Biddlesden, Buckinghamshire Family History Guide

Biddlesden is an Ancient Parish in the county of Buckinghamshire.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin: 1686

Nonconformists include: Society of Friends/Quaker

Parishes adjacent to Biddlesden

Westbury
Whitfield, Northamptonshire
Syresham, Northamptonshire
Stowe
Shalstone
Brackley St Peter, Northamptonshire
Turweston

Historical Descriptions

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

BIDDLESDON, or Bittlesdon, a village and a parish in the district of Brackley, and county of Bucks. The village stands on the verge of the county, 3½ miles NE of Brackley r. station. It was formerly a market-town, but is now a small secluded place. The parish comprises 1,630 acres; and its Post town is Brackley. Real property, £2,718. Pop., 169. Houses, 29. The property is divided among a few. Biddlesdon House is the seat of G. Morgan, Esq. The manor was held some time by William the Conqueror; passed to Robert de Mappershall, and then to Ernald de Bosco; was given by the latter to the Cistertian Monks of Gerndon for founding an Abbey on it; and went at the dissolution, to Thomas, Lord Wriothesley. Considerable remains of the Abbey stood about the year 1700, but have all disappeared. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £69. Patron, G. Morgan, Esq. The church is a modern edifice adjoining Biddlesdon House.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Biddlesdon, 2½ m. N.W. Buckingham. P. 169.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Biddlesden, or Bittlesden, a parish in the second division of the three hundreds of Buckingham, county of Buckingham; 3½ miles north-east of Brackley. Living, a perpetual curacy, formerly in the archd. of Buckingham and dio. of Lincoln, now in tbe dio. of Oxford; valued at £6 8s., rated in the parliamentary returns at £55; gross income £72. Patron, in 1835, G. Morgan, Esq. “Ernald de Bosco, steward to Robert, earl of Leicester, gave this village to the Cistertian monks of Gerondou, to tbe intent that an abbey of tbe same order might be founded here, which was accordingly begun A.D. 1147. It was dedicated to St Mary and St Nicholas, and had, at the dissolution, annual revenues rated at £143 1s. 3d. There belonged to this house eleven monks and fifty-one servants. The site passed from the crown, 32d Henry VIII., to Thomas Wriothesley.” Tanner’s Not. Mon. “On the destruction of the abbey the parishioners resorted to a small chapel adjoining to a dwelling-house; this was a little tyled fabric and had a bell in a turret. I presume it was sometimes made use of in the time of tbe abbey by the parishioners, especially on common days. It was, as appears by old deeds, dedicated to St Margaret, on whose festival here was a fair granted to the convent, in 1315, 8th Edward II. and also a Monday market. This parish contains 1700 acres.” Willis’s Hist, of Bucks. Adjoining Biddlesden house there is a modern chapel, appropriated to the use of the parishioners. A Sunday school, in which 70 children are instructed, is supported by George Morgan, Esq. Pop., in 1801, 147; in 1831, 184. Houses 33. Acres 1,630. A.P. £2,119. Poor rates, in 1837, £49

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.