Place:Lancaster, Lancashire, England

NameLancaster
Alt namesLancastersource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Lanecastrumsource: Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 285
Loncastrasource: Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 285
Loncastresource: Domesday Book (1985) p 155; Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 285
Lanc
TypeAncient parish, Borough (county)
Coordinates54.05°N 2.8°W
Located inLancashire, England
See alsoAmounderness Hundred, Lancashire, Englandhundred in which it was part located
Lonsdale Hundred, Lancashire, Englandhundred in which it was part located
Lancaster (borough), Lancashire, Englanddistrict municipality of which Lancaster is the principal settlement since 1974


the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is now a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, a local government district which has a population of 138,375 and encompasses several outlying settlements, including neighbouring Morecambe.

Long existing as a commercial, cultural and educational centre, Lancaster is the settlement that gives Lancashire its name. Lancaster has several unique ties to the British monarchy; the House of Lancaster was a branch of the English royal family, whilst the Duchy of Lancaster holds large estates on behalf of Elizabeth II, who herself is also the Duke of Lancaster. Lancaster was granted city status in 1937 for its "long association with the crown" and because it was "the county town of the King's Duchy of Lancaster".

With its history based on its port and canal, Lancaster is an ancient settlement, dominated by Lancaster Castle. It is also home to the collegiate and campus-based Lancaster University and a campus of the University of Cumbria.

History and economy

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Lancaster fell under the control of William I. The founding charter of the Priory, dated 1094, is the first known document which is specific to Lancaster. By this time William had given Lancaster and its surrounding region to Roger de Poitou.

Lancaster became a borough in 1193 under King Richard I. Its first charter, dated 12 June 1193, was from John, Count of Mortain, who later became King of England.

Image:Lancaster_Borough_post_1974.png

Lancaster Castle, partly built in the 13th century and enlarged by Elizabeth I], stands on the site of a Roman garrison. In 1322 much damage was done to the castle by Robert the Bruce, whose attack it successfully resisted, but it was restored and strengthened by John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, who added the greater part of the Gateway Tower as well as a turret on the keep. After the Battle of Otterburn in 1289, it was destroyed by the Scots. Lancaster Castle is well known as the site of the Pendle witch trials in 1612. It was said that the court based in the castle (the Lancaster Assizes) sentenced more people to be hanged than any other in the country outside London, earning Lancaster the nickname, "the Hanging Town". Lancaster also figured prominently in the suppression of Catholicism during the reformation with the execution of at least eleven Catholic priests. A memorial to the Lancaster Martyrs is located close to the city centre.

The traditional emblem for the House of Lancaster is a red rose, the Red Rose of Lancaster, similar to that of the House of York, which is a white rose. These names derive from the emblems of the Royal Duchies of Lancaster and York in the 15th century. This erupted into a civil war over rival claims to the throne during the Wars of the Roses.

Lancaster gained its first charter in 1193 as a market town and borough, but was not given city status until 1937. Many buildings in the city centre and along St. George's Quay date from the 19th century, built as the port became one of the busiest in the UK. However, Lancaster's role as a major port was short-lived, as the river began to silt up. Morecambe, Glasson Dock and Sunderland Point served as Lancaster's port for brief periods. Heysham now serves that purpose for the district. Recent history

Lancaster is primarily a service-oriented city. Products of Lancaster include animal feed, textiles, chemicals, livestock, paper, synthetic fibre, farm machinery, HGV [heavy goods vehicles] trailers and mineral fibres. In recent years, a high technology sector has emerged, as a result of information technology and communications companies investing in the city.

A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Bowerham Barracks in 1880. The Phoenix Street drill hall was completed in 1894.

Governance

Lancaster and Morecambe (and Heysham) have grown into a conurbation. The former City and Municipal Borough of Lancaster and the Municipal Borough of Morecambe and Heysham along with other authorities merged in 1974 to form the City of Lancaster district within the shire county of Lancashire. This was given city status in the United Kingdom and Lancaster City Council is the local governing body for the district. Lancaster is an unparished area and has no separate council. It is divided into wards.

Lancaster ancient parish

From a very early time, Lancaster was an ancient parish within both the Amounderness Hundred and the Lonsdale Hundred of Lancashire. According to A vision of Britain through Time, the following townships and chapelries were under its control, although some were very "detached" parishes:

TownshipHundred
BleasdaleAmounderness
FulwoodAmounderness
MyerscoughAmounderness
Preesall with Hackinsall (now Preesall) Amounderness
Stalmine with StaynallAmounderness
AldcliffeLonsdale
Ashton with StoddayLonsdale
BulkLonsdale
CatonLonsdale
GressinghamLonsdale
Heaton with OxcliffeLonsdale
Lancaster Castlewithin the borough of Lancaster (redirected)
Middleton (near Lancaster)Lonsdale
Morecambe (township early known as Poulton le Sands Bare and Torrisholme)Lonsdale
OvertonLonsdale
Over WyresdaleLonsdale
QuernmoreLonsdale
ScotforthLonsdale
SkertonLonsdale

Research Tips

  • See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes were ecclesiastical (described as ancient parishes), under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
  • An urban district was a type of municipality in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish and were used for urban areas usually with populations of under 30,000. Inspecting the archives of a urban district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
  • Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
  • The terms municipal borough and county borough were adopted in 1835 replacing the historic "boroughs". Municipal boroughs generally had populations between 30,000 and 50,000; while county boroughs usually had populations of over 50,000. County boroughs had local governments independent of the county in which they were located, but municipal boroughs worked in tandem with the county administration. Wikipedia explains these terms in much greater detail.
  • 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.
  • FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
  • Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
  • A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
  • A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
  • GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
  • The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
  • A description of the ancient parish of Lancaster in Amounderness Hundred from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1907
  • A description of the ancient parish of Lancaster in Lonsdale Hundred from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914
  • A description of the township of Lancaster in Lonsdale Hundred from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Lancaster, Lancashire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.