Burton in Kendal, Westmorland Family History Guide
Burton in Kendal is an Ancient Parish mostly in Westmorland and partly in Lancashire.
Other places in the parish include: Nook, Milness, Holmescales, Gateside, and Clawthorpe.
Alternative names: Burton, Burton in Lonsdale
Parish church: St. James
Parish registers begin:
Parish registers: 1653
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1676
Nonconformists include: Wesleyan Methodist
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Beetham
- Hutton Roof
- Yealand, Lancashire
- Holme
- Arkholme, Lancashire
- Whittington, Lancashire
- Warton, Lancashire
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BURTON-IN-KENDAL, a small town and a township in Kirkby-Lonsdale district, Westmoreland; and a parish in the same district, but partly in Lancashire.
The town stands adjacent to the Kendal canal, 1½ mile E of Burton and Holme r. station, near Farlton-Knot, 10 miles NNE of Lancaster. It is well built; contains a market-place, with handsome stone cross; has a head post-office, (designated Burton, Westmoreland,) two chief inns, a parish church, three other places of worship, and a grammar school; and is a seat of petty sessions.
The church is an ancient edifice, with side chapels and a square tower; and was recently restored. A weekly market is held on Tuesday; and fairs on Easter Monday and 10 Oct. The township includes also the hamlet of Clawthorpe. Acres, 1,437. Real property, £3,807. Pop., 751. Houses, 152.
The parish contains likewise the townships of Holme, Preston-Patrick, and Dalton, and part of the hamlet of Holmescales. Acres, 8,768. Real property, £12,835. Pop., 2,118. Houses, 396. The property is much subdivided. Preston-Patrick Hall, once the seat of the Prestons, is now a farm house.
Considerable part of the land is reclaimed bog. Sulphate of strontium is found.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £199. Patrons, Simeon’s Trustees.
The chapelries of Holme and Preston-Patrick are separate benefices.
The grammar school has an endowed income of £27, and other charities have £140. Dr. L. Dawes, Dr. G. Langbaine, Dr. W. Lancaster, and several other literary men of the time of Charles I., were natives; and William Cockin, the arithmetician and poet, was interred in the churchyard.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
BURTON-IN-KENDAL (St. James), a parish, partly in Lonsdale ward, and partly in Kendal ward, union of Kendal, county of Westmorland; and partly in the hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster; comprising the township of Dalton, in Lancashire, and the townships of Burton, Holme, Holmscale, and Preston-Patrick, in Westmorland; and containing 2387 inhabitants, of whom 796 are in the market-town of Burton, 34½ miles (S. W. by S.) from Appleby, and 251 (N. W. by N.) from London.
The ancient name of this place, Borton, a contraction of Borough town, is still retained by the inhabitants: it takes its adjunct from its situation in the dale, or valley, of the river Ken, to distinguish it from Burton-in-Lonsdale, Yorkshire.
The place was given at the Conquest, with many other estates in the neighbourhood, to Ivo de Talebois, who afterwards granted the church, and certain lands, to the abbey of St. Mary at York, with which the property remained till the dissolution of monasteries, when it was granted to the Middletons, of Leighton Hall, in the adjoining parish of Warton.
Burton is a neat town, on the great north-western road: the houses, many of which are ancient, are well built, and the general appearance is prepossessing; the inhabitants are amply supplied with excellent water, and the air is particularly salubrious. A communication with the Mersey, the Dee, the Humber, and the Trent, is afforded by the Kendal and Lancaster canal; and the Lancaster and Carlisle railway enters Westmorland near the town, and has a station called the Holme and Burton station, where an embankment commences, which in its course crosses the romantic little river Bela by a viaduct.
But notwithstanding its favourable situation, the town has little trade, the only branch being that of linen, of which there is a manufactory at Holme. The market, established in 1661, and once noted for corn, is on Tuesday: the market-place is a spacious area, adjoining which are some good houses and several shops, and in the centre is a neat stone cross. A fair is held on Easter-Monday for cattle, which is also a statute-fair; and one on the first Tuesday in October. An agricultural society was founded in 1831.
The county magistrates hold a petty-session every alternate Tuesday; and a manorial court is held on Whit-Monday and Martinmas day, for the renewal of fines, and the recovery of debts under 40s.
The parish comprises 8740a. 36p., of which 1437 acres are in the township of Burton; of the latter, 318 are common or waste.
The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £15. 17.; net income, £199; patrons, the trustees of the late Rev. C. Simeon; impropriators, the trustees of the late W. Atkinson, Esq. The vicarial tithes were partly commuted for land and a money payment, in 1815, under an act of inclosure: there is a good glebe-house, erected in 1844, beautifully situated, and having in front a remarkably fine avenue of 37 lime-trees.
The church is an ancient structure with a large square tower, and is now in excellent condition, the walls of the nave having been raised about ten feet, and the whole building re-arranged and restored, in 1844, at a cost of £400: the pulpit, and the canopy over it, are of oak richly carved; and there are two sepulchral chapels, belonging to Dalton and Preston Halls. In the churchyard is a monument to the memory of William Cockin, author of the Rural Sabbath and other literary productions. There is a church at PrestonPatrick, and another at Holme.
The grammar school has an income of £50 per annum, the produce of various benefactions since the year 1657.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Memorial inscriptions, St. James, Burton in Kendal
Census returns for Burton-in-Kendal, 1841-1891
Bishop’s transcripts for Burton-in-Kendal, 1676-1889
Bishop’s transcripts for Holme, 1856-1876
Bishop’s transcripts for Preston-Patrick, 1704-1870
Parish registers for Holme, 1842-1909
Parish registers for Preston-Patrick, 1703-1910
The parish registers of St James, Burton in Kendal, 1653-1837 : 1653-1837
Parish register printouts of Burton-in-Kendal, Westmorland, England ; christenings, 1808-1875
Maps
OS Grid Reference: SD5296876608 (all-numeric format: 352968 476609)
Vision of Britain historical maps
OS maps
Ordnance Survey
OS maps
National Library of Scotland
OS maps
Administration
- County: Westmorland; Lancashire
- Civil Registration District: Kendal
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Commissary of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Western Deaneries – Kendal
- Diocese: Chester
- Rural Deanery: Kendal
- Poor Law Union: Kendal
- Hundred: Kendal; Lonsdale
- Province: York