A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



with moulded capitals and bases. The west doorway 

 has a late i4th-centur)- arch and jambs of two con- 

 tinuously moulded orders, and decayed grotesque 

 stops to the label. The west window is of two cinque- 

 foiled lights with tracerled head, partly of modern 

 stonework. The second stage has a narrow loop-light 

 on three sides. The belfry windows are of two lights 

 with traceried heads and have been repaired. 



The font has an octagonal bowl of Barnack stone, 

 perhaps of 14th-century date, but, as it appears to 

 have been recut and its form altered, it is difficult 

 to assign a date to it ; the shaft and splayed base are 

 of clunch. All the fittings in the church are modem. 



In the heads of two north nave windows are some 

 fragments of 14th-century glass. 



On the chancel floor are a brass with the figure of 

 a priest in a cope, holding a chalice, with inscription 

 to William Langley, rector, 1478 ; a figure of a man 

 with six sons and indent of four daughters, to John 

 Gyll, 1499 ; an inscription only to Joan Gyll, un- 

 dated ; a female figure with inscription to Alice wife 

 of John Boteler, 1451. Under the communion table 

 is a brass inscription to Joan wife of Esdras Bland, 

 rector, 1648. On the south wall of the aisle is a 

 mural monument of white alabaster to Susan Gierke, 

 1634. 



In the rectory are preserved tracings of the distemper 

 painting discovered, during a restoration, on the 

 sides of the low-side window on the south side of 

 the chancel ; on the east side was the Virgin and 

 Child and on the west a female figure in the attitude 

 of prayer. The paintings were destroyed. At the 

 same time there were destroyed in St. Mary's chapel, 

 at the east end of the south aisle, some painted 

 decorations, with an invocation in Latin to the Virgin. 



There are six bells : the two old bells by Chris- 

 topher Graye, 1656, were recast in 1889 and four 

 new ones added. 



The communion plate consists of a cup of I 8 10, a 

 modern paten and a plated flagon. 



The registers before 1 8 1 2 are as follows : (i) 

 baptisms 1659 to 1806, burials 1663 to 1806, 

 marriages 1663 to 1753 ; (ii) baptisms and burials 

 1806 to I 812 ; (iii) marriages 1754 to 181 2. 



There was a priest at Buckland in 

 JDyOlVSON io86.<» The advowson was doubt- 

 less appurtenant to the manor until 

 Henry de Buckland alienated it in 1283.'" He 

 then conveyed it to William de Middelton and John 

 son of Richard de Middelton and the heirs of John.'' 

 A John de Middelton gave a life interest to Hervey 

 de Staunton in 1319.'^ At his death it was to 

 revert to John ton of John de Middelton.^' He 

 presented a rector in 1336." The subsequent 

 history is obscure. The advowson seems to have 

 changed hands very frequently. John Wade and 



others presented for one turn in I373> ^^^ '" '39' 

 the gift lapsed to the bishop." Benjamin Cornwall 

 in the same year and John Newport in 1394 pre- 

 sented for one turn only.'° John Norwich the 

 elder, a citizen and grocer of London, conveyed the 

 advowson to John Curteys and others in January 

 1405-6.*' Curteys presented a rector in 1409." 

 In 1432 and 1433 the living was in the gift of 

 John Rinsted and others, and in 1445 John Fray 

 and others presented.*' These were probably trustees. 

 By 1478 the advowson had been acquired by John 

 Littlebury alias Horne,*° who laid claim to Bucldand 

 Manor.*' The advowson is not mentioned in the 

 records of his attempt to recover the manor, but 

 Edmund Lord Roos presented ' for one turn ' in 

 1487.*^ Sir Thomas Lovell by virtue of his life 

 interest in the lands of Lord Roos laid claim to the 

 advowson as an appurtenance of Buckland Manor in 

 1503.*' The plea which he brought against Thomas 

 Shuckburgh (probably the grandson of John Home 

 alias Littlebury) °^ dragged on for more than five 

 years.** The termination is unknown, but it was 

 evidently in favour of the lord of the manor, since 

 the advowson was sold with the manor to Edward 

 Watson by the Earl of Rutland in 1529.** It de- 

 scended with the manor until the time of Samuel 

 Mellish." He sold it in I 702 to the Provost and 

 Fellows of King's College,** in whom it is still vested. 

 Eminent among the rectors of Buckland have been 

 Thomas Becon, the Protestant divine, who wrote 

 under the name of Theodore Basil,*' Thomas Morell, 

 a classical scholar, who supplied the libretti for 

 Handel's ' Judas Maccabaeus ' and other oratorios, 

 and William Wigan Harvey, who was transferred to 

 Ewelme rectory in 1871.™ The Rev. Henry Fowke 

 Burnaby, who succeeded the Rev. W. W. Harvey, 

 restored Buckland Church. 



In 1663 the Rev. Esdras Bland, a 



CHARITIES former rector, by his will gave £z yearly 



for the education of poor children. 



This charge issues out of lands in the parish of Therfield 



and is paid to the treasurer of Buckland School. 



John Gierke's Charity. — A benefaction table 

 formerly in the church recorded ' A.D. 1772. Rent- 

 charge on certain lands in Therfield called Money 

 Crofte by the will of the late John Gierke, Esquire, 

 for bread to be yearly distributed at Christmas, ^^i.' 

 This annual payment is duly received and applied in 

 accordance with the donor's wish. 



In 1898 William Thorogood, by his will proved 

 20 August, gave X'°°> the interest arising there- 

 from to be distributed in coal to the poor annually in 

 December. The legacy was invested in ^^92 1 1/, lod. 

 consols with the official trustees, and the dividends, 

 amounting to £z 6s., are distributed in coal to poor 

 widows. 



" V.CM. Herts, i, 310A. 



'o Feet of F. Herts. 12 Edw. I, no. 



156. 

 " Ibid. 

 " Ibid. 

 '» Ibid. 



" Epi!. 



[2 Edw. II, no. 316. 



Reg. quoted by Clutterbuck, 

 Hiit. and Antiq. of Herts, iii, 395. 

 « Ibid. « Ibid. 



" Anct. D. (P.R.O.), €3317. 



*' Clutterbuck, loc. cit. 



M Ibid. 



« Ibid. 



•^ See above. 



" Clutterbuck, loc. cit. 



*^ De Banco R. 964, m. 431. 



«* y.CH. Herts, iii, 251. 



®* De Banco R. 964, m. 431, 



«« L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 5624 (20). 

 Sir Henry Sapcott, kt., who presented in 

 1533 (Clutterbuck, loc. cit.), was a co- 

 feoffee with Edward Watson. 



*^ Sec above. 



•* Clutterbuck, op. cit. iii, 395 ; Inst. 

 Bks. (P.R.O.). 



® Urwick, Nonconf. in Hera. 739, 



" Diet. Nat. Biog. 



48 



