England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Liverpool St Paul

The Parish

Liverpool is one of England's largest ports and cities, it is made up of numerous parishes many created during the 18th century to cope with the burgeoning population.St Paul's parish covered part of the northern area of the city taking in roughly that part of the Mersey banks between the Kingsway & Queensway tunnels. Liverpool is sited on the banks of the River Mersey which separates it from the Wirral area of Cheshire. It is thus in the extreme southwest of the ancient county of Lancashire. Liverpool is a relatively modern phenomenon, there was little here prior to the Elizabethan era, indeed the area was still just part of the wider parish of Walton on the Hill until the late 17th century. Nowadays Liverpool is a vast conurbation spreading for many miles both north and south of its origins but also inland too spreading to engulf what were separate villages until recent times. Liverpool was, at the commencement of this transcript's period, a small port with 4 parishes of which St Paul was one of the middle sized covering an area of docks and adjacent housing. Like all urban parishes St Paul covered a very small area, just a few city blocks running from the docks inland for a few hundred metres. By the time this transcript completes there are 17 parishes licensed for marriage and numerous villages engulfed with their own records. Today the area around St Paul is dominated by office blocks and commercial premises and since the demolition of the church St Paul's Square, on which it sat, is dwarfed by tall glass & steel office blocks.

The Church

St Paul's church was completed in 1769 and marriages began to be recorded from 1773. In its early years St Paul was one of the most fashionable churches in the city, the haunt of wealthy merchants and traders. Over the years the area gradually changed into one desolate in a wilderness of warehouses as the wealthy took to more salubrious places in the suburbs. St Paul's fell into disuse and for many years was a derelict eyesore. The unfortunate incident in which an exploring youngster fell to his death from the rotting rafters was the decision needed to demolish the church. The church was demolished in 1931 leaving few traces of its once impressive architecture.