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Barton Hartshorn

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"Barton Hartshorn. Beautiful among low-lying pastures on the Oxfordshire border, it is a little place of many graces. The green has the churchyard on one hand, and on the other the manor house wall." [Buckinghamshire, by Arthur Mee]
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Bibliography

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.

"Buckinghamshire", Arthur Mee, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.
"Buckinghamshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"Dictionary of English Place-Names", A.D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0 19 28131 3
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"Royal Commission on Historical Monuments - An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire", H.M.S.O, 1912/3.
"The History and Antiquities of the Town, Hundred and Deanry of Buckingham", Browne Willis, London, 1755.
"The History of Buckinghamshire", Reed Michael, 1993, ISBN 0 85033 637 6.
"The Place-Names of Buckinghamshire", Mawer A. and Stenton F.M., 1925.
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire, Page W. ed., 1905-1928

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Census

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 29 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Barton Hartshorn.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 100 inhabitants in 19 families living in 17 houses recorded in Barton Hartshorn. But according to Browne Willis, in 1712 there were 20 families.

Census Year Population
1801* 100
1811* 92
1821* 113
1831* 145
1841 165
1851 137
1861 126
1871 127
1881 111
1891 102
1901 78

* = 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.

  • 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.

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Church History

St James

The parish church of St James is at the east end of the village, and is built of stone rubble, dressed with limestone. The roofs are tiled.

The earliest part of the church is probably the nave, built in the 13th century; the windows were added in the 14th and 16th centuries; the south porch was added in the 18th century. In the 19th century the chancel was rebuilt, the north and south transepts were added and a bell-cot was erected over the west end of the nave.

There are two bells, which are inaccessible, they are said to be inscribed, 'Jacobus est nomen ejus' and 'Jhesupieflosmarie', they are probably both 14th century. There is a 17th century communion table with turned baluster legs. In the vestry there are six 'slip' tiles with a brown pattern on yellow ground from the 15th century.

Details of the stained glass in the church can be found on the following web sites (the site includes many photos):

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Church Records

The original copies of the Barton Hartshorn parish registers have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

Event Dates covered
Christenings 1752 - 1811
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Burials 1752 - 1809

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

Event
Society Library*
Dates covered
Society
Christenings
1575 - 1840
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society
Marriages
1575 - 1840
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society
Burials
1575 - 1840
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society

* = 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 Barton Hartshorn showed the following numbers:

Church Attendance
Barton Hartshorn St James 76 - Afternoon General Congregation
21 - Afternoon Sunday Scholars
97 - Afternoon Total

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Description & Travel

In 1927 "The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire" states as follows:

This parish covers 891 acres, of which 165 are arable and 694 permanent grass. The soil is clay.

The south of the parish is watered by two streams, and the land here is lowest - about 300 ft., rising in the north beyond the Great Central railway to nearly 400 ft. above the ordnance datum. The church of St. James, a few farms and other buildings stand near the center of the parish, on its chief road and a smaller road branching off to the south leads to the manor-house which till the latter half of the 19th century was a farm, but is now occupied by Lieut.-Col. C.W. Trotter. [© copyright of the editors of The Victoria Histories of the Counties of England]

Barton Hartshorn was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

Barton Hartshorn in the hundred and deanery of Buckingham, is a small village, lying about four miles south-west of the county town: there were anciently two manors in this parish, which belonged to the monastries of Oseney and Chetwode: the manor, which had belonged to the monks of Oseney, was granted by King Henry VIII to John Wellesborne, passed by purchase to the Paxtons, in 1570, and from them by female heirs to the families of Butterfield and Southam. Since the publication of Browne Willis's history of the hundred of Buckingham, it has been divided into severalties. The other manor, after the surrender of the priory of Chetwode, was granted by King henry VIII to William Risley, whose descendant, Paul Risely esq. was the proprietor in the year 1735: it is now in the family of Bowles, who have possessed it ever since the year 1759, if not before: the rectory, together with the advowson of the benefice, which is a donative or curacy, has been always annexed to this manor.

You can see pictures of Barton Hartshorn which are provided by:

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Gazetteers

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History

Before the Norman Conquest, Wilaf, a thegn of Earl Lewin held the manor of Barton, but before 1086 it had passed to the Bishop of Bayeux, for whom it was held at that time by Ernulf de Hesding. Later it appears to have come into the possession of the Earls of Pembroke and was held by William de Vallence in 1284-6.

Around the middle of the 16th century there appears to have been some bother between the lord of the manor and his tenants. The tenants accused him of wrongfully inclosing 30 acres of land near to the church, called Porter's Lees. This land should have been common for half the year, and there had always been a common highway to drive cattle through, and for carriages to use to and from the village, there had also been a passage through, to and from the church.

This wrongful inclosure, resulted in the tenants being greatly inconvienced. The lord of the manor had many complaints made against him and was obviously not thought very highly of, and at one stage was accused of having wounded one of the complainents in an affray which had occurred on the lees, however he stated that he had not been anywhere near this event, but was standing near his house, and the bow and the arrows he had under his girdle, were merely to shoot at rabbits around the house, the arrow he had shot was to defend his son when he saw him attacked.

The official Act for inclosing the lands of the parish was passed in 1812.

see also 'Descriptions and Travel'

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Maps

A street map of Barton Hartshorn and a County map of Buckinghamshire can be found on the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society pages.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP640309 (Lat/Lon: 51.972894, -1.069732), Barton Hartshorn which are provided by:

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Names, Geographical

Barton Hartshorn, possibly originally two separate hamlets. The name Barton is an old english name meaning barley field or outlying grange where corn is stored. Hartshorn or 'Harts Horn' may be derived from a feature in the landscape in the shape of a deers horn, or may refer to some adornment on the house.