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Sandwich, St. Mary, Kent © Copyright  Nick Smith - geograph.org.uk/p/1235728 - and licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0.
Sandwich, St. Mary Parish Church

Sandwich, St. Mary Parish



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Sandwich, St. Mary

Sandwich, St. Mary is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Sandwich.  The church is named for St. Mary with registers commencing 1538.

Sandwich is a town, three parishes, and a sub-district, in Eastry district, Kent.  The town stands on the river Stour, and on the Ramsgate and Deal railway, 2 miles west of Pegwell Bay, and 4-1/2 miles northwest-by-north of Deal;  grew out of the ruins of the Roman Rhutupis or Rutupiæ at Richborough;  was known to the Saxons as Sandwic or Sondwych, signifying "sand town"  figured in the Saxon times also as Lundenwic, or out-port to London;  appears first on record as the landing place of Wilfred in 665, after he had preached among the Frisians;  was attacked, but not taken, by the Danes in 838 and 851;  was attacked by them again, and pillaged, in 852, 994, and 1,007;  stood, in these early times, on the margin of the sea, with a good and capacious haven;was the rendezvous of the fleet of Etheldred II, to oppose the Danes;  suffered renewed attacks by the Danes in 1008, 1009, and 1013;  became, about 1014, the most important of the English harbours;  was visited, in that year, by Canute;  was the landing place of Canute in 1016, on his way to the throne;  was reconstructed by Canute, and given by him to Christ Church, Canterbury;  was visited, in 1039, by Hardicanute;  had 307 houses in the time of Edward the Confessor, and was then made a cinque port;  was visited by Edward the Confessor in 1049, and again in 1052 to oppose Earl Godwin;  had 383 houses at Domesday;  was the embarking place of Thomas à Becket after his scene with the king at Northampton, and his landing place on his return in December 1170;  was the landing place of Richard I in 1194 after his imprisonment in Austria;  was burnt by the French in 1217;  was the embarking place of Edward III for France and Flanders in 1342, 1345, 1347, 1349, 1359 and 1372;  was the landing place of the Black Prince, with his prisoner the French king;  was fortified against the French, in 1384, by Richard II, was the embarking place, in 1416, of Henry V;  was plundered by the French in 1445, and burnt by them in 1457;  made such speedy recovery from its disasters as to have 95 ships with 1,500 sailors in the time of Edward IV, and as then to yield customs to the yearly amount of £17,000;  was the embarking place of Edward IV to France in 1475;  began to suffer decay from the choking of its harbour with sand about 1500;  experienced revival in 1561 and subsequent years, by immigration of Walloons, acting principally as barge workers and as gardeners;  suffered a slight stroke of earthquake in 1579;  was ravaged by plague in 1636, 1637, 1644 and 1666;  was visited by Henry VIII, by Elizabeth in 1573, by Cromwell in 1651, by Charles II in 1660.

Sandwich numbers among its natives Bishop Henry deSandwich who died in 1273, Manwood the lawyer who died in 1592, Sir J. Mennes the mariner who was born in 1598, Sir J. Burroughs the herald who died in 1643, Sir H. Furnese who was born in 1658, Sir G. Ent the physician who died in 1689, Burchett the admiralty secretary in the time of Queen Anne, Dr. Simmons who was born in 1750, and Admiral Rainier who died in 1808;  has given the title of Earl to the family of Montague since 1650;  and had its name transferred, through the Earl of Sandwich who was minister of George III, to the group of South Sea Islands discovered by Cook in 1769.

The town had an ancient castle, which was held against Edward IV by Falconbridge, and is now quite gone;  had also encompassing walls, partly of stone, partly of earth with five gates, one of which called Fishers-gate still stands;  had likewise a Carmelite friary, founded in 1272 by Lord Clinton, vested with the privilege of sanctuary and given at the dissolution to the Ardens;  retains interesting fragments of ancient domestic architecture, particularly in a house in Lucksboat Street seemingly of the time of Henry VIII, and in two houses in Strand Street, one of which is said to have been occupied by Queen Elizabeth at her visit in 1573;  exhibits now a decayed, antique, crowded, and intricate appearance, more like that of a plain old weather-worn continental town than like that of most old towns in England;  stands, with rectangular outline, on a platform about 15 feet above the level of an encompassing plain;  is a seat of petty sessions and county courts;  was made a borough by Edward III, with right of sending two members to parliament.

Sandwich is governed, under the new municipal act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors;  and has a head post-office with a money order office and a savings bank;  a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a guild hall of 1579, an assembly room at one of the inns, a town jail with capacity for 14 male and 4 female prisoners, a two-arched bridge with swing for transit of vessels, a custom house, three churches, three dissenting chapels, a grammar school, a national school, three alms-house-hospitals, a benefit building society, and charities, including those of the grammar school and the hospitals, £1,394.

St. Mary's church is partly ancient, and has a steeple of 1718.  The grammar school was founded in 1563, by Sir Roger Manwood;  has been removed from its original premises, near the site of the Canterbury gate, to the interior of the town;  has an endowed income of £38 a-year, and 4 scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge;  and had R. Knollys, author of a "History of the Turks", as a master.

St. Bartholomew's hospital was founded about 1200;  gives lodging and maintenance to 16 persons;  includes an interesting early English chapel;  and has an endowed income of £766.

St. Thomas' hospital was founded in 1392 by T. Elys;  maintains 12 persons;  includes an ancient dining hall, with early perpendicular English window;  and has an endowed income of £349.

St. John's hospital was founded before 1287, and afterwards rebuilt;  and has an endowed income of £131.

A corn market is held on every Wednesday;  a cattle market, on every alternate Monday;  and a pleasure fair, on 4 December.  Tanning, wool sorting, malting, brewing, seed crushing, iron founding, and ship building are carried on;  coal is extensively imported, for the supply of much of the east of Kent;  timber and iron also are imported;  and corn, malt, flour, seeds, wool, fruit, and hops are exported.

The harbour became inaccessible to sea-borne vessels soon after 1500;  suffered increasing injury from recession of the sea;  could be entered till after 1847 only by small vessels, in a tortuous course up the Stour;  began to undergo improvement under an act of parliament obtained in 1847, and continued to undergo increase of improvement in years up to 1868.  The corporation revenue amounts to about £2,300.

The municipal borough comprises the parishes of St. Clement, St. Peter and St. Mary, and the extra parochial tract of St. Bartholomew's hospital;  and the parliamentary borough includes also the parishes of Deal and Walmer.

Acres of St. Mary, 127;  of St. Bartholomew extra-parochial, 6.  Population in 1861, of St. Mary, 919;  of St. Bartholomew, 51.  Houses of St. Mary, 194;  and of St. Bartholomew, 16.

The living of St. Mary is a vicarage, in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value of St. Mary, £117 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron of St. Mary, the Archdeacon of Canterbury.

Real property of the three parishes combined with St. Bartholomew's found in 1860, £10,031;  of which £198 were in gas works.  Real property of the parliamentary borough, £41,246.  Amount of property and income tax charged in 1863, £2,188.  Electors in 1833, 916;  in 1868, 1,069.  Population in 1851, 12,710;  in 1861, 13,750.  Houses, 2,672.

The sub-district contains also 6 other parishes and part of another.  Acres, 24,870.  Population, 8,759.  Houses, 1,801.

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

For further information regarding Sandwich, St. Peter, see the Kent OPC web page.

For further information regarding Sandwich, St. Clement, see the Kent OPC web page.


Sandwich, St. Mary 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 Sandwich, St. Mary: 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

Date The National Archives, Ruskin Avenue,
Kew, Richmond,
Surrey,
TW9 4DU
also available at:
Sandwich, St. Mary Local Studies & Archives, Central Library, High Street, Sandwich, St. Mary, BR1 1EX, tel. 020 8461 7170, Email: localstudies.library@Sandwich, St. Mary.gov.uk
LDS Family History Centre
(Find a centre near you)
and indexed online at:
New FamilySearch.org
6 June 1841 Currently under revision  
30 Mar 1851 Currently under revision  
30 Mar 1851 census name index & images Currently under revision  
7 Apr 1861 Currently under revision  
2 Apr 1871 Currently under revision  
3 Apr 1881 Currently under revision  
5 Apr 1891 Currently under revision  
31 Mar 1901 Currently under revision  
2 Apr 1911 Currently under revision  
2 Apr 1911 RG 78/139 - Census Enumerator's Summary Books online only http://www.1911census.co.uk and other subscription sites none
 

Church Records, Church of England

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Parish Register   Currently under revision  
Bishop's transcripts   Currently under revision  
CMB transcripts   Currently under revision  
Parish Registers, transcribed by Thomas Colyer-Fergusson   Currently under revision  
 

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Particular Baptist Chapel, Nonconformist Return   Currently under revision  
Methodist Church Registers   Currently under revision  
 

Parish chest records

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Parish Council Minutes   Currently under revision  
Removal orders out of Sandwich, St. Mary   Currently under revision  
Settlement Examinations, Minute book   Currently under revision  
Overseers' Accounts   Currently under revision  
Return of Churchwardens, constables and defaulters     
Tithe Apportionment Files      
Poor Rate books   Currently under revision  
 

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Admission & Discharge books   This section currently under revision  
Guardians' Minutes      
Ledgers      
Births   Currently under revision  
Deaths   Currently under revision  
Religious creed registers   Currently under revision  
Apprentice Register      
Registers of lunatics      
Letters books      
Vaccination registers, Sandwich, St. Mary area 1899-1930 Currently under revision  
 

Land Records

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Land tax assessments 1780-1831 Currently under revision  
Land tax assessments 1875-1876 Currently under revision  
Land tax assessments 1889-1890 Currently under revision  
Rates and Duties - Houses, Windows, Lights   Currently under revision  
Manorial Court rolls   Currently under revision  
War Damage Files 1939-1962 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Kent, no.: Finding Aid at CKS-DRb/RW 123 None
 

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

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
Hearth tax   Currently under revision  
Victuallers Recognizances   Currently under revision  
Churchwarden's Presentments   Currently under revision  
Parish rate books   Currently under revision  
 

School Records

Record Type Dates Archive 1
(Addresses)
Corresponding LDS Family History Library film numbers
(Find a centre near you)
    Currently under revision  
       

Chronology

1100s - St. Clement church built

ca1190 - St. Bartholomew's Hospital founded

1194 Mar 13 - Richard the Lionhart landed at the port after his release from jail

early 1200s - St. Peter's church built

1217 - Battle of Sandwich occurred just off the coast, St. Mary's Church severely damaged

1300s - the Barbican was constructed

1300s - St. Thomas's Hospital was built

1384 - the Fisher Gate on the quay was constructed and is the only surviving town gate

1454 - Common Council formally established for the town

1457 - much of Sandwich was burned down by a French raiding party. The mayor, John Drury, was murdered during the raid.

1561 - Elizabeth I granted by Letters Patent the right to settle to many Flemish settlers, estimated to be about 2,400 Flemish and 500 Walloon exiles.

1564 - the church of St. Peter became the "Stranger's Church" when the plague arrived in the town.

1578 - earthquake damages St. Mary's Church

1579 - the Guildhall was built

1590 - St. Peter's and St. Clement's church both damaged by a violent storm

1634 - the ship Hercules transported numerous emigrants to New England

1661 - the tower of St. Peter's church collapsed destroying the south aisle

1773 - Sandwich Toll bridge was built with a Dutch type timber raised platform

1892 - the toll bridge was replaced with an iron swing bridge


Church Registers


Census


Parish Chest
Records

  • Settlement Certificates
  • Removal Orders
  • Bastardy Examinations
  • Parish-assisted Immigrants
  • Churchwarden's Accounts
  • Overseer's Accounts
  • Surveyor's Accounts
  • Workhouse Records
  • Pew Rents
  • Donors' Rolls
  • Vestry Minutes
  • Bishops' Visitations
  • Parish Magazines
  • Parish Histories

Directories


Total Population

1801   -   641
1811   -   829
1821   -   914
1831   -   952
1841   -   886
1851   -   928
1861   -   919
1871   -   956
1881   -   902
1891   -    916
1901   -   1,092
1911   -   1,132
1921   -   1,161
The parish was effected by the operation of the Divided Parishes Acts, but the Registrar-General failed to obtain particulars of every such change. The changes which escaped notification were, however, probably small in area and with little, if any, population. Considerable difficulty was experienced both in 1891 and 1901 in tracing the results of changes effected in civil parishes under the provisions of these Acts. The figures in many instances must be regarded as partly estimates.
The ecclesiastical parish of the same name at the 1921 census was coextensive with the civil parish (or place).


Sandwich, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Extra Parochial 1801   -   49
1811   -   52
1821   -   61
1831   -   52
1841   -   54
1851   -   61
1861   -   51
1871   -   49
1881   -   54
1891   -   37
1901   -   34
1911   -   36
1921   -   49
The civil parish of the same name at the 1921 census was coextensive with such parish (or place).


Sandwich, St. Mary Distance to

London 63.7 mi.
Canterbury 11.8 mi.
Ashford 22.8 mi.
Chatham 35.7 mi.
Cranbrook 37.4 mi.
Dartford 51.2 mi.
Deptford 61.4 mi.
Dover 10.6 mi.
Faversham 20.0 mi.
Folkestone 15.6 mi.
Gravesend 43.4 mi.
Greenwich 59.6 mi.
Hythe 18.3 mi.
Maidstone 35.4 mi.
Margate 7.6 mi.
Milton Regis 27.0 mi.
Queenborough 27.5 mi.
Ramsgate 4.9 mi.
Rochester 38.4 mi.
Sheerness 28.1 mi.
Tenterden 32.0 mi.
Tunbridge 48.0 mi.
Woolwich 57.4 mi.


Directories


Municipal & Public Records

  • Mayors
  • Town Clerks
  • Recorders
  • Chamberlains
  • M.P.s
  • Jurats, Aldermen and Common Councilmen
  • Electoral Register
  • Freeholders
  • Freemen Index
  • Freeman's Roll
  • Masters Index
  • Pubs, Taverns, Inns, Alehouses
  • Victuallers

Wills & Estate Records

  • AD index 1448-1857
  • CC index 1448-1857
  • PCC 1338-1858
  • PPR 1858-1925
  • Depositions

Court Records


Military Records


Land Records
& Maps

  • Parish Map
  • Feet of Fines
  • Victoria County History
  • Deeds, Mortgages, etc.
  • Rated Property Returns
  • Returns of owners of land, 1873
  • Manor Court Baron
  • Manor Tenancy Rolls
  • Manors, Castles & Holdings of Significance

Tax Lists

  • Poll Tax
  • Hearth Tax
  • Window Tax
  • Hair Powder Tax
  • Land Tax Assessments 1780-1831
  • Land Tax Assessments 1799-1805

Other Records


Village Resources