Hastings St Mary in the Castle, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex



Parish History
Hastings St Mary in the Castle is an Ancient Parish in the Cinque port town of Hastings Sussex. An integral part of the curved Pelham Crescent the church has a giant Ionic portico overlooking the sea and is a grade II listed building. It was built in 1828 by the Architect Joseph Kay.

The town comprises the Parishes of All Saints, containing 2839 inhabitants, and St. Clement, 3189; with part of the parish of St. Mary in the Castle, 2933. The livings of All Saints' and St. Clement's, united in 1770,are rectories, the former valued in the king's books at£19. 12. 9., and the latter at £23. 6. 10.; patron and incumbent, the Rev. J. G. Foyster. The tithes of All Saints' have been commuted for £130, and those of St.Clement's for £35. Of the several churches anciently inthe town, only those of All Saints' parish and St. Clement's remain: of the church of the Holy Trinity, which stood on the grounds of the priory of St. Andrew, to the north of Wellington-square, of St. Michael's church,at the White Loch, and of St. Mary's situated in the Castle, there are no vestiges. The church of All Saints' is a spacious and handsome structure, partly in the early and partly in the decorated English style, with a lofty embattled tower; the hangings of the pulpit are part of the canopy borne by the barons of the Cinque Ports over Queen Anne at her coronation. The church of St. Clement's is ancient, and of similar style, with a square embattled tower, but, like that of All Saints', has suffered from mutilation and injudicious repairs: the ceiling of the chancel is painted in device; there are several monuments to the families of Collier and Milward, and on the pavement numerous brasses; the font is ornamented on the sides with a sculptured representation of the Passion of the Saviour. An episcopal chapel, in the centre of Pelham-crescent, was commenced by the late and completed in 1828 by the present Earl of Chichester; it is a handsome edifice in the Grecian style, with a receding portico of duplicated Ionic columns, and contains 1600 sittings.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 435-441. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51013 Date accessed: 02 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
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Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Hastings 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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