Hawkhurst, Kent, England Genealogy

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Guide to Hawkhurst, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

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Hawkhust The Moor St Lawrence Kent.jpg
Hawkhust The Moor St Lawrence Kent
Type Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
County Kent
Hundred East Barnfield
Poor Law Union Cranbrook
Registration District Cranbrook
Records Begin
Parish registers 1579
Bishop's Transcripts 1612
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery Canterbury
Diocese Canterbury
Province Canterbury
Probate Court Court of the Archdeaconry of Canterbury
Archive
Kent Record Office


Parish History

HAWKHURST (St. Lawrence), a parish partly in Kent and partly in Sussex. It is in the union of Cranbrooke, partly in the hundred of Henhurst, rape of Hastings, E division of Sussex, but chiefly in the hundred of East Barnfield, Lower division of the lathe of Scray, W division of Kent, 8 miles SE from Lamberhurst. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyans. [1]

Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the Tunbridge Wells borough in Kent see also Hawkhurst Wikipedia.

The Parish of Hawkhurst St Lawrence is within the Diocese of Chichester but part of the Deanery in the Weald since 2008 Deanery website. A part of the parish boundary extends into the county of Sussex and neighbours Ticehurst, Sussex and Hurst Green which is in Etchingham, Sussex A map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you.

The parish church of St Lawrence (sometimes Laurence) is to the south of the village in the The Moor, the other part of the village settlement Highgate had a chapel of ease All Saints until that was declared redundant in 2004.Kent Churches website.

Hawkhust All Saints Kent.jpg

St Lawrence was built on the site in the 12th century although the present church was mostly added from 1450 when the church was enlarged and a tower added.

From 1944 flying bomb damage until 1957 restoration the church was not used.

The church of St Laurence, Horns Road, Hawkhurst has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building.

See also the survey of St Laurence Kent Archaeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 7 (1798), pp. 142-157. at British History Online and Kent Churches website.

The Church of All Saints, Rye Road, Hawkhurst has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building.

The village also includes the Roman Catholic church of St Barnabas, a Baptist church and a Methodist chapel.

Resources

Find Neighboring Parishes

Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map

  • Type the name of the parish in the search bar
  • Click on the location pin on the map
  • Choose Options from the pop up box
  • Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Civil Registration

This parish was in the Cranbrook registration district.

See Maidstone Registration District

Kent County Council (KCC) has a certificate centre at the Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells which holds all the completed registers for Kent since 1 July 1837 and can supply a certified copy of any Kent birth, death or marriage entry from any register within its custody or a Kent civil partnership registration from the government online database.

The Mansion House (Certificate Centre)
Grove Hill Road
Tunbridge Wells
Kent TN1 1EP

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day.

Church Records

The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor.
Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England

Due to the increasing access of online records:

  • Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
  • Dates in the following table are approximate

Hover over the collection's title for more information

Hawkhurst Online Parish Records
Collections
Baptisms
Marriages
Burials
Indexes and images
Indexes only
Indexes and images
Indexes only
Indexes and images
Indexes only
FamilySearch Collections-Kent
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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Parish Registers-Kent
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog
1700s-1800s
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1700s-1800s
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1700s-1800s
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FreeREG
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
Findmypast-Kent ($)
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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Findmypast Banns-Kent ($)
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1500s-1900s
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Ancestry-Church of England BMD-Kent ($)
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($)
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1500s-1900s
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage
Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free)
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1500s-1800s
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National Burial Index-FMP (Free)
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1800s-1900s

Other Websites
These databases have incomplete parish coverage.

Nonconformist Records

"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Census Records

Census returns for Hawkhurst 1841-1891.

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FamilySearch Center Portal Computers here have access to the FamilySearch Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

Poor Law Unions

Probate Records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Local FamilySearch Centre

Maps and Gazetteers

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.

Websites

References

  1. Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 447-450. Date accessed: 15 August 2013.