Cornwall

Nearby places

Week St Mary

The parish of Week St Mary, (Cornish: Gwig Sen Maria), is situated in the Deanery of Trigg Major and the Hundred of Stratton. It is bounded on the north by Marhamchurch, on the east by Whitstone, North Tamerton and Boyton, on the south by North Petherwin (which was in Devon) and a detached part of Jacobstow, and on the west by Jacobstow and Poundstock.

The name has Anglo-Saxon origins: wic meaning settlement. The word "Week", "Wyke" or "Wick" which is found in so many English place names is an Anglo-Saxon form of the Latin "vicus" meaning dairy farm or village, and St Mary is the dedication of the village church, so that Week St. Mary was in the old days know as St. Mary Week to distinguish it from other villages, like Pancrasweek a few miles away in Devon. It seems to have been of some importance for centuries; just west of the village is a flat topped circular hill know as Ashbury - all round it can be seen earthworks which surrounded a prehistoric fort dating from the Iron Age. Later the Normans settled in what was then hostile country.The parish is in north-east Cornwall between the Devon border and the coast.

It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086:
Richard also holds WICH. Cola held it before 1066, and paid tax for ½ hide; 1 hide there, however. Land for 8 ploughs; 3 ploughs there; 4 slaves. 6 villagers and 10 smallholders. Woodland, 2 acres; pasture, 1 league long and as wide. Formerly 20s; value now 30s. [2 cattle; 8 pigs; 40 sheep; 20 goats. Exon].

In the 15th century a shepherdess, Thomasine Bonaventure, lived here. She attracted the attention of a wealthy London merchant who took her back to London to work in his household, and on the death of his wife married her. After his death Thomasine married two more weathy men in succession; the last being Sir John Percival who became Lord Mayor of London in 1497. After being widowed for the third time she returned to Cornwall and used her money for good causes. She built a school which has now become a group of cottages, she endowed a chantry in the parish church and left the vicar of Liskeard a beautiful chalice.

The village of Week St Mary is the only village in the parish.

Cemeteries

• The inscriptions from headstones in the Parish Churchyard (PC) and Methodist Cemetery (MC) are available on-line.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published Monumental Inscriptions for the Parish Church.

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Census

Census information for this parish (1841 - 1901) is held in the Cornwall Record Office. The Cornwall Family History Society offers a census search service for its members. The Cornwall Family History Society have also published on-line census detail by surname on the FamilyHistoryonLine site.

Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841. The 1841 Census of Week St Mary (HO107/151), Enumeration Districts 3 to 5, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1851.
  • The 1851 Census of Week St Mary (HO107/1897), Enumeration Districts 2a and 2b, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
  • The New Zealand Society of Genealogists have compiled separate surname indexes of the 1851 Census for each Cornish registration district; Week St Mary is listed in Volume 5. The booklets are available in Cornwall at the Cornwall Centre (formerly known as the Cornish Studies Library), and is also available in the Cornwall FHS Library.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of Week St Mary (RG9/1514), Enumeration District 7B and 8C, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1871. The 1871 Census of Week St Mary (RG10/2217), Enumeration Districts 7b and 8b, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Week St Mary (RG11/2271), Enumeration Districts 7 and 8, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Week St Mary (RG12/1798), Enumeration Districts 3 and 4, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.

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Church History

• Anglican. The parish church is located in OS Grid Square SX2397; it is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It comprises a chancel, nave, and north and south aisles. The north arcade has five four-centred arches, with monolith granite pillars; the south arcade also has five arches, three of which are obtuse pointed, and two obtuse four-centred. The pillars are of Polyphant stone and granite. The entrances are a south porch and a priest's door; the north door is not used. The tower is of granite ashlar; it has three stages and is 99 feet in height, including its pinnacles. It was built in 1643, contains five bells, and is finished with battlements and crocketed pinnacles which terminate with crosses.
  Details about the plans of the modern church are available on-line.
  The parish is now united with Poundstock and Whitstone.
• Non-Conformist. The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel at Week Orchard (built pre-1800), and the United Methodist Free Church (built in 1844) had a chapel in the Churchtown. The Bible Christians built the Zion chapel within the village in 1843, and another at Bakesdon (Bakesdown) in 1833. The year 1907 saw the demise of the title "Bible Christian Society" when it combined with the "United Methodist Free Church" and the "Methodist New Connexion" to form "The United Methodist Church". This union, and the later one in 1932 when "United Methodists", "Weslyans" and "Primitive Methodists" formed "The Methodist Church", produced little real change. At Week St. Mary the two chapels (Week St. Mary Bible Christian and Week Green United Methodist Free Church) continued their respective societies following the 1907 and 1932 amalgamations until 1934 when the Week Green chapel was closed and the premises converted for use as a caretaker's bungalow.

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Church Records

• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Week St Mary are: C053281, C032731, M032731. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage for this parish is 1602 - 1812.
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1602 - 1981, Burials 1602 - 1982, Marriages 1602 - 1978, Boyd's Marriage Index 1602 - 1812, Pallot's Marriage Index 1790 - 1812.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of:
  • Pre 1813 Marriages
  • 1813-37 Marriages
  • 1813-37 Burials.
• Other Non-Conformist Records. OPC Coverage of Non-Conformist records of this parish is available.
• Baptisms. The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD baptisms 1740 to 1843 for this parish.
• Marriages.
  • The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Marriages in the Parish 1602 to 1837, which is available in CD or downloadable .pdf file formats.
  • Phillimore's marriages 1602 to 1812 in this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD marriages 1754 to 1812 for this parish.
• Burials.
  • The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Burials in the Parish 1813 to 1837, which is available in Book format.
  • Burials 1759 to 1873 in this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).

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Civil Registration

The parish of Week St Mary is in the Stratton Registration District and has been since 1st July 1837; there were sub-districts at Kilhampton, Stratton and Week St Mary but these have now been abolished. Parishes within the district are: Jacobstow, Kilkhampton, Launcells, Marhamchurch, Morwenstow, Poughill, Poundstock, St. Gennys, Stratton, Stratton and Bude, Week St. Mary, Whitstone. The Superintendant Registrar can be contacted at: The Parkhouse Centre, Ergue Gaberic Way, Bude, EX23 8LF. Tel: 01288 353209.

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Description & Travel

• ePodunk's Cornwall page - providing general, plus some historical and genealogical information, about Cornwall and its parishes, together with links (mainly relating to general sites and services, rather than ones that are specific to Cornwall or particular parishes).
• There is a village website available.
• Photographs of Week St Mary are available on-line.

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Directories

• Post Office Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1856.
• Kelly's Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1873.
• Kelly's Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1883.
• Kelly's Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1893.
• Kelly's Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1906.
• Post Office Directory for Week St Mary ~ 1926.

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Genealogy

• OPC Assistance. The On-line Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme operates a service to help family historians; the OPC page for this parish is available on-line.
• The OPC has produced a family history website for the parish.

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Historical Geography

• Week Orchard (Orcert), Grid Reference 235004.
• Week St Mary (Wihc, Wich), Grid Reference 237977.

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Maps

• Map of the Stratton Registration District in which the parish lies.
• An old map of the parish of Week St Mary in the 19th century is also available.

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Occupations

Apprenticeship Indentures for Week St Mary (1768 - 1827) can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• Week St Mary parish was part of the Stratton Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief.
• Overseers' Accounts (1709 to 1742), Settlement Papers (1741 to 1849) and Bastardy Bonds (1755 to 1821), are available in the Cornwall Record Office.
• Some snippets relating to events (such as bastardy orders, maintenance payments, etc.) in Week St Mary and surrounding parishes, are available on-line.

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Population

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Statistics

The parish comprises 6123 acres of land.

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