Thornton was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:
THORNTON, in the hundred and deanery of Buckingham, lies about four miles to the north-east of the county town. The manor was anciently in the families of Iveri and St. Walery. From the latter it passed in marriage to Robert de Dreux, who was succeeded by the families of Hareng and Savage. About the year 1264, it became the property of the Chastillons, who had a seat at Thornton and were of considerable consequence in the county for more than a century, during the greater part of which time some of the family were knights of the shire. In 1414 this manor passed by purchase to the Bartons, and from them in 1464 to the Ingeltons. Robert Ingelton of this place was Chancellor of the Exchequer to King Edward IV. Jane, only daughter of George Ingelton, who died in 1503, married Humphrey Tyrrell (of the ancient family of Tyrrells of Essex) who seated himself at Thornton and was ancestor of the Tyrells of this place, the Tyrrells of Castlethorp, and the Tyrrells of Oakley in this county. Sir Edward Tyrell of Thornton was created a baronet in 1627: the title became extinct by the death of Sir Thomas Tyrrell bart. in 1755. Thornton is now the property and seat of Thomas Sheppard esq. whose mother (the lady of Dr. Cotton) was daughter of Sir Charles Tyrrell bart. cousin and immediate predecessor of Sir Thomas Tyrrell above mentioned.
The ancient seat of the Tyrrells was modernized by the late Dr. Cotton: Browne Willis describes it as a quadrangular building of great antiquity and speaks of a noble gallery 125 feet in length.
The parish church has been very neatly and commodiously fitted up by the present lord of the manor, but the antiquary will regret the removal of the ancient monuments. The effigies on brass plates of Robert Ingelton, chancellor of the exchequer, who died in 1472, and his three wives, and that of Jane Ingelton, who brought Thornton to the Tyrrells, are all in remarkably fine preservation, but cannot be expected to remain so much longer, for the altar tombs on which they were fixed, having been removed, they are now placed on the ground on each side of the altar. The effigies in alabaster of John Barton, founder of a chantry at Thornton, who died in 1443, and that of his wife Isabella, have been removed from under an arch between the church and chancel to the west end, where they now occupy each side of the entrance to the church. There are no memorials for the family of Tyrrell, excepting a tablet for the last baronet. Mr. Sheppard is patron of the rectory. William Bredon, rector of this parish, who died in 1638, was celebrated for his skill in calculating nativities, and had a share in composing Sir Christopher Heydon's Judicial Astrology.
