Brighton St Nicholas, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex



Parish History
Brighton St Nicholas is the Ancient parish for the market town and later seaside resort of brighton in Sussex.

BRIGHTON (St. Nicholas), a sea-port, borough, market-town, and parish, in the hundred of Whalesbone, rape of Lewes, E. division of Sussex, 30 miles (E.) from Chichester, and 52 (S.) from London; containing 46,661 inhabitants. This place, in the Saxon Brighthelmstun, in Domesday book Bristlemeston, and now, by contraction, generally Brighton, is supposed to have taken its name from the Saxon bishop, Brighthelme, who resided in the vicinity. The living is a vicarage, with the rectory of West Blatchington consolidated, valued in the king's books at £20. 2. 1½.; net income, £1041; patron, the Bishop of Chichester; impropriator, T. R. Kemp, Esq. The parish church is a spacious ancient structure, partly in the decorated, and partly in the later, English style, with a square embattled tower, which, from the situation of the church on the summit of a hill, 150 feet above the level of the sea, serves as a landmark to mariners. It contains a fine screen of richly carved oak, and an antique font, said to have been brought from Normandy in the reign of William the Conqueror, which is embellished with sculptured representations of the Last Supper, and of the miracles of our Saviour.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 369-375. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50829 Date accessed: 03 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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records.

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

Poor Law Unions
Brighton Poor Law Union, Sussex

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.