EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



LAYSTON 



srms : quarterly, I and 4, Argent a cheveron sable 

 between three rooks ptoper, each holding an ermine 

 tall in its beak sable ; 2 and 3, Or a leopard gules, 

 ■with the crest of a rook. Underneath is the in- 

 scription : 'This windowe was mad & .... ed at 

 the only Charges of William and Mary Reynolds the 

 Sonne and daughter of Lewes Reynolds sometyme 

 Vicar of Laist[on]e. 1622.' 



The earliest reference to the 

 ADFOWSONS church of St. Bartholomew occurs in 

 the reign of Henry II when Hugh 

 Triket gave the manor of Corneybury in Wyddial to the 

 Prior and canons of Holy Trinity, London, and also 

 remitted them all right in the church of Layston 

 which they had formerly held of him and his ancestors.*' 

 They received licence to appropriate the vicarage 

 from Richard Fitz Neal,'" Bishop of London 1 189 to 

 ligS.^'^ The advowson and rectory of St. Bartho- 

 lomew descended after the Dissolution with the 

 manor of Corneybury.^^ By the beginning of the 

 17th century it was found that the position occupied 

 by the church was incon- 

 venient. The River Rib 

 flowed between the town of 

 Buntingford and the parish 

 church, and although there 

 was little more than half a 

 mile between the two, the 

 road was sometimes rendered 

 impassable by floods.'^ It 

 was therefore determined to 

 build a chapel of ease in 

 Buntingford, and from this 

 time St. Bartholomew's, 

 although the mother church, 

 became of diminishing im- 

 portance. At the end of the 

 19th century services were 

 only held there in the 

 summer months^ and its 

 condition was described as 

 deplorable.^^ 



The patronage of the 

 church of St. Mary Magda- 

 lene, Alswick,*' was origi- 

 nally in the hands of the lord 

 of the manor of Alswick, 

 but when in the reign of 



Henry II the church of Layston was granted to the 

 Prior and canons of Holy Trinity, Richard Fitz 

 William, lord of the manor of Alswick (q.v.), made a 

 grant to the prior of all his right in the church *' and 

 acknowledged it to be a chapel to the mother church 

 of Layston. After the dissolution of Holy Trinity 

 in 1 5 3 1 58 tjig ]j;„g jq1(J tjjg chapel to Sir Henry 

 Parker, who took for his own use the church plate, 

 which was valued at ^6, and sold the bells and all 

 the timber, lead and stone of the chapel to William 

 Hammond and Henry Grave of Buntingford.^' The 



chapel was never restored, but its site may still be 

 traced on the south side of Alswick Hall. 



The advowson of the chapel of St. John the 

 Baptist, Buntingford, belonged to the lord of the 

 manor of Throcking and was attached to the part of 

 the manor called Vabadun's fee."" In 1292 Roger 

 Brian, lord of the manor of Throcking, founded 

 a chantry there and granted 2 acres of land and 

 100/. rent in Hinxworth, Throcking, Clothall and 

 Aspenden for the support of a chaplain."^ By the end 

 of the 15th century the chapel was evidently in want 

 of repair, for Leonard Hyde, by his will proved 

 February 1508-9, left 40J. for its ' fynysshing . . . 

 if the parson of Throcking or any other well dis- 

 posed man will it edify.' "^ By this it is probable 

 that at this date the chapel had no chaplain of its 

 own, but was served by the rector of Throcking. 

 By the end of the following century the chapel 

 had fallen into such decay that it could no longer 

 be used.^' The loss of it was much felt by the people of 

 Buntingford, who had been accustomed to attend the 



Buntingford : St. Peter's Chapel from the South-west (before 1899) 



chapel and who were frequently cut off from the 

 church of Layston by the floods of the River Rib.^* 

 The difficulty was met by the Rev. Alexander Strange, 

 the vicar of Layston, who, taking as his motto ' Begg- 

 hard or beggard,' exerted himself to collect money to 

 rebuild the chapel. In 1 6 14 the present chapel was 

 begun and in 1628 it was completed and rededicated 

 to St. Peter. From the time of its rebuilding the 

 advowson of St. Peter's Chapel has descended with 

 Layston Church, to which it has been a chapel of 



'' Dugdale, Man. vi, 152. 



™ Newcourt, Repert. i, 843. 



*^ Stubbs, Reg, Sacrum, Anglicanum, 



^^ See references under that manor. 



*' Load. Epis. Reg. Grindall, fol. 

 396. 



M Cussans, op. cit. Hund. of Edwtnslree, 

 84. 



" East Herts. Arch. Soc. Tram, ii, 84. 



'^ In 1 500 John Donne directed that 

 his body should be buried in the church 

 of Layston and left I2</. to the altar 

 of our Lady of Alswick (P.C.C. Wills, 

 5 Moone). It would appear from this 

 that the dedication was formerly to 

 St. Mary the Virgin and the church had 

 not the right of burial. 



*' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 152. 



"Ibid. 150. 



87 



" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. ccccxcvii, fol. i. 



6" De Banco R. 273, m. 75 d. (East. 

 2 Edw. III). 



«i Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Edw. I, no. 1 19 ; 

 Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 486. 



6* Cu88ans,op. cit. Hund. of Edwinstree, 



68 Lond. Epis. Reg. Grindall, fol, 

 396. 

 6* Ibid. 



