HITCHIN HUNDRED 



to trustees 2 a. 2 r. in the parish of Studham in the 

 county of Bedford, the rents thereof to be applied — 

 subject to the payment of Jj. to the poor of Studham — 

 for the benefit of the most necessitous and distressed 

 poor of King's Walden. The land is let at £3 a year. 



LILLEY 

 dcr 



These charities are administered togethi 

 the provisions of a scheme of the Charity Commis- 

 sioners, 2nd September 1898. 



In [910 the sum of £6 7/. 6d. was distributed in 

 money to forty-six recipients, chiefly widows. 



LILLEY 



Linlei (xi 

 (xiii cent.) ; 

 Lynley (xv ci 

 Lilley (xvii c 



Lilley is ; 



t.) ; Linlea, Linlega, Linlegh, Linlee 



; Lynleye, Lyngeleye (xiv cent.) ; Lylly, 



:nt.) ; Lyndley alias Lylle (xvi cent.) ; 



t small parish of 1,795 acres on the 

 1 border of Hertfordshire, adjoining the county 

 of Bedford. The parish lies on the Chikems on a 

 slightly inclined plane rising from about 400 ft. above 

 the ordnance datum in the south to 602 ft. at 

 Telegraph Hill in the north. There is a small detached 

 portion of Lilley to the south of the main part of the 

 parish and entirely surrounded by the parish of Offley. 

 The land is now, as at the time of the Domesday 



Survey, chiefly arable, the 

 1905 there were 1,062 acr 

 acres of permanent grass, a 

 there are a good many tre 

 parish. 



The village lies i 



chalk. 1 



arable land, 201 



• woodland,** but 



ottered about the 



.th of the 



ish, ; 



including a few outlying cottages in the north, extends 

 about a mile along a branch road here called Lilley 

 Street running north-west from the Luton and Hitchin 

 highway to the Icknield Way, which forms part of 

 the parish boundary in the north. The church of 

 St. Peter lies on the west side of the road, and Lilley 



Park is on the 1 

 was inclosed by 

 large open 

 the village. 



side of the village. The pari! 

 Act of 1768, 3 but there is still 

 called Lilley Hoo 4 to the east 



le time of Edward the Confessor 

 MANOR the manor of LILLET was held of Earl 

 Harold by Leueva, and a sokeman, a man 

 of Harold's, held 3^ virgates of land in it for which 

 he rendered a carrying service (avera) in Hitchin or 3^0'. 

 By 1086 Lilley was in the possession of Geoffrey de 

 Bech. We learn also from the Survey that Ilbert as 

 sheriff attached to this manor the manor of Wellbury 

 in Offley. 6 At the beginning of the 13th century the 

 manor was in the tenure of William Malet of Gerard- 

 ville, who held it until the separation of England and 

 Normandy, when he remained in Normandy. 9 It 

 then escheated to King John, and was granted in 

 1204 to Matthew de Lilley. 7 A few years later it 

 was in the possession of Pain de Chaworth, 8 having 

 been granted to him to hold at the king's pleasure 

 by the service of one knight. 8 He was still holding 

 it in 1223, 10 but forfeited before 1227, when the 



mkfwm** 



manor with all liberties and customs was granted 

 to Richard de Argentein, to be held by him until 

 the king should restore the lands to the heir of 

 William Malet 'of his free 

 will or by a peace,' with the 

 proviso that in that event the 

 king should make to Richard . 

 a reasonable exchange in wards 

 or escheats. 11 In 1233 the 

 manor was restored to Pain 

 de Chaworth, with all goods 

 and chattels found by inquisi- 

 tion to have been on the 

 property when Richard en- 

 tered it. 12 



In or before 1238 the 

 custody of the manor was 

 granted to John Earl of Lin- 

 coln, who committed it with the king's consent to 

 his nephews Roger and Geoffrey de Pavilly 13 ; but 

 in 1 24.1 Roger, being called upon to prove his claim, 

 instead of evidencing the earl's grant as title, claimed 

 it by hereditary right through his grandmother 

 Theofania, William Malet's sister. She was said 

 to have held the manor by gift from Geoffrey, her 

 brother,' 1 and to have been disseised by Pain de 

 Chaworth, whom she had impleaded, the action 

 however having been stopped by her death. On 

 the king's side it was stated that William Malet 

 had been in seisin of the manor after Geoffrey's death, 

 and had forfeited as a Norman, and that Theofania 

 was not his heir because William had left children. 

 The king therefore took the manor as escheat. 15 In 

 1243 an extent of the manor was taken, 16 and it was 

 granted to Paul de Peyvre, 17 who held it by the service 

 of half a knight's fee. 13 In his time the manor is 

 said to have been withdrawn from the sheriff's tourn 

 and the hundred court. 13 



The manor descended to Paul de Peyvre's son John, 

 and to John son of John, who died in 1316. 20 The 

 manor was held for life by his widow Mary, on 

 whose death in 1333 Nicholas, her grandson (son of 

 Paul son of John), was the heir. 21 Nicholas con- 

 veyed it in 1359, two years before his death, to 

 Henry Green, 3 - Anne, apparently wife of Nicholas, 

 retaining a third part as dower. a3 Henry Green, 

 chivaler, died in 1369. The manor descended in 



'■' Ibid. : Chan 



. 9 Edw. II, 



![ Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Edw. Ill, r 



:t of F. Div. Co. East. 40 Edw. Ill, 



