Maids Moreton

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 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: Buckingham Hundred, Volume 7", Peter Quick.

War Memorials

War memorials in Maids Moreton have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Buckingham Hundred, Volume 7", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

In 1642 there were 26 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £0.17.6 of which sum George Bate, parson, contributed £0.5.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 82 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Maids Moreton.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 239 inhabitants in 73 families living in 61 houses recorded in Maids Moreton.

* = 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 Edmund

The original copies of the parish registers for St Edmund, Maids Moreton 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 Maids Moreton 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 Maids Moreton to another place.

Maids Moreton was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

MAIDS-MORTON, in the hundred and deanery of Buckingham, lies about a mile north of the county town. The principal manor of this place belonged anciently to the Giffards, Earls of Buckingham, from whom it passed to the noble families of Clare, Audley, and Stafford. The Marquis of Buckingham claims this paramount manor, to which no lands are annexed, as lord of the honour of Gloucester.

The manor of Greenhams, in this parish, took its name from a family who possessed it in the reign of Henry IV. Not long afterwards, it became vested in the crown, and was granted, in 1442, to All Souls College, in Oxford. Another manor in this parish belonged to Osney abbey, and was granted, after the reformation, to Christ's Church College, in the same university. Both these manors were for many years on lease to the family of Bate. Edward Oakley Gray esq. is the present lessee of Greenhams; the marquis of Buckingham, of the Christ-Church manor, the lease of which was purchased of Samuel Churchill, in 1802.

George Moore esq. of Maids-Morton, was created a baronet in 1665: the title became extinct at his death.

The parish church is a handsome Gothic structure, built about the year 1450, by some of the Peyvre family, who possessed the advowson. The tradition is, that it was built by two maiden sisters, daughters of the last heir male of the Peyvre family, and that the village was thence called Maid's-Morton. The porch and the belfry have groined roofs: in the chancel are three elegant stone stalls, with rich Gothic canopies. There are some memorials of the family of Bate: the celebrated Dr. George Bate, who was the chief physician to King Charles I. Oliver Cromwell, and King Charles II. was born at Maids-Morton, where he was baptized Nov. 23, 1607: his father was rector of the parish.

The advowson of the rectory was for many years in the Peyvres, and their heirs, the Broughtons; at a later period, in the family of Bate; it is now the joint property of the Rev. James Long Hutton (who is the present rector) and his brother, Francis Turner Richard Hutton Long esq. their father purchased of the Sandwells.

The parish register records the circumstance of the cross having been cut from the top of the steeple, in 1642, by Col. Purefoys's soldiers, (then quartered in Buckingham,) and the firmness of the rector, Matthew Bate, who, in defiance of the orders of parliament, christened children during the whole of the protectorate of Cromwell, and performed the marriage ceremony according to the rites of the church of England.

This parish has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1801, when an allotment of land was assigned to the rector, in lieu of tithes, and an allotment to the poor in lieu of furze.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP706352 (Lat/Lon: 52.01075, -0.972785), Maids Moreton 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 first part of the village name "Maids'", derives from the tradition that the church was built in the 15th century by two maiden ladies of the Peyvre family. The second part of the name, "Moreton", means 'farm on the mor or swampy ground'.