A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



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igon of 167;. 

 The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) bap- 

 tisms, burial* and marriages from 1679 to 174+ ; (ii) 

 baptisms and burials from 174; to 1767, marriages 

 from 1745 to 1762; (iii) baptisms from 1767 to 



riages from 1763 to 1812. 



The advowson of the church 

 JDrOWSON belonged to the lords of the manor ** 

 until Richard and Elizabeth Talbot 

 surrendered the manor to the king in 1346, when 

 they reserved the advowson." Probably, however, 

 they sold it to the king soon after, for they did not 

 die seised of it, and it appears to have been granted 

 to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, and so passed 

 to the Crown in the person of his son Henry IV. 

 The presentation has ever since been made by the 

 king in his capacity of Duke of Lancaster.* 1 



In 1 63S there was a 'parsonage house built of 

 timber covered with Tile two storyes high, the lower 

 storyes disposed into these roomes, a parlour, a hall, 

 a kitchin, a milkhouse, a brcwhouse, a mealehouse, a 

 buttrye, and all ihese roomes are chambred over and 

 boarded except the brcwhouse and the mealehouse.' " ; 

 The glebe lands amounted to 54^ acres. 



A chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Roxford is 

 mentioned m I 304 " and in 13 30." The advowson 

 belonged to the lord of the manor. 



The chapel of ease of ST. JOHN BJPTIST at 

 Letty Green, built in 1849-50 and enlarged in 

 1890, is served from the parish church. 



Meeting-places for Protestant Dissenters in the 

 parish were certified in 1788 and 181 1." 



In 1613 Grace Ellis, by her will 

 CHARITIES proved in the P.C.C. 20 March, gave 

 40/. yearly for the poor, charged 

 upon property in Norton Kolgate, London. The 

 annuity was redeemed in 1863 by the transfer to 

 the official trustees of £66 1 p. »,d. consols, now 

 producing £1 \p. 4a 1 . yearly, which is distributed 

 in bread biennially Co the value of it. to each 



In 1708 Walter Wallingcr by his will directed 

 that .£400 should be laid out in the purchase of a 

 rent-charge to be applied in apprenticing sons and 

 daughters of poor housekeepers not in receipt of 

 parochial relief. The legacy, with interest, was laid 

 out in the purchase of a fee-farm rent of £6 issuing 

 out of Middle Mills, Colchester, a fee-farm rent of 

 £$ out of Foxearth Hall Farm, Long Melford, 

 Suffolk, and a fee-farm rent of £10 from East- 

 hampstead Part, Berkshire. The last-mentioned 

 was redeemed in 1904 by the transfer of £400 

 consols to the official trustees. The income has been 

 found more than sufficient for the objects of the 

 charity, and the surplus has from time to time been 

 accumulated and invested in consols. The stock 

 now amounts to £4,1 52 6s. 6<t. consols with the 

 official trustees and £115 19/. 6d. consols in the 

 names of C. E. Wodehouse and two others, the 

 annual dividends amounting together to £106 p. %il. 

 The premiums usually amount to £12 10/. 



In 1870 Thomas Newman, by his will proved 

 I I March, left a legacy, now represented by 

 £582 \s. 2it. consols with the official trustees, the 

 annual dividends, amounting to ^14 111., to be 

 applied in aid of the schools. 



ST. ANDREW RURAL 



The civil parish of St. Andrew Rural is one of the 

 outlying parts of the borough of Hertford and was 

 separated from the urban parish of St. Andrew by the 

 Local Government Act of 180.4. It comprises an 

 area of 1,040 acres, of which 1,022 acres are land 

 and 18 water. The district is entirely rural, the 

 western part being occupied by Panshanger Park, 

 which covers an area of 900 acres and extends into 

 the parish of Hertingfordbury. The southern 

 boundarv is formed by the River Mimram, which 

 divides St. Andrew Rural from Hertingfordbury. 

 The road from Bayford to Hertingfordbury, on which 

 the village of Hertingfordbury is situated, is continued 

 through this parish as Thieves Lane, and a little 

 further north adjoins the main road from Hertford to 

 Welwyn. 



Sele Grange, now the residence of Miss E. Robert- 

 son, is situated on the extreme east of the parish, 

 where it adjoins St. Andrew Urban. There h a wood 

 called Sekbroom at some distance to the north-west. 

 The manorof BLAKEMERE (Blache- 

 MJXORS mene, xi cent. ; Blackmere, xv cent.) 

 was held in chief in 1086 by Geoffrey 



15 Chan. Inq. j 



de Been. 1 It probably came with Eastwick (cj.v.) 

 (also held by Geoffrey de Bcch in 1086) into the 

 possession of the Clares, and through Emma daughter 

 of Baldwin de Clare to the Wake family, for in 

 1282 Baldwin de Wake was found to have been 

 overlord of the quarter of a knight's fee in Blake- 

 mere.* The descent of the ovcrlordship then follows 

 that of Gobions in Stapleford 3 (q.v.). 



In the time of Edward the Confessor Blakemere 

 constituted the holdings of two thegns who had the 

 right to sell. It was held in 1086 under Geoffrey 

 de Bech by a single mesne tenant Geoffrey Runevile, 

 and was assessed at 1 hide. It was said to contain 

 land for two ploughs ; there was one upon the 

 demesne and there could be another. There was 

 sufficient meadow for two plough teams, The 

 unfree tenants were one villein and two bordars. 

 The pasture sufficed for the live stock and the wood- 

 land for the feeding of forty swine. 4 



The tenant of Blakemere in I 28 1-2 was Robert 

 (r)dc Blakemcre s and in 1303 John de Blakemere.' 

 Before 1326 Blakemere had come into the same 

 hands as Panshanger, which was evidently the more 



jA Cl:< 



7 Edw. II, 1 



1323-7, p. 275. 



-75! 



t" F. Div. Cu. i3 Edw. III. 



DO. 89. 



" Col. P*r. 14,6-4.1, p. 351 ; Inst. 



Bks. (P.R.O.) ; Bacon, Libtr Rtgh, 518. 



«H<, U . &«. W An,,,, iii, ,---,. 



"Urwick, .\-,nc*«f.i« Hit!,, ssi. 

 > V.C.H. H<r„. i, m „. 



' Cai. hq. p.m. 1-19 EJ-W. I, z6z. 

 » *W. Aids, ii, 434 ; Chan. Inq. f 



468 



z; Edw. Ill, pt. i, no. 7; ; 26 Edw 

 no. 54 j 10 Ric. II, no. 57 ; ic R 

 no. 30; 4Htn.IV.no. 51; 7 He. 

 no. ; 7 ; (Sfcr. a), «vlii, 71. 

 1 r.C.H. Him.i, 335a. 



• Cat. Ina. p.m. I— 19 EJu. I, 26 



' Fiud, Aid,, ii, 434. 



