A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



rity : Edward VI. did not die till 6 July, but on 30 July a mass book 

 was bought, and on the same page of the Churchwardens' Accounts it 

 is noted that two vestments were procured and new altar linen hallowed 

 for use. 1 This prompt action was no doubt partly due to the influence 

 of Sir William Dormer, to whom the advowson of the church belonged : 

 he had been among the first in the county to proclaim Mary as queen. 2 

 There were probably others to whom the change was equally welcome : 

 five churches at least in this county (Taplow, Little Missenden, Thorn- 

 borough, Cublington, and Latimer) were still served by monks who had 

 received livings by way of pension, 3 and it was likely that they would 

 favour the old way rather than the new ; the vicar of Willen also was 

 an old chantry priest. 4 On the whole, however, it would be natural to 

 expect that in this county the reconciliation with Rome was accepted 

 rather of necessity than goodwill the records of the following reign 

 show that those principles which had once been popular only amongst 

 the lower classes had made way amongst the gentry of the county during 

 the time of Edward VI. There is, nevertheless, no record of persecu- 

 tion here or in any other part of the diocese of Lincoln ; and the 

 general visitation of Cardinal Pole in 1556 discovered none amongst 

 clergy or laity who were persistently unwilling to conform. 



This visitation, though it had as one object the discovery of heretics, 

 was directed mainly to the securing of decency and order in the services 

 of the church. 5 In Buckinghamshire nine chancels were in great need 

 of repair ; in two cases (Mursley* and Weston Turville 7 ) by the default 

 of the rector, who was ordered to do his duty as soon as possible ; at 

 Cuddington 8 by the neglect of the dean and chapter of Rochester, at 

 Datchet 9 by default of the college of Windsor ; the remaining five 

 churches 10 had just passed to the cardinal himself by the queen's gift, so 



1 Churchwardens' Accounts, f. 55. 



a Clifford, Life of Jane Dormer (Quarterly Series), 48. Sir William Dormer's mother was Jane 

 Newdigate, sister of one of the Carthusian martyrs of 1535. His daughter Jane was in the service of 

 Princess Mary, and married the Duke of Feria, the Spanish ambassador : when she went to Spain in 1559, 

 her house became a refuge for English Roman Catholics. See S. P. Dom. Eliz. ix. 43, xii. 63, cclxxxiv. 26. 



3 P.R.O. Exch. Mins. Accts., Bundle 76, No. 26. Taplow was served by a canon of Merton, 

 Little Missenden by a canon of Shrewsbury, Thornborough by a monk of Biddlesden, Cublington by a 

 canon of Chicksand, and Latimer by a canon of Dunstable (the last of these was married). The Vicar of 

 Kingsey, which is not now a part of Buckinghamshire, was a monk of Reading. 



He had been cantarist of Newport Pagnel. The same record, dated 1553-4, shows twelve of 

 the chantry or gild priests of this county still in receipt of small pensions varying from 3 to 6 : it was 

 as much as many of them had received before the Act of Suppression, but it no longer included a house 

 or lodging, which made a very great difference. Only one of them, the chantry priest of Amersham, 

 that ancient centre of heresy, had married on .3 a year, and ' none other living ! ' The rector of 

 Latimer chapel, a former canon of Dunstable, had also married. (Exch. Mins. Accts., Bundle 76, 

 No. 26). 



5 The questions to be put referred to the state of the fabric of churches, the number of heretics, 

 the number of married clergy or religious, whether churches were properly supplied with roods, images 

 and churchwardens, whether confessions and communions were made regularly, whether immorality 

 and witchcraft were common, whether the clergy were faithful in doing their duty. Strype, Ecclesias- 

 tical Memorials, iii. 41 1. 



6 Ibid. 400. i Ibid. 398. Ibid. 399. Ibid. 397. 



10 Bradwell, Olney, Ivinghoe, Swanbourne, Dorney: all originally belonging to religious houses 

 (ibid. 397, 400). Swanbourne chancel had been out of repair in 1519, but not in 1530 ; Bradwell and 

 Ivinghoe were in good repair in 1519, when so many churches were ruinous. 



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