Easington is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in the civil parish of Chilton, Buckinghamshire

Chilton, Buckinghamshire

Chilton is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the west of the county, about north of Thame in Oxfordshire. Chilton parish includes the hamlet of Easington .-Manor:The toponym "Chilton" is derived from the Old English for "young man's farm"...

, about 3 miles (5 km) north of the Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

 market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 of Thame

Thame

Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town....

. The hamlet is between the villages of Chilton and Long Crendon

Long Crendon

Long Crendon is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Haddenham and north-west of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire.The village has been called Long Crendon only since the English Civil War...

 and consists of around 30 houses.

The toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 is derived from Old English and evolved through Hesintone, Essintone and Easyngdon before reaching its present form.

Manor

Before the Norman conquest of England

Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 Alric, son of Goding, a thegn

Thegn

The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...

 of Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....

, held the manors

Manorialism

Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 of Chilton and Easington. However, the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 records that by 1086 the Norman baron Walter Giffard

Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham

Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville, 1st Earl of Buckingham was a Norman magnate and one of the few proven Companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The caput of his feudal honour was at Crendon, Buckinghamshire....

 held the two manors. The Domesday Book assessed the manor of Easington at five hides

Hide (unit)

The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

.

From 1387 to 1523 the manor was part of the honour of Gloucester

Gloucester Castle

Gloucester Castle was a castle in the cathedral city of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire.- Early Norman Motte & Bailey Castle :It began as a motte castle during the reign of William the Conqueror when 16 houses were demolished to make way for it. It was enlarged by William Rufus who...

. In 1525 Easington reverted to the Crown

The Crown

The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...

, which granted the manor to John Croke of Chilton Manor, in whose family it seems to have stayed until at least 1657.

The will of John Hart, proved in 1665, left a rental income of £3 per annum from the manor of Easington to fund the apprenticeship of one poor boy. In the 1920s the bequest was still being applied "as occasion arises".