A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



to have been sold by trustee 

 After Robert Hanbury's de.K 

 to his son Mr. R. C. Han- 

 bury, whose son Mr. E. S. 

 Hanbury is the present owner. 

 The manor-house of Westmill 

 was near the Wat con Road. 6S 

 On the foundation of the 

 GRETFRMRS at Ware their 

 house was endowed with 7 

 acres of land by Thomas Lord 

 Wake, 69 and later Blanche 

 Lady Wake granted thi 



1 Robert Hanbury- 9 ' 

 t descended 



addit 



lal 



fro 



the 



tngr 



manor of Ware.' Probably 

 other grants- were made to 



them. After the Dissolution the site of the priory 

 with the orchard, gardens, and ponds was farmed by 

 Robert Birch for 20/. The 'osierhope' was farmed for 

 zorf. n In 154+ the site and the 'osierhope' were 

 granted to Thomas Birch, a yeoman of the Crown," 

 k ho died seised of these and of a messuage called the 

 Sign of the Bear in 155c 73 His grandson Thomas 

 Birch sold the site and osierlands to Job Bradshaw in 

 1628." The descent, as given by Cussans, 78 is that 

 it passed from Bradshaw to Richard Ha tor, and in 

 16*5 became the property of Robert Hadsley of Great 

 Munden, whose son Robert died without issue, having 

 bequeathed the estate to Jeremiah Rayment, who 

 took the name of Hadsley. On his death in 1 778 it 

 passed to his widow for life, then to his daughter 

 Maria Hadsley, on whose death in 1847 it devolved 

 on Martin Hadsley Gosselin, son of Admiral Thomas 

 Le Marchant Gosselin and Sarah daughter of Jeremiah 

 Rayment. After Martin Gosselin's death in 1868 

 it was sold by his widow to Clement Morgan of 

 St, John's Wood, London. Later it was bought 

 by Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, the conchologist, on his 

 retirement from the practice of law. While he 

 lived there it was a meeting-place for many British 

 and foreign artists. He was J. P. for Hertford and 

 sheriff of the county in 1877. After the death of 

 his wife he moved to Kensington and in 1881 sold 

 the priory to Mr. Robert Walters, J, P., the present 

 oivner. 76 



The house, which is a residence of two floors with 

 attics, lying a little to the south of the church, is con- 

 structed out of nearly the whole of the southern 

 range of the cloisters of the Franciscan friary, not 

 quite half of the western range, and the great hall 

 which runs westward at right angles to the western 

 range, A small two-storied wing projects on the 

 south side of the south range. The rubble walls of 

 the house are plastered and have stone dressings ; the 

 roofs are tiled. Nothing eirlicr than late 15th-century 

 additions are of brick 



and 



plastered. 

 In the south-west a 

 re about 8 ft. wide, 

 which forms, 



le of the cloisters, which 

 modern porch has been 

 ends of the 



The south wall of the southern range, on the ground 

 floor of which is the drawing room, is not original. 

 On the first floor of this range are bedrooms formed 

 out of the ancient frater. The small wing projecting 

 southward contains a smoking room on the ground 

 floor and bedrooms above. The modern staircase is 

 at the western end of the southern range, and beyond 

 it arc the kitchens and offices. On the ground floor 

 of the western range is the dining room with bed- 

 rooms above. The undercroft of the great hall is 

 now occupied by six rooms and a corridor. The 

 hall over it, measuring 48 ft. by 22 ft., was in four 

 bays with an open timber roof. 79 " Above the rooms 

 now occupying this space are attics formed by the 

 insertion of a floor at the level of the old tie-beams. 

 The north side of the southern range has six of the 

 original cloister windows of three cinquefoilcd lights, 

 but these have been much altered, and some of them 

 are blocked. In the northern range only two of the 

 cloister windows remain ; one of them, which lights 

 the dining room, has been almost entirely renewed. 

 The end window in this and the southern range 

 having had their tracery removed are now arches 

 between the modern porch and the entrance hall. 

 One other window in this part of the house is old, 

 but it is now blocked. It is on the west side of the 

 kitchen, between it and the modern pantry where its 

 external label shows. In the hall wing are six 

 original windows of detail like those of the cloisters ; 

 all have been plastered and restored. One is on each 

 floor on the south side of the wing, three are on 

 the upper floor of the north side ; one on this side 

 is so considerably above the ground floor level that 



it has 

 The : 



the 



ndow 



cloisters, the present entrance hall of the hoi 



appearance ot an old stairway 1 

 of the windows of the house are modern, 

 the north side of the hall wing being 

 of the original windows. Of the thin 

 ashlar buttresses which divided this wing into four 

 bays four remain, three on the south and one on 

 the north side. The inside of the house has been 

 so greatly altered that little original work is visible. 

 There is, however, a 15th-century doorway in the 

 south-west corner of the cloisters, a little niche sur- 

 vives in the north-east corner of the hall, an old 

 doorway, now blocked, is in the cross wall of the 

 undercroft, and most of the roof timbers about the 

 house appear to be old. 



The houses of Holy Trinity, London, St. Paul's, 

 St. Helen's Within Bishopsgatc, and Bermondsey, also 

 had lands in the parish. 7 ' 



The church of ST. MARY stands 

 CHURCHES in the middle of the town. It consists 

 of chancel 40 ft. 6 in. by 23 ft., south 

 chapel 25 ft. by 15 ft. 6 in., vestry and organ chamber 

 on the north, north and south transepts, each 23 ft. by 

 22 ft., nave 78 ft. by 22 ft., north and south aisles, 

 each 13 ft. wide, west tower 15 ft. square and south 

 porch, all internal dimensions. The walls are of 

 flint with stone dressings, the roofs are lead covered. 

 The church, consisting of chancel, nave and tran- 

 septs, was probably erected in the [ 3th century ; the 



jj& nHen.VIII.no. 7'. 



1 Com. Pica. D. Enr. Hil. 4 Ch; 

 s F . cit. Breughhg H*«d. 1 S+. 



'■■ Diet. 



H 2 (2, 



r the 



t. Bhg. 



: Tit 



alia, 



' J«iy 1849). 

 ■ rtnet. D. (P.R.O.), A 5441 ; ""'■ 

 MSS. Com. R tf . ix, App. i, 70a ; Mini. 

 Accti. bdle. 1 107. no. 11; CM. Pat. 



