Westbourne, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex  Sussex Parishes



Parish History
BOURNE, WEST (St. John the Baptist), a parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Westbourne and Singleton, rape of Chichester, W. division of Sussex, 7¾ miles (W. N. W.) from Chichester. On the south is Thorney Channel. The church is a neat commodious structure in the later English style, with a well-proportioned spire of oak: the principal entrance is approached by an avenue of eight yew-trees, remarkable for their size; and on the arch of the doorway are carved the heraldic bearings of Lord Maltravers, with an inscription almost illegible, of about the time of Edward IV.

Westbourne St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish in the county of Sussex. Southbourne, Sussex was a chapelry of Westbourne.

Other places in the parish include: Prinstead, Woodmancote, Aldsworth, Hermitage, and Nutbourne. The parish boundary forms part of the county boundary with Emsworth, Hampshire and is the most westerly church in the Diocese of Chichester.

The Church of St John the Baptist which dates from the late 14th century was restored in 1865 and has been designated a grade I listed building British listed building

A history of the church and images and also that of the hamlet Mission Church of Woodmancote Bourne St John the Baptist and Woodmancote Mission Church

The hamlet of Woodmancote near Chichester should not be confused with the Ancient parish of Woodmancote, Sussex elsewhere in West Sussex

Westbourne Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) and St John the Baptist

Other places of worship include

Westbourne Baptist Church Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) Cemetery Chapel Woodmancote Mission Church Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) See also Westbourne Wikipedia

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
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Westbourne St John the Baptist

West Sussex Record Office has deposited parish Registers Bap1550-1998 Marr 1550-1987 Bur 1550-1942

Bishop's Transcripts 1572-1904

Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
See Sussex Census

FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. to locate local Family History Centres in UK to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search.

Poor Law Unions
Westbourne 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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain