A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



F"- ;i 



: the 



i the Rive 



Hunsdon House, ' 

 the earlier manor-hoi 

 Sir William Oldhall 

 the Duke of York 

 the manor, and 



th. 



ild within his 



of stones, with lime an 



ime.' 2 Oldhall is not 



possession until February 



i roads near to Hunsdon Mill, 

 Stort in the south of the parish, 

 vhich is possibly on the site of 

 se, is said to have been built by 

 in 1+47. In 14+7, however, 

 seems to have been holding 

 1 May of that year received 



■ of Hunsdon a 

 ind, and to embattle 



144.8. He may have 

 begun building directly after that date, but the 

 house was apparently unfinished in 1453, for 

 Oldhall having forfeited, a certain Walter Burgh, a 

 servant of the king, then received a grant of ' stones 

 called brick in Hunsdon and Eastwick late pertaining 

 to William Oldhall,' 3 which looks as if the latter had 

 been in the midst of building. The house seems to 

 have come into the possession of Henry VIII with 

 the manor before 1517, when he granted the custody 

 of it to Henry Xorris, squire of the body. 4 The 



merry since he came to this house, for there was none 

 fell sick of the sweat since he came hither, and ever 

 after dinner he shootcth to supper time'; but the 

 postscript adds : 'This night as the King went to 

 bed, word came of the death of William Carey.' 1 

 After the divorce of Katherineof Aragon, the Princes* 

 Mary was sent to Hunsdon (February 1536), and 

 there are a number of letters of hers extant written 

 from Hunsdon, both to her father and to Cromwell, 

 on the subject of her reconciliation with the king. 7 

 Writing to Charles V on the subject of the princess'i 

 escape, Chapuys says of Hunsdon : ' The house where 

 she is at present is much more inconvenient for the 

 enterprise . . . there are a great many houses and 

 people in the village where she now is.' 8 It was 

 while in the service of the princess at Hunsdon 

 (1538-40) that Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald— ' the 

 fair Geraldine '—first met her admirer Henry Howard 

 Earl of Surrey. 81 Prince Edward also spent much of 

 his infancy and youth at Hunsdon, whence it was 

 written of him on one occasion : ' My lord Prince i) 



Celiac 



Ejjtbanci Hau 



("711611! Ci-vriiRY 

 EM Modern 

 — Outline Plan op 

 House 



e 



Pla> 



Scale of Feet 

 Huj.sc 



! build 



place was a favou 

 carried on cxtens: 

 1534 the 'master surveyor 

 Hunsdon ' reported on the 

 applied to this purpose : ' fo: 

 for the chimneys in the Ki 

 palett chamber, privy chan 

 chamber beneath the same ; 

 tyles," corner tiles, paving t 

 timber, and for wood bough 

 coats, laths, pails, 



and "sett with symond," el 

 king appears to have fled 

 sickness. Thomas Henneg' 

 to Wolsey : ' Laud be Jesu, 



vith Henry VIII, who 

 gs here. In February 

 af the King's works at 

 expenditure of £2,900 

 " parelles " of freestone 

 ig's watching chamber, 

 ber, and in the other 

 for lime, plaster, " rigge 

 le; and plain tiles ; for 

 by the acre ; for wains- 

 is, hooks, hinges, locks, 

 bought of Galyon Hone 

 tc.'* In June 1528 the 

 here from the sweating 

 from Hunsdon 

 the King's grace is very 



» Pat. 1J Hen. 

 ' Col. Pat, 145 

 * L. and P. He 



VI, pt i 



of Sir Henry C 



granted Hunsdon Manoi in 1559 



7 Ibid, i, 199, 307, 968, 99: 



in good health and merry. Would to God the 

 king . . . had seen him last night. The minstrels 

 played, and his Grace danced and played so wantonly 

 that he could not stand still.' 9 After the accession 

 of the prince to the throne as Edward VI the 

 Princess Mary spent much of her time here. In 

 1559, however, Hunsdon House ceased to be a royal 

 residence, for Queen Elizabeth granted it with the 

 manor (q.v.) to Sir Henry Carey. In 1576 Queen 

 Elizabeth and the Countess of Warwick stood god- 

 mothers to Elizabeth daughter of Sir George Carey, 

 who was baptized at Hunsdon on 7 June. When 

 Emmanuel son of Thomas Scrope (afterwards Lord 

 Scrope) was baptized there on 26 August 1584 the 

 queen again stood godmother. Henceforward manor 

 and house followed the same descent, both being 



' Ibid, x, 307. 



"• Diet. Nai. Bhg. 



' L. and P. Hen. VIII, liv (2), Apj>. 9 ; 



whom Elizabeth 



324 



