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Magna Britannia description of Aylesbury.

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Aylesbury was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

Aylesbury, in the hundred of that name, and in the deanery of Wendover, is one of the principal towns in the county: it is distant from London about forty miles by way of Uxbridge and Amersham, and thirty-nine by way of Tring and Berkhampsted.

Aylesbury is a very ancient town, said to be one of the strongest garrisons of the Britons, and to have been taken by Cuthwulf, in 571: its name does not occur again in history till the civil war of the 17th century: it was then an important garrison of the parliament during the years 1644 and 1645, but it does not appear to have sustained any seige from the royal army.

A religous house is said to have been founded at Aylesbury, in memory of St. Osith, daughter of Fredewald, a Pagan king, who was born at Quarendon, and beheaded by two Danish pirates in 600: this house did not exist at the time of the dissolution of monasteries: it is mentioned by Leland, who says, on the authority of record, that it was of the Trinitarian order. There was also, at Aylesbury, a house of Grey-Friars, at the south end of the town, founded by James, Earl of Ormond, in 1387: their revenues were valued at 3l. 2s. 5d. per annum only, in the reign of Henry VIII. Dr. London, one of the visitors of monasteries, in his letter to Lord Cromwell, says, "I find them at Aylesbury very poor, and in debt." The site of the convent of the Grey-Friars was granted by King Henry VIII. to Sir John Baldwin, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, and became his country-seat: it was afterwards a seat of the Pakingtons, till the time of the great civil war, during which it sustained so much injury from the parliamentary army in garrison at Aylesbury, that it was never afterwards inhabited by the family.

Aylesbury became a borough town by a charter of Queen Mary, in 1554: it was at the same time made a corporation, consisting of a bailiff, ten aldermen, and twelve capital burgesses, in whom the right of electing two representatives in parliament was vested; but Aylesbury did not long continue to be a corporate town, the powers of this charter expiring not many years after the date of the grant, in consequence of the corporation neglecting to fill up the vacancies caused by death: the right of election was from that time vested in the inhabitants paying scot and lot, till the month of June, 1804, when, in consequence of the notorious bribery and corruption which had been practised in the borough, at the time of the preceding general election, an act of parliament passed, by which, as the means of preventing such practices in future, the right of electing the members for this borough was vested in the freeholders of the three hundreds of Aylesbury, jointly with such persons as had before a right to vote by the custom of the borough. The constables of the manor of Aylesbury, and the prebendal manor by whom the town is at present governed, are still the returning officers. During the interregnum this borough was represented by Scot and Mayne, two of the regicides.

The town of Aylesbury has had, from time immemorial, a considerable market, the tolls of which were valued, in King Edward the Confessor's time, at 25l. per annum, and at the time of the Norman survey at 10l. The present market, which is on Saturday, is held under a charter of Queen Elizabeth, bearing date 1579: a market on Wednesday, granted by Queen Mary's charter, has been disused: King John granted this town a fair on St. Oswald's day: Queen Mary's charter grants two fairs; one at the Annunciation, the other on Holy-Rood day: Queen Elizabeth's charter confirms the fair on Holy-Rood day, and grants another on the eve of Palm-Sunday. There are now six annual fairs, January 20, March 24, May 8, June 14, September 25, and October 12.

The old town-hall, which stands in the middle of the market-place, was built at the expence of Chief Justice Baldwin, in the reign of King Henry VIII: the king gave the timber. The assizes were removed to Aylesbury, at the instance of the lord chief justice, and a county gaol was built there. It must be observed, however, that the assizes were not from this time constantly held at Aylesbury, but for several years, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. wholly at Little Brickhill, now reduced to a small village. Since the year 1758, the Lent Assizes only have been held at Aylesbury, and the Summer Assizes at Buckingham. The act of parliament for building the present gaol and town-hall bears date 1737: the town-hall has been lately much improved, and the access to the courts rendered more commodious. Browne Willis seems to have considerably over-rated the population of this town, by calculating the number of inhabitants, about 50 years ago, at 4000: their number, according to the returns made to parliament under the population act, in 1801, was then only 3082.

The manor of Aylesbury was anciently parcel of the demesne land of the crown: King John gave it to Geffrey Fitz-Piers, Earl of Essex, from whose family it passed successively, by female heirs, to the Botelers, or Butlers, afterwards Earls of Ormond, and the Boleynes. Thomas Boleyne, Earl of Wilts, father of Queen Anne Boleyne, sold it to Sir John Baldwin, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, whose daughter brought it in marriage to Robert Pakington, one of the representatives in parliament for the city of London, who was barbarously murdered in 1537, on account of his known zeal for the reformed religion: his only son, Thomas, who was knighted by Queen Mary, was buried at Aylesbury, with great pomp, in 1571. Sir John Pakington, the grandson (son of Thomas), was a distinguished character in the court of Queen Elizabeth, a great favourite with her Majesty, and very popular in the country: he built a noble mansion at Westwood, in Worcestershire, which was his principal residence; but he lived occasionally at Aylesbury, where he entertained King James and his Queen, attended by a very numerous retinue, with unusual magnificence. Upon his son's marriage, Sir John Pakington gave him his house at Aylesbury: about the same time (in 1620) he procured him to be made a baronet, he being then only 20 years of age: in 1623 the baronet was elected one of the representatives for this borough, but died the next year: in the entry of his burial in the parish register, he is called " Sir John Pakington, knt. and bart. the hopes of Aylesbury:" his father died in 1625, and was also buried at Aylesbury. During the civil war Sir John Pakington, the grandson, was under the necessity of conveying the manor, market, and other estates at Aylesbury, to Scot, the regicide, and others, as trustees for the use of the town: at the restoration he recovered his property, but the house, which had sustained much injury during the war, was never again made habitable: his descendants continued to possess the manor, market, &c. till the year 1801, when they were sold by the present Sir John Pakington, of Westwood, to the Marquis of Buckingham.

The manor of Broughton-Hollands, alias Staveley, partly in this parish, was for many generations in the Pakingtons, and is now the property of the Marquis of Buckingham.

The ancient family of Aylesbury, who took their name from this town, held a considerable estate here, which passed afterwards by marriage to the Chaworths, by the service of finding straw for the king's bed, and to strew his chamber; and three eels, when he should come to Aylesbury in winter; and when he should visit it in summer, straw for his bed, grass for his chamber, and two green geese; but these services were not to be claimed more than three times in the year, in case the king's visits should be more frequent.

The parish church is a large and handsome Gothic structure, but contains little that is remarkable: there is a monument in memory of Sir Henry Lee's lady, who died in 1584; and effigies, in white marble, dug up some years ago in the ruins of the church of the Grey-Friars, and supposed by Browne Willis to be that of Sir Robert Lee, who died in 1460: the arms on the surcoat are a fesse, between three leopards' faces. In the chancel are tablets in memory of Sir Francis Bernard bart. governor of Massachuset's-Bay, who died in 1779, and his lady.

The rectory of Aylesbury forms a prebendal corps in the church of Lincoln: this estate was held on lives by the family of Mead, from whom it passed by marriage to the celebrated John Wilkes, alderman of London, who represented the borough in parliament, and resided in the rectory-house adjoining the church, an old mansion which he partly rebuilt, and which was afterwards in the occupation of Sir Francis Bernard. Mr. Wilkes sold his interest in this estate to Sir William Lee: the fee-simple of it was purchased under the act of parliament for the redemption of the land-tax, by Robert Browne esq. who has since sold the prebendal manor to the Marquis of Buckingham: the vicarage is in the gift of the prebendary. [Correction at the end of Magna Britannia states "It was the fee-simple of the prebendal house and pleasure-ground only, which was purchased with the manor by Mr. Browne: the greater part of the estate still continues to be annexed to the Prebend"]. The manor of Walton (a hamlet in this parish, where was formerly a chapel,) constituted the corps of another prebend in the church of Lincoln, called the prebend of Heydor cum Walton. The lease of this prebend, which had been for many years in Lord Melbourn's family, is now vested in Lord Carrington, who purchased it, a few years ago, of Mr. Rickford, of Aylesbury. The hamlet of Walton was inclosed by act of parliament in 1799: the township and liberties of Aylesbury had been inclosed, pursuant to an act of parliament passed in 1770: allotments of land were assigned under both acts to the impropriator and vicar, in lieu of tithes.

There were two ancient hospitals in Aylesbury, dedicated to St. John and St. Leonard, founded by certain burgesses of the town, for the support of lepers and other poor: they had both gone to decay before 1360, as appears by a record of that date.

[Correction/Addition at the end of Magna Britannia states "By the original record referred to by Dugdale, it appears that both the ancient hospitals spoken of in this page were of royal foundation. The record which is an inquisition taken for the purpose of ascertaining the state of the hospitals, and by what means they came into the king's hands, states they had been both founded by the king's progenitors; the hospital of St. John for impotent infirm poor, St. Leonard's for lepers or other sick persons; that some lands in Weston-Turville and Stoke-Mandeville had been appropriated to the hospital of St. John, and some lands in Hartwell to that of St. Leonard without the king's licence; that the buildings of both had long fallen to decay, and the hospital of St. Leonard had been converted to secular uses."]

Lord Chief Justice Baldwin was a great benefactor to this town, by making causeys, and improving the roads in its immediate vicinity. John Bedford had before (anno 1494) conferred a more lasting benefit, by giving lands to the town, which now produce at least 300l. per annum, for the repair of the highways, and the relief of the poor: an act of parliament for settling the lands thus given by John Bedford, passed in the year 1586. Mr. Henry Philips, in the year 1714, built a grammar-school in this town, and gave for its endowment the sum of 5000l. with which was purchased the manor of Broughton-Abbots, in the neighbouring parish of Bierton: the salary of the master, which is discretional, is now about 60l. per annum.

There is no manufacture carried on in this town, excepting that of lace. There are meeting-houses for the prebyterians, anabaptists, quakers and methodists.