Wyrardisbury, or Wraysbury (St. Andrew)

WYRARDISBURY, or Wraysbury (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Eton, hundred of Stoke, county of Buckingham, 3 miles (S. W. by S.) from Colnbrook; containing 672 inhabitants. This parish comprises 1522a. 1r. 38p., of which 873 acres are arable, and 649 meadow and pasture. Within its limits is Magna Charta island, a small islet in the Thames, on which King John, at the instance of the barons, is said by some to have signed the celebrated charter of English liberty; it is the property of G. Simon Harcourt, Esq., of Ankerwycke House, in the parish. The living is a vicarage, with that of Langley-Marish annexed, valued in the king's books at £14. 10. 5., and in the gift of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, the appropriators: the great tithes have been commuted for £377, and the vicarial for £154; the glebe comprises 18 acres. William Gill, in 1798, bequeathed to the poor £300 four per cent, consols., which were subsequently augmented by a bequest of £100 from Thos. Wright; the interest, amounting to £13. 8., is distributed on Christmas-day. John Lee, in 1807, gave two annuities to the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, in trust, to pay £26 per annum to a Sunday-afternoon lecturer; and the parish is also in possession of property called the Church and the Bridge lands, let for about £46 per annum. A Benedictine nunnery in honour of St. Mary Magdalene was founded at Ankerwycke, in the time of Henry II., by Sir Gilbert de Montfichet, and at the Dissolution was valued at £45. 14. 4.