St. Mary Cray

St. Mary's Cray, is a village and a parish in Bromley district, Kent.  The village stands on the rivulet Cray, and on the Mid Kent railway, 4-1/2 miles east-by-south of Bromley;  was once a market town and includes a number of modern houses.

The parish comprises 2,010 acres.  Real property in 1860, £6,923.  Population in 1861, 1,464.  Houses, 277.  The property is much subdivided.  There is a large paper mill.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £300 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop.  The church is later English and contains several ancient brasses and some memorials of the Mannings.

There are Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a literary institute, a police station, an endowed school with £70, and charities of £12. ¹

A charity school was established here in 1710 for the education of six children; and Sir Thomas Dyke, in 1816, erected another, with a residence for the master and mistress, extending its benefits to the children of Orpington.  It is supported by a rent-charge upon estates at Hunton, bequeathed in 1715 by Catherine Withens, which, with a weekly contribution of two pence paid by each pupil sent from Orpington, produces an annual income of £80 to the master and mistress who also receive an allowance of £5 year, coal, et cetera.  About one hundred children are instructed upon the National system.

The "Crays" so called from the river Cray, which runs through it, is reckoned one of the most beautiful tracts in Kent, and produces a vast quantity of birch; it comprehends four parishes, with as many villages, distinguished by their prefixes, of which St. Mary's Cray was the most considerable, and had the privilege of a market so early as the reign of Edward I. but the market-house having been destroyed by a tempest in 1703, the market has never since been held. ²

Hackendean is 1-1/2 miles north-east of St. Mary's Cray. ³

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

²  Samuel Lewis, comp.  A topographical dictionary of England..., in four volumes, Vol. 1. (London, England: S. Lewis and Co., 87, Aldersgate-Street, 1831).

³  Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex, 1855, in two parts, Part 1: Counties & Localities, pp. 304, 343. (London, England: Kelly and Co., 19, 20, 21 Old Boswell Court, Temple Bar, 1855).

St. Mary's Cray 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 St. Mary's Cray: 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