Farnborough, Kent Genealogy

= Parish History =

FARNBOROUGH, Kent, should not be confused with the better known Farnborough in Hampshire and from places of the same name in Berkshire and Warwickshire. It is a village on the high road to Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Hastings, 14 miles from London, and about 350 feet above sea level. It lies on the northern slope of the North Downs, partly on the chalk and partly on the edge of the Thames basin.

The parish includes the site of Caesar's Camp, which was excavated in the 1970's.

Mammoth bones have been found in the flint pit on Green-Street-Green, and palaeolithic flint implements are plentifully scattered over the fields. A small piece of common is known as Leach's Green from the family of the same name, still resident, whose house adjoining the common was only pulled down when the present Board School was built. The name does not appear in the register before 1775.

In an Anglo-Saxon Charter of AD 862, Ethelbert, King of Wessex gave to his minister, Dryhtwald, ten hides of land, about 1200 acres, in Fearn Biorg,

The ‘The Domesday Monachorum’ is an ancient book in the archives of Canterbury Cathedral. It was compiled on the orders of Archbishop Lanfranc when he came into office in 1070. This book contains a list of churches which paid a ‘Chrisom Fee’ to their diocesan bishop for the ‘consecrated oil’ he supplied for use during Christenings. Christening had to take place in the church of the parish in which one was born - even today you need your parish priest's permission to be baptised elsewhere - and the size of the fee reflected the value of the parish. Parishes with a resident priest were listed as Churches and those without a priest were listed as Chapels to the parish where the priest resided. ‘Faernberga’ paid 6d as ‘Chrisome fee’ as a Chapel to Chelsfield. Research has shown that the list in the Domesday Monachorum is a Saxon list, hurriedly found and copied out to meet the instructions of the Archbishop. (Many churches known to have existed in 1070 are missing). Farnborough Church existed before 1070, perhaps as a wooden structure (like Greenstead Ongar, in Essex), which had either fallen down or was considered of no value when the Domesday Survey was made in 1085.

Bishop Gundulf became Bishop of Rochester in 1077 and he recorded in his Chronicle that he received the Tithes from both Chelsfield and Farnborough. He also recorded that Tithes had been bestowed on the Bishoprick by Arnulf of Chelsfield, who appears in the Domesday Book of 1085 as Arnulf of Hesdin, Lord of the Manors of Chelsfield and Farnborough. In 1085, the income of the Manor of Chelsfield was some twenty times larger than that of the Manor of Farnborough, so Arnulf would have made his headquarters at Chelsfield with his Priest residing there. Neither Chelsfield nor Farnborough are recorded as having a church in Domesday times.

It is recorded in Bishop Courteneye’s register of 1385 that John de Dountone was Rector of Farnborough only, an occurrence which did not happen again until John Montague was ‘put in [as Rector of Farnborough] by parliament’ during the Commonwealth period in 1650.

1538 saw the introduction of the Parish Register and each Parish had to provide One Book into which all the Baptisms, Marriages and Burials that took place in the Parish were to be entered. The top of the first page of the Farnborough Register reads:

‘ Matrimonia Baptismata et Septurae in Farnbro Tempore

Regis Henrici 80 incoat 30 A0 ejus Regni et AO Dm. 1538 '

The second line states that it was the 80th order issued in the 30th year of the reign of King Henry the VIII in the year of Our Lord, 1538.

King Henry’s introduction of Parish Registers caused alarm at first as people thought it was being done to produce a Taxation Register, but it was his son Edward VI who ordered an inventory of the goods in each parish to be made every three years. In 1552, the Churchwardens, John Lambe &amp; John Marshall, ‘of the parishe Church of Farneborowe’ showed to the King's inspectors, one Communion Cup, a Brass Cross, two Copes, two altar frontals, a large Bible and a book of Erasmus. They also showed them three bells in the steeple. The inspectors gave them a clean sheet, certified that they had no ‘Popish’ items in their charge and that they had not illegally disposed of any of the church’s property. The local Rural Dean carries on this type of survey annually to this day.

Farnborough’s original paper Register in which, apart from the required entries, information was recorded of the change of Kings and Rectors and other interesting facts, is still in existence. The first entry of this kind is a change of Rector, recorded in 1576:

‘ Septembris 18, 1576, Gulielmo Gybbins, sepulto, Rector ecclesiae Chelsfield et Farnborough, cur. Successit Georgeius Smith, Artium Mr. Collegii Alsol. Oxon, socius 300 Aetatis do caturiae natus’.

This states, in Latin, that in 1576 William Gibbins, the previous Rector had died and had been succeeded by George Smith, Master of Arts of All Souls, Oxford, aged 30 years. At this time, Farnborough Parish and Chelsfield Parish constituted a Combined Benefice, a long-standing arrangement which continued almost to the end of the 19th century. This meant that the revenues of both parishes were paid to the same priest, who was Rector of both Parishes, each having its own Registers, Churchwardens and Parish Officers. George Smith, named here in the Register, was the first of three generations to be Rector of both parishes, being succeeded by his son, George Smith II, and by his grandson, George Smith III, who died in 1650 during the time of the Commonwealth (1640-1660). On his death, Parliament installed John Montague as Rector of Farnborough and Robert Miller as Rector of Chelsfield. On Charles II’s Accession in 1660, all the Acts of the Commonwealth Parliaments were declared non existent and the two parishes once more became a combined benefice, with its previous patron, and Robert Miller became the Rector of both parishes.

As Farnborough was the poorer of the two parishes, the Rectors spent most of their time in Chelsfield, some having left not even a signature in the Parish Registers, the parish work being left to the Curate they had appointed. Thus it reveals that Robert Jegon, who was Curate for many years in the 18th century, recorded in the Parish Register that he had paid the Duty up to date to Thomas Jones, the official collector. This Duty was a Tax which in 1694, was 2 shillings for every birth registered, 4 shillings for each funeral and 2 shillings and 6 pence for each wedding, plus annual tax of 1 shilling on each bachelor and widow living in the parish. The Tax was simplified in 1794, with a charge of 3 pence for every entry in the Church Register.

Lord Hardwick’s Act of 1753 saw the introduction of an official book of marriage forms. Farnborough partially complied with the act but the existing Marriage Register was ruled up in the same way as the official forms, and continued to be used. The official book was obtained somewhat later than officially required.

The Rector at this time was Charles Meetkirke who had been presented to the bishop by his cousin Adolphus Meetkirke, who had obtained the Avowson (the right to present a new Rector to the parish when the living became vacant) from Thomas Norton, Lord of the Manor of Chelsfield. The Avowson had been held with the Lordship of the Manor of Chelsfield since the time of the Norman Conquest. Charles Meetkirke was invested in 1751 and succeeded by Adolphus who, soon after, disposed of the right of presentation to All Soul’s College, Oxford, who were to provide future incumbents for some time. On his death in 1774, Charles Meetkirke chose to be buried in Farnborough rather than Chelsfield and he lies today in front of the Altar, facing his parishioners. His ledger stone reads:

‘Here lies Inter’d the Body of Charles Meet Keske, LL.B., rector of Chelsfield with Farnborough, and Died Lamented. The 11 day of February, 1774. In the 64th year of his age. Also the body of Ann, his wife, Daughter of William Mant, Gent., who Died the 25th Day of Novr., 1773, Aged 51 years.’

John Edward Tarleton became Rector in 1834, and in 1840 a tithe survey was carried out. The income from the Tithes amounted to about £30 and the area of the Parish was the same as that given to Dryhtwald in 862 by the King of Wessex. This income was by 1849, when Folliot Baugh became Rector, judged sufficient to support an incumbent, so on his retirement the Benefice was divided and each parish has had its own Rector from that date.

George William Hingston became Rector in 1876 and over the next few years many changes were to take place. The Parish Vestry consisting of the Rector, Churchwardens and Overseers, who had had to carry out all civil duties in the parish, such as raising local taxes, looking after the poor and repairing the roads, was replaced by an Act of Parliament in 1894, by an elected, (Civil) Parish Council, whose area of administration was the same as the Ecclesiastical Parish.

In the case of Farnborough, this Civil Parish became combined with other Civil Parishes to form Orpington Urban District Council, later to become part of the London Borough of Bromley.

In 1938, the part of the Parish to the south of Shire Lane was detached to form, along with part of the Parishes of Chelsfield and Knockholt, the new Parish of Green Street Green. This was probably the first change in the boundaries of the Parish since it came into being.

After the Second World War, the Parish began to grow in numbers. New housing developments were established and by the 1950s it was recognized that an additional place of worship was needed to serve the increasing number of parishioners now resident on ‘the other side of the Parish’, cut off by the bypass. On Sunday 22nd June, 1958 ‘The New Hall Church’, situated in Leamington Avenue, was opened and dedicated.

Ten years later the Hall was re-named St. Nicholas’ Church Hall.

= Parish Records =

Farnborough St Giles the Abbot is an Ancient parish church. Farnborough is in the poor law union of Bromley and, ecclesiastically, was in the diocese of Canterbury [from 1860 to 1905 when it was returned to the diocese of Rochester], in the archdeaconry of Maidstone and in the deanery of Dartford. The church is named for St. Giles with registers commencing 1558.

The church was built in the 17th century, and included in the parish was the Bromley Union Workhouse. The site of the workhouse infirmary later became Farnborough Hospital. This was replaced in the early part of the 21st century by a modern hospital named Princess Royal University Hospital.

Farnborough has entries in the International Genealogical Index for years 1558-1875 baptisms (Batch numbers C131311, C131312) and Marriages 1559-1875 (M131311, M131312) Pallot's index has entries 1790-1812.

Bromley Archive Catalogue has holdings of Farnborough Composite register 1558-1747 P/144/1/1 Farnborough Baptism Register and Marriage Register 1749-1812 P/144/1/2 has deposited parish records for later periods.These are held at Bromley Local Studies LibraryTelephone High Street Bromley, BR1 1EX: 020 8461 7170 Fax: 020 8466 7860 e-mail: [mailto:localstudies.library@bromley.gov.uk localstudies.library@bromley.gov.uk]

= Levi Boswell =

Levi Boswell was known as the "The Gypsy King" and his death in Farnborough in 1924 lead to an extrarodinary gathering of thousands of mourners and hearse drawn by six horses.