Northbourne, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Northbourne, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
NORTHBOURNE (St. Augustine), a parish, in the union of Eastry, partly in the hundred of Eastry, but chiefly in the hundred of Cornilo, lathe of St. Augustine, E division of Kent, 2¾ miles W from Deal.

Northbourne is a village and civil parish in the Dover district of Kent, see Northbourne Wikipedia

Although Northbourne St Augustine is an Ancient Parish church dating from 1120 the history of the church site is much older, one of the earliest sites of Christian worship in England. St. Augustine landed at Ebbsfleet, some 5 miles away, in AD 597. In 618 Eadbald, newly crowned King of Kent, gave land at Northbourne (thirty ploughs worth) to St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.

Records show that a church was built at this time, this was superseded by a further and larger Anglo Saxon church built on the same site. Almost certainly some of the fragments of masonry of these earlier churches, including "Barley Twist" mouldings can be seen built into the wall of the present church, built about AD 1120.

The church is designated Grade I listed building by English Heritage. British listed building

The modern parish is Northbourne with Betteshanger with Ham and includes the redundant Betteshanger church which is now a chapel to Northbourne Park School, a private preparatory school. A map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you Finglesham is part of the parish along with Northbourne and Betteshanger Circle, the former mining community.

The church of St Mary which was built in 1853-1854 has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

Northbourne was until the closure of the mines of the Kent coalfield a mining community parish.

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 583-604. Date accessed: 9 September 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
Eastry Registration District and Thanet Registration District

Kent County Council (KCC) has a certificate centre at the Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells which holds all the completed registers for Kent since 1 July 1837 and can supply a certified copy of any Kent birth, death or marriage entry from any register within its custody or a Kent civil partnership registration from the government online database.

The Mansion House (Certificate Centre) Grove Hill Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1EP

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
Northbourne parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Land Tax

 * Images for Northbourne available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Poor Law Unions

 * Eastry Poor Law Union, Kent

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.


 * See England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records

Local Family History Centre

 * Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent
 * Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent
 * 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

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