Oxford Shire England ~ Where our Smiths' were before immigrating to the States.

The Hundred of Bullingdon ~

Of the fourteen hundreds, which until the 19th century were the main administrative divisions of the county, Bullingdon was one of the larger and was the most central.  Its origin has been discussed elsewhere.^I  the names of the villages composing it, owing to the general absence of hundredal rubrications in the Oxfordshire Domesday, are not known until the end of the 13th centruy.²  From that date until the boundary of the hundred was mapped by the 18th century cartographers there has been little, if any, alteration in its outline.  It is clear that the boundaries shown on Richard Davis's map of 1794 were originally dictated in part by the county boundary and by natural features.  The hundred reached on the east to the Buckinghamshire border; on the west, the Thames and the Cherwell formed the boundary for part of the way, but instead of turning east along the course of the River Ray the line followed an artificial course south of the river so as to exclude the township of Noke, only joining the Ray again south of Oddington.  It then proceeded north and east towards the Buckinghamshire border along the Ray and one of its arms.  On the south, the boundary followed an artificial and irregular line, cutting the parish of Nuneham in two, until it reached the River Thame, which it followed for a short distance.  On the extreme south-east it made an elongated loop so as to include Tiddington, and by doing cut the hundred of Thame into three parts.  The eccentric line in the north and south suggests that there had been considerable reorganization of the hundred since its first creation.  the Baldons, for instance, maybe have been transferred from the hundred of Dorchester, which comprised all the other townships whose churches had been founded from Dorchester.³  Noke mayb have been excluded from Bullngdon for tenurial reasons, since in 1204 the Abbot of Westminster established hi claim to the liberty of Islip to which part of Noke belonged and which itself lay in Ploughley hundred.  Another alteration in the boundary may have taken place in comparatively late times.  the western boundary on Davis's map follows the Cherwell from its confluence with the Thames, leaving Oxford to the west, but until the end of the 12th century or even later, when the North Gate hundred seems to have been formed, the environs of Oxford must have been in Bullingdon.  The boundary would then have followed the western arm of the Thames and have included Binsey, Medley, and Oseney.⁴

There is only one direct reference to four of the later hundreds in Domesday Book⁵ and Bullingdon is not one of them.  But its existence and the fact that it was once a double hundred are implied in the entry that the soke of two hundreds belongs to the royal manor of Headington.6  Later evidence shows that these are the hundreds of Bullingdon and Soteslawa.  This double hundred is next mentioned on the Pipe Roll of 1182 when it is described as the two hundreds of Bulesden';⁷ in 1188 it is described as Buleden' hundred and Soterlawa hundred.⁸  the double name occurs again in 1190 in 1191 and 1192 with variations of spelling:  Bulesdon' and Schotelawa;⁹ and again in 1199 and 1204.¹⁰  In the next year the hundred is described as Bulledon' only and Soterlawa does not occur again on the Pipe Rolls.  It is found, however, in official records as late as 1219.^II

A calculation of the hidage of those Domesday townships which appear in the hundred rolls of 1255 and 1279 as in the hundred of Bullingdon, with the addition of Walton and Holywell, by then in the North Gate hundred, amounts to about 228 hides.  this includes the 22 1/2 hides of the Baldons, which is has been suggested were once in the hundred of Dorchester, and allows nothing for Stowood and Shotover, since their assessment is not known.¹²  The figure is sufficiently near a round 200 hides for it to seem probable that that was the original hidation of the double hundred.

It might be supposed that this double hundred, which perhaps stretched over fifteen miles from north to south, as it did in the 13th century, and was about ten miles across at the widest point, would have been divided into a northern and southern half.  This indeed was assumed when it was believed that the northern hundred of Schotelawa or Soterlawa took its name from Shotover,¹³ and met near a barrow which once existed there.  But recently another form of the word Schotelawa has been found-Shotteslawa - which, though it confirms the hypothesis of a northern hundred, makes it certain that its meeting-place was farther north than Shotover.  The name occurs in a charter of about 1166 in which land in the manor of Chesterton, never so far as it known in Bullingdon hundred, it said to lie next Shotteslawa.¹⁴  A slightly later charter (before 1175) gives the form Soteslawiam.¹⁵  It is probable that this place-Scelot's tumulus- was just over the hundred boundary of later times and lay in the neighbouring township of Ambrosden.  Indeed, the outstanding landmark of the neighbourhood-the modern Mount Pleasant and the ancient Graven Hill-might well have been the site.  The Roman roads converging on Alchester would have provided easy access.

It now seems that the most likely spot for the meeting-place of the original Bullingdon hundred, that is, of the supposed southern half of the double hundred, was Bullingdon Green.  This large open space, partly in the parish of Cowley and partly in Horspath, and traversed by a  Roman road, would have been very suitable.  It has for centuries, as its name indicates, been traditionally associated with the hundred.  In recent years Bullsdown above Wheatley, with its commanding outlook and proximity to an early settlement and ancient trackway, has been advanced as a more likely site.¹⁶  But this suggestion was made when it was supposed that the northern hundred met on Shotover and it could have been argued that Bullingdon Green was unreasonably close for the meeting-place of the southern hundred.  On the evidence of the forms of the words authoritative opinion is that either site would be possible.¹⁷  By the 13th century such documentary evidence as there is points to the choice of any convenient site in the neighbourhood, at least for the meeting of full hundreds.  In 1223, a full hundred met at Wheatley and in 1240 it met at the sheepfold of Cowley, which might have been Bullingdon Green, as the green lies partly in that parish.¹⁸

Where there were two or more hundreds dependent on royal estates they normally became merged in one in the course of the 12th century.  Thus the two and a half hundreds of Kirtlington formed Ploughley hundred and the three of Shipton formed Chadlington.  The two hundreds of Headington in some respects followed the normal pattern.  The two ancient hundreds for the most part became merged in the single hundred of Bullingdon.  But the rapid development of the borough of Oxford in the 11th century and its extension northwards outside the walls led, it has been cogently argued, to the formation of a new, small, and partly urban hundred.¹⁹  The suburb outside the North Gate of Oxford is first referred to as a hundred between 1155 and 1163, and is thought to have been organized as a distinct hundred between 1190 reaching to the Thames and the county boundary on the south-west and to the township of Wolvercote on the north.  It included, it seems, the hamlets of Walton and Binsey, Portmeadow, and the manor of Holywell.²⁰  In 1231 a jury found that the tenure of the hundred of Bullingdon and 'a certain other hundred' went with the manor of Headington whether in the hands of the Crown or not.²¹  The vagueness of the description is perhaps due to the knowledge that though there had always been two hundreds associated with Headington, their character had changed.

In later times the original inclusion of the North Gate hundred in the hundred of Bullingdon is constantly recognized.  In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, for instance, in 1535, it is stated that suit is owed to the hundred of Bullingdon outside the North Gate,22 and in 1556 the Mayor of Oxford declared that Walton farm was in the hundred of Bullingdon, otherwise called the hundred without the North Gate.23  Until its sale in 1492 to the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford, the North Gate hundred was generally held by the same lord as the hundred of Bullingdon.  For the rest, its history is irrelevant here.

The composition of Bullingdon hundred changed little between 1306, the date of the first complete tax-assessment list for its villages to survive, and in 1922 when the Juries Act put an end to the hundred as an administrative unit.  The main changes were due not the transference of villages to another hundred, but to their decay and elimination as separate units of administration.  Ledhale, for example, and Woodperry seem to have dropped out in the 14th century, Coombe in the 15th century, and Little Baldon and Baldon St. Lawrence in the 16th century.²⁴  It may be noted here that a few hamlets which are found in the Hundred Rolls of 1279 in the hundred but do not normally occur on taxation lists, are mentioned among the villages of the hundred in 1316 and 1428:  they are Thomley in Waterperry, Grove in Holton, Wick and Old Barton in Headington, and Stowford in Stanton St. John.²⁵  These were hamlets which had never had many inhabitants and are known to have declined by the end of the Middle Ages.

The appearance of the Chilworths and Coombe in Bullingdon is exceptional.  Chilworth Musard, Chilworth Valery and Coombe were all in the parish of Great Milton, which was mostly in the hundred of Thame.  The detachment of these three hamlets from Thanke hundred is explained by tenurial reasons.  With the exception of these hamlets the whole hundred, including the remainder of Great Milton, belonged to the Bishop of Lincoln.  He appears to have obtained the latter, formerly part of the possessions of Eynsham Abbey, after the removal of the see from Dorchester in 1072.²⁶  For administrative convenience, therefore, the Chilworths and Coombe, the property of powerful feudatories, were detached.  They were in Bullingdon by 1246.²⁷  the three hamlets were assessed as one unit in 1316.²⁸

Another transference for similar feudal reasons seems to have occurred in the case of Draycott.  In 1279 it was in the hundred of Bullingdon.  Its lord did castle guard at Wallingford and the place was exempt from attendance at the hundred.²⁹  It does not appear on any of the 14th century taxation lists for Bullingdon and on Davis's map of 1794 is marked as a detached portion of the half-hundred of Ewelme.  The following explanation seems possible.  In Domesday it was a part of the lands of Miles Crispin and was held by the same under-tenant Richard, who held 4 hides of Miles in the Wallingford, known still later as the honor of Ewelme, it may have been administratively simpler to detach Draycott from Bullingdon.

Marsh Baldon also seems to have been transferred for the same reasons, only for a shorter period.  In the Middle Ages it was in the hundred of Bullingdon for purposes of taxation, though as member of the honor of Wallingford it seems to have been exempt from the jurisdiction of the hundred and subject to the honor court.³¹  A reorganization of the reign of Henry VIII apparently led to Marsh Baldon's transference to the half-hundred of Ewelme, as least as far as the payment of some subsidies went.  In 1544, 1565, 1577, 1580, and 1623 it was taxed in Ewelme, but for the hearth tax of 1665 it was in Bullingdon.³²  For jurisdictional matters Marsh Baldon continued as late at least as the early 18th century to attend the honor court of Ewelme.  In the 17th century it is recorded to have been attending a three-weekly court and records of the court leet of honor held twice a year at Chalgrove show Marsh Baldon sending its tithing man, constable, and varying numbers of jurors for the years 1712 to 1720.³³

In comparatively modern times an attempt was made to get Piddington, in the extreme north-east of the hundred, and its neighbour Merton transferred to Ploughley hundred.  In 1833 the justices unsuccessfully petitioned for this on the grounds that Bicester, where the sessions for Ploughley met, would be a far more convenient centre than Oxford, where the sessions for Bullingdon met.³⁴

The double hundred of Bullingdon was attached at the time of Domesday to the royal manor of Headington-a survival of very early administrative arrangements.³⁵  In the case of Bullingdon and the new hundred outside the North Gate, the arrangement continued after the manor had passed into private hands.  thus the descent of Bullingdon followed the descent of the manor.³⁶  It is sufficient to say here that in the medieval period, the manor, though occasionally in royal hands, was for the most part granted out with its two hundreds to servants of the Crown.  It was first alienated in about 1142 when the Empress Maud conferred it on Hugh de Pluggenait.  In the 13th century it was held by Thomas Basset and his relations until Hugh de Plescy sold it to the king.  During the 14th century the Damorys and Sir John Chandos held it, in the 15th century the Willicotes of North Leigh and their relations, until they sold to Robert Brome of Holton in 1482.  From this point Bullingdon hundred remained the property of the Bromes and their relations by marriage, the Whorwoods, until Henry Mayne Whorwood conveyed it to Elisha Biscoe in 1803.³⁷

There is some interesting information about the medieval value of the hundred.  In an action brought by the Countess of Warwick in 1246 against Robert FitzNiel of Iffley, Henry de Beaufeu, Roger son of Peter Foliot, and William son of Alexander of Coombe, she claimed to hold the hundred as her father Thomas Basset had held it with hidages, warpenny and view of frankpledge.  Before the king granted it out he used to receive, it was alleged, 7s for hidage, and 12d for the view from a tenement in Chilworth held by Alexander of Coombe; 4s for the view and 4d wardpenny from Robert FitzNiel; 6s hidage and 12d for the view from a tenement held by Peter Foliot in Albury.  The defendants denied that King John was seised of these payments.  The countess also claimed 40d. for hidage and 12d. for the view from a tenement in Waterperry of Richard de Beaufeu; 6d. hidage, 2 d. wardpenny and suit to the hundred every three weeks for a tenement in Chilworth and Coombe held by Roger son of Peter Foliot of Henry de Beaufeu.³⁸

In these same pleas, the jurors said that the hundred used to render £6 13s. 4d. and after the Countess had it, it rendered £8.  In 1282, when it was in royal hands, it was worth £7 9s, Ud, -- a small sum for this large rural hundred compared with the urban hundred of North Gate which was rented for £20.³⁹  the holder of the hundred had a number of rights commonly attached to hundreds:  Hugh de Plescy claimed that he had the assizes of bread and ale, hue and cry, and and bloodshed, saving the pleas of the crown; judgment of thieves taken with the manor and all waifs.  He also had the profits from measures used in the hundred and had them sighed with his own seal.⁴⁰  but his profits were diminished by the privileges of others lords.  Many Bullingdon manors, for instance, were in the honor of St. Valery:  a Baldon St. Lawrence manor owed suit at the honor court of North Oseney every three weeks, so did Church Horspath and Over Horspath, Forest Hill, Wood Eaton and Woodperry.⁴¹  Presumably, as no mention is made of suit to Bullingdon, they were exempt from attendance at its court.  But as the North Oseney court was proably a court for military tenants only and the view of frankpledge for the number tenants of the honor was held at Beckley, it caput, it is uncertain, though perhaps probable, that all these manors were exempt from the hundred of Bullingdon's court.  In the case of Studley suit at Beckley once a year is specially mentioned, while the tenant of Ash owed suit at North Oseney every three weeks and one suit at Beckley for the view.  Tenants of Holton and Woodperry also owed suit to beckley.⁴²  the on or, however, was bound to make an annual contribution of 20s. to the bailiff of the hundred of Bullingdon.⁴³

Similarly the honor of Walllingford and the Order of Knights Templars were both highly privileged.⁴⁴ Marsh Baldon, a member of the honor, was said to owe no suit to Bullingdon and, no doubt, did suit, as it certainly did at a later date, to the honor's hundred court, while the Bishop of Lincoln's fee in Marsh Baldon, it may be noted here, owed suit to the hundred of Dorchester every three weeks, but had to attend the two full courts of Bullingdon.⁴⁵  the Templar manors of Merton and Temple Cowley were altogether exempt.⁴⁶  Many other religious orders also enjoyed exemption from the hundreds for their manors.  At Upper Arncot, for example, the Abbot of Oseney had view and other royal rights.⁴⁷  As for his manor of Church Cowley, it is expressly stated that it did not 'follow' the hundred.⁴⁸  Thus, so many lavish grants had been made by kings and the Countess of Warwich in the past that it is not surprising that the value of the hundred was not very great in 1282.

Like other hundreds, Bullingdon had a bailiff as its chief officer in medieval times.  The earliest mention of him occurs in 1240.49  As for the free jurors, it is interesting to see how little faith the Prior of St. Fridewide's for one put in their integrity.  When he brought an action for novel disseisin against Hugh de Plescy about some land in Headington, he declared that all inquiries by the hundred would be useless as it was in the hand of Hugh and 'under his power'.⁵⁰  We have some information about the organization of the post-Reformation hundred.  By the mid-sixteenth century, if not earlier, it had a steward as well as a bailiff.51  Rolls of leet courts held between 1595 and 1612 show that they were usually held in Aril and October.  The steward of George Brome, the lord, presided; the jury varied in number between 14 and 17, but was normally 15; there were 3 affeeres.⁵²  Courts were held at Wheatley.  Christopher Brome (d. 1509) is said to have begun this practice.  In a lawsuit of 1576/7 it was stated that he had intended to build a court house on Bullingdon Green, but had agreed to help with the building of a 'church house' in Wheatley by supplying timber, provided the building should serve both as a 'church house' and a court house.⁵³  Wheatley remained the meeting-place of the court until its end.  IN 1764 it was meeting at the 'White Hart', in 1774 at the 'Crown'.  Its last year of meeting seems to have been 1778 as after that year there are no further entries in the parish accounts.⁵⁴

In the late 17th century there is evidence for the division of the hundred into a north and south division, each having a high constable,⁵⁵ but none to indicate whether there was a second meeting-place.  In 1828 Beckley, Elsfield, Holton, Wheatley, Forest Hill, Waterperry, Stanton St. John, Marston, Headington, Arncot, Blackthorn, Piddington, Merton, Ambrosden, Stowood, and Shotover were in the northern division.  the rest were in the southern.  High constables, whose names have been listed from 1687 to 1830,⁵⁶ were drawn mainly from the substantial yeoman class, though occasionally gentlemen acted.  The general decline of the organization in the county in the early 19th century is suggested by an order of the justices in 1827.  the Clerk of the Peace was required to state a case for the opinion of counsel of the question of the obligation of lords of hundreds to provide efficient bailiffs.⁵⁷

The Ancient Parish of Cuddesdon ~ the Chippinghurst Manor

From "A History of Oxfordshire" Volume V, Bullinggdon Hundred, Published for the Institute of Historical Research by the Oxford University Press, Amen House, London, 1957 ~

Denton and Chippinghurst ~
 

Denton, the settlement in the valley,⁹⁶ lies to the south of the ancient parish in the depression between Cuddesdon and Garsington; though still only a hamlet it has long formed a separate civil parish, to which Chippinghurst was added in 1932.⁹⁷  Its area in 1951 was 845 acres.98  the cottages are grouped round the green and along the road from Chippinghurst to the bridle path, which was in 1586 the 'highwaye from Oxford to Denton.⁹⁹  Upper field Farm and some of the cottages date from the 16th and 17th centuries; a timber-framed granary from the 16th century, and Lower Farm is a much-altered 18th century house.  Manor Farm, standing on the Garsington road, was built in 1904.  There are no shops or publick houses.
 

The earliest parts of Denton House date from the 16th century; they still contain two Tudor fire-places, a fine Jacobean staircase dated 1614, a room with oak paneling of the same period, and another with ash panels of about 1799.^I  The main parts of the building were, however, built in the 18th century, the tall ash and rubble exterior being refaced in 1759.  A long hall traverses each floor.2  Alterations were made in 1900 and again in 1934, (the latter being planned by S. W. Neighbor of London, architect, and executed by Messrs. Cullum of Wheatley).  The garden stands in a large enclosure, next the road to Garsington, which runs round it.  Its walls contain fragments of late medieval tracerly including the original east window from Brasenose College Chapel, and part of the library windows, brought to Denton during alterations to the college in 1844-5.³  Across the road there are 18th century stables, with a large pigeon-loft, a 15th or 16th century barn (formerly larger), with the date 1696 above a cusped window of moulded stone.

The hamlet of Chippinghurst, which crowned the 200-foot high knoll in the valley south of Denton, is today represented by the Tudor manor-house and it's modern dower-house.  It was reconstructed by the architect Fielding Dodd in 1937, when a new wing was added; it was used as a a maternity home during the Second World War.  There is now no trace of the medieval manor-house or of the former hamlet.  The only evidence we have for the history of the building is that it had nine hearths in 1665.4  The only communication with the outside world is by the Cuddesdon-Chislehampton road, or, when there are no floods, by the footpath and by stepping stones across the Thame to Little Milton.

Economic and Social History - The population of Denton was small and of moderate wealth in the medieval period. Most of the inhabitants were holding small parcels of land, and there were possibly only about thirty households.  Twenty-one names are listed in the assessment of 1327; only one taxpayer paid 14s. and the majority paid 3s. and under.⁵¹  In 1665 only four had sufficient wealth to make a return for the hearth tax.⁵²  A list of those liable for payment of church rates in 1688 gives a fuller picture.  Three of the fifteen listed (Munt, Pokins, and Smith) held 3 1/4, 3 1/2 and 3 yardlands; five, including Piers, the owner of Denton House, held 2 or 2 1/4 yardlands; while the other tenants held 1 1/2 yardlands of less.⁵³  In 1841 the population reached 163, its maximum for the century; in 1863, 159 people lived in 34 houses; the population in 1931 was 140, and in 1951, 89⁵⁴.  The earliest record of inclosure for pasture at Denton dates from 1504 when four people were alleged to have lost employment as a result.  At about this time there were said to be 300 acres of pasture in the manor and 40 of meadow to only 300 of arable.⁵⁵  The same process of inclosure was going on at the neighbouring hamlet of Chippinghurst where a butcher who lease 200 acres destroyed four houses and displaced sixteen people by inclosing.⁵⁶  There were still 94 strips being cultivated at the time of the tithe award in 1843.  In 1848, when inclosure was completed, 356 acres out of 527 were already inclosed.  The Earl of Macclesfield was allotted 249 acres, the Queen's College 144 (including 174 and 101 acres of old inclosure respectively), William Aldworth 83 acres, and the Bishop of Oxford²⁹, the other allotments being less.⁵⁷

Denton's valley land is heavy Kimmeridge Clay ('Stronge-londe' in 1293),⁵⁸ though there is varying sand, ironstone, and limestone on the hill up to Cuddesdon.  The position of the arable land in 956 suggests that Denton already had a separate field system from Cuddesdon.⁵⁹  In 1300 the name of one of the fields, 'Hupfelda', is mentioned,60 and this may be identified with one of the two fields, Upper and Lower, in existence in 1769.61  In the post-Reformation period there are some details of the price of Denton land:  from 1566 to 1617 the standard rent for a virgate was 13s. 4d.; and the sale price in the former year was 30 years' purchase.  In 1618 an 80-years' lease of 2 virgates cost £400; they were then sublet for £23 15s., and the lease surrendered the next year for £500.  the Denton virgate seems to have varied in size; it was 17 1/2 acres in the late medieval period, but 24 acres in 1564.⁶²

MANORS.  The medieval community of DENTON formed a complex tenurial pattern.  From 956 to the Dissolution Abingdon Abbey was the overlord, most of the land being held after the Conquest by tenants by military service, who performed castle guard at Winsdor.⁵  In 1279 Denton, then described as a hamlet of the manor of Cuddesdon, was divided into three main holdings.⁶  The Abbot of Abingdon held 17 virgates in demesne, of which 15 were held in villeinage**, and 2 pertained to the church.  Secondly, there were 2 hides which had been held by the Templars since about 1240 when they had received the manor of Sandford,7 to which these lands pertained.⁸  Philip de Stocwell held of the Templars, one of the hides being held of him in villeinage, and the other, as 1/8th of a knight's fee, by Reynold de Gardino, perhaps a son of the John de Gardino who had held both hides before the Templars had received Sandford.⁹  Four tenants held of Reynold - Julian, Thomas, and Peter de Gardino, presumably his kinsmen,¹⁰ and John de Warewick - and paid annual money rents, while seven subtenants held of John and three of Thomas.  Thirdly, Henry de Mache, or Henry of Wheatley, held directly of the abbot I hide in Denton, which with 2 hides in Wheatley^II made of 1/2 knight's fee.¹²  The burden of the foreign service of castle guard at Windsor fell upon Reynold de Gardino and Henry of Wheatley.  The demesne lands of Denton were administered by the abbey's steward at Cuddesdon.¹³  After the dissolution of the Temple in England in 1308 the Hospitallers became the abbey's tenants of the hides which went with Sanford manor.

After the Dissolution Denton was divided between several owners, none of whom had manorial rights.  The capital messuage at Denton, with 4 vrigates of land, 22 houses and cottages, and 31 other virgates* in Cuddesdon and Denton, was held in chief by George Barston at his death in 1607.¹⁴  His heir, John, who succeeded at the age of eleven, had moved to his Chippinghurst property by 1622, and sold the Denton land to William Piers, Bishop of Peterborough.¹⁵  The bishop left the land to his son John, who sold half the estate and manor-house to E. Budgell, a 'sad villain', according to Hearne.  John Piers lived in a neighboring far, and in spite of a number of disputes with Budgell allowed him to live in the whole house in 1725.16  Later owners were William Mills (c. 1795) of Teddington (Mdx.), his nephew George Henry Browne (d. 1831), and his son Thomas Browne, the Revd. Walter Sneyd, who obtained the property in 1841, Catain George Wayne Gregorie (in 1871), the Revd. William Urquhart (in 1885), and Sir Edward Loughlin O'Malley (in 1892)17.  In 1934 Brigadier-General C. A. L. Graham became the owner,  The house now has only 12 acres of ground.  Throughout this post-Reformation period, the owners of Denton House were in practice the squires of the village, although they had no manorial rights.

The Queen's College has been one of the principal landowners in Denton since the 16th century.  John Pantrea gave 2 messuages called 'Bromeslands' and all his Denton property to the college by will dated 1530, the previous owner of this land having been John Brome of Holton.¹⁸  Another parcel of Denton land came to the college from William Dennison,¹⁹ so that by 1559 the college had acquired a large share of land in the village, including 'Pollard's Close', held by the Wellys family since 1438²⁰  The college property was attached to its manor of Toot Baldon.²¹

In 1720 and 1730 Lord Parker bought land in the village, including 3 yardlands of 90 acres held by the Munt family from 1564 (when they bought it from their landlord) until 1706.²²  In the 19th century, first the Earl of Macclesfield and then Magdalen College became landowners, as successors to the disintegrated Whalley-Gardiner estate at Cuddesdon.²³  Magdalen and Queen's Colleges were the chief landowners in 1945.

The name of CHIPPINGHURST manor, meaning 'the hill of cibba', appears as "Cibbaherste' in Domesday Book.²⁴  The Saxon settlement there was part of the estate granted to Abingdon in 956, but by 1086 the hamlet and land assessed at 3 hides had passed to the Count of Evreux, who held it of the king.  There were 2 ploughs and I serf on the demesne, and 4 villeins with 2 ploughs tended the rest.²⁵  The estate seems to have been in royal hands by the early 12 century, for Henry I gave St. Frideswide's 12 thraves in Chippinghurst.  This grant was confirmed in 1157-8 by Adrian IV as 3 acres in 'Chenbenhurst'.²⁶  In 1108 William, County of Evreux, and his wife Helewis founded the priory of Noyon (Noyon-sur-Andelle),²⁷ and bestowed on it all his English lands, including Chippinghurst.²⁸  Although the manor was not recorded among the possessions of Noyon in 1242-3,²⁹ the Hundred Rolls confirm that the priory continued to be the overlord.³⁰  It was deprived in 1414, when Henry V gave Chippinghurst to his own foundation at Sheen,³¹ which retained it until the 16th century.  The manor house was occupied by under-tenants in the 13th century.  In 1254-6 John, son of William (one of the family which took its name from the village), paid Noyon Priory a fee-farm rent of 60s.,³² a sum which remained the normal rent until the end of the medieval period.33  In 1279 John of Chippinghurst held 3 of the 12 virgates of the manor in demesne; 7 virgates were held in villeinage at his will, and the remaining 2 virgates were held by an under-tenant, Walter de Esthulle.³⁴  The Chippinghurst family were tenants until the 16th century, and also held land in Denton.³⁵  John Chippinghurst (Chebenhurst) died seised of the manor in 1511, when it was worth £21 and held in socage,³⁶ Thomas (d. 1517), son of John, held the manor of John Brome of Holton, who was presumably holding of Sheen.  It appears, however, that after the Dissolution Brome succeeded to the overlordship, for in 1539 he was granted the tithes of Chippinghurst.³⁷  There is no later record of the overlordship.

Thomas Chippinghurst's son Robert succeeded to the manor as a minor, and from him it descended to his uncle Robert Chippinghurst;³⁸ complicated litigation followed (1538-44), from which it appears that John Barantyne had custody of the deeds,³⁹ Thomas Stretley certain rights in the manor, and that six different persons claimed annuities from it.⁴⁰  Stretley's rights were acquired in 1563 by John Doyley (d. 1569) of Chislehampton and his son Robert.  John's sons subsequently went to law over their rights to annuities from his share of the manor.⁴¹  John Doyley's second son John died in 1623, seised of the land in Chippinghurst and of part of the manor,⁴² but he had already sold in 1605 the capital messuage, certain lands, 'Chibnes weare' and fishing rights (from 'Oxclose' to Denton field) to George Barston, his son-in-law.  Barston, owner also of the capital messuage of Denton (d. 1607), was succeeded by his son John, who conveyed his Chippinghurst property in 1633 to Thomas Iles.⁴³  

It seems clear from the later descent of this property that it was regarded as a manor in the inquisition post mortem on George Barston, nor in the conveyance of 1633.  Iles, the new squire, was Professor Divinity and Principal of hart Hal at Oxford.⁴⁴  In 1652 the Chippinghurst property was conveyed to Solomon Ady;⁴⁵ in 1656 to Thankfull Owen, President of St. John's College;⁴⁶ and in 1677 to Peter Elliot, M. D., who left 'Chibnes' farm to his godson Peter Hele in 1682.⁴⁷  In 1738 another Peter Elliot made an agreement about the estate with Henry Vavasour.⁴⁸  It is not clear how the manor came to be the property of William and Mary Webb, who in 1771 conveyed it to William Parker.⁴⁹  He immediately conveyed it to John Greenwood, whose family retained the property until 1903, when it was passed to the Revd. Arthur Wheeler, then in 1931 to James McDougall of the flour firm, and finally to Colonel E. C. Bowes.⁵⁰

From Dorchester Hundred in the "Economic and Social History" on Stedhampton Section ~

"A tenant of Stadham farm, part of Oriel College's estate, in the late 18th and early 19th century was the experimental farmer Thomas Smith of Chippinghurst and Stadhampton.⁹⁷  He was an expert on the cultivation of flax and he may well have grown it on his land in the parish.  In a letter to another well known farmer, Sir Christopher Willoughby of Marsh Baldon,⁹⁸ a member of the Board of Agriculture, he said that flax should be sown about April immediately after ploughing on 'a lively land where there is a depth of soil' and at 2/12 bushels to the acre.  Before sowing the ground should be harrowed, and the crop hand weeded afterwards and barned in August 'to beat the seed off and water the flax'.  It was best sown on land which had not been ploughed for a long time and he considered a moderate crop to be 30 stone an acre and 12 bushels of seed.⁹⁹

In 1793 Smith, in answer to the Board of Agriculture's questionnaire, gave a description of farming in the parish and its neighbourhood.  the soil he considered to be rich, dry, and fertile; and capable of great improvement by watering as the meadows by the Thame were extensive and little above the usual height of the water.^I  Very little of the old pasture had been broken up and so grew only natural herbage.  There was insufficient woodland.  The stock was chiefly cows and sheep with a few breeding mares, but little improvement was made as the calves and lambs were sold off when fattened.  the grains were wheat, beans, pease, barley, and oats.  As there were many farms of different sizes and tenant farmers of different opinions there was no uniform management, but he divided his own land into eight equal parts, one, the strongest land near the center of the farm, he kept in grass as a sheep-walk, sowing rye-grass, broad and Dutch clover.  The other seven parts he sowed in rotation with the wheat, turnips for spring feed for ewes and lambs, oats, pease for which he dunged the land and after harvest folded it with sheep, wheat, winter vetches, spring vetches, turnips, and barley with broad clover.  After the first crop of vetches he manured the land with cart dung and when the vetches were up again spread coal ashes at 30 bushels to the acre.  Ploughs used in the district were of two sorts-one with two wheels; the other with none, being generally used for light work.  Horses rather than oxen were chiefly used.  As a result of inclosure rents had risen, more corn was raised on light soil, turnips, vetches, and clover were cultivated, more stock was kept, and consequently there had been a 'great improvement'.  In general he considered that all the uninclosed waste lands would be improved by inclosure, and that nothing would be equal to general inclosure for improving the quantity and quality of stock.  He regarded tithes as one of the main obstacles to improvement.  For common work wages were Is. 2d. a day, which was from 6 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock at night, and 2s. at harvest, when work continued from sunrise until sunset.²

97:  Oriel Coll. Mun. drawer 9. Cf. O. R. O. Land tax assess. 1789, 1796.  He appears in the land-tax assess. for Chippinghurst from 1786 until 1816 as the most substantial tenant and he may have died in the latter year.  See also d. d. Ashhurst d 4, p. 28; Par. REc. Stadham par. bk.

98:  For Willoughby see V. C. H. Oxon. V. 35, 40-43

99:  O. R. O. Wi IX/2(b).

I:  Many of them were liable to flooding.  n 1796they were worth 35s. to 40s.

2:  O. R. O. Wi IX/3.

More from the book cited above (on Oxford) from the section on Protestant and Non-conformity (Religions)

Wesleyan Methodists.  Methodism had its origin in Wesley's 'Holy Club' in Oxford and the first Methodists were university men; they ministered to prisoners in Bocardo and the castle, and to the poor in workhouses, as well as running a school for poor children,²¹ but the movement was slow to take institutional form in the city.  In 1736 William Chapman of Pembroke College was reading to a 'religious society in St. Ebbe's parish, and in 1738 the rector there reported a Sunday evening meeting of c. 30 Methodists, all of whom attended the parish church regularly.²²  Such small meetings apparently continued,²³ and in 1748 Oxford became head of a circuit,²⁴ although there seems to have been no chapel at that time.  In 1751 Wesley preached in a private house; in 1769, having been shut out from New Road Presbyterian chapel, he preached in James Mears's garden in Church Street.  In 1775 the New Road Chapel was too small for the numbers that wished to hear him.²⁵  It was later claimed that the Wesleyan chapel in Oxford was founded in 1760 at no. 7 St. Ebbe's Street.²⁶  In 1768 six Methodist undergraduates expelled from St. Edmund Hall had attended meetings in a private house,²⁷ in 1771 Methodists were attending the Presbyterian chapel, and in 1774 others were meeting in a house in St. Giles's parish.²⁸  It was not until 1783 that Wesley reported his visit to the 'new preaching house at Oxford, a lightsome, cheerful place, and well filled with rich and poor, scholars as well as townsmen'.²⁹

Although on later visits Wesley found the chapel well filled,³¹ it is probably that most of the congregations were sympathizers rather than formal members of the Methodist group.  After Wesley's death Methodism in Oxford declined and in 1799, when there were fewer than 20 members, was said to be in danger of 'entirely falling'.³²  In 1815, however, largely on the initiative of John Pike, a prominent member for many years, the society built anew and larger chapel.²³

The new chapel, further north and on the opposite side of the street to the old chapel, was opened in 1818; it was a classical building designed by the Wesleyan architect William Jenkins.³⁴  Although probably too large for the membership when first built it appears to have stimulated a sharp increase in membership to c. 190 by 1825,³⁵ but the society was burdened for decades by the heavy debt incurred for its building.³⁶

The splitting off of the Primitive Methodist in the 1830s and of the Wesleyan Reformers in the 1840s reduced membership; in 1845 there were 249 members and by 1854 only 180, although in 1851 congregations were said to average 380 in the morning, 120 in the afternoon, and 600 in the eveing.³⁷  Falling membership aggravated the chapel's financial crisis; it was not until 1867 that the chapel debt was finally paid off, after much generosity from members and sympathizers, notably Henry Goring, and eccentric Anglican who was one of the chapel trustees.³⁸

*    An early English measure of land area of varying value, often equal to about 30 acres (12 hectares).

**  One of a class of feudal serfs who held the legal status of freemen in their dealings with all people except their lord.

Other Mentions of Thomas Smith:

Contract for redemption of land tax, certificate of amount of land tax attached  Amb/I/25  contract - 21st December 1798 certificate - n.d. Paper Contents: PARTIES: 1a. Robert Peers and b. Henry Curson, esqs. 2. John Greenwood, esq. 3a. Sir Christopher Willoughby, bart. b. James Morrell, esq.

 SUBJECT OF TRANSACTION:

Manor or reputed manor of Chibnes, capital messuage and other messuage with meadow arable and pasture land with appurts. belonging occup. Thomas Smith or his undertenants situate at Chippinghurst belonging to 2. Contract by 1. with 2. for the redemption by 2. of Land Tax of £19.13.4d. charged on above premises for which the consideration for redemption is £721.2.2¾d. capital stock in Consolidated or Reduced 3percnt; Bank Annuities. Certificate of land tax of £19.13.4d. land tax on the premises by 3. attached CONSIDERATION: £721.2.2¾d. Capital stock in Consolidated or Reduced 3% Bank Annuities PLACES: CHIPPINGHURST (Parish of Cuddesdon and Denton) SIGNATURE: Robt. Peers.; Henry Curson; C. Willoughby; Jas. Morrell

Lease for a year  Amb/III/17  6th May, 54 George III, 1814 Parchment. Seals: 1a.-e, g-h. Contents: PARTIES: 1a. Elen Maddock of Pentonville, Middx, widow b. Rev. John Drake, clerk, rector of Agmondesham otherwise Amersham, Bucks. c. Mary, wife of 1b. d. Rev. William Wickham Drake late of Amersham and now of Malpas, Cheshire, clerk, (eldest son of 1b, by 1c.) e. Ann Drake Tyrwhitt Drake of Warfield Grove, Borks, widow. f. the said William Wickham Drake g. Rev. John Drake of Northchurch, Herts. clerk h. Thomas Tyrwhitt Drake of Shardeloes, parish of Agmondesham otherwise Amersham, esq. 2. George Francklin of Dinton, Bucks, gent. SUBJECT OF TRANSACTION: Cottage or dwelling house with outbuildings yard garden and appurts. at Chibbenhurst in parish of Cuddesdon parcel of meadow or pasture called Chibneys otherwise Chibbenhurst Meadow adjoin. to said cottage containing 25 acres as the same was formerly divided by a rail one moiety formerly occup. Mary Wickham deced. and the other formerly occup. Thomas Quartermaine little meadow 1½a. situate in said parish of Cuddesdon formerly occup. Richard Smith 3 eyotts upon River Thame formerly occup. said Richard Smith together with fishery and right of fishing thereunto belonging in the river of Thame called the Thames Stream all which premises are within the liberties of Chibbenhurst otherwise Chibnes and heretofore occups. - late of Richard Sanders and - and now occup. Thomas Smith. In consideration of 5/- each to 1a.-1h. by 2. 1. lease the premises to 2. for term of one year at peppercorn rent. PLACES: CHIPPINGHURST (Parish of Cuddesdon and Denton) SIGNATURES: Elen Maddock; Ann D. Tyrwhitt Drake; Mary Drake; John Drake, Northchurch; John Drake; T.T. Drake; William Wickham Drake ENDORSEMENT: (a) Witness to Sealing: John Bishop; John Nott; John Philpot; John Collin; Henry Stephen Milner (b) Witness to livery of seisin: Prince Tubb; Robert Isurley; John Tyrwhitt Drake; John Wright; Wm. Hy. Brookes

Lease (unexecuted)  Amb/V/2  12th October, 1812 Parchment.; 1 unidentified seal Contents: PARTIES: 1. Joseph Francklin of Haddenham, Bucks, esq. 2. Thomas Smith of Chippinghurst, Oxford, yeoman.

SUBJECT OF TRANSACTION: Messuage or tenement and farm called Chibnes otherwise Chippenhurst Farm with the offices outhouses barns stables etc. and several closes to the same belonging containing together 150 acres and situate at Chibnes otherwise Chippinghurst in parish of Cuddesdon and now occup. said Thomas Smith but timber and stone etc. reserved with right for 1. to enter premises to carry away same 1. leases the premises to 2. for term of 9 yrs. from 11 Oct. instant £500 p.a. plus an addition £30 per acre for every acre of greensward etc. ploughed plus further £20 pa. for every acre (above 100 acres) mowed. plus further £10 pa. for every acre of greensward etc. mowed more than once a year CONSIDERATION: rent of £500 p.a. PLACES: CHIPPINGHURST (Parish of Cuddesdon and Denton) Lease for a year  Amb/V/3  9th October, 1816 Parchment. Seal: 1 Contents: PARTIES: 1. Thomas Greenwood late of Easington House, Oxford and now of Wallingford, Berks, esq. 2a. Charles Greenwood of Wallingford, gent. b. Samuel Churchill of Deddington, Oxford, gent. SUBJECT OF TRANSACTION: A manor or reputed manor of Easingdon otherwise Easington with rights members etc. all lands and domesnes to said manor belonging capital messuage or manor house and farm called Easington Farm with offices outhouses barns stables and other edifices etc. all which said capital messuage etc. are in parishes of Easingdon otherwise Easington, and Chalgrove, Pirton, Cuxham, Goldar and Lewknor and occup. said Thomas Greenwood manor or reputed manor of Chibnes otherwise Chibnish otherwise Chibbenhurst within parish of Cuddesdon with rights members etc. capital messuage or manor house and farm called Chibnes otherwise Chibnish otherwise Chibbenhurst site and precinct of said manor house with the offices etc. several closes to said messuage belonging containing together by estimation 150 a. which said capital messuage etc. are within the liberties of Chibnes etc. and now occup. Thomas Smith as tenant and all other those messuages etc. in Chibnes etc. and now in occups. - as undertenants to said Thomas Smith all which last mentioned manor etc. in Chibnes etc. were heretofore the estate of John Greenwood of Chibnes who purchased same from William Webb and Jeremiah Redwood and were devised to said Thomas Greenwood by will of Thomas Greenwood his late father deced. Premises as cat. no. Amb/III/17 In consideration of 5/- paid by 2. to 1. 1. leases the premises to 2. for term of one year at peppercorn rent. CONSIDERATION: 2. pays 1. 5/- peppercorn rent. PLACES: EASINGTON AND COXHAM (both parish of Cuxham with Easington CHALGROVE, PYRTON, LEWKNOR, GOLDER (Parish of Pyrton), CHIPPINGHURST (Parish of Cuddesdon and Denton) SIGNATURE: Thomas Greenwood ENDORSEMENTS: (a) Witness to Sealing: Wm. B. Sheen, Wm. Webb,