Merton, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Merton, a parish, with a village, in Oxfordshire, on the river Ray, 4½ miles SSWofBicester station on the L. & N.W.R. Post town and money order and telegraph office, Bicester. Acreage, 1932; population, 195. The manor belonged formerly to the Harringtons, and belongs now to the Turner trustees. The manor house was built in the time of Queen Elizabeth, gave a few days' concealment to Prince Charles Edward in the time of Sir James Harrington, and is now a modernised farmhouse. A branch line of Roman road, now almost obliterated, intersects the parish, and a causeway, nearly 2 miles long, constructed at great cost by Sir G. P. Turner, connects the village of Merton with that of Ambros-den. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £146 with residence. Patron, Exeter College, Oxford. The church is an ancient building of stone, chiefly in the-Decorated style, and consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel y with a tower. It has a Jacobean pulpit and some ancient and interesting tombs and monuments.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Merton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Merton, or Martin (St. Swithin))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Merton are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Oxfordshire newspapers online:

• Oxford Journal
• Banbury Advertiser
• Banbury Guardian
• Oxford University and City Herald
• Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
• Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
• Oxford Times
• Banbury Beacon
• Ossett Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.