Islip, Oxfordshire

Description
Islip, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on the river Ray, near its influx to the Cherwell, and adjacent to the Oxford and Bletchley branch of the L. & N.W.R., 7 miles NNE from Oxford, and has a station on the railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Oxford. The parish comprises 2004 acres; population, 587. The manor was known to the Saxons as Githslepe, belonged in King Ethelred's time to the Crown, was given by Edward the Confessor to the abbot and monks of Westminster, and belongs now to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The manor house or palace was for a short time in 1326 the residence of Isabel of France, and afterwards went so completely to decay that the vestiges of it were matter of modern discovery. A chapel connected with it stood as a barn till 1780, and a font, removed from that chapel, and now at Middleton Stony, is said to have been the font in which Edward the Confessor was baptized. It bears an inscription, in 16th century English letters, stating this. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; tithe commutation, £510 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The church is variously Transition Norman, Decorated English, and Later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with handsome tower; and was restored in 1861 at a cost of about £1800. The churchyard contains the grave and a granite monument of Dr Buckland. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a few charities. Dean Vincent, Aglionby, a translator of the Bible, Robert South, Dean Buckland, and Dean Ireland were rectors. South endowed a school, and built the rectory and chancel.