FLITT HUNDRED 



CADDINGTON 



Coffin. Or a cbiif 



in suppressing Wyatt's rebellion, and held the office 

 of escheator for the counties of Essex and Hert- 

 ford in 1567. The manor remained in the family 

 of Ferrers for about one hundred years, passing 

 from George to his son Julius, and in 1596 to his 

 grandson Sir John.'* Knighton Ferrers, the son of 

 Sir John and of Anne, daughter of Sir George 

 Knighton of Bayford, knt., died before his father," 

 and the estate consequently passed on the death of 

 Sir John in 1640 to Katherine, the only daughter of 

 Knighton, who subsequently married Sir Thomas 

 Fanshawe of Ware Park." In 1655 Sir Thomas 

 and Thomas his son sold the manor to John Meech, 

 Edward Greene, and John FuUerton of London,'' 

 and in 1 657 Meech, Greene, and Fullerton, together 

 with Benjamin Andrews and Joan his wife, sold it 

 to Thomas Coppln of Mark- 

 yate Cell, son of Sir George 

 Coppin." Thomas by will 

 dated 8 December, 1 662, left 

 j^4.oo in trust for the pur- 

 chase of a house in Markyate 

 Street to serve as a school- 

 house.™ He was succeeded in 

 1663 by his second son John," 

 who in fulfilment of his father's 

 will purchased a messuage 

 called the 'Mermaid' in Mark- 

 yate Street for the purposes 



of a school.** His son John succeeded him,*" 

 and in 1734 built a chapel at Markyate Cell." 

 On his death in 1 742 the estate passed under a 

 settlement made in his lifetime to his son John." 

 At the death, without issue, of the latter John the 

 estate came to his uncle Samuel, who died in 1 766 

 without issue, having devised the estate to his nephew 

 John Reynardson, son of his sister Anne by Joseph 

 Reynardson, on the condition of his taking the name 

 ofCoppin.^ John Reynardson Coppin died in 1 78 1, 

 and the manor came to the Rev. John Pittman, who 

 thereupon took the name of Coppin.*' He married 

 Mary Pearce of Buckinghamshire, and died in 1 794, 

 leaving John Coppin Pittman-Coppin his only son 

 and heir, and two daughters 

 Susan and Mary.** John sold 

 the estate to Joseph Howell, 

 by whose executors it was sold 

 in 1825 to Daniel Goodson 

 Adey of St. Albans, J.P.*' 

 On his death in December, 

 1872, it came to his son Rev. 

 Francis William Adye, who 

 still holds it. 



The present mansion house, 

 known as Markyate Cell, 

 stands on the eastern side of 

 Watling Street, a little north 



of the hamlet of Markyate Street. Leland, who 

 must have seen it shortly after the suppression of 

 Markyate Cell, says in his Itinerary that one Hum- 



Adye. Argent a bend 

 azure ivitb three leo- 

 pards* beads or thereon. 



phrey Bourchier 'did much coste in translating of 

 the priorie into a maner-place.' This took place 

 during Bourchier's tenancy in 1539-40, and it is 

 most likely that the oldest portions of the existing 

 house belong to that date, the work being in the 

 style of that period. The house has been burned 

 down several times, the last rebuilding having been 

 done in 1840. The only portions left of the 

 sixteenth-century house are the walls of the kitchen 

 offices at the east end, consisting of two stories and 

 the lower part of a chimney, and probably parts of the 

 old garden walls date from this period. The old 

 walling is built of flint, with the windows and the 

 angles of the walls of Totternhoe stone, that portion 

 of the wall inclosing the scullery and the room over 

 being faced with flint and stone in alternating squares, 

 averaging about 9 in. square, but varying a good 

 deal. This form of walling is found, not only in 

 fourteenth and fifteenth-century work, as in the 

 churches of Abbots Langley, Redboum, and Putten- 

 ham, but also in much later work, as in the Castle 

 House, Berkhampstead, which was built in 1560, and 

 Oxhey Chapel, erected in 16 12. The west wall of 

 the scullery is 3 ft. 9 in. thick and contains a large 

 arched opening, now built up on one side ; the arch 

 is low and pointed, the outer and inner orders on 

 either side being splayed, and the order between 

 hollow-chamfered. It does not seem ever to have 

 had a door, and was most likely an opening into a 

 hall or corridor. On the east wall of the kitchen, 

 outside, is a projecting chimney, the upper part 

 of which is modern, but the lower part contains 

 a secret chamber in the thickness of the chimney, 

 which is about 5 ft. Access to the chamber was 

 obtained by a circular stair from an opening over 

 the chimney-piece in the room over the kitchen. 

 This was opened and investigated some years ago, but 

 the opening has now been closed. This part of the 

 chimney seems to be coeval with the rest of the old 

 work. The window to the kitchen is of stone, 

 consisting of five lights, each 1 8 in. wide, divided by 

 moulded stone muUions, each light having a flat four- 

 centred arch. Over the window is a square moulded 

 perpendicular hood, with returned ends. The window 

 is clearly of sixteenth-century work. The scullery 

 window consists of two lights, similar to those of the 

 kitchen, but there is no hood over. The eastern 

 wall of the scullery has been rebuilt and a chimney 

 added, probably in 1840, and the wall has been 

 refaced externally with flint and stone to match the 

 north front, the stone used being old fragments from 

 the priory church. These old stones have mouldings 

 of thirteenth-century character. An interesting out- 

 line plan, showing the old walling which existed in 

 1805, may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of 

 1846. The house at that time was much larger 

 than the present one, and some of the old walling 

 existing in 1805 has now disappeared. The plan 

 also shows the site of the priory church, the 

 foundations of the eastern wall being then discovered. 



55Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 494, No. 61. 



66 Inq. p.m. W. and L. bdle. 94, No. 



245- , . 



67 Further conveyances of 1574, 1004, 

 1651, and 1653 seem to have been made 

 merely for the purposes of settlements 

 (Feet of F. Divers Cos. Hil. 17 EIlz. ; 

 ibid. Trin. 2 Jas. I; ibid. Hil. 1651; 

 ind ibid. East. 1653). 



68 Close, 1655, pt. 47, m. 6. 



69 Ibid. 1657, pt. 4. 



6" An Act for making a Chapel at 

 Markyate Street, &c. 1740. 



61 Harl. Soc. xxii, 45 and Beds. Notes 

 and Queries, iii, 198. 



6^ An Act for making a Chapel at Mark- 

 yate Street, &c. 1740. 



65 Beds, Notes and Queries, iii, 198. 



6* Clutterbuck, Hist, of Herts, i, 347. 

 66 Ibid, and Beds, Notes and Queries, iii, 

 198. 



66 Ibid. 



67 Clutterbuck, Hist, of Herts, i, 348. 



68 Ibid. 



69 Cussans, Hist, of Herts, Decorum 

 Hund. 115. Rev. F. W. Adye changed 

 the manner of spelling his name. 



