Bexley

Bexley is in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Dartford.  The church is named for St. Mary with original parish registers commencing as of 1565.

Bexley is a village, a parish and a sub-district in the district of Dartford, Kent.  The village stands on the Cray river, and on the Lee and Dartford railway, 3 miles west of Dartford;  has a rail station with telegraph, a post-office under London SE, and a fair on 13 September;  and gave the title of Baron to the Vansittarts.

The parish includes Bexley-Heath and three hamlets.  Acres, 5,025.  Real property, £25,284.  Population, 4,944.  Houses, 1,002.  The property is much subdivided.

The manor belonged, in the Saxon times, to the see of Canterbury;  was alienated, by Cranmer, to Henry VIII;  granted, by James I, to Sir John Spielman;  sold by Spielman to Camden the antiquary;  and bequeathed by Camden to University college, Oxford, for maintaining a professorship of history.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £592 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, Viscount Sydney.  The church is chiefly early English, with later windows.  The vicarage of Bexley-Heath and the perpetual curacy of Lamorbey are separate benefices.  There are a national school, an infant school, alms-houses with £100 a year, and other charities £104.

The sub-district comprises four parishes, vizt. Bexley, East Wickham, Erith and Crayford.  Acres, 12,969.  Population (as of 1871), 13,026.

Bexley-Heath is a village and a chapelry in Bexley parish.  The village stands 1-1/2 miles northwest of Bexley rail station;  is modern, pleasant, large, and rapidly increasing;  and has a post office under London SE, a market house, a police station, a church with lofty spire, three dissenting chapels, a public library and reading rooms.  The chapelry was constituted in 1866.  Population, 2,989.  The living is a vicarage.  Value, £160.  Patron, Viscount Sydney. ¹

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

Bexley 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 Bexley: 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