A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Boxley is:  VACANT.  

Boxley is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Sutton.  The church is named for St. Mary the Virgin and All Saints with registers commencing 1558.

Boxley, a village and a parish in Hollingbourn district, Kent.  The village stands at the foot of a barren range of chalk hills, 2 miles northeast-by-north of Maidstone;  has a post office under Maidstone;  and was once a market town.  The parish includes part of Penenden Heath;  and comprises 5,745 acres.  Real property in 1860, £11,677.  Population in 1861, 1,470.  Houses, 289.  The property is much subdivided.

The manor was given by Richard I to Boxley abbey;  passed, at the dissolution, to Sir Thomas Wyatt;  and belongs now to the Earl of Romney.  The abbey was founded, in 1146, by William d’Ypres, Earl of Kent;  stood 1-1/2 mile west-south-west of the village;  was Cistertian, mitred, and well endowed;  had an image of St. Rumbald and an automaton crucifix, which attracted crowds of pilgrims, and were publicly burnt at the Reformation;  and is now all effaced except the foundations.  Boxley Abbey mansion, adjacent, is the seat of Major M. G. Best;  Boxley House is the seat of Mrs. Mercer;  and Boxley Park is the seat of E. Lushington, Esq..

A deep thick vein of fuller’s earth occurs at Grove;  and was worked so early as 1630.  Fulling mills stood on the neighbouring rivulets;  and have been succeeded by paper mills.  A Roman urn and several other Roman relics have been found in the neighbourhood of Grove.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £834 with a habitable glebe house.  Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester.  The church is decorated English;  and contains the remains of the poet Sandys, and tombs of the Wyatts and others.

There is a national school.^1
1John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales.  (London, England:  A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

• Monumental Inscriptions
• Christenings 1558-1640
• Christenings 1641-1700
• Christenings 1701-1775
• Christenings 1776-1900
• Marriages 1558-1640
• Marriages 1641-1700
• Marriages 1641-1700
• Marriages 1776-1900
• Burials 1558-1640
• Burials 1641-1700
• Burials 1641-1700
• Burials 1776-1900
• IGI batch #s, Boyds, Pallots, BVRI, NBI
• Published Records

• 1801-1831


• 1841


• 1851


• 1861


• 1871


• 1881


• 1891


• 1901

• Settlement Certificates
• Removal Orders
• Bastardy Examinations
• Parish-assisted Immigrants
• Churchwarden's Accounts
• Overseer's Accounts
• Surveyor's Accounts
• Workhouse Records
• Pew Rents
• Donors' Rolls
• Vestry Minutes
• Bishops' Visitations
• Parish Magazines
• Parish Histories

• AD index 1448-1857
• CC index 1448-1857
• PCC 1338-1858
• PPR 1858-1925
• Depositions
• Quarter Sessions
• Militia Lists
• Muster Rolls
• Description Books
• Tithe Apportionment c1830s
• Transportations
• Protestation Rolls c1641-1643
• Oaths of Allegiance c1720s

• Poll Tax
• Hearth Tax
• Window Tax
• Hair Powder Tax
• Land Tax Assessments 1780-1831
• Land Tax Assessments 1799-1805

• Pigot's Directory of Kent, 1824
• Illustrated Guide to the London and Dover Railway, 1846
• History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent, Vol. II, 1847
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 1: Counties & Localities]
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 2: Court & Trade Directories]
• Melville & Co.'s Directory of Kent, 1858
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1882
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 1. Kent: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 2. Kent: Court & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]

• Parish Map
• Deeds, Mortgages, etc.
• Rated Property Returns
• Returns of owners of land, 1873
• Manor Court Baron
• Manor Tenancy Rolls
• Manors, Castles & Holdings of Significance

• War Memorials
• Apprenticeships
• Immigration
• School Records
• Notable Events
• Nefarious Activities
• Newspapers