Village History

Waddesdon was described in 1806 in “Magna Britannia” as follows:

WADDESDON, in the hundred of Ashendon, gives name to the deanery in which it is situated. It lies about five miles and a half from Aylesbury, on the road to Bicester. The manor, which successively belonged to Robert Doyley and his sons-in-law, Milo Crispin and Brien Fitzcount, was seized by King Henry II. on the latter having assumed a religious order, and given to the Courtenays. In consequence of the attainder of one of that family, it was by two several grants in the possession of Archbishop Neville and Henry Bouchier, Earl of Essex. It was afterwards restored to the Courtenays, but being again forfeited, was granted by King Henry VIII. in 1540, to the Goodwins, from whom it passed by a female heir to the noble family of Wharton. It is now the property of his grace the Duke of Marlborough, whose father purchased it of the last Duke of Wharton or his representatives, together with the manors of Ham, Westcote, and Warmeston, in this parish, all of which had belonged to the Goodwins. The manor of Westcote was part of the estates of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, who was murdered in 1398.

In the parish church of Waddesdon is the monument of Guy Carleton, a veteran soldier, who died June 1, 1608, aged 94. It is not improbable that he was an ancestor of his namesake Sir Guy Carleton Lord Dorchester, who has followed his steps in the field of valour, and attained more honourable distinction. On his monument is the following epitaph:

“Whilst I was young, in wars I shed my blood,
Both for my king and for my Country’s good;
In elder years my care was chief to be
Soldier to him who shed his blood for me.”