Wellington, Somerset
Historical Description
Wellington, a town and a parish in Somerset. The town stands on a gentle elevation at the foot of the Blackdown Hills, with a station on the G.W.R., 166 miles from London, and 6½ SW by W of Taunton. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of the civil parish, 5295; population, 6808; of the ecclesiastical, 6110. The town gives the titles of Viscount, Earl, and Duke to the family of Wellesley; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; is governed by an urban district council, publishes two weekly newspapers, carries on woollen manufacture and iron-founding, comprises five streets, containing many respectable residences, and has two banks, two chief inns, a police station, a market-house and town-hall, a library and reading-room, almshouses, a workhouse, a weekly market on Thursday, a cattle and sheep market on the first Thursday in every month, and two annual fairs. The manor belonged to Alfred the Great, was given to the see of Wells, passed to the Somersets and the Pophams, and belongs now to the Duke of Wellington. A pillar, monumental of Wellington and Waterloo, stands on a lofty hill, 2½ miles S of the town, figures conspicuously over an extensive picturesque landscape, and was designed to be surmounted by a bronze statue of the hero of Waterloo. The church of St John the Baptist is a handsome edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style, with an embattled western tower, and contains a magnificent altar tomb of Sir John Popham and his wife. Trinity Church, erected in 1831, is a modern building of stone in the form of a Latin cross. The living is a vicarage, united with Holy Trinity and West Buckland, in the diocese of Bath and Wells; gross value, £750 with residence. Rockwell Green is an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1890 out of the parish of Wellington. Population, 1483. The church of All Saints is an edifice of red sandstone lined with brick. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £250 with residence. There are Congregational, Baptist, Bible Christian, and Wesleyan Methodist chapels.
Wellington or Western Parliamentary Division of Somerset was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 48,122. The division includes the following:- Taunton (part of)-Angersleigh, Bishop's Hull, Kingston (near Taunton), Norton Fitzwarren, Oake, Otterford, Pitminster, Staplegrove, Taunton (St Mary), Taunton (St James), Trull, Wilton; Bishop's Lydeard-Ash Priors, Bishop's Lydeard, Combe Florey, Cothelstone, Halse, Heathfield, Lydeard (St Lawrence), Tolland, West Bagborough; Dulverton-Brushford, Dulverton, Exford, Exmoor (part), Exton, Hawkridge, Kingsbrompton, Skilgate, Upton, Winsford, Withypool; Dunster-Carhampton, Culbone, Cutcombe, Dunster, Luckham or Luccombe, Luxborough, Minehead Borough and Parish, Oare, Porlock, Selworthy, Stoke Pero, Timberscombe, Treborough, Withycombe, Wootton Courtney; Wellington-Ashbrittle, Bradford, Kittisford, Langford Budville, Nynehead, Runnington, Sampford Arundell, Stawley, Thorn (St Margaret), Wellington, West Buckland; Williton -Bicknoller, Crowcombe, Dodington, East Quantoxhead, Elworthy, Fiddington, Holford, Kilton, Kilve, Lilstock, Monksilver, Nether Stowey, Nettlecombe, Old Cleeve, Over Stowey, St Decumans, Sampford Brett, Stognmber, Stoke Courcy or Stogursey (part of), Stringston, West Quantoxhead; Wiveliscombe-Bathealton, Brompton Ralph, Chipstable, Clatworthy, Fitzhead, Huish Champflower, Milverton, Raddington, Withiel Florey, Wiveliscombe.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Somersetshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Wellington St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | Kingsbury | |
Poor Law union | Wellington |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Wellington 1683-1812, Somerset is available to browse online.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wellington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wellington (St. John the Baptist))
Maps
Online maps of Wellington are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Somerset papers online:
- Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette
- Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser
- Western Gazette
- Wells Journal
- Somerset County Gazette
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.