Kingsdown, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Kingsdown is a small hamlet surrounded by the villages of Frinsted, Milstead, Doddington and Lynsted in Kent, see Kingsdown Wikipedia.

The hamlet is within the civil parish of Milstead and Kingsdown which spans the boundaries of the boroughs of Maidstone and Swale. The area around the hamlet includes the Torry Hill estate and forms part of the Barony of Kingsdown.

The Parish of Kingsdown was within the Diocese of Canterbury. The redundant church of St Catherine is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was designed by Edward Welby Pugin to replace a mediaeval church on the site and was built 1866-1877 for the first Lord Kingsdown, Thomas Pemberton Leigh.It is the only Anglican church work undertaken by Edward Welby Pugin. The church is now accessible only by a footbridge above the M2 motorway and is locked with a access by prior arrangement only. The church is designated a grade II listed building by English Heritage. The Church of St Catherine, Downcourt Road, Milstead and Kinsdown British listed building Churches Conservation Trust

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 6 (1798), pp. 112-116 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

This parish should not be confused with Kingsdown with Mappiscombe, Kent or Kingsdown St John, Kent

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
Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Family History Library film numbers See also England, Kent, Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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.

Land Tax
Images for Kingsdown available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) 1780-1832

Census records
No census returns microfilm currently identified in the Family History Library Catalogue.

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. to locate local Family History Centres in UK 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

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

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. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
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.