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

Baptisms of Atherton Residents at the Church of St Mary the Virgin
in the Parish of Leigh

In the 18th century, baptisms at Atherton Chapel were appended to the register for St Mary the Virgin, the parish church at Leigh. While extracting baptisms at Atherton Chapel from these registers, I searched for my own ancestors who may have been baptised at Leigh St Mary. I was struck by the fact that as many people with an Atherton abode were baptised at Leighparish church as at Atherton Chapel itself.

The two most likely explanations are family tradition, and local geography. In the 18th century, and prior to boundary reorganisation in 1894, Atherton extended a long way to the south-west of the village of Chowbent, into what is now the modern town of Leigh. For the inhabitants of SW Atherton, the church of Leigh St Mary would have been a lot closer to home than Atherton Chapel.

I decided it may help people searching for their ancestors in Leigh and Atherton, to compare baptisms at the church and chapel to see if it was possible to recognise families who baptised their children at both places (for whatever reason). I chose the period 1754-1776 for which there were 523 and 525 Atherton-abode baptisms at Atherton Chapel and Leigh St Mary respectively. The Leigh St Mary baptisms are presented here as a single list; the equivalent Atherton Chapel baptisms are contained within the records for the Chapel of St John 1724-1777. I have prepared a comparative list which is not on this site, but can be obtained from me by email.

Unfortunately, the baptisms give only the father's name, and though there are quite a few names which appear at both Leigh and Atherton, they may of course be different fathers who shared the same name - a common enough occurrence at the time. One match I can be sure of is Robt. V.A. Gwillym Esq. Robert Vernon Atherton Gwillym was the lord of Atherton manor, and no doubt deliberately spread his favours between church and chapel. His residence was Atherton Hall in SW Atherton, much closer to Leigh St Mary than to Atherton St John.

Peter Wood
December 2004

The Register for Baptisms at St Mary the Virgin 1600 - 1625 with Surname Index

The Register for Baptisms at St Mary the Virgin 1701 - 1801 with Surname Index

The Register for the years 1701 - 1801 is divided into batches covering 26 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1701 - 1726   1727 - 1752   1753 - 1778   1779 - 1801 

There are 3132 Baptism Records extracted for this Parish

A combined index for all the above registers may be accessed through the links below.

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