BROADWATER HUNDRED 



5 hides. In the time of Edward the Confessor 

 2 hides and 3 virgates were held by Alward, a man 

 of Alestan of Boscombe," and half a hide by Samar, 

 a man of Alnod. 5 ' A hide and 3 virgates also in 

 Boxe belonged to Benington." By 1086 Alward's 

 zf hides had been acquired by William de Ow, and 

 were held of him by Peter de Valognes," who had 

 gained possession of the Benington portion," and 

 Samar's half-hide was held by Osbern of the Bishop 

 of Bayeux." These holdings may have become 

 amalgamated, for the only manor of which later there 

 is any evidence descended in the family of Valognes 

 with their principal manor of Benington. 59 It was 

 held as half a knight's fee. 



The first sub-tenant of Boxbury to be mentioned 

 is William de Boxe, who held one knight's fee in Hert- 

 fordshire of Robert de Valognes in 11 66.*° Almaric 

 de Boxe was holding land in Walkern in 1 zoo," and 

 his son William sued Richard de Boxe for a tene- 

 ment in Stevenage in 1229.*" Richard de Boxe 

 obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands of 

 Boxe in 1 2 g 3 . M He appears to have been succeeded by 

 a John le Sarmonner or Sum- 

 moner (see Boxe's manor of 

 Hoddesdon in Hertford Hun- 

 dred). The heirs of this John 

 were assessed for Boxe in 1 303. 6 * 

 These heirs seem to have been 

 Thomas de Langton and Richard 

 de St. Edmund (probably sons 

 of his daughters)." Richard de 

 St. Edmund apparently left an 

 heiress Margery, who married 

 Ralphde Foxton (see Hoddesdon), 

 and in 1 346 Margery de Foxton, 

 with John de Broxbourne, 

 Thomas Ty and John de Blom- 

 vile, was assessed for the half-fee 

 in Boxe. 60 



After this date the history of 

 this manor is for a long time 

 obscure. It reappears as the 

 manor of Boxbury in i;zi, in 

 which year John Norreys died 

 seised of the manor, which was 

 settled on himself and his wife Katherine. 07 His son 

 John, who succeeded him, sold Boxbury in 1526 to 

 Philip Boteler,** in whose family it descended in the 

 same manner as Watton Woodhall " (q.v.) until the 

 death of Robert Boteler in 1622.™ Boxbury then 

 came to his daughter Jane, who married John Lord 

 Belasyse" and sold the manor some time after 1638 

 to Sir John Gore of Sacombe.' 1 The latter con- 

 veyed it in 1 68 1 to Thomas Ashby," who was still 

 holding it in 17Z7." Subsequently it came into the 



possession of William Hale of K ; * 



was lord of the manor in 177] 

 family it descended.' 6 



53 y.CH, Hera, i, 327*. 



" Ibid. 303a. is Ibid. %%db, 



x Ibid. jzyi. 



a Ibid. 336*. 



"Ibid. 309". 



M Rid Bk. Exch. (Roils Ser.), i, 361 ; 

 Pkc. de Qm IVarr, (Rec. Com.), 281 ; 

 Fmd. Aids, ii, 430, 436 : Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 (Ser. 2}, xxxviii, 34. 



80 Red Bi. ExcA. (Roll. Ser.), i, 361. 



» Sot. Cur. fcg. (Rec. Com.), il, 275. 



6! Cal. Pat. 1225-32, p. 309. 



WALKERN' 



Christiana de Valognes and her descendants claimed 

 in Boxe the same privileges which they held in their 

 main manor of Benington " (q.v.). 



LANGTONS, a manor of which scanty records 

 remain, was probably that part of Boxe which 

 descended to the second heir of John le Sarmonner, 

 Thomas de Langton (cf. Langtons in Hoddesdon). 

 Later it came into the same hands as Boxbury. John 

 Norreys died seised of it in 1521,™ and it apparently 

 came with that manor to Philip Boteler in 1526, for 

 Sir John Boteler was holding it in 1 562." It probably 

 became merged with Boxbury. 



The church of ST. MART THE 

 CHURCH VIRGIN stands to the north-east of 

 the village on the east bank of the River 

 Jieane. It is built of flint rubble with dressings of 

 Barnack stone and clunch, and consists of a chancel, 

 nave and aisles, west tower, south porch and modern 

 north and south chapels. 80 



The original church consisted probably of a chancel 

 and nave. The former has been wholly rebuilt, and 

 the earliest part of the existing church is the nave, 



Walden, who 

 whose 



Rook's Nest, Walkern, from the South-west 



which dates from the nth century anc 

 part of the pre-Conquest church, as the walls are only 

 2 ft. 3 in. thick, and over the position of the former 

 south door is a piece of sculpture of pre-Conquest 

 date described in detail below. The south aisle was 

 added early in the 12th century. In the following 

 century the chancel was rebuilt and the north aisle 

 added. The tower was built in the middle of the 

 14th century. In the early part of the I5thcentury 

 the south porch was added, and at the end of the 

 same century new windows were inserted in both 

 aisles, while early in the 1 6th century the clearstory 

 was built. The north and south chapels were added 



