Non-Conformist Records

 If you can’t find the entry you are looking for in the South Petherton parish registers, then it may be worth checking the non-conformist records or some of the neighbouring parishes.  The parishes which border South Petherton are East Lambrook, Kingsbury Episcopi, Martock, Stoke Sub Hamdon, Norton sub Hamdon, Chiselborough, Merriott, Lopen, Seavington St Michael, and Shepton Beauchamp.

There are a few South Petherton people recorded in the transcription of civil marriages during the Commonwealth period 1653-1656

The Old Presbyterian Meeting House in South Petherton was founded about the year 1688. There are no surviving records after 1837.

Roundwell Street Independent Chapel (or Mr Herdsman’s Chapel) was founded in 1775. 

South Petherton Wesleyan Chapel was founded in 1807.  The first register starts in 1813.

Two other non-conformist chapels in the neighbouring parishes of Martock and Kingsbury Episcopi also contain families who lived in South Petherton:

The Middle Lambrook Independent Chapel (situated in Kingsbury Episcopi) which was established 1674.

Bower Hinton Chapel, Martock which was established  in1788.

The non-conformist records prior to 1837 are copyright of the National Archives. Copies are also held on microfilm at the Somerset Heritage Centre which also has the surviving the post 1837 registers (although the copyright is still held by the United Reform Church or Methodist Church). The transcriptions on this website are published online by kind permission of the Somerset Heritage Centre, the Methodist Church and the United Reform Church on condition that its use is free from profit.