Chenies

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 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.
"The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham", Lipscomb G., 1847
"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
"War Memorials and War Graves: Amersham, Chesham and area, Volume 10", Peter Quick.

The following Monumental Inscriptions are available as publications or as part of a Society library:

• Monumental Inscriptions for the Baptist chapel are in the library* of the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorials in Chenies have been transcribed by Peter Quick and published by the 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

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 93 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Chenies.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 423 inhabitants in 105 families living in 88 houses recorded in Chenies.

* = 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.

• Rectors of the Parish Church of St Michael

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

• Buckinghamshire Stained Glass

The original copies of the parish registers for St Michael, Chenies have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

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 Chenies 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 Chenies to another place.

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

ISENHAMPSTED or ISELHAMPSTED-CHENEYS, in the hundred and deanery of Burnham, lies on the borders of Hertfordshire, about four miles north-west of Rickmansworth, in that county, and about five miles nearly west of Amersham. It is now generally called Cheneys; its original name is almost lost, having been exchanged for that, which was first given to distinguish it from the neighbouring village of Isenhampsted-Latimers, this place having been for many years the manor and seat of the ancient family of Cheyne. It had long been in the crown, previously to the reign of Edward III. to which monarch Thomas Cheyne, the first of the family who settled in this county, was shield-bearer. Iselhampsted was a royal palace, at which, as may be traced from records, King Edward I. and King Edward III. in the early part of his reign, occasionally resided. From the Cheynes this manor passed to the Sapcotes, pursuant to the will of Agnes Lady Cheyne, in 1494: it is now the property of the Duke of Bedford, whose ancestor, John Lord Russell, afterwards Earl of Bedford, married Anne, relict of Sir John Broughton, of Tuddington, in Bedfordshire, and heiress of Sir Guy Sapcote. For greater security perhaps of the title, John Cheyne, the heir male of its ancient proprietor, conveyed the manor of Iselhampsted-Cheneys to the Earl of Bedford, in 1560. Lord Russell, upon coming into possession of this estate, rebuilt the greater part of the manor-house, and made it his principal seat. "The old house of Cheneys is so translated," says Leland, "by my Lord Russell, that hath this house in right of his wife, that little or nothing of it remaynith ontranslatid, and a great deal of the house is even newly set up and made of bricks and timber." Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Cheneys, by Francis Earl of Bedford, in 1570. A considerable part of the house, which was built by his father, still remains, but it has been deserted by the Russell family, ever since they fixed their principal residence at Woburn. In one of the wings now remaining is a long gallery, in which are some damaged pictures: the windows are stopped up. Cheneys is now occupied as a farm, and is the residence of the duke's principal tenant on this estate.

In the parish church are some memorials of the Cheynes. Two ancient tombs, which are now in the adjoining chapel, are supposed to belong to the same family. In this chapel, which was built by Anne Countess of Bedford, (the heiress of the Sapcotes,) is a monument for herself and her husband, John, the first Earl of Bedford. There are also the monuments of Francis Earl of Bedford, who died in 1585, and his countess; Anne Countess of Warwick, their daughter, and Lady Frances Bourchier, their grandaughter; Francis Earl of Bedford, who died in 1641, and his countess; that of the first Duke of Bedford, a very heavy piece of sculpture, with whole-length figures of the duke and duchess, and a medallion of the unfortunate William Lord Russel, who lost his head on Tower-Hill, and was buried at Cheyneys, August 2, 1683; and that of Wriothesley, Duke of Bedford, and his duchess, put up in 1769, by Wilton, from a design of Sir William Chambers. The last of this noble family here interred was the late duke, for whom as yet there is no monument at this place, nor is there any for his father, the Marquis of Tavistock, or his grandfather, John Duke of Bedford. A tablet has lately been put up in memory of Georgina Elizabeth, wife of Lord John Russel, (now Duke of Bedford,) and daughter of Viscount Torrington, who died in 1801.

It appears by the parish register, that the celebrated couple, Philip Earl of Pembroke and Anne Countess of Dorset (who was grandaughter of the first Francis Earl of Bedford) were married at Cheyneys on the third of June, 1630. The register contains numerous entries of the Russel family, and records the burial of the Hon. Capt. Francis Digby, (son of George Earl of Bristol,) who was slain in the great sea fight with the Dutch, in 1672.- The Duke of Bedford is patron of the rectory.

Anne Countess of Warwick, founded an alms-house at Cheyneys, in 1605, and endowed it with 50 l. per annum, for the support of ten poor persons, six of whom are to be of Cheyneys, two of Northall, and two of Wotton-Under-edge, in Gloucestershire.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TQ017984 (Lat/Lon: 51.675173, -0.53061), Chenies 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.

The name Chenies derives from the family of Cheyne, who were from at least 1232 associated with the parish.

The derivation of Isenhampsted/Iselhampsted is not clear and there are various possibilities including: 'Isela's hamstede', or, 'Isa's hamstede', or the 'hamstede on the Isene' (where Isene would be the name of a river, and in this case possibly an older name for the River Misbourne).