Sandwich St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Sandwich is a town and civil Parish, a Cinque Port within the Dover District of Kent, see also Sandwich Kent Wikipedia for a history of the town.

Sandwich St Bartholomew's Hospital was an extra parochial place within the town.

St. Barts Hospital, as it is known locally, is one of the oldest established hostels for travellers and pilgrims, dating back possibly, to 1190.

The chapel for the "accommodation of pilgrims and travellers where they might be furnished with lodgings, provisions and other necessaries for their journey" on the site which it still occupies in Dover Road on the outskirts of the town, but it fairly soon became a Hospital providing a permanent home to sixteen brothers or sisters.

To begin with, the brethren lived in common, though they had separate rooms; now of course they have individual houses.

The Hospital chapel, built in 1217 as part of the original foundation, is still used for its original purpose by today's hospitalians.

The buildings on the site form part of a cluster of listed buildings. The St Bartholomews Chapel, St Bart's Road Sandwich has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

See also 'Hospitals: Hospitals in Sandwich and Sevenoaks', A History of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1926), pp. 226-227 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38241&amp;strquery=Sandwich+ at British History Online.

In addition Edward Hasted in his The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 10 (1800), pp. 152-216 at British History Online refers to the 3 hospital foundations within the town's history.

See Kent Churches website for a 1917 image of the chapel.

Civil Registration
Eastry 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
Family History Library film numbers will bring records for the town of Sandwich generally.

St Bartholomew's Chapel is an extra parochial place and it is necessary to refer to other parishes in the town for ecclesiastical parish records such as parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Census records
Census returns for Sandwich St Bartholomew 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. to locate local Family History Centres in UK 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

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Eastry 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
Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent

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

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.