The hundred of Cottesloe: Introduction

THE HUNDRED OF COTTESLOE

CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF

Cottesloe Hundred comprises the three Domesday hundreds of Cottesloe, Mursley and Yardley, which were grouped together by the latter part of the 13th century. (fn. 1) The ancient hundreds were as follows: Cottesloe Hundred, (fn. 2) which contained the parishes of Aston Abbots, Creslow, Cublington, Grove, Hardwick with Weedon, Linslade, Mentmore with Ledburn, Whitchurch, Wing and Wingrave with Rowsham; Mursley Hundred, containing Drayton Parslow, Dunton, Hoggeston, Great Horwood with Singleborough, Little Horwood, Mursley with Salden, Stewkley, Swanbourne, Tattenhoe, Whaddon with Nash and Winslow (fn. 3); Yardley Hundred, containing Cheddington, Cholesbury, Drayton Beauchamp, Edlesborough with Dagnall, Hadnall and Northall, Hawridge, Ivinghoe with Aston, Horton and Seabrook and St. Margaret, Marsworth, Pitstone with Nettlesden and Friesden, and Slapton. (fn. 4) The names of all three hundreds survived, however, into the 17th century, (fn. 5) although they do not appear in the Parliamentary Survey of this group in 1653, (fn. 6) nor in the assessment of the six months' subsidy for the maintenance of the Army and Navy, granted at the end of 1659, to which the Cottesloe Hundreds contributed £1,181 5s., (fn. 7) where the parishes appear in alphabetical order. (fn. 8)

Creslow is assessed, probably by an error, under Waddesdon Hundred, and Little Horwood, Hoggeston, Tattenhoe, Cholesbury and Hawridge are not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, nor any of the members of the parishes enumerated above except Singleborough, Salden, Aston and Horton. These three hundreds were Crown hundreds, paying in 1653 £19 19s. 6d. yearly in hidage and rents and £5 6s. 8d. in fines and amercements from the court leet, then usually held twice in the year at Edlesborough, and from the three weeks' court, then reported as not held lately. (fn. 9)