ODSEY HUNDRED 



fixed to the pulpit is a 1 7th-century wrought-iron 

 hour-glass stand. There are some i 5th-century bench 

 ends with poppy heads in the church and some plain 

 old seating. Some fragments of 15th-century glass 

 still exist in the nave windows, and in the church- 

 yard by the west wall of the church is an old stone 

 cofhn without a lid. 



The bell is dated 1718, but has no maker's mark. 

 The communion plate is a modem set presented by 

 the rector, the Rev. J. H. Carnegie, in 1873. 



The surviving registers are in two books : (i) 

 baptisms from i8oz to 1805, burials 1805 to 1808 ; 

 (ii) marriages 1 765 to 1 808. The earlier books 

 were accidentally destroyed by fire. 



The church was given to the 

 ADVOWSON monks of St. Albans by William de 

 Wedona and assigned with Monks' 

 Lands to the use of the kitchen. 95 The assignment 

 was confirmed by the pope in 1 2 1 8." No appropria- 

 tion took place, as however, and in izzo it was John 

 de Somery, lord of the manor, who presented a 



The right of John de Somery to the advowson is 

 not clear, but the successive lords of the manor sub- 

 sequently presented when the church became void, 



CALDECOTE 

 atinued with them 



;tor of By grave shows the 



mtry. John Legat, rector, 



t to the house of John 



vith his 

 ind killed 

 1 the high- 



and the patronage of the church c 

 until 1 90 1, when the parish was 

 Baldock." 10 



The case of an early r 

 lawless condition of the El 

 it was presented in 1 3 8 1 , 

 de Waldcn, probably a relative of Sir 

 Walden, for a time lord of the manor, 

 chaplain William Huberd and others beat a 

 John de Walden and threw his body i 



In 1608 George Coke, brother of Sir John Coke, 

 ' using but his purse and labours,' became rector of 

 Bygravc. 101 While parson there he purchased a little 

 land at Baldock ' upon twenty-six years' frugality ' m ; 

 but Archbishop Laud blamed him for leaving the 

 parsonage 'stark nought and unfit for any man's 

 habitation ' 1M when he was consecrated Bishop of 

 Bristol 10 February 1632-3. 



Another notable incumbent was John Savage, the 

 historian, who held the living from 1701 to 1708, 

 when he resigned it for the more valuable benefice of 

 Clothall."" 



There are no schools or endowed charities at 

 Bygrave. 



CALDECOTE 



Caldecota (xi cent.) ; Caldecote and Chaldecote 

 (xiv cent.) ; Calcott or Caldecott (xvi-xvii cent.). 



The parish of Caldecote, which is only 325 acres 

 in extent, forms part of the plain in the north-west of 

 the county. The highest part of the parish is in 

 the south, where the land is some 190 ft. above the 

 ordnance datum, but from here the ground has a 

 gradual slope downwards to the north-west to a level 

 of 157 ft. near the bed of the Cat Ditch, a small 

 stream which forms part of the south-western boundary 

 of the parish. The low ground about this stream is 

 probably that referred to in a charter of 1671 as 

 ' Caldecott Marish.' ' The manor-house with a few 

 farm buildings lies in the south-west of the parish 

 near the church. These are 

 importance in the parish. N< 

 ever to have been of much gt 

 it was said that Caldt 



the only buildings of 

 does the village appear 

 ter extent, for in 14.28 

 paid no subsidy because 

 householders,' and In the 1 7th 



century the population was formed of six familii 

 But, small though this village probably was in the 

 14th century, it took its share in the peasant revolt 

 and aided in extorting a charter of liberties from the 

 Abbot and convent of St. Albans. 1 There are no 

 main roads within the parish, but the Great North 

 Road running at a distance of about three-quarters of 

 a mile from the village gives easy communication with 

 the station of Baldock on the Cambridge branch of 



14th century it appears that the 



cultivated on the two-field svstem. s A 14th-century 



place-name is ' Eldefeldbrade.' s 



In 1274-5 ' { was sai 3 tllat the vil1 of Caldecote 

 had been accustomed to pay 4J. yearly to the sheriff, 

 but that this payment ceased' about the time of the 

 siege of the castle of Bedford (June 1224), though 



Before the Conquest Caldecote was 

 MANOR held by Lemar, a man of Archbishop 

 Stigand, and he had the power to sell. 

 In 1086, at the time of the Domesday Survey, it was 

 part of the Hertfordshire estate owned by Ralph de 

 Limesi, who held the manor in demesne. 8 From 

 Ralph it presumably descended to Alan his son and 

 heir, who was succeeded by his son Gerard. This 

 Gerard owed scutage for lands in Hertfordshire about 

 n6o.'° His heir was his elder son John." The 

 heirs of John de Limesi were his sisters Basilia wife 

 of Hugh Oddingselles and Eleanor wife of David 

 Lindsay." In 121 3 the former had livery of a 

 moiety of the Limesi inheritance in Hertfordshire 

 and elsewhere. 13 Apparently the manor ofCaldecote 



30 Dugdale, Mot:, ii, lit). 



58 Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 37. 

 ss See the list of patrons given by 

 ^ussans, Hist, of Hern. Oduy Hund. 53. 

 WO Under Loc. Act, 60-1 Vict. cap. 



' Add. Chiirt. 35409. 



1 Fetal. Aids, ii, 454, 458. 



3 Hertt. Gin. and Antiy. i, 22. 



1 Walsingham, Gisia Abba!. (Rolh 



Sc;.),ii 



33°- 



•■ 337,' 



a Ibid. App. i 

 M Ibid. 198. 



3 



Kii, App. iii, 



U Nat. Biog. 



Agric. (190;). 



5 Walsingham, op. cit. ill, 94-5. 



6 Lansd. MS. 404, fill. 46. 



7 i.e. it was probably appropriated by the 

 lord of the manor. 



a Ilund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 194. 

 9 V.C.H. Hurts, i, 325*. 



217 



1,1 Rid Bk. of ExcL (Rolls Ser.), 29, 

 693- 



11 Dugdale, Man. iii, ;oo-i ; Stacey 

 Grimaldi, Rot. di Domwabiu, 27. 



13 Excirpta e Rot. fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 81, 3Z3; Rot. de Oblatis it Fin. (Rec. 

 Com.), 507 ; cf. tie account of Pirton. 

 The younger brother Alan (Dugdale, 

 loc. cit.) evidently died without issue 

 before John. 



13 Rot. de Obiath et Fin. (Rec. Com.), 



507. 



28 



