Place:Stogursey, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia. Stogursey (#27 east on map) is the name of a large civil parish with a small village of the same name in the Quantock Hills of Somerset, England. It is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) from Nether Stowey (not on map), and 8 miles (12.9 km) west of Bridgwater (not on map). The village is situated near the Bristol Channel, which bounds the parish on the north. The parish includes the village of Stolford, and the hamlets of Burton, Knighton, Shurton, Stoford, Week, and Fairfield. In the UK census of 2011 the parish had a population of 1,385. Stogursey takes its name from the manor of Stoke. Medieval "Stoche" was in the possession of William de Falaise by 1086 (the date of the Domesday Book), who had recently married Geva, daughter of Serlo de Burci, and widow of Martin "de Wallis". Early in the 12th century, William and Geva's daughter, Emma, was betrothed to William de Courcy, and the couple received the manor of Stoke upon their wedding. The manor was renamed Stoke Courcy, and is now known as Stogursey. Stogursey Castle was probably built in the 12th century. The best-known member of the family was John de Courcy, who made himself virtual Prince of Ulster after conquering it in 1177. He died about 1219, his descendants (all illegitimate) today being the Baron Kingsale of Ireland.

During the reign of King John of England(1199–1216) Stogursey Castle became the property of one of the king's favourites and closest advisors, Fulke de Breauté of Gascony in France. Fulke's sister, Avice de Breauté, was mother of Sir Nicholas FitzMartin (c. 1210–82), who, like the de Courcys, was a descendant of Geva de Burci, the wife of William de Falaise, via her son Robert FitzMartin. Said to be tyrannical, Fulke made the castle and village a stronghold and den of robbers; he was eventually expelled in the reign of Henry III, and is said to have died in poverty in Normandy, France, after 1224.

Less than a quarter of a mile to the north of Stogursey Castle, within the village of Stogursey, is the church of St Andrew, built early in the 12th century by William de Falaise, though believed to incorporate earlier features.

Governance

Stogursey was originally a parish in both Cannington Hundred and the Williton and Freemanors Hundred, hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Williton Rural District.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Stogursey joined the non-metropolitan West Somerset District which covered northwestern Somerset.

In 2019, for economic reasons, the West Somerset District joined with the Taunton Deane District to become the Somerset West and Taunton District.

Research Tips

• GENUKI page on Stogursey.
• A series of articles on Stogursey from the Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research, begins with this link.
• The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
  The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
• Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.

• Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
• Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
• Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• Maps provided by the National Library of Scotland are also very useful. This map is currently set to an area now in the Sedgmoor District as it existed in the late 19th century, but can be moved to anywhere in the county using a variety of background maps. There is a very good search facility.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Somerset provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
• The Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London is a scholarly website with articles tracing the history of individual parishes which are sorted into their hundreds, the early subdivisions of the county. It traces the ownership of estates and manors, describes the local church in detail, and usually provides a map of each parish. The volumes for Somerset are much more recent than those for other counties. It appears to be a work in progress, only covering about half the county so far. A map of the places covered in the series is given in Volume 6, but 3 more volumes have been published since then. If a parish is included there will be a note in its Research Tips.
• The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
• The Weston super Mare Family History Society
• The Bristol and Avon Family History Society
• A list of all Somerset parishes with online transcripts of parish registers The size of Somerset makes this a huge project. If it does not yield what you are looking for, try getting in touch with the organizer with patience and politeness.
• Somerset Online Parish Clerk project home page
• A collection of West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions are online courtesy of Martin Southwood