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A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12, Wootton Hundred (South) Including Woodstock. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1990.
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Local government
A small freeholding in Wilcote, recorded in 1279, owed suit of court at Cogges every three weeks. (fn. 89) Manorial courts were held at Wilcote in the Middle Ages, rarely recording more business than the collection of a single fine or a solitary heriot. (fn. 90) A survey of the manor in 1543 (fn. 91) made no mention of fines or perquisites of court, and it may be that courts were by then no longer held.
Although Wilcote was separately assessed for poor rates, it was administered with Cogges for poor law purposes. (fn. 92) The smallness of Wilcote's population, however, and a policy of preventing settlement in the parish ensured that it was little affected by the problems facing its neighbours. A labourer who in 1701 left his family chargeable on the parish was imprisoned, and his house was demolished. (fn. 93)
In 1834 Wilcote was included in Witney poor law union, and in 1894 it became part of Witney rural district. In 1922 Wilcote was combined with Ramsden for electing district councillors, an arrangement superseded in 1932 by Wilcote's absorption into North Leigh civil parish. (fn. 94)