Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Worminghall (including the hamlet of Thomley) "WORMINGHALL, or WORMENHALL, commonly pronounced WORNALL, with THOMLEY. This parish is bounded on the north by Oakley, on the east by Ickford, (from which it is separated by a brook running from North-east to South-south-west, in a very irregular course to the Thame) on the south by part of Oxfordshire, and on the west by its hamlet of Thomley, which is within that county, and is situated in a low marshy track often liable to inundation. Worminghall, exclusive of Thomley, contains about 980 acres, of which about 430 are said to be in tillage, and 30 acres woodland. In 1598, "Wornall was assessed to the Provision money for beeves and muttons for the Queen's Household," at 1l. 4s. 9d. Expences of maintaining the poor in 1776, amounted to 18l. 2s.; in 1783, 48l.; in 1784, 35l. 3s. 4d.; in 1785, 65l.; in 1822, 237l. 13s.; in 1823, 190l. 1s.; in 1824, 183l. 6s. In 1722, the number of inhabitants was 259, comprised in forty-five families. In 1821, the inhabitants had increased only to 314, according to the returns." [The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, by George Lipscomb, 1847]

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 Contributions for Ireland 1642", Wilson J., 1983.
"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: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton.

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Cemeteries

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

• Monumental Inscriptions for St Peter & St Paul church are in the library* of the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorials in Worminghall have been transcribed by Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton 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

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Census

In 1642 there were 47 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £1.9.9 of which sum Simon Ellis vicar contributed £0.10.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 62 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Worminghall.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 266 inhabitants in 61 families living in 36 houses recorded in Worminghall.

* = 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

• Vicars of the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul

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Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for St Peter & St Paul, Worminghall 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 Worminghall showed the following numbers:

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History & Descriptions

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

WORMENHALL, in the hundred of ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies on the borders of Oxfordshire, about five miles north-west of Thame. It had formerly a market on Thursdays, granted in 1304, together with a fair on the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, to John de Rivers, who it is probable was at that time lord of the manor: at a later period it was in the Ingletons, from whom it passed by a female heir to the Tyrells. In 1720 the manor of Wormenhall was bought by Edward Rudge esq. of the Tipping family, who had succeeded the Tyrrells in the year 1560: it is now the property of Edward Horne esq. of the Leasowes, having been purchased of the Rudges by his father, Samuel Horne esq. about the year 1772.

Sir Clement Cottrell Dormer has for several years given a deputation for the free warren of Wormenhall

In the parish church are some memorials of the family of King; John King, Bishop of London, and Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, a learned writer and a poet, were both of this family, and natives of Wormenhall. John King esq. son of the bishop of Chichester, founded an alms-house at this place in 1675, for four poor women and six poor single men, who receive eight shillings and four-pence each monthly, from the donation of the founder.

Thumley, a hamlet of this parish, is in Oxfordshire.

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Names, Geographical

It is thought that the name of Worminghall derives from old english, being a persons name + halh, and means 'nook of land of a man called Wyrma'.

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Photographs

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

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[Last updated: 20th January 2003 - Kevin Quick]