Rye Sussex Family History Guide

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Rye is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Sussex.

Parish church: 

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1538
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1606

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Calvinist, French Church, Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Presbyterian, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

RYE, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Sussex. The town stands on the river Rother, near the outlet of the Military canal, and on the Ashford and Hastings railway, 2½ miles N of the Rother’s mouth, 3 W of the boundary with Kent, and 9½ NE by E of Hastings; was surrounded, in the Roman times, by the sea, but was afterwards gradually deserted by it; was given by the Confessor to Fécamp abbey, in France; became, at an early period, one of the Cinque ports; was fortified, in the time of Stephen, by William de Ypres, Earl of Kent; reverted to the Crown in the time of Henry III.; derived great and permanent advantage from the inundation of 1287, which began to bring the Rother from its old course through the marshes to run this way.

It sent 9 ships to the siege of Calais in the time of Edward III.; was burnt by the French in 1377 and 1447; was visited by Henry VII. in 1487, by Elizabeth in 1573, by Charles II. in 1673, by George I. in 1725, by George II. in 1736; received French refugees, as settlers, after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and after the revocation of the edict of Nantes; had, as a vicar, Bishop Fletcher of Bristol, and as a native, John Fletcher the dramatist.

It is a borough by prescription, and was first chartered by the Confessor; sent two members to parliament from the time of Henry III. till 1832, and now sends one; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; consists municipally of only part of R. parish, but includes parliamentarily the rest of that parish, all East Guildford, Icklesham, Iden, Peasmarsh, Playden, and Winchelsea, and parts of Udimore and Brede; is a head port, a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; publishes two weekly newspapers; has undergone some revival of prosperity, after a long period of decline.

It occupies the slopes and skirts of a steep uneven rock, at the margin of a great expanse of marsh; presents an antiquated appearance, with narrow, winding, grass-grown streets; and has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a town hall and market house, a jail and police station, a custom-house, a remaining gate of its ancient walls, three bridges, a railway swing bridge, a church, four dissenting chapels, remains of ancient Carmelite and Augustinian friaries, an endowed grammar school with £100 a year, a national school, alms-houses, and a workhouse.

The town hall and market-place are a neat brick building. The jail and police station are a renovated tower or fortalice of the defences built by W. de Ypres; and the jail has capacity for 10 male and 4 female prisoners. The church is large and cruciform, partly Norman, partly early English; has a Norman central tower; and contains some brasses and monuments. A corn and cattle market is held on every alternate Wednesday; and a fair, on 10 Aug.

A great trade exists in wool, corn, hops, timber, and oak bark; ship-building is carried on; works for making concrete blocks are at the harbour; and kettle-nets, for catching mackerel and other fish, are on the shore. The harbour has been much improved by cutting a new channel to the sea, and blocking out the old one; and it receives vessels of 200 tons. A wooden pier is on the E side of the mouth, and has two fixed lights, 420 feet apart, 36 and 26 feet high; and an embankment is on the W side, leaving an entrance 160 feet wide.

The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 51 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 1,166 tons; 51 large sailing-vessels, of aggregately 5,128 tons; and 1 steam-vessel, of 21 tons. The vessels which entered in 1863, were 11 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 853 tons, from foreign countries; 26 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 2,762 tons, from foreign countries; 1 British steam-vessel, of 497 tons, from foreign countries; and 487 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 37,183 tons, coastwise.

The vessels which cleared, in 1863, were 1 British sailing-vessel, of 30 tons, to foreign countries; 9 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 1,345 tons, to foreign countries; and 45 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 2,883 tons, coastwise. The amount of customs, in 1862, was £236. Corporation revenue, about £980. Amount of property and income tax charged in 1863, £3,170.

Electors in 1833, 422; in 1863, 383. Pop. of the m. borough in 1851, 4,071; in 1861, 3, 738. Houses, 787. Pop. of the p. borough in 1851, 8,541; in 1861, 8,202. Houses, 1,684. The parish comprises 2,313 acres. Real property, £17,017; of which £130 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 4,592; in 1861, 4,288. Houses, 858. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £410. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire.

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

Historical Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Sussex
  • Civil Registration District: Rye
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) of Chichester for the Archdeaconry of Lewes
  • Diocese: Chichester
  • Rural Deanery: Hastings
  • Poor Law Union: Rye
  • Hundred: Rye Borough
  • Province: Canterbury