A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



have the sowles of my moder Dame Alice Pulter and 

 Isabel Rych my sister praid for and remembered in 

 the same werke.' He also left various books to the 

 church. 81 



The gild of Our Lady was founded in the church 

 by licence of King Edward IV in I47S- 82 It was 

 to consist of a master, two wardens, brethren and 

 sisters, and was to provide two chaplains to celebrate 

 mass for King Edward IV, Queen Elizabeth and the 

 brethren and sisters of the fraternity. At the same 

 time a grant was made to the brotherhood of two 

 annual fairs of three days' duration each, one to he 

 held on the Wednesday in Easter week and the other 

 on the feast of the Translation of St. Edward the Con- 

 fessor and the days preceding and following each of 

 these. 81 At the time of its dissolution in the reign 

 of Edward VI the gild apparently found two priests, 

 one to serve the chantry and the other to serve the 

 church in conjunction with the curate. 8 * It owned 

 a tenement called le Swanne, five stalls in the market- 



place, a Brotherhood House and other property, also the 

 profits of the fairs." i„ , s+8 the king granted the 

 gild and Brotherhood House, the Swan and the fairs to 

 Ranulph Burgh and Robert Beverley. 88 The chantry 

 house was granted the next year to Thomas Stevens. 8 " 

 In Minsden are the remains of a chapel which 

 has long been in ruins. 88 The earliest mention of a 

 chapel here is in 1487, when John Pulter left 

 V- $d. to the chapel of St. Nicholas. 89 The only other 

 record is of 1517, when a like sum was left to this 

 chapel. 90 A marriage is said to have been celebrated 

 in it in i738.»» 



There was also a chapel at Preston in the manor 

 of Dinsley which ia said to have been included in the 

 grant of the church of Hitchin (to which it wai 

 appurtenant) to the Abbess and convent of Elstow." 

 After the manor of Dinsley came into the hands 

 of the Templars an agreement was made by them 

 with the Abbess of Elstow by which the nuns were to 

 find a chaplain to hold service in the chapel on 

 Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday, unless it should 

 happen that feast days fell on other days in the week, 

 when these feast days should count among the three 

 days. The Templars were to continue to pay tithei 

 from any lands cultivated by them from which the 

 church of Hitchin or the chapel of Dinsley had been 

 used to receive them. The duty also of rinding two 

 chaplains to celebrate mass for the donors of their 

 lands was obligatory on the Templars by their 

 tenure, 6i and afterwards on the Knights Hospitallers, 

 Among the expenses of the latter enumerated shortly 

 before their suppression is that of wax for a light in 

 the chapel and the 

 wages of a chaplain 

 to celebrate divine 

 service daily. 83 The 

 obligation of the 

 Abbess of Elstow 

 seems to have been 

 then commuted for 

 a pension of 141. 4a'," 

 In 1540 John 

 Docwra, farmer of 

 the estate, had to find 

 a chaplain to cele- 

 brate in this chapel." 

 After the suppression 

 of the Hospitallers 

 the rectory of Dinsley 

 was granted to Ralph 

 Sadleir with the 

 manor (q.v.). 



The church of 

 HOLT SAFIOVR™ 

 in Radcliffe Road was 

 built in 1865 after 

 the designs of William 

 Butterfield and at the 

 cost of the late Rev. 

 George Gainsford, the incumbent. A district chapelry 

 formed out of the parish of Hitchin was assigned to it. 

 Almshouses in the Radcliffe Road, built in 1870, were 

 made in connexion with this chapelry. 



The Roman Catholic chapel of our Lady Immacu- 

 late and St. Andrew, a plain building of red brick, 



The first record of Dissent in Hitchin dates from 

 1666, when 'unlawful meetings' were held in a 

 private house, 97 In 1672 licence was given to 

 Presbyterians to hold their meetings, 98 and under the 

 Toleration Act many places were certified for worship 



s P.C.C. 8 Godyn, 3 Mill 



the roWing P.CC. wills : 46 MiUea, 

 2 Moonc, 18 Dogett, 19 Vox, 7 Aylflffe, 

 varjng, ,; Bodfelde, 3 1 Hogan. 



»Hi 



!S Pat. 2 Edw. VI, p t. i 

 " Ibid. 3 Edw. VI, P t. i 



V.C.H. Herts, i, 302a. 

 P.CC. Will, 3 MillM. 

 Ibid. 31 Holder. 

 1 North, Ch. Bell, of Hern. lor 

 Assize R. 323, m. 46 d. 

 Dugdale, Mon. Angl, vii, 8ig. 

 Mins. Accu. bdle. 86;, no. 1 

 Cf. Mi,c Enr. Accu. L.T.R. i 



■ ii- 



» Mi 11 1. Accti. 31 & 31 Hen. VIII, 

 no. 114, m. 36 d. 



*• This perhapj took the name front 

 the Gilbertine Priory of St. Sariour which 

 •food near here {Cal. Papal Leiuri, [1, 

 34.9 ; Index n Load. Gas, 1830-83, 

 pp. 825-6). 



17 Siu. R. (Hcrti. Co. Rcc), i, 183. 



W Urwick, Nonoiforniry m HcrU. 640 ( 

 Cal. S. P, Dam, 1672, p. 192, 



