Rye, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex



Parish History
Rye St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient parish and market town.

A history of the Parish church is available from Sussex Parish churches Rye St Mary

The Parish church of St Mary has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

The church, begun in the 12th century, has a famous 16th century clock with an 18-foot pendulum. Instead of striking the hour, a pair of gilded cherubs strike the quarters. Inside the church are stained glass windows from the firm of William Morris.



Rye Harbour Holy Spirit was a chapelry within this parish created in 1850 Rye Harbour

See also Rye East Sussex Wikipedia

A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 719-725. here

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

From 1837 this parish was within Rye Registration district, from 1935 this was incorporated into Battle Registration district Certiificates may be obtained from East Sussex County Council The Register Office Town Hall Grove Road Eastbourne BN21 4UG Phone: 01323 464780 Fax: 01323 431386 Email:eastbourne.registrar@eastsussex.gov.uk

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records.

Rye Sussex Parish Online Clerks(OPC)

Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
See Sussex Census

Poor Law Unions
Rye Poor Law Union, Sussex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Sussex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.