Benenden, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Benenden St George is an Ancient Parish which includes the settlements of Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street within the parish boundary.

The village and civil parish of Benenden are in the Tunbridge Wells district of Kent County Council.

The Domesday Survey refers to a church

The church was mediaeval and was damaged by fire in the 17th century. The restored church of 1862 is the work of David Brandon.

Benenden School is an independent boarding school whose Alumni in the Princess Royal, Rachel Wissz actress and other notable journalists and civil servants.

In 1907 a chest hospital funded by trade unions and friendly societies was established here specialising in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Civil Registration
This parish was within the Cranbrook 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
Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Original deposited registers are held at:

Centre for Kentish Studies,County Hall,Maidstone,Kent ME14 1XX

01622 694363

Fax: 01622 694379

archives@kent.gov.uk

Family History Library film numbers

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

Census records
Census returns for Benenden 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
Cranbrook 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

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