1831 5540 (Of whom 3021 were females) 1839 4,764 801 Main Body 1841 6,616 Entire Parish 1841 6,887 Main Body 1861 19,600 3,125 Of Entire Parish 1861 24,615 3,793 Ditto 1871 67,218 Ditto 1880 15,208 Including 13,202 in Penge Hamlet. Main Body, not including Penge 1877 79,000 11,500 In 1840 the rateable value was about £28,000. In 1856 the rateable value was about £79,100. In 1876 the rateable value was about £331,846. In 1880 the rateable value was about £416,000. Anno Domini 1658, the Hamlet of Penge, seven miles from the Parish Church, contained twelve families. The Commissioners who were vested with power to unite or separate parishes did nothing in this case, they could not find a convenient place in the Hundred or County to unite it to. The nearest place of public worship was Beckingham in Kent, about a mile distant. [Footnote 1: An alteration has been made in the Diocesan arrangement. Since 1877, Battersea together with other parishes in East and Mid-Surrey has been added to the See of Rochester, and therefore is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of that Diocese. The See of Rochester was founded A.D. 604. St. Augustin or Austin (the first Bishop of Canterbury A.D. 598). Consecrated Justus, the first Bishop of Rochester. The See of West Saxons (afterwards Winchester, A.D. 705) was founded A.D. 635. The first (arch) Bishop of London was Theanus, A.D. 176 (?). Battersea is now considered to be of sufficient importance to be made a Rural Deanery, and Canon Clarke, the Rural Dean. Southwark Archdeaconry. "Diocese (Fr. from Gr. dioikesis, administration and dioikeo, to govern) the territory over which a bishop exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction. At first, a diocese meant the collection of churches or congregations under the charge of an archbishop. The name came afterwards to be applied to the charge of a bishop, which had previously been called a parish. England and Wales are divided ecclesiastically into two Provinces, viz., Canterbury and York, the former being presided over by the Primate of all England, and the latter by the Primate of England, each of which is sub-divided into dioceses, and these again into Archdeaconries and Rural Deaneries and Parishes. A Diocese is synonymous with the See of a Suffragan bishop." (Chamber's Encyclopedia). In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury has the right of crowning the King, and the Archbishop of York the right of crowning the Queen.