A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



The patronage of the church of 

 ADrOffSOy Little Hadham was held with the 

 manor of Hadham Hall by the family 

 of Baud. In 1276 Sir Walter Baud, lord of the 

 manor, sold all his rights in the advowson to the 

 Bishop of London for £20}'^ The rectory was soon 

 afterwards united to that of Much Hadham (q.v.)> 

 and the church of Little Hadham was a chapel to 

 Much Hadham*' until 1875, when Little Hadham 

 was made a separate parish. 



The Bishops of Ely held the tithes of their demesne 

 lands in Hadham. In 1220 John of Fountains, then 

 bishop, gave the great tithes to be divided between 

 the monb and the poor on his anniversary. '' After 

 the annexation of the rectory of Little Hadham 

 to the rectory of Much Hadham a dispute arose 

 between the priory of Ely and the rector of Much 

 Hadham concerning the tithes payable from the lands 

 of the Bishop of Ely. The Bishop of London 

 adjudicated on this dispute in 1 300, when he gave 

 his decision that the great tithes of certain of the 

 Bishop of Ely's lands in Little Hadham and half the 

 tithes of the bishop's mill and of his deer in his park 

 in Little Hadham belonged to the church of Ely, but 

 that the other half of the tithes of his mill and of his 

 deer, together with the tithes of the remainder of his 

 lands, belonged to the rector of Hadham."* The 

 Bishop of Ely's tithes in Little Hadham were valued 

 at 20/. in the reign of Henry VIII. '^' When the 

 bishop sold the manor of Little Hadham in 1 600 he 

 retained these tithes, which were still held by the 

 Bishop of Ely at the beginning of the I 8th century, 

 when he leased them to the rector of Hadham. ''- 



In 1769 John Hammond, citizen 



CHARITIES and haberdasher of London, by his 



will directed that a sum of ^{[200 stock 



belonging to his estate should be realized and the 

 proceeds invested in land, the rents and profits thereof 

 to be applied for the benefit of poor housekeepers of 

 Little Hadham. The land comprised in deed 2 1 Feb- 

 ruary 1854 consists of 6 a., part of Miller's Field, 

 which is let at £j a year. 



In 1 808 Thomas Chapman bequeathed / 1 00 

 consols, the dividends to be divided on the last 

 Sunday in January among the poor. 



In 1820 John Chapman, by his will proved in the 

 P.C.C., bequeathed ;^I2 5 stock, now consols, the 

 annual dividends to be distributed in bread. 



In 1822 Thomas Mott by his will left £^ a year 

 to be distributed on the third Sunday in January 

 after divine service at church to the twelve poorest in 

 bread, money, or both, poor widows and fatherless 

 children to be preferred. The legacy is now repre- 

 sented by j^i33 6s. SJ. consols. 



In 1837 James Chaplyn by will proved in that 

 year gave ;^ioo consols, the annual dividends to be 

 applied in clothing or firing or both in January. 



In 1837 Ann Scott by will proved at this date left 

 j([ioo consols, the dividends to be distributed in 

 bread to the poor on Shrove Sunday. 



The several sums of stock are held by the 

 official trustees, producing in annual dividends 

 ^^13 19/. iia'. 



This parish is also possessed of a sum of j^300 

 consols, producing £y loi. yearly, arising from a 

 gift of Elizabeth Ann Scott, by deed 26 January 

 1854, vvhich is standing in the names of Thomas 

 Mott and three other stockholders. 



The poor of Little Hadham also participate in the 

 charity of the Rev. Thomas Randolph for poor, and 

 in the charity of George Palmer and others. (See 

 under Much Hadham.) 



MUCH HADHAM 



Hadam (xi cent). 



The parish of Much Hadham comprises an area of 

 4,490 acres, of which 12 are water. Rather less 

 than half of the parish consists of arable land.' There 

 is now little woodland in Much Hadham, but early 

 records show that there must once have been exten- 

 sive woods there. In 1086 there was woodland for 

 330 swine within the area of the two Hadhams.^ 

 A wood is mentioned as pertaining to the Bishop of 

 London's m.inor of Much Hadham in the 13th 

 century,^ and in the 15th century a part of the 

 profits of the manor were obtained by the sale of fuel 

 and charcoal from the lord's "ood of Lytley.* Of 

 the few small woods now remaining the Rector's 

 Springs and Vineyard Springs,' Horsley Wood and 

 Nine Acre Wood are in the north-west of the 

 parish. Jobber's Wood is on the east of it, and Side- 

 hill Wood, Culver Wood and Mill Wood, the last 

 apparently near the site of the ancient manorial 



mill/' are to the south of the village. The River 

 Ash flows through the parish, and the stream called 

 Fiddler's Brook forms its south-eastern boundary. 

 In the valley of the Ash the ground averages 200 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum. This was probably the 

 ' vale of Hadham ' where lay the Bishop of London's 

 liberty into which the king's bailiffs might not enter.' 

 To the east and west of Hadham Cross the ground 

 rises to 300 ft. and in the north-west of the parish 

 reaches a height of 3 5 2 ft. 



The road running north to Stane Street and south 

 to Widford, Hunsdon and Stanstead Abbots passes 

 through Hadham, and the principal part of the 

 village called Hadham Cross is built along this road. 

 Its situation on the main road gave Hadham a certain 

 importance, and from the 13th century onwards it 

 appears in the various local assessments as one of the 

 largest places in the hundred. At the north end of 

 the village, on the east side of the main road, is the 



^ Chauncy, op. cit. 159. 



'5 Sec Pof-t A7.-A. Tax. (Rec Com.), 

 ig ; Col. Pat. 1345-8, p. 335 ; 1391-6, 

 p. 492 J FcuJ. Aids, ii, 460 ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Ref>. iv, App. 125; Imt. Bki. 

 (P.R.O.), 1674 j RecoT. R. East. 1659, 

 rot. 84. 



^^ Bcntham, Hiit, and Anti^. of Church 



^ Newcoart, JUpertorium, i, 829. 



*' Dagdale, Mon. i, 496, 



^ Salmon, Hist, of Herts. 281. 



' Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



' y.CJl. Hcrti. i, 305, 306, 312. 



' Cal. Close, 1237-42, p. 401. 



* Mint. Accts. bdle. 11 39, no. 4. 

 Names such as Westredyng, Richard 

 attc Wood, Walworth Shot, BUkshot, 



5& 



OTcrihot and Dormer Shot perhaps bear 

 witness to the former extent of woodland 

 in the parish. 



' cf. Vineyard Croft as the name of a 

 field (Close, 1649, pt. xlvii, no. 40). 



* For the manorial water-mill see 

 Mina. Accts. bdle. 11 39, no. 4; Rentals 

 and Surr. R. 813. 



' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 193. 



