ODSEY HUNDRED 



borough, began rebuilding Broadfield Hall. But at 

 the time of his death in 1689 the building was still 

 unfinished. 38 He had a large family, but all his 

 children died during their father's lifetime. His 

 sons had no children, but his daughter Margaret, 

 who married John Forrester, citizen of London, 

 left one son James, who succeeded his grandfather.' 1 " 

 James Forrester married Martha daughter of Sir 

 Henry Chauncy, kt., and died in 1696, when his 

 young son Pulter became lord of the manor." 

 Pulter Forrester appears to have been concerned with 

 the fashionable bands of rioters who called themselves 

 the 'Mohocks' and the 'Hawkubites,' and rendered 

 the streets of London dangerous for the ordinary 

 traveller. In 1711 he was one of the sureties fur 

 Lord Hinchinbrooke's appearance at the quarter 

 sessions to answer for assaulting the watchman and 

 causing a riot in Essex Street in the early hours 

 of the morning. 43 Pulter Forrester married Agnes 

 daughter of William Harvey of Chigwell, Essex, 

 and died in 1753. 43 His son William succeeded 

 him" He had no children, and on his death he 

 left the manor of Broadfield to his wife's niece, 

 Millicent daughter of Wrightson Mundy ofMarkeaton 

 Park, co. Derby, with remainder to her eldest son on 

 condition that he should take the name of Forrester. ,b 

 She married Richard French, captain in the Royal 

 Horse Guards, and on her death the manor passed to 

 her eldest son Richard Forrester French of Abbot's 

 Hill, co. Derby. 16 He suffered a recovery in 1793, 47 

 and continued to hold until his death in 1 8 + 3« He 

 left no children, and in 1852 his executors sold the 

 manor of Broadfield to Mr. Robert Bird Wilkins, 

 timber merchant, of Ware. 49 He died in 1868, 



md the : 





:d to his 



Robert Usborn 



Wilkins, 50 who devised it to Mr. Nathan Humphrey. 

 He died in 1906, 61 leaving the manor to his two 

 daughters, Mrs. H. W. Smith of Ware and Mrs. 



H. E. Dudley of Stanatcd, co. Esi 



who t 



■ hold 



The land which Robert Bishop of Chester held in 

 Broadfield in 1086 consisted only of 1 virgate. 53 

 There is no record to show how this land descended, 

 but it appears that like the other lands which Robert 

 held in this county it passed to the Somerys. 64 It 

 is probable that this land was appurtenant to the 

 manor of Bygrave (q.V.)., for in the reign of Edward I 

 John de Wcnghani, Precentor of St. Paul's, who held 

 a lease of that manor from the Somerys, also held a park 

 in Broadfield, which in 1797 was broken into. f,s John de 

 Wengham's holding in Broadfield was described as a 

 quarter of a knight's fee in 1303. M In 1346 it had 

 descended to his nephew M.isterThomasdeWcngh.im, 57 

 but after this date there is no further record of it. 



Broadfield Church was a chapel 

 CHURCH AND of ease, 69 apparently dependent on 

 ADFOff'SON the church of Rushdcn. In 1222 



William Basset, lord of the manor 

 of Rushden, quitclaimed all right in the church of 

 Broadfield to Ralph son of Fulk, lord of Broadfield. 69 

 The advowson has always passed with the manor. 60 It 

 is not known at what date the church fell into disuse, 

 but as no inventory was made for it in I 553 it seems 

 that by this date the church was no longer used for 

 religious services. The rectory was valued at I os. only 

 in 1 535- 61 The advowson was still included in the 

 sale of the manor until the year 1 5 So." 2 Norden, in 

 his description of Hertfordshire in 1598, states that 

 Broadfield had once had a chapel of ease which at 

 that time was decayed. 03 The site of the church is 

 supposed to have been in Chapel Wood in the centre 

 of the parish, and certain irregularities in the ground 

 may point to the former existence of a building here. 64 

 By the 18th century Broadfield had become ecclesias- 

 tically attached to Cottered, 65 and still remains so. 

 There are no endowed charities. 



BYGRAVE 



Biggrafan (x cent.); Bigrave (si-xvii cent.). 



The small compact parish of Bygrave, containing 

 1,793 acres, lies below the northern slope of the 

 Hertfordshire chalk hills in the angle formed by the 

 Icknield Way and the North Road through Barnet, 

 which meet in the adjacent town of Baldock. On 

 the north and east the boundary is formed by a road 

 known as the Green Lane. The ecclesiastical parish 

 was amalgamated with Baldock in 1901, 1 but Bygrave 

 is still a distinct civil parish. 



This parish is still uninclosed, and forms perhaps one 

 of the most interesting examples in this country of a 

 concentric mediaeval village of the Teutonic type of 

 settlement. Although the lands are now all held by 



two or three farmers and the village community has 



been lost, the mediaeval arrangements are still clearly 



marked. The village is in the middle of the parish on 



high land. Like other early Teutonic settlements 



in this country it lies off the main road, about a mile 



and a half from the Roman road to the west and half 



a mile from the Icknield Way on the south. It is 



approached by roads or drifts uninclosed by hedges 



across the open fields from both these main roads, and 



by an inclosed road from Ashwell. The church stands 



in the highest part of the village, 314 ft. above the 



ordnance datum. Adjoining the churchyard on the 



south side is the site of the old fortified manor-house,' 



surrounded by a scries of moats which, from indication's 



w Clutterbuck, loc. tit. 



,a Ibid. 



47 Rccov. R. Trin. 53 Geo, III, 1 



