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HE original churches of Buckinghamshire were in all probability subject at first to the West Saxon bishops of Dorchester (afterwards of Winchester) : and when the con- quests of Offa in the eighth century transferred this district to the Mercian kingdom, Dorchester again became its ecclesiastical centre. The boundaries of this new Mercian diocese varied no doubt a good deal during the period of Danish invasion ; but it would always have included at least the counties of Buckingham and Oxford : and when after the Conquest the ' bishop's stool ' was transferred to Lincoln, these two counties suffered no change of jurisdiction.

It was proposed at the dissolution of monasteries to make a new diocese, including Bed- fordshire and Buckinghamshire, but as a matter of fact both remained a part of the diocese of Lincoln till 1837, when the latter was transferred to Oxford.

It is generally agreed that the archdeaconries were first divided during the episcopate of Rmy ; that is to say, towards the close of the eleventh century ; but the further sub- division into rural deaneries is more difficult to date. It seems not improbable that the rural deans were in existence as recognized officials some time before their territorial limits were fixed. We hear of a dean of Thornborough in the twelfth century ; but this place does not appear among the names of deaneries mentioned in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV. These are Buckingham, Newport, Wendover, Burnham, Wycombe, Mursley, Risborough and Waddes- don, eight in all. They contained one hundred and eighty-six parishes. The same number of deaneries existed in 1535, and very nearly the same number of parishes, but there are some changes in the distribution of the latter. The two prebendal churches of Buckingham and Aylesbury, which in the Taxatio are placed after the churches in the Burnham deanery, are givan in the Valor Ecclesiasticus to the deaneries of Buckingham and Wendover respectively. The four churches belonging to the abbey of St. Albans, not mentioned at all in the Taxatio, are set by themselves in the Valor as ' within the jurisdiction of the Abbot of St. Albans.' These four Winslow, Grandborough, Aston Abbots and Little Horwood—remained in the archdeaconry of St. Albans until the redistribution in 1837.

At the revival of the rural deaneries in the last century the old divisions were retained, with the exception of the deanery of Risborough ; its two churches, Monks Risborough and Halton, being assigned to Wendover. At this time the deanery of Buckingham contained 27 parishes, that of Burnham 26, Mursley 28, Newport 44, Waddesdon 26, Wendover 25, Wy- combe 17 ; 193 in all. There were a few minor changes in 1853, of which the most impor- tant was the removal of the chapels of Hornton and Horley, so long connected with the prebend of Sutton-cum-Buckingham, altogether out of the jurisdiction of this archdeaconry. In 1855 there was a reconstruction of the rural deaneries, which were made thirteen in number.