BRILL, a parish in the hundred of ASHENDON,
county of BUCKINGHAM, 7 miles (N. W. by N.) from
Thame, containing 1060 inhabitants. The living is a
perpetual curacy, with that of Boarstall annexed, in the'
archdeaconry of Buckingham, and diocese of Lincoln,
endowed with £15 per annum private benefaction, £400
royal bounty, arid £600 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of Sir J. Aubrey, Bart. The church is dedicated
to All Saints. Here was a palace belonging to the
kings of Mercia, which was a favourite residence of Edward
the Confessor, who frequently came hither during
the hunting season to enjoy the pleasures of the chase
in Bernwood Forest. After the Conquest, Henry II.,
attended by his Chancellor, Thomas a Becket, kept his;
court here in 1160 and 1162; and Henry III. in 1224.
In 1642, a garrison, which was stationed here for the'-
king, was attacked by a detachment of the parliamentary
forces, under the patriotic Hampden, but they wererepulsed
with considerable loss: the royalists, on the;
capture of Reading in the ensuing year, evacuated this
place. A fair, granted to Sir John Molins in 1346, is
held annually on the Wednesday next after Old Mi-'
chaelmas-day. A free school has an income of about1
£25 per annum, arising principally from an endowment
by John Pym, in 1637. Here are also almshouses with
a small endowment for poor widows, given by Alice;
Carter, widow, in 1591. A hermitage, dedicated to St.
Werburgh, anciently stood in the vicinity.