Steeple Claydon

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.
"History and Topography of Buckinghamshire", Sheahan, James Joseph, 1862
"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: North Central Bucks, Volume 4", Peter Quick.

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

• Monumental Inscriptions for St Michael & All Angels church are in the library* of the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorials in Steeple Claydon 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 172 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Steeple Claydon.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 646 inhabitants in 147 families living in 104 houses recorded in Steeple Claydon.

* = 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 Michael & All Angels

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 & All Angels, Steeple Claydon 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 Steeple Claydon 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 Steeple Claydon to another place.

Steeple Claydon was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

STEEPLE-CLAYDON, in the hundred and deanery of Buckingham, lies about a mile and a half from Middle-Claydon, and nearly six miles west of Winslow. The manor was given by King Henry I. to Robert D'Oyley, as part of the marriage portion of his wife Edith, who had been the king's mistress. About 100 years after this, it was in the family of Fitz-John, and passed by female heirs to the Cliffords, Burghs, and Mortimers. From Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, it descended to his grandson, King Edward IV. and thus became vested in the crown. In 1557 it was granted in fee to Sir Thomas Chaloner, a celebrated writer and soldier, who was knighted by the protector Somerset, in Musselborough field, and the manor-house became one of the seats of that family. This estate was forfeited by the attainder of Thomas Chaloner, one of the judges of King Charles I. but repurchased of the grantee by the family. Sir JohnVerney bought it of William Chaloner esq. in 1705: it is now the property of Lady Fermanagh. The manor-house has been pulled down, and its site is now occupied by a farm.

In the parish church is a memorial for Edward Chaloner esq. thirty years a lieutenant in the navy, who died in 1766. He was grandson of Thomas Chaloner the regicide, great grandson of the learned Sir Thomas Chaloner, (tutor to Henry, Prince of Wales,) and great great-grandson of Sir Thomas Chaloner, grantee of the manor as above-mentioned. Thomas Chaloner the regicide, in the year 1656, built a school-house at Claydon, which still remains, and endowed it with 12 l. per annum: the endowment has been lost, but Lady Fermanagh, who possesses the estates of the Chaloners, allows two shillings a-week to a school-mistress. The impropriate rectory, which was formerly parcel of the possessions of the priory of Oseney, belongs to Lady Fermanagh, who is patroness of the vicarage. The parish of Steeple-Claydon has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1795, when a corn-rent was assigned to the vicar, and allotments of land to Lady Fermanagh, as impropriatrix; and to George Hardinge and Charles Webb esq. for portions of tithes.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP699270 (Lat/Lon: 51.937126, -0.984649), Steeple Claydon 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 Claydon derives from the old english clægig + dun and means 'clayey hill'. The affix of 'Steeple' is descriptive of its church and was used to distinguish it from the other Claydons.