Canterbury - St. Mary Bredin

Canterbury - St. Mary Bredin is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Canterbury.  The church is named for St. Mary Bredin with Archdeacon's Transcripts commencing 1563.

St. Mary Bredin's church was originally Norman; was rebuilt in 1867, at a cost of £4,000; and is in the early English style, of flint with dressings of Bath stone.

The living is a vicarage of St. Mary Bredin. Value of St. Mary Bredin, £149 with a habitable glebe house. Patron of St. Mary Bredin, the Rev. H. Lee Warner.¹

The Church

St. Mary Bredin, usually called Little Lady Dungeon church, is situated at a small distance north westward from the Dungeon, whence it takes that name, and Watling-street. It is a very small building, seemingly ancient, consisting of a nave, and small isle on the north side of it, and a chancel; at the north-west corner is a wooden pointed turret, in which hang three small bells. You go down into it by several steps, which makes it very damp.

This church was built by William Fithamon, being the son of Hamon, the son of Vitalis, one of those who came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror. This William was, no doubt, the patron of this church, which he had built, and most probably gave it to the neighbouring nunnery of St. Sepulchre, where it stayed till the dissolution of that house in king Henry VIII.'s reign, when the patronage of it was granted anno 29th of it, when the nunnery and the rest of the possessions of it, to the archbishop of Canterbury, subject nevertheless to the payment of 3s. to the vicar of this church; all which were again reconveyed by the archbishop to the king in his 37th year, in exchange for other premises, and he granted them the following year to the Hales's, lords of the manor of the Dungeon, whose burial place was within this church; since which the patronage of it has continued in the possession of the owners of that manor, down to Henry Lee Warner, of Walsingham abbey, in Norfolk, the present patron of it.

Upon the decline of the church of St. Edmund of Riding-gate, not far distant, of the patronage likewise of the same nunnery, it was in 1349 united to this of St. Mary Bredin, with the consent of the prioress and convent.

St. Edmund's church, being dedicated to St. Edmund, king and martyr, and usually called St. Edmund of Ridingate, from its situation near adjoining to that gate; was built by Hamo, the son of Vitalis, who was one of those who came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and gave it to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, whence it was granted in the year 1184, to the prioress and convent of St. Sepulchre's, just by, to hold in frank almoign, they offering as an acknowledgment of the abbot and convent's former right to it, 12d. yearly, upon the altar of St. Augustine, on the same saint's day, as a rent towards the repair of their organs.

This church, upon the declining of it in the year 1349, was united to that of St. Mary Bredin, not far distant from it, by the then commissary of Canterbury, especially authorized for that purpose, by the ordinary, that is, the prior and convent of Christchurch, in the vacancy of the see, on Archbishop Bradwardine's death, with the consent of the prioress and convent of St. Sepulchre's then patrons of it.

The remains of this church have been wholly removed a long time since, insomuch that there have not been the least traces of the site of it to be found for many years past.

This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 4l. 1s. 51/2d. and the yearly tenths at 8s. 1-3/4d. In 1588 it was valued at £20. Communicants 82.

It was held for a long time as a donative, that is, from about 1670 to 1732, and a curate was licenced to serve in it; but in the latter year the Rev. Curties Wightwick took out the seals for it, and was presented to it as a vicarage, by the lord chancellor; on his resignation in 1751, it was again held in sequestration, and continues so at this time.

There is a terrier of this rectory, dated Aug. 24, 1615, in the registry of the consistory court of Canterbury.²

¹ John Marius Wilson, comp.  The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

² Edward Hasted, Canterbury: The churches within the city and suburbs, in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 11 (Canterbury, 1800), pp. 209-288 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol11/pp209-288.

Canterbury - St. Mary Bredin Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates.  [Note:  The following volumes can be found on archive.org:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1876), 11, 12, 13 (1880), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, vol. 1907 supplement.]

• General references to Canterbury - St. Mary Bredin: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward II, Vol. 1. 1307-1313'Each volume has own index. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Inquisitions and assessments relating to feudal aids : with other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, A. D. 1284-1431', Vol. 3. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Exchequer. 'The book of fees commonly called testa de nevill, pt. 3'. The Book of fees contains information about the holdings of feudal tenants. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hall, Hubert, 1857-1944. 'The Red book of the Exchequer - Liber rubeus de Scaccario, Vol. 3'. The Red book of the Exchequer was a register intended to preserve important documents comprising charters, statutes of the realm, public acts (Placita), private deeds and ordinances, correspondence. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Glencross, Reginald Morshead. 'Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Vol. 1. 1559-1571'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hasted, Edward. 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent; Containing the ancient and present state of it, civil and ecclesiastical; collected from public records, and other authorities: illustrated with maps, views, antiquities, etc. The second edition, improved, corrected, and continued to the present time'. 12 volumes. Publisher: Canterbury: Printed by W. Bristow, 1797-1801. URL: British History Online

Hussey, Arthur. 'Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, mentioned in Domesday book, and those of more recent date'. Publisher: London J.R. Smith,(1852).

Letters, Dr. Samantha. 'Kent', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (2005).  URL: British History Online.

Page, William, 1861-1934, ed.. 'The Victoria history of the county of Kent'. Publisher: London: Constable (1908).  URL: British History Online

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward I, File 39', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 2: Edward I. Published:(1906), pp. 315-323.  URL: British History Online.

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III, File 45', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 1: Henry III. Published:(1904), pp. 296-302.  URL: British History Online.

Location of Records

The following list of records is not intended to be exhaustive.  There are many records that are awaiting discovery in archive offices throughout Kent and England.  This list is intended only to set out those records that are available via at least two relatively easy-to-access avenues.  If you have used or discover a record that would be of benefit to other researchers, that is not on this list, please send me an email with the details of the archive - name, address and archival call number.

Census | Church of England | Non-Conformist | Parish chest | Workhouse and Poor Law | Land | Assizes and Sessions | School

Census

Church Records, Church of England

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Parish chest records

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Land Records

Assizes and Sessions Records
(poor laws, jail terms, oaths, and other municipal and public records)

School Records