658 baptisms at South Shields St. Hilda’s in the year 1831

1,931 burials at Sunderland Holy Trinity churchyard for 1839-1841. Most entries give details not usually found in the parish register, including death date, occupation, parent, or husband:

• 1 Jan 1839 Mary Pallas, of Barrack Street, age: 5 months, died 28 Dec 1838, daughter of Richard Pallas (pilot)
• 31 Dec 1841 Frances Loney, of Vine Street, age: 80, died 28 Dec 1841, widow of Samuel Loney (mariner)
• 8 Jan 1839 Henry Dobbing, of High Street, age: 34, died 4 Jan 1839, hat manufacturer

By filling in this gap, we now have a continuous run of burials at Sunderland Holy Trinity for 1719 – 1842.

6,023 burials at Sunderland Cemetery (Stockton Rd, Grangetown) in 1875-1884. This block includes the burials following the Victoria Hall Disaster of June 16, 1883 in which 183 children died. (31 of these children were buried at Mere Knolls, 1 at the Southwick parish church, 116 at Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, and 22 at Sunderland Cemetery. This leaves 13 burials unaccounted for.)

As usual, the cemetery register provides more detail about the deceased than the parish register:

• 9 Dec 1884 James Pentland, of 35 Spring Garden Lane, age: 65, blacksmith
• 28 Dec 1884 Mary Middlehurst, of 15 Vine Street, age: 4 months, daughter of Emmanuel Middlehurst
• 5 Jan 1875 Eleanor Craig, of Woodbine Street, age: 75, wife of Wilkinson Craig

At Hurworth All Saints, in Darlington district, baptisms & burials from the Bishop’s Transcript, covering 1813-1835 except 1823 is temporarily missing; we will get it online in a couple of weeks.

• 831 baptisms. From March 1828 onward, most include birthdates. Sample:
  • 27 Dec 1835 Thomas Dunn, of Hurworth Place, born 22-Oct, son of Edward Dunn (chaise driver) & Ann
• 492 burials. From July 1827 onward, some burials included details about parents or spouses or occupations. Samples:
  • 6 Nov 1829 Elizabeth Wake, of Hurworth, age: 2, daughter of Stephen Wake & Margaret
  • 24 Sep 1830 Jonathan Featherston, of Newbus Grange, Hurworth, age: 52, Esq. Staff Surgeon, late of Blackhall, Northumberland, died 19 Sept.
  • 10 Jul 1835 Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Hurworth, age: 74, widow of Thomas Wilkinson

Residences mentioned include Cockerton, Croft Bridge End, Darlington, Gilling (YKS), Hungerhill, Hurworth, Middleton St. George, Neesham, Over Dinsdale.

547 baptisms at Jarrow St. Paul covering 1827-1830, primarily covering Hebburn Colliery and Jarrow Colliery and the surrounding area. Transcribed from the Bishop’s Transcript.

1,055 marriages at Monkwearmouth St. Peter’s, from 1735 to 1799 inclusive, plus one from 1700. Includes witnesses.

Since pre-1785 marriage registers were destroyed by a fire in 1790, this is a compilation of all known (to us) surviving marriage records for this church in any form. Some marriages in this period have been re-created from Bishop’s Transcripts and extracts of parish registers belonging to families and other agencies. Some of these extracts were compiled into a “register” after the fire. All marriages drawn from something other than the original register have their source noted in the record. You can read more about the fire and the alternative sources in Ken Coleman’s Monkwearmouth History article.

Samples:

• 22 Oct 1769 Peter Wanless, of Monkwearmouth married Jane Dummins, of this parish, by banns
  [Note: from the Bishop's Transcript]
• 10 Aug 1787 Edward Barns (widower), of Monkwearmouth married Elizabeth Forster, of this parish, by licence. Witnesses: Elizabeth Smith, John Berwick

In the second example, note that this marriage was by licence, which means there should be an accompanying marriage bond in our marriage bond database when we get that far (we are only up to 1759 currently). In the course of compiling these, we discovered numerous marriage bonds for Monkwearmouth folk whose marriage cannot be found in the Monkwearmouth registers. In some cases, they may have married in another parish, but in many cases, we suspect the marriage was recorded in registers destroyed by the fire, in which case the marriage bond may be the only evidence of the marriage, or at least intent to marry. Yet another reason for us to keep working on our marriage bond database!

4,104 burials at Sunderland Holy Trinity covering 1822 to mid-1830. This set filled a gap we had, so we now have a continuous run of burials at this church from 1719 – 1838. We will next work on filling the gap from 1839 to 1841, as we already have 1842 online.

882 burials at Kelloe St. Helen, covering 1841-1844. Residences mentioned include Bishop Middleham, Cassop, Clarence Hetton, Coxhoe, East Hetton, Heugh Hall, Joint Stock Row, New Thornley, Quarrington, Quarrington Hill, Thornley, West Hetton, Wingate, and Wingate Grange.

1,234 burials at Jarrow St. Paul covering 1820-1832. This included the burial of 40 men who were all killed in a gas explosion in the Bensham Seam of Jarrow Colliery on 3 Aug 1830. There were twice as many burials as usual in the 2nd half of 1832, possibly because of the cholera epidemic that entered Sunderland in the late summer of that year and spread across the country.

887 baptisms on the Crook Primitive Methodist Circuit, 1850-1865, serving residents of Billy Row, Bishop Auckland, Bitchburn, Bowden Close & Colliery, Brancepeth, Byers Green, Crook, Dans Castle, Grahamsley, Hedley Hope, Helmington Row, Hunwick, Mouth Pleasant, Newfield, North Bedburn, Quarryburn, Roddymoor, Rumby Hill, Sunnyside, Sunnybrow, Tow Law, Waterhouses, Wheat Bottom, White Lee, Willington, Witton le Wear, Witton Park, and Wolsingham. Some samples:

• 25 Dec 1856 Margaret Boddy, of Crook, child of Ralph Boddy (grocer) & Ann
• 7 Sep 1852 Thomas Dargue Holliday, of Roddymoor, child of George Holliday (miner) & Jane

Combined with the Tow Law Methodist baptisms that just went online, we can follow 2 generations of Methodist families – witness the following baptisms at the Tow Law Methodist chapel, presumably belonging to the uniquely-named Thomas Dargue Holliday who was baptized (above) on the Crook Primitive Methodist Circuit in 1852:

• 24 May 1878 Mary Jane Holliday, of Tow Law, born 16 Apr 1878, child of Thomas Dargue Holliday & Annie
• 8 Jul 1880 George Frederick Smith Holliday, of Tow Law, born 13 Jun 1880, child of Thomas Dag [Thomas Dargue] Holliday & Annie