Bedfordshire 
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MEPPERSHALL, a parish in the hundred of CLIFTON, county of BEDFORD, 1¾ mile (S.) from Shefford, containing 397 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £22, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. From thirty to forty children are educated by a schoolmistress for £15 per annum, arising from Emery's charity, at Ampthill. A small part of this parish is locally in a detached portion of the county of Hertford.
[A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831]
The 1851 Census Index for Meppershall can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 3, Book 5 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a small cruciform building of stone, partly of Norman date, with Early English and Perpendicular additions and insertions, consisting of chancel, transepts, nave, aisles,, and a central tower containing 5 bells : both transepts have recesses for altars and piscine : there is a brass effigy of a knight in plate armour, with an inscription, below to John Meptyshale esq. 1440, and Katherine his wife ; the effigy of the latter, two shields and some scrolls, are lost: there is a similar, but mutilated knightly effigy, one of a female, and an inscription below to John Boteler esq. 1441, and Elizabeth (Kymbell), his wife: the whole church was restored, the nave rebuilt, and aisles added, in 1875-6, at a cost of £3,000. The register dates from the year 1653.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Church of England
The parish record transcripts for St Mary Magdalene are available on microfiche for the period 1653-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
St. Thomas' chapel, now used as a barn of the Chapel farm, is supposed to have been connected with Chicksands Priory, and contains a very fine Norman doorway; there are also, near the church, the remains of an ancient fortification, called "The Hills." Here are extensive steam brick and tile works, capable of turning out 80,000 bricks per week. A siding, in connection with Henlow station affords facilities for sending away any quantity of the manufactured material; Mr. Eli Plowman, proprietor. There is a coprolite pit here, owned by Mr. Frederick Smith, of Royston, Cambridgeshire.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
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[Last updated 16 March 2003 Martin Edwards]