Hastings St Mary in the Castle, Sussex Genealogy

England Sussex  Sussex Parishes



Parish History
HASTINGS, the principal of the cinque-ports, a borough and market-town, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the rape of Hastings, E. division of Sussex, 69 miles (E.) from Chichester, and 61½ (S.E.) from London; containing, with part of the parishes of Bexhill and St. Leonard's 11,617 inhabitants. The town comprises the Parishes of All Saints, containing 2839 inhabitants, and St. Clement, 3189; with part of the parish of St. Mary in the Castle, 2933. Of the several churches anciently in the town, only those of All Saints' parish and St. Clement's remain: of the church of the Holy Trinity, which stood on the grounds of the priory of St. Andrew, to the north of Wellington-square, of St. Michael's church, at the White Loch, and of St. Mary's situated in the Castle, there are no vestiges. There are places of worship for Baptists, Huntingtonians, Independents, and Wesleyans; and the Roman Catholics have purchased nine acres of land close to the sea, between Hastings and St. Leonard's, on which they have erected a '''chapel. '''

Hastings St Mary in the Castle is an Ancient Parish in the Cinque port town of Hastings Sussex. An integral part of the curved Pelham Crescent the church has a giant Ionic portico overlooking the sea and is a grade II listed building. It was built in 1828 by the Architect Joseph Kay.

The parish was merged into Hastings Emmanuel, Sussex

A history of the old and new churches of St Mary in the castle may be found at Hastings St Mary in the Castle

Hastings St Mary in the Castle Sussex Online Parish Clerks(OPC)

The OPC for Hastings Chris Swarbrooke Web site:Hastings OPC

see also Hastings Places of worship Wikipedia Hastings Wikipedia

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.

Church records
Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
The 1821 and 1831 census for this parish of St Mary in the Castle, Hastings is available as a transcript on CD at The Family History Library and on the website www.familysearch.org and also in book form.

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

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search.

Poor Law Unions
Hastings 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