Downside Genealogical Records
Downside Birth & Baptism Records
An index to births registered throughout England & Wales. Provides a reference to order copies of birth certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
Transcriptions of 255 parish baptism registers. They list children, their parents' names, residences, occupations and sometimes other details.
Transcriptions of copies of parish registers that were compiled for the Bishop of Wells.
A collection of indexes and transcripts of birth and baptism records that cover over 250 million people. Includes digital images of many records.
An index to births registered at the central authority for England & Wales. The index provides the area where the birth was registered, mother's maiden name from September 1911 and a reference to order a birth certificate.
Downside Marriage & Divorce Records
An index to marriages registered throughout England & Wales. This is the only national marriage index that allows you to search by both spouse's names. Provides a reference to order copies of marriage certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
An index of 369,186 Somerset marriages. Condition and residence may be included.
Abstracts of marriage licences granted by the Vicar-General in London. These licences could be used to marry in any church in the Province of Canterbury.
An index of 290,691 Somerset marriages. Condition and residence may be included.
Transcripts of Anglican marriage registers from over 100 churches in Somerset.
Downside Death & Burial Records
An index to deaths registered throughout England & Wales. Provides a reference to order copies of death certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
An index to vital details from monuments found at the church.
Burial records covering those buried at Christ Church, Downside_. This resource is an index and may not include all the details that were recorded in the burial registers from which they were extracted.
Transcriptions of around half the parish burial registers for Somerset. They list the name of the deceased, the date of their death and/or burial and sometimes other details, such as age and occupation.
An index to vital details engraved on over 25,000 monuments across the county of Somerset.
Downside Census & Population Lists
An index to and digital images of records that detail 40 million civilians in England and Wales. Records list name, date of birth, address, marital status, occupation and details of trade or profession.
The 1911 census provides details on an individual's age, residence, place of birth, relations and occupation. FindMyPast's index allows searches on for multiple metrics including occupation and residence.
A transcription of records naming those who had taxes levied against them for the privilege of owning a hearth.
Digital images of books the list people eligible to vote in Somerset. Includes addresses and nature of that address.
An early census of men able to serve in the militia.
Newspapers Covering Downside
A record of births, marriages, deaths, legal, political, organisation and other news from the Wells area. Original pages of the newspaper can be viewed and located by a full text search.
Original images of a local newspaper, searchable via a full text index. Includes news from the Bath area, business notices, obituaries, family announcements and more.
A searchable newspaper providing a rich variety of information about the people and places of the Bristol district. Includes obituaries and family announcements.
A considerable run of the newspaper for 1761. Original images, searchable by an OCR index.
A politically independent newspaper, covering the affairs of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. It includes family notices.
Downside Wills & Probate Records
Searchable index and original images of over 12.5 million probates and administrations granted by civil registries. Entries usually include the testator's name, date of death, date of probate and registry. Names of relations may be given.
Summaries of 1,616 wills that may detail family relationships, land ownership and other details.
An index to estate administrations performed by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The index covers the southern two thirds of England & Wales, but may also contain entries for northerners.
A calendar to wills and admons granted by the Archdeaconry of Leicester. Contains year of the grant, name and residence.
A searchable database of mid-17th Century probates performed by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Supplies details of testator and executor.
Downside Immigration & Travel Records
A name index connected to original images of passenger lists recording people travelling from Britain to destinations outside Europe. Records may detail a passenger's age or date of birth, residence, occupation, destination and more.
A full index of passenger lists for vessels arriving in the UK linked to original images. Does not include lists from vessels sailing from European ports. Early entries can be brief, but later entries may include dates of births, occupations, home addresses and more. Useful for documenting immigration.
An index to and images of documents recording over 1.65 million passengers who arrived in Victoria, Australia, including passengers whose voyage was paid for by others.
Details on over 600,000 non-British citizens arriving in England. Often includes age and professions. Useful for discerning the origin of immigrants.
Details on thousands of 17th century British immigrants to the U.S., detailing their origins and nature of their immigration.
Downside Military Records
An index to almost 11,000 men connected with Somerset who died during WWI.
An early census of men able to serve in the militia.
A history of the regiment in the run-up to and during the Napoleonic Wars.
A list of names found on World War One monuments in Somerset, with some service details.
A list of names found on World War Two monuments in Somerset, with some service details.
Downside Court & Legal Records
A collection of charters, writs, letters, conveyances and other records from the Dean & Chapter of Wells.
Transcripts of a large number of records detailing investigations into deaths.
An index to names and places mentioned in act books of the Province of Canterbury. It records various licences and conferments, such as marriage and physician licences.
Records of over 300,000 prisoners held by quarter sessions in England & Wales. Records may contain age, occupation, criminal history, offence and trial proceedings.
Over 175,000 records detailing prisoner's alleged offences and the outcome of their trial. Contains genealogical information.
Downside Taxation Records
A transcription of records naming those who had taxes levied against them for the privilege of owning a hearth.
An index to 11,000,000 parcels of land and property, connected to digital images of registers that record their owner, occupier, description, agricultural use, size and rateable value.
This vital collection details almost 1.2 million properties eligible for land tax. Records include the name of the landowner, occupier, amount assessed and sometimes the name and/or description of the property. It is a useful starting point for locating relevant estate records and establishing the succession of tenancies and freehold. Most records cover 1798, but some extend up to 1811.
An index linked to original images of registers recording apprenticeship indentures. Details are given on the trade and nature of apprenticeship. Many records list the parents of the apprentice.
A compilation of records from the Court of the Exchequer primarily dealing with taxes and land. These records are in Latin.
Downside Land & Property Records
A collection of charters, writs, letters, conveyances and other records from the Dean & Chapter of Wells.
An index to 11,000,000 parcels of land and property, connected to digital images of registers that record their owner, occupier, description, agricultural use, size and rateable value.
This vital collection details almost 1.2 million properties eligible for land tax. Records include the name of the landowner, occupier, amount assessed and sometimes the name and/or description of the property. It is a useful starting point for locating relevant estate records and establishing the succession of tenancies and freehold. Most records cover 1798, but some extend up to 1811.
Poll books record the names of voters and the direction of their vote. Until 1872 only landholders could vote, so not everyone will be listed. Useful for discerning an ancestor's political leanings and landholdings. The collection is supplemented with other records relating to the vote.
Abstracts of records detailing the estates and families of deceased tenants from the reigns of Henry III and Edward I.
Downside Directories & Gazetteers
An exhaustive gazetteer, containing details of settlement's history, governance, churches, postal services, public institutions and more. Also contains lists of residents with their occupation and address.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key contemporary and historical facts. Each place has a list of residents and businesses. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key contemporary and historical facts. Each place has a list of residents and businesses. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key contemporary and historical facts. Each place has a list of residents and businesses. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key historical and contemporary facts. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions. Also contains a list of residents and businesses for each place.
Downside Cemeteries
An index to vital details from monuments found at the church.
An index to vital details engraved on over 100,000 monuments across the county of Somerset.
Photographs and descriptions of Somerset's most illustrious church monuments, often featuring effigies, medieval inscriptions and heraldic devices.
Images of millions of pages from cemetery and crematoria registers, photographs of memorials, cemetery plans and more. Records can be search by a name index.
Photographs and transcriptions of millions of gravestones from cemeteries around the world.
Downside Obituaries
The UKs largest repository of obituaries, containing millions of searchable notices.
A growing collection currently containing over 425,000 abstracts of obituaries with reference to the location of the full obituary.
A collection of 364 obituaries of Quakers from the British Isles. The volume was published in 1849 and includes obituaries of those who died in late 1847 through 1848.
This transcribed and searchable work by Sir William Musgrave contains 10,000s of brief obituaries. The work is a reference point for other works containing information on an individual.
A text index and digital images of all editions of a journal containing medical articles and obituaries of medical practitioners.
Downside Histories & Books
Selected issues of a periodical which contains many historical and genealogical tracts relating to the counties of Somerset and Dorset.
A history of Catholicism in South West England with biographies of noted Catholics. Contains details of the Dominican, Benedictine, and Franciscan orders.
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Photographs and images of churches in Somerset.
A history of turnpikes and tollhouses in Somerset. Includes profiles of individual turnpikes.
Downside School & Education Records
A name index connected to digital images of registers recording millions of children educated in schools operated by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. Records contain a variety of information including genealogical details, education history, illnesses, exam result, fathers occupation and more.
A name index linked to original images of registers recording the education and careers of teachers in England & Wales.
A name index linked to original images of short biographies for over 120,000 Oxford University students. This is a particularly useful source for tracing the ancestry of the landed gentry.
A transcript of a vast scholarly work briefly chronicling the heritage, education and careers of over 150,000 Cambridge University students. This is a particularly useful source for tracing the ancestry of the landed gentry.
A searchable database containing over 90,000 note-form biographies for students of Cambridge University.
Downside Occupation & Business Records
Abstracts of apprenticeship indentures initiated by parishes in Somerset. These records provide details on parents' names and occupations.
An introduction to smuggling on the west coast of Britain & the Isle of Man, with details of the act in various regions.
Histories of Somerset pubs, with photographs and lists of owners or operators.
Profiles of coal and metal mines in the south of England.
An index of Glamorgan police officers who came from the West Country.
Pedigrees & Family Trees Covering Downside
Pedigrees of Somerset gentry families, including depictions of their arms. The book also contains some biographical information.
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Extensive and impeccably sourced genealogies for British, Irish & Manx royalty and nobility. Scroll down to 'British Isles' for relevant sections.
A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.
A searchable book, listing pedigrees of titled families and biographies of their members.
Downside Royalty, Nobility & Heraldry Records
Pedigrees of Somerset gentry families, including depictions of their arms. The book also contains some biographical information.
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Photographs and descriptions of Somerset's most illustrious church monuments, often featuring effigies, medieval inscriptions and heraldic devices.
Extensive and impeccably sourced genealogies for British, Irish & Manx royalty and nobility. Scroll down to 'British Isles' for relevant sections.
A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.
Downside Church Records
A collection of charters, writs, letters, conveyances and other records from the Dean & Chapter of Wells.
Abstracts of apprenticeship indentures initiated by parishes in Somerset. These records provide details on parents' names and occupations.
A history of Catholicism in South West England with biographies of noted Catholics. Contains details of the Dominican, Benedictine, and Franciscan orders.
Transcriptions of registers that record baptisms, which typically occur shortly after birth; marriages and burials. They can help establish links between individuals back to the 16th century.
An index to vital details engraved on over 25,000 monuments across the county of Somerset.
Biographical Directories Covering Downside
Brief biographies of thousands of notable Somerset men.
A searchable book, listing pedigrees of titled families and biographies of their members.
A book containing genealogies and biographies of Britain's titled families.
A book containing genealogies and biographies of Britain's titled families.
Brief biographies of Anglican clergy in the UK.
Downside Maps
Digital images of maps covering the county.
Detailed maps covering much of the UK. They depict forests, mountains, larger farms, roads, railroads, towns, and more.
Maps showing settlements, features and some buildings in mainland Britain.
An index to 11,000,000 parcels of land and property, connected to digital images of registers that record their owner, occupier, description, agricultural use, size and rateable value.
Maps of parishes in England, Scotland and Wales. They are useful in determining which parish records may be relevant to your research.
Downside Reference Works
A beginner’s guide to researching ancestry in England.
Compiled in 1831, this book details the coverage and condition of parish registers in England & Wales.
A comprehensive guide to researching the history of buildings in the British Isles.
A service that provides advanced and custom surname maps for the British Isles and the US.
A dictionary of around 9,000 mottoes for British families who had right to bear arms.
Civil & Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction
Historical Description
DOWNSIDE is a scattered ecclesiastical parish, formed July 4, 1845, from the parish of Midsomer Norton, and containing Downside, part of Chilcomptom and the hamlets of Benter and Nettlebridge: it is half a mile southwest from Chilcompton station on the Somerset and Dorset joint railway, 3 south from Midsomer Norton, 5 north, from Shepton-Mallet, 8 north-east from Wells, 14 south-west from Bath and 18 south from Bristol, in the Frome division of the county, petty sessional division of Kilmersdon, county court district of Clutton, union of Shepton Mallet, rural deanery of Midsomer Norton, archdeaconry of Wells and diocese of Bath and Wells. Christ Church, erected in 1837—38, and consecrated in the latter year, is a small building of stone, in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel and nave, west porch and a gable bellcote containing one bell: in 1900 the interior was thoroughly restored and reseated, when a new pulpit, lectern, altar rails and organ were presented: there are sittings for 272 persons, 216 of which are free. The register dates from the year 1830. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £180, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Midsomer Norton, and held since 1889 by the Rev. Percival Burney Talbot B.A., L.Th, of Durham University. Here is a Wesleyan chapel. St. Gregory’s Abbey and College of the English Benedictine Order occupies a pleasant position in a vale, on the high road from Bath to Shepton, the principal approach to it being by a carriage drive from Stratton-on-the-Fosse. The community of St. Gregory's, when driven from their monastery at Douai by the French. Revolution in 1793, retired to England with slender revenues, and after being generously supported by the Smythes, of Acton Burnell, Shrewsbury, ultimately settled here in 1814. The Abbey buildings are in the Gothic style, from designs by Messrs. Dunn, Hansom and Dunn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and were erected in the years 1823, 1856 and 1874: the refectory, 75 feet by 30, the cloisters and one wing of the monastery were the first parts undertaken: in July, 1882, the transepts of the church were opened for divine service: the part of the church now in use is 120 feet from north to south, by about 70 from east to west, and 67 feet high; it comprises north and south transepts, with the chapels of the Blessed Sacrament, All Saints, St. Lawrence, the Angels, St. Placid and Our Lady of Pity, and at the end of the south transept a portion of the tower, at present 132 feet in height; separated from the main building at the east end stand several chapels. The Lady chapel, opened in July, 1888, is a beautiful structure 52 feet in length, and vaulted throughout with richly-carved bosses. Besides the richly decorated hexagonal chapels of St. Vedast (1888) and St. Joseph (1890), there are two beautiful chapels, one of St. Benedict and the other of St. Isidore, both opened in 1889; these last are in the Perpendicular styles, the roofs being much enriched with carved bosses: the chapel of St. Isidore has an altar and reredos of exquisite workmanship in Beer stone, and the chapel of St. Benedict an altar of marble and alabaster, and a triptych, painted by Mr. N. F. Westlake, who has also designed and executed the stained glass windows of both chapels: a new chapel is now (1901) in course of erection: in the grounds is a spacious swimming bath, for the use of the students, erected by the late Right Rev. Mgr. Lord Petre, in 1875; and the boys have also a fine large cricket ground and pavilion, made at various dates between 1881 and 1892. St. Benedict’s church, with schools, stands near, adjoining the village of Stratton-on-the-Fosse, and has attached schools, built in 1857 from designs by Mr. Charles Hansom, and in charge of nuns of the Servite Oder: in 1888 gas works were built for the college, an extensive system of water storage completed and the steam laundry entirely remodelled. Here is the colliery of the New Rock, the property of Frederick Spencer esq. of Pondsmead, Oakhill. Lynch House is the residence of James Morgan esq. and Glen View House of Gordon Turner esq. The principal landowners are H.R.H, the Duke of Cornwall and York K.G.; the Marquess of Bath; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; Hyde Salmon Whalley Tooker esq. of Hinton Daubnay, Horndean, Hants, and the proprietors of Downside Abbey. The soil is light loam; subsoil, conglomerate stone. The land is entirely in pasture. The population in 1891 was 621.
National School (mixed), erected in 1844 & enlarged in 1895, for 150 children; average attendance, 70.