|
|
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
|
Blackburn Hundred (also known as Blackburnshire) was a hundred, an ancient sub-division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its chief town was Blackburn, was located in the northwest of the hundred. It covered an area similar to modern East Lancashire, including the current districts of Ribble Valley, Pendle, Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, and South Ribble. The boundaries of some of these districts with Yorkshire have changed over time.
Much of the area is hilly, bordering on the Pennines and was historically sparsely populated. It included several important royal forests. In the 18th century, with the discovery of coal and improved methods of industrial production, several towns in the area became industrialized and densely populated; these including Blackburn itself, and Burnley.
The early history of the Blackburn hundred is covered in Wikipedia under the headings "Early history" and "Feudal period". Names of personages heading the feudal chain of command are given.
The hundred of Blackburnshire continued to have administrative relevance until the abandonment of the system of hundreds in the early 19th century, long after feudalism ceased in England. The ancient parishes were ecclesiastical and covered a specific geographical area, sometimes equivalent to that held by a manor. Usually a parish was divided into townships, some of which were chapelries where there was a "chapel of ease" allowing inhabitants to worship closer to their homes. The priests in charge of the ancient parishes were responsible for recording births, marriages and burials, but if a chapelry had a permanent priest in charge, the records might be held at the local chapelry instead.
| 
|
Originally Blackburn Hundred had only two parishes Blackburn itself and Whalley. Each covered a considerable but sparsely populated area. Whalley was the larger of the two with 49 townships and chapelries, and covered the east of the hundred, while Blackburn parish with 23 townships and chapelries covered the west. Bury, Chipping and Mitton are also recognised as ancient parishs of the Blackburn Hundred. Ribchester had earlier links with Amounderness, but at least part of it ended up as part of Blackburn. As Blackburn Hundred became more heavily populated and economically developed, the parishes of Whalley and Blackburn lost their importance and their townships became civil parishes with their own local administration.
For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Blackburn Hundred.
Research Tips
- In 1974 Lancashire was broken into four parts: Great Manchester, Merseyside (covering Liverpool and its environs), the section beyond Morecambe Bay known as the Lake District which became part of Cumbria, and the central part which remains as Lancashire.
- Lancashire Record Office. Address: Bow Lane, Preston PR1 2RE; Tel: 01772 533039; Email: record.office@lancashire.gov.uk
- Cumbria Archives or Barrow Archive and Local Studies Centre. Address: Ramsden Square, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 1LL; Tel: 01229 407377; Email: barrow.archives@cumbria.gov.uk
- Greater Manchester County Record Office located at Great Manchester Central Library, St. Peter's Square, City Centre, M2 5PD; Tel: (Library: 0161 234 1983; Archives & special collections: 0161 234 1979); Email (Library: libraries@manchester.gov.uk, Archives & special collections: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk). This covers the ten metropolitan boroughs that have made up Greater Manchester since 1974 and the former county boroughs, urban and rural districts from which they were formed.
- Liverpool Record Office Address: William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EW; Tel: not provided; Email: RecOffice.central.library@Liverpool.gov.uk. This covers the five metropolitan boroughs that have made up Liverpool since 1974 and the former county boroughs, urban and rural districts from which they were formed.
- County Library Headquarters (for Lancashire), P O Box 61, County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RJ. Lancashire County Libraries have a list of addresses and telephone numbers of local libraries in the modern administrative county of Lancashire. Guide to Lancashire Local Studies Collections, published by Lancashire County Library, gives information about which libraries have local studies sections, the records they hold, and the name of the library holding the information for towns without their own local studies library. Presumably, Preston Harris Library (found in this list) is the central library for the county.
- John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester has a major collection on Methodists.
- GENUKI has a page on the entire county of Lancashire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration period. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area.
- The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
- A Vision of Britain through Time, Lancashire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
-
- The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, and the wider boundaries between rural districts, urban districts, and municipal and county boroughs. Do inspect the Reference Box when using the second and third maps to understand the colour key and the different boundary types.
- GENUKI lists 19 family history and genealogical societies. There is no guarantee of the continuing existence of any of the societies and the individual websites may or may not be up to date.
- Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
- Rootsweb mailing lists still have entries for the county, for Merseyside, and for individual towns and cities. The Lancashire Rootsweb page includes a list of webpages produced by family historians with connections in the county. Some of these pages may no longer exist.
- Deceased Online has nearly 5 million records for 60+ cemeteries and crematoria in Lancashire and Greater Manchester available on the website. Wyre Council's four cemeteries are located in Fleetwood, Poulton le Fylde and Preesall added Aug 2015. They provide information going back to 1840, digital scans (or computerised versions) of original burial registers, details of all grave occupants in each cemetery, maps indicating the section in each cemetery for all graves
- Victoria County History - Lancaster from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published in book form in the early years of the 20th century. The online Victoria County Histories for Lancashire appear to be complete with 7 volumes (starting at #2). The early volumes of this series (including Volume 1: Natural History to Feudal Baronage) are also online courtesy of the Open Library References to specific parishes will be added to individual place pages in WeRelate as time permits.
- A description of Blackburn Hundred from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911
- Wikipedia on Salford (hundred) The section "Salford Hundred Court" supplies the purposes of the court provided in any hundred.
|
|
