MERTON, a parish, with a village, in Bicester district, Oxford; on the river Ray, near the Oxford and Bletchley railway, 4 miles SSW of Bicester. Post town, Bicester. Acres, 1,990. Real property, £3,317. Pop., 204. Houses, 42. The. manor belonged formerly to the Harringtons, and belongs now to Sir Edward Turner, Bart. The manor-house was built in the time of Queen Elizabeth; gave a few days' concealment to Prince Charles Edward, in the time of Sir James Harrington; and is now a modernised farm-house. A branch line of Roman road, now almost obliterated, intersects the parish; and a causeway, nearly 2 miles long, constructed at great cost by Sir G. P. Turner, connects the village of Merton with that of Ambrosden. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £240.* Patron, Exeter College, Oxford. The church is chiefly decorated English; and consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel, with a tower. There is a parochial school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))