Arrowsmiths of Westleigh St Mary Virgin Lancashire

[fastfusion]

Hello there folks,

I am currently looking back at the Arrowsmiths family who resided in Westleigh and used the St Mary Virgin Church principally as the main place to record the family events.
Apart from family search . org and the OPC , and few mentioning of material duplicated from the two former sites on anc...y ;    I am looking for a) anyone or a website who has in the kindness in their heart done the tombstone inscriptions,  and/ or the inscription panels within the church....
b) probates specifically to do with the Arrowsmiths from that place....   so as I can further my investigation and reconstruction of the family tree there.
c) a possible map specifically outlining "Westleigh" in 1700, along
with "Bedford" , "Dean", "Pennington" which are mentioned as residences of the various parts of the family using St Mary the Virgin church.
The Arrowsmith family was in the region for many centuries but at present I can only find linkable proof extending back to 1670.....any assistance locally given or otherwise will be greatly appreciated. The other curiousity of this search is to have some further reading or sources that can give evidences towards the various weaving , tailoring and associative trade in the St Mary Parish area....   namely to do with Arrowsmiths....    I already have amassed information to do with Bolton , and Bolton le Moors but I feel Leigh is slightly earlier in the story of the steps the family achieved...

thank you

marty
 

[trish1120]

Hi Marty,
I cant help with most of your query as I am in Australia but noticed you didnt mention FreeREG.

Earliest Burial  on there;
Alice ARROWSMYTH, Wife of ROBRT, 17 February 1573/74, St Mary the Virgin, Leigh, Lancashire

Earliest Male/Female Marriage;
RYCHARD Arrowsmith, Bachelor, to Margrett SMYTHE, Spinster, 20 May 1573
JOANE Arrowsmyth, Spinster, to Thomas JOLLIE, Bachelor, 15 August 1575

Earliest Baptism;
CATHEREN Arrowsmyth, 21 Sept 1560 (no Fathers name given though)


Use the soundex option as there are various spellings of Arrowsmith
www.freereg.org.uk

Sorry if you already have these from another Site.

Trish

[fastfusion]

thanks trish....

my girlfriend and i have just spent the last two days doing a  reconstruction of the parish records back to the inception of the first mentioned arrowsmith or phonetic variant....

its now at a point that to determine any other connections from the vagness of some entries in the parish registers i need to look at probates and tombstones or inscriptions.....
we were very lucky to have joined about 50 percent back together,,,  but the usual problem of which thomas , which james , which mary etc etc connects the final dots....

it is just one of those parishes.....

but its all good
 

[trish1120]

Fair enough, good luck with your query

[Gibel]

Surviving wills will be held at Lancashire Record Office. If you google Lancashire Wills you will get a website that has most but not all of them in index form. You would need to visit the record office to see them.

[fastfusion]

thanks gibel

netted 11 references to probates..........  one step closer to cemetery transcriptions......

[fastfusion]

UUUUUmmmmm    seems I need to make a serious amendment to this post....

Just had a look on googlemaps streetview....      In the worlds haste to build supermarkets some unwise capitalist sod has turned the grounds of the church into a carpark and buildings of modern demise.

So is there a rootschatter local in Leigh Lancs  who can find out for me the direct story of when the graveyard was distroyed and what documentation was done at the time to record the graves or folk interred on Holy ground.................... thank you muchly

p.s.    or give me an address of the local town council responsible for the cemeteries in and around Leigh so I may also upgrade genuki .........with answers regarding the old cemetery.

marty

[maggie5]

Fastfusion ,I know you will find Arrowsmiths in Astley a small village which is Near Leigh Lancs . Leigh Cemetery is the place to look for their graves.
  Astley, Greater Manchester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astley,_Greater_ManchesterIt means "east Leigh" or "east of Leigh", a reference to Astley's location ... 1.1 Toponymy; 1.2 Early history; 1.3 Manor; 1.4 Industrial Revolution .... and Robert Arrowsmith on Peel Lane at Astley Green, near the Bridgewater Canal in 1833. Wigan history site may help you .This is also a good place to find out more

http://www.leighlife.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=67ftv8jnmp469egeh1ait9nic6&page=wiki&id=leighlife:parishchurch

[fastfusion]

thanks for that info maggie... so sorry for not replying sooner ... was kinda out of the office for a week driving the eastern seabord....  all 3400 kilometres of it...

will suss out the arrowsmiths of astley though....   

cheers

marty