Whicham, Cumberland Family History Guide

Whicham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cumberland.

Alternative names:

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1569
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1676

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WHICHAM, a parish in Bootle district, Cumberland; around Silecroft r. station, and 8 miles SW of Broughton-in-Furness. Post town, Holborn-Hill, under Ulverstone.

Acres, 7,502; of which 102 are foreshore. Real property, £2,411. Pop., 327. Houses, 63. The property is much subdivided. Nearly two-thirds of the land are moorish waste.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £260. Patron, the Earl of Lonsdale. The church is good; and there is an endowed school with £15 a year.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

WHICHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bootle, Allerdale ward above Derwent, W. division of Cumberland, 10 miles (S. S. E.) from Ravenglass; containing 299 inhabitants. It comprises by admeasurement 6970 acres, of which 2463 are arable, 7 woodland, and about 4500 common and waste; the soil is various, the surface mountainous. The substratum contains iron ore, and cobalt is found in the Black-Combe mountain. The Whitehaven and Furness Junction railway passes through the parish.

The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £8. 15., and in the gift of the Earl of Lonsdale: the tithes have been commuted for £160, and the glebe comprises 75 acres, with a house. The church is a plain building. An annuity of £16, supposed to have been granted by Queen Elizabeth from the crown revenues in the county, and payable out of the exchequer, is applied towards the support of a grammar school at Churchgate.

In the mountain is a cavity similar to the crater of a volcano, several hundred yards in diameter and depth; the inside is lined with vitrified and crystallized matter, having at the bottom a fine spring of water.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Whicham St. Mary’s Church gravestone inscriptions

Census returns for Whicham, 1841-1891

Bishop’s transcripts for Whicham, 1676-1862

The parish of St. Mary, Whicham : baptisms and burials, 1813-1862, marriages, 1813-1841, 1848

The registers of Whicham, 1569-1812

Computer printout of Whicham, Cumberland, England

Administration

  • County: Cumberland
  • Civil Registration District: Bootle
  • Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Western Deaneries – Copeland
  • Diocese: Carlisle
  • Rural Deanery: Copeland
  • Poor Law Union: Bootle
  • Hundred: Allerdale above Derwent Ward
  • Province: York