Search my many thousands of pubs and London history
Directory of Pubs in the UK, historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels in Buckinghamshire. The Buckinghamshire listing uses information from census, Trade Directories and History to add licensees, bar staff, Lodgers and Visitors.
The following entries are in this format:
Year/Publican or other Resident/Relationship to Head and or Occupation/Age/Where Born/Source.
BOARSTALL, sometimes written Burghstall, is a village and parish on the
borders of Oxfordshire, in the hundred of Ashendon, union of Bicester, from
which town it is 6 miles 8.S.E., 2 W. of Brill, and 9 from Oxford. Tradition
asserts that the name is derived from a wild boar that infested the forest
of Bernwood, and interrupted the sport of Edward the Confessor, but which
was at last slain by a huntsman named Nigel, to whom the king granted some
lands as a reward, to be held by cornage, or the service of a horn. On the
lands thus given Nigel erected a manor house, called Boarstall Tower, in
memory of the event through which he obtained the possession. This building
still exists, and is in tolerably good preservation; it is protected with
battlements, a deep moat on three sides, and doors set with iron plates and
studs. Boarstall House was garrisoned by the Royalists in the Civil Wars; it
was taken, in 1644, by Colonel Gage, who cannonaded it from the church, at
which time Lady Benham, then Lady of Boarstall, effected her escape by a
secret passage. The garrison, left here under the command of Sir William
Campion, caused by their incursions much annoyance to the Parliamentarians,
wbo made an attempt, in 1645, under Fairfax to take it, but, according to
Clarendon, "were beaten off from this poor house, with much loss, and very
little honour;" it was, however, reduced by General Fairfax, in 1646. The
first church at Botrstall was built in 1448, but being very dilapidated was
taken down and rebuilt, in 1818 by the late Sir John Aubrey, Bart. The
present edifice is a neat structure, dedicated to St. James, consisting of a
nave and chancel, without a tower. There is reason to suppose that the bells
of the old church were dismantled and buried in some parts of the precincts
of the Castle, in order to conceal them from the Parliamentary soldiery. The
chancel contains two handsome marble monuments to members of the Aubrey
family; at the eastern end is a stained glass window. bearing the arms of
the same family. The living is a perpetual curacy, held in conjunction with
Brill, in the gift of Lady Aubrey, who is lady of the manor. By a covenant,
in 1448, between the Prior of St. Frideswida and Edmund Rede, then lord of
the manor, the tithes (except the tithes of three fields) were given to the
chaplain, with all mortuaries and fees. Now, the lady of the manor receives
the tithes and pays the chaplain £10 a year. The present incumbent is the
Rev. John Samuel Baron, M.A., who resides at Brill. There is a charity of
about £12 Per annum, left by Edward Lewis, Esq., distributed to the poor,
and another bequeathed by Mrs. Penelope Dynham, of about £8 annual value,
applied to the apprenticing of poor boys. The parish contains 3080 acres,
with a population in 1861 of 255
Smart Rev Thomas Gregory, M.A. (curate)
TRADERS.
Blake Henry, farmer
Blake John, gamekeeper
Blake Joseph, keeper of the Hall
decoy pond Blake Moses, farmer
Blake William, farmer
Busby Thomas, parish clerk
Chaundy John, farmer
Collett Richard, farmer
Dodwell Edward, farmer
Hall Edward, farmer
Kilby Spencer, farmer and churchwarden
Malin Edward, farmer and churchwarden
Mumford Richard, farmer
Napper Elisha, master of Sunday school
Rede William, farm bailiff
Sulston Thomas, farmer
Welford Anne, farmer