A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



The only Gilbertine house, the priory of New Bigging, Hitchin, did 

 not arise before 1361 and had few inmates. 



There were two houses of Austin Canons, the one at Royston, founded 

 shortly before 1181, of some importance on account of its privileges, but 

 the other at Little Wymondley never anything but insignificant. 



The Knights Templars had a preceptory at Dinsley, probably as early 

 as the reign of Henry II ; the Knights of St. John, who succeeded them 

 there, maintained for a time a community at Standon on the estate given to 

 them at the end of the 1 2th century. 



A hospice especially for Franciscans and Dominicans was built shortly 

 before 1247 within the precinct of St. Albans," but the Mendicants, perhaps 

 on this account, never got a permanent footing in the town. The three 

 friaries of the county were of rather late date : the priory of Friars Preachers 

 within the royal manor of Langley was founded in 1308 by Edward II, who 

 was probably also responsible for the establishment of Carmelites in 13 17 at 

 Hitchin ; the Friars Minors did not settle at Ware until 1339. Langley, 

 of which the king was patron in a very special sense, must have had a con- 

 siderable position ; the other two houses were obscure. The sole nunnery 

 of a Mendicant order was the priory of Langley, refounded by Queen 

 Mary for Dominican sisters. 



Counting St. Nicholas Royston, which seems, however, to have been 

 within the boundary of Cambridgeshire, there were eleven hospitals.'* Five 

 or six of these besides St. Nicholas were for lepers : St. Julian's and 

 St. Mary de Pre near St. Albans, St. John Evangelist at Berkhampstead, 

 St. Mary Magdalene, Clothall,' St. Mary Magdalene near Hertford, and 

 perhaps St. Laud and St. Anthony, Hoddesdon. The first two were 

 dependent on and closely connected with the abbey : for instance, sisters 

 of three successive abbots in the 14th century entered St. Mary de Pr6. 



The hospital outside Hertford about 1261 was transformed into a house 

 of Maturine friars; St. Mary de Pre before the end of the 14th century also 

 underwent a change and became a Benedictine nunnery. The other hospitals 

 were at Anstey, Cheshunt, Berkhampstead and Royston, none apparently 

 earlier than the i 3th century. 



The one college was that in the church of St. Margaret, Thele. 



From time to time there must also have been many cases of persons 

 living a religious life in solitude. The oratory of St. German, St. Albans, 

 was used as a hermitage in Saxon days ' ; a recluse called Roger ' and Sigar, 

 a hermit of Northaw, who lived in Abbot Geoffrey's time,'" established such 

 reputations for sanctity that pilgrimages were made to their tombs in the 

 conventual church of St. Albans'^; the anchorite living in 1258 at 

 St. Peter's" had successors in the 15th century, when there is mention 

 too of recluses at St. Michael's.^' 



^ Matt. Paris, CAron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 600. ** There were perhaps more. A hospital is 



mentioned once in connexion with Offley (see p. 310) and there is reference to one at Therfield in 1566 

 (Cler. Subs. R. bdle. 40, no. 820), but this may have been a house of post- Reformation foundation. 



' The hospital at Baldock mentioned by Tanner is the same as this house, which in the course of 

 its history was transferred from one site to another. * Gesta Abbat. i, 2 I . 



' If he really lived at Markyate (ibid. 97), he does not belong to Hertfordshire (see Sopwell Priory). 



10 V.C.H. Herts, ii, 358. " Gesta Abbat. i, 105. 12 Ibid. 388-9. 



" F.C.H. Herts, ii, 403 n. In 1530 there was a hermit or anchorite in the chapel of St. Mary 

 Magdalene (ibid. 40 1). 



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