Kington Herefordshire Family History Guide

Kington is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Herefordshire. Brilley is a chapelry of Kington.

Other places in the parish include: Barton, Barton, Bradnor and Rushock, Both Hergests, Bradnor, Chickward, Rushock, Lilwall, Pembers Oak and Chickward, New Kington, Old and New Kington, Old Kington, Pembers Oak, and Lilwall.

Parish church: St. Michael

Parish registers begin: 1667

Nonconformists include: Particular Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

• Huntington
• Knill
• Brilley
• Titley
• Lyonshall
• Eardisley
• Presteigne
• Old Radnor
• Gladestry

Parish History

Kington

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

KINGTON, a small town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in the district of Presteigne and county of Hereford. The town stands on the river Arrow, at the terminus of the Leominster and Kington railway, amid a zone of steep wooded hills, 2½ miles E of the boundary with Wales, and 13 W by S of Leominster; had a castle for defence of the borders against the Welsh; was visited by Charles II., immediately before the battle of Worcester; had a barn theatre in which Mrs. Siddons made her first appearance on any stage.

It is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; consists chiefly of four well formed streets; presents a modern, clean, and respectable appearance; is much visited by strangers, for the sporting waters and the picturesque scenery in its neighbourhood; and has a head post office, a railway station, two banking offices, a chief inn, a market house, a police station, a church, three dissenting chapels, a free grammar school, national schools, a workhouse, and charities about £100.

The church stands on an eminence; is in the early English style; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with about 1,200 sittings; and includes an ancient side chapel, surmounted by handsome tower and spire, and containing a fine alabaster tomb to the memory of Thomas Vaughan, Esq. The grammar school adjoins the church; was founded, in 1619, by Lady Hawkins; and has an endowed income of £225.

A weekly market is held on Wednesday; and fairs are held on the Wednesday before 2 Feb., Easter Wednesday, Whit-Monday, 2 Aug., 19 Sept., 11 Oct., and 25 Dec. Woollen cloth manufacture was formerly prominent, but is extinct; glove making also was important, but has much declined; and malting, tanning, nailmaking, and iron founding are now carried on. The township contains the town; and is divided into New K. and Old K. Real property of New K., £7, 827, of which £314 are on the railway, and £125 in gas works; of Old K., £1,435. Pop. of the whole, in 1851, 1,939; in 1861, 2,178. Houses, 437.

The parish contains also the township of Both-Hergests, the t. of Lilwall, Pembers Oak, and Chickward, and the t. of Barton, Bradnor, and Rushock. Acres, 8,313. Real property, £15,585. Pop., 3,076. Houses, 632. Bradnor Hill, immediately N of the town, is crowned by ancient remains, which have been regarded, by some antiquaries, as Drnidical; by others, as a link in a chain of forts along a considerable extent of frontier; by others, as an ancient camp debateably British, Roman, or Saxon. The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Hunnington, in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £520. Patron, the Bishop of Worcester. The sub-district contains also four other parishes. Acres, 24,849. Pop., 6,296. Houses, 1,308.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Kington. 155 miles W. London. Mrkt. Wed. P. 3131.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

KINGTON (St. Michael), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Huntington, county of Hereford; comprising the townships of Barton with Bradnor and Rushock, Both-Hergests, and Lilwall with Pembers-Oak and Chickward; and containing 3131 inhabitants, of whom 2091 are in the town, 19 miles (W. N. W.) from Hereford, and 154 (W. by N.) from London.

This town, which is of considerable antiquity, is situated on the banks of the river Arrow, and consists of two spacious streets. Charles II. is said to have visited it prior to the fatal battle of Worcester, and to have slept at an inn then called the Lion, but now the Talbot. In a barn still standing, the celebrated tragic actress, Mrs. Siddons, made her first appearance on the stage.

The manufacture of woollencloth, which was formerly carried on, has entirely ceased; and glove-making, which, until a recent period, furnished employment to a considerable number of the inhabitants, has much declined. There are, however, an iron-foundry, a nail-manufactory, and an extensive tannery; and stone of good quality for building is quarried. A railroad has been constructed from the foundry to Brecon, joining the canal at Newport, and extending to the lime rocks at Old Radnor.

Here is a good market for provisions on Wednesday; and fairs are held on the Wednesdays before Candlemas-day and Easter, on Whit-Monday, August 2nd, and September 4th, for horses and cattle. Courts leet and baron for the manor, at the former of which a bailiff is appointed, take place annually; and the county magistrates hold petty-sessions for the hundred of Huntington every Friday. The powers of the county debt-court of Kington, established in 1847, extend over the greater part of the registration-district of Presteign and Kington, and over the parish of Almeley.

The parish comprises by measurement 6733 acres, of which about 500 are coppice-wood, 1600 open common, and the remainder inclosed and under cultivation. The soil is various; on the east and south of the town a reddish clayey loam, and to the north and west light and gravelly: the surface is generally hilly, and the lower grounds are watered by the river Arrow and a stream called Back Brook, which are both well stocked with trout, and which unite a little below the town.

The living is a vicarage, with the rectories of Huntington and Michael-Church, and the vicarage of Brilley, valued in the king’s books at £25. 2. 11.; net income, £666; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Hereford. The church, an ancient structure in the early English style, was enlarged and thoroughly repaired in 1829. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans. A free grammar school was founded pursuant to the will of Lady Hawkins, who in 1619 bequeathed money for the purchase of an estate, now producing £224 per annum.

The union of Kington comprises 26 parishes or places, 11 being in the county of Hereford, and 15 in that of Radnor, Wales; the whole population amounts to 15,738. On Bradnor Hill, about a mile north of the town, are traces of an ancient camp: there is a rocky eminence in the vicinity, called Castle Hill; and about a mile to the west of the town is a mound, which was once fortified. These works are supposed to have formed parts of a series of strongholds between Huntington Castle and the castle of Lyon’s Hall, to the south of the parish.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Universal British Directory 1791

Kington, or Kyneton, on the river Arrow, is 146 miles from London. It is a pretty large well-built old town, inhabited chiefly by clothiers, who drive a considerable trade in narrow cloth. It has a market on Wednesday, one of the best in the county; with a free-school, and a charity-school. Its fairs are Wednesday before Easter, Whit-Monday, July 22, and Sept. 13. The markets on Wednesday before Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, are so considerable for corn, cattle, leather, home-made linen and woollen cloth, and all sorts of provisions, that they are more like fairs.

Source: Universal British Directory 1791

Barton

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Barton, in Kington parish. P. 426.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Both-Hergests

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Both-Hergests, a township in the parish of Kington, hund. of Huntington, county of Hereford; 2½ miles south-west of Kington. Pop., in 1801, 124; in 1831, 159. Houses 34. Other returns with the parish.

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Both-Hergests, in Kington parish. P. 244.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Bradnor

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Bradnor, included in Kington par.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Chickward

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Chickward, in Kington par. P. 381.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Lilwall

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Lilwall, incl. in Kington parish.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Pembers Oak

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Pembers-Oak, incl. in Kington par.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Rushock

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Rustrock [sic], incl. in Kington parish.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Bankrupts

Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.

Mason Edward, Kington, Herefordshire, innkeeper, Jan. 22, 1839.

Wilson John, Kington, Herefordshire, bookseller and printer, Sept. 13, 1839.

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Herefordshire Historical Directories

Administration

• County: Herefordshire
• Civil Registration District: Presteigne
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Hereford
• Rural Deanery: Weobley
• Poor Law Union: Kington
• Hundred: Huntington
• Province: Canterbury