Canterbury - St. Martin

Canterbury - St. Martin is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Canterbury.  The church is named for St. Martin with Bishop's Transcripts commencing 1577.  The original parish registers begin in 1662.

St. Martin's church, without the walls, on a hill, with a fine view, about 1/2 a mile from the cathedral, was originally the oratory of Queen Bertha; became the first church or cathedral of St. Augustine, and afterwards the church of a resident suffragan bishop; is a small rough-cast edifice, rebuilt at a remote date on the site of the original church, and including portions of that church's walls, with Roman bricks and fragments of Roman mortar; was recently well restored, at the expense of the Hon. Daniel Finch, auditor of the cathedral; has modern stained glass windows, with subjects of its early history; and contains a large Norman font, traditionally alleged to have been that in which Ethelbert was baptized. Byzantine and Merovingian looped coins have been found in the churchyard.

The living is a rectory of St. Martin, Value of St. Martin, £300. Patron of St. Martin, the Archbishop and the Dean and Chapter, alternately.¹

This church was later united with the church and living of St. Paul's.²

The Church

St. Martin's church is situated at the eastern extremity of the suburb of its own name, standing on the side of the hill, a little distance from the north side of the high road leading to Deal and Sandwich, and within the city's liberty.

The church seems indeed very ancient, being built, the chancel especially, which appears to be of the workmanship of the time, mostly of Roman or British bricks; the noted reliques and tokens of old age in any kind of building.

It consists at present of a nave or body and a chancel, having a square tower at the west end of it, in which hang three bells. The chancel appears to have been the whole of the original building of this church, or oratory, and was probably built about the year 200, that is about the middle space of time when the Christians, both Britons and Romans, lived in this island, free from all persecutions. The walls of this chancel are built almost wholly of British or Roman bricks, laid and placed in a regular state, in like manner as is observed in other buildings of the Romans in this island, of which those in Dover castle are an instance.

This, as Mr. Somner observes, is an infallible token of an old British or Roman building; but he continues, when these materials are put into a wall (however plentiful they may be) here and there promiscuously, without rule or order, they seem to be only a sign of the materials having been taken from the ruins of some other building, and were used as they came to hand by the workmen of some later time; which observation may, without doubt, be applied to the body of this church.

In the midst of the nave or body, there is an ancient circular stone font, much enriched with ornamental sculpture. It consists of a cylindrical stone of near two feet six inches high, and as much in diameter; it is but a shell, so that the basin is sufficiently large to dip a child. The outside is embellished with four series of ornaments; the lower one is a simple scroll; the next a kind of hieroglyphical true-lover's knot; the third small Saxon arches, which show the architecture, intersecting each other; the upper one a kind of lacing in semicircles inverted, intersecting one another. All the ornaments are very small and much enriched.

This church, so much celebrated for the great antiquity of it, is supposed by some to have been the resort of St. Augustine and his fellow labourers for their devotions at their first arrival, and by licence of king Ethelbert, granted to them, in favor of queen Bertha his wife, who had this church, built long before, as Bede says, by the believing Romans, and dedicated to St. Martin, allotted for the place of her public devotions. Others suppose that the chapel where St. Augustine first celebrated masse, was that of St. Pancrace, within the precincts of the adjoining monastery. However this may be, it is in general admitted, that this church having been in early times a Christian oratory made use of by the believing Romans, was repaired and re-consecrated by Luidhard, bishop of Soissons, who had attended queen Bertha from France, when she married king Ethelbert, and was dedicated by him to St. Martin. Whom it was dedicated to before, is not known, but most probably it was to the Virgin Mary; for St. Martin was not born till some time afterwards.

This church, which is a rectory, is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon; it was part of the ancient possessions of the see of Canterbury, and the patronage of it continued solely in the archbishop, till the church was united in 1681 to the neighbouring church of St. Paul, by the mutual consent of the archbishop, and of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, the patrons of the latter; from which time it has continued in the alternate presentation of the archbishop and the dean and chapter, the present patrons of it.

This church is valued in the ancient taxation at ten pounds. It is valued in the king's books at 6l. 5s. 2-1/2d. and the yearly tenths at 12s. 6-1/2d. In 1588 it was valued at only twenty pounds. Communicants seventy one. In 1640 it was valued at forty pounds. Communicants seventy.

It appears by the survey of the king's commissioners, anno 2 king Edward VI. that there were lands within this parish given for obits, to be kept in this church for ever, by divers persons.

Charities

Sir Henry Palmer, of Bekesborne, by his Will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, to the minister and church wardens of this parish, towards the relief of the poor of it.

Dame Mabella Finch, baroness of Fordwich, by her Will proved in 1669, gave to Mr. Osborne, minister of this parish, in which she then dwelt, and to his successors for ever, during the time he and they should continue as such, but no longer, for his and their better maintenance, one annuity or yearly rent charge of £10 yearly issuing, and to be received out of her manor or farm called Ridgeway, in Chislet, and Reculver, containing 340 acres, and her lease of Ozengell grange, in St. Laurence, held under the dean and chapter of Canterbury; and she ordered the sum of £100 to be paid into the hands of Mr. Bingham and three such other of the ablest inhabitants of this parish, to be by them and the churchwardens and overseers of it, and their successors for ever, employed for the use and benefit of the poor of this parish; they giving security to her executors, as they or the major part of them should approve of, for the keeping and employing the said money, and for the due payment of the profits of it.

There is a terrier of this rectory, dated in 1630, in the registry of the consistory court of Canterbury.²

¹ John Marius Wilson, comp.  The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

² Edward Hasted, Canterbury: The churches within the city and suburbs, in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 11 (Canterbury, 1800), pp. 209-288 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol11/pp209-288.

Canterbury - St. Martin Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates.  [Note:  The following volumes can be found on archive.org:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1876), 11, 12, 13 (1880), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, vol. 1907 supplement.]

• General references to Canterbury - St. Martin: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward II, Vol. 1. 1307-1313'Each volume has own index. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Inquisitions and assessments relating to feudal aids : with other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, A. D. 1284-1431', Vol. 3. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Exchequer. 'The book of fees commonly called testa de nevill, pt. 3'. The Book of fees contains information about the holdings of feudal tenants. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hall, Hubert, 1857-1944. 'The Red book of the Exchequer - Liber rubeus de Scaccario, Vol. 3'. The Red book of the Exchequer was a register intended to preserve important documents comprising charters, statutes of the realm, public acts (Placita), private deeds and ordinances, correspondence. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Glencross, Reginald Morshead. 'Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Vol. 1. 1559-1571'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hasted, Edward. 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent; Containing the ancient and present state of it, civil and ecclesiastical; collected from public records, and other authorities: illustrated with maps, views, antiquities, etc. The second edition, improved, corrected, and continued to the present time'. 12 volumes. Publisher: Canterbury: Printed by W. Bristow, 1797-1801. URL: British History Online

Hussey, Arthur. 'Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, mentioned in Domesday book, and those of more recent date'. Publisher: London J.R. Smith,(1852).

Letters, Dr. Samantha. 'Kent', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (2005).  URL: British History Online.

Page, William, 1861-1934, ed.. 'The Victoria history of the county of Kent'. Publisher: London: Constable (1908).  URL: British History Online

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward I, File 39', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 2: Edward I. Published:(1906), pp. 315-323.  URL: British History Online.

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III, File 45', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 1: Henry III. Published:(1904), pp. 296-302.  URL: British History Online.

Location of Records

The following list of records is not intended to be exhaustive.  There are many records that are awaiting discovery in archive offices throughout Kent and England.  This list is intended only to set out those records that are available via at least two relatively easy-to-access avenues.  If you have used or discover a record that would be of benefit to other researchers, that is not on this list, please send me an email with the details of the archive - name, address and archival call number.

Census | Church of England | Non-Conformist | Parish chest | Workhouse and Poor Law | Land | Assizes and Sessions | School

Census

Church Records, Church of England

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Parish chest records

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Land Records

Assizes and Sessions Records
(poor laws, jail terms, oaths, and other municipal and public records)

School Records