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England Kent  Canterbury (city)

Guide to Canterbury (city) history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
Canterbury is one of the oldest populated settlements in the British Isles. The Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Many Lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area.

Canterbury was first recorded as the main settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci, which inhabited most of modern day Kent. The Romans entered South East England early in their quest to conquer the area known as Britannia, and, in the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement and named it Durovernum Cantiacorum. After the Romans left Britain in 410 Durovernum Cantiacorum was abandoned except by a few farmers and gradually decayed.

In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelbert to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the center for his episcopal see in Kent, and an abbey and cathedral were built. Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

Kent was one of the primary focuses of the Vikings for their raiding parties during the ninth and tenth centuries AD. Canterbury suffered great loss of life during the Danish raids. Alfred the Great was finally able to drive the Vikings out in the middle of the ninths century.

Remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066.

After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe, as pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine.

In 1448 Canterbury was granted a City Charter, which gave it a mayor and a high sheriff; the city still has a Lord Mayor and Sheriff.

By the 17th century, Canterbury's population was 5,000; of whom 2,000 were French-speaking Protestant Huguenots, who had begun fleeing persecution and war in the Spanish Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The Huguenots introduced silk weaving to Canterbury, and this became a major source of industry, in cottages throughout the city. However by 1820 the city's silk industry had been killed by imported Indian muslim.

The twentieth century saw little development. Canterbury was too far from both the coast and London to become a major player in any industrial development. The biggest expansion of the city occurred in the 1960s, with the arrival of the University of Kent at Canterbury and Christ Church College.