Chalfont St. Giles

Chalfont St. Giles

Chalfont St. Giles, town (parish), Chiltern district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated just northeast of Beaconsfield and 24 miles (39 km) northwest of central London.

Much frequented by visitors because of its Quaker associations as well as its old-world charm, it is the site of the cottage (now preserved as a museum) in which John Milton completed Paradise Lost while living there in 1665–66 to escape the Great Plague then raging in London.

In the 17th century the Society of Friends, a religious sect commonly called the Quakers, met nearby in what is today the old Jordans hostel. The present-day Friends’ Meeting House was built in 1688. The burial ground contains the graves of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania (U.S.), and other renowned Quakers. Pop. (2001) 6,696; (2011) 5,925.