Hedsor

The following reference sources have been used in the construction of this page, and may be referred to for further detail. Most if not all of these volumes are available in the Reference section of the County Library in Aylesbury.

"Buckinghamshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham", Lipscomb G., 1847
"The Place-Names of Buckinghamshire", Mawer A. and Stenton F.M., 1925.
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire", Page W. ed., 1905-1928
"War Memorials and War Graves: Marlow and area, Volume 12", Peter Quick.

The following Monumental Inscriptions are available as publications or as part of a Society library:

• Monumental Inscriptions for St Nicholas church are in the library* of the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorials in Hedsor have been transcribed by Peter Quick and published by the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

* = material held in a Society library is generally available for loan to all members either via post, or by collection at a meeting

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 36 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Hedsor.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 140 inhabitants in 35 families living in 30 houses recorded in Hedsor.

* = No names were recorded in census documents from 1801 to 1831.
** = Census documents from 1911 to 2001 are only available in summary form. Names are witheld under the 100 year rule.

Microfilm copies of all census enumerators' notebooks for 1841 to 1891 are held at the Local Studies Libraries at Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, as well as centrally at the PRO. A table of 19th century census headcount by parish is printed in the VCH of Bucks, Vol.2, pp 96-101.

Availability of census transcripts and indexes.

• 1851 - Full transcripts and indexes for Buckinghamshire are available on CD-ROM, hard copy and microfiche from the Buckinghamshire Family History Society.
• 1861 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• 1881
  • Available on CD-ROM from the Church of the Latter Day Saints, as part of the National 1881 Census Index.
  • Available on CD-ROM for Buckinghamshire, with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from Drake Software.
• 1891
  • Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
  • Hedsor transcript published by Buckinghamshire Family History Society.

• Rectors of the Parish Church of St Nicholas

Details of the stained glass in the church can be found on the following web sites (the site includes many photos):

• Buckinghamshire Stained Glass

The original copies of the parish registers for St Nicholas, Hedsor have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

Copies or indexes to the parish registers are available from societies as follows:

* = material held in a Society library is generally available for loan to all members either via post, or by collection at a meeting

An ecclesiastical census was carried out throughout England on 30 March 1851 to record the attendance at all places of worship. These returns are in the Buckinghamshire Record Office and have been published by the Buckinghamshire Record Society (vol 27). The returns for Hedsor showed the following numbers:

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Hedsor to another place.

Hedsor was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

HEDSOR, in the hundred of Desborough and deanery of Wycombe, lies near the banks of the Thames, about five miles east of Marlow, and about the same distance from Maidenhead, in Berkshire. The manor belonged anciently to a family who took their name from the village: in the fifteenth century it was in the Restwolds, from whom it passed to the Hawtreys. Rowland Hynde purchased it about the year 1560, and it continued in his family nearly a century, when it passed by purchase to the Chilcots, of whom it was inherited by the Parkers: in 1764 it was purchased of Mrs. Elizabeth Parker, by William Lord Boston, and is now the property of his son, Frederick Lord Boston.

Hedsor-Lodge, the seat of Lord Boston, was built in 1778; it stands on the brow of a hill, commanding a very beautiful view of the Thames, and some of the most picturesque parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The house, which is elegant and commodious, contains a small collection of pictures, chiefly portraits of the families of Irby and Paget, connected by marriage. In the library is a singular portrait of Conrad Ernest Copperman, a dwarf, who was page of the back stairs to the Princess Dowager of Wales; he died at the age of 35, being then only three feet five inches in height.

An estate in this parish, called Lambert-Farm, was formerly held under the manor, by the service of bringing in the first dish at the lord's table, on St. Stephen's-day, and presenting him with two hens, a cock, a gallon of ale, and two manchets of white bread; after dinner the lord delivered to the tenant a sparrowhawk and a couple of spaniels, to be kept at his cost and charges, for the lord's use: a composition is now paid in lieu of this service.

In the parish church, which is a very small building; are some memorials of the families of Hynde and Parker. In the church-yard are deposited the remains of Nathaniel Hooke, author of the Roman history, to whose memory a tablet has been lately put up at the expence of Lord Boston, with the following inscription :

"Sub hoc tumulo corpus deponi jussit Nathaniel Hooke Armiger, qui multiplici literarum varietate et studio eruditis, Romanæ historiæ auctor celebratus emicuit; de literis veró quantum meruit edita usque testabuntur opera. Ex vitâ demigravit annorum plenus & veré pius vicesimo secundo die Julii Anmno Domini 1763. Ad cinerespatris sui pariter requiescit corpus filiæ dilectissimæ Janæ Marieæ Hooke cujus animæ propirietur Deus. Sexagenaria obiit vicesimo octavo die Aprilis, Anno Domini 1793. Hoc pietatis signum poni voluit Fredericus Baro de Boston, 1801."

Near the church is a yew-tree, which measures 27 feet in circumference.

Lord Boston and the bishop of Lincoln are patrons of the rectory. The bishop presents every third turn.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SU915871 (Lat/Lon: 51.57535, -0.681027), Hedsor which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

The name Hedsor is a combination of two words. The first is a personal name, which could be Hædde, or Hæddel. The second part of the name derives from the old english word ofer, referring to Hedsor's position on a cliff above the river.