Lenham, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
LENHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Hollingbourne, hundred of Eyhorne, lathe of Aylesford, W. division of Kent, 10 miles (E. by S.) from Maidstone.

Lenham is a market village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, see Lenham Wikipedia

Lenham St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury which included Lenham Heath and Sandway. A Map of the Parish boundary may be found at A church near you

The church of St Mary has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

The 14th century church is the rebuilt version of the former church destroyed by fire, described in 1942 by SPB Mais as 'a spacious Decorated medieval church with fine oak door, superbly carved Jacobean oak pulpit, stone armchair, ancient communion cup, and specially attractive pews.' It is the burial place of Mary Honeywood, who dying aged 93 left 367 descendants. Her courage in visiting martyrs during the reign of Mary Tudor features in 'The Book of Martyrs' by John Foxe (1516-1587).

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 415-445 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Mentioned in the Domesday Survey, Lenham market dates back to 1088, when the village was an important crossroad settlement. Technically the fact that Lenham is allowed a market, makes it a town but the community have always desired to maintain its village status.

The Pilgrims' Way/North Downs Way passes just to the north of Lenham, higher up on the 'downs' and it features a war memorial of a 200-foot chalk cross carved into the scarp slope of the downs. First constructed in 1922, to remember those who fell in the Great War, and fully restored in 1994, the cross now commemorates the dead of both world wars. To avoid its use as a navigation aid by the Luftwaffe, the cross was filled in between 1939 and May 1945.

Civil Registration
This parish was in the Hollingbourne registration district See Maidstone 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
Lenham 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.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Land Tax
Images for Boughton Malherbe, Kent Charing, Kent Egerton, Kent and Lenham, Kent are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1831. The 1987 microfilming at Kent Archives reference: Q/RPL/71 Land tax assessments for the parishes of Otterden and Lenham, 1780- 1832 Kent Archives reference Q/RPL/284-285 were filmed in 1987; there is no apparent way point to match this filming

Images for Lenham available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 appear to be 1987 microfilming at Kent Archives reference Q/RPL/217-218 which the Family History Library describes as "Land tax assessments for upper and lower Lenham, 1780-1832" Examination of this bundle at Centre for Kentish Studies shows that Upper Lenham is the western part of the parish associated in tax returns with a part of Aylesford, Lower Lenham is less clearly defined. Edward Hasted helpfully describes the extensive parish in terms of division between the western part in "lath of Aylesford, hundred of Eyhorne" and eastern or East Lenham in "lath of Shipway in the hundred of Calehill"

The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 415-445 at British History Online

Census records
Census returns for Lenham 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition 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
Hollingbourne 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.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records

Local Family History Centre
Maidstone 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 collections using the portal.

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