Little Brickhill

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: Cottesloe Hundred, Volume 2", Peter Quick.

War Memorials

War memorials in Little Brickhill have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Cottesloe Hundred, Volume 2", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

In 1642 there were 76 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £4.10.6 of which sum Robert Seeleinge contributed £1.0.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 87 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Little Brickhill.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 385 inhabitants in 94 families living in 80 houses recorded in Little Brickhill.

* = 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.

• Vicars of the Parish Church of St Mary Magdalen

The original copies of the parish registers for St Mary Magdalen, Little Brickhill 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 Little Brickhill 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 Little Brickhill to another place.

Little Brickhill was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

LITTLE BRICKHILL, in the hundred and deanery of Newport, is nearly two miles distant from Fenny- Stratford, on the road from London to Liverpool. This village, although distinguished by the name of Little, has been a place of much more consequence, if not more populous, than Great Brickhill; having been formerly a market, and as assize town. The market, which was on Thursdays, seems to have been originally granted in 1228, to John de Gatesdon, confirmed in 1267, to Philip Lovel; in 1319, to Humphrey Lord Audley, and in 1441, to Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Buckingham. The charter of 1228 grants a fair for three days, at the festival of St. Mary Magdelen; that of 1267, a fair for three days, at the festival of St. Giles; that of 1319, a fair at the decollation of St. John the Baptist; and that of 1441, two fairs, one on the festival of St. Philip and St. James, the other on that of St. Luke: the only fair now held, is on the 18th of October. The assizes for the county appear to have been occasionally held at this town, from an early period. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and King James I. Little-Brickhill seems to have been considered as the assize town, and is so called in Saxton's map, published in 1574. Between the years 1561 and 1620, the names of 42 executed criminals appear among the burials in the parish register: the last time the assizes were held at Little-Brickhill was in 1638. The gallows is said to have been on the heath, about three furlongs out of the town, on the road to Woburn.

The market of Little-Brickhill has been long discontinued; it is probable that the town fell to decay on the assizes being removed: of late years, however, it has again increased in population. Browne Willis states the number of houses, in 1758, to have been 69; their number in 1801, as returned to parliament, was 84, of which four were uninhabited, that of the inhabitants, 385. Little-Brickhill is still a post town, being the stage between Woburn and Stony Stratford.

The manor of Little-Brickhill was anciently in the Giffards, Earls of Buckingham, from whom it passed by female heirs to the Lovells, Audleys, and Staffords. Having been seized by the crown, in consequence of an attainder, it was granted to Lord Marney, and afterwards to William Carey esq. Mr. Carey's son sold it to the Brocas family, from whom it passed by purchase to the Abdys, about the year 1636: Sir Anthony Abdy, about the year 1696, sold it to Sir Charles Duncombe, in whose family it continued many years: it is now the property of George Henry Rose esq.

A chapel adjoining the parish church was blown down by the high wind in 1703. The great tithes, which were appropriated to the abbey of Combwell, in Kent, are now annexed to the see of Canterbury, under which Mr. Philip Mills is, or was lately, lessee. The archbishop is patron of the benefice, which is a perpetual curacy. This parish has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1796, when allotments of land were assigned in lieu of tithes, and an allotment to the poor for fuel.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP909325 (Lat/Lon: 51.983532, -0.677809), Little Brickhill 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 Brickhill can be considered to also be composed of two parts, firstly, brik meaning top or summit, and the second part hill. The name Little being used as a distinguishing affix.