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Gardner's Directory of Oxfordshire, 1852

Burford Town and Parish

This parish, which contains the market town of Burford, with the hamlets of Upton and Signet, is situated on the western extremity of the county, on the borders of Gloucestershire, and in the hundred of Bampton. It contains 2,170 acres; the amount of assessed property in 1815, was £2,007.; and its rateable value is about £4,722. The population in 1801, was 1516; in 1831, 1620; and in 1841, 1859 souls.

The Town of Burford is seated on an ascent on the bank of the river Windrush, about 18 miles W. by N. from Oxford, 7 miles W. from Witney, about the same distance N.W. from Bampton, 72 miles from London by the road through High Wycombe, ad 76 through Henley-on-Thames.

Historical Notices. - Burford makes a considerable figure in early English history. The Malmesbury and other chroniclers give accounts of a battle fought here, thus noticed in the Saxon Chronicles:- "A.D. 752. This year Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, in the 12th year of his reign, fought at Burford, against Ethelbald king of the Mercians, and put him to flight." Camden thus tells the tale, "Isis now and then overflowing, the lower grounds receives its first addition from the Windrush, which, flowing out of the Cotteswold, salutes Burford standing on the banks of it, in Saxon Beorgford, where Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, then tributary to the Mercians, not being able to endure any longer the cruelty and base exactions of king Ethelbald, met him in the open field with an army and beat him, taking his standard, which was a portraiture of a golden dragon."

It would appear that the anniversary of this battle was annually celebrated by the good folk of Burford, to keep alive a wholesome remembrance of the glorious tradition, for Camden, in describing other festivals, says, "There has been a custom in the town of making a great dragon yearly, and carrying it up and down the streets in great jollity on midsummer eve." The field of engagement is called 'Battle Edge' to this day.

As some workmen were making a road from Burford to Barrington, a few years since, they discovered a large stone sarcophagus of very rude workmanship, weighing nearly three tons, which on examination, was found to contain the remains of a human body, and portions of (apparently) a leathern cuirass studded with metal nails, completely oxidated and matted together. From the size and appearance of this coffin (which is still preserved in the church), and from the circumstance of its being found near to Battle Edge, it may be presumed it was deposited there after the battle between Ethelbald and Cuthred above noticed.

Burford is also famous in Saxon history, for an ecclesiastical council held there, and which is thus related: "A council was convened in Beoryford this year (A.D. 685) by kings Ethelred and Berthwald, at which, among many others, Aldhelm Albot, of Malmesbury (afterwards bishop of Sherborne) being present, was commanded by the synod to write a book against the error of the British Churches in the observance of Easter." This synod, according to Spelman, took place in 705.

During the Commonwealth struggle, Burford was the scene of much contention, being alternately in the hands of Cavalier and Roundhead. The Cavaliers were upon one occasion it is said, confined in the church; and a curious memorial of this event remains, one of the prisoners wiled away the tedium of captivity, by engraving a sentence with his dagger upon the leaden basin of the font. The curious may still read here, in large inelegant characters: "ANTHONYE SEDLEY, 1649, PRISONER."

In the parish register are notices of the burial of several soldiers who were slain at this period; and in the old churchwardens book is a memorandum that two offenders were shot in the church-yard in 1648, but neither their names nor crimes are mentioned.

Burford once possessed a religious establishment, a priory or hospital dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, which was valued at £13. 6s. 6d. per annum and granted by Henry VIII. to Edmund Herman.

This confiscated property was granted by the celebrated long parliament to their speaker Lenthall (who built a chapel adjoining, and passed many years here in dignified retirement,) and from whom it descended through many generations, bearing that honourable name. Although the family is not extinct the priory has lately passed into the hands of another gentleman, Charles Greenaway, Esq., of Barrington Grove, in Gloucestershire, an adjoining estate who by right of this property, is lord of the manor and the principal land owner in this parish. We are sorry as truthful historians, to be compelled to relate, that from unaccountable neglect, the handsome and venerable mansion, venerable by its age and venerated in its traditions, the fine old priory-house erected partly by speaker Lenthall, on the site of the ancient religious institution, has been allowed to fall into deplorable and premature decay. This mansion formerly contained a fine collection of historical pictures, which are now removed.

Leland says of Burford "Bewchamps erles of Warwyke, were lordes of it, and also of the forest of Wichwood. Some say the Spencers formerly had some dominion in it. There was a notable quarry of fine stone near Burford, and a place called the Priory."

Burford is now a quiet insignificant country town, becoming yearly of less importance. 'Once upon a time,' the traffic through the town was very considerable; but the many railroads which intersect the county without touching Burford, deprive it of its thriving trade. Two solitary coaches still maintain an equivocal existence upon this once bustling line of road, which a third railway threatens to annihilate. The sign of this decline in importance is visible everywhere; it is to be seen in the once large and handsome mansion now apportioned into small tenements; it has the house agent for its historian; while printed placards of all shapes and sizes announce this or that 'house to be let.' A writer upon Oxfordshire has truthfully observed "Burford has diminished in wealth and importance from the decay of the coarse woolen manufacture, and the malting business which once flourished there, and from the diminished traffic along the line of road which passes through the town." Its woollen factories, and its fulling mills on the Windrush, are no more; and the manufacture of harness which once flourished here has shared on the general decay.

Its Market alone retrieves it from utter ruin, and Saturday, (the market-day) is still a busy day at Burford. The town consists mainly of three streets, in the form of a cross, and is badly paved, and consequently dirty; the houses are ancient, and in many instances picturesque. The inhabitants of Burford formerly claimed the privilege of hunting, one day in every year, in the contiguous forest of Whichwood; but during a pestilence in the reign of Elizabeth, (A.D. 1593,) the right was commuted for a largess of venison, from a dread of the consequence which might result to public health, from the concourse of persons which was wont to assemble. A gift of a pair of bucks without the hunting of them was substituted, and has since been perpetuated. "On the afternoon of every Whitsunday," writes Mr. Brewer, " the churchwardens, accompanied by many of the inhabitants, go in a kind of procession to Cape's lodge plain, within the borders of the forest, where they choose a lord and a lady, who are generally a boy and a girl of Burford. These titular personages formally demanded of one or more of the keepers of the forest (who always attend for the purpose) 'a brace of the best bucks and a fawn, without fee or reward, with their horns and hoofs,' for the use of the town of Burford, to be delivered on due notice previously given for that purpose. About the first week in August the bucks are sent for, ad a venison feast is provided by the churchwardens, which is held in the town hall, and is usually attended by some hundreds of persons. The expenses of this gala are defrayed by the company; and many of the neighbouring gentry usually grace the hall with their presence." The custom of choosing the lord and lady at Cape's or Capp's lodge was abandoned many years ago, in consequence of the gross improprieties to which it led, upon so solemn a festival of the church as Whitsunday; but the bucks are claimed regularly, and as regularly paid, and consumed by the inhabitants at a public dinner every year. About a mile south-west from Burford are St. Christopher's or St. Kitt's quarries, producing fine stone for building.

Burford is a very ancient borough, and according to Brown Willis, sent a member to parliament for one session, but was relieved from this formerly expensive privilege by petition. It is a corporate town by charter, and is still nominally governed by an 'alderman and burgesses;' but we are not aware that their duties are either numerous or onerous. The supervision of some charities, upon the proceeds of one of which, by will of its founder, they feast in true aldermanic style once a year; and the presentation too, and visitation of the grammar school, constitute we believe, the whole of their official duties. They elect a corporate body annually, though they are clothed with no magisterial power, nor do they support any political importance. Yet insignificant as the borough of Burford is, in one time it was, (at a very early period) a place of much consequence, and was considered of sufficient importance, to be from time to time favoured with no less than sixteen charters, the parchments of which are still preserved, and the dates of which are as follows:- 1. 11th year of Edward III., July 3rd, 1351. - 2. 2nd year of Richard II., March 10th, 1378. - 3. 1st year of Henry IV., October 8th, 1399. - 4. 16th year of Henry VI., November 25th, 1438. - 5. --- Henry VI., November 8th, (effaced.) - 6. 15th year of Edward IV., November 8th, 1476. - 7. 2nd year of Henry VII., November 20th, 1486. - 8. 12th year of Henry VII., January 19th, 1497. - 9. 1st year of Henry VIII., March 12th, 1509. - 10. 1st year of Edward VI., Decemebr, 1547. - 11. 1st year of Mary, June 13th, 1553.* - 12. 10th year of Elizabeth, July 5th, 1568. - 13. 3rd year of James I., February 15th, 1605. - 14. 2nd year of Cromwell, December 20th, 1649. - 15. --- May 26th, 1659. - 16. 16th year of George II., November 29th, 1742. One of these charters granted to Burford all the the privileges of the city of Oxford.

Burford gives the inferior title of earl to the duke of St. Albans.

Petty Sessions are held monthly at the Savings' bank, by the magistrates of the western division of the hundred of Bampton.

Besides the market on Saturdays, there are fairs for cattle and sheep, on the last Saturday in April; for horses, sheep, cows, and small ware, on the 5th of July; and for toys and cheese on the 25th of September.

The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a very large and ancient cruciform structure, affording many points of interest to the student in ecclesiastical architecture. The tower in the centre is the oldest part of the church, and is a massive structure of early Norman origin, and in the belfry is a curious arcade of grouped Norman arches. A handsome spire has since been added. There is too a fine Norman doorway at the west end. The greater part of the church is however in the perpendicular style of various dates, and the south porch is considered to be one of the finest specimens of that style of architecture in England. The church possesses some very fine tombs, the principal of which is that to the memory of Sir Lawrence Tanfelde, one of the justices of the king's bench, who died in 1625. His only daughter married the celebrated lord Falkland. One of the principal houses in the town is left to keep this tomb in repair. In the north aisle is another very curious monument, erected by Edmond Harman, Esq., in 1569, for himself and wife. The effigies of his nine sons and seven daughters are cut in the stone. This was probably the person to whom the priory was granted. The south-east aisle is called Bartholomew's aisle, from the number of that family buried there, and the south-west aisle is called Silvestre's, for a like reason. In the south transept is a large tomb of Purbeck marble, without name or date, but the following inscription on the exterior of the window affords some clue, "orate pro animabus patris et matris Johannis Leggare de Borford, per quem ista fenestra decoratur." The parvise over the south porch is used as a muniment room, where the ancient records are kept. The church is not less interesting on account of the vestiges it contains of the system of religious worship, prior to the Reformation. There are many piscinæ, and several remains of minor altars with the 'squints.' The vestry, which has a fine groined ceiling, and was formerly a chapel, has the altar stone still remaining. In the so called Burgher's aisle, the place formerly occupied by an altar is perceptible, and there is a provision in the will of one John Spicer, ordering that lights should always be kept burning there. Altogether the church is an ornament to the town and a study for the scholar. It is situated on the banks of the Windrush, which passes at the bottom of the town, and is crossed by a fine old stone bridge. The living is a discharged vicarage with the chapelry of Fulbrook, rated in the Liber Regis at £31. 13s., but now worth nearly £300. per annum It is in the patronage of the bishop of Oxford; and incumbency of the Rev. James Gerald Joyce, B.A. The tithes, the property of the bishop of Oxford and the vicar, were commuted for land, in 1794.

The Wesleyan Chapel having a very handsome stone façade is situate in the High-street, and will hold 300 persons. There is a burial ground attached. The chapel was formerly a gentleman's mansion.

The Society of Friends have a meeting house in Pytt's lane; and there is a small Baptist Chapel in Witney-street.

There is a Free School which was founded and endowed in 1571, by Simon Wisdom an alderman of this town. The endowment consists of several houses, gardens &c., which yielded at the time of the enquiry in 1819, an annual rental of £84. The patronage is vested in the alderman and burgesses by the will of the founder. By a decree of the lord chancellor, during a municipal interregnum, the patronage was transferred to the bishop. Though this decree has not been repealed, it has never been acted upon. Many persons od considerable eminence were formerly educated here.

Almshouses. - The 'Great Almshouse' for 8 poor persons was founded with a small endowment in 1457 by Richard Nevill earl of Warwick. George Symons, in 1590, gave his dwelling house in Burford called Cobb Hall, on the west side of High-street, the rents to be applied to the relief of 8 poor people of Burford, whereof 4 of the 8 were to be chosen of the almshouse of houses in Burford. Alexander Ready and Richard Hayter, also left small rent charges to the poor of the almshouse near the church style. An annual sum out of the rents and profits of the church estate is added to the stipend of the poor almspeople. The 'New Almshouse' in Church-lane was given by Simon Wisdom, 'for a habitation for four poor people for ever.' These poor people receive a small payment out of the estate of the great almshouse, and a certain sum from the feoffees of the other charities of the town. 'Castle's Almshouses' for 4 poor elderly widows of Burford were founded and slightly endowed in 1726 by Dr. John Castle.

The Savings' Bank was established in 1826. On the 20th of November, 1850 there were 309 accounts open, amounting to £10,400. 16s. 0d. Mr. William Henry Ward, is the actuary.

UPTON AND SIGNETT is a hamlet or division of this parish, which maintains its own poor. Upton contains three farms and Signett two farms and a few cottages. The rateable value, which is included with Burford is £2,422.

EMINENT MEN.

Amongst the distinguished personages whose names are connected with Burford, we may mention Dr. Peter Heylin a writer of some distinction, who was born here in 1600. He was educated at the free school here, and afterwards studied at Oxford where he took his degrees in arts and divinity. He was appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to king Charles I; and was afterwards made a prebendary of Westminster, and obtained several valuable livings. During the period of the commonwealth he was deprived of his church preferments, his estate was sequestrated, and his family consequently reduced to urgent necessity. At the restoration, he was reinstated in his livings, and was made sub-dean of Westminster. He died in 1662, and was buried in St. Peter's church, Westminster. He was the author of Microcosmus, or a Description of the Great World; Cosmographia; Ecclesia Vindicata, and several other works.

Marchamont Nedham or Needham was born here in 1620. At the age of 14 he was placed as a chorister at All Souls college, Oxford, where he remained till 1637, when he took the degree of B.A. He then became an usher in Merchant Taylors' school, London; but unsteady in pursuit was subsequently an under-clerk in Grays Inn, and a writer for the press He published a periodical satire on the court, under the title of Mercurius Britannicus, for which he was imprisoned in the Gate-house. After his release he changed political sides, and wrote Mercurius Pragmaticus, replete with poignant satire, levelled at the presbyterians. When the latter party advanced in power, Needham judged it expedient to quit London, and for some time secreted himself un the neighbourhood of Burford; but was discovered, and committed to Newgate. He oonce more changed sides, and as the price of his release from Newgate, he wrote Mercurius Politicus, a work hostile to the cause of the royalists. His sudden death in London put an end to this prostitution of talent. He was buried in the church of St. Clement's Danes.

Sir William Beechey, R.A., one of the most successful of the recent English portrait painters, was born here in 1753, and was originally co-articled to a conveyancer at Stow; but having a strong love for painting, he determined to pursue ot as a profession, and he obtained admission into the Royal Academy in 1772. Mr. Beechey early distinguished himself, and in 1793 he was appointed portrait painter to the queen. In 1798 he executed his principal work, a large equestrian picture of George III., the prince of Wales, and the duke of York; attended by generals Dundas, Sir W. Fawcett, and Goldsworth, reviewing the 3rd and 10th dragoons; for which he was knighted by the king, and elected a royal academician. He died in January, 1839, at the age of 86.

CHARITIES.

The charities of Burford are numerous; the following particulars of them are taken from the report of the commissioners, who enquired respecting them in 1819.

Charities vested in the Foeffees. - The church estate, consisting of several lands and tenements, the rents of which are applied to "the repairing, maintaining, and keeping in repair the parish church of Burford, and the bells there, and for relieving the poor people of Burford," yielding at the time of the enquiry an annual rental of £56. 12s.

Thomas Poole, by will dated April, 1500, left, after the decease of his wife, certain lands and tenemants to the poor of Burford. The income in 1819, was £62. 1s.

The rents of the Common Poor Estate, which consists of portions of the rents of tenements, and some small rent charges, are distributed amongst the poor.

John Hill, in 1491, bequeathed two tenements, the rents to be applied to the discharge of the taxes or fifteenths of the king.

The Bridge Estate, which now consists of two small houses in High-street, and a small strip of land, and the rents of which are now expended upon the reparation of the bridge, was bequeathed in 1517 by Thomas Pynnock, 'to the proctors of St. Thomas's chapel, in the church of Burford,' the rents to be applied 'to the use of the service of God in the said chapel, and to the sustenation of the said chapel.'

John Floyde, the elder, of Burford, left to the poor in 1581, a rent charge of 6s. 8d.

Lady Tanfield, by will dated June, 1739, devised a house, garden, &c., on the north side of Sheep-street, the profits thereof yearly to be disposed of for 'the repairing, maintaining, and cleansing the tomb of her husband, and of the aisle of Burford church, wherein it stood.'

The free schools and almshouses are noticed at a preceding page.

Most of the charities following are either vested in, or are under the management of, the corporation or some of its members. The sum of £846. 1s. 4d. stock in the 3 per cent. consols, purchased with money which had accumulated chiefly from the rents of the Clanfield estate, was in the hands of the corporation for charitable purposes in 1819.

John Hawkins left £20., the interest to be expended in binding out apprentices.

The Corporation have the sum of £105., left by several persons as a fund to be lent in sums of £10. for ten years gratis, without interest, the persons receiving the money giving bond, with security, to the bailiffs and burgesses for repayment of 20s. yearly, for ten years, in satisfaction and discharge of the bonds.

William Cleavely, by will dated April, 1623, gave the sum of £24. to be lent to four men for six years upon good security, they paying for a sermon once a year in the church of Burford. He also gave £20. to the feoffees of his will.

Walwyn Hopton by will gave to the town the sum of £50. to be lent to 5 poor tradesmen, and repayed at 20s. per year.

William Lenthal, by will dated July, 1622, bequeathed £150. to be lent out in sums of not more than £10. to poor tradesmen on security, without interest.

Richard Hayter, in 1666, left a rent charge of 8s per annum to be paid to the poor people of the Great Almshouse; and 6s. 8d. per annum to the minister for preaching a sermon on New year's day.

John Harris, alderman of the city of Oxford, by will dated October, 1672, left to the town of Burford, his native place, the sum of £200.; half of which to be lent out gratis to poor tradesmen in sums of £10. for ten years; and the profits of the other £100. to be employed in binding out apprentices to some of the corporation, but not to the parents of the apprentice.

The Clanfield Estate, comprising the gifts of RIchard Sindry and Henry Heylin, the former of whom gave £20., and the latter £200. These sums were expended in the purchase of land, consisting of about 19 acres, the rents of which were expended upon the poor.

Ambrose Aston, in 1712, left an annual rent charge of 52s. a year, for bread for the poor.

John Holloway, in 1723, gave £100., which was laid out in the purchase of two acres of land at Standlake. The rents, according to the will of the donor, are expended in bread to the poor.

The sum of £13. per annum is received from Sir George Fettiplace's charity, and given in bread to the poor.

George Hart gave by will, in 1778, £200. new south sea annuities for the poor of the parish, the dividends to be given to them in bread.

Edmond Harman, in 1576, bequeathed a rent charge of £4. per annum, payable by the owners or occupiers of the Port Mills. This sum is also expended in bread to the poor.

Robert Veysey, at an early period left £20., the interest to be given every Christmas day to 12 poor widows, 'reputed of honest conversation.'

Leonard Wilmot, by deed in 1608, charged certain premises in Clanfield with the payment, amongst other things, of £4., to be given to the poor of Burford.

The 'Mullender-lane houses' were purchased with the sum of £40., given in 1629, by lady Tanfield, for apprenticing children, and £50. left by John Palmer, of Weald, in the parish of Bampton, to the poor of this parish. The rents and profits of the houses are expended in accordance with the wills of the donors.

James Frethern of Kencot, by will dated October, 1663, left an annual rent charge of 40s., "to be given, yearly, to a maid servant, dwelling in a service wherein she had continued six years, not as an apprentice, but as a hired yearly servant, without interruption; and if the first or second master or mistress should die, and the survivor marry again, and she continue in the service, that should not be accounted any interruption, the said maid servant living in good and commendable manners, and unspotted fame, and being of the age of 21 years. And the testator directed, that if in any year there should not be such a maid servant, then that the 40s. should be bestowed to help towards the placing out of a poor boy or girl, born in the town of Burford, forth to service, the said 40s. to be disposed of in behalf of the child, at the discretion of the minister, bailiffs and churchwardens, or the major part of them, with the good liking of the father and mother, if the child should have any."

Elizabeth Meedy bequeathed 17 acres of land in Ducklington, the rents and pprofits of which is applied in buying clothing for poor widows of Burford.

The Poor's Land, consists of 5a. and 32p. of land, (allotted at the ennclosure of Burford field in, 1795,) which is divided, the Burford share being about 4 acres, and the rest belongs to the hamlet or township of Upton and Signet.

The Poor's Allotment for Upton and Signet consists of 2A. 2P. of land in that hamlet.

Burford Directory.

POST AND MONEY ORDER OFFICE, HIGH STREET:
Mr. G.O. Matthews, Postmaster.