FLITT HUNDRED 



CADDINGTON 



Dean and Chaptek 

 or St. Paol's. Gules 

 two crossed s'words ar- 

 gent ivitb bilts or and a 

 golden D in the chief. 



About one mile west from the church there is now 

 a farm called the Bury Farm. The farm-house of the 

 seventeenth century is prob- 

 ably on the site of the old 

 manor-house. 



Copies of manorial court 

 rolls of the sixteenth, seven- 

 teenth, and eighteenth cen- 

 turies are preserved in the 

 library of St. Paul's, together 

 with some early surveys and 

 leases. From these it would 

 appear that in the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries the 

 manor was usually farmed by 

 an ecclesiastic," but certainly 

 as early as the reign of 

 Edward IV the farmer was a layman." The custom 

 of farming out the manor seems to have continued 

 through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth 

 centuries. The farmer lived at Caddington Bury, 

 and was bound to keep a bull and a boar on 

 the manorial farm for the use of the tenants." A 

 visitation of 1222 gives the stocking of the ferm at 

 two hundred sheep, four cows, and forty pigs, as well 

 as two plough-teams of eight head. There was a wind- 

 mill, which could be farmed for 20/.'* The extent of 

 land in demesne was 260 acres of arable ; there was no 

 pasture, but two small woods contained twelve acres 

 between them, and there was also a great beechwood 

 of 300 acres. In 1206 a dispute seems to have arisen 

 between Roger de Tony and the canons of St. Paul's 

 with regard to their right of common in the wood. 

 It was finally agreed that the whole wood between 

 Blikeslane as far as Bereford was to remain to the 

 canons, and all the plain outside the wood to the 

 south should belong to Roger. Further, that from 

 Bereford to Papiatem all the wood should remain to 

 the canons, and the rest of the wood, with the plain 

 to the south, should remain to Roger ; but neither 

 party was to exclude Walter son of Walter of Luton, 

 who came and claimed common of pasturage in both 

 parts." In the seventeenth century the dean and 

 chapter of St. Paul's attempted to inclose the wood, 

 and a commission was appointed to decide the dispute 

 which arose in consequence. According to the award 

 of the commissioners, the canons were to be allowed 

 to inclose 150 acres, and the vicar of Caddington 

 I o acres. The remainder of the wood was to remain 

 open, and the dean and chapter were to have no 

 common of pasture there, except for such of their 

 tenants as held lands under leases not yet expired.'" 



The dean and chapter of St. Paul's claimed most 

 extensive liberties within their Hertfordshire manors. 

 They held their estates quit of all suit at county and 

 hundred courts, and were exempt from the fines there 

 levied, as well as from all tolls and other mercantile 

 dues. They had the ftiUest rights of jurisdiction over 



their tenants, and claimed to hold views of frank- 

 pledge and of the assize of bread and ale, to have 

 their own gallows, pillory, and tumbril, and to have 

 free warren in all their demesne lands." The last 

 liberty had been granted to the dean and chapter in 

 their demesne lands at Caddington in 1 248." 



From an inquisition of 1297 it would appear that 

 among the services of the tenants that of carrying 

 farm produce to London was of importance, holders 

 of one virgate being bound to carry 3 5 quarters of 

 corn annually, and holders of half a virgate five capons 

 or ten hens ' against the feast of the Nativity.' ^ In 

 the eighteenth century some question seems to have 

 arisen as to the building rights of the tenants, for the 

 jurors of the court baron frequently present that a 

 free tenant may build or pull <k)wn his house and fell 

 timber without the consent of the lord, but that a 

 termor may not do so.'* 



Mention of the manor oi DUNRIGGE occurs in 

 the minister's accounts of Caddington for the year 

 1463-4.'''° John Herdyng was then farmer, but no 

 fiirther reference to it has been found. 



The prebendal manor of GREAT CJDDINGTON 

 is attached to the prebend of that name. The stall was 

 held in 1 103 by Askyllus or Anskyldus."* In 1649, 

 when the chapter of London was abolished, this 

 estate was sold to Richard Somers of London,'^ but 

 at the Restoration was recovered by the Church. 

 Newcourt, writing in the first years of the eighteenth 

 century, states that this manor was then called Aston 

 Bury." The manor-house which stood some quarter 

 of a mile east of the church was pulled down about 

 fifty years ago, and a farm-house, now known as the 

 Prebendal Farm, was built on the site.'* 



To the prebend of Caddington Minor the manor 

 oi LITTLE CADDINGTON is zttiched. The stall 

 was held in 1103 by Theobald or Tethbald." The 

 manor was purchased in 1 649 by John Streeter,'" and 

 is mentioned by Newcourt as the manor or farm of 

 Provenden. He states that in a terrier then lately 

 made it was found that there were on the estate 

 thirteen tenants owing quit-rents, but that they 

 refused payment on the ground that the lands for 

 which the rents were due were unidentified." This 

 manor and that of Great Caddington were taken over 

 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1872." The 

 manor-house belonging to Caddington Minor formerly 

 stood on the village green, and was known as Aston 

 Bury. It was pulled down about forty years ago, and 

 its site is now occupied by two cottages which stand 

 opposite the vicarage gates."' 



ZOUCHES or SOWCHES seems to have been a 

 manor held of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's by 

 the family of la Zouche of Harringworth. It is possible 

 that it was, like the Wheathampstead manor of the 

 same name, originally in the possession of the Inges, 

 one of whom married Eudo la Zouche, for there is 

 extant a grant of 1310-11 to one Edward Inge of 



15 Hale, Domesday of St. PauVs (Camden 

 Soc.) no, 124 ; and Anct. D. (P.R.O.), 

 A. 4686. 



" Mins. Accts. 3 Edw. IV, bdle. 865, 

 No. 12. 



17 Ct. R. Lib. D. and C. Lond. Press B. 

 No. 13. 



18 Lib. D. and C. Lond. Press W. D. 

 No. 14. 



19 Abbreti. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 54. 



2» Cal. S. P. Dom. 1639, p. 309, and 

 ibid. 1637, pp. 448-9. 



21 Plac.de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 291; 

 Lib. D. and C. Lond. Press W. D. No. 14. 

 Chart. R. 9 Edw. II, No. 31, m. 7. 



23 Cal. of Chart. R. i, 330. 



28 Lib. D. and C. Lond. Press W. D. 

 16 Lib. i. « Ibid. Press W. C. No. 8. 



i"a Mins. Accts. bdle. 865. No. 12. 



25 Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii, 368. 



^ Close, 1649, pt. 47, No. 32. 



2' Newcourt, Repertorium, 123. From 

 what is said below under the manor of 

 Little Caddington, it would appear that 



Newcourt has transposed the alternative 

 names of Great and Little Caddington, 

 that of Little Caddington being Aston Bury. 



^ Information by Rev. T. Bates, vicar. 



29 Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii, 371. 



80 Close, 1649, pt. 47, No. 1 6. 



81 Newcourt, Repertorium, 123. See 

 note 27. 



83 W. S. Simpson, Suppl, to Reg. of 

 St. Paul's, 178. 



83ii Information given by Mr. Horace 

 W. Prescott. 



