England
& Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index |
The ParishThe parish of Rochester St Nicholas lies in northern Kent as part of 2 parishes forming the city of Rochester. Rochester is located about 29 miles southeast of the city of London and around 9 miles north of the county town of Maidstone. Rochester sits on the A2 (London to Canterbury & Dover) road at the crossing of the River Medway, the road following the ancient Roman Road of Watling Street. Rochester is an ancient cathedral city which pre-dates the Roman conquest. Given its strategic site at the main crossing of the Medway the Romans made it a site for one of their main towns, Durobrivae. After a turbulent period suffering several attacks from Danes the Norman conquest saw some stability and the construction of Rochester's castle. Later times saw Rochester growing importance as a port and market for its local area, a role it still performs being one of the largest places along the Kent northern coast. The Medway, offering a secure harbour for vessels, acquired importance as a naval base and, together with nearby Chatham, Rochester became important to the military both naval and conventional. In more modern times Rochester has benefited from modern communications, the London to Canterbury rail line passes through the city and the modern M2 motorway now takes traffic to Rochester's south. Both developments have lead to further growth and Rochester is nowadays just a part of a sprawling metropolitan area that not only spans both banks of the Medway but is conjoined together with Chatham & Gillingham into a major conurbation. Within the city St Nicholas parish covers a tiny acreage of the inner core of the city. Rochester is drained by the Medway which begins its own estuary just downstream before meeting the outer Thames Estuary and the North Sea. Rochester is sited at just 10 metres above the sea at the church & adjacent Cathedral but land rises steadily away from the riverside to reach close to 70 metres within the outer suburbs. St Nicholas parish covered a very small acreage, just a few city blocks yet almost 8,100 parishioners would have crowded into its streets by the time of the completion of this transcript. In Domesday times Rochester was shared between Bishop Odo of Bayeux and the city's own Bishop, a wealthy place worth £17 pounds per annum to the two owners, the assets documented were obviously not representative of an already urban setting, with 8 ploughs, meadows & woodland and 2 mills being just a subset of what were obviously more substantial benefits. |
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Register No | Covering Dates | Deposited With | Register Style | Quality Standard | Comments |
1 |
23rd April 1754 - 4th May 1760 |
Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/14 |
Standard preprinted and self-numbered combined Banns & Marriage register with 4entries per page | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
2 | 22nd May 1760 - 5th April 1779 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/15 | Plain, ruled book containing Marriages | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
3 | 26th April 1779 - 6th February 1799 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/16 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
4 | 11th March 1799 - 11th June 1811 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/17 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 3 entries per page | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
5 | 2nd July 1811 - 28th December 1812 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/18 | Standard preprinted and self-numbered Marriage register with 4 entries per page | Grade 1 Register - Few issues noted and a low likelihood of misreads | None |
6 | 18th January 1813 - 1st June 1834 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/19 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
7 | 4th June 1834 - 27th June 1837 | Medway City Archives - Reference - P306/1/20 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
Strood
St Nicholas
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Frindsbury
All Saints
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Frindsbury
All Saints
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Strood
St Nicholas
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Frindsbury
All Saints
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Rochester
St Margaret
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Rochester
St Margaret
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Rochester
St Margaret
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1755 1760 1765 1770 1775 1780 1785 1790 1795 1800 1805 1810 1815 1820 1825 1830 1835
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts