Missenden (Great and Little)
Major Settlement in the Parish of Great and Little Missenden
Historical Forms
- Missedene 1086 DB
- Mesendena 1154 AC
- Mussend' Hyii AOMB
- Messemd' 1182 AddCh
- Missend' c.1182 AddCh
- Messenden 1181 P 1195 Cur(P) 1200 Fines 1232 Fees 1237–40 ib
- Messedena 1185 RotDom
- Mussend' c.1200 AddCh
- Massendone 1227 Ass
- Massendena 1231 Bract
- Messingdon 1247 Ass
- Massyngdene 1374 Cl
- Mussingden 1387 IpmR
- Missyngdon 1399 Pat
- Messenden Sancti Petri, Messenden Attewhytechirch 1262 Ass
Etymology
This difficult name may best be explained by reference to the history of Mursley supra . It has been there suggested that this contains a pers. name Myrsa . The early forms of Missenden point clearly to a pers. name Myssa , a perfectly regular formation from Myrsa (cf. IPN 173), with assimilation of rs to ss . As each name is a hapax legomenon and the places themselves are only 16 miles apart it is difficult to think that they are entirely unconnected. The settlers from whom they took their names may well have been of the same family, and the name which shows the assimilation be later in date than the other, a definite piece of evidence that the Chiltern slopes above the Vale of Aylesbury were settled from the north and not from the south.If this is the history of Missenden, the Misbourne river (v. supra ) must contain the same pers. name. Cf. Waddesdon, Pitstone, Beachendon supra . For the variant vowel, v. Introd. xxiv. The church of Great Missenden is dedicated to St Peter. Little Missenden Church is a 12th cent. building and must have been known as the 'white church.'