A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



The village of WVilmill is situated on 1l.iv ground 

 near the River Rib, a little under half a mile to the 

 west of Ermine Street, with which it communicates 

 by roads running north-east and south-east. There 

 is one main street in the village, which ends towards 

 the east in a village green. The church of St. Mary 

 is situated on the north side of this street and the 

 old manor-house of Westmillbury {now a farm) on 

 the south. The only inn in the village, the 'Sword 

 in Hand' (probably so called from the crest of the 

 Greg family), is an old house, which by local tradi- 

 tion was for a time the residence of the Scottish 

 family of Bellenden. The second Lord Bellenden 

 was a partisan of James II and was an exile in Hol- 

 land. His son John, the third baron, was married at 

 Radivell in Hertfordshire to Mary Parnell of B.ildock, 

 and came to live at West mill, where eight of his 

 children were born, 17 and where most of them were 

 buried. Lord Bellenden died in 1741 and was 

 succeeded by his eldest son Ker, of the Royal Nan-, 

 who died at the age of twenty-seven. The tombs of 

 the second baron and his wife and of the third baron 

 and his eldest sister, Jane Miller, are in front of the 

 alnr in West mill Church. 1 * At the east end of the 

 sirect, on the south side, are seven cottages built 

 early in the 18th century by Samuel Pilgrim, who 

 belonged to a family of Pilgrim or Pegram, who are 

 well represented in the parish at the present day. 1 " 

 Kent's Corn-r, to the back of these cottages (now 

 being pulled down), preserved the name of the Kent 

 family (sec charities). Opposite the church is a 

 cottage called the Woolpack. A barn which adjoins 

 the church and forms a prominent feature of the 

 village when viewed from the west may occupy the 

 site of a sheepfold and threshing-floor mentioned in 

 the 13 th century. 5 " At right angles to the main 

 street on the west runs the road to Aspenden, in 

 which is the public elementary school built about 



W.ikeley (see under Aspenden) forms a roughly 

 triangular-shaped projection on the west of the parish ; 

 the hamlet, which is about 1 miles from Westmill 

 village, consists of a farm and a few cottages and the 

 site of the church of Si. Giles. 



Half a mile south of the village is Coles, the 

 property and residence of Mr. T. T. Greg, J.P. 

 This includes three separate estates, Knight's Hill, 

 Coles, and Tillers End, which were copyhold of the 

 manor of Westmill. The house was rebuilt about 

 18+7 in the Elizabethan stvle, and has a park of 



all., 



icnt of three qu.irterj of an a 





140 



A house called Button Snap at Westmill Green,- 2 

 about a mile and a half south-we;t of the village, is 

 of interest as having belonged for three years to 

 Charles Lamb, the only landed property which he 

 ever possessed. The house is thatched with straw and 

 has diamond-paned windows. He relates that as he 



lr The 



wiih its commodious mansion in the midst ' he enjoyed 

 for the first time the 'feeling of an English free- 

 holder that all betwixt sky and centre ' was his own. 

 The property came to him from his uncle Francis 

 Field of Hoi born, the 'mot gentlemanly of oilmen,' 

 who bought it in 1779. His widow conveyed it in 

 181 2 to Charles Lamb. The name Button Snap 

 was probablv given to it by Lamb, as it is not found 

 before. In 1815 Lamb joined with his aunt in 

 conveying it to Mr. Thomas Greg, 33 and so it passed 

 'into more prudent hands.' Cherry Green consists 

 of .1 few cottages about a mile from the village. 

 The name is evidently derived from a family of 

 Cherry who had land here.^ 



Nathaniel Salmon (1 675-1 742), the historian and 

 antiquary, was for some years a curate at Westmill. 

 He resigned on the accession of Anne, to whom he 

 refused to take the oath of allegiance, and practised 

 as a doctor at St. Ives in Huntingdon and afterwards 

 at Bishop's Stortford. Later he took to literature 

 and published his History of Hertfordshire in 1728. 

 He is said to have been buried at St. Dunstan's. A 

 rector of Westmill of some fame was Henry Pcpys, 

 who was appointed to the living in 1827 and held it 

 until he became Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1840, 

 He was made Bishop of Worcester in the following 

 year. 



The Domesday Survey gives H'EST- 

 MJNORS MILL as being held in the time of 

 King Edward the Confessor by Achi, a 

 thegn of Earl Harold, and in 1 086 forming part of the 

 lands of Robert Gcrnon, of whom it was held by 

 Anschitil, probably Anschitil of Ware. It was 

 assessed at 7 hides 1 virgate, and there were fourteen 

 ploughs on it, four of which were on the demesne. 

 Three mills are mentioned on the manor. 26 With 

 the other estates of Robert Gcrnon, Westmill was 

 acquired in the reign of Henry I by William dc 

 Montfitchet,*" of whom it was held as one knight's 

 fee by Ralph Fitz Haselin and Richard Westm=l. OT 

 William was succeeded by Gilbert de Montfitchct, 

 who paid £10 for the farm of Westmill for several 

 years preceding 1 i65-6. 2B After that year until 

 1176-7 the farm is accounted for by the sheriffs 

 among the purprestures and escheats. 29 Whether 

 this is due to a forfeiture by Gilbert is not certain, 

 but Richard de Montfitchet, who seems to have 

 succeeded Gilbert in the latter part of the reign 

 of Henry II, appears in possession/" and the Testa de 

 Net-ill gives this Richard or his son holding three and 

 one-sixth fees in Westmill and Gatesbury." The 

 younger Richard died in i z ;8 31f ; his lands were 

 divided among his three sisters, Westmill apparently 

 falling to the share of Margery wife of Hugh de 

 Bolebec. She left four daughters and heirs, 33 who 

 probably conveyed Westmill to Robert Burnell, Bishop 



Walktrn. 



11 J. A. Ewiruj, The Story of the 



nentloned 



n from Mr. T. T. Greg. 



rr Westmill Manor. 

 See Close, 9 Geo. IV, pt. 1 



" John Cherry ii the name of a tenant 

 the 1 ;ih century (Ct. R. fGeo. Ser.l. 

 rtf. 178, no. 77 ). J ' 



*> V.C.H. Hem. i, , !4 ;,. 

 M Cf. Ayol St. Peter in Broadwater 

 JQd. and Stan stead Montfitchct in Eisei. 



398 



v Red Bk. of Exch. (Roll, Ser.), i, 

 349. 



" Pipe R. & He*. II (Pipe R. Soc. t), 70, 

 et anms.eq. 



^Ibid. 11 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc.i), 

 1SJ, et annineq. 



w Red Bk. of Exih. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 4.98, 

 S°5. 73" ; i, 66, 78, 9!, 141. 



3 ' Te,to de Ne-v.U (Rec Com.), 269. 



M Banks, ptrm. and Extinct Petragt, \, 



"See Cat, Ch«, 1*72-9, p. St. 



