Bromley St Peter and St Paul, Kent Genealogy

A guide to genealogy in the ecclesiastical parish of Bromley - St. Peter St. Paul in Kent with information on where to find birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records; census records; wills; cemeteries; maps; etc..

Bromley - St. Peter St. Paul is an ecclesiastical parish within the town of Bromley in Kent, England.

Parish History
In 1848: BROMLEY (St. Peter And St. Paul), a market town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Bromley and Beckenham, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W division of Kent, 10 miles SE from London, on the road to Tonbridge.

Bromley St. Peter & St. Paul Church Road is the site of the Ancient Parish church for the market town from which subsequent parishes were created. The church was destroyed in 1941 and the present church interior is illustrated and described below at the Kent Churches website.

This parish formed an ancient parish in the Bromley and Beckenham hundred and the Sutton-at-Hone lathe of Kent. In 1840 it became part of the expanded Metropolitan Police District. The parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and a local board was formed in 1867. The board was reconstituted as Bromley Urban District Council in 1894 and the parish became Bromley Urban District. It formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933. In 1934, as part of a county review order, the borough was expanded by taking in 1,894 acres (7.66 km2) from the disbanded Bromley Rural District; an area including parts of the parishes of Farnborough, Hayes, Keston and West Wickham. Bromley became part of the newly-created Greater London in 1965, in the new London Borough of Bromley. For the early history of Bromley see Edward Hasted's description.

Bromley Holy Trinity, Kent was formed from this parish.

After much debate concerning the need for an additional church or an expansion of the parish church it was determined that Reverend Hellicar as rector had the right to establish a chapel of ease in the parish if he chose to do so. The controversy in the town and local press had become heated and the position had to be determined by Archbishop Tait. Reverend Hellicar and the church wardens immediately secured a lease on land in Park Road and established that the town of Ryde Isle of Wight had a large iron church for sale. The building was purchased and transferred to Bromley and erected to serve from 1872. Meanwhile freehold property was acquired and funding raised to enable a foundation stone to laid in July 1879 and in May 1880 Archbishop Tait dedicated St John The Evangelist.

The expansion of building after 1861 on the previous Bickley Park residence of the Dent family. On the sale of the property residential development took place and a church was built from 1863 with services beginning in 1864 and consecration in 1865. Originally conceived as a district church it became necessary to appoint one of the curates of the Parish church to serve the needs of the Widmore district of the Ancient Parish.

The northern part of the Town was felt to need a church and in 1860 the Reverend Adams chaplain to Bromley College and his family raised contributions to establish St Mary Plaistow. The church was consecrated by Archbishop Longley in 1863 and subsequently enlarged.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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.

Registration Districts

 * 1837-1965 Bromley Registration District

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Kent ($)
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Kent ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

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

Census
The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.
 * Bromley 1801 Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection
 * FindMyPast Census

Poor Law Unions

 * Bromley Poor Law Union

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

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

Websites

 * Bromley FamilySearch Guide
 * Bromley GENUKI
 * Bromley North West Kent Family History Society
 * Bromley Parish Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * St George Kent Churches
 * St George Bickley North West Kent Family History Society
 * St John The Evangelist Bromley Kent Churches
 * St Mark Bromley Kent Churches