Buckinghamshire, England Genealogy

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Buckinghamshire, England

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, or Bucks, an inland county; bounded on the NW and N by Northamptonshire; on the NE by Beds; on the E by Beds and Herts; on the SE by Middlesex; on the S and SW by Berks; and on the W by Oxfordshire...

The county contains 199 parishes, parts of 6 other parishes, and 4 extra-parochial tracts; and is divided into the hundreds of Ashendon, Aylesbury, Buckingham, Burnham, Cottesloe, Desborough, Newport, and Stoke. The registration county takes in tracts from adjoining counties, but gives off to them larger tracts; comprises 402,616 acres; and is divided into the districts of Amersham, Aylesbury, Buckingham, Eton, Newport-Pagnell, Winslow, and Wycombe. The boroughs are Aylesbury, Buckingham, Great Marlow, and High Wycombe. The market-towns are Amersham, Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, Buckingham, Chesham, Colnbrook, Fenny-Stratford, Great Marlow, High Wycombe, Ivinghoe, Olney, Princes-Risborough, Slough, Stony Stratford, and Winslow. The chief seats are Stowe, Bulstrode, Wotton, Hampden, Penn, Eythorp, Dropmore, Morton, Aston-Clinton, Ashridge, Lillies, Ditton, Halton, Dorton, Harleyford, Westhorpe, Thornton, Chequers, Claydon, Winchendon, Wooburn, Shardeloes, Padbury, Stoke, Weston-Underwood, Iver, Little Missenden, Little Marlow, Great Brickhill, Newlands, Gayhurst, Tyringham, Bradenham, Hanslope, Wilton, and Langley...

The county is governed by a lord-lieutenant, a high sheriff, about sixty deputy lieutenants, and about 220 magistrates. It is in the Home military district, and the Norfolk judicial circuit. The assizes and the quarter sessions are held at Aylesbury... The county is in the diocese of Oxford; and constitutes an archdeaconry...  The places of worship, in 1851, within the county proper, were 226 of the Church of England, with 64,231 sittings; 56 of Independents, with 11,091 s.; 72 of Baptists, with 16,796 s.; 8 of Quakers, with 1,183 s.; 81 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 13,023 s.; 36 of Primitive Methodists, with 4,509 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 648 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connection, with 140 s.; 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 100 s.; 11 of isolated congregations, with 1,488 s.; and 4 of Roman Catholics, with 527 s. The schools were 195 public day schools, with 13,743 scholars; 280 private day schools, with 5,305 s.; 352 Sunday schools, with 26,085 s.; and 21 evening schools for adults, with 424 s. Pop., in 1801, 108,132; in 1821, 135,133; in 1841, 156,439; in 1861, 167,993...

The territory now forming Buckinghamshire, was inhabited, in the ancient British times, by the tribes Cassii, Ancalites, and Dobuni...

The above extract is taken from: John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72). For the full account, go online to Vision of Britain.