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The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Leigh
in the County of
-- Lancashire --

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Marriages at St Mary the Virgin
in the Parish of Leigh

For the format of dates in Registers prior to 1752, see notes on the Julian Calendar

Marriage data for Leigh St Mary parish church for years 1560-1700 have been transcribed by Lynn Ransom Burton. Records from 1701 onwards were extracted from LDS films 559188 (Parish Register) and 1545556/7 (Bishop's Transcripts) by Peter Wood. I had previously extracted the marriages of people with an Atherton abode from the LDS films of the Leigh register, and placed them on the LAN-OPC Atherton Parish site. These are all included here.

For consistency, I have used the modern spellings of the following townships which were originally chapelries or villages in Leigh Parish: Astley, Atherton, Bedford, Pennington, Shakerley, Tyldesley and Westleigh.

There is a problem in reading the film of the register in the 1740s. The left edge of the page often appears clipped so that the grooms' first names are truncated or completely missing. In many cases I have been able to extrapolate the name from the remaining letters.

In a few cases where the letters are ambiguous, or the name is missing, thegroom's first name is blank in this database. However, all the names arerecorded in the Lancashire Parish Register Society vol.155 'The Registersof Leigh 1701-1753' ed. Ken Taylor (2002). I have added a note to therecords here, giving the missing name and the LPRS vol. 155 source. Theaffected years are 1741, 1743, 1744/5, 1745 Apr-Jun, 1746 May-Dec, 1746/7.

In LDS Film 559188, pages 10 & 11 with 8 marriages between 4 Nov 1762 and 2Jan 1763 are missing from the 3rd printed register (1762-1773).

Peter Wood
May 2007

Notes for the registers Marriages 1777-1786, 1786-1803

1777-1786 A Numerical Shambles
On page 17 entry 71 is duplicated and renumbered 71A. On page 22 entry 85 is duplicated but not renumbered. On page 24 entry 93 is duplicated and renumbered 93A. From here through page 71 this sequence was continued with the entry numbers effectively 3 less than what would be expected for full pages with four entries per page. On page 72 a new error was introduced when the clerk dropped 100 entries and the first entry on the page became 182 instead of 282. At some later date the correct entry number was written in the margin but the incorrect number was not crossed through. On page 73 the missing hundred was recovered and entry 186 (with margin correction to 286) is followed by entry 287.

Unfortunately, this correction was immediately followed by an error in page numbers with page 74 being numbered 79. The correct page number was later written above, but the incorrect number was not crossed through. This situation continues through page 96 with entries 378-381. On the next page (97/102) the first entry is numbered 102, the same as the incorrect page number; the error is perpetuated through the next page with entry numbers 102-109. A botched attempt to counter the error was made by overwriting the 1 to 3, so pages 97/102 and 98/103 have entry numbers 302-309 (in effect duplicating the entries some 20 pages earlier). However, the finally corrected entry numbers are also written in the margin.

From page 99/104 the entry numbers continue from 310 (no longer overwritten) with the margin numbers keeping apace but 80 higher. On page 129/134 another hundred entries are "lost" when the uncorrected entry numbers go from 431 to 332. The numerical shambles continues without being further compounded to the end of the register with marginal numbers being 180 higher than those written within the printed form, and the corrected page numbers 4 lower than those written in the printed form.

Throughout the transcriptions here, we have used the corrected marginal entry numbers and the corrected page numbers.

1786-1803 Not much better!
Through page 85 all is well. On Page 86 the first entry is correct at No.341, but the next entry is numbered 142, a drop of 200. From here through page 141 all entry numbers have been corrected in the margin. From page 142 through page 190 the corrections are haphazard with often just the first entry on the page being corrected. From page 191 through page 221 no corrections were made, so all entry numbers are 200 too low. On page 222 an error in pagination was introduced. The page number dropped by 100 to 122, but was corrected; the entry numbers were not corrected and were still 200 too low. On corrected page 226 the entry numbers cease with the incorrect No.702 (actually 902) being the last entry number written in the register. Page 353 is the last page where an incorrect page number had been entered and overwritten, and from 354 through 400 only the correct page number is present.

Throughout the transcriptions here, we have used the corrected page and entry numbers and assumed entry numbers where none were recorded.

Peter Wood
November 2008

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1559 - 1701 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1701 - 1723 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1724 - 1738 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1739 - 1754 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1754 - 1759 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1759 - 1762 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1762 - 1773 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1773 - 1777 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1777 - 1786 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1786 - 1803 with Surname Index

The Register for 1786 - 1803 is divided into batches covering 6 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1786 - 1791   1792 - 1797   1798 - 1803 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1803 - 1812 with Surname Index

The Register for 1803 - 1812 is divided into batches covering 5 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1803 - 1807   1808 - 1812 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1813 - 1820 with Surname Index

The Register for 1813 - 1820 is divided into batches covering 4 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1813 - 1816   1817 - 1820 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1820 - 1825 with Surname Index

The Register for 1820 - 1825 is divided into batches covering 3 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1820 - 1822   1823 - 1825 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1825 - 1832 with Surname Index

The Register for 1825 - 1832 is divided into batches covering 4 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1825 - 1828   1829 - 1832 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1832 - 1837 with Surname Index

The Register for 1832 - 1837 is divided into batches covering 3 years
Batches for the individual years may be accessed via the links below

 1832 - 1834   1835 - 1837 

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1837 - 1845 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1845 - 1870 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1870 - 1887 with Surname Index

The Register for Marriages at St Mary the Virgin 1887 - 1901 with Surname Index

There are 14266 Marriage Records extracted for this Church

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

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