OAKLEY, a parish forming, with the parishes of Clapham and Milton-Ernest, a detached portion of the hundred ofSTODDEN, county of BEDFORD, 4 miles (N. W.) from Bedford, containing 486 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £8.14.9., endowed with £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains an ancient altar-tomb, and effigy in robes, of the family of Reynes.
