Otterden, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
OTTERDEN (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the union of Hollingbourne, partly in the hundred of Faversham, Upper division of the lathe of Scray, but chiefly in the hundred of Eyhorne, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 3½ miles N from Charing.

Otterden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone, Kent, see Otterden Wikipedia

The parish of Stalisfield with Otterden is a parish in the Diocese of Canterbury; and the parish church is St Mary's, Stalisfield. See Stalisfield, Kent St Lawrence, in the grounds of Otterden Place, is a private chapel where services are normally held only during summer.

The church of St Lawrence is now owned by a charity, the Wheeler Foundation, and is within the parkland grounds of Otterden House. See Otterden History website

The chapel functioned as an estate chapel for the Otterden estate.

The church of St Lawrence Otterden has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 533-549 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
This parish was in the Hollingbourne registration district See Maidstone 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
Otterden parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Original deposited registers are held at:

Centre for Kentish Studies, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XX

From Spring 2012 material formerly held at Centre for Kentish Studies, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XX is available at Kent History and Library Centre see Kent Archives which also enables a search of the catalogue for Kent Archives material deposited at Canterbury Cathedral Archives


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

It is advisable to search the parish registers for Stalisfield, Kent although Archdeacon's Transcripts and Bishop's Transcripts are held for baptisms, marriages and burials at the chapel which was rebuilt in 1753 after the ruin of the earlier church and served a small number of hamlets in the vicinity. See Edward Hasted ( link included in chapel history paragraph above) for further history.

Land Tax

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

The tax records reflect the small population of the estate and that whilst nominally a parish after the rebuilding of the chapel in 1753 there were very few communicants in the 1830s. The rector owned land within the estate and derived benefit from it being liable as the land owner.

Poor Law Unions

 * Hollingbourne 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 collections using the portal.

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