A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Walk ' leads to the rectory and Sherrard's Park Wood. 

 In the east of the parish, on the main road from 

 Welwyn to Hertford, is the hamlet of Digswell Water, 

 now recognized as the village of Digswell, though 

 some way from the church. It was probably here 

 that the market was held. The Great Northern 

 railway passes through the p.irish, crossing the valley 

 of the Mimram by a viaduct. The nearest station 

 is Welwyn, half a mile north-east. The subsoil is 

 chalk in the north, and London Clay and Reading 

 and Woolwich beds in the south. There are two 

 disused chalk-pits in Digswell Part, another near 

 Digswell Lodge Farm, and a fourth in the north-east. 

 A large gravel-pit is still worked south of Digswell 

 Water, and there are several disused ones further 

 down the road. 



The following place-names occur in the middle 

 of the 17th century: the Malmes, Dockclose, the 

 Scrubbs, Cowmead, Henley hill, Conduck hill, Tyle- 

 kill field, Piggott hill, Eitoll hill, and Hatches wood.'" 

 Before the Conquest DIGSWELL 

 MANOR formed pan of the lands of Asgar the 

 Staller, and was subsequently granted to 

 Geoffrey de Mandeville, being then assessed at 2 hides. 2 

 One hide, which had been held by Topi, a man of 

 Almar, presumably jtlmar of Benington, was in 

 1086 in the possession of Peter dc Valognes. 8 This 

 hide, which was held by a certain Roger, probably 

 became absorbed in the manor, as it is not heard of 

 again ; half the multure of one of the two mills at 

 Digswell belonged to this estate in io86. 1 



The lands of Geoffrey de Mandeville descended 

 to his grandson Geoffrey, first Earl of Essex, 1 and 

 remaining with the holders of that earldom 6 came to 

 Maud the heiress of the Mandevilles, who married 

 Henry de Bohun Earl of Hereford and died in 1236 7 

 The Earls of Hereford and Essex continued to hold 

 Digswell* until their lands wen 

 daughters of Eleanor, daughter 

 de llohun, and King Henry V, 

 sister Mary. s Digswell thus ca 

 of the Crown, and was th< 

 king, of the duchy of Lancaster, 



vided between the 

 co-heir of Henry 

 10 represented her 

 ame into the possession 

 ;cforward held of the 

 , s of his manor of 

 Hertford by fealty and the rent of 6'/. or one pound 

 of pepper, to be paid yearly at Christmas. 10 



In the time of Edward the Confessor and in 

 1086 the sub-tenant of Digswell was Torchil " ; he 

 was one of the Domesday jurors for Broadwater 

 Hundred, 1S but nothing is known of his descendants. 

 Between 1167 and 1 189 the manor was granted by 



William de Mandeville to William son of Benedict 

 of London, 13 who seems to have been also known 

 as William de St. Michael. 1 * In naj Laurence de 

 St. Michael, son and heir of William de St. Michael, 

 did homage for lands in Nottingham, 1 * and in 1248 

 this Laurence is called son of William son of 

 Benedict. 18 Laurence died some time previous to 

 1268, for in that year his widow Ada complained that 

 malefactors had lately come to her manor of Digswell 

 and taken her goods and chattels to the value of 

 100 marks and more. 17 The manor passed before 

 1274. to another Laurence de St. Michael, 18 presum- 

 ably her son, who died about 1283, leaving a son 

 Laurence Ul and a widow Margaret. 20 This Laurence 

 obtained a licence in 1285 to stop a path throngh 

 his wood of Slirigge, leading from Digswell to Bishop's 

 Hatfield {where he held the manor of Lndwick), on 

 condition that he made another path on the east side 

 of the wood.- 1 In 1 291-2 he closed a path running 

 through the middle of ' Chirchegrave,' and made 

 another which, he averred, would be much more 

 useful. 22 



The manor was shortly afterwards acquired by 

 William de Melksop, who received a grant of free 

 warren in his lands in Digswell in 1 301-2. M These 

 lands were probably not the manor, for the lattet 

 was not conveyed to him by Laurence deSt. Michael 

 until 1305. 24 This William had been assessor for 

 a subsidy in Surrey in 1297"; in 129S he was 

 appointed attorney for two years to Stephen, Prior 

 of Holy Trinity, London. 26 In 1300 he and John 

 de la Leye were commissioned to survey the obstruc- 

 tions in the river leading from Ware to the Thames. 37 

 In 130+ William de Melksop was keeper of the 

 manor of Clopton, formerly part of the possesions 

 of Edmund Earl of Cornwall, 28 and about the same 

 time he bought from the executors of the same 

 Edmund the custody of the lands of Hamo de Gatton, 

 which in 1305 he sold to John de Northwode. M 

 In 13 1 3 and again in 1315 he received licence to 

 go 'beyond seas' with Aymer de Valence. 30 He 

 died about 1317, having been for some time previous 

 to his death farmer of the king's castle and manor of 

 Hertford, where he had executed extensive repairs." 

 He had a son William, 32 who in 1318 received a 

 pardon for killing William de Ponton at a tournament 

 at Luton. 33 Henry de Melksop is mentioned as of 

 Digswell in 1323, 34 but apparently the manor was 

 alienated soon afterwards, for by 1 346 36 it had come 

 into the possession of William de Ludwick, 36 from 



±H*r, 



196 1 CI01 



