Brightling, Sussex Genealogy

Guide to Brightling, Sussex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BRIGHTLING (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union of Battle, partly in the hundred of Henhurst, but chiefly in that of Netherfield, rape of Hastings, E. division of Sussex, 4 miles (N. W.) from Battle.

Brightling St Thomas a Becket is an Ancient Parish in East Sussex.

Church history Brightling St Thomas a Becket

The Parish Church of St Thomas a Becket has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

See Brightling Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

The graveyard contains the 25 feet high pyramid tomb of local landowner John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, (1757–1834) MP for Sussex whose eccentric folly building even caused the local pub to be removed to allow for his pyramid. See also Brightling Wikipedia



The mausoleum pyramid has been designated a Grade II* listed mausoleum British listed monument

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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.

This parish was part of Battle Registration District from 1837.

Certificates may be obtained from

East Sussex County Council

The Register Office Town Hall Grove Road Eastbourne BN21 4UG

Phone: 01323 464780

Fax: 01323 431386

Email:eastbourne.registrar@eastsussex.gov.uk

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers -Sussex ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Poor Law Unions
Battle 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