History of Pritwell and Souldern. Compiled by J. C. Blomfiekl,
M.A. (Elliot Stock.)—This is the seventh part of the history of the parishes in the Deanery of Bicester. The two parishes are separately treated, the historian displaying much industry mil acuteness in dealing with his subject. Fritwell, it is interesting to see, is an exception to tho common rule in rural parishes. Its population in 1891 was not less—in fact, it was ono more—than at the census of 1881. Souldern, on the other hand, has suffered con- siderably. It reecho I its maximum in 1851, when it had a popu- lation of 619. This had sunk in 1880 to 515, and this again has diminished to 453. Two of the seventeenth-century landowners' families in Souldern still remain. The history of one moiety of the manor in Fritwell is curiously tragical, it passed from the Earl of Rutland to the families of Yorke, Sandys, and Danvers in succession. In 1665 Mr. Danvers killed an antagonist in a duel. The Danvers sold the place to a family of the name of Cox. During their tenure it was leased to the Longuevilles, and the tradition runs that a younger brother kept an older in close confinement till he died of hunger. A Longueville was cer- tainly killed by a fall from his horse at the Bicester races. Then the Wake family became possessed of the place. A certain Sir Baldwin Wake in 1735, playing at cards one night with his sons, quarrelled with the elder, and dealt him a blow that proved fatal. The younger took upon himself the suspicion of the deed by flying from the place. Twelve years afterwards Sir Baldwin con- fessed the deed, and the son, who was then serving as it private soldier, returned. If the property had been Church land, what a proof of the curse this would have been ! As a matter of fact, it never was.
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