Petworth Sussex Family History Guide

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Petworth is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Sussex.

Other places in the parish include: Byworth.

Parish church: 

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1558
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1571

Nonconformists include: Calvinist, Independent/Congregational, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

PETWORTH, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Sussex. The town stands on an eminence near the river Rother, 1¾ mile N of the Pulborough and Midhurst railway, and 14 NE by N of Chichester; was known, at Domesday, as Peteorde; is a mass of narrow and irregular streets, with many good houses; was formerly in a disagreeable condition, but has been very greatly improved; is a seat of quarter sessions, petty sessions, and county courts, and a polling-place; and has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, a banking office, two hotels, a town hall with subscription reading-room, a market house and court-room, a police station with lock-up, a county jail, water-works, a church, Independent and Calvinist chapels, a new cemetery, a working men’s institute, four public schools, three suites of alms-houses, a workhouse, and aggregate charities £1,341.

The market house and court-room stands in the centre of the town; was built at the expense of the late Earl of Egremont; and is adorned with a bust of William III. The jail has capacity for 98 male and 19 female prisoners. The church is later English; was restored and beautified at a cost of more than £16,000, defrayed by the late Earl of Egremont; has a tower and spire, rebuilt under the direction of Sir Charles Barry; and contains some old effigies and monuments of the Percys and the Wyndhams. One suite of alms-houses has £691 a year from endowment; another suite has £271; and one of the charities educates, clothes, and apprentices 10 boys and 10 girls. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs, on 1 May, 4 Sept., and 20 Nov. Pop. of the town, within the lighting area, in 1851, 2,427; in 1861, 2,326. Houses, 443.

The parish contains also the hamlet of Byworth, and comprises 5,982 acres. Real property, £14,309; of which £219 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 3,439; in 1861, 3,368. Houses, 636. The manor belonged to the Saxon Countess Eddeva; passed to the Earls of Arundel, the Earls of Northumberland, the Dukes of Somerset, and the Earls of Egremont; and belongs now to Lord Leconfield. The old manorial castle gave entertainment to Edward VI.; was visited by Charles III. of Spain, and by Prince George of Denmark; and was mostly taken down about 1730. The present mansion was built partly by one of the Dukes of Somerset, partly by the third Earl of Egremont; was visited, in 1814, by the Prince Regent and the allied sovereigns; has a frontage of 324 feet, and a height of 62 feet; contains a rich collection of paintings, statuary, and wood-carvings; and stands in a beautiful park of about 12 miles in circuit. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £856. Patron, Lord Leconfield.

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

Historical Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Sussex
  • Civil Registration District: Petworth
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) of Chichester for the Archdeaconry of Chichester
  • Diocese: Chichester
  • Rural Deanery: Midhurst
  • Poor Law Union: Petworth
  • Hundred: Rotherbridge
  • Province: Canterbury