A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



William Ardern trusted the articles against Franklin 

 would be found untrue ' for the parsonage is well and 

 sufficiently reparelld, and in the same hospitality kept, 

 and a priest to serve the cure."" In IJ44 Henry 

 Audeley and John Maynard received a grant of the 

 vicarage and tithes,'" but by 1587 they were the 

 property of Edward Snowe, who in that year alienated 

 them to Peter Osborn and his heirs.'" The advow- 

 son of the vicarage since that date has remained the 

 right of the Osborn family, and has followed the 

 descent of Chicksands manor, being vested at the 

 present day in Sir Algernon K. B. Osborn, bart. The 

 value of the vicarage in 1605 had not increased since 

 1235, but was still ;^8."' Thomas Brightman, the 

 author of a thesis on the Book of Revelation, was 

 then the vicar ; his work attracted much attention in 

 the reigns of Elizabeth and James.'" In 1 64 1 Sir 

 Peter Osborn brought an action against Thomas 

 Joyce, the parson of Haynes, and the latter was 

 ordered by the House of Lords to produce his pre- 

 sentation and induction to the rectory."' He appa- 

 rently was deprived of the living and compounded in 

 December, 1646, under the Oxford Articles for de- 

 linquency, as he had gone to Oxford and joined 

 the king. In March, 1647, he was subjected to 

 the Decimation Tax and paid £28."' In the 

 meantime another rector, John Bird, who had been 

 inducted, proved unsatisfactory, and the rectory was 

 sequestered from him in 1645 on account of mis- 

 demeanours certified against him. His successor, 

 Mr. Tutty, left the next year for want of mainte- 

 nance.'" 



The advowson of the free chapel of St. Machutus, 

 granted in the twelfth century to Beaulieu Priory by 



Robert de Albini, was doubtless retained by him and 

 passed by some unknown means into the family of 

 Mowbray, to whom he was related, being a nephew 

 of Roger Mowbray.'" The advowson remained 

 vested in the Mowbrays, and its history is similar to 

 that of the manor of Haynes,"' with which it was 

 alienated in 1488 to Sir Reginald Bray.'" The last 

 mention of the advowson occurs in 1538 when the 

 Brays were still the patrons,'" but as all religious ser- 

 vices in the chapel probably ceased when the abbey 

 of St. Albans was dissolved the advowson of necessity 

 lapsed. 



There are here a Wesleyan and a Baptist chapel. 



In 1 708 Villiers Fowler, widow, by 

 CHARITIES will, charged her estates in the county 

 of Bedford with the principal sum 

 of ;£ioo, to be laid out in the purchase of land 

 for the use of the poor, 50/. a year for teaching 

 poor children, and the remaining portion of the 

 income amongst the poor of the parish. A sum 

 of £z 2 was also given by a poor sailor for the poor 

 of the parish. The principal sum of /'122 is re- 

 garded as charged upon Haynes Park Estate, now 

 belonging to F. J. Thynne, esq., at £$ per cent. ; 

 2/. 6</. each is paid to thirty widows or widowers 

 on St. Thomas's Day, and the balance in prizes for 

 knowledge of the Scriptures and for attendance at 

 school. 



James Eames by his will, proved 6 March, 1888, 

 bequeathed ;f9o6 I J/. I0(/. consols (with the official 

 trustees) the dividends of which are divided among 

 twenty-five poor persons, who formerly received £1 i 

 piece, but since the redaction of interest on the stock 

 18/. zti. each. 



HIGHAM GOBION 



Echam (xi cent.) ; Hecham (xii cent.) ; Heyham, 

 Heghham (xiii-xiv cents.). 



The parish of Higham Gobion comprises 1,298 

 acres, of which 610 consist of arable land, 335 of 

 permanent grass, and i J roods of plantations.' The 

 soil is strong clay, with a subsoil of clay, and the crops 

 produced are wheat, barley, and beans. The parish 

 lies rather low, the highest point, 247 ft. above t.e 

 ordnance datum, being near the village, while the 

 lowest, 177 ft., is in the east, on the Shillington 

 boundary. 



The few houses that compose the hamlet round 

 the church are placed on a flat ridge of land that runs 

 northwards from the foot of the Barton Hills, and is 

 surrounded by several miles of flat open country. The 

 church stands close to the road, adjoining the rectory 

 on the east side. In the low grounds near the church 

 is an interesting earthwork called The Camp.' It 

 probably was connected with the manor house. 

 Roman remains have also been found in the parish. 



The manor house, now a farm, is on the north- 

 west side of the church, and contains a seventeenth- 



century chimney-piece, on which are twelve small 

 shields with heraldry, the Butler arms being in the 

 centre, with a more elaborate setting than the others. 

 The arms are roughly inlaid and coloured, but now 

 somewhat faded from age and varnish. 



The church is about two miles east of the Bedford 

 and Luton main road, on the further side of which 

 there is a detached portion of the parish, i mile in 

 length, containing a few houses, among which is 

 Faldo Farm. Barton in the Clay separates this por- 

 tion from the main parish, which it also bounds on 

 the south side. 



The manor of HIGHJM, known 

 MANORS since the end of the thirteenth century 

 as HIGHJM GOBION, was held by 

 William de Loecles of Hugh de Beauchamp' at the 

 time of the Great Survey ; the overlordship remained 

 vested in the Beauchamp family, and followed the 

 descent of the barony of Bedford. 



The manor was of considerable value at the date of 

 the Survey, for it was assessed at 8 hides, and was 

 worth £&. It had been held in the time of Edward 



'" L. and P. Hen. VIU, viii, 289. 



>" Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. 19, m. 5. 



lis Ibid. 29 Eliz. pt. I, m. 8. 



"6 Blaydcs, Beds. N. and g. ii, 313. 



'^V Diet. Nat. Biog. 



»18 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, 75, 77. 



'" Cal. of Com. for Compounding, p, 



1'" Blaydes, N. and Q. iii, 167. 

 "1 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, v. 

 l2»Ca/. of Pat. 1399-1401, pp. 234, 

 449 ) iDid. 1401-5, p. 162. 



344 



l» Feet of F. Bed.. 3 Hen. VII. 

 i« Ibid. Div. Cos. 30 Hen. VIII. 



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



» Described in KC.H. Beds, i, 276. 



» r.CH. Beds, i, 239. ' ' 



