Aylesbury (including Walton)

The following reference sources have been used in the construction of this page, and may be referred to for further detail. Most if not all of these volumes are available in the Reference section of the County Library in Aylesbury.

"A Walk Round St. Mary's", Revd. Dennis W. Davies (church guide).
"A History of Aylesbury with its Borough and Hundreds, the Hamlet of Walton and the Electoral Divisions", Gibbs R., Aylesbury, 1885.
"Buckinghamshire Contributions for Ireland 1642", Wilson J., 1983.
"Buckinghamshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory - 1830"
"Royal Commission on Historical Monuments - An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire", H.M.S.O, 1912/3.
"The Bucks Ancestor", Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society, Vol. 6, No. 4, December 1997.
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire", Page W. ed., 1905-1928
"War Memorials and War Graves: Aylesbury Hundred part two - Town and Environs, Volume 8", Peter Quick

War Memorials

War memorials in Aylesbury have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet titled "War Memorials and War Graves: Aylesbury Hundred part two - Town and Environs, Volume 8", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

Monumental Inscriptions

• Parish Church of St. Mary
• Hale Leys Chapel
• Castle Street Chapel
• Walton Street Baptist Chapel

In 1642 there were 200 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland for Aylesbury including Walton. Between them they were assessed at £18.5.0 of which sum John Duncombe esq. and Mr John Barkin both contributed £1.

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 546 men in Aylesbury and 58 men in Walton between the ages of 16 and 60.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 3082 inhabitants in 668 families living in 675 houses recorded in Aylesbury.

* = No names were recorded in census documents from 1801 to 1831.
** = Census documents from 1911 to 2001 are only available in summary form. Names are witheld under the 100 year rule.

Microfilm copies of all census enumerators' notebooks for 1841 to 1891 are held at the Local Studies Libraries at Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, as well as centrally at the PRO. A table of 19th century census headcount by parish is printed in the VCH of Bucks, Vol.2, pp 96-101.

Availability of census transcripts and indexes.

• 1841 - A part transcription for Aylesbury is available free online - click here to see
• 1851 - Full transcripts and indexes for Buckinghamshire are available on CD-ROM, hard copy and microfiche from the Buckinghamshire Family History Society.
• 1861 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• 1881
  • Available on CD-ROM from the Church of the Latter Day Saints, as part of the National 1881 Census Index.
  • Available on CD-ROM for Buckinghamshire, with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from Drake Software.
• 1891 -
  • Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
  • Aylesbury transcript published by Buckinghamshire Family History Society.

Descriptions

• Parish Church of St. Mary

Prebendaries

The churches of Aylesbury and Walton are both 'Prebends' of the Cathedral of Lincoln. The Prebendaries appointed the Vicars. The Prebend is an endowment given to a cathedral for the maintenance (in præbendum) of a Secular Priest.

• Prebental of Aylesbury
• Prebental of Hedor-cum-Walton

Vicars, Incumbents and pastors

• Parish Church of St. Mary
• Holy Trinity, Walton
• Hale Leys Congregational Chapel

Many of the original parish registers and some registers for other non-conformist churches have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury. The following table list the dates covered by registers which have been deposited in archives for the various churches in Aylesbury, it also gives a summary of the dates covered by the IGI.:

Copies or indexes to the parish registers are available from societies as follows:

* = material held in a Society library is generally available for loan to all members either via post, or by collection at a meeting

An ecclesiastical census was carried out throughout England on 30 March 1851 to record the attendance at all places of worship. These returns are in the Buckinghamshire Record Office and have been published by the Buckinghamshire Record Society (vol 27). The returns for Aylesbury showed the following numbers:

• Buckinghamshire Church Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Village Photos by Kevin Quick.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Aylesbury (including Walton) to another place.

ylesbury has a prominent position on a hill where the Akeman Street meets the main road from Thame to Buckingham. The earliest settlement was almost entirely built on the summit and slopes of the hill. The highest ground of all being the site of the church. In 1086, Aylesbury was a household manor of the King and was assessed in the Domesday Book as being 16 hides with land for 16 ploughs and having 2 mills.

The following are a number of notable descriptions of Aylesbury and its history:

• In Robert Gibbs "A History of Aylesbury with its Borough and Hundreds, the Hamlet of Walton and the Electoral Divisions" he quotes several descriptions of Aylesbury from notable historians. These are as follows:

1. Leland (- 1552) from his work "History and Antiquities of England and Wales".
2. William Camden (1551 to 1623) from his work "The Britannia".
3. Browne Willis (1682 - 1760), a local historian and antiquarian.

• Aylesbury as described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia".

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP817139 (Lat/Lon: 51.817766, -0.81614), Aylesbury (including Walton) which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

On the 1st November 1642, during the English Civil War The Battle of Aylesbury took place at Holman's Bridge at the edge of the town.

The derivation of the name "Aylesbury" is not clear, and several different ideas have been put forward. The actual name itself has been spelt numerous different ways over the years, and Robert Gibbs in his History of Aylesbury lists no less than 57 variations. It has been suggested that the first part of the name is derived from Latin or Greek meaning a church or place of worship, and that the name Aylesbury therefore appertains to a church or temple on an elevated site. Other people are of the opinion that the name has nothing to do with a church and that the 'bury' part of the name is indicative of place of fortification and defence, and refers to an Anglo-Saxon defensive position at Aylesbury.

Parliamentary Representatives for Aylesbury

In 1554 Queen Mary granted to Aylesbury a 'Charter of Incorporation'. The Borough created by this, was given the right to elect two representatives in Parliament. The following web pages list the representatives for Aylesbury, from the time of the Charter to 1880.

• 1554 to 1701
• 1702 to 1880

• The Aylesbury Grammar School

• Aylesbury's First Charter of Incorporation, 1554