History Pages
- The 19th Century
The 19th Century
By the start of the 19th century a manor estate, together with the associated farming community, was well established at Lee.
The government census of 1801, recorded 150 people living in 30 houses in Lee. In 1798 the 'Posse Comitatus' also listed 34 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in the village.
In 1806 Lee was described in 'Magna Britannia' as:
"LEE, in the hundred
of Aylesbury and deanery
of Windsor, lies about three miles to the south-west of Wendover.
The manor is the property of Henry Deering esq.
in right of his wife, heiress of the family of Plaistowe, for whom
there are some memorials in the parish church,
formerly a chapel of ease to Weston-Turville.” The Lee Manor House
By the mid 1800’s, the population of the village had risen to nearly two hundred and, in 1847, George Lipscomb in 'The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham' wrote:
"LEE
or LEE CHAPEL, is a small hamlet, situated on very much elevated
ground, between Great Missenden and Weston Turville. It was and continues
to be a hamlet, chiefly consisting of detached houses and cottages,
here and there interspersed with some of a superior description, chiefly
of modern erection, and one of which is called Lee Cottage, and is the
residence of the principal landed proprietor and near the site of
which is a farm called the Manor Farm."
With a growing population in
Lee, and in the other nearby hamlets, a new village church dedicated
to St. John the Baptist
was built in the late
1860's. It was built adjacent to the ancient
chapel, which was also retained and remains consecrated
to this day. The chapel is nowadays referred to as The Lee Old Church.
St John the Baptist Church
Also to serve this growing community, in 1873 the 'new' Lee Common National School was opened. It co-existed for a time with the older British School at Lee Clump, until this school closed in 1883, prompting an extension to the Lee Common school.
Part of the British School was then converted to a Baptist chapel led by local man, James Pearce. James had a 'vision' in 1870 and devoted the remainer of his life to the church, becoming known as 'Holy Jim Pearce'.
Finally, towards the end of the 19th Century, as mechanisation began to become more widespread in farming, there was the start of a population movement from the country into nearby towns and cities. This population movement also affected Lee - by now a parish - and the population fell back again to less than 120.
It wasn't until the turn of the century that the population of The Lee (as it was now beginning to be known) starting to rise again. This coincided with the arrival in the village of Arthur Liberty.