Downe, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Downe is a village in the London Borough of Bromley Downe Wikipedia and includes Down House the former home of Charles Darwin Down House Wikipedia which has been proposed as World Heritage Site. The house has been restored and is open to the public.

Downe Bank Wikipedia lies between Downe and Farnborough.

Downe St Mary the Virgin was formed as a chapelry in Orpington, Kent Ancient Parish and dates from the 13th century. A map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you

See Kent Archeological Society and Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1797), pp. 54-59 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

The village and civil parish is 3.5 miles southwest of Orpington and was home to Charles Darwin. Down House was home to Darwin for 40 years until his death in 1882.

The neighbouring estate of the Avebury family was partly in Farnborough, Kent and both John Lubbock 1st Baron Avebury and Sir John Lubbock 3rd Baron Avebury resided within this parish.

See Downe North West Kent Family History Society and Downe St Mary the Virgin

Downe Baptist Church, Luxted Road, Downe was founded in 1851 as Grace Baptist Church, see church website Downe Baptist Church and now occupies modern buildings in Luxted Road.

The 1813 Dissenter Meeting register refers to a Baptist church in Downe "in the property of Thos. Town Blacksmith"; the Dissenter Meeting register 1833 refers to " a certain Building situated in a lane leading to Gorringe's farm being the dwelling house of Mr. William Sales and the property of Mr. Timothy Sales". Both record entries described a building set apart for worship by dissenters and registered with the Archbishop of Canterbury within the deanery of Shoreham.

The Downe Baptist Chapel came about when in 1836 James Carter moved to Downe and later in 1844 founded a group. He was later baptised in 1850 by Mr Shirley of Sevenoaks and in 1861 shortly before his death he reformed the independent group as a Strict Baptist Church on 25 May 1861. In his 1952 "The Strict Baptist Chapels of England,Volume III" Ralph F. Chambers describes a 79 year lack of a local pastor but describes supply visitors. In 1942 the chapel ( Chambers has an illustration) a private property belonging to Miss Smith of Downe Court was purchased and put in trust. In 1945 a roof fire damaged the building but this was repaired and Mr. R.E.P. Crisp was pastor from 1940-1946 when he resigned. In 1949 he was succeeeded by C.B. Phillimore who became minister. [The Strict Baptist Chapels of England; Kent Vol III 1956 p89 published by the author Ralph F. Chambers and in the London Borough of Bromley Collection]

Civil Registration
See Bromley 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
Deposited Parish registers are held at Bromley Archives reference P 123

Bromley Central Library Telephone: 020 8461 7170 Fax: 020 8466 7860 e-mail: localstudies.library@bromley.gov.uk

International Genealogical Index Batch C165281 post 1812 This extraction batch is from microfilm of the Bishop's Transcripts for the parish for years 1813 - 1835,1849 - 1858 and1875 for baptismal entries only derived from Genealogical Society of Utah filming of the Bishop's Transcript series for the diocese at Kent Archives in 1987. The Microfilm includes Baptisms, burials and marriages, 1813-1835; baptisms and burials, 1849-1858, 1875, 1893, 1898-99, 1903 and spelling variation of the parish name is found in the Family History Library Catalogue for the 1987 microfilming. This variation is present in transcription also. It is advisable to check primary record sources for the parish as some entries as extracted in the International Genealogical Index contain some transcription errors.

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC) Research is underway during 2012 to begin to prepare transcript material for a variety of record sources in relation to Downe by volunteers working in the Bromley Archives.

Family History Library film numbers See also England, Kent, Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

From Spring 2012 material formerly held at Centre for Kentish Studies,County Hall,Maidstone,Kent ME14 1XX is available at Kent History and Library Centre see Kent Archives which also enables a search of the catalogue for Kent Archives material deposited at Canterbury Cathedral Archives

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Records for Downe Baptist Church have not been deposited with Bromley Archives, it is advisable to contact the Downe Baptist Church elders for assistance in access to the Downe Baptist Church Minutes.

Land Tax
Images for Downe are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) 1780-1831 and are derived from microfilm.

The Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace records are at Kent Archives and Library at Maidstone and have been preserved and conserved. The originals are in some years folded and the content can be obscured by this and the general fragility of the record. In order to aid conservation in 1987 The Genealogical Society of Utah in collaboration with the Kent Archives undertook microfilming of the county. The Downe Land Tax 1780-1831 under reference Q/RPL/109 was microfilmed and is available as an item on LDS microfilm FHL BRITISH Film 1469943 Item 4 The film has duplicate images and has some years filmed out of chronological sequence.

In 2009/2010 a transcript of the Land Tax Assessments for Downe was prepared at the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone by volunteers. In case of difficulty with some pages the original manuscript was consulted with permission of the Archive. The microfilm contains several sets of duplicate images to try to capture problematic originals where ink from the second page has bled into a column of names on the first page or page folds or fading has obscured entries.

The digital images are direct microfilm conversion although the digital processing may have enhanced some images (compared to a microfilm reader lamp illumination) and in several cases entries are obscured. For this reason the transcribers have offered their best interpretation of entries and indicated problems by use of square bracket indicators [page fold] or explained ink bleeding through paper. The parish is for most years spelled Down but in other years Downe. As one examines the entries from 1780 it is immediately apparent that spellings of place and surnames by the same person were not fixed even in the later years of the Land Tax records. The local assessors are also variable in the treatment of names and titles of nobility who owned land. Unfortunately for the family historian the inconsistency of entries does not lend itself to computerisation of an index and the local assessors leave blank the column on the printed form which describes the land use! Prior to the introduction of a printed form in 1798 Assessors did not include titles consistently with the exception of the Right Honourable William Pitt ( who lived in Downe) From 1798 the inclusions of various abbreviations indicate that Sir William Geary ( a member of Parliament) owned land and from 1807 2 baronets John William Lubbock 1st baronet Avebury and Sir Thomas Dyke begin to build their estates in Downe.

The transcript was prepared for inclusion in transcript material on the Downe page of Kent Online Parish Clerks.

Research Tip

The entry annually is often a reliable indicator of a death over the 50 years of records of property. "The late" or "Heirs of [abbreviated Hrs by one Assessor] or "Widow Durling" indicates a will search and burial entry may be fruitful and identify to one calendar year the year of death. Probate for land ownership may be a protracted affair in the "proprietor" column entry. Most titled persons pedigrees referred to may be readily traced either online or in the various sources for peerages like Burkes.

Census records
Census returns for Downe 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
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.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Local Family History Centre
Orpington 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

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the London Borough of Bromley, located adjacent to Orpington Station and on major bus routes through the borough.


 * 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 collections using the portal.

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