A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



in Staple ford and partly in Bengeo. It is a small brick 

 house of c. 1600, two stories in height with a floor 

 in the roof. On plan the house consists of a large 

 enirance hall, out of which a passage has been taken 

 in modern time?, with a central newel stair, contained 

 within a projection at its north-west corner. There 

 is a single room on the west side of the hall, and on 

 the east a low two-storied office wing. The beams 

 supporting the first floor have interesting Icafchamfer- 

 stops of renaissance character, and the central newel 

 of the stairs terminates above with a well-carved 

 baluster finial. The original door-frames survive 

 in many cases and their chamfers have leaf-stops of 

 similar character to those of the beams. Externally 

 the western end-gable has moulded brick kneeler;. 

 The original window openings have for the most part 

 been enlarged and sash frames inserted. Those in 

 the west wall have been blocked. Sufficient traces 

 survive to show that they were low and mullioned 

 and had moulded labels. On the north side of the 

 house is a fine chimney stack surmounted by a pair 

 of diagonal shafts with capitals and bases of moulded 

 brick. 



The manor of GOBIONS (Gybeouns, Gobyons, 

 xiv cent.) like the manor of Stapleford (q.v.) must 

 have originally been part of Bengeo. It is probable 

 that it was derived from one of the numerous holdings 

 of Geofi'rcy de Bech in that place in 1086." With 

 Eastwick it came into ihe possession of the Clares, 

 and by the m.-irriage of Emma daughter of Baldwin 

 de Clare with Hugh Wake the ovcrlordship passed to 

 the Wakes.-* It descended with the Wakes and 

 Holands until 1408," when Edmund de Holand Earl 

 of Kent died without issue. It was inherited by his 

 sister and co-heir Eleanor Countess of Salisbury. 18 

 bUr daughter Alice carried it in marriage to Richard 

 Nevill, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, and it descended 

 to their granddaughter Isabel, who married George 

 Puke of Clarence." In 1499 his son Edward Earl 

 of Warwick and of Salisbury was executed for high 

 treason, 60 and the overlordship escheated to the 

 Crown. 



The earliest known tenant in fee of the manor of 

 Gobions Is William Loreng, who was holding half a 

 hide of land in Stapleford of Baldwin Wake in 

 1 282." A John Loreng was holding land in Staple- 

 ford in 1295/'* but the manor appears shortly 

 afterwards to have been acquired by Henry Gobion, 

 who was holding half a knight's fee in Stapleford in 

 1.103." There was also an Anselm Gobion holding 

 part of a fee there at the same date." This family 

 held the manor for over a century and gave it its 

 name, but very few records of them exist. The 

 manor appears to have come to William Gobion, 

 whose son William was holding it in 1389." He was 



then in financial difficulties and had to rai^c money 

 on his manor of Stapleford." In 1390 he convejed 

 the manor to Simon dc Burgh and William Ashwell.*' 

 It was sold by trustees in 1412 to John Perient," 

 whose son John was assessed for William Gobion's fee 

 in Stapleford in 1428." By 1444™ Gobions had 

 descended to Edmund Perient, who died seised of it 

 in 1474." His son Thomas succeeded him," and 

 held the manor till his death in 1539, when it 

 passed to his son Thomas,' 1 on whom he had settled 

 it in tail-male. ;< Thomas Perient died in I C46, and, 

 as he had four daughters hut no son, Gobions passed 

 by terms of the settlement to his brother's family,'' 

 and in 1 597 was held by his nephew " George 

 Perient, who in that year conveyed it to Richard and 

 Nicholas Boteler and others,'' evidently in trust for 

 Sir Philip Boteler, 18 lord of the manor of Woodhall 

 in Watton. From this time Gobions has descended 

 with that manor (q.v.), the present owner being 

 Mr. Abel Henry Smith. The farm-house called 

 Gobions lies in the north-west part of the parish, 

 about a mile west of Stapleford village. 



The earliest record of the ima^rol PATCHENDEN 

 (Pachvndon, xv cent.) occurs in 1376, when it was 

 held by Sir Walter Lee, kt., lord of the manor of 

 Waterford Hall." It descended with that manor (q.v.) 

 until 1564, when Sir John Boteler, kt., sold the 

 manor of Waterford Hall, but retained Patchenden 

 in his own hands. Sir John was lord also of the 

 manor of Woodhall in Watton, and from this time 

 Patchenden has descended with that manor (q.v.). 

 The present owner is Mr. Abel Henry Smith. The 

 site of the manor-house of Patchenden, and a farm- 

 house which bears this name, lie north of the church 

 and west of the main road from Hertford to Steven- 

 age shortly before it enters the parish of Watton at 



Clutterbuck has identified lands at 'Waterford' 

 and ' Beorouleam,' given to St. Albans Abbey by 

 Edwin de Cadingdon, e "with Waterford in Stapleford, 

 but there is little doubt that the former of these 

 places is Watford on the western side of the county, 

 and the latter refers to other lands in Cashio 

 Hundred. A later grant to St. Albans, however, by 

 Agnes Fay and Ralph her son of the old mill of 

 Stapleford with the adjacent pond, the marsh on each 

 side Of the river, and 60 acres of land which was 

 confirmed to the monks by Henry 1 1 and Edward IV " 

 possibly refers to a property called HULLS MILL 

 alias BENlfICK HALL.' 3 In 1532 the manor of 

 Ben-wick Hall was held of the abbey by Charles Bull, 

 and there was a water-mill attached to it." Charles 

 Bull died seised of the manor, and it descended to his 

 son Richard Bull, who held it until his death in 158;, 

 at which time the water-mill was called Bull's Mill. 



