Drayton Beauchamp

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 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.
"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: Aylesbury Hundred - part one, Volume 3", Peter Quick.

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

• Monumental Inscriptions for St Mary's church are in the library* of the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorials in Drayton Beauchamp 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 1642 there were 22 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £7.15.2 of which sum Mr Fran. Osborne contributed £2.0.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 47 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Drayton Beauchamp.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 191 inhabitants in 49 families living in 36 houses recorded in Drayton Beauchamp.

* = 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 Mary
• The home page for St. Mary's church contains useful information, including a history of the church.

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 Mary, Drayton Beauchamp 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 Drayton Beauchamp showed the following numbers:

• Buckinghamshire Church Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Records and Local Studies Service - large collection of old photos of Buckinghamshire

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Drayton Beauchamp to another place.

Drayton Beauchamp was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

DRAYTON-BEAUCHAMP, in the hundred of Cotslow and deanery of Muresley, lies about six miles east of Aylesbury, near the road to Tring. The manor was anciently in the Maignons, from whom it passed to the Beauchamps and Cobhams. Sir John Cobham gave it to King Edward III. who in the year 1364 granted it, together with the hamlet of Helpsthorp, to his shield-bearer Thomas Cheney, or Cheyne. Drayton continued to be one of the chief seats of his descendants, till the death of William Cheyne, Lord Viscount Newhaven, in 1728. The manor of Drayton-Beauchamp was sold by Lord Newhaven's representatives to the Gumleys, about the year 1730, and is now the property of Lady Robert Manners: the manor-house has been pulled down.

In the parish church is a brass of one of the Cheynes, who died in 1375, in armour, with a mail gorget, most probably Thomas Cheyne abovementioned. Brown Willis's notes speak of another tomb, on which the figure of a woman only remained, with the date 1468, which tradition affirms to have been that of Sir John Cheyne. In the chancel is a sumptuous monument of white marble, by Woodman, in memory of Lord Newhaven, with an upright figure of the deceased in a large flowing peruke; Lady Newhaven is represented sitting. In the north window of the nave are eight of the apostles in stained glass.

The patronage of the rectory has been always annexed to the manor. Hooker, the celebrated ecclesiastical writer, was rector of Drayton-Beauchamp, in 1584. At Helpsthorp, a hamlet in this parish, was a chapel of ease, which has been destroyed.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP902122 (Lat/Lon: 51.80118, -0.693302), Drayton Beauchamp 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 Drayton Beauchamp is composed of two parts. The first part, Drayton, is believed to mean 'place where timber is dragged'. The second part, Beauchamp, derives from a family of that name that owned possessions at Drayton Beauchamp.