Westmeston, Sussex Genealogy

Parish History
WESTMESTON (St. Martin), a parish, in the union of Chailey, hundred of Street, rape of Lewes, East division of Sussex, five and three-forths miles North by West from Lewes. It contains the chapelry of East Chiltington. The church is principally in the early English style, with a plain Norman arch between the nave and chancel; it contains a rudely-constructed circular stone font, and at the east end of the south aisle is an ancient chapel, the burial-place of the Marten family. At East Chiltington is a chapel of ease. Westmeston is a hamlet and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex Westmeston Wikipedia

Westmeston St Martin is an Ancient Parish which included Novington, the history of the church is available at Sussex Parish Churches Westmeston St Martin

The Parish Church of St Martin has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

Westmeston Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) and St Martin

list of places of worship in Lewes district

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.

From 1837 this parish was in Lewes Registration District Certificates may be obtained from East Sussex The Register Office Town Hall Grove Road Eastbourne BN21 4UG Phone: 01323 464780 Fax: 01323 431386 Email:eastbourne.registrar@eastsussex.gov.uk

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the West Sussex Record Office and The Keep (which houses the collections of the East Sussex Record Office).

Census records
The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Poor Law Unions
Chailey Poor Law Union, Sussex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Sussex 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