There has been a place of worship in Boarstall for a long time. In 1142, as part of the battle for the English throne, the Empress Matilda (1102 - 1167), known as Maud, gave Oakley parish and its chapelries of Boarstall and Brill and all their lands to the Prior and Canons of St. Frideswide in Oxford to obtain their support for her cause. The prior failed to tell Maud that a few months earlier, her opponent, King Stephen, had already given the chapel of Brill to St. Frideswide to obtain support for his cause. In 1221, after a judgement in his favour in his own Temporal Court, Henry III recovered Oakley Church and its chapels from St. Frideswide. The then Prior protested to Pope Honor the third who appointed delegates to an inquiry. Without waiting for the result, Henry III appointed a vicar to Oakley Church. The Pope subsequently issued, over a period of four years, three Papal Bulls asserting the claim of St. Frideswide. These were studiously ignored by Henry. Boarstall does not appear in Domesday (1086), so the first church must have been built after 1086 and before 1142.

We can be fairly sure that one of the Pope's delegates was the first Treasurer of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Cashel, Tipperary, later Archbishop of Cashel, who, when traveling in Boarstall, dropped his personal seal of office (c. 1210). This was found in 1998, at the southern end of the site of the former medieval village of Boarstall, and is now in the Museum of Ireland.

Boarstall chapel was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist in 1391, and the chapelry was made parochial in 1417/8 by Philip, Bishop of Lincoln, now with the consent of St. Frideswide. It is possible that no significant changes to the building were made. The church was re-dedicated to Saint James. Ecclesiastical Boarstall parish is in the hundred of Ashendon and was in the deanery of Wendover. It is now part of the Bernwode Benefice in the deanery of Aylesbury. The living was described in the 19th century as a perpetual curacy, annexed to Brill, in the diocese of Oxford. The 1674 incumbent, John Taylor, hanged himself in Boarstall Tower.

The church has had a chequered existence, and once was larger than today's small building. A bell tower was built in 1391 and its existence at its W. end is confirmed in the 1444 map of Boarstall (detail), the earliest surviving map of an English village. This also shows an aisle on the N. side. The church tower is also shown in a 1590 map of Bernwood Forest (detail) and in the more detailed 1591 map of Bernwood (detail), which also shows an aisle on the S. side. Edmund Rede, in his will of 7th April 1487, left directions that he was to be buried in the chapel of the Holy Trinity on the south of the church, presumably at one end of the S. aisle. Early maps are often more symbolic than accurate and cannot be relied upon, but here there is supporting evidence for the tower and the south aisle. Although completely rebuilt after the Civil War, the church still contains a large, late 15th century, stone and marble altar tomb on the south wall of the chancel, possibly the tomb of Edmund Rede.

In 1645, during the Civil War, the church was destroyed by the Royalists, along with almost everything else in the village, to prevent the Parliamentarians from using the buildings, trees, etc., as cover, before they attacked medieval Boarstall House and its fortified gatehouse (Boarstall Tower). On 14th December 1644, Charles I sent to Sir William Campion, the Governor of Boarstall -
Whereas We find it necessary for y^e better fortyfying of Borstall house, that y^e church and other houses adjoining to y^e same should be pulled downe ...

Campion, perhaps not wishing to alienate the locals any more than was really necessary, only removed some houses and did not demolish the church at first. The Royalists only completed the demolition of the centre of the village after a serious although failed attack by the Parliamentarians on 1st June 1645. Whilst the houses in the village, presumably timber framed and single storey, could have been destroyed by the Royalists without too much effort, completely demolishing a stone church and tower was rather more difficult, and this was not completed until towards the end of July. There would have been large piles of stone which, if they were not to provide cover for the enemy, would have had to be removed to another site. Because of the size, and presumably considerable weight, of the altar tomb, in the pressures of war it may have been destroyed rather than removed temporarily. When the church was rebuilt after the Civil War, the tomb was restored in the south side of the chancel. It clearly has been badly damaged.

The church was rebuilt after the Civil War by Lady Dynham. Removal of some of the render in 2008 to check on damp problems suggested that stone from the demolished building had been re-used and that the rebuild was not of the highest quality. The church was altered in 1818, when the bellcote, by H.J.Tollit of Oxford, was added and new windows were inserted in the N. and S. sides of the nave. It was further altered in 1884, at the then considerable cost of £1,635. The small vestry on the west of the church was added, the porch to the south altered or inserted and the village cross received an extension to its medieval shaft and a new cross. An early photograph, c.1860 (Rob Dixon Collection), shows that the top of the cross was missing then. The 1444 map of Boarstall (detail) shows that the cross had originally been sited to the south of the medieval Boarstall village, somewhere near the junction with the present road to Honeyburge.

It is clear that the lead roof and the coping stones on the nave (and chancel?) were replaced in the 19th century. However the string courses on the chancel could be those shown in Burghers's view. Perhaps the nave showed signs of collapsing in the early 19th century. The addition of buttresses might suggest that the late 17th century rebuilding incorporated earlier walls that subsequently proved to be unstable, but they are more likely to have a purely decorative function. The window in the north wall of the chancel (and perhaps one in the south wall) may have been filled in at this time (1818) and this would have been necessary to accomodate the Aubrey monuments that are there today. The church walls are rendered all over, presumably disguising a variety of repairs.

The road today encloses the church with the grounds of the former Boarstall House (demolished 1778), but this was not always the case. Originally, the road came between the church and the gardens, just inside the line of the fine brick wall (listed grade II) which was built in 1615 when the road was moved to its present location. Interestingly, the communion table near the door is also dated 1615, and this is the year when major changes were made to Boarstall Tower, presumably to upgrade it from a defensive building to a banqueting pavilion or hunting lodge. A large silver gilt chalice is also dated 1615, but this was given to the church in 1824 following the theft of the original communion plate in 1812.

The present building is listed, Grade II*. Two small pieces of oak panelling either side of the E. end of the nave and the pulpit are 17th century. The pulpit appears to be Jacobean, but, if so, it could only have survived the demolition of the church if it had been removed for safe custody. The church is still regularly used for worship and receives financial support from the very successful Boarstall Fête.

Copyright Rob Dixon 2003