Orpington, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Orpington is a suburban town in the London Borough of Bromley Orpington Wikipedia

Orpington All Saints is an Ancient Parish. Chapelries of the Ancient parish include Downe, Kent St Mary Cray, Kent and Knockholt, Kent

The church was enlarged in 1957 by adding "The new Church" at right angles to the ancient original mediaeval chancel and thus changing the orientation of the interior.

The original Saxon material is still visible in the mediaeval walls. The tower and steeple were damaged by a storm in 1771 and the rebuilt steeple was truck by lightning in 1809 and was not replaced.

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1797), pp. 97-112. 9 September 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Other Anglican parishes formed from the Ancient Parish include

St Paul Crofton Road built as a chapel-of-ease to All Saints in 1887 and formed as an ecclesiastical parish.

Orpington Christ Church, Charterhouse Road, see Kent Churches website

Holy Innocents Roman Catholic church. The modern replacement for the original built in 1894.

Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Station Approach

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis-- ORPINGTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Bromley, hundred of Ruxley, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 3 miles (S. by W.) from Foot's-Cray. There is a place of worship for Independents.

Civil Registration
See Bromley Registration district

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
Orpington parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Land Tax
Images for Orpington are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1831.

Census records
Census returns for Orpington 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK Introduction to Family History Centers to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable).

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

Ancestry UK Census Collection.

Find my Past census search 1841-1901.

Poor Law Unions
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 in1814 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.

See also the St Mary Cray Poor House paragraph in the Bromley Poor Law Union page.

It appears from the vestry Minutes that the larger group of able bodied paupers were from Orpington parish and a Vestry meeting resoved to use these men to repair defective roads in Orpington.

It is worth examining the St Mary Cray burial transcript at Kent Online Parish Clerks if you believe prior to 1844 that an Orpington ancestor may have received parish poor relief and have died in the parish Poor House. From 1844 the Union Workhouse at Locksbottom usually arranged burial in the parish of origin where known on admission; otherwise burials were at Farnborough, 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.

See 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

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the London Borough of Bromley, located adjacent to Orpington Station and on major bus routes through the borough.


 * FHC Portal This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these collections using the portal.