Denton (near Gravesend), Kent Genealogy

Guide to Denton (near Gravesend), Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
DENTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of North Aylesford, hundred of Shamwell, lathe of Aylesford, W division of the county of Kent.

Denton is part of the Town of Gravesend in the Gravesham district of Kent.

Denton St Mary is a former Ancient Parish in Denton near Gravesend. The ruined church site was rebuilt in 1903, conserving some medieval remains to form the Roman Catholic church of St Mary since 1940 and is in Gravesend civil parish.

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary Denton, Rochester Road, Gravesend has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

The ancient small church was part of the mediaeval manor which was later part of the see of Rochester lands.

Edward Hasted in his 1797 The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 Pages 471-477 describes the church as follows:

"The church, which was dedicated to St. Mary, was but a small building of one aisle, with a chancel and bell tower. It stood on a bank, close to the road side; the whole has been some time in ruins, though it was not so in the Kilburns time, in the middle of the last century; soon after which, service being discontinued in it, the materials were taken down and sold, or otherwise disposed of. The outside walls, for the most part, yet remain, having the buildings of the adjoining farm yard built up against the north side of it. On the south east human bones have at times been dug up where the cemetery was, now part of the farm-yard."

The parish was small and to the east of the Cliffe Gravesend road and was sparsely populated marsh and agricultural land (Hasted mentions only two houses). The Ancient Parish is recorded as existing in 1851

See also Kent Archeological Society and Kent Churches website

This ancient parish should not be confused with Denton (near Dover), Kent in the same county.

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (1797), pp. 471-477. at British History Online

Civil Registration

 * North Aylesford Registration District
 * Strood Registration District
 * Strood and Hoo 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
Denton (near Gravesend) parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

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

Census Records
Denton census returns are included in the census returns for Gravesend. Census returns for Gravesend 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

 * North Aylesford Poor Law Union, Kent (renamed Strood)

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

 * Gillingham Family History Centre, Kent
 * Canterbury 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