 From the mid-13th century the Osney area was referred to as the parish of St Thomas', but it remained nominally a chapel of the abbey until the dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, when it was placed under Christ Church, Oxford.Christ Church treated it as a conventional parish church with a curate, and from the mid-19th century the incumbent was styled a vicar.After the curacy was placed under the patronage of Christ Church, the incumbents were mostly scholars or members of the college; from 1616 to 1640 the curacy was held by Robert Burton, author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy", who enlarged the church.