Chartham

Chartham, a village, a parish and a sub-district, in Bridge district, Kent.  The village stands on the river Stour and the South-eastern railway, 3-1/2 miles southwest of Canterbury;  and has a rail station, and a post office under Canterbury.  It was known at Domesday as Certeham;  it occupies a low site, round a green;  and it contains a house built by Dr. Delangle, a French refugee who became rector here, and marked by a bust of Charles II.

The parish includes also Horton, consisting of 399 acres, and the hamlets of Chartham Hatch and Shalmsford Street.  Acres, 4,530.  Real property in 1860, £6,672.  Population in 1861, 1094.  Houses as of 1861, 242. ¹

The property is much subdivided.  The manor was given, in 871, to Christ Church, Canterbury;  belongs now to the Chapter there;  and is still called the Deanery.

Chartham downs, above the village, have remains of a number of tumuli, called Danes' Banks;  and are marked by lines of ancient entrenchments.  One of the earlist discoveries of great fossil bones, giving rise to the modern science of palaeontology, was made, in 1668, at Chartham, in the sinking of a well.  A large paper mill is at the back of the village.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury, the church having been part of the ancient possessions of the see of Canterbury, and continuing so at this time.  Value £800 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. ¹  In 1640 the rectory was valued at one hundred and twenty pounds with three hundred communicants. ²

In a terrier of 1615, it appears there was then here a parsonage-house, barn, gardens, and meadow, in all about two acres; certain closes containing thirty-eight acres, and a little piece of wood-land adjoining to it; some of which glebe-land has since that time been lost, the rector now enjoying nor more than thirty acres of it. ²

Part of the parsonage-house seems very ancient, being built of flint, with ashlar-stone windows and door cases, of ancient gothic form. It was formerly much larger, part of it having been pulled down, by a faculty, a few years ago. ²

The church is cruciform with a chancel and is a large, handsome building, variously early and decorated English.  It has a tower steeple at the west end, in which are five bells and a clock.  The church has rare and very beautiful tracery in the windows, and an embattled tower at the west end;  and contains brasses, monumental slabs, a monument of Dr. Delangle, and an elaborate monument, by Rysbrach of Sir William Young.

Chartham Hatch, a hamlet in Chartham parish, Kent;  1 mile north of Chartham village.

Shalmsford Streetis a hamlet in this parish, built on each side of the Ashford road, near the river Stour, and the bridge which takes its name from it, at the western boundary of this parish. It was anciently called Essamelesford, and in the time of the Saxons was the estate of one Alret, who seems to have lost the possession of it after the battle of Hastings; for the Conqueror gave it, among many other possessions, to Odo, bishop of Baieux, his half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the record of Domesday:

In Ferleberg hundred, Herfrid holds of the see of the bishop, Essamelesford. It was taxed at half a suling. The arable land is one carucate. In demesne there is one carucate, and three villeins, with one borderer having one carucate. There are three servants, and eight acres of meadow. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was valued at sixty shillings, and afterwards forty shillings, now sixty shillings. Alret held it of king Edward. ²

Rattington That part of this village on the opposite side of the river Stour, is called Rattington, being in the borough of that name. ²

The sub-district contains nine parishes, part of another, and an extra-parochial tract.  Acres, 18,523.  Population in 1861, 5,020. Houses as of 1861, 1,051. ¹

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

² Edward Hasted, ed. and comp.  Parishes: Chartham, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 7 (1798), pp. 297-319

³ Pigot's Directory, 1839

Chartham 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 Chartham: 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 antient 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