EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



LITTLE HORMEAD 



house, Little Hormead Bury. At Stonbury Farm in 

 the extreme south-west of the parish and at Mutford's 

 Farm there are fragments of homestead moats. A 

 tumulus on Bummer's Hill near the east bank of the 

 Quin is in fairly good condition. 



Ballons Farm lies a little to the south-east of the 

 church. It is a timber-framed and plastered build- 

 ing of early I yth-century date with thatched roof ; 

 the house is now divided into three dwellings. The 

 plan of the main block is rectangular and at each end 

 is a wing projecting northwards. The chimney 

 stacks have plain square shafts set diagonally. The 

 original entrance was on the north side, but it has 

 been much altered ; inside the house are some wide 

 fireplaces, one having a three-centred arch, which has 

 been considerably altered. 



One of the rectors of Little Hormead, Stephen 

 Nye, was a theological writer of some note. He was 

 instituted to the rectory in 1679. As the living was 

 a small one, he read the service * once every Lord's 

 Day ' and had ' an opportunity very seldom lacking of 

 supplying also some neighbouring cure.' In 1 7 1 2 he 

 drew up a manuscript account of the glebe and tithes 

 of Little Hormead, about which there had been dis- 

 putes.^ 



Bordesdon, now represented by Bozen Green in 

 the parish of Braughing, was returned under Edwins- 

 tree Hundred in the Survey of 1086' and in 1386 

 was said to be generally assessed with the parish of 

 Little Hormead.^ It is found as a separate vill in the 

 1 4th century ' and was probably once a hamlet of 

 some size. 



The two Hormeads are not distin- 

 Mj4N0RS guished by name in the Domesday 

 Survey. The manor of LITTLE 

 HORMEJD was apparently the estate in Hormead 

 which formed part of the lands of Count Eustace of 

 Boulogne, of whom two Englishmen held 3 hides and 

 I virgate in Hormead.' The overlordship descended 

 with the honour of Boulogne. By the beginning of 

 the 13th century Little Hormead had come with the 

 manor of Anstey (q.v.) into the hands of Hubert de 

 Anstey, who in 1 2 1 1 held three knights' fees of the 

 honour of Boulogne in Anstey, Hormead and Braugh- 

 ing.' It descended with Anstey to the family of 

 Monchensey. In 1260 William de Monchensey 

 granted the manor to his mother Denise and Robert 

 le Botiller her husband,* evidently by a second 

 marriage. In 1268 Denise made a life grant of the 

 manor to Richard le Botiller, her brother-in-law.' 

 Denise daughter and heir of William de Monchensey, 

 who in 1290 had married Hugh de Vere,'" eventually 

 succeeded to the manor of Little Hormead, which in 



the inquisition taken at her death in 1 3 14 is described 

 as held of the honour of Boulogne.^' Aymer de 

 Valence Earl of Pembroke, son of Joan de Valence 

 daughterof Warin de Monchensey, father of William,^' 

 was the nearest heir. After the death of Aymer, Richard 

 de Wynneferthing, clerk, who had been enfeoffed by 

 him of the manor of Little Hormead without a 

 licence in mortmain, surrendered it to the king in 

 1325. The king then granted it to Mary de St. Paul, 

 widow of Aymer, with remainder to Aymer's heir, 

 Laurence son of John de Hastings, and Eleanor 

 daughter of Hugh le Despenser, to whom he was 

 betrothed. '' In 1376, however, the reversion of the 

 manor after the death of Mary de St. Paul was 

 granted to the Abbot and convent of St. Mary of 

 Graces by the Tower of London^^^ the grant being 

 confirmed by the pope in 1403,1' by Henry VI in 

 1433 1' and by Edward IV in 1461.^' 



The monastery continued to hold the manor of 

 Little Hormead until the Dissolution. In August 

 1 540 it was granted to Thomas Barbour of London,^' 

 who in November of the same year received licence 

 to alienate it to Thomas Lord Audley of Walden, then 

 Chancellor.^' Lord Audley died seised of the manor 

 in 1 544, leaving two daughters, Mary and Margaret, 

 both under age.'" On account of their minority 

 Lord Audley's lands were in the hands of the king, 

 who in 1545 granted to Sir Anthony Denny an 

 annuity of £^0 out of Little Hormead and other 

 manors with the wardship and marriage of Margaret 

 Audley.''^ Margaret married (secondly) Thomas 

 Howard fourth Duke of Norfolk. He survived her 

 and held the manor for life, the reversion belonging 

 to their son (Lord) Thomas Howard. In 1572, by 

 reason of the attainder of the duke for high treason, 

 his property was in the hands of the queen.'' In 

 1592 Lord Thomas Howard sold the manor of Little 

 Hormead, which had been restored to him, to Edward 

 Newport.'^ It descended with the manor of Furneux 

 Pelham (q.v.) until 1806, when John Calvert sold it 

 to Richard Wyman.'* Wyman's executors sold it to 

 William Williamson, on whose death in I 8 3 9 it passed 

 to his grandson J. Williamson Leader of Buntingford. 

 He left it to his sister Miss Leader, after whose 

 death it was bought in 1 909 by Mrs. William Thomas 

 Rayment Patten, who is now lady of the manor." 



The descent of the manor of STONBURY is very 

 obscure. It has been identified with the Domesday 

 Stanes held by Peter de Valognes in 1086. It first 

 appears under the name of Stonbury in the middle of 

 the 13th century.'* In 1286 Walter de Nevill died 

 seised of a manor in Little Hormead held of the manor 

 of Boxe in Walkern, Broadwater Hundred. '^ He left 



' Diet. Nat. Biog. 



' V.C.H. Herts, i, 3Z2a, 324^, 331a. 



* See return of jury in 1386 quoted by 

 Cussans, Hizt. of Herts. Edivitistree Hund. 

 75 ; Lay Subs. R. bdle. 120, no. 8 

 (i Edw. II). 



' Assize R. 323, m. 44 (6 & 7 Edw. I). 

 « y.CH. Herts, i, 322a. 

 ' Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 578. 



* Feet of F. Div. Co. 44 Hen. Ill, 

 no. 56. 



' Ibid. 52 Hen. Ill, no. 14. For the 

 Botillers see Meesden. 



" Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 376. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. 1-9 Ediv. II, 268-9. 



"Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (RoUs 

 Sen), V, 504. 



" Cal. Pat. 1324-7, pp. 108, 153 ; 

 Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C 1658. (This deed 

 is dated 19 Edw. I for 19 Edw. II in the 

 Calendar.) 



" Pat. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 16 ; Cal. 

 Pat. 1429-36, p. 415. 



'* Cal. Papal Letters, v, 547. 



1* Cal. Pat. 1429-36, p. 415. 



" Ibid. 1461-7, p. 162. 



•8 L. and P. Hen, VIII, xv, 

 (6). Margaret Countess of Kent appears 

 to have had a lease of the manor, since 

 payments were made by the Council in 

 1 54 1 and 1543 as compensation for a 

 three years' term (ibid, xvi, 745, fol. 39 \ 

 xviii [2], 231, p. 123). 



" Ibid, xvi, g. 305 (12). 



*> Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxxvi, 100. 



75 



'1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xx (1), g. 465 

 (88). 



'^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxi, 79. 



'^ Feet of F. Herts. Mich. 34 & 35 

 Eliz. 



*■• Clutterbuck, Hist, of Herts, iii, 424. 



'^ Cussans, op. cit. Edivinstree Hund. 

 75 ; inform, from Mr. W. T. R. Patten. 



26 Feet of F. Herts. 26 Edw. Ill, no. 



1027 391. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. 1-19 Ed-w. I, 356. 

 Boxe had also been held by Peter de 

 Valognes in 1086, which accounts for 

 this mesne lordship being attached to it. 

 The overlordship descended with the 

 Valognes family and their successors the 

 Benstedes ; see Cal. Inq. p.m. 10-20 

 Edw. II, 285, 286. 



