BROADWATER HUNDRED 



The chapel of ease at Hatfield Hyde was erected 

 in i88z, also by the Marquess of Salisbury. 



The advowson of the church of 

 jiDFOff^ON St. Etheldreda at Hatfield 6 belonged 

 from the earliest times to the Abbots 

 and Bishops of Ely, 7 and remained in their hands 

 until it was conveyed with the manor to King 

 Henry VIII in 1538. 8 The church was never 

 appropriated, and the living has always been a rectory. 

 It remained in the hands of the sovereign until 1 549, 

 when it was granted to the Earl of Warwick. 9 It 

 must have been conveyed with the manor to 

 Elizabeth, for she granted it in free socage to 

 Thomas Poyner and William Wolriche in 1563, 10 

 from whom it is said to have been purchased in the 

 same year by Richard Onslow. 11 About 1570 the 

 ' latter gave the rectory as a lay estate to his brother, 

 for his own and his wife's life. 12 Richard Onslow 

 was Speaker of the House of Commons and Solicitor- 

 General in 1566. 13 In 1574. the advowson was 

 held by Fulk Onslow, 1 * and in 1604 by Edward 

 Onslow, 16 who in that year conveyed it to Goddard 

 Pemberton. 16 The latter is said to have sold it to the 

 Earl of Salisbury in 1607 17 ; it was certainly in the 

 hands of the second earl, 18 and has remained in 

 the possession of the same family since. 19 In 153+ 

 a survey of the parsonage was made by command of 

 Thomas Cromwell for purposes of repair. It then 

 consisted of a hall and parlour with chambers over, 

 an entry between the hall and kitchen, a kitchen, 

 bake-house, malt-house, oat barn, ox-house, sheep- 

 house, cart-house and hen-house,- so it must have 

 been a considerable establishment. 



In 1307 the parson of Hatfield was granted free 

 warren in the lands belonging to the church. 21 



In 1538 there was a church-house called the 

 * common church- house,' which was used for bridal 

 feasts, and was let at other times to provide funds for 

 its maintenance. 22 



The advowson of St. John's, Lemsford, belongs to 

 Countess Cowper, that of St. Mary, Newgate Street, 

 to Mr. Joseph Trueman Mills of Leighton Buzzard. 



KNEBWORTH 



Various meeting-places for Protestant Dissenters 

 were certified in Hatfield from 1694. onwards. 32j 

 There is a Union chapel in Park Street, built in 

 1823, and a Wesleyan chapel. The Roman Catholic 

 Church of the Blessed Sacrament was completed in 

 1910. 



In 1678 Sir Francis Boteler and 

 CHARITIES Dame Elizabeth Boteler his wife by 

 deed conveyed to trustees a messuage 

 and farm called Clarke's Farm, situate at Ludwick in 

 this parish, the rents and profits thereof to be applied 

 for such purposes as the said Dame Elizabeth Boteler 

 should direct. The said Dame Elizabeth by her will, 

 dated in 1 68 1, directed that the objects of the bounty 

 should be five widows, four to be chosen from the 

 inhabitants of Bishop's Hatfield and one an inhabitant 

 of the parish of Tewin. The trust property now 

 consists of £2,397 4*. id. consols held by the official 

 trustees, arising from sales of land and accumulations 

 of income, and producing £59 18*. 4^. yearly. 



In 1667 Thomas Tooke by deed charged his 

 manor of Wormley with an annuity of £$ to be 

 distributed on St. Thomas's Day to the six poorest and 

 most aged men and women, and in 1720 Mrs. Julia 

 Shallcross by a codicil to her will directed £9 a year to 

 be paid out of her estate of Hatfield Woodhall to 

 three widows of the parish for ever. It appears that 

 the payment of these charges is now in abeyance. 



Edward Smith's charity, being an annual charge of 

 £z, is received (less tax) from the agent of Earl 

 Cowper, the owner of Place Farm, which lies in the 

 parishes of Wheathampstead 23 and Sandridge. 



In 1733 Ann Countess of Salisbury by deed gave 

 a fee-farm rent of £50 (subject to deduction of_£io 

 for land tax) towards clothing and teaching twenty 

 girls. The fee-farm rent is understood to be vested 

 in the Corporation of Southampton, and is duly paid. 

 In 1 807 Mrs. Mary Ross by her will, proved in the 

 P.C.C. I a March, charged certain land and heredita- 

 ments at Bather Dell with an annuity of £3 to be 

 applied on St. Thomas's Day in clothing for six old 

 and poor widows. 



KNEBWORTH 



Chenepeworde (xi cent.) ; Cnebbeworth, Knebbes- 

 wrth (xiii cent.) ; Knybbeworth (xiv cent.) ; Knecb- 

 worth, Knebbeworth. 



The parish of Knebworth has an area of 2,677 acreE - 

 The north-eastern part is over 400 ft, above the 

 ordnance datum, and rises to a height of 461 ft. 

 From this point the ground slopes downwards to the 

 south and more gradually to the east ; south of the 

 village it rises again to 426 ft. The greater part of 

 the parish is arable land, which covers 1,284 acres ! 

 661J acres are permanent grass and 277 acres are 

 wood. 1 The main road from Hitchin to London passes 

 through the centre of the parish. A road turns off 



from it to the west and forks, one branch going north 

 to St. Paul's Walden and the other south past Three 

 Houses. Another road turns east from the Hitchin 

 road, runs along the south of Knebworth Park and 

 turns north, forming its eastern border. The village 

 is situated on this road on the opposite side from 



Knebworth House is a building of two stories, and 

 the whole of the external detail is of a florid late 

 Gothic type, executed in stucco during the early part 

 of the 19th century. The original 16th-century 

 house inclosed a courtyard, but in 181 1 the north, 

 south and east sides were pulled down, and the west 



« P.C.C. 1 Wattys i 36 Benne! 



» Cat. Pal. ilajwji, p. 234 

 MSS. Claud. C «i. 



'Close, 30 Hen. VIII, pt. i, « 



9 Deeds of purchase and Bl 

 9 6. 



>•> Pat. 5 Eliz. pt. 11, m. 30. 



11 Clutterbuck, op. cit. ii, 361, 



;S Hut. MSS. Com. Rep. i 



" Feet of F. Herts. Easf 

 1S Ibid. Trin. 7. Jas. I. 



19 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 

 » L. and P. Hen. VIII, 1 

 - 1 Chart. R. 3; Edw. I, 



