Tonbridge St Peter and St Paul, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
TONBRIDGE, or TUNBRIDGE (St. Peter and St. Paul), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the lowey of Tonbridge, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 14 miles WSW from Maidstone, and 30 SE from London.

Tonbridge is a town on the River Medway in the Tonbridge and Malling district of the county of Kent. Tonbridge Wikipedia

Tonbridge St Peter and St Paul is the Anglican mother parish church of the Ancient and extensive parish of Tonbridge which included subsequent development of Southborough, Hildenborough and the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent and therefore a a large number of Anglican parishes were formed from within the parish boundary. Shipbourne, Kent was formed as a chapelry of the parish.

A map of the modern parish boundary which enables location of surrounding Anglican churches is available at A church near you

The church of St Peter and St Paul Church Street Tonbridge has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building.

See kent Archeological Society and Edward Hasted 'The lowy of Tunbridge: Tunbridge', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 196-255. Date accessed: 21 November 2013. at British History Online Hasted also describes surrounding parishes in these pages.


 * See also Tonbridge, Kent
 * Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
 * Southborough St Peter, Kent
 * Hildenborough, Kent

Civil Registration
See Tonbridge 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
Tonbridge St Peter and St Paul parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

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

Land Tax
Images for:
 * Borough of Tonbridge 1780-1831 These microfilmed images are marked as in poor condition, with creasing and refer to the town of Tonbridge. There are repeated exposures of the same page in order that the microfilm density could be adjusted to offer the best image available. Handling the originals they are indeed in poor condition and were filmed as part of conservation of the record.
 * Borough of Tonbridge and Hadlow 1780-1832 relate to the Hadlow area of the parish are available at FamilySearch Records in separate series, see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Images for Bidborough, Leigh and Tonbridge are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832.

Census records
Census returns for Tonbridge 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.
 * Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK
 * Introduction to Family History Centers 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.

Poor Law Unions

 * Tonbridge 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

 * 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