Somerton, Somerset
Historical Description
Somerton, a small town and a parish in Somerset. The town stands on an eminence adjacent to the river Cary, 5 miles ENE of Langport station on the G.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of parish, 6620; population, 1962. Somerton was a residence of the West Saxon kings, and gave name to Somerset; suffered devastation by the Danes in 877; had anciently a castle, in which King John of France was confined; is now a seat of petty sessions, and has two banks, a town-hall, an ancient market-cross, a police station, an endowed school, almshouses for both men and women, and several annual fairs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; net value, £320 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Ilchester. The church is an ancient stone edifice in the Decorated style, with an embattled octagonal tower. The building was thoroughly restored in 1889. There are also Congregational, Wesleyan, and Bible Christian chapels, and a Friends' meeting-house. In the town is a shirt and collar factory and a brewery.
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 | Somerton St. Michael | |
Hundred | Somerton | |
Poor Law union | Langport |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Somerton 1697-1812, 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 Somerton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Somerton (St. Michael))
- Hunt & Co.'s Directory of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, & Wiltshire 1851
Maps
Online maps of Somerton 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
Photographs
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.