Stewkley

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.
"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: Cottesloe Hundred, Bucks, Volume 2", Peter Quick.

War Memorials

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

In 1642 there were 202 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £12.1.3 of which sum Thomas Miller, George Tharpe and Richard Conley each contributed £0.10.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 168 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Stewkley.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 680 inhabitants in 148 families living in 118 houses recorded in Stewkley.

* = 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 and 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, Stewkley 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 Stewkley 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 Stewkley to another place.

Stewkley was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

STEWKLEY, in the hundred of Cotslow and deanery of Muresley, lies about six miles to the east of Winslow, about seven miles south of Fenny-Stratford, and about five miles from Leighton-Busard, in Bedfordshire. Browne Willis makes mention of four manors in this parish: the principal one was anciently in the Clares and Burghersts: the heiress of the last mentioned family married Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet; whose only daughter Alice was the wife of William De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. John Duke of Suffolk gave this manor, in 1480, to the dean and chapter of Windsor, under whom it has been held for many years by the family of Leigh: the present lessee is the Hon. Mary Leigh, of Stonely, in Warwickshire.

Another manor called Vauxes, alias Fowlers, was successively in the families of Molins and Chastillon. Having been forfeited to the crown, in 1467, by the attainder of Sir William Vaux, it was granted to Richard Fowler esq. being then described as a moiety of the manor of Stewkley. Browne Willis speaks of it as belonging in his time to the family of Hopper. It is now the property of the Rev. Mr. Wodley of Cublington, who purchased it of Mr. Foster.

Stewkley-grange was, in the reign of King Henry VIII. in the Duncombe family. From the year 1690, or thereabout, till 1760, it was in the family of Wigg : and is now the property of Mr. Ward.

At Littlecote or Litcote, a hamlet of this parish, was formerly a chapel of ease dedicated to St. Giles. The manor was at a remote period in the families of Molins and Pigot: in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was purchased by an ancestor of the present proprietor, Thomas Sheppard esq. of Thornton. The Sheppards were settled at Littlecote, in the reign of King Henry VIII.

In the parish church, which affords a very curious specimen of Saxon architecture is the tomb of the late Thomas Sheppard esq. who married the heiress of the Tourneys of Cublington.

The great tithes of Stewkley which were appropriated to the priory of Kenilworth are now annexed to the See of Oxford. The bishop of that diocese is patron of the vicarage.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SP852261 (Lat/Lon: 51.926907, -0.76237), Stewkley 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.

• Stewkley - the name derives from the old english words styfic + leah, and means 'Stump-clearing'.
• Littlecote - the meaning of this name is 'little cottage'.