Chevening

Chevening is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Shoreham.  The church is named for St. Botolph with registers commencing 1561.

Chevening, a parish in Sevenoaks district, Kent;  on the river Durent, 3-1/2 miles northwest of Sevenoaks rail station.  Post town, Sevenoaks.  Acres, 3,773.  Real property in 1860, £6,416.  Population in 1861, 932.  Houses, 215.  The property is divided among a few.

There are two manors.  The one belonged to the see of Canterbury till the Reformation;  and then passed to the Crown.  The other belonged early to the family of DeChevening;  passed to the Lennards, afterwards Lords Dacre;  was purchased, in 1717, by General Stanhope, created Earl Stanhope;  and is now held by his descendant.  The mansion here was built in 1630, by Lord Dacre, after designs by Inigo Jones;  but has been greatly altered, both externally and internally;  and it contains some interesting portraits.  The grounds are crossed by the ancient British way, called the Pilgrim's road;  include a fine lake and maze, and a mass of Roman monumental stones and altars, brought from abroad by the first Lord Stanhope;  and command, from their highest point, a brilliant view.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £766 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The church has some early English masonry, but is chiefly perpendicular;  and it contains altar tombs of the Dacres, and monuments of the Stanhopes.

There are three dissenting chapels, a national school, and charities £59. ¹

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

Chevening 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 Chevening: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

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