Hever, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
HEVER (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Seven-Oaks, hundred of Somerden, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W division of Kent, 8 miles SSW from Seven-Oaks.

Hever St Peter is an Ancient Parish on the River Eden a tributary of the Upper Medway. The village and civil parish includes Four Elms and Markbeech. Hever Kent Wikipedia See also Four Elms Wikipedia and Markbeech Wikipedia

The church is 12th century and within the diocese of Rochester; a map of the parish boundary may be found at A church near you. It contains the tomb of Sir Thomas Bullen, father of Anne Boleyn and grandfather of Queen Elizabeth the First. More recently it was the place of burial of television presenter Caron Keating. Caron Keating Wikipedia Caron Keating Find a Grave

The church of St Peter, Hever Road, Hever has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

See also Kent Archeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (1797), pp. 190-202 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

The united benefice of Hever Four Elms and Markbeech supports the three churches in the Ancient Parish.

The concrete church of St Paul Four Elms was built during the 1880s and the 1851 building of Holy Trinity Markbeech formed the benefice. A map of the parish boundary may be found at A church near you benefice website See Kent Churches website

The church of St Paul, Four Elms in the Hever civil parish has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

Mark Beech Holy Trinity see Mark Beech, Kent

Four Elms St Paul

The Congregational Church, Styles Close, Hever has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

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
Hever 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.

Census records
census returns for Hever 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