Bexley, a village and a parish in the union and county court district of Dartford, Kent. The village stands on the Cray river and on the S.E.R., 13 miles from London, and 5 W of Dartford, and once gave the title of Baron to the Vansittarts. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The civil parish includes Bexley-Heath and three hamlets. Acreage, 5328; population of the civil parish, 10,605; of the ecclesiastical, 3188. The manor belonged in the Saxon times to the see of Canterbury; was alienated by Henry VIII.; granted by James I. to Sir John Spielman; sold by Spielman to Camden the antiquary; and bequeathed by Camden to University College, Oxford, for maintaining a professorship of history. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £l 20. The church is chiefly Early English, with later windows. It was carefully restored in 1882-83. The vicarage of Bexley-Heath and the vicarage of Lamorbey are separate benefices. There are Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational chapels.
