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St James Church Records

Church Records

 

A page from Tong parish records, showing baptisms, burials and marriages all entered together.

The parish church of Tong is dedicated to St James. The current building dates only from 1727, but was built on the site of earlier churches, dating back to the pre-Norman saxon age. Nowadays the Church is a parish church, but in earlier days, Tong was in the 'Wappontake of Morley, Parish of Birstall and Honour of Pontefract', so was a chapel in Birstall parish, and served the Lordship of Tong.

 

The known records for St James began in 1550, when the marriage of William Stringfellow and Mary Pickard took place on the 3rd of May that year.

Baptism and burial records commenced at the same time, the first baptism being 'Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Robert' who was baptised on the 18th of March; the first burial entry relates to the interment of 'Christopher Stringfellow, son of William' on the 30th of May 1551.

 

Event dates are as recorded in the Registers but the early years are confusing as some years begin on the 1st of January rather than 25th of March as should have been the case, and not all entries are in chronological order. It appears that the pages from 1550 to 1608 have been written at a later date as these are neatly written in the same hand, which would not have been the case had those years' events been entered as they occurred.

 

There is no obvious gap in the records between 1554 and 1570 but there are no baptisms, marriages or burials shown for that period; this suggests that the original record for those years was missing when this 'new' Register was compiled.

After the records recommence in 1570, it can be seen that the church was little used, as would be expected of such a small chapelry. Few, if any, marriages took place in the 16th-18th century, though the church became more popular for marriages in the mid-19th century. Burials and baptisms of course, rose with the growth of the local population.

 

Whilst the chapel managed to maintain good records during the civil war, there is a major interruption of the church records in the 1660s, in the aftermatch of the Civil War. Most years for that period show no marriage or burial records and in the period 1665 to 1669, no events at all were recorded.

From 1670 the records continue uninterrupted.

Name spellings vary greatly so have been standardised to assist the searcher but variations should be considered when looking for an entry.