CHALFONT (ST-GILES), a parish in the hundred
of BURNHAM, county of BUCKINGHAM, 3 miles (S. E.)
from Amersham, containing 1104 inhabitants. The
living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Buckingham,
and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at
£19. 9. 4., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln.
The church is of very great antiquity. Here are
places of worship for the Society of Friends and Independents:
in the cemetery attached to the former lie the
remains of William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.
A charity school, now conducted on the National
system, has been endowed by Sir Hugh Palliser
with. £?0 per annum, and by Mrs. Molloy with an
additional sum of £20 per annum, for twenty children of
each sex: there are eight almshouses for poor men and
women. During the plague that raged in London in
1665, Milton resided at this place, where he completed
his celebrated poem of " Paradise Lost;" the house in
which he lived is now occupied by a poor family. Here
are the remains of an ancient monastery, the chapel of
which is attached to the mansion of Fach, and in the
park is a monument erected by the late Sir Hugh Palliseito
the memory of Capt. Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator.