History of Shaftesbury in North Dorset

Place:

Shaftesbury Dorset

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Shaftesbury. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name	Author	Source
CAER PALLADWR	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SCAEFTESBYRIG	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SCEAFTESBURYG	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SCEPTESBERIE	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SEPTONIA	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SHAFTESBURY	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
SHAFTESBURY	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SHAFTESBURY OR SHASTON	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
SHAFTSBURY	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SHAFTSBURY	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
SHASTON	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
SHASTON	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SHASTON EAST AND WEST	John Marius Wilson	Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Shaftesbury. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
DORSET NORTHERN	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
DORSETSHIRE NORTHERN	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
HOLY TRINITY	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
JAMES ST	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
NORTHERN DORSETSHIRE	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
PETER ST	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
SHAFTESBURY	Ancient District (Borough)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 593.
	Constituency (PDivCon)	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Local Government District (MB)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 593.
	Local Government District (RD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 596.
	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 117.
	Poor Law Union/Reg. District (PLU/RegD/Inc)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 594.
	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 775.
	Sanitary District (RSD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 595.
	Sanitary District (USD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 595.
SHAFTESBURY ALL SAINTS	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 117.
SHAFTESBURY AND TISBURY	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 785.
SHAFTESBURY HOLY TRINITY	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 117.
SHAFTESBURY HOLY TRINITY WITH ST PETER AND ST RUMBOLD	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY OR SHASTON	Ancient District (Borough)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
SHAFTESBURY ST ANDREW	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST EDWARD	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST JAMES	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST JAMES	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST JOHN	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST LAWRENCE	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST MARTIN	Parish-level Unit (AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST PETER	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTESBURY ST PETER	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 118.
SHAFTSBURY	Ancient District (Borough)	1801 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
SHASTON	Ancient District (Borough)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
ST JAMES	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
ST PETER	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Shaftesbury, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.

Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Shaftesbury, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Shaftesbury in North Dorset | Place names, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/286/names

Date accessed: 19th May 2013

Click here to link Shaftesbury into your family history

To buy historical maps of Shaftesbury, click here!