Brill in 1836

Brill, on the border of Oxfordshire, near Thame, is now a village ; population in 1831, 1,283 ; but it is said, with much probability, that the Saxon kings had a palace here, which was a favourite residence of King Edward the Confessor. It is certain that King Henry II kept his court here in 1160, attended by Thomas á Becket as his chancellor ; he was there again with his court in 1162. Henry III kept his court at Brill in 1224. (Lysons’s Magna Brit.) In the war between Charles I and his parliament, Brill and Borstall a neighbouring village, (population in 1831, 268), were made garrisons by the royal party.