Gravesend St George, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Gravesend St George is an Ancient Parish in the market town of Gravesend on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Tilbury in Essex.

The original parish church of the Ancient parish was St Mary and was further south. St George church was built in 1510 and became Parish Church in 1544. This burned down in the great fire of Gravesend in 1727 and was replaced 1731-1733. The church was later extended and restored and has been designated a grade B listed building by English Heritage.

The Red Indian Princess Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhattan of Virginia, who was baptised Rebecca, married Thomas Rolfe and withhim visited the English court in 1616, where she was received by Queen Anne, wife of James I, she was buried in the churchyard of the Gravesend Parish church in March 1617 although which church site and her place of burial are not recorded.

An American sculptor, William Ordway Partridge, had created a life-size statue of Pocahontas, which was unveiled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1922. Queen Elizabeth II viewed this statue in 1957 and again on 4 May 2007, while visiting Jamestown on the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first successful English colonial settlement in America. On 5 October 1958 an exact replica of the Pocahontas statue by Partridge was dedicated as a memorial to the princess at St George's Church here. The Governor of Virginia presented the statue as a gift to the British people; this gesture was prompted by The Queen's visit to America the previous year. The actual resting place of Pocahontas in the town is unknown.

Within the church her family pedigree is on display including the wife of the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson.



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
Gravesend St George Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1547-1951 reference P 159 digital images may be searched online at Medway Archives City Ark project http://cityark.medway.gov.uk

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. See Kent Census

Poor Law Unions
Gravesend and Milton 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.

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.