St Mary Cray, Kent Genealogy

Guide to St Mary Cray, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
CRAY (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bromley, hundred of Ruxley, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W division of Kent, 2 miles S by W from Foots Cray.

St. Mary's Cray, is a village and a parish in Bromley district, Kent. The village stands on the rivulet Cray, and on the Mid Kent railway, 4-1/2 miles east-by-south of Bromley; was once a market town and includes a number of modern houses.

St Mary the Virgin St Mary Cray was originally formed as a chapelry of Orpington, Kent in the Diocese of Rochester.

Crockenhill All Souls was built 1851-1852 as a chapel of ease and later parish in Eynsford, Kent

Other places of worship include:

Church built 1873?, bombed 1941; current church completed 1959. Original Registers These date from 1875. Congregational: The Temple, High St. (1851). No information on registers.
 * Roman Catholic: St Mary Cray, St Joseph, High St
 * Baptist: (1869-pre.1928). No information on registers.
 * Baptist: Zion. (1887-pre.1928). No information on registers.
 * Independent/Congregational

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
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 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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.

Registration Districts

 * 1837-1934 Bromley Registration district

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Kent ($)
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Kent ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Census Records

 * Census returns for St Mary Cray 1841-1891
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection ($)
 * FindMyPast Census ($)

Land Tax

 * England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1831

Poor Law Unions
A parish workhouse existed at St Mary Cray; the burials register contains reference to residents until the opening of the Union workhouse at Locks Bottom. Presumably the burial entry "John Scudder St Mary Cray Union House 26 December 1860 age 72" refers to the Union workhouse at Locks Bottom. The workhouse is also referred to in the 1836 minutes of the Board of Guardians and received some transfers from the Cudham Workhouse at Leaves Green, for further information see:


 * Bromley Poor Law Union

In the Orpington Vestry minutes P277/8/2 1808-1847 held at Bromley Public Libraries, Local Studies and Archives there is both reference to the purchase of clothing for poor from interest on parish stock in 1814 with the parish giving up possession of poor house, 1815 and establishing a joint workhouse with St. Mary Cray, Orpington parish providing £900, 1815-1816. At about this time the St Mary Cray burial register shows burials from St Mary Cray Poor House. The Orpington Vestry Minutes of 3 March 1816 refer to the workhouse to be built on land "near Reynoldsmiths in the parish of St Mary Cray".

Reynolds Smith was a hamlet in St Mary Cray parish close to the parish boundary with Orpington parish and also contained the Red Lion public house.

The workhouse and garden appear as item 46 on the St Mary Cray Tithe Map 1839/40 and the Occupier appears as Samuel Chinock, presumably the master.

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.


 * England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records

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

Websites

 * All Souls Crockenhill A Church Near You
 * All Souls Crockenhill Kent Churches
 * Church of St Mary British Listed Buildings
 * Parishes: St Mary Cray British History Online
 * St Mary Cray Kent Churches