Brown Willis's description of Aylesbury.

Browne Willis (1682 - 1760), a local historian and antiquarian wrote the following of Aylesbury:

"The church Ailesbury was one of the most ancient in all these parts, and the parish thereto belonging, of the greatest extent in the whole county, it including Ellisborough-parish in the Chilterne, as also Bierton, Buckland , Stoke-Mandeville, and Quarendon: all of which places were formerly only chapels of ease to it, neither was the manour of the town less considerable; for, at the time of the Norman survey, Ailesbury lordship, which was then the Demesne Land of the Crown, was rated at £56, which lordship the Conqueror (tho' he bestow'd the church, with its appendants, viz. Bierton, &c., on the cathedral of Lincoln, to which it is at this day prebendal) still reserv'd to himself, as his immediate successors also did; for it was not alienated 'till the fifth of King John, who bestow'd in on Geffrey Fitz-Piers, Earl of Essex; yet nevertheless appointed the said Geffry to pay a quit-rent out of it of £60 per ann. to the Crown, which was continu'd 'till Queen Elizabeth's time (who releas'd the same by granting the said rent to Sir Thos. Barrington, and his heirs). Tho' this town had often chang'd its owners passing, upon failure of issue-male of this Geffry's family, to Joan wife of Theobald de Botiler, who, Anno. 25 Edward I. (upon the decease of Richard Fitz Geffry and Emma his relict, to whom this manour was assign'd for dower) in his wife's right, who was the said Richard's fourth sister and co-heir, had the town of Ailesbury assign'd him (inter alia) for her purparty; and the descendants of the said Theobald, afterwards created Earls of Wilts and Ormond, long enjoy'd the same: Tho, during the reigns of Edward IV. and Richard III., this family being attainted for adhering to the house of Lancaster, the said princes granted (inter alia) this town, parcel of the possessions of James Butler, Earl of Wilts, to Henry Bouchier, Earl of Essex; but the scene being chang'd in the next reign, and the attainder revers'd by Henry VII., they soon were re-instated, and held this manour in quiet occupation, 'till on the decease of Thomas Earl of Wilts and Ormond, without issue-male, this manour (as the title of Earl of Wilts did) came to Thomas, son of Sir Richard Bullen, Knight, and Margaret his wife, daughter and co-heir to Thomas Botiler, Earl of Wilts and Ormond aforesaid: which said Thomas Bullen, Earl of Wilts, father of Anne, one of King Henry VIII.'s Queens, sold the same to Sir John Baldwin, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; which Sir John departing this life, Anno 37 Henry VIII., Thomas Packington and John Borlase, who marry'd (as I remember) his daughters, were then found to be his cousins and next heirs, and accordingly had partition of his lands; upon sharing of which, this Manour of Ailesbury was alloted to the said Thomas Packington."