Leigh, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
LEIGH (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of SevenOaks, partly in the hundred of Somerden, but chiefly in that of Codsheath, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 3¾ miles (W.) from Tonbridge. This parish, from various ancient records, appears to have been formerly of considerable importance, and to have included a portion of that of Penshurst.

Leigh, historically spelled Lyghe, is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent.

Leigh (pronounced Lye) St Mary is an Ancient Parish which includes Hollanden in the Diocese of Rochester; a map pf the parish boundary is available at A church near you.

The church was originally built in the 13th century, a fire in reign of Henry VII destroyed part of it and restoration has taken place in subsequent centuries.

In 1860-61 the church underwent considerable reconstruction. At the time, the chancel was the responsibility of the Lay Rector, who in this case was Lord de Lisle, while the parish was responsible for the rest of the building. The two parties employed different architects; Lord de Lisle using George Devey, and the parish Charles Bailey, a cousin of Thomas Farmer Bailey, the owner of Hall Place. The two architects used different types of stone, as is obvious when viewing the outside of the building.

Further rebuilding between 1889 and 1892 was undertaken.

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (1797), pp. 258-275 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

The church of St Mary Leigh has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

Penshurst Airfield later RAF Penshurst is within the parish and was used in both World Wars and closed in 1946, it included a period as an alternate civil aviation landing landing for Croydon Airport in bad weather. In the Second World War it served as an emergency landing ground.RAF Penshurst Wikipedia

Civil Registration
See Sevenoaks Registration District 1837-1941 Tonbridge 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
Leigh 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 Bidborough, Leigh and Tonbridge are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Census records
Census Returns for Leigh 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
Penshurst Poor Law Union,Kent until 1836

Sevenoaks 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

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