Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Dorton "In park-like pastures with well-grown elms, near Wootton Underwood. The restored Dorton House, in its park, has many brick gables, and dates from 1626. There are seventeenth-century screens and plaster-work. The church has lost its interest through a 1904 restoration, but it is prettily set in trees, near a stream rich in water-plants. There is a chalybeate spring that had a spa, west of the church, at the foot of Brill Hill." [Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide]

Bibliography

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.
"Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide." editors John Betjeman & John Piper, London, 1948
"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: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton.

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Cemeteries

War Memorials

War memorials in Dorton have been transcribed by Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

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Census

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 30 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Dorton.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 105 inhabitants in 23 families living in 21 houses recorded in Dorton.

* = 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.

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Church History

St. John the Baptist

• Perpetual Curates of the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist

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Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for St John the Baptist, Dorton 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 Dorton showed the following numbers:

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History & Descriptions

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

DOURTON, in the hundred of Ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies about six miles north of Thame, in Oxfordshire. The manor was anciently in the Beauchamps of Hacche, afterwards in the family of Ferrars, of Groby. It was at a later period the property, and a seat of the Dormers. It is now the seat of Sir John Aubrey bart. who purchased the house and manor in 1774, of the Mitchells, who had been preceded by the Berties. A more considerable estate in this parish was purchased by Sir John Aubrey in 1783, of Sir Clement Cottrell Dormer. Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, gave the great tithes of this parish to Nutley abbey; they now belong to Christ-Church College in Oxford. The patronage of the donative, which is consolidated with Ashendon, is in the dean and chapter. Dourton was originally only a chapel of ease to Chilton; it is now parochial.

Names, Geographical

The name Dorton derives from the old english words dor, tun and means 'farmstead or village at the narrow pass'.

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Photographs

• Buckinghamshire Church Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Records and Local Studies Service - large collection of old photos of Buckinghamshire

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[Last updated: 1st January 2003 - Kevin Quick]