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- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Harty is a small hamlet on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England consisting of a few cottages, a church and a public house, the Ferry Inn (a Grade II listed building). At the 2011 Census the population of the hamlet was included in the civil parish of Leysdown.
During the middle ages there were extensive salt workings. Remains today consist of groups of salt mounds which are the waste left over from the process.
In 1798 Edward Hasted in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (link below) recorded that the islet was part of the Hundred of Faversham unlike the rest of the island of Sheppey which came within Milton Hundred. There were also 4000 sheep and six cottages with 20 people, but of those 20 six were on permanent poor relief and another 3 occasionally so.
Harty was originally an ancient parish in the Faversham Hundred. Between 1894 and 1974 it was part of the Sheppey Rural District. In 1968 it was absorbed into the parish of Leysdown. Since 1974 the area is covered by the non-metropolitan Swale District.
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of the Isle of Harty from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- "HARTY (ISLE OF), a parish in Sheppey [registration] district, Kent; on the Swale, 4 miles N by E of Faversham [railway] station. Post town: Queensborough, under Sittingbourne. Acres: 3,488; of which 860 are water. Real property: £4,120. Population in 1851: 118; in 1861, 159. Houses: 26. The property is divided among a few. The greater part of the land belongs to the families of Hilton, Munn, and Ridley. The parish once was an island; but now is separated from the rest of Sheppey by only a broad ditch. Part of the land is high; much is romantic; and many points command picturesque views. Game abounds on the land; and oyster beds are in the Swale. Traces of Roman occupation have been found; and there are many tumuli, of uncertain origin. A ferry, about 2 miles wide at high water, connects the parish with Oare. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Leysdown, in the diocese of Canterbury. The church is ancient but good; belonged once to the Benedictine priory of Davington; and contains a curious oak chest, of decorated character, representing a tilt between two knights."
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):
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- 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.
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