Eastwell Parish

A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Eastwell is:  VACANT.  

Eastwell is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of East Charing.  The church is named for St. Mary with registers commencing 1538.

Eastwell, is a a parish in East Ashford district, Kent;  2-1/2 miles west-by-north or Wye rail station, and 3 north by east of Ashford.  Post-town, Westwell, under Ashford.  Acres, 894.  Real property in 1860, £1,079.  Population in 1861, 126.  Houses, 17.  The property is not much divided.

The manor belonged anciently to a family of its own name, but passed to successively the families of Hales, Moyle, Finch, Heneage, and Hatton.  Eastwell Park is the seat of the Earl of Winchelsea;  has a modern mansion, by Bononi, on the site of one built by Sir Thomas Moyle in the time of Henry VIII.;  extends beyond the parish so far as to include about 2,500 acres;  and both presents fine scenery within itself, and commands very brilliant exterior views.

Richard, the last of the Plantagenets, a natural son of Richard III., took refuge in Eastwell after the battle of Bosworth;  worked here as a mason till identified and relieved by Sir Thomas Moyle;  and then built a small house, in which he lived and died, and which was demolished towards the end of the 17th century.  A modern building marks the site of the house;  and a spring near this is called Plantagenet’s well.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £196 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Earl of Winchelsea.  The church is ancient but good;  consists of nave, aisle, and two chancels, with square embattled tower;  and contains a massive table monument to Sir Moyle Finch, and his wife the Countess of Winchelsea, and also a worn ancient tomb, without inscription, supposed by some to be the tomb of Richard Plantagenet, but appearing to others to be of earlier date.

There is a free 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
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• Donors' Rolls
• Vestry Minutes
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• AD index 1448-1857
• CC index 1448-1857
• PCC 1338-1858
• PPR 1858-1925
• Depositions
• Quarter Sessions
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• Muster Rolls
• Description Books
• Tithe Apportionment c1830s
• Transportations
• Protestation Rolls c1641-1643
• Oaths of Allegiance c1720s

• Poll Tax
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• 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
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