Place:York St. Michael le Belfrey, York, Yorkshire, England

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NameYork St. Michael le Belfrey
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Located inYork, Yorkshire, England
See alsoBulmer Wapentake, North Riding of Yorkshire, Englandwapentake in which it was located

York St. Michael le Belfrey is located immediately to the southwest of Yorkminster and includes the streets Petergate and Minster Yard. The parish is united with that of St. Wilfrid whose church was demolished in the 16th century.

Clifton Without and Rawcliffe are villages about two miles northwest of central York in the North Riding but were attached as townships to St. Michael le Belfry and also to York St. Olave. Clifton parish was created in 1872 and included Rawcliffe.

St. Michael le Belfry was a civil parish in the Bootham Sub-District of York Registration District 1837-1904.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI on York St. Michael le Belfry. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
  • The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of York St. Michael le Belfry provides a list of useful resources for the local area.

The Victoria County Histories was a publication project that began in the early 20th century. Some volumes (but not all) are available online through the Institute of Historical Research of the School of Advanced Study of the University of London. They contain a great deal of information about the ownership of manors within individual parishes and quite often include family trees of the landowning inhabitants. The volumes available for the City of York are:

  • A History of the County of York: the City of York Edited by P M Tillott. Published 1961. The volume of more than 80 chapters (577 pages) takes both a chronological and a thematic approach to the history of the City of York from before the Norman Conquest to the twentieth century.
  • The chapter entitled "The Boundaries of the City" described the parishes outside the city walls, and contains maps.
  • The Parish Churches is a single long article on the parish churches of York. Each one is discussed in a fair bit of detail, but it is necessary to use the search box provided to find the details on a specific church. This chapter is followed by three covering Protestant Nonconformity, Roman Catholicism, and the Jews.
  • A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Edited by Wm Page. Published 1974. A part volume from the Victoria County Histories, dealing with religious houses in the County of York, including York and Beverley minsters, and the prominent Cistercian houses Rievaulx and Fountains.

Other research tips

  • Wikipedia has an article, "Medieval parish churches of York", with a paragraph or two about each of the churches listed here in WeRelate. These are articles about the church edifices rather that about the parishes surrounding them.
  • English Jurisdictions 1851 is a FamilySearch website which maps the boundaries of the individual parishes. On a viewing earlier today (16 Feb 2018) it ceased to load, not for the first time lately. There may problems with it linking to the rest of the FamilySearch website.
  • A map of York dated 1852 is very large and "zoomable". It shows all the churches and the borders of the parishes surrounding them. British History Online states that this was the first real attempt at mapping York.