Stadhampton with Chislehampton parish is located approximately seven miles south-east of Oxford. Both parishes were originally in the possession of Dorchester Abbey up until its dissolution in 1536. It is somewhat unclear how autonomous Chislehampton was in relation to Stadhampton: despite Chislehampton having its own churchwardens from the 16th century and its own overseers and poor rate by the 18th century it appears that Chislehampton came to be regarded as a chapelry of Stadhampton. This is probably due to the fact that deceased Chislehampton parishioners had to be buried at Stadhampton as Chislehampton had no churchyard of its own and both parishes were served by the same curate.
Chislehampton became fully independent in 1736, when its new church was built and local landowner Charles Peers donated land for a churchyard. It was also at this point that Chislehampton established its own parish registers, previously they had been part of the Stadhampton volumes. However some Chislehampton residents still chose to be buried at Stadhampton, particularly where there was a family precedent, and both parishes continued to be served by the same curate, and as a result the two parishes continued to be see as one entity. The two parishes were reunited in 1841, but both continued with their own registers. Chislehampton St Katherine was made redundant in 1975.
The collection was originally deposited with Bodleian Library and was then transferred to Oxfordshire Archives in the early 1980's. A further deposit was made in 1990. The collection has been augmented by further accessions in Dec 1992 (3547) and July 1994 (3830). The whole collection was recatalogued in July 2004 by Hannah Jones.
Bibliography:
Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Vol. VII, pp.87-88