APPENDIX I 



ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTY 



THE original churches of Buckinghamshire were in all probability subject at first to the 

 West Saxon bishops of Dorchester (afterwards of Winchester) l : and when the con- 

 quests of Offa in the eighth century transferred this district to the Mercian kingdom, 

 Dorchester again became its ecclesiastical centre. 3 The boundaries of this new Mercian 

 diocese varied no doubt a good deal during the period of Danish invasion ; but it would always 

 have included at least the counties of Buckingham and Oxford : and when after the Conquest 

 the ' bishop's stool ' was transferred to Lincoln, these two counties suffered no change of 

 jurisdiction. 



It was proposed at the dissolution of monasteries to make a new diocese, including Bed- 

 fordshire and Buckinghamshire, 3 but as a matter of fact both remained a part of the diocese 

 of Lincoln till 1837, when the latter was transferred to Oxford. 1 



It is generally agreed that the archdeaconries were first divided during the episcopate 

 of Rmy ; that is to say, towards the close of the eleventh century ; but the further sub- 

 division into rural deaneries is more difficult to date. It seems not improbable that the rural 

 deans were in existence as recognized officials some time before their territorial limits were 

 fixed. We hear of a dean of Thornborough in the twelfth century 6 ; but this place does not 

 appear among the names of deaneries mentioned in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV. These 

 are Buckingham, Newport, Wendover, Burnham, Wycombe, Mursley, Risborough and Waddes- 

 don, eight in all. 6 They contained one hundred and eighty-six parishes. 7 The same number 

 of deaneries existed in 1535, and very nearly the same number of parishes, but there are some 

 changes in the distribution of the latter. The two prebendal churches of Buckingham and 

 Aylesbury, which in the Taxatio are placed after the churches in the Burnham deanery, are 

 givan in the Valor Ecclesiasticus to the deaneries of Buckingham and Wendover respectively.* 

 The four churches belonging to the abbey of St. Albans, not mentioned at all in the Taxatio, 

 are set by themselves in the Valor as ' within the jurisdiction of the Abbot of St. Albans.' 

 These four Winslow, Grandborough, Aston Abbots and Little Horwood remained in the 

 archdeaconry of St. Albans until the redistribution in 1837. 



At the revival of the rural deaneries in the last century the old divisions were retained, 

 with the exception of the deanery of Risborough ; its two churches, Monks Risborough and 

 Halton, being assigned to Wendover. At this time the deanery of Buckingham contained 27 

 parishes, that of Burnham 26, Mursley 28, Newport 44, Waddesdon 26, Wendover 25, Wy- 

 combe 17 ; 193 in all. 10 There were a few minor changes in 1853, of which the most impor- 

 tant was the removal of the chapels of Hornton and Horley, so long connected with the prebend 

 of Sutton-cum-Buckingham, altogether out of the jurisdiction of this archdeaconry. 11 In 

 1855 there was a reconstruction of the rural deaneries, which were made thirteen 13 in number. 



Buckingham . 



Claydon 



Amersham 



containing 16 parishes. 

 *8 



16 



i Canon Bright, Early English Church History, 147-8, 263. > Ibid. 310-11. 



3 Cole, King Henry VIII 's scheme of Bishopricks, 60-6. 

 London Gazette, 30 May, 1837. 



11 In a charter connected with Luffield Priory. Dugdale, Man. iv. 351. See V. C. H. Beds, \. 347. 

 8 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com), 32-4 



' One hundred and seventy are named in the Taxatio, of which two were probably not parish churches 

 at all (Tattenhoe and Evershaw) ; and eighteen are omitted. 



s Valor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv. 215-252. Ibid. iv. 231. 



Clergy List, 1841. " Ibid. 1853. " Ibid. 1855-6. 



344 



