Newport Pagnell

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.
"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.
"The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham", Lipscomb G., 1847
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire", Page W. ed., 1905-1928
"War Memorials and War Graves: Newport Hundred, Bucks, Volume 1", Peter Quick.

• War memorials in Newport Pagnell have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Newport Hundred, Bucks, Volume 1", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorial details are also available online on the Roll of Honour web site.

In 1642 there were 273 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £39.12.8 of which sum Anthony Carpenter contributed £5.0.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 400 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Newport Pagnell.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 2048 inhabitants in 502 families living in 527 houses recorded in Newport Pagnell.

* = 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.

Tickford Abbey

• Priors of Tickford Abbey

St Peter & St Paul

• Vicars of the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul

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 Peter & St Paul, Newport Pagnell 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 Newport Pagnell 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 Newport Pagnell to another place.

Newport Pagnell was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

NEWPORT-PAGNELL, which gives name to the hundred and deanery in which it stands, is 51 miles distant from London, on the road to Northampton. It has been a town of considerable consequence, from a remote period: the assizes for the county were occasionally held here, from the reign of Henry III. to that of Henry VI. A market at Newport-Pagnell was either originally granted, or confirmed by charter, in 1270, to Roger de Somery, together with a fair for eight days, to commence on the festival of St. Luke: the market was again confirmed to John Botetort, in 1333: the market-day is Saturday. There are now six fairs, held annually; February 22, April 22, June 22, August 29, October 22, and December 22.

In the early part of the civil war, between King Charles and the parliament, Newport was garrisoned by Prince Rupert; but on the approach of the Earl of Essex, not long after the first battle of Newbury, in 1643, it was abandoned by Sir Lewis Dyve, and taken possession of for the parliament, to whom it proved a very useful garrison, during the remainder of the war. Sir Samuel Luke, supposed to have been the Hudibras of Butler, was its governor in the year 1645, when the sum of 80 l. a month was voted by parliament, for the support of the garrison.

At the time of the Norman conquest, Newport was the property of William Fitzansculf, a powerful baron, ancestor of the Paganells or Pagnells, who gave their name to this place. From them it passed, by female heirs, to the families of Somery, Botetort, Burnell, and Bermingham. Of the latter, it was purchased by the Botelers. This manor having become vested in the crown, on the attainder of James Boteler, Earl of Wiltshire, was granted, in 1462, to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and in 1471, to George Duke of Clarence. It was afterwards restored to the St. Legers, as being representatives of the Botelers in the female line. In 1627, this manor, which had been again vested in the crown, by an exchange with the St. Legers, was granted to Sir Francis Annesley, whose family had been settled at Newport, as early as 1558. Arthur Annesley was created, in 1661, Baron Annesley, of Newport-Pagnell, and Earl of Anglesey. From him the manor pf Newport descended to its present proprietor, the Earl of Mount-Norris. The profits of the market and fairs have always been annexed to the manor.

The Paganells had a castle at Newport, the site of which is still called the Castle-mead; but there were no remains of the building even in Camden's time.

Fulk Paganell, in the reign of William Rufus, founded a cell of Cluniac monks at Tickford, adjoining to this town, and gave the manor of that place. This house was subordinate to the abbey of St. Martin, Majoris Monasterii, commonly called Marmonstiers, at Tours, and was seized as an alien priory, by King Edward III. during the wars with France. It was restored by King Henry IV. and made subject to the priory of the Holy Trinity, in York. King Henry VIII. suppressed this monastery in 1525, (its revenues being then estimated at 126 l. 17s. per annum,) and gave it, with all its land, to Cardinal Wolsey. After the Cardinal's fall, it was given to Christ Church college, in Oxford, but afterwards resumed by the crown. It is said to have been sold by King James I. to Dr. Atkins, his physician; it is more probable that it was given him as a remuneration for his attendance, in Scotland, on his son, Prince Charles, when he recovered of a dangerous fever; for which we are told that he was amply rewarded, and offered a baronet's patent, which he refused. The priory was one of the seats of his posterity, who were afterwards baronets by a patent, bearing date 1660: their chief residence was at Clapham, in Surrey. Tickford Abbey is now the property of Mr. Hooton: there are no remains of the conventual buildings. Mr. Hooton's family have a burial place in a retired part of the garden belonging to their dwelling-house, which is supposed to have been the cemetery of the priory: an obelisk has been erected there, in memory of the late Mrs. Hooton.

[Correction/Addition at the end of Magna Britannia states "By the death of Mr. Hooton, Tickford-abbey has devolved to his son-in-law Mr. Ward."]

Tickford Park, and the manor of Tickford-end, were sold by the Atkins' family to the Uthwatts, and by them to Sir William Hart: it is now the property of Mr. Vanhagen, in right of his wife, whose first husband purchased it of the heirs of Sir William Hart.

The manor of Caldecot, (a hamlet of this parish,) which belonged also to the priory of Tickford, was sold by the Atkins' family, in 1758, to William Backwell esq. a banker in London. Mr. Backwell, in 1769, bequeathed it to William Harwood, who has assumed the name of Backwell, and is the present proprietor.

The parish church, which is a spacious Gothic edifice, contains no monuments of note. In the church-yard is the following epitaph, written by Cowper, the poet, on Thomas Abbott Hamilton, who died July 7, 1788.

"Pause here, and think a monitory rhime
Demands one moment of thy fleeting time.
Consult life's silent clock; thy bounding vein
Seems it to say, health here has long to reign?
Hast thou the vigour of thy youth? An eye
That beams delight? A heart untaught to sigh?
Yet fear; a youth oftimes healthful and at ease

Anticipates a day it never sees,
And many a tomb, like Hamilton's, aloud
Proclaims, prepare thee for an early shroud."
                                                 W.Cowper.

The great tithes, which were given by Fulk Paganell to the priory of Tickford, now belong to the Earl of Mount-Norris and Mr. Vanhagen. The vicarage is in the gift of the crown. The vicar is always master of an ancient hospital, originally founded by John de Somery, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, in the the reign of Edward I. and refounded by Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. for a master, three poor men, and three poor women. Its revenues were rated, in 1534, at 6 l. 6s. 8d. per annum. The rents are now about 70 l. per annum. Portfield, in Newport Pagnell, was inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1794: the tithes were to continue as before, but power was given to persons entitled to them, to take a compensation either in land or otherwise. A close in North Crawley was given, by a benefactor now unknown, to the widow of the vicar of this parish: when there is no vicar's widow living, the profits are appropriated to the apprenticing of poor children.

In the year 1240, which was before the foundation of St. John's hospital above-mentioned, there were two hospitals at Newport-Pagnell, called St. Margaret's and New Hospital, of which we have no later accounts. Dr. Lewis Atterbury, (brother of the bishop of Rochester,) who was born at Caldecote, gave the sum of 10 l. per annum to a school-mistress, for teaching 20 girls to write, read, and sew plain work.

Mr. John Revis, in 1763, founded and endowed seven alms-houses (for four poor men and three women) who receive 10 l. per annum each, besides clothes and fuel.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP877439 (Lat/Lon: 52.086514, -0.721472), Newport Pagnell 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 Newport derives from the old english niwe + port, and means 'new market town'. The affix of Pagnell derives from the manorial family of Paynel, who were here in the 12th century.

The following is a list of societies and groups specifically for this parish or village and which relate to either local, or family history.

• Newport Pagnell Historical Society