THE HUNDRED OF FLITT 



CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF 



BARTON 



CADDINGTON (Part of) 



CLOPHILL 



FLITTON CUM SILSOE 



UPPER GRAVENHURST 



LOWER GRAVENHURST 



HAYNES 



HIGHAM GOBION 



LUTON, WITH East and West Hyde, 



Stopsley, Limbury cum Biscott, and 



Leagrave 

 PULLOXHILL 



STREATLEY with SHARPENHOE 

 SUNDON ' 



At the time of the Domesday Survey Flitt Hundred was assessed at 

 98 hides If virgates, and included all the places mentioned above with the 

 exception of Luton, 30 hides in extent, which was royal property." The 

 greater part of Caddington, 10 hides in amount, was then included in Hert- 

 fordshire, while only five lay in Bedfordshire, but since 1897 ^^^ Hertfordshire 

 portion has been transferred to Bedfordshire,' although for ecclesiastical pur- 

 poses the parish is still divided between the two counties. Flitton cum Silsoe 

 has been separated into two parishes since 1831, and Upper and Lower 

 Gravenhurst were united in 1888.* 



The hundred of Flitt followed to a certain extent the same descent as 

 that of the manor of Luton, and it was held of the king in chief for the 

 service of 6oj. a year. In 1086 it was apparently attached to the manor of 

 Luton, and was granted with it in 1229 to William Marshal, earl of 

 Pembroke, on his marriage with the king's sister Eleanor, as her dower, but 

 subjected to the yearly rent of 6oj.^ On the latter's death in 1274 the 

 hundred passed to Isabel, wife of Reginald de Mohun, a daughter of Isabel 

 de Clare, who was one of the co-heirs of the earl of Pembroke.* On the 

 death of William de Mohun, their son, in 1282, the hundred was worth 

 >rio, and was inherited by his younger daughter Mary, wife of John de Meriet, 

 after the death of her brother Reginald without issue.'' Mary died childless, and 

 on the death of her husband in 1327 the hundred was divided among her co- 

 heirs,^ descendants of the daughters of Isabel de Clare, John de Bohun, John de 

 Mohun, and Hugh de Mortimer, each of whom received a quarter, while the 

 remaining quarter was divided between the other heirs, Henry Fitz Piers and 



' This list is taken from the Population Returns ofi^^i. 



' V.C.H. Beds, i, 222-3. Biscott in Luton, however, belonged to the hundred of Flitt ; it was assessed 

 at 5 hides and was taken out of the hundred to be added to Luton by Ralph Taillebois, who compensated the 

 hundred of Flitt by robbing another hundred. 



' Loc. Govt. Bd. Order, P. 13 12, 30 Sept. 1897. 



" Cal. of Close, 1227-31, p. 518 ; Cal. of Chart. R. i, 102 



" Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 265. 



'Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. I, No. 19; Maxwell Lyte, Dunster and its Lords, 34; Chan. Inq pm 

 25 Edw. I, No. 43. 



» Ibid. I Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), No. SI. 



305 



' Ibid. 22219, 28 Mar. iS 

 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 3. 



