Dore was, in the past, in the parish of Dronfield, Derbyshire. Baptisms were performed in Dronfield's 'chapel of ease' in Dore and recorded in the Dronfield register.
Christ Church in Dore was built in 1828 and consecrated in 1829 when the first burial took place in the Christ Church graveyard. The church and graveyard served the people of Dore and Totley. Marriages continued to be performed in Dronfield until Dore became a parish in its own right in 1844.
Registers held by Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock and by Ancestry
- There is a combined register for baptisms, marriages and burials for the period 1538 to 1812.
- The marriage register that covers the period 1754 to 1932 should be consulted for marriages before 1844, although some Dore and Totley residents preferred to be married in Dronfield after this date.
- The burial register that covers the period 1813 to 1991 should be consulted for Dore and Totley burials up until November 1829. However a few burials still took place at Dronfield until 1848.
Registers held by Sheffield Archives and by Findmypast
- The earliest Dore baptism register to survive dates from 1813.
- Findmypast has the images and transcripts for baptisms up until 1914. See below for information on Findmypast from the Butler Register. It is important to refer to the Dronfield register for all baptisms before 1813.
- The first marriage took place at Christ Church, Dore in 1844. Findmypast has the images and transcripts for marriages up until 1918.
- The first burial took place in the graveyard at Dore in 1829. Findmypast has the images and transcripts for burials up until 1967.
- The records for Dore on Findmypast are included in the Derbyshire parish list - not Yorkshire.
- As Ancestry has recently been taking images of registers in Sheffield Archives this information may be updated.
The Butler Register
The William Butler Register, currently held by Sheffield Archives, is the source used by findmypast for their transcriptions of early Dore and Totley Baptisms.
The register consists of 30 handwritten pages. On the final page it states:
Stamp Office Sheffield, who
Copied it from the
Original Book,
kept by
Old Billy Butler
Clerk of
Dore
Therefore, it is a copy, by an unknown hand, of Mr Swift’s manuscript which was previously copied from a book kept by William Butler.
The Butler Register Problems
The register held by Sheffield Archives begins with the words, presumably penned by William Swift:
“There is no date to the first 14 of the following entries except the day of the month and the whole of the succeeding two pages and a half are copied from minutes on loose scraps of paper within the Book, which is inscribed on the fly leaf "Robert Willson His Book 1734”
For some unknown reason, findmypast has allocated 1734 (the date written on the fly leaf of Robert Willson’s book) to the baptisms with no date (there are actually 20 not 14).
Here are three William Butler register examples from the first page, together with the findmypast transcript and the correct Dronfield parish register entry:
findmypast: Elisabeth Bornefort dau. of Beneman 1734
Dronfield: Elizabeth Bamforth dau. of Benjamin, Dore bap. Jun 14, 1741
findmypast: BARK, Mat 1734
findmypast: FLINT, Elis 1734
Dronfield: FLINT, Elizabeth dau of William, Dore bap Sep 17 1738
The month and day of these baptisms is correct but without the year. There are omissions and inaccuracies throughout and some years are missing altogether. The last entry is for 1st March 1803.
Transferring Records to the Dronfield Register
It wasn’t all plain sailing transferring the records from Dore and Holmesfield to Dronfield. In the Dronfield register is stuck a rather tatty list of baptisms with the following note written on the back:
“This paper is Mr Henry Alison’s handwriting who was in the year 1749 parish clerk of Dronfield & his custom was to go once a year to Holmesfield & Dore to take an Acct. of Christenings and Burials in order to transcribe them into the parish Register – but which he was very apt to neglect doing as appears by this very paper – which I found about the middle of Derbyshire Lane in my return from Sheffield April 22nd 1763 and upon comparing it with the Register I found many names omitted which these therefore I have from this paper endeavoured to rectify. Laur: Bourne Vicar”
It can been seen on this page from the Dronfield register where Laurence Bourne has squeezed some of them in 15 years later.
Dore and Totley Baptisms until 1812
Dore was a chapelry of Dronfield so the baptisms that took place there were entered into the main Dronfield register. From September 1675 the place of abode was included in the baptism entry. Dore and Totley baptisms were listed with the Holmesfield area baptisms from January 1734 to September 1760. (Although, briefly in 1738 the Dore and Totley baptisms have been written on their own.) During this period the Reverend William Bell, of Holmesfield Church, or his son Thomas carried out the baptisms in Dore chapel.
The first page in the Dronfield register devoted to Dore alone is when, in October 1760, the page is headed: “Baptisms at Dore Chapel from Mr Glossop’s Register”. This register has not survived.
The Dronfield register has been transcribed by Ancestry and the images can be found online. The combined register of baptisms, marriages and burials covers the period from 1538 to 1812. This is the only reliable source for Dore and Totley baptisms, marriages and burials for this period.
Baptisms after 1812
In 1812 an Act of Parliament resulted in a standardised layout for registers and the Dore baptism register from 1813 still survives. It has been transcribed and the images put online by findmypast.
Ancestry has recently been working in Sheffield Archives. It is to be hoped they have not also fallen into the ‘1734’ trap of Old Billy Butler’s register!