East Grinstead, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex

Parish History
East Grinstead St Swithin (sometimes Swithun) is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Sussex. Other places in the parish include: Ashurst, Burliegh Arches Manor, and Clarkes Manor.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £20, and in the patronage of Earl Amherst; impropriators, Earl Amherst, and R. Crawfurd, Esq.: the great tithes have been commuted for £1300, and the vicarial for £500. The church having been burnt by lightning about 1684, and the greater part of it destroyed by the fall of the tower in 1785, the present handsome and spacious edifice was completed in 1789, in the later English style, with a lofty embattled tower, conspicuous for many miles round; in the interior are several neat monuments, and it is the burial-place of the Neville family. A chapel of ease was erected in 1835, at Forest-Row. There is a place of worship for the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. A free school was founded in 1708, by Robert Payne, who endowed it with land producing about £44 per annum. Sackville College was founded by Robert, Earl of Dorset, who by will dated February 10th, 1608, directed a college to be built, and endowed it with £330 per annum, for the support of a warden and 30 poor persons; it was completed by his son, about 1616, but, in consequence of various lawsuits, the endowment dwindled to £216 a year, and the number of inmates was reduced to a warden and 12 persons. The building is quadrangular, and substantially erected of stone, on an eminence at the eastern extremity of the town, commanding extensive views. The poor law union of East Grinsted contains a population of 12,619, and comprises seven parishes, six of which are in Sussex, and one in Surrey. Near Forest-Row are the interesting ruins of Brambletye House, the scene of the novel of that title by Horace Smith; and in the immediate vicinity is the site of the old manorhouse of Brambletye. In 1838 a quantity of bones were dug up in the garden of the vicarage-house, supposed to be those of Thomas Dungate and two others, who were burnt here July 18th, 1556.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 344-347. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50992 Date accessed: 08 April 2011.

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
East Grinstead St. Swithun records held at West Sussex Record Office

Bap 1638-1897 Marr 1638-1926 Bur 1638-1867 Bishop’s transcripts 1606-1899 Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
East Grinstead 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

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.