Bromley St Peter and St Paul, Kent Genealogy

England Enland Kent    Kent Parishes



Parish History
Bromley St Peter and St Paul Church Road is the site of the Ancient Parish church for the market Town from which subsequent parishes were created. The church was destroyed in 1941 and the present church interior is illustrated and described below at the Kent Churches website.

This parish formed an ancient parish in the Bromley and Beckenham hundred and the Sutton-at-Hone lathe of Kent. In 1840 it became part of the expanded Metropolitan Police District. The parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and a local board was formed in 1867. The board was reconstituted as Bromley Urban District Council in 1894 and the parish became Bromley Urban District. It formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933. In 1934, as part of a county review order, the borough was expanded by taking in 1,894 acres (7.66 km2) from the disbanded Bromley Rural District; an area including parts of the parishes of Farnborough, Kent, Hayes, Kent, Keston, Kent and West Wickham, Kent. Bromley became part of the newly-created Greater London in 1965, in the new London Borough of Bromley. For the early history of Bromley see Edward Hasted,s description. See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 1 (1797), pp. 550-570. Date accessed: 8 July 2013.at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Bromley Holy Trinity, Kent was formed from this parish.

See Bromley North West Kent Family History Society for other parishes formed from this parish and Bromley St Peter and St Paul

Bromley Christ Church Highland Road

After much debate concerning the need for an additional church or an expansion of the parish church it was determined that Reverend Hellicar as rector had the right to establish a chapel of ease in the parish if he chose to do so. The controversy in the town and local press had become heated and the position had to be determined by Archbishop Tait. Reverend Hellicar and the church wardens immediately secured a lease on land in Park Road and established that the town of Ryde Isle of Wight had a large iron church for sale. The building was purchased and transferred to Bromley and erected to serve from1872. Meanwhile freehold property was acquired and funding raised to enable a foundation stone to laid in July 1879 and in May 1880 Archbishop Tait dedicated St John The Evangelist. See Bromley St John the Evangelist Park Road Kent Churches website

Bromley St Mark Westmoreland Road Kent Churches website

The expansion of building after 1861 on the previous Bickley Park residence of the Dent family. On the sale of the property residential development took place and a church was built from 1863 with services beginning in 1864 and consecration in 1865. Originally conceived as a district church it became necessary to appoint one of the curates of the Parish church to serve the needs of the Widmore district of the Ancient Parish. See

Bickley St George Bickley Park Road Kent Churches website

The northern part of the Town was felt to need a church and in 1860 the Reverend Adams chaplain to Bromley College and his family raised contributions to establish St Mary Plaistow. The church was consecrated by Archbishop Longley in 1863 and subsequently enlarged

Plaistow St Mary College Road Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
See Bromley Registration district

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.

Church records
Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC) are in process of transcribing the complete parish regiser series in partnership with Bromley Archives and the local Archdeacon on behalf of the Diocese. The completed transcripts will appear online during 2014.

Deposited Parish registers are held at Bromley Archives reference P 47

Bromley Central Library Telephone: 020 8461 7170 Fax: 020 8466 7860 e-mail: localstudies.library@bromley.gov.uk

The earliest registers are in two volumes of Composite Registers from 1558. The entries for baptisms during the Commonwealth are maintained although reduced in volume at a time when the population was increasing. An entry on the fly leaf refers to the revolutionary period of the Commonwealth when Bishop Warner was turned out of his see (of Rochester). The manorial rights were sold 1 March 1647 to Augustine Skinner although there is documentary evidence that Government force was required to overcome opposition to his occupancy of the episcopal palce. He was however installed as Lord of the Manor and his entry in the fly leaf appoints Henry Arnold Clerke"being elected at a Vestry to be Parish Minister...he took oath before me on 11 October 1653". Skynner held possession until the Restoration when bishops were reinstated to their see,palaces and endowments. In 1663 Richard Marsh replaces Henry Arnold as rector for the parish. The registers reflect also burials of plague victims. In 1630 the Bishop was turned out of his palace by plague in the town the burial register recording 62 burials where typically in that decade an annual average is 30. The year of the Great Plague 1665 plague victims are recorded throughout summer, autumn and winter. Bromley had from the 1630's a Pest House and was directly opposite the gates of Bromley College within Plague Field on the side of the London Road.It remained in existence until the 1790's.

International Genealogical Index Marriages 1735-1881 Batches (M147542, M147543)

Also Bethel Independent Christentings 1788-1832 Batch (C068041)

Family History Library film numbers See also England, Kent, Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Land Tax
Images for Bromley are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) 1780-1831

Census records
Census returns for Bromley 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. to locate local Family History Centres in UK to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
See England, Kent, Workhouse Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Bromley Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent 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

BROMLEY (St. Peter And St. Paul), a markettown and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Bromley and Beckenham, lathe of Suttonat-Hone, W. division of Kent, 10 miles (S. E.) from London, on the road to Tonbridge. Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 395-400.

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the London Borough of Bromley, located adjacent to Orpington Station and on major bus routes through the borough.


 * FHC Portal This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records) and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these collections using the portal.