The Parish of Atherton in the County of -- Lancashire --

Burials at St Mary, Deane,
Introductory Notes

The ecclesiastic parish of Deane was immediately to the north of Leigh Parish (including Atherton). Deane parish extended from Horwich in the west, through Westhoughton and the Hultons (Over, Middle and Little) to Farnworth and Kearsley in the east. It occupied an elongate belt of high land forming the south side of the Croal Valley, in which nestled the emerging town of Bolton. The Parish Church of St Mary and All Angels is at Deane, originally a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere (Rumworth to be precise), but now comprising the SW suburbs of metropolitan Bolton.

In an arc due north of Atherton were the Deane Parish settlements of Westhoughton, Over Hulton and Middle Hulton. Many Deane parishioners from these areas migrated down-slope to the south to live in Atherton, but retained links with Deane St Mary, especially for baptisms and burials. Prominent among them were the Yates, Eckersley, Higson and Partington families.

Here are burials registered at Deane St Mary, from 1781 to 1844, of those people whose abode was recorded as Atherton. The LDS microfilm is unreadable for 6 Dec 1840-18 Jan 1841; 17 March 1841-24 March 1841; 2 April 1841-6 April 1841; 25 April 1841-5 May 1841; 22 May 1841-12 July 1841. Burials within these dates were extracted from transcripts in Bolton Library.

Note: the words "of Town (often spelt Towen)" are appended to many of the entries between 30 Oct 1783 and 4 Sep 1794, including those for people from Atherton (which read …..of Atherton of Town). An Act of Parliament imposed a stamp duty of 3 pence on all parish register entries from1 Oct 1783 till 1794, when the Act was repealed. Paupers were exempt from the duty, so it is possible that the words "of Town" denote burials for which no stamp duty had been paid.