St Michael's Church, Stone

[Stan]

Good afternoon all.

I have been researching Parish records (online) and have my 8th Great Grandfather, his forbears and descendents baptised and married in St Michael's Church in Stone. These records cover from 1616 through to 1692.

Having looked for the church history I find:

St. Michael's was built in 1758 on the site of the twelfth century Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Wulfad. The latter collapsed in 1749. The present church was designed by William Robinson of Greenwich and the main building work was undertaken by Charles Cope Trubshaw of Great Haywood.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Stan

[Coromandel]

Hello Stan

According to GENUKI there was an earlier church, which fell down:

'The old church, which was dedicated to St Ulfred, stood nearer to the parsonage house than the present edifice, and enclosed an ancient tomb, now left open to the churchyard, which has upon it the recumbent effigies of Sir Thomas Crompton and his lady. It was a venerable Saxon pile, and was so decayed and dilapidated in 1749, that a large portion of it fell down on December 30th, after the funeral of Elizabeth Unitt.'

https://www.
genuki.org.uk/big/eng/STS/Stone/

Edit: here are Sir Thomas Crompton and his wife, once safely in the chancel but now exposed to the elements:

https://www.
geograph.org.uk/photo/962499

[olliecat]

… baptised and married in St Michael's Church in Stone. These records cover from 1616 through to 1692.

Having looked for the church history I find:

St. Michael's was built in 1758 on the site of the twelfth century Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Wulfad.

Stan, are you querying the fact that although St Michael's was built in 1758, the records for St. Michael appear to cover 1616 through to 1692. I'm not really clear.

[Stan]

Thank you both. As mentioned in my post, I have the details of the 1753 - 1758 re-build; sorry if I was unclear.

My query is, how can we have parish records dated, say, 1692, for St. Michael's Church, when it did not exist at the time? I would expect to find records for the previous Priory to be under the appropriate name i.e. St. Mary and St. Wulfad. A typical transcript is:

groom's name: Sampson Hodgson
"bride's name: Margreta Tampkinson
marriage date: 20 May 1689
marriage place: St Michael'S, Stone, Stafford, England
indexing project (batch) number: M39593-2
system origin: England-ODM
source film number: 1278870"

[olliecat]

I thought that was your query. Yesterday I was enquiring about something else at the Staffordshire Archives and then I mentioned your query. The archivist told me that if she went and viewed the pre-1758 registers it may well say St, Mary’s. She also said that although the church and dedication changed in 1758 to St Michael's, the registers prior to this are very likely catalogued under the modern name of St Michael's.

This was over the phone and I had to leave the conversation there (since my kettle blew up at that point – don’t ask) and I never got to my own query.

I think you would have to look at the parish registers for yourself, or obtain copies of entries you are interested in from the Staffordshire archives (asking them to also copy a page where the name of the parish/church is recorded), or view the LDS film for yourself.

Or email the Staffordshire archives, they may provide you with a more informative explanation.

[malcolm99]

I suspect this is just a title of convenience for these records. The priory founded in 1125 was dedicated to SS Mary & Wulfad and after the priory was dissolved in 1537 it seems the priory’s church still served as a local church. The current church is dedicated to St Michael and St Wulfad and I suspect the St Wulfad registers are those that existed prior to St Michael’s foundation in 1758 – hence the existence of registers from 1568.

There is so little written about this that I think an enquiry to Staffordshire Record Office will clarify the position.

Edit: Snap Olliecat - you got in there first!

[Stan]

Many thanks both; interesting and informative (sorry about the kettle).

Will try the SRO and archives