Editing Amersham (section)

== History ==
[[File:Amersham-on-the Hill, High Street - geograph.org.uk - 1727476.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|High Street, Old Amersham (1955)]]
The name "Amersham" is derived from the [[Old English]] for 'Ealhmund's village (''hām'')'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Place-names of Great Britain and Ireland|last=Field|first=John|date=1980|publisher=David & Charles|isbn=0389201545|location=Newton Abbot, Devon|oclc=6964610|page=24}}</ref>

Records date back to [[Anglo-Saxon]] times when it was known as ''Agmodesham'', and by the time that the [[Domesday Book]] was written in 1086, it had become known as ''Elmodesham''. Further spelling variations are seen in 1460 as '' Agmondysham'' and '' Amytysham'' <ref>http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no798/bCP40no798dorses/IMG_0983.htm ; third entry from the bottom</ref>

The Domesday entry reads:
:[[Geoffrey de Mandeville (11th century)|Geoffrey de Mandeville]] holds Amersham. It answers for {{frac|7|1|2}} hides. Land for 16 ploughs; in lordship 2 hides; 3 ploughs there. 14 villagers with 4 smallholders have 9 ploughs; a further 4 possible. 7 slaves; meadow for 16 ploughs; woodland 400 pigs. The total value is and was £9; before 1066 £16. [[Edith of Wessex|Queen Edith]] held this manor.

Queen Edith was the wife of [[Edward the Confessor]] and sister of King [[Harold Godwinson|Harold]], and after her death in 1075, the land passed to [[William the Conqueror]], who granted it to [[Geoffrey de Mandeville (11th century)|Geoffrey de Mandeville]] (died {{Circa|1100}}).

In 1200, his descendant Geoffrey de Mandeville (who became the [[Earl of Essex]] in 1213) obtained a [[charter]] for Amersham allowing him to hold a Friday market and a fair on 7 and 8 September. In 1613, another charter was granted to [[Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford|Edward, Earl of Bedford]], changing the market day to Tuesday, and establishing a statute fair on 19 September.<ref name="hunt">{{cite book | last =Hunt | first =J | title =A History of Amersham | publisher =Phillimore | year =2001 | isbn =1-86077-187-4}}</ref>

In 1521, seven [[Lollard]] [[dissenters]] (William Tylsworth, John Scrivener, Thomas Barnard, James Morden, Robert Rave, Thomas Holmes and Joan Norman) were [[burned at the stake]] in Amersham. A memorial to them was built in 1931 and is inscribed as follows: "In the shallow of depression at a spot 100 yards left of this monument seven Protestants, six men and one woman were burned to death at the stake. They died for the principles of religious liberty, for the right to read and interpret the Holy Scriptures and to worship God according to their consciences as revealed through God's Holy Word". The ''Universal Magazine'' for September 1749 (p.&nbsp;139) quotes that 'William Tylesworth' was in fact burnt in 1506, and that Thomas Bernard and James Morden (a labourer), were burnt about two years later.<ref>But see: S. McSheffrey ''Gender and heresy: women and men in Lollard communities, 1420–1530'', (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), pp.97, 215.</ref>

The population in 1841 was 3,098.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol.III, (1847), London, Charles Knight, p.898.</ref>