Bishopsbourne, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Bishopsbourne, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BISHOP'S BOURNE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bridge, hundred of Kinghamford, lathe of St. Augustine, E division of Kent, 4 miles SE by S from Canterbury.

Bishopsbourne is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent see Bishopsbourne Wikipedia

Bishopsbourne St Mary is and Ancient parish in the Diocese of Canterbury; a map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you. The parish is part of a group which includes Barham, Kent, Kingston, Kent and Womenswold, Kent

The Church of St Mary, Crowscamp Road, Bishopsbourne has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building.

See also Kent Archaeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 328-337 at British History Online Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
See Bridge 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
Bishopsbourne parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Land Tax
Images for Bishopsbourne are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1830

Census Records
Census returns for Bishopsbourne 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

 * Bridge 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