Harbledown, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
HARBLEDOWN (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Bridge, hundred of Westgate, lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent, 1 mile (W. S. W.) from Canterbury.

Harbledown is a village which is now contiguous with the city of Canterbury but anciently was a village close to the city. The civil parish of Harbledown and Rough Common is in the City of Canterbury district of Kent. See Harbledown Wikipedia which describes the parish church of St Michael and All Angels and the Ancient hospital of St Nicholas (now in use as alms houses).

Harbledown St Michael and All Angels is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury. The west is the extensive extra parochial area of Dunkirk, Kent and the neighbouring parish registers such as Harbledown are significant for those living in the extra parochial area.

The Church of St Michael and All Angels, Church Hill Harbledown has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building See Kent Churches website.

The Old Leper Church of St Nicholas Harbledown has been designated as a grade I listed building British Listed Building and is part of the 1840 rebuilding of the Hospital buildings as alms houses. Founded in 1080 by Archbishop Lanframe the hospital served two purposes, as a hospital church for lepers and as a final stopping place for pilgrims travelling to the City of Canterbury. See Kent Churches website.

See also Kent Archaeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 7-21. at British History Online.

Civil Registration
See Bridge 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
Harbledown 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 Harbledown Parish ( Borough of Harbledown) are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832.

See also images for Land tax assessments for the borough of Tunford, including the parishes of Thannington, Harbledown, and Chartham, 1780-1832.

Census records
The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Poor Law Unions
Bridge 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