Charlton next Woolwich, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent     Kent Parishes



Parish History
CHARLTON (St. Luke), a parish, in the union of Lewisham, hundred of Blackheath, lathe of Suttonat-Hone, W. division of Kent, 6½ miles (E.) from London. The church of St. Peter in Blackheath Park, and Morden College, are both in the parish; and the district of St. Thomas', Woolwich, endowed in 1845 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

Charlton St Luke is an Ancient parish, built originally with Sir Adam Newton who built his nearby home Charlton House, a Jacobean mansion between 1607-1612.

The church stands on the edge of a plateau and the tower of the rebuilt church is used by Thames sailors as a navigational aid. the church has the rare distinction of being able to fly the Royal Ensign.

The church is the burial place of Spencer Perceval (1762–1812), the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated, and of murdered civil servant Edward Drummond. Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet, is also buried there.

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.

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

Baptisms 1815-1839

Census records
Census returns for Charlton next Woolwich 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

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
Lewisham 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.

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