Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for EWELME

EWELME, a village, a parish, and a hundred in Oxford. The village and the parish are in the district of Wallingford; and the village stands near Icknield-street, under the Chiltern hills, 3¼ miles NE by E of Wallingford r. station, and 3½ miles SW of Watlington. It was known at Domesday as Lawelme; and it is surrounded by fine scenery. The parish includes a detached tract, called Hollops, surrounded by the parishes of Nettlebed, Bix, and Swyncombe. Post town, Brightwell, under Wallingford. Acres, 2, 376. Real property, £4, 435. Pop., 684. Houses, 152. The manor belonged, at Domesday, to the Gands; passed to the Chaucers and the De la Poles; and belongs now to the Earl of Macclesfield, and gives him the title of Viscount Parker of Ewelme. A palace was built on it, in 1424, by the De la Poles; was the place of Margaret of Anjou's confinement for several years; was also the place where Henry VIII. spent his honeymoon with Jane Seymour; was likewise the residence of Prince Rupert, during the time he spent in Oxfordshire; and is now represented by only slight remains. The parish was a meet for the Wormsley harriers. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; and was annexed to the Regins professorship of Divinity in Oxford university. Value, £556.* The church was built by William De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and by his duchess; is a very fine and curious edifice, chiefly in perpendicular English; has an interesting wood screen, a curious roof, and a rich font-tabernacle; contains a surpassingly beautiful altar-tomb of the Duchess of Suffolk, the grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer; and contains also an altar-tomb with brasses of her father Thomas Chaucer and his lady. The churchyard has the remains of the son and grand-children of Sir Matthew Hale. . There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists. An alms-house or hospital, called God's House, founded by the Duchess of Suffolk, adjoins the church; and is an interesting brick structure, with a cloister round a square court. Endowed funds for this alms-house and a grammar school yield £472 a year. Roman coins have been found at Ewelme-Warren. Bishops Prideaux and Hampden were rectors.-The hundred contains thirteen parishes and parts of two others. Acres, 24, 837. Pop., 6, 418. Houses, 1, 385.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Ewelme CP/AP       Ewelme Hundred       Oxfordshire AncC
Place names: EWELME     |     LAWELME
Place: Ewelme

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