Westham, Sussex Genealogy

Parish History
WESTHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Eastbourne, lowey and rape of Pevensey, East division of Sussex, six miles North East from Eastbourne. This parish is bounded on the south by the English Channel. The village is on the road to Battle and Hastings, and here is a station of the Brighton and Hastings railway. The church is partly in the later English style, and partly of earlier date, with a square embattled tower.

St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex which included Polegate. The civil parish of Westham includes Westham; Stone Cross; and Hankham.

A history of the Church Westham St Mary

The parish church of St Mary Westham has been designated asa grade I listed building British listed building

Westham Sussex Online Parish Clerks(OPC)

See also Westham wikipedia and list of places of worship in Wealden Wikipedia

From this Parish Polegate St John, Sussex developed (1874-1876)

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.

For civil registration history see Eastbourne registration district Certificates may be obtained from East Sussex The Register Office Town Hall Grove Road Eastbourne BN21 4UG Phone 01323 464780 Fax01323 431386 email eastbourne.registrar@eastsussex.gov.uk

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the West Sussex Record Office and The Keep (which houses the collections of the East Sussex Record Office).

Poor Law Unions
Eastbourne 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