BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



distribute the income in monthly portions at the times 

 of distributing the sacrament-money to poor inhabit- 

 ants of the parish usually attending divine service. 

 The legacy is represented by ^393 8/. lo</. consols, 

 with the official trustees. The dividends, amounting 

 to j^g 16^. Sd., are distributed in gifts of is. monthly 

 to communicants. 



Mrs. Elizabeth Meen, by her will, proved in the 

 P.C.C. on 13 May, 1840, left £200 upon trust to 

 be invested and the income applied for the benefit of 

 that class of poor widows of the town of Biggleswade 

 upon St. Thomas's Day in every year for which a 

 collection had usually been made. The legacy is 



COCKAYNE 

 HATLEY 



represented by ^^217 js. lod. consols with the official 

 trustees, the dividends of which, amounting to 

 ^5 8/. SJ., are applied by the vicar and church- 

 wardens in the distribution of bread. 



National and Infant Schools (see above, ' Schools '). 

 In 1755 Edward Peake, by will, gave a house and z 

 roods of land, situate at Holme, and an annual sum 

 of £ij, charged on other premises at Holme, for pur- 

 poses of education ; this sum, together with £z 3/., 

 the rent of the house and land, is applied for the 

 benefit of these schools. 



See also Sir John Cotton's Charity, above- 

 mentioned. 



COCKAYNE HATLEY 



Hettenleia (x cent.) ; Hatelai (xi cent.) ; Bury 

 Hattele (xiii-xv cent.) ; Hatley Port, Cockayne 

 Hatley (xvi cent.). 



The small parish of Cockayne Hatley lies on the 

 Cambridgeshire borders 3 miles east from the 

 Potton station of the London and North Western 

 Railway. It contains 1,174 acres, of which 777 are 

 arable land, 283 permanent grass, 210 woods and 

 plantations."^ The soil is strong clay and the sub- 

 soil clay. The chief crops are wheat, turnips, barley, 

 peas, and beans. In the north-east of the parish is 

 situated Cockayne Hatley wood, the south is mainly 

 agricultural. The small village is in the centre of 

 the parish, the greater part of which consists 

 of the Cockayne Hatley estate. The church is built 

 in the park, a little to the south of Cockayne Hatley 

 House, and is surrounded by trees on all sides but 

 the north, where the road to the house passes close 

 by. The house itself, facing south and west, is not 

 of much architectural interest, and its exterior is com- 

 paratively modern. The site, however, is old, and 

 parts of a former house still exist, though now hidden 

 by modern additions. Recent repairs are said to have 

 revealed a gallery, which was over the screens of the 

 old hall. 



Mention has been found of a tenth-century grant 

 of land in Hatley by Efelmus and his wife Affa to the 

 abbot of St. Benedict, Ramsey, but no later evidence 

 has been obtained of the abbey holding.* 



The manor of COCKJrNE HATLEr 

 MANOR also called BURT HJTLET and HJTLET 

 PORT was held, at the time of the Survey, 

 by Azelina wife of Ralph Taillebois, and had pre- 

 viously belonged to Ulmar a thegn of King Edward 

 the Confessor.' The overlordship of Cockayne 

 Hatley passed, with the other Bedfordshire property 

 of Ralph Taillebois, to Hugh de Beauchamp,* the 

 founder of the barony of Bedford, and became 

 attached to that honour.' The latest reference that 



1 Returns of Bd. of Agric. 1905. The 

 details include land in other parishes. 



2 Kemble, Codex Dipl. iv, 299 j Chrm, 

 Abbat. Rama (Rolls Ser.), 60, 62, 193. 



» V.C.H. Beds, i, 261A. ^ Ibid. 200. 



^ Feud. Aids, i, 3, 29, 37 ; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 34 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), No. 40 ; 

 1 1 Hen. VI, No. 43 ; 12 Hen. VI, No. 1 1 ; 

 (Ser. 2), xxxi, No. 50; Exch. Inq. p.m. Ix, 

 No. 8 ; Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 191. 



6 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxi, No. 50. 



7 It is probable that Hatley Port, the 

 alternative name for Cockayne Hatley, is 

 derived from the settlement of this family 

 in the parish. 



D I Port. Barry 



argent and asaure a saltire 

 gules. 



has been found to the overlordship is in 1 51 5, when 

 the manor was held of Sir Edmund Grey as of the 

 barony of Bedford.' 



No tenant of the overlord is mentioned in Hatley 

 at the time of the Survey, but members of the family 

 of de Port seem to have estab- 

 lished their position as lords of 

 the manor in the twelfth cen- 

 tury.' 



In II 97 Adam de Port con- 

 firmed the gift of the church 

 to Newnham Priory,' and 

 again in 123 1 he received the 

 grant of half a virgate of 

 land in Hatley,' from Ellen, 

 daughter of Agnes of Hatley, 

 whilst in 1277 William de 

 Port was in possession of the 

 manor.'" This manor passed 

 from the de Ports in the last decade of the thirteenth 

 century to Roger Bryan, who acquired from William 

 de Port 70 acres of land in 

 1294," a carucate of land, 

 8/. rent, and a messuage two 

 years later,'^ and finally, in 

 1298, lands, rents, a messuage, 

 and a mill." 



Joan, daughter of Roger 

 Bryan, married John d'Argen- 

 tein, who was holding the 

 manor in 1308," and from 

 him it passed to his daughter, 

 Joan wife of Ralph Butler," 

 whose heir was her nephew 

 Edward Butler, who came of 

 age in 1360.'* He made 



various settlements of the manor," and finally in the 

 year 1417 sold it to John Cockayne, chief baron of 

 the Exchequer, for 1,000 marks.'* 



Cockayne. Argent 

 three cocks gules having 

 their beaks, combs and 

 •wattles sable. 



8 Harl. MS. 3656, fol. 217 ; Feet of F. 

 Beds. 9 Ric. I, m. 2. 



9 Feet of F. Beds. 16 Hen. Ill, m. II. 

 1" Ibid. 6 Edw. I, m. 4 ; Feud. Aids, 



'. 3- 



" Feet of F. Beds. 23 Edw. I, No. 5. 



12 Ibid. 25 Edw. I, No. 2. 



1' Ibid. 27 Edw. I, m. i. The same 

 year Adam de Port obtained from Thomas 

 de Blegner (or Blaigny) 4 messuages and 

 30 acres of land in Hatley (ibid. 27 Edw. 

 I, m. 3), which he conveyed to Roger 

 Bryan (ibid. m. 5). This family of de 

 Blaigny had been holding in Hatley some 

 seventy years before, when Mabel, daughter 



215 



of Geoffrey Wisdom, had alienated i 

 hide of land there to Ernald de Blaigny 

 (ibid. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 5 ; Pipe R. 4 Hen. 

 Ill, m. I). 



^* Chart. R. i Edw. II, m. 10, No. 29; 

 Wrottesley, Pedigrees from Plea R. 64. 



IS Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 17 ; 

 Feud. Aids, i, 22. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 34 Edw. Ill, No. 

 40. The manor, here called Bury Hatley, 

 was at this time worth ,^30 per annum. 



1' Close, 46 Edw. Ill, m. 19 ; z 

 Ric. II, m. 32 d. ; m. 37 d. 



18 Feet of F. Beds. 21 Ric. II, m. 3 ; 

 ibid. Div. Cos. 5 Hen. V, No. 63. 



