Toxteth Park St James, Lancashire Genealogy

England

Lancashire

Lancashire Parishes

Toxteth Park St James

Guide to Toxteth Park St James, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Toxteth Park St James, Lancashire
Type	Ecclesiastical Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
Hundred	Liverpool Borough; West Derby
County	Lancashire, England Genealogy
Poor Law Union	West Derby
Registration District	West Derby
Records begin
Parish registers: 1775; Separate registers exist for Toxteth Park St Michael in the Hamlet
Bishop's Transcripts: 1775
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Liverpool South
Diocese	Chester
Province	York
Legal Jurisdictions
Probate Court	Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
Location of Archive
Lancashire Archives

Chapelry History

Toxteth St James was built as a chapel of ease in the year 1775 and lay partly within the West Derby parish, and was also partly considered an extra-parochial tract within Liverpool.

There is some ambiguity as to the origin of the name. One theory is that the etymology is "Toki's landing-place". However, Toxteth is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and at this time, it appears as "Stochestede", i.e. "the stockaded or enclosed place", from the Anglo-Saxon stocc "stake" and Anglo-Saxon stede "place" (found in many English placenames, usually spelled stead).

The ancient township of Toxteth contains the ancient village of Smeedon or Smithdown. It stretches over an area of three miles along the River Mersey and two miles inland, the highest point being on the corner of Smithdown Lane and Lodge Lane. An ancient brook ran from the northern end of the area towards the river, near the boundary of Parliament Street, where it was used to power a water wheel before it ran into the river. Along the river are two creeks, one near the middle is known as Knot's Hole and another further south called Dickinson's Dingle received a brook which ran past the east end of St Michaels Church.

At some time in history the creeks were filled in. The Dingle is now in the area where the old northern creek was situated, and St Michael's Hamlet is situated around the southern creek. Outside the southern boundary of the area lies the creek known as Otterspool, which formed the boundary between Wavertree and West Derby.
Toward the end of the 16th century, the Royal park ceased to be and Puritan farmers from Bolton settled in the area. Setting up 25 farms on land outside Church of England control, which became Toxteth Village, they worshiped at the "Ancient Chapel" of Toxteth on Park Road. In 1611, they built a school at the Dingle, appointing Richard Mather as master. Some years later, he began preaching to the local farmers in the Ancient Chapel.

As the area began to develop and become more urbanized, several places of worship were built to serve the growing community. The first church was St James's, in 1774. Other churches built during the 19th century include St John the Baptist's, 1832; St Thomas's, 1840; St Barnabas's, 1841; St Clement's Windsor, 1841; St Matthew's, 1847; St Paul's, 1848; Holy Trinity, 1858; St Silas's, 1865; St Cleopas's, 1866; St Margaret's, 1869; Christ Church, 1870; St Philemon's, 1874; All Saints', 1884; St Gabriel's, 1884; St Agnes's, 1884; St Bede's, 1886; St Andrew's, 1893; and the Welsh Presbyterian Church, nicknamed Toxteth Cathedral, 1868

TOXTETH-PARK, an extra-parochial district, in the union and hundred of West Derby, S. division of Lancashire; forming the south or south-eastern suburb of the town of Liverpool.

Resources

Civil Registration

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two major Internet sites with name lists or indexes to the civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales:

1. FreeBMD - has of over 250 million entries
2. Lancashire BMD - Online index of Lancashire (only) Births, Marriages and Deaths

Church Records

Online Records 

• 1538 - 1910 England, Lancashire, Parish Registers 1538-1910 at FamilySearch — index

Online transcriptions exist for Toxteth Park St James' Chapelry registers, also for Liverpool's ancient parish of St Nicholas' baptism, marriage and burial registers and for all of those chapelries in Toxteth Park. Displayed below are those links to online data for both this and all chapelries in this township and for the ancient parish of St Nicholas located in the following websites; note the ranges of years: 

AC = Ancestry.co.uk (£)

FMP = findmypast (£)

FREG = FreeReg

FS = FamilySearch.org

LBMD = LancashireBMD.org.uk

LOPC = Lancashire Online Parish Clerk

TOXTETH PARK ST JAMES Chapelry (1775) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1783-1843	1775-1840	None
LOPC	1775-1806	1775-1806	1778-1806
LBMD	None	1837-1972	None
AC	1774-1812	1774-1812	1774-1812
TOXTETH PARK ALL SAINTS Chapelry (1885) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1885-1963	None
TOXTETH PARK CHRIST CHURCH Chapelry (1871) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1872-1973	None
TOXTETH PARK HOLY TRINITY Chapelry (1859) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
TOXTETH PARK ST BARNABAS Chapelry (1841) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1841-1892	None	None
LOPC	None	1843-1935	None
TOXTETH PARK ST BEDE Chapelry (1882) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	1882-1901	None	None
LBMD	None	1887-1912	None
TOXTETH PARK ST BRIDES Chapelry (1831) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1831-1851	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1837-1956	None
TOXTETH PARK ST CLEMENT Chapelry (1841) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1841-1856	None	None
LOPC	1890-1895	1892-1901	None
LBMD	None	1842-1951	None
TOXTETH PARK ST CLEOPAS MISSION CHURCH (1866) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1866-1897	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
TOXTETH PARK ST GABRIEL Chapelry (1885) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1837-1935	None
TOXTETH PARK ST JOHN THE BAPTIST Chapelry (1832) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1832-1881	None	None
LOPC	1832-1893	1832-1841	None
LBMD	None	1845-1937	15
TOXTETH PARK ST MARGARET Chapelry (1869) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	None	None
TOXTETH PARK ST MATTHEW Chapelry (1851) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	1875-1904	None	None
LBMD	None	1858-1978	None
TOXTETH PARK ST MICHAEL-IN-THE-HAMLET Chapelry (1815) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1815-1859	1815-1837	None
LOPC	1815-1909	1815-1904	None
LBMD	None	1837-1939	None
TOXTETH PARK ST NATHANIEL Chapelry (1869) Indexes - recs at Liverpool RO
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
TOXTETH PARK ST PAUL Chapelry (1849) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1849-1963	None
TOXTETH PARK ST PHILEMON Chapelry (1873) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1875-1957	None
TOXTETH PARK ST SAVIOUR Chapelry (1841) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1843-1935	None
TOXTETH PARK ST SILAS Chapelry (1865) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None[1]	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1867-1958	None
TOXTETH PARK ST THOMAS-IN-THE-FIELDS Chapelry (1843?) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	None	None	None
LOPC	None	None	None
LBMD	None	1843-1935	None
LIVERPOOL ST NICHOLAS PARISH (1604) Indexes
	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
FS	1604-1894	1604-1911	1779-1787;1809-1825
LOPC	1776-1865	1788-1838	1776-1854
LBMD	None	1837-1939	None
AC	1659-1812	1659-1812	1659-1812

To view a full list for Liverpool's Parishes, (nearly 60) chapelries, ecclesiastical churches, and district chapels, and to view online baptism, marriage and burial transcription indexes, visit the LIVERPOOL ST PETER & ST NICHOLAS PARISH page.

Original Records

Toxteth Park St James' Chapelry (parish) registers are held at the Liverpool Record Office. These registers have also been microfilmed by FamilySearch and they are available through its 4600 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Non Conformist Records

• 1647-1996 England, Lancashire Non-conformist Church Records, 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Census Records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.

Poor Law Unions

West Derby, Lancashire Poor Law Union Toxteth Park, Lancashire Poor Law Union

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.

• England Jurisdictions 1851
• Vision of Britain