Esh Durham Family History Guide

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Esh (or Ash) is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Durham, created in 1733 from a chapelry in Lanchester Ancient Parish.

Other places included in the parish: Ushaw

Alternative names: Ash, Ashe

Parish church: St. Michael

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1567
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1795

Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic

Adjacent Parishes

Esh Parish Registers

Baptism Records

Esh Baptisms 1570-1903

Esh Laude, St Michael Roman Catholic Baptisms 1891-1922

Marriage and Banns Records

Esh Marriages 1570-1903

Esh Laude, St Michael Roman Catholic Marriages 1891-1922

Death and Burial Records

Esh Burials 1585-1867

Esh, St Michael & All Angels Burials 1801-1842

Bishops Transcripts

Explore the Bishops’ Transcripts for the Diocese of Durham (1639–1919) – This collection offers parish register copies submitted annually to the Bishop, covering baptisms, marriages, and burials across Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. Ideal for tracing ancestors when original registers are missing or incomplete.

Esh Bishops Transcripts 1763-1867

Esh Bishops Transcripts 1764-1856

Parish History

Esh

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ESH, or Ash, a village and a township-chapelry in Lanchester parish, Durham. The village stands 4 miles NNW of Brancepeth r. station, and 5 WNW of Durham; and has a post-office under Durham. The chapelry comprises 3, 016 acres. Real property, £2, 915. Pop., 942. Houses, 118. The property is divided among a few. A Roman Catholic college, on a large scale, with about 300 students, is at Ushaw. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Durham. Value, £190. Patron, the Bishop of Manchester. The church is good; and there is a Roman Catholic chapel. See Ushaw.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

ESH, or ASH, a chapelry, in the parish and union of Lanchester, W. division of Chester ward, N. division of the county of Durham, 5 miles (W. N. W.) from Durham; containing 518 inhabitants. The manor gave name, at a very early period, to a family of considerable local consequence, who held the estate, with little interruption, from the middle of the 13th century till the time of Henry VIII.; it afterwards came, among other families, to the Smythes.

The chapelry comprises 1123a. 1r. 6p., of which 461 acres are pasture, 617 arable, and 44 waste: the village occupies the centre of the heights between the vales of Browney and Derness. At Walls-Nook, a hamlet in the chapelry, are a flourmill and an iron-foundry. Esh Hall, the deserted seat of the Smythes, of whom Sir Edward, the first baronet, most probably erected it, is a long irregular building fronting the south, and shaded by a grove of old sycamore-trees.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham; net income, £190. The tithes have been commuted for £77. 16. 6.; there is a glebe of 20 acres. The chapel, dedicated to St. Michael, was almost entirely rebuilt in 1770, and consists of a narrow nave and chancel, and of a south porch, which opens under a low pointed arch. There is a Roman Catholic chapel in the village; and at a short distance to the east is the Roman Catholic College of Ushaw, which see.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Ushaw

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

USHAW, a place, with a Roman Catholic college, in Esh chapelry, Durhamshire; 4 miles WNW of Durham. The college stands on a bleak hill; was founded in 1804, and opened in 1808; underwent extension in 1850 and following years; includes a fine chapel, opened in 1848; forms an open quadrangle, together with a long cloister and a seminary; and has commonly about 300 students, and about 100 boys.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

USHAW, a hamlet, in the chapelry of Esh, union and parish of Lanchester, W. division of Chester ward, N. division of the county of Durham, 4 miles (W.) from Durham.

This place derives its name from the abundance of yew-trees that formerly grew in the neighbourhood. It belongs to a Roman Catholic college established here in 1808, and which owed its origin to the dissolution of the English College of Douay, in French Flanders, by the tyranny of the French republic in 1794.

The majority of the professors and students, having escaped to their native land, settled at Crook Hall, in this county; but the building soon proving too small, they were enabled by the liberal support of the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, to raise the present edifice.

The college comprises a spacious quadrangle, adapted to the reception of 150 students, with a president, vice-president, and professors; and has a valuable library of more than 12,000 volumes, with numerous splendidly illuminated MSS.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Historical Directories

Kelly’s Directory of the Leather Trades 1880

ESH

Boot & Shoe Makers

Farrow James Hill top
Forster John
Gonndry & Gleadson Hill top
Mallabar John Ord William

ESH COLLIERY

Boot & Shoe Maker
Hodgson Thomas

Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Durham
  • Civil Registration District: Durham
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Chester le Street
  • Poor Law Union: Lanchester
  • Hundred: Chester Ward
  • Province: York