The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex
St. Denys Church  Church Street [a.k.a. Church Road]  Rotherfield Village  Rotherfield  
Parish records Before
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1500
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1550
1550
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1600
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1700
1700
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1725
1725
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1750
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1775
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1800
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1825
1825
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1850
1850
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1875
1875
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1900
1900
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1925
1925
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1950
1950
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1975
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After
2000
N/K

10992Christenings101419798889461485635900158020871904713191
2088Marriages151111671253962145221250379431992996
2320Burials14379699648410714424049754830954225
 

Books and other documents
PublishedTitle, author and references
1766The History of Tunbridge Wells by Thomas Benge Burr ⇒ p. 258
1810Tunbridge Wells and its Neighbourhood by Paul Amsinck and Letitia Byrnep. 24
1852Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey by The Rev. Arthur Hussey, M.A. ⇒ p. 275
1870A Compendious History of Sussex - Volume II. by Mark Antony Lower, M.A.p. 126
1890An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough by Boys FirminBook extract p. 60
1898The Early History of Rotherfield Church by J.H. Round ⇒ p. 49
1913 to 1941Rotherfield Parish Magazine ⇒ page
1927The Sussex Highlands ⇒ p. 42
1928Rotherfield - The Story of some Wealden Manors by Catharine PulleinOur Surroundings in 1597 p. ii; p. 148; p. 180

Historical records

c 1100HistoryChurch of RotherfeildeEeles' Frant
After William II had granted the Lordship of Rotherfield to Richard de Clare, the latter was succeeded by his son Gilbert who thereupon "granted and willingly confirmed … to the Church of St Andrew the Apostle of Rocicestre and the monks serving God in that place, the Church of Rotherfeilde with the Chapel of Frant …"

c 1100Historychurch of RederesfeldPullein's Rotherfield
The Charter of Gilbert, grandson of the first de Clare to hold the Manor, who died in 1152 AD - "Gilbert Earl of Hertford to all his friends and clerics and laymen as well French as English, greeting.
Be it known that I give and firmly grant Alured, son of Herebert priest of Rederesfeld the church of Rederesfeld after the decease of his father to hold as well and freely from me and my heirs with all customs and all liberties in plain and wood and all pastures in alms, as well and freely as his father himself has held it by night and by day from my grandfather and from my father and afterwards from me, paying from the said church yearly to S. Andrew of Rochester twenty shillings, which my grandfather settled to give therefrom in alms and for the church light."

c 1115Occupation Rector of RotherfieldHerebert N/KSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1152Occupation Rector of RotherfieldAlured N/KSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1180Occupation Rector of RotherfieldHerbert N/KSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1220Occupation Rector of RotherfieldGiles de HathfeldSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1250Occupation Rector of RotherfieldHenry de ReydoneSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1260 to 1273Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn de ChishullSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1273 to 1294Occupation Rector of RotherfieldBogo de ClareSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1300 to 1317Occupation Rector of RotherfieldThomas de CobehamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1320Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam de ShoteshamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1325Occupation Rector of RotherfieldVitalis de TestaSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1330Occupation Rector of RotherfieldSir John de WySt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1340Occupation Rector of RotherfieldThomas atte HetheSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1359 to 1363Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn de KenyntonSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1363 to 1372Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam DawtreySt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1372 to 1375Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam de WymondhamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1375 to 1385Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam HaghamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1385 to 1389Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam DurrantSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1389 to 1390Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn de WysbeckeSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1390 to 1405Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn de ShyllyngfordSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1405Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn ChayneSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1406 to 1430Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn BatheSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1430 to 1441Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam SpreverSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1441 to 1500Occupation Rector of RotherfieldElias HolcoteSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1500Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn SelbySt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1504Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn WippellSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1523Occupation ChurchwardenWilliam FowleSt. Denys Church

c 1530Occupation Rector of RotherfieldDr Hugh SaundersSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

21st Aug 1542Occupation ChurchwardenGabryell Allchorn, churchwardenSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

24th Jun 1544Occupation ChurchwardenThomas Allchorn, churchwarden, of Town RowSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1550Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam CollyerSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1553Occupation ChurchwardenAlexander FermorSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

before 1556HistoryChurchLower's Sussex
The Rectory is the Manor house of Dowlands Manor presented by Wm. Dowland, who several centuries ago endowed the Church with this Manor, the demesne of which was 366 acres. The glebe is now estimated at 110 acres.

c 1556Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn BaxterSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1570 to 1580Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam OvertonSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1580 to 1591Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn WickhamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1580 to 1604Occupation Curate of RotherfieldWilliam Burges, curate of RotherfieldSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1592 to 1612Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn Langworth, D.D.St. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1597Rotherfield surroundingsRotherfield surroundingsRotherfield ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1613 to 1643Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn CollinsSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1643 to 1658Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn LargeSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1659 to 1672Occupation Rector of RotherfieldJohn CawleySt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1667 to 1668Occupation ChurchwardenStephen SawyerSt. Denys ChurchGloria Bauer Ishida's records

1672 to 1691Occupation Rector of RotherfieldGeorge VintnerSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1692 to 1736OccupationRector of RotherfieldGeorge WenhamSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1725Occupation ChurchwardenStephen SawyerSt. Denys ChurchGloria Bauer Ishida's records

1736 to 1769Occupation Rector of RotherfieldThomas ReeveSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1766Occupation ChurchwardenJohn SawyerSt. Denys ChurchGloria Bauer Ishida's records

1769 to 1782Occupation Rector of RotherfieldWilliam TattonSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1782 to 1836Occupation Rector of RotherfieldRichard Crawley, M.A.St. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1785From the hill above the Rectory HouseFrom the hill above the Rectory House, Rotherfield by Samuel Grimm and James Lambert (The Burrell Collection)The Burrell Collection
Samuel Hieronymous Grimm (1733-1794), artist, was born in Switzerland, studied in Berne and Paris before moving to Covent Garden, London in 1768. Besides his work as a commercial engraver and watercolour painter he is best known for some 2,500 commissioned watercolurs of antiquities, historic buildings and landscapes in the British Library (MSS 15537-48). Throughout the 1780s he toured Sussex, sketching churches, monuments, castles, abbeys and houses of the gentry
James Lambert, senior, (1725-1788) and his nephew James Lambert, junior, (1744-1799) were both landscape painters living in Lewes, Sussex. Between them they produced over 600 items, ranging from pencil sketches to large oils.
William Burrell (1732-96), antiquary, was born in Leadenhall Street, London, educated at Westminster School and Cambridge University. He became Chancellor of Worcester and Rochester Dioceses, M.P. for Haslemere and a Commissioner of Excise. From 1780 he employed Samuel Grimm and the Lamberts to make drawings of all the notable antiquities and important houses in Sussex, which he bequeathed to the British Museum in his will.
for more information refer to Sussex Views by Walter H. Godfrey and L.F. Salzman and Sussex Depicted by John Farrant, both published by the Sussex Record Society.

1785Rotherfield Church from the Turnpike Gate at Mark CrossRotherfield Church from the Turnpike Gate at Mark Cross, watercolour (18.2 x 26.5 cm) painted by Samuel Hieronymus GrimmSamuel Hieronymus Grimm, topographical artist© British Library Board - Shelfmark: Additional MS 5671, Item number: f. 23 (no. 38)

1809Rotherfield ChurchRotherfield Church, Rotherfield by Paul Amsinck & engraved by Letitia ByrneLetitia ByrneAmsinck's Tunbridge Wells

1837 to 1856Occupation Rector of RotherfieldReverend Robert Gream, rector of RotherfieldSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

26th Feb 1839Rotherfield - 18391839 Rotherfield Tithe MapSt Denys Church

22nd Oct 1849DeathJonathan Streatfield, farmerSt. Denys ChurchRotherfield Burial Registers

1850View of St Denys' ChurchView of St Denys' Church, Rotherfield by Miss S.E. GreamPullein's Rotherfield

14th Mar 1855Adult christeningrecorded as John Dadswell Patching son of Ann PatcingJohn Patching Dadswell, farm labourerSt. Denys ChurchRotherfield Parish Registers

1856 to 1865Occupation Rector of RotherfieldThe Hon. Edward Vesey BlighSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1865 to 1883Occupation Rector of RotherfieldAlfred ChildSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1867Directory entrySt. Denys ChurchPost Office Directory
The church [St Denis] is a remnant of a monastery founded in the year 800, one year before the commencement of the reign of Egbert, by the monks of St. Denis in France, and dedicated to that saint, out of lands granted to them by Berkenhold, Duke of the South Saxons: it has a square tower with 5 bells, surmounted by a lofty spire: on the north side of the chancel is a baptistry belonging to the ancient family of Nevill, Lords of Abergavenny, whose cognizances, the saltier and portcullis, with occasionally grotesque masks, are placed in the angles of the squares into which the boarded ceiling of the baptistry is divided in the floor of the chancel are several monumental stones to the memory of the family of Fowls, and to several rectors of the parish: an elegant Gothic altar-table of Norway oak has presented by the family of the late Rev. Richard Crawley, who held the rectory during the long period of 54 years, and died in 1836: the churchwardens' accounts of vestments and other articles belonging to the church, commence with the first year of Henry VIII.: the chancel has been partly restored by the removal of accumulated coats of whitewash, and the sedilia and piscina restored to their destined purpose : the font was given by the late Earl of Abergavenny, and the ancient wooden cover restored, on one panel of which are the arms of the Nevill family, beautifully carved: in the western extremity of the north aisle is a monumental slab, without inscription, bearing in relief a double sword with cross hilts: upon partially removing the whitewash from the wall near the pulpit, a curious representation of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence was discovered, and it is probable that the other walls of the church were adorned with similar representations. The register dates from 1539. The living is a rectory, annual value £1,354, with residence and 110 acres of glebe (subject to the yearly payment of £100 per annum to the newly-formed district of Eridge Green), in the gift of the Earl of Abergavenny, and held by the Rev. Alfred Child, of Exeter College, Oxford - the Rev. James Watts, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge is curate.

c 1875Catts Corner, Town Row, Horse Grove & Cottage Hill, Rotherfield - c 1875Part of the 6 inch to 1 mile map of Sussex produced in 1875 by Ordnance SurveySt Denys Church

1882Directory entrySt. Denys ChurchKelly's Directory
The church of St. Denys, situated on a hill about 600 feet above the level of the sea, is a remnant of a monastery founded in the year 800, one year before the commencement of the reign of Egbert, by the monks of St. Denys in France, out of lands granted to them by Berkenhold, Duke of the South Saxons ; it is mostly an Early English building, but has insertions and additions in the Perpendicular style and consists of chancel with baptistery, nave, aisles and a tower with a lofty spire, containing 5 bells: on the north side of the chancel is a baptistery belonging to the ancient family of Nevill, Lords of Abergavenny, whose cognizances, the saltier and portcullis, appear on the boarded ceiling: on the floor of the chancel are several monumental stones to the family of Fowle and to several rectors of the parish: the chancel also retains its piscina and sedilia and has an alabaster reredos and a fine east window designed by Mr. Burne Jones: a communion table of Norway oak in the Gothic style was presented by the family of the late Rev. Richard Crawley, who held the rectory during a period of 54 years and died in 1836: the font was given by the late Earl of Abergavenny ; at the west end of the north aisle is a monumental slab, without inscription, bearing in relief a double sword with cross hilts: a curious representation of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence was discovered during a recent restoration on the wall near the pulpit. The register dates from the year 1539. The churchwarden's accounts begin from 1. Hen, VIII. (1509) and contain lists of vestments and other articles belonging to the church. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £1,150, with residence and 108 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Marquis of Abergavenny and held since 1865 by the Rev. Alfred Child M.A.. of Exeter College, Oxford ; the Rev. Robert George R. Penny M.A. of Oriel College, Oxford, is curate in charge

1889 to 1898Occupation Rector of RotherfieldFrederick Wildman GoodwynSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

1890St Denys ChurchSt Denys Church, RotherfieldFirmin's Guide

1898 to 1912Occupation Rector of RotherfieldFrancis Weldon ChampneysSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1899Rotherfield, Sussex - c 1899Part of the 6 inch to 1 mile map of Sussex produced in 1899 by Ordnance SurveySt Denys Church

1905Rotherfield from Cottage HillRotherfield from Cottage HillSt. Denys ChurchPrivate collection

c 1910St Denys ChurchSt Denys Church, Rotherfield photographed by Vigor, RotherfieldPrivate collection

1st Feb 1913Occupation Rector of RotherfieldAlbert Frederick ThornhillSt. Denys ChurchPullein's Rotherfield

c 1920St Denys Church and Lych GateSt Denys Church and Lych Gate, RotherfieldBill Chewter's records

c 1920Interior of St Denys ChurchInterior of St Denys Church, Rotherfield photographed by H. H. Camburn, Tunbrdige WellsBill Chewter's records

c 1920Interior, St Denys ChurchInterior, St Denys Church, RotherfieldPrivate collection

1928St Denys ChurchSt Denys Church, Rotherfield photographed by P. Dengate, RotherfieldPrivate collection

2001TodaySt Denys Church

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