Bignor, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex



Parish History
Holy Cross Bignor is an Ancient parish in West Sussex and includes Buddington within the parish boundary.

BIGNOR (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union of Sutton (under Gilbert's act), hundred of Bury, rape of Arundel, W. division of Sussex, 5½ miles (S. by E.)from Petworth; containing 210 inhabitants. Bignor Park is a spacious and handsome mansion, erected in1826, on the site of an edifice built in 1632; it occupies an eminence commanding richly diversified views of the surrounding country. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £8. 3. 6½.; net income, £143;patron, Col. Wyndham. The church is a handsome structure, chiefly in the early English style. Between the years 1811 and 1817, the site of a magnificent Roman villa consisting of numerous apartments, was discovered in a field called the Berry, about a quarter ofa mile from the village, and explored under the superintendence of Samuel Lysons, Esq., the antiquary and topographer; near it a Roman road was very distinctly marked, leading from Chichester, by Pulborough, to Dorking. Charlotte Smith, the novelist, wrote many ofher works at this place, where her father, N. Turner,Esq., was resident.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 237-241. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50798 Date accessed: 08 May 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
West Sussex Record Office has deposited parish Registers Bap 1565-1992 Marr 1563-1721, 1757-1998 Bur 1563-1990

Bishop's Transcripts 1591-1869

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
Sutton (East Preston) 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.