Sandwich St Peter, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Sandwich is a town and civil Parish, a Cinque Port within the Dover District of Kent, see also Sandwich Kent Wikipedia for a history of the town. Sandwich St Peter is an Ancient Parish. One of three Norman churches in the town it was damaged in the French attacks of the 13th century and rebuilt by the Carmelite "White Friars" from France and extended in the 14th century the church enjoyed the prosperity of the town and port.

Elizabeth I granted 25 Flemish families permission to live in Sandwich and St Peter became the "Stranger's Church" in 1564 when the plague came to the town in an effort to halt the spread of the disease. The 1661 tower collapse was repaired by the Flemish community and the distinctive tower reflects their work.

The 1948 unification of the three churches with Sandwich St Clement, Kent becoming the parish church lead to the decline of the church and closure for worship. It became the chapel to Sir Roger Manwood's School from 1952 but the scale of restoration work to the tower in 1973 was beyond the resources of the school and the church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust who maintain the fabric of the building. and the church is used for community events and is opened to the public.

The Church of St Peter, St Peter's Street, Sandwich has been designated as a grade A listed building British listed building

See also Edward Hasted's 'The town and port of Sandwich', "The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent": Volume 10 (1800), pp. 152-216. Date accessed: 30 September 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis -

SANDWICH, a cinqueport, borough, and market town, having separate jurisdiction, in the union, and locally in the hundred, of Eastry, lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent, 39 miles (E.) from Maidstone, and 68 (E. by S.) from London. The town consists of the parishes of St. Clement, St. Mary the Virgin, and St. Peter the Apostle; also the Hospital of St. Bartholomew. The Calvinists, Independents, and Wesleyans have places of worship.

Civil Registration
Eastry Registration District and Thanet 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
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Census records
Census returns for Sandwich St Peter 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
Eastry 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
Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent

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