Middleton Stoney / Mideltone

There is an entry for Middleton [Stoney] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP5323/middleton-stoney/] [accessed 12 December 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. There is a short narrative of the harried life of this font [cf. infra] in Kennett (1818). Noted in Kelly's Directory (1911): "the font, of Late Decorated work, came originally from the King's Chapel at Islip, now destroyed; the inscription on it claiming that Edward the Confessor was baptised in it is, of course, incorrect". Lamborn (1945) gives a delightful narrative account of the travails of this font: "Probably the most travelled font in existence is the fourteenth century example which, since 1860, has been at Middleton Stoney, Oxon. On its tall hexagonal shaft is cut an inscription in roman caps of the seventeenth century asserting in halting verse that King Edward the Confessor had been baptised in it. The charter by which he granted the manor of Islip to Westminster Abbey contains the statement that he was born there. When Anthony Wood was at Islip on Friday, 28 June 1661, he saw the chapel of the manor, "now an old barne on the north side of the church," and heard from the sexton, ex relatione aeditui, that " the font wherof was lately taken away, bought by Sir Thomas Brown of Kiddington, where it is to be seen." Plot gives an engraving of it by Burghers in his ' History of Oxfordshire,' 1677, and adds the information that Brown had rescued it from indecent and profane uses; Hearne (1720) explains that an old woman had used it to mix food for her turkeys. J. C. Buckler drew it for the third ed. of Warton's 'History of Kiddington,' 1815. Dunkin, ' Hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley," 1823, says that it had been turned out of the chapel during the Commonwealth and taken to an inn, The Plume of Feathers, to be rescued by Mr. Brown at the Restoration in 1660. Skelton, 1823, says that it was then in the possession of the steward of Sir Gregory Page-Turner of Ambrosden. Meade Falkner, in Murray's 'Handbook,' 1894, states that Dean Ireland, rector of Islip, 1816-35, brought it back to Islip, and Blomfield, 'Deanery of Bicester,' iv, 71, adds that it was used as a flower vase in the rectory g arden until the sale of the rector's effects, when it was1 bought by Mr. Jonas Paxton, of Bicester, who presented it to the Countess of Jersey When 'Parker's Architectural Guide was compiled in 1846 it was "carefully preserved in the Rectory garden." Gardner's 'Gazetteer" 1852, notes that it was then to be seen in the garden of Mr. William Paxton of Layton's farm near Bicester. Soon afterwards it was given to Middleton church by Julia, Countess of Jersey, wife of the 6th Earl. There have been recent suggestions in the local pres* that it should be returned to Islip and placed in the church there. So it may go on its travels again." Noted in the Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 6, 1959): "The remains of the existing mid-12thcentury building constitute the earliest evidence for the existence of a church at Middleton. It is not known at what date the advowson was granted to the Abbot and Convent of Barlings (Lincs.), but the donor was probably Gerard de Camville, who by his marriage to Nichole de Hay had become the patron of this Premonstratensian abbey, founded by his wife's uncle Robert de Hay in 1154. [...] Owing to extensive alterations in the 19th century, the architectural history of the church [...] is in some respects not easy to follow, and there is little documentary evidence to supplement that afforded by the fabric itself. The earliest parts of the existing church are the chancel and the enriched south doorway, which date from the mid12th century. The latter, however, is not in its original position, having been moved to its present setting when the south aisle was built in the 14th century. Late in the 12th century the existing chancel arch was built, and the nave was enlarged by the addition of a north aisle. The 'Transitional' arcade of three arches is supported on cylindrical columns with carved capitals. The arches are remarkable in that they are moulded on the south side only, their north face being flush with the wall above. [...] No medieval fittings survive [...] The present font, which replaces a former marble one of 18th- or early 19th-century date, was presented to the church by Julia, Countess of Jersey, in about 1860. It is said to have come from the King's Chapel at Islip, but before the end of the 17th century it had passed into the possession of the Brown family of Kiddington, who believed that it was the font in which Edward the Confessor was baptized and had an inscription cut on the base to that effect. [...] Its decoration is of 14th-century character, but it is possible that this has been cut on an older tub-shaped font"; a footnote in the VCH entry (ibid.) adds: "The font was later bought by Sir Gregory PageTurner, and in 1829 by Dean Ireland for Islip rectory: W.A.M. Reg. Bk. lxi, ff." Ettlinger (1962) [footnoted to E. A. Greening Lamborn, in Bodl. G. A. Oxon 4o 686, p. 208] repeats the Islip provenance and The Confessor's association of this font. Ettlinger (ibid.) adds: "When struck, the stone font sounds like a bell. It is the first 'pierre sonnante' that I can trace in England" [this latter part is footnoted "see Man, 1956, No. 73; 1959, pp. 85/6"]. In Sherwood & Pevsner (1974) who rematk on the 17th-century inscription, and on the possibility that "it could be an earlier tub font re-cut".