A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



The right of such fisher)' was then restored to them.* 

 Free fishery is mentioned as parcel of the manor in 

 the various conveyances. 



Of the two mills mentioned in 1086 one seems to 

 have been in Bayford. The tithes of it were granted 

 in izz6 to Richard de Argentein.** 



The park of 170 acres which surrounds the manor- 

 house of Bayfordbury was inclosed by Sir William 

 Baker between 1758 and i~6z, at about the same 

 date that he built the house (see above). 65 



In 1316 another manor of BAl'FORD, now 

 represented by the estate of Bayford Hall, and then 

 described as two messuages, 150 acres of land with 

 appurtenance;, was conveyed by Richard le Rous 

 and his wife Mabel to Henry le Scrope."* In 1330 

 it is mentioned that a messuage and carucate of land 

 in Bayford were held of the king by Henry le Scrope 

 by a yearly farm of 8/. 1 1 \J. and 30 other acres by 

 certain day works of ploughing, reaping, weeding, 

 mowing meadows and carrying hay or payment of 

 in. $\d. In that year, however, the king remitted 

 all these services and substituted a yearly rent of id., 

 payable at Christmas. 711 Henry le Scrope died in 

 [336, leaving a son William," who died without 

 issue in 13 + 4."* In 1 34.6 Cecily, widow of William 

 le Scrope and re-married to John Clopton, received 

 in dower the Bayford lands with reversion to Richard 

 le Scrope of Bolton, brother and heir of William and 

 at that time a minor in the custody of Queen Philippa." 

 Sir Richard le Scrope conveyed his manor of Bayford 

 to John Staunton apparently towards the end of the 

 i+th century. 11 He granted it to Peter de St. Paul, 

 an alien and serjeant-at-arms to Queen Isabella (who 

 became the second queen of Richard II in 139;). 

 Peter de St. Paul was never naturalized, and his 

 lands in England were thus legally forfeited to the 

 Crown. He, however, granted the manor to William 

 de Neweton, who conveyed it to John and Milicent 

 1'omye and William Chelmsford, seemingly for the 

 purpose of settling it on himself and his wife Maud, 

 to whom his feoffees regranted it. Afterwards he 

 conveyed it to John Brampton, vicar of All Saints, 

 Hertford, Richard Wyndesore and Richard Sampson, 

 who in turn granted it to Roger liokenham and 

 Maud. Roger conveyed the property to William 

 Fromond, chaplain, and John Eclcshalc, who enfeoffed 

 John Chambre, citizen and fishmonger of London, 

 and Catherine his wife. John died and Catherine 

 married, secondly, Robert Wydyton, citizen and 

 grocer of London, who sold the estate to John 

 Wodehous and John Dalton. All these proceedings 

 had taken place without royal licence. Wodehous 

 and Dalton obtained a pardon in 1415, but were 





dispossessed apparently in 1417 because of the alleged 

 forfeiture of Peter de St. Paul for not having been 

 naturalized. Henry V then granted the custody of 

 'le Halle' to John Sauton, but upon the appeal of 

 Wodehous and Dalton it was restored to them in 

 1426." In 1439 John Tewkesbury, goldsmith of 

 London, held the ' manor of Bayford called Halle 

 Place' in right of his wife Agnes and in that year 

 conveyed it to Alexander Orable and others. "' 

 Orable seems to have sold the manor to Sir John 

 Fortescue (who bought the manors of Gacelyns and 

 Ponsbourne in 1448), for later it was {with Pons- 

 bourne) in the possession of John Fortescue, who 

 died seised in 1517, leaving a son Henry." It seem) 

 to have passed with Ponsbourne to Sir Thomas 

 in spite of a suit brought by Henry 

 claimed it as a separate manor from 

 Ponsbourne,' 6 to have descended with that manor 

 until the death of Sir John Ferrers in 164.0. It 

 was apparently settled on a younger son Charles, 

 whose son Charles Ferrers in 1678 sold 'the mes- 

 suage or farm called Bayford Hall ' to Israel Mayo, 

 lord of Bayfordbury,'"* with which it has since 

 descended. 



A third manor or capital messuage of BAYFORD 

 (held of the principal manor) appears at ihe beginning 

 of the 1 6th century in the possession of the Knighton 

 family. Thomas Knighton settled it in I 5 29 on his 

 heirs by his second wife Joan Colloppe with reversion 

 to his younger son John, to whom it actually passed 

 at the death of Thomas in 1545." This John had 

 received a grant of Bayfordbury in 1544, and the 

 two manors then descended together. 



The manor of Gacelyns in Hatfield extended 

 into Bayford and was partly held of the manor of 

 Bayford.'" 



The church of ST. MARY stands 

 CHURCH about a quarter of a mile north of the 

 village and consists of chancel, with 

 octagonal eastern end, 40 ft. by 18 ft., south chapel 

 I 8 ft. by 10 ft., nave 51 ft. by 21 ft., north vestries 

 and south porch ; all internal dimensions, The 

 church was built in 1870 close to the site of the 

 old church, which has disappeared, but some of its 

 fittings arc preserved in the present church. 



In a recess on the north side of the chancel is a 

 white marble monument of George Knighton, who 

 died in i6iz. On the tomb is the recumbent effigy 

 of a knight in armour ; underneath are two panels, 

 one containing an inscription, the other contains arms. 

 At the back of the recess three brasses have been 

 fixed ; one, with a figure of a knight in armour, is 

 supposed to represent Thomas Knighton, who died in 



