Downe, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
DOWN, 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 Farnborough. There is a place of worship for Particular Baptists.

The name Downe probably derives from the old English word ‘DUN’ a hill. The spelling has changed over the years in record sources:
 * Done or Doune 1283.
 * Dune 1304.
 * Downe 1610-1664

19th Century Down, with a suggestion that to avoid confusion with other places spelled Down that an 'e' was reintroduced for postal handling reasons. The village has been consistently spelled Downe with an ‘e’ in records from the 1830s but Down House stands as a reminder of an earlier variation also found on maps.

Downe is a village in the London Borough of Bromley Downe Wikipedia and includes Down House the former home of Charles Darwin see Down House Wikipedia which has been proposed as World Heritage Site. The house has been restored and is open to the public.

In June 1860 the large walnut tree at the centre of the village was blown down and the lime tree which replaced it has been adopted and incorporated symbolically in the centre of the village sign surrounded by Invicta, Charles Darwin and St Mary the Virgin Church.

Downe St Mary the Virgin was formed as a chapelry in Orpington, Kent Ancient Parish and dates from the 13th century.

Hasted describes the ecclesiastical jurisdiction as a peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury within the Shoreham deanery and the status as a peculiar may account for the existence of dual parish register entries for the years 1697-1733 before their record keeping became more regular in a single register to 1812. There is an entry dated 4 November 1898 that the duty of keeping the parish register was imposed by royal injunction on 29 September 1538 and consequently the earliest register entry was a marriage in that year.

The village and civil parish is 3.5 miles southwest of Orpington and was home to Charles Darwin. Down House was home to Darwin for 40 years until his death in 1882.

The neighbouring estate of the was partly in Farnborough, Kent and both John Lubbock 1st Baron Avebury and Sir John Lubbock 3rd Baron Avebury resided within this parish.

Downe Baptist Church, Luxted Road, Downe was founded in 1851 as Grace Baptist Church, and now occupies modern buildings in Luxted Road.

The 1813 Dissenter Meeting register refers to a Baptist church in Downe "in the property of Thos. Town Blacksmith"; the Dissenter Meeting register 1833 refers to "a certain Building situated in a lane leading to Gorringe's farm being the dwelling house of Mr. William Sales and the property of Mr. Timothy Sales." Both record entries described a building set apart for worship by dissenters and registered with the Archbishop of Canterbury within the deanery of Shoreham.

The Downe Baptist Chapel came about when in 1836 James Carter moved to Downe and later in 1844 founded a group. He was later baptised in 1850 by Mr Shirley of Sevenoaks and in 1861 shortly before his death he reformed the independent group as a Strict Baptist Church on 25 May 1861. In his 1952 "The Strict Baptist Chapels of England, Volume III" Ralph F. Chambers describes a 79 year lack of a local pastor but describes supply visitors. In 1942 the chapel (Chambers has an illustration) a private property belonging to Miss Smith of Downe Court was purchased and put in trust. In 1945 a roof fire damaged the building but this was repaired and Mr. R.E.P. Crisp was pastor from 1940-1946 when he resigned. In 1949 he was succeeded by C.B. Phillimore who became minister. [The Strict Baptist Chapels of England; Kent Vol III 1956 p 89 published by the author Ralph F. Chambers and in the London Borough of Bromley Collection]

The 1841 Tithing Settlement schedule and map locate the same Luxted Road site as being "Dissenters chapel" on page 13 and is numbered 3 on the map. The image in Chambers book is of the same building. The modern replacement is on the same land but lies back from the Luxted Road.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
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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

 * 1841 Census for Downe
 * 1851 Census for Downe
 * 1891 Census for Downe
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection ($)
 * Census returns for Downe 1841-1891
 * Findmypast Census ($)

Land Tax

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

Poor Law Unions
The parish had a parish poor House and garden although when this began to operate is not clear and there are no surviving records.

The parish burial register from 1784 contains several references to pauper burials including two infant pauper deaths in 1786. The 1787 burial entry for Henry MARVELL describes a pauper death "in a field" suggesting work or out relief from the parish. The number of travellers in the village is also reflected by "infant and stranger, pauper" descriptions from the 1780s. (Downe has traveller burials from the 1500s onwards and some Irish travellers are in the parish registers for Baptism and burial) It appears likely that the parish operated relief for the poor from the 1780s onwards.

The house was situated directly opposite the parish church and is clearly shown as a House and garden on "Town Land" in the 1841 Tithing Settlement map and schedule for the village. There are references to pauper burials in the parish burial register from 1813 until the 1890's when church yard burial diminished.

In 1844 the Union Workhouse in Locksbottom opened operated by Bromley Poor Law Union but the parish burial registers reflect burials of those from the Union workhouse for several decades of its operation. The Union chapel records have not survived but examination of both admission and discharge records and creed registers indicate that paupers were returned to constituent parishes within the union for burial where admission from the parish was recorded. Casuals admitted to the Union Workhouse are likely to form pauper burials in Farnborough, Kent parish which covered Locksbottom and the Workhouse and Infirmary on the site.

Burial register entries reflect the development at Locksbottom of the Infirmary role of the site and the Bromley Archive records series reflect the role of the infirmary development of care for those within the terms of Lunacy (Union Lunacy register dated from 1871-1930) and other degrees of physical disability and learning difficulty (deemed feeble minded). The subsequent development post 1948 of a distinct psychiatric unit within the National Health Service in separate buildings on the Workhouse site can be traced to original Infirmary provision. This tradition is also reflected on the site by a distinct Psychiatric unit (Green Parks House) of the modern Princess Royal University Hospital which is managed outside the district hospital organization.

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 exempt Deanery of Shoreham.

Hearth Tax

 * 1664 Hearth Tax for Downe
 * Hearth Tax Hearth Tax in England and Wales

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

 * Downe GENUKI
 * Downe Kent Online Parish Clerk]
 * Downe Parish Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * St Mary the Virgin Church, Downe Kent Archeological Society
 * St Mary The Virgin Downe Kent Churches
 * The Baptists of Smarden and the Weald of Kent, 1640-2000 Strict Baptist Historical Society