A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



had licence to 

 Mary Leech, 



of his councillors. In the same year Thomas Lcwyn, 

 rlcrt. who was apparently a trustee for Southwell, 

 the manor to the use of 

 tife of Robert Leech, alderman of 

 a field called Newnneye Wood alas 

 Woodfield beside Newnneye (Nimney) Wood in 

 Ware." This Mary Leech, who in another place is 

 called Mary Darcy alias Leech, must have been 

 Mary daughter of Sir Thomas Darcy of Danbury, 

 co. Essex, who afterwards became the second wife of 

 Sir Richard Southwell.* 6 In ij>8 she as Mary 

 Darcy afias Leech of Horsham St. Faith, co. Norfolk, 

 alienated the manor to Robert Adams, a yeoman of 

 Widford, 57 who died seised of it in I j8o. In 1589 

 his son and heir Henry Adams conveyed it together 

 with forty messuages, a water-mill, free warren, free 

 fishery and view of frankpledge to Bartholomew Barnes, 

 sen., and Bartholomew Barnes, jun.-* A Bartholomew 

 Barnes, probably the younger, citizen and mercer of 



of the same name suffered a recovery in 1814,^ 

 and in 1819 sold the manor to Nicholas Parry of 

 Little Hadham. It descended to his son Nicholas 

 Segar Parry, ;,s "ho devised to Mr. H. D. l'any- 

 Mitchell of Mcrivale, Atherstone, Warwick, the 

 present lord.' 1 ' 



Widford Bury was sold by Mr. Parry-Mitchell to Sir 

 Martin Gosselin in 1 889 and is now the property of 

 Capt. AlwynGosselinofBlakesware. It is an L-shapcd 

 building, with timber-framed walls covered with 

 plaster ; there is little of interest in the house, which 

 probably date; from the 1 7th century. A little to the 

 north-west of the house is an early 1 7th-century dove- 

 house ; it is of brick, octagonal on plan and hai a 

 thatched roof. Noneof the cots now remain. Between 

 the house and the churchyard is an old brick » all about 

 6; yards in length, part of which formed the outer 

 wall of what may have been the eastern wing of the 

 Burt- ; it appe.irs to be of 16th-century date. At the 



WiutoKi): Oi 



London, settled it i 

 = daughter^, the 



1608 on Elizabeth, one of his 

 ivilc of Roland Backhouse,- 3 also 

 citizen and mercer of London. Their grandson, 

 William Backhouse (son of Nicholas, a younger son of 

 Roland), created a baronet in 1660, sold it with the 

 water -mi'l. warren, fishery, and frankpledge to William 

 Bird "' oi M.trtocb in Ware. Thomas Bird, according 

 to Chauncy, was lord of the manor in 1 700. 3l Before 

 1741 it was acquired by William Parker of Haling 

 in Croydon,'- whose daughter Elizabeth married her 

 cousin' William Hamond. 33 Their son, William 

 Parker Hamond of Haling, died in iSiz ; his son 



north end, beside the stile into the churchyard, the 

 wall is returned westwards. A four-centred arched 

 doorway and part of a moulded brick window, now 

 blocked, are visible on the e..st side ; on the west face 

 are a large fireplace and a wide four-ci ntred arch. 

 The wall is now about 8 ft. high. At the south end 

 of the wall is a round-arched gateway of brick with 

 moulded arch and imposts. The gateway is flanked 

 by plain pilasters, with remains of a frieze and moulded 

 cornice above. The pilasters have moulded plinths, 

 and the capitals also are moulded, but they appe.'.r to 

 have belonged 10 narrower pilasters. The wall at this 



! P. lie. fill, : 



14 * '! 



