A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



before this first grant, for in the time of Gilbert, bishop 

 ofLondon, and Hugh the dean (l 163-81) there is 

 an acknowledgement by Paris, archdeacon of Roches- 

 ter, and Alexander de Sacchevilla that the advowson 

 of the church of Caddington belonged to the chapter.'^ 

 The living is a vicarage, and the advowson, annexed 

 to the manor, has always been held by the dean and 

 chapter. 



The chapel built by John Coppin, which has now 

 become the church of St. John the Baptist, Markyate, 

 was endowed by him with an annuity of £10 vested in 

 the curate and his successors, and other annuities 

 vested in trustees, charged upon his estate of Mark- 

 yate Cell. John also obtained grants of two sums of 

 j^200 from the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty for 

 the augmentation of the curacy.™ The school 

 founded by Thomas Coppin is annexed to the curacy, 

 and the right of nomination belongs to the owner of 

 Markyate Cell." 



In 1683 many persons were convicted for being 

 present at an unlawful conventicle in the house 

 of Benjamin Andrew at Caddington." At Mark- 

 yate Street there appears to have been a strong 

 Puritan and Nonconformist element at a very early 

 date. Houses for Quakers were registered there in 

 1690 and 1699, and a dwelling house in Caddington 

 in the occupation of John Squire was certified in 1781 

 as a place of worship for Protestant Dissenters, and a 

 newly-erected chapel for them was licensed in 1809. 

 There are now two Wesleyan chapels and a Baptist 

 Union chapel at Caddington, and Wesleyan, Baptist, 

 and Primitive Methodist chapels at Markyate. In 

 1 860 the Baptists, who were very strong in the parish. 



demanded the election of one of the members of their 

 sect as a trustee of the school founded by Thomas 

 Coppin at Markyate Street, but it was in law decided 



against them." 



In 1684 Martha Coppin by her 

 CHARITIES will charged her house and land in 

 Markyate Street with an annuity of 

 jf 6 for the use of six poor aged widows, housekeepers 

 that frequent divine service, to buy them clothes, share 

 and share alike. The payment is made by Mr. Obed 

 Thome, and is applied by the vicar in accordance 

 with the trusts." 



This parish was in possession of land and cottages, 

 the origin of which is unknown, called the church 

 land and cottages, now consisting of two acres of 

 meadow land adjoining the churchyard, let at £l a 

 year, which, after payment of 30/. in alms to the 

 poor, under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners 

 (1885), is applied by the vicar and churchwardens in 

 repairs to the church, together with the rent of four 

 acres known as the Pest House Fields. 



In 1832 David FouUerton by his will bequeathed 

 ^(^300 in trust after defraying the expense of laying 

 down slabs, etc., over the family grave, to invest the 

 balance and to apply the income in the distri- 

 bution -of wearing apparel amongst six poor persons 

 at the least, residing in that portion of the parish 

 situated in the county of Hertford. The legacy is 

 represented by ^276 y. "jd. consols with the official 

 trustees, the dividends of which, amounting to 

 £6 1 8/., are applied in aid of the clothing club. 



St. John, Markyate Street. Coppin's Scholarship 

 Foundations." 



CLOPHILL 



Clopelle (xi cent.) ; Chainehou (xi cent.); Caynho, 

 Kayno (xiii, xiv, xv cents.) ; Caynehoo (xvi, xvii cents.) ; 

 Bello Loco or Beaulieu (xii-xv cents.) ; Bedlowe (xvi- 

 xLx cents.). 



The parish of Clophill has an area of 2,425-227 

 acres, of which nearly half, i,ooof acres, is arable 

 land ; there are 834 acres of permanent grass and 

 246 of woods and plantations." The soil is very 

 sandy, with a subsoil of gravel, and there are many 

 old sand-pits and gravel-pits scattered over the parish. 

 The country is undulating, forming numerous ridges 

 and hollows, the slopes being covered by open 

 tilled land or small pine woods, to the low ground 

 round the River Flit, on the north side of which the 

 village is placed. The general slope of the land is 

 from north-west to south-east, the highest point in 

 the north being 323 ft. above the ordnance datum, 

 and from here the ground falls till in the extreme 

 east near Campton it reaches an elevation of 1 5 2 ft. 

 Clophill village presents a straggling appearance, as it 

 covers about i J miles of the main road from Ampthill 

 to ShefFord, which traverses the centre of the parish 

 from west to east. 



From the east end of the village a broad ridge rises 

 for a mile to the north-east, and upon this, a half-mile 

 from the village, the old church is conspicuously 



placed at a height of 279-6 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum, with a commanding view over the country to 

 the east and south. The churchyard possessed the 

 unenviable reputation of being a haunt of body 

 snatchers, and many human bones have been dug up 

 in the fields of Brickwall Farm. The new church is 

 near the east end of the village, opposite the rectory, 

 west of which there is a large tithe barn, now used as 

 a parish hall. Near the middle of the village where 

 the river approaches the street is a large water-mill 

 used for grinding corn, while to the west of the 

 village, at a short distance from the main road, 

 stands an ancient windmill built of timber ; the 

 shape is peculiar, for the body is built like an ordinary 

 barn with gables at the end. The mill sails used to 

 be supported on large cross-beams which are attached 

 to a square wooden turret with a low-pointed roof, 

 which projects from the roof of the barn at the west 

 end. At this end of the village is the public-house, 

 called ' The Flying Horse,' a popular inn in the old 

 coaching-days for travellers from London to the north. 

 There are several good specimens of Georgian archi- 

 tecture among the houses, and the old pound still 

 exists, while memories of earlier days are recalled by 

 the relic known as the Stocks Tree. In the middle 

 of the village the street is crossed by the main road 



8» Hist. MSB. Com. Rep. ix, App. pt, i, 

 35«. 



^ Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Dacorum 

 Hund. X16; Ecton's Thesaurus^ 19. 



" An Act for building a Chapel at 

 Markyate Cell, &c, 1740, 

 8^ Herts. County Rec. i, 335, 

 ^ Urwick, Nonconformity in Herts. 4.05, 



320 



*> Char. Com. Rep. xxv, 331. 



'* See p. 317 



' Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



