A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



disputes also in 1279 about Datchet 1 and Little Kimble. 2 A year or so 

 later, when Oliver Sutton became bishop of Lincoln, there was more 

 trouble about Turville, because no proctor was sent to represent the 

 church at the synod held at Aylesbury ; and the bishop ordered the 

 sequestration of the fruits in consequence. The sequestration was only 

 removed after an appeal to the Court of Arches. 3 



The parochial chapels of this period seem to deserve a special notice, 

 though they were probably not more numerous in Buckinghamshire 

 than in other parts of the country. It is most likely that nearly all 

 good sized hamlets had their own chapels, dependent on the parish 

 church, and served thence by chaplains either daily or three times a 

 week, according to the value of the endowment.* At a time when 

 frequent assistance at mass was considered to be a part of the ordinary 

 Christian duty of all men, secular or religious, gentle or simple, the 

 badness of the roads and the floods of winter would have been a serious 

 hindrance both to the lord of the manor and his tenants, unless these 

 chapels had been provided. Occasionally, as time went on, they were 

 further endowed, and became either free chapels or parish churches ; if 

 they were not re-endowed, they usually became unable to support a 

 chaplain in the fourteenth century after the Great Pestilence. 



The principal ones in this county were : 



In the parish of Oakley : Brill, Boarstall and Edingrave " ; in the 

 parish of Haddenham : Cuddington and Kingsey 8 ; in the parish of 

 Aylesbury : Bierton, Buckland, Stoke Mandeville and Quarrendon 7 ; 

 in the parish of Chesham : Hundridge, 8 Chesham Bois 9 and Latimer 10 ; 



1 Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. 440-2. 

 " Ibid. 447. 



3 A rather interesting point of jurisdiction came up in connexion with the sequestration. It was 

 carried out by John de Clare, vicar and dean of Wycombe, by the bishop's orders, in spite of warnings 

 from the abbot of Waltham, acting in defence of St. Alban's. In consequence of this, the abbot of 

 Waltham, through the vicars of Winslow and Little Horwood, declared John to be excommunicate. 

 But the official of the archdeacon of Buckingham replied by ordering the vicars of Hughenden, Med- 

 menham and Penn to announce publicly in the church of High Wycombe that this sentence was null : 

 inasmuch as a dean could not be excommunicated by persons who had no jurisdiction, ordinary or dele- 

 gate, over him. And therefore he impleaded those two vicars. Ibid. 457. 



4 There is a Roll among the Lincoln Registers containing a list of parish churches and chapels in 

 the county of Leicester, made out in preparation for the Taxatio of 1291, and showing which chapels had 

 resident chaplains and which were served only on certain days in the week : three times was certainly 

 the average, though a few were served only once or twice. The chapels are very numerous, and many 

 churches have two, three or four. The duties of a visiting chaplain are given in Cur. Reg. R. 2 John 24, 

 n. 26. See V.C.H. Beds, i. 318-9. 



5 All three mentioned in the twelfth century at the first endowment of St. Frideswide's Abbey, 

 Edingrave, is last mentioned in the fourteenth century during the time of Bishop Burghersh. Kennet, 

 Parochial Antiquities (ed. 1818), i. 536. 



' Both in existence in the time of Bishop Hugh of Wells. 



7 All mentioned in Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton Ii8d. Stoke Mandeville has a doorway of the 

 Norman period. 



8 In existence before the reign of John, Cur. Reg. R. 2 John 24, n. 26. It still stands, and has one 

 window in the perpendicular style, so it was probably used at any rate till the fourteenth century. Re- 

 cords of Bucks, i. 126. 



First mentioned inFeetof F. (Rec. Com.), 4 John, p. 253, and had then been standing some time. 



10 Records of Bucks, vi. 37, where the history of the chapel is fully dealt with. It may be mentioned 

 here that there is no sort of doubt that the original dedication of this chapel was to St. James j it occurs 

 several times in the Lincoln Registers, as it afterwards became a free chapel. 



286 



