Halifax Parish Church

Parish registers were formally introduced in England in 1538 following the split with the Roman Catholic Church, when Thomas Cromwell, minister to Henry VIII, issued an injunction requiring the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials to be kept.

The earliest available registers for West Yorkshire are the Parish registers of Halifax, 1538-1593. These cover baptisms, marriages and burials which took place in the Parish church of St John's, Halifax.

The ancient parish of Halifax was the largest parish in Yorkshire and one of the largest in England. The Blog of 6th November shows a map of the townships which were part of the Halifax parish.

Halifax Parish Church

During the years 1538-1593, there were 63 baptisms, 33 marriages and 48 burials recorded involving Hileys, but with a large number of different variant spellings of the surname. Most of these entries were given in Latin.

Nearly all the Hiley marriages up to the year 1800 took place in Halifax Parish Church, with just a small number elsewhere at Heptonstall, Elland, Luddenden and Todmorden.

The earliest Hiley record at Halifax is for the baptism of Agnes, daughter of George Hylyle of Sowerby on 24th of February 1539/40. The next Blogpost will explain this method of denoting the year.

The following excerpt is from the 1598 burial register. It shows Jane, daughter of Michael Hileley of Sowerby, buried on the 19th April, and the widow of Gilbert Hileley of Sowerby buried on the following day.

Part of April 1598 burial register for Halifax Parish Church
(Taken from Ancestry)

The Blogpost of 14th March 2019 showed the will of James Hilaleighe of Sowerby written in 1577. In common with all the other wills available from this time, he requested that he be buried at Halifax:

.............and my body to be buried in the churchyard of Halifax among the bodies of the faithful there buried expecting with them to have a joyful resurrection...........

Pews in the Parish Church 2017