EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



Melman and his wife Joan from 145 1 to 1452" 

 must have been in right of leases or other limited 

 conveyances. The right of patronage was exercised 

 for the last time by the lord of the manor in 1832.'" 

 Mr. J. Chalmers-Hunt is the present patron. 



In 1 29 1 this church was of the annual value of 

 j^3 61. Sd. " and at the time of the dissolution 

 of religious houses the rectory was worth £j 10s. fd. 

 a year." In 1610 the glebe consisted of about 

 106 a. 1 5 r. of land, besides certain lands in 

 Waxted within the parish." In 1650 the Parlia- 

 mentary Commissioners reported that the yearly 

 value of the rectory was ^^50.'* 



At the date of the dissolution of gilds and chantries 

 a yearly rent of zs. was paid to the church for the 

 1 keeping of an obit and of a light about the Easter 

 sepulchre." 



THROCKING 



A perpetual chantry was founded in 1436 by 

 Henry Hert in a chapel in Stocking Pelham about 

 2 furlongs distant from the parish church. Its clear 

 annual value at the time of the dissolution of religious 

 houses was said to be £5 6/. 8<^." When itself 

 dissolved its endowment was declared to consist of a 

 rent of £5 1 3/. i^d. received from certain lands in Brent 

 Pelham held with Stocking Pelham Manor, and of a 

 rent of i zs. from a tenement called the ' Chaumbre 

 Hovyse ' and an acre of land which were occupied by 

 the incumbent, an aged man who depended entirely 

 on the income of the chantry.*' Its goods and 

 chattels were worth zs. lod.^" In 1549 the tene- 

 ment in Stocking Pelham called the Chauntry House 

 and the garden which adjoined it were granted to 

 John Perient." 



There are no endowed charities in this parish. 



THROCKING 



Trochinge (xi cent.) ; Trocking (xii cent.) ; 

 Tockringe, Throkinge (xiii cent.) ; Throkking, 

 Thorking (xiv cent.) ; Throcking alias Thorling 

 (xvi cent.). 



The parish of Throcking contains 1,048 acres. 

 About one-half of this is arable land and one-sixth 

 permanent grass. There is very little woodland.' 

 The soil is mixed, generally stiff, on a subsoil of clay 

 with some gravel, and this again stands on gravel. 

 In the west of the parish the land rises to nearly 

 500ft. above ordnance datum, falling to 333 ft. in 

 the north-east, where the River Rib for a short 

 distance flows through the parish. 



The village of Throcking is very small. In 1428 

 there were only eight inhabitants.' Ermine Street 

 forms the eastern boundary of the parish, and the 

 village church lies south of a road which branches 

 west from this and passes through the parish to 

 Cottered, where it joins the road to Baldock. It 

 is on the high ground in the west of the parish 

 and close to it is Throcking Hall. The rectory 

 was built about 184 1 on a site given by John Ray, 

 lord of the manor. For some years before this date 

 there had been no house belonging to the rectory in 

 the parish, the one built by Robert Elwes about the 

 beginning of the 1 8th century having disappeared 

 before 1808.' The road from Buntingford to Baldock 

 forms for some distance the southern boundary of 

 Throcking. 



In the time of Edward the Confessor 

 MANOR I hide and a virgate of land in Throck- 

 ing were held of Archbishop Stigand by 

 two sokemen.' After the Conquest this holding was 

 acquired by Hardwin de Scales and was held of him 



by Theobald.' The Scales overlordship appears later 

 when in the early 14th century the manor of Throcking 

 was said to belong to the fee of Challers or Scales.* 



Before 1 217-18 a subfeofFment of the manor had 

 been made by the Fitz Ralphs, the descendants of the 

 Domesday tenant Theobald.' Ralph Fitz Ralph 

 appears as lord of the fee at the end of the 13th 

 century,' and in 1303' and in 1328"" his son 

 William Fitz Ralph was overlord. After this date 

 there is no further record of this family holding rights 

 in Throcking. 



The earliest known sub-tenant in the manor of 

 Throcking is Roger Fitz Brian, who was holding the 

 advowson of Throcking in 1 21 7-1 8." With his 

 wife Maud he granted 2 carucates of land in Throck- 

 ing and Hoddenhoo (in Therfield, Odsey Hundred) 

 to the priory of Holy Trinity or Christchurch, 

 London, and this grant was confirmed by Henry III 

 in February 1226-7." Brian de Throcking appears 

 as witness to deeds about the middle of the same 

 century." By 1292 the manor had descended to 

 Roger Brian, who granted 2 acres of land and 

 100/. rent in Hinxworth, Throcking, Clothall and 

 Aspenden to found a chantry in the chapel of 

 St. John the Baptist of Buntingford." He was 

 holding the manor in 1303," but he must have 

 died before 1307, when John de Argentein, the 

 husband of his daughter and heir Joan,'* received a 

 grant of free warren in Throcking." John died in 

 1 3 1 8 and his wife Joan apparently predeceased him." 

 Her two daughters, Joan and Elizabeth, were her 

 heirs." They were married before 1326 to John and 

 William Boteler, the sons of Ralph Boteler of Pulver- 

 batch' and Norbury,'" who presented to the church in 



*^ Newcourt, op. cit. i, 856. 

 *'' Cussans, op. cit. 158. 

 ■" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 20. 

 ** Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), i, 452. 

 ** Newcourt, op. cit. i, 856. 

 ^ Cussans, op. cit, Ed'winstree Hund. 

 '57- 

 " Chant. Cert. 27, no. 36. 

 " Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), i, 453. 

 " Chant. Cert. 27, no. 11. 

 '» Ibid. 20, no. 69. 

 " Pat 3 Edw. VI, pt. vii. 

 * Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905]. 

 ' Feud. Aids, ii, 454, 458. 



' See Cussans, op. cit. Ed'winstree Hund, 

 114. 



* V.C.H. Herts, i, 340a. 

 6 Ibid. 



I De Banco R. 273, m. 75 d. Another 

 part of the manor consisted of the fee of 

 Vabadun, see below. 



' For the descent of the Fitz Ralphs see 

 the manor of Broadfield in OdseyHundred. 



8 See De Banco R. 273, m. 75 d. 



9 Feud. Aids, ii, 431. 



" De Banco R. 273, m. 7; d. 



II Feet of F. Herts. 2 Hen. Ill, no. 2. 

 " Dugdale, Mon. vi, 153. 



Ill 



" Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A 1 175, 1028. 



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

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



•5 Feud. Aids, ii, 431. 



16 Wrottesley, Ped.from Plea R. 64. 



" Cal. Chart. R. 1300-26, p. 107. 



'8 Cal. Inq. p.m. 10-20 Ediv. II, 104 ; 

 Cal. Close, 1318-23, p. 50. 



19 Wrottesley, Fed. from Plea R. 64 ; 

 see De Banco R. 273, m. 75 d. The 

 daughters are here called Joan and 

 Matilda. 



20 Wrottesley, loc. cit. ; Chester Waters, 

 Chesters o*^ Chicheley, 139. 



