Place:Bircholt Barony and Franchise, Kent, England

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Bircholt from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BIRCHOLT, or Birchall, a parish and a franchise in Kent. The parish is in East Ashford [registration] district, and lies 2½ miles N of Smeeth [railway] station, and 4½ E by S of Ashford. Post Town: Smeeth, under Ashford. Acres: 298. Real property: £470. Population: 30. Houses: 7. The property is divided between two. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value: £50. Patron: E. Knatchbull Hugessen, Esq.

"The franchise, called also a barony, is in the lathe of Shepway; and contains four parishes and part of another. Acres: 10,482. Population: 2,271. Houses: 461."

Bircholt Barony and Bircholt Franchise are both labelled "half hundred" in A Vision of Britain through Time. The following definition also comes from A Vision of Britain through Time.

"A barony is historically the tenure (piece of land) given directly from the monarch to a man, thereafter called a baron, who has gained military or other 'honourable' prestige. The medieval barony was created through a writ of summons, directing the person to Parliament. Today baronies are created by letter patent, but the modern baronies are no longer directly related to land ownership. The Medieval baron had the administrative and judicial powers to govern his land and its occupants, though he remained a vassal of the King. There was no average size for the territory of a barony."

There is no definition for a franchise.

The two area both include four of the six parishes listed below and are adjacent to each other (see the map on the Shepway Lathe page. It has been decided to combine the two areas into a single one.

Parishes

Research tips

• Kent County Council Archive, Local Studies and Museums Service. James Whatman Way, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LQ. This incorporates the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone and the East Kent Archives Centre near Dover.
• Canterbury Cathedral Archives see the Archives web pages on the Canterbury Catherdral site.
• For information on the area around the Medway Towns, have a look at Medway Council's CityArk site.
• Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Kent illustrates the parish boundaries of Kent when rural districts were still in existence and before Greater London came into being. The map publication year is 1931. An earlier map of 1900 may also be useful. The maps blow up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
• Census records for Kent are available on FamilySearch, Ancestry and FindMyPast. The first site is free; the other two are pay sites but have access to microfilmed images. Steve Archer produced a very useful round-up of the available sources, but this information may not be up to date.
• Registration Districts in Kent for the period 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.
• England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911 The full database from Kent Archives Office, Maidstone, has been available online from FamilySearch since June 2016.
• Kent had five family history societies (now only four):

• Kent FHS (serves the whole county)
• Folkestone & District FHS (serves the southeast corner)
• North West Kent FHS (serves the western area of present-day Kent)
• Tunbridge Wells FHS (ceased operation 31 Dec 2016; see North West Kent)
• Woolwich & District FHS (serves eastern sections of Greater London which were in Kent until 1966)

• Volume 2 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1926) is available online through the auspices of British History Online. It includes accounts of the early history of Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals, and of several sites now within the conurbation of London.
• Volume 3 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1932) This includes the text of, and the index to, the Kent Domesday survey. It has been provided by the Kent Archaeological Society.
• In place of the other volumes of the Victoria County History, British History Online has transcriptions of the numerous volumes of The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent by Edward Hasted (originally published 1797)
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, is particularly helpful in locating parishes in large ancient towns and cities like Canterbury.
• Kent Probate Records Numerous links provided by Maureen Rawson
• GENUKI lists other possible sources, however, it does not serve Kent so well as it does some other counties.