Exhibition: The History of Walton Hall

Parishioners of Walton during the Seventeenth Century

William and Elizabeth Pyxe

William Pyxe was Rector of Walton from 1598 to 1642. He was ‘presented’ to the parish by Queen Elizabeth I on 30 May 1598 and remained at Walton until his death where he was buried on 6 April 1642. It is not known who William married but between 1599 and 1611, six children with the surname Pyxe were baptised at Walton – Sara, William, Richard, Elizabeth, Edward and Bridget.

The Old Church Rectory, shown on this page, probably dates from the mid-sixteenth century. In 1639 - when Rev. William Pyxe and his family would have been living there - it was described as, “a dwelling house of three bays, a barn of four bays and a stable of 1 bay” (ref: ‘Milton Keynes: Cows Before Concrete’ by John Taylor, 2018). Parts of the early building are still retained today despite alterations made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

Rev. Pyxe introduced Walton's first parish register in 1598, the year he was installed as rector. The first parish registers were introduced in Britain sixty years earlier in 1538 and Rev. Pyxe was evidently unimpressed that Walton had waited so long for theirs. He began the register with a verse written in Latin which commented on the lack of literary effort by his predecessor.

“Nec populum docuit, nee jungera culta reliquit / Glebae, nec tali nomina scripta Libro / Camber : at Incumbens Ulmos Malosq’ rescindens / Aedes fatalem diruit ante diem”

The first part translates to: “He did not teach the people, nor did he leave them tilled clumps (of earth)”.

The earliest memorial inside St Michael’s Church is that of Elizabeth Pyxe, daughter of Reverend William Pyxe who died from plague. Elizabeth was baptised at Walton on 21 October 1605. She died aged about 11 years old on 4 January 1617 and was buried at Walton the following day. The brass memorial is situated on the north chancel wall of the church. There is an inscription in Latin which reads:

“Elizabetha vale mea lux. Mea vita. Quousq

jungimur in caelis filia chara vale.

In vultu virtus, tenerisq resplenduit annis

innocuae vitae cum probitate fides.

Eheu tam cito quod resecabat stamina, nollet

Atropos, ac vitae parcere para tuae.”

The inscription bids a sorrowful farewell to Elizabeth but tells her that she will one day be reunited with her family in heaven. In Greek mythology Atropos is one of the three Fates who cuts the thread of life. Below the Latin inscription is the following touching verse about Elizabeth written in English:

“Elizabeth the daughter deare,

Of William Pyxe here lies interd,

O that her death for manie a year,

Allmightie God would have deferd.

Her mothers hope, her fathers joye,

And eke her friends delight was shee,

Shee was most kinde, courteous, not coye,

A meeker soule there could not bee.

A modest hue, a lovely grace,

Appeared in her beauteous face,

But now alas her life beholde,

In tender budde is falne [fallen] awaye,

Her comely corps sencelesse and colde,

Intombed is in earthie claye.

Her soule with Christ which did he save,

Enjoyes no doubt celestiall joyes,

Satan no power over her can have,

She is preservd from Hels annoyes.

Dear Bessie adieu, adieu I say,

Until we meete in Heaven for aye.

She departed this life the 4th

of January 1617 [in] the 11th

yeare of her age”

 

The strange tale of Matthew and Jacob Stirt

An article written by Librarian John Simpson was included in 'Open House', November 1970. The article 'Arson at Walton – in 1651' told the strange tale of two brothers Matthew and Jacob Stirt who had settled in the parish of Walton in 1649 after fleeing from London when the Levellers were supressed:

“Weavers by trade, they inhabited a cottage near the River Ouzel, together with Jacob’s wife Margaret and four children, eking out a precarious existence by casual work in local brickfields when weaving did not pay. The household was not approved by the local gentry, as Matthew’s pamphlet “A hammer for squires” (1648) had been made known in the neighbourhood by a malicious Fenny Stratford shoemaker, one Abraham Thurlby.

The Stirts’ cottage, lying below the flood line of the Ouzel, was perennially damp, but in 1651, after a summer of exceptional heat and dryness, the thatch dried out. At the instigation of his master, the local estate steward fired the thatch, rendering the Stirts homeless. Jacob died from his burns a few days later. His pious wife Margaret had him buried in St Michael’s churchyard (third, unmarked grave on the left from the gate) in spite of his longstanding loathing of the Church as an instrument of oppression. Two weeks later her hair turned white, and she died in delivering a stillborn child, locally rumoured to have had the head of a badger!

Matthew moved with the remaining children to Bristol and appears to have sailed to New England shortly afterwards.”