Merton / Martin

"MERTON, (or Martin), a parish in the hundred of Bullingdon, county Oxford, 3.5 miles S.W. of Bicester, its post town, and 10 N.E. of Oxford. The village, which is small, is situated on the river Ray, and is joined by a causeway, 2 miles in length, to the village of Ambrosden. A branch of the Roman road traverses the parish. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture. The tithes were commuted for land under an Enclosure Act in 1763. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, value £90, in the patronage of Exeter College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Swithin, is of great antiquity, and has a square tower, formerly surmounted by a spire. On the top of the tower is a decorated border in fine preservation. There is an old Elizabethan manorhouse, now converted into a farmhouse. Sir Edward Turner is lord of the manor." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]