A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



The church plate consists of a modern chalice, a 

 standing paten of 1715, and a plated flagon. 



The first book of the registers contains marriages 

 from 1560 to 1721, baptisms from 1567 to 1722, and 

 burials from 1560 to 1722. The second book 

 contains all entries from 1723, marriages running to 

 1754 and the rest to 1752. A third book contains all 

 entries from 175410 1812. 



The church of ST. LEONARD is a small plain 

 plastered building with a nave and chancel of equal 

 width, 1 6 ft. 3 in., and without any structural division, 

 the chancel being 24ft. 3 in. long and the nave 25 ft. 

 3 in. The latter is continued I oft. further west to 

 inclose a bell turret. There is a north porch to the 

 chancel and a south-west porch to the nave. Little 

 can be said of the history of the church. The earliest 

 remains are a piscina and one sedile in the chancel 

 which apparently date from the middle of the 141)1 

 century and may not be in their original position, as 

 there is evidence that a second seat adjoined the 

 single one which remains. The nave roof looks like 

 ijth-century work, but can hardly be older than 

 the repairs made by Cornelius Wood late in the 

 1 7th century. The windows are all modern or so 

 much altered that their date is matter for conjec- 

 ture only, and the chancel roof and the porches 

 are modern. 



The east window of the chancel is of three cinque- 

 foiled lights under a four-centred head, and on its 

 sill is set an embattled cornice, which is all that 

 remains of a 15th-century reredos. On the north 

 of the chancel is a pointed doorway which has been 

 reset inside out and plastered so that its date is doubt- 

 ful. At the east end of the south wall of the chancel 

 is a cinquefoiled piscina ranging with a single sedile 

 of the same detail, both having moulded labels ; 

 the start of the label of a second seat is to be seen. 

 The bowl of the piscina projected from the wall 

 face, but has been cut back. West of this is a 

 window of two cinquefoiled lights under a four- 

 centred head. 



The nave is lit by three windows, two on the 

 north and one on the south. The latter, towards 

 the east, is of two cinquefoiled lights under a four- 

 centred head and opposite to it in the north wall 

 is a similar window. The second north window is 

 a single three-centred uncusped light under a square 

 head. The south door, very plain, is modern of 

 14th-century detail. 



West of the nave is the bell-cot around which a 

 thin wall in continuation of the nave walls has been 

 built, the old west wall being destroyed and a modern 

 window set in the new west wall. 



The fittings are modern including the font which is 

 octagonal in form, with a slender stem and traceried 

 bowl. On the north wall of the nave is a marble monu- 

 ment with a pilastered entablature surmounted by a 

 skull set up in memory of Mr. Seth Wood 

 and Elizabeth his wife by their eldest son Cornelius 

 Wood in 1707 ; it bears a note to the effect 

 that another son John Wood was minister at 

 St. Leonard's for 30 years. The arms of Wood are : 

 crusilly three demi-woodhouses proper ; crest an oak 



tree. On the south wall is a large florid monument 

 to Cornelius Wood, who died 1712 aged seventy-five, 

 and was colonel of a regiment of horse and lieutenant- 

 general in the army of Queen Anne. On the tomb is 

 an armed bust surrounded by warlike trophies and 

 flanked by cherubs blowing trumpets. Over it are 

 hung a funeral helmet, gauntlets, and crest. In the 

 chancel is a small monument to Samuel Baldwin, 1760, 

 and another to Mary Willis 1704, daughter of 

 Joseph Willis, minister, bearing the arms : a cheveron 

 between three mullets. 



The bell-cot contains one bell. 



The church plate consists of a communion cup and 

 cover paten of 1612, a second cup of 1814, and a 

 standing paten inscribed as the gift of R. Penn, esq., 

 and hall-marked for 1775. 



Only one book of registers exists, which contains 

 baptisms and burials from 1738 and marriages from 

 1739, all entries running to 1812. This book con- 

 tains a few sheets stamped for the threepenny duty 

 imposed on entries in registers from 1783 to 1794. 



The church of Aston Clinton is 

 JDfOirSON a rectory, and till the i8th century 

 the advowson was presumably held 

 by the lords of the chief manor in Aston Clinton. It 

 is not, however, mentioned in any document during 

 the Clinton tenure of the manor, nor in the regrant 

 m.ide by Edward I to Simon de Montagu in 1 290. "' 

 His grandson William de Montagu, Eail of Salisbury, 

 diei seised of the advowson of the church of Aston 

 Clinton in I397, 183 but there seems to have been 

 some question whether the right of presentation did 

 not belong to the Crown. This may have arisen, 

 however, after the forfeiture of the lands of John, 

 Earl of Salisbury, who opposed the accession of 

 Henry IV to the throne. 169 Henry IV presented 

 Thomas Tuttebury as if the church was in his gift, 190 

 and on the resignation of Tuttebury he again in 1402 

 presented to the benefice. 1 ' 1 On the petition of 

 Thomas de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, however, the 

 letter of presentation was revoked, and the advow- 

 son was recognized to be the right of the earl. 19 * 

 After the attainder of Edward Earl of Warwick, the 

 advowson, together with the manor, came into the 

 possession of the Crown, and Henry VIII presented 

 several rectors to the church. 19 * Edward VI granted 

 the advowson to Lady Mary, 194 and it afterwards 

 passed with the manor to the 

 Harringtons and the Gerrards. 195 

 In 1727 the Lakes sold it to 

 the Principal and Fellows of 

 Jesus College, Oxford, 186 who 

 are still the patrons of the 

 living. 



The chapel of St. Leonard 

 is first mentioned in a charter 

 of Henry de Crokesley, grant- 

 ing land to the abbey of Mis- 

 senden, in which he excepted 

 from the gift of a third part 

 of his demesne lands at Dund- 



ridge, 1 3 acres of land that he had granted to the chapel 

 of St. Leonard. 197 Henry de Crokesley died before 



JESUS COLLEGE, Ox- 

 ford. Argent three 

 harts tripping gules. 



W Chart. R. 18 Edw. I, no. 38, m. 18. 



138 Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Ric. II, no. 35. 



189 Cal. Pat. 1401-5, p. 217. 



i Ibid. 



191 Ibid. 190. 



193 Ibid. 206, 217. 



193 Lipscomb, Hist, of Bucks, ii, 88, 89. 



194 Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. 5, m. 8. 



195 Recov. R. East. 22 Eliz. ; ibid. Mich. 

 12 Jas. I ; P.R.O. Inst. Bks. 1663-7. 



318 



196 Lysons, Mag. Brit, i, 500-1 ; P.R.O. 

 Inst. Bks. 1746, 1751, 1783, 1784, 1799, 

 1804. 



"7 Had. MS. 3688. 



