BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



LITTLE BARFORD 



antiquity, though possessing no features of much 

 interest. 



The land lies low, and near the church has been 

 worked for gravel, as the broken surface shows, though 

 now again covered with grass, The church itself 

 stands on slightly higher ground near the river bank. 



The Great Northern main line passes through 

 Little Barford ; the nearest station is St. Neots, 

 3^ miles off. 



The parish was inclosed by agreement before 1778, 

 ■when an Act of Parliament was obtained to confirm 

 it.' There is a public elementary school, built in 

 1873- 



The abbey of St. Benedict, Ramsey, 

 MANORS held LITTLE BARFORD MANOR 

 in chief both at the time of and pre- 

 vious to the Domesday Survey.' An early charter of 

 the abbey records that a certain iEdgiva granted 

 land in Barford to the abbey,* 

 which probably became the 

 manor assessed at 5 hides re- 

 ferred to in Domesday.' Be 

 tween the years 1 1 3 3 and 1 1 60 

 the manor was alienated by 

 Abbot Alwin to Hugh de 

 Beauchamp for j^io without 

 the consent of the monastery,* 

 but in 1 1 94 Hugh surrendered 

 the 5 hides of land which con- 

 stituted the manor to Abbot 

 Robert,' and from this time 

 until the Dissolution of the 

 Monasteries Ramsey Abbey 

 continued to exercise the over- 

 lordship of Little Barford, which was invariably held 

 by the service of one knight's fee and the rent of a 

 mark of silver.* It then lapsed to the crown, and 

 the last mention of the overlordship occurs in 1563, 

 when the manor was held of the queen ' by reason of 

 the dissolution of the abbey.' ' At the time of the 

 Survey this manor was held of Ramsey Abbey by 

 Eudo Dapifer, who had as under-tenant one Osberne.'" 

 Eudo appears to have been followed by the Ley- 

 hams, who were holding in Barford as early as 1 1 94, 

 in which year Peter de Leyham rendered homage 

 for this manor to the abbot." Matthew de Leyham, 

 probably a grandson, who was one of the knights of 

 Ramsey Abbey who performed service in Poitou, 

 Gascony, and Scotland in the years 1 240, 1 242, 

 and 1244 respectively," confirmed his right to the 

 manor by fine in 1243." By the year 1 3 16 the 

 manor had passed to Thomas de la Dale," probably 

 on his marriage with Isabel de Leyham. A fine 

 levied a year later declared the manor to be the right 

 of Isabel formerly wife of Thomas Dale, which lends 



Ramsey Abbey, Or 

 a bend azure ivitk three 

 rams^ heads argent cut off 

 at the neck therein having 

 horns of gold. 



probability to this assumption." Thomas Dale, son 

 of Isabel, held the manor in 1 346,'" and was succeeded 

 by a son Thomas, whose wife Isabel in 1408 obtained 

 the marriage and wardship of her grandson Thomas, 

 on payment of 100 marks to Ramsey Abbey within 

 twenty years." He rendered feudal service for the 

 manor in 1428," and in 1480 his grandson John 

 Dale, son of another Thomas, died seised of this 

 manor." John left a son William, who at his death in 

 1537 left the manor to his eldest daughter Anne, 

 wife of Alexander Fettiplace.™ They settled the 



Leyham. Gules a 



svfan argent, which arms 

 were afterwards borne by 

 the Dales. 



Fettiplace. Gules 



two ckeverons argent. 



manor on their son William, and on his death in 

 1563 — shortly before that of his father — the manor 

 passed to his son Edmund Fettiplace." In 161 3 the 

 manor passed to John son of Edmund,*' who in 1658 

 alienated it to George Edwards,*' whose son Jasper 

 Edwards transferred it in 1692 to Sir Walter St. John 

 and Francis St. John.'* By the marriage of Mary 

 daughter of the latter to Sir Samuel Browne," the 

 manor next passed to the Brownes of Arlesey, and 

 followed the same descent as Arlesey manor (q.v.) 

 during the eighteenth century.'* 



In 1 764 Mrs. Schutz (granddaughter of Sir Samuel 

 Browne) made over this estate to a son, who sold it 

 to an attorney. He transferred it to Mr. Hutchin- 

 son, a partner in the original Security Bank, and on 

 his failure in 1 799 Little Barford manor was sold to 

 Mr. Williamson of Baldock, ' a great dealer in malt, 

 and of very considerable landed property in the 

 county of Hertfordshire.'" His daughter Sara 

 married the Reverend William Alington, who died 

 in 1 849, leaving a son John, who at his death in 

 1864 left two sons, William, who died in 1874, ^id 

 Julius Alington, who is at the present day lord of 

 Little Barford manor." 



The Domesday Survey mentions a second manor 

 in Barford, consisting of 3 hides, which at the time 

 of the Confessor had belonged to Ulmar of Eaton, 

 but in 1086 was held in chief by Osbern son of 

 Walter." 



2 Acts Priv. and Local, 41 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 34. ' V.CH. Beds, i, 229a. 



4 Chron. Abbat. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 

 p. 200. * y.CH. Beds, i, zzga. 



6 Cart. Rames. Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 272. 



^ Madox, Formulare Angl. 218, 



^ Feud. Aids, i, 23, 38 ; Cart. Rames. 

 Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 209 ; Feet of F. 

 Beds. 27 Hen. Ill, m. 2 ; Anct. D. 

 (P.R.O.), A. 550 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 (Ser. 2), Iviii, No. 48. 



9 Ibid, cxxxv. No. 134. 



10 F.C.H. Beds, i, 229a. 



" Dugdale, Mon. ii, 553 ; Madox, For- 

 mulare Anglicanum, 218. 



" Cart. Rames. Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 

 209. 



" Feet of F. Beds. 27 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 



» Feud. Aids, i, 1 9. 



15 Feet of F. Beds. 11 Edw. II, m. 19. 

 Further in 1346 Thomas Dale held the 

 fee which Oliver de Leyham had held 

 {Feud. Aids, i, 23). i' Feud, Aids, i, 23. 



17 Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A. 550. This 

 Thomas Dale appears to have assumed 

 Fulthorpe as an alternative surname 

 {Feud. Aids, i, 38 ; Pedigrees from the 

 Plea R.). 1' Feud. Aids, i, 38. 



1' Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 9 Edw. IV, No, 9 ; 

 Pedigrees from the Plea R. p. 465. 



20 Chan. Inq, p.m. (Ser. 2), Iviii, No, 48, 



207 



21 Ibid, cxxxv. No. 134; cccxxxiii. 



No. 42. 22 I1,JJ_ 



28 Recov. R. Trin. 1658 ; Feet of F, 

 Beds. Trin. 1658. 



2J Ibid. Trin. 4 Will, and Mary. 



25 Blaydes, Genealogia Bedfordiensis, 

 339- 



*5 Feet of F. Beds. Trin. 5 Geo. Ill ; 

 Hil. 25 Geo. Ill ; Acts Priv. and Local, 

 18 Geo. HI, cap. 65. 



"7 Add. MSS. 9408. 



^ Burke, Landed Gentry, 1906. 



29 V.CH. Beds, i, 254a. It seems very 

 probable that this Osbern is identical 

 with the under-tenant of the same name 

 of Eudo Dapifer in Barford. 



