7, 1836.