The Augustinian Priory of Saint Thomas was part of the earliest settlement of Dunheved (now known as Launceston) prior to the Domesday Survey in 1086.
The parish is now centred around the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle within the borough of Launceston boundary. The church is to the north of Launceston and built on the banks of the River Kensey. The churchyard was consecrated by Bishop Granddisson on 6th November 1333. The church was completely restored in 1871.
The parish stretches westward from Launceston along the valley of the Kensey and contains the village of Tregadillet; it comprises 2158 acres of land. The population in 1991 numbered 820 persons.
The Online Parish Clerk for St Thomas-by-Launceston is Dean
Newman, who may be reached via Email.
Instead of maintaining a separate website, the OPC will post record sources on this website. See below for links to the data. Very few ‘non-internet’ records for the Parish of Saint Thomas have been transcribed by the OPC at this time. Please check back frequently for updates on transcriptions, as work is ongoing.
Donations of transcriptions are always welcome!
Dean has been the OPC for the Launceston town parishes and
Egloskerry since the inception of the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk
scheme in 2001.
His connection to this area comes through his maternal ancestors:
the Martin family of Kernick Farm, Launceston and the Hornabrook
family of Hole Barton at Egloskerry, the families were linked with
the marriage of his great-grand-father and great-grand-mother at
Launceston in 1850.
He lives in Australia and has never visited Cornwall.
Information can be found at COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project) which is almost complete for 1841 to 1891 and has been verified, FreeCens at Rootsweb, which has a very good search engine and information from COCP, as well as GenUKI, which has more reference information and alternate resources.
This parish has not been well-covered by the IGI, available at www.familysearch.org/. The sole records available are included in Batch P021001 (1687-1804) and these have been transcribed and can be researched on request to the OPC. Approximately 550 records comprise this database.
Transcriptions of births and deaths data is being made progressively from the web site at http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/. Information is for Launceston only and is not parish-specific.
For further Parish Register information, please see our searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated frequently, GenUKI (link below).
For information, see GenUKI (link below).
For information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.
For a Parish Locator map, please click here. St Thomas-by-Launceston can be located at coordinates J - 7.
For further map information, please visit GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom & Ireland).
To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, please visit
MultiMap, or for maps and satellite
images use
Google Maps.
