The church was built around 1050 AD, with the tower about a hundred years later, and the transepts in the 16th century by Sir Roger Manwood.

The church and parish are mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) where the village is called Latintone, a name subsequently corrupted to Hackington.

The population of the ecclesiastical parish (according to the Research & Statistics Unit of the Church of England in 2020) is 9,309 people living in 2,724 households.

[8] An early sixteenth century house and estate, owned by the Archdeacon of Canterbury, and located in the parish of Hackington, fell into the hands of the Crown at the Reformation, and was given to Sir Roger Manwood.

[5] Manwood endowed the community's almshouses (still extant), and carried out extensions and repairs to the parish church of St Stephen, in which he is buried.