ODSEY HUNDRED 



' Hainstone.' 10 Royston, not specifically mentioned in 1086, was only 

 partly in Therfield ; the nucleus of the town lay within the parish of 

 Barkway in Edwinstree Hundred, or across the Cambridgeshire borders in 

 Arningford Hundred. 11 



The inclusion of certain manors within ecclesiastical liberties greatly 

 reduced the royal jurisdiction in this hundred. Before 1278 the tenants 

 of the Abbot of Westminster at Ashwell, of the Bishop of Ely at Kelshall, of 

 the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's at Ardeley and Sandon, of the Abbot of 

 Ramsey at Therfield, and those of the Prior of Royston and the Knights 

 Templars had withdrawn their suit and aid from the hundred in accordance with 

 royal charters granted to their respective lords. 13 In 1275 it was stated that 

 Caldecote had not rendered aid since the siege of Bedford Castle (June 1224.). 13 

 The men of West Reed in Therfield had also withdrawn from the sheriffs' 

 tourns ; the aid due from the holding formerly of Theobald ' de Mora' in 

 Wallington had been withheld for sixteen years by the bailiff of the honour 

 of Richmond ; and Richard de Ewell had withdrawn the aid for ' Blayneham ' 

 in Ashwell. 1 * Nevertheless, the farm of the hundred had recently increased 

 from iooj. to £i2. 1B 



Odsey Hundred was vested in the Crown until the beginning of the 

 17th century, and was farmed out together with the neighbouring hundred 

 of Edwinstree. 16 Thus about 13 14 Edmund de Ayete received a grant of 

 the bailiwick of these two hundreds during the king's pleasure. 17 In March 

 1612—13 the hundred was alienated to William Whitmore, esquire, and 

 Jonas Verdon, gentleman, and to their heirs in perpetuity. 18 They sold within 

 a few days to Sir Julius Adelmare, otherwise Caesar, kt., then chancellor and 

 under-treasurer of the Exchequer. 19 He granted the hundred in 1633 to his 

 son Sir John Adelmare, otherwise Caesar, kt., whose son John sold it in 

 March 1662-3 t0 Arthur Earl of Essex. 20 The hundred has thenceforward 

 remained with the successive Earls of Essex. 51 



The meeting-place for the hundred court is unknown. The name Odsey 

 survives in Odsey Grange and manor in the parish of Guilden Morden, 

 co. Cambs. The Grange now lies without the county boundary, but in the 

 first half of the 16th century the lands of the manor extended into Hertford- 

 shire, and Speed's map of the county published in 1 6 1 1 shows Odsey Grange 

 within the county boundary and in the hundred of Odsey. 22 The Grange was 

 the property of the Abbot of Warden, 28 who withdrew from the hundred of 

 Odsey the suit and service of his lands and tenements in that hundred. 3 * 



10 V.C.H. Herts, i, 325. 



11 See the account of Royston ; cf. Pop. Ret. 1 83 I ; Pari. Papers, 1895, iv, 543. 

 " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 193 ; Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 276, 291. 



13 Hund. R. toe cit. ; cf. V.C.H. Beds, ii, 28. 



" Hund. R. loc. cit. ls Assize R. 323, m. 45. 



15 Hund. R. be cit. ; cf. Cal. Pat. 1321-4, p. 61. 



" Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), i, zoz. la Pat. 10 Jas. I, pt. xxi, no. 7. 



" Chart, penes Earl of Essex quoted by Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 28. 



10 Ibid. ; cf. Recov. R. East. 15 Chas. II, m. 135. 



11 Ch.auncy, loc. cit. ; Recov. R. East. 39 Geo. Ill, m. 33 ; Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Odsey Hund. 5. 

 " L.andP. Hen. Fill, xviii (2), g. 327 (19) ; Speed, Theatre 0/ Great Britain (ed. 1676), 39. 



13 Dugdale, Man. v, 375. 



u Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 276. 



