Place:Langley, Oxfordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Langley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"LANGLEY, a hamlet in Shipton-under-Wychwood parish, Oxford; in Wychwood forest, 4 miles NE of Burford. Acres: 330. Real property: £697. Population: 53. Houses: 9. The manor belongs to Lord Churchhill. A royal hunting seat was here; claims to have been the birth-place of King John; was last inhabited by Charles I.; and has completely disappeared."

Langley was a hamlet in the parish of Shipton under Wychwood and became a civil parish in 1866. In 1932 it was abolished as a civil parish and was merged into Shipton under Wychwood. In 1974 Shipton under Wychwood was broken up into smaller civil parishes and Langley is now part of Leafield civil parish in the West Oxfordshire District.

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

About 2 miles (3 km) southeast of [Shipton-under-Wychwood] is the farmhouse of Langley, a largely mid-19th-century building. It is on the site of a royal hunting lodge that was built for Henry VII. Most of the Tudor monarchs stayed there when hunting in Wychwood Forest.

The de Langley family were hereditary keepers of Wychwood Forest, which office carried with it the tenancy of the manor of Langley in Shipton under Wychwood parish. Their heir was Simon Verney (d. 1368) whose brother was William Verney of Byfield, Northamptonshire, father of Alice Verney, first wife of John Danvers (d. 1449) of Calthorpe, MP for Oxfordshire 1420, 1421, 1423 and 1435. The de Langley family held the manor of Shipton, Oxfordshire, and Richard Lee in his Gleanings of Oxfordshire of 1574 states that these arms of "Gules, 2 bars or in chief 2 buck's heads cabossed of the 2nd" were then displayed in a stained glass window in St. Mary's parish church at Shipton with a tomb under it. The buck's heads seem to be a reference to the de Langley office of forester of Wychwood.

[People named in the preceding paragraph are not linked within Wikipedia, but there are probably biographies there.]

Research Tips

• This part of Oxfordshire is not covered by the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire.
• Oxfordshire History Centre, St Luke's Church, Temple Road, Oxford, OX4 2HT
• Oxfordshire FHS covers the whole county. The Family History Society provides an interactive map to assist in locating individual parishes and also relates the society's progress in transcribing parish registers and gravestone information for that particular parish. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.