Langley Marish

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.
"Dictionary of English Place-Names", A.D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0 19 28131 3
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"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

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

• Monumental Inscriptions for St Mary the Virgin church are in the library* of 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 the following numbers of men between the ages of 16 and 60: Langley Marish - Colnbrook Division 46, Langley Marish - Horsemore and Westmore Divisions 157.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 1215 inhabitants in 326 families living in 226 houses recorded in Langley Marish.

* = 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.

The original copies of the parish registers for St Mary the Virgin, Langley Marish 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 Langley Marish showed the following numbers:

• Buckinghamshire Records and Local Studies Service - large collection of old photos of Buckinghamshire

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

Langley Marish was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

LANGLEY, called in old writings LANGLEY-MARIES or MARYS, lies in the hundred of Stoke and deanery of Burnham, about two miles and a half to the north-west of Colnbrook, a part of which is in this parish. The manor came to the crown in the reign of Edward I. by reason of the minority of Ralph Plaiz, cousin and heir of Aveline Mountfichet, and though afterwards claimed by Elizabeth, Countess of Oxford, as heir of the said Ralph, was retained by the crown till the year 1447, when it was granted to Eton College. Having by some exchange, as is upposed, reverted to the crown, it was granted for life to Henry Norris, in 1523, and to John Duke of Northumberland, in 1564. In 1626, it was granted in fee to Sir John Kederminster, whose family had been long resident in the parish. His only daughter and heir married Sir John Parsons, of Boveney, whose son William, being then described as of Langley, was created a baronet in 1661, and was ancestor of the present Sir Mark Parsons bart. of Epsom, in Surrey. The executors of Sir William Parsons, the first baronet, sold Langley in 1669, to Henry Seymour esq. whose son of the same name was created a baronet in 1681. His cousin and heir, Sir Edward Seymour bart. sold it in 1714 to Lord Masham, of whom it was purchased in 1738, by the late Duke of Marlborough. An act of parliament passed in 1755, for re-building the house at Langley-park; it is now the property and seat of Sir Robert Bateson Harvey bart. who bought the park and manor in 1788, of the present Duke of Marlborough.

The Duke of Somerset conveyed Parlaunt-park, in Langley, to Sir Thomas Heneage, in 1549. It has been mentioned under Iver, that the manor of Leving, alias Parlaunt-park, is partly in Iver, and partly in this parish: the house is in Langley. This estate was in the Pagets, and is now the property of Lord Boston.

Sir Richard Hobart had a seat at Langley, to which his brother-in-law, Dr. Henry King, bishop of Chichester, retired during the protectorate of the Cromwells.

Langley has a parochial chapel, (subject to the mother church of Wyardisbury,) in which are memorials of the family of Kederminster. The Kederminster aisle is seperated from the knave by a Gothic screen, executed by Coade of Lambeth, and erected in 1792, at the expence of Sir R.B. Harvey. In this aisle is the monument of the late David Harvey esq. who died in 1788, put up by his nephew, the present lord of the manor of Langley, who inherited a considerable part of his fortune, and has taken the name of Harvey in addition to that of Bateson.

At the south end of this chapel, separated by an ancient screen, is a small library, consisting chiefly of books of divinity, left for public use, by Sir John Kederminster, with an express injunction that no book should ever be taken out of it. The great tithes, which belonged to the church of Windsor, were lately purchased under the act for the redemption of the land-tax, by Mr. Nash of Upton. They are subject to a payment of 20 l. per annum to the vicar. The dean and chapter are patrons of the vicarage.

There are two alms-houses at Langley, one of them was founded by Sir John Kederminster for six poor persons, each of whom receives a weekly allowance of about two shillings and sixpence. The other alms-house was founded for two poor men and two women, by Henry Seymour esq. whose nephew, Captain Henry Seymour, in 1733, bequeathed the sum of 200 l. to purchase lands for its better support. The alms-people in this house, who receive two shillings and six pence a week each, are appointed by trustees, of whom the vicar is one. There are three overseers for the parish of Langley, one for the district of Westmoor, one for Huntsmore, and one for Colnbrook.

The north side of Colnbrook, excepting two houses, which are in Iver, is in this parish. This town, which lies on the Bath road, at the distance of 17 miles from London, takes its name from the small river Coln: it has been supposed by some to have been the Pontes of Antoninus. The town was incorporated in the year 1543, by the style of Bailiff and Burgesses: a market on Tuesdays, and two fairs, were granted by the same charter. Two other fairs were granted in 1613, and the town had a new charter of Incorporation in 1632. The market has been discontinued above twenty years: the fairs, which were held on Lady-day, St.Mark, St. James, and St. Simon and St. Jude, are now reduced to two, which are held on the 5th of April and 3rd of May.

An ancient chantry chapel at Colnbrook, which continued to be used for divine service after the reformation, was endowed in 1682, by George Townsend esq. with a moiety of the rents of certain tenements in Cradle-alley, Drury-lane. Mr. Townsend directs by his will, that the donative of this chapel shall be conferred, when void, on one of his exhibitioners at Pembroke College, in Oxford, who had been educated at Crypt school in Gloucester. The chapel was removed from its old site in Langley parish, about the year 1790, and rebuilt on the opposite side of the road in the parish of Horton.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference TQ012789 (Lat/Lon: 51.499989, -0.543454), Langley Marish 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 first part of the name Langley Marish derives from the old english lang + leah, meaning 'long wood or clearing'. The Marish part of the name is manorial in origin, the manor having been held by the family of Mareys or, in Latinised form, Marisco.