HITCHIN HUNDRED 



The advowson of the church of 

 ADFOfVSON St. Peter and St. Paul of Kimpton 

 was granted, probably by one of the 

 Says, to the priory of Austin Canons of Merton, 

 in Surrey.* 13 A vicarage was ordained there previous 

 to iaoi, 94 and between 1363 and 1397 the vicar 

 and Prior of Hertford (who had a grant of tithes of 

 pannage from Ralph de Limesi, see above) arranged 

 an allotment of tithes. fls In February 154.2-3 the 

 king granted the advowson to John Williams and 

 Anthony Stringer, 96 who alienated in the same year to 

 Nicholas Bacon and Henry Ashfelde." Nicholas 

 Bacon conveyed the property in 1543 to Nicholas 

 Bristowe, 39 who died in 1 584, leaving as heir his son 

 Nicholas." Five years later the advowson was granted 

 to Richard Branthwayte and Roger Bromley, 100 who 

 were possibly acting as trustees or were merely ' fishing 

 grantees.' Nicholas son of the above Nicholas came 

 into possession at his father's death. 101 He was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Nicholas, 103 who held the property 

 until 1634, when he died, leaving to his daughters 

 Elizabeth and Anne a twenty-one years' interest in 

 the estate, which was to revert at the end of that 

 time to their uncle Robert Bristowe. 103 In 1663 

 Robert Bristowe and his son Nicholas conveyed the 

 advowson to Sir Jonathan Keate, bart., 104 and it 

 then descended with the manor of Kimpton los to 

 Viscount Hampden, the present patron. 



In the 15th century Edmund atte Hoo left in his 

 will a bequest to the fabric of the church of Kimpton. 106 



A letter has been preserved, written by the Prior of 

 Merton to the Bishop of Lincoln, asking permission 

 for the construction of a private oratory without a 

 bell-tower. The request was apparently made on 

 behalf of Lady Ellen, formerly wife of Robert 

 de Vere. The chapel was to be used by her 

 household and guests alone, and the chaplain was to 



KING'S WALDEN 



make amends to the vicar of the mother church of 

 Kimpton if he gave the sacrament ; while the vicar 

 could suspend the celebration if the mother church 

 suffered by it. 107 



The rectory was granted by the king in 1543 to 

 Nicholas Bristowe and Lucy his wife for their lives. 108 

 In 1 567 it was regranted to Nicholas Bristowe, their 

 son, on lease for twenty-one years. 106 A grant to 

 Richard Branthwayte and Roger Bromley in 1 589 uo 

 was probably in trust for Richard Spencer, 111 whose 

 son Sir John Spencer of OfRey, bart. (so created in 

 1627), died seised in 1633 under a settlement made 

 by his father. 112 At Sir John's death the rectory 

 passed to his brother Brockett Spencer, 113 and after- 

 wards descended in the family of Salusbury 1M with 

 the manor of St. Ledgers in Offley (q.v.). 



There is a Wesleyan chapel in Kimpton. 



William Barford, D.D., Preben- 

 CfURlTIES dary of Canterbury, Fellow of Eton, 

 and vicar of this parish, by his will 

 proved in the P.C.C. 31 January 1793 bequeathed 

 20s. yearly for the poor. The legacy is now repre- 

 sented by £3 3 6s. $d. consols with the official trustees, 

 and the annual dividends amounting to 16;. 8</. are 

 distributed equally among eight poor persons. 



John Bassill by his will, proved in the P.C.C. 

 I February 1816, gave ^120 stock, the dividends, 

 subject to keeping in repair the testator's vault, to 

 be applied every three years as to one-third for 

 dinner to the resident clergyman, one-third among 

 six poor families, and remaining one-third in prize 

 money for games among young people, first deduct- 

 ing 40J. for a dinner for the church ringers and parish 

 clerk. 



The legacy is now represented by £192 os. 5^. 

 consols with the official trustees, producing £4 16/. 



KING'S WALDEN 



King's Wal den is a parish 4,392 acres in extent, 

 lying on a spur of the Chilterns at a height of some 

 450 ft. above the ordnance datum. The surface of the 

 land is slightly undulating, the subsoil chalk, 1 on which 

 corn is largely grown. Arable land covers 2,755 

 acres, while the grass land extends over only about 

 one-quarter of this area, and the woodland 137 acres. 2 

 The original settlement seems to have been of the 

 Saxon type, having the church of St. Mary adjoining 

 the manor-house of King's Waldenbury and the 

 village near, the whole being off the road, as is usual 

 in this type of settlement. At a later date the in- 

 habitants migrated to the road, where the market 

 would naturally be held, and eventually deserted 



the original settlement. Thus the village became 

 established where we find it to-day, nearly a mile from 

 the church and manor-house. It is uncertain when 

 a market was first granted, possibly in the 13th cen- 

 tury, when so many grants of market were made, but 

 in 1795 a market was held here on Saturdays. 3 The 

 village consists of two irregular lines of cottages. 



Scattered over the parish are many farm-houses and 

 cottages, and there are three small hamlets, Wandon 

 End 4 and Wandon Green on the western and 

 southern borders of the parish, and Ley Green s to the 

 north of King's Waldenbury Park. The Inclosure 

 Act is dated 1 796—7,* and the common was inclosed 

 by an award of 1802. 7 



phew Thomas. See G.E.C. Baronetage 



69 ; ii, 10. 



"* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dxii, 4. 



118 Recov. R. Mich. 15 Chas. I, rot. 56. 



114 Ibid. 45 Geo. Ill, rot. 17. 



1 V.C.H. Hcrti. i, Geol. map. 



* Statistics from BH. of Agric. (1905). 



3 Verulam MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i s 



9- 



' V.C.B. Hern, i, 303a. 



5 Ibid. 304*. 



« Local Acts, 1 Geo. I-37 Geo. III. 



1 Blue Bk. Intl. A-wardt. 



