HERTFORD HUNDRED 



1730 to 1779, marriages 1730 to 1754; (v) 

 marriages 1754 to 1837; (vi) baptisms 1780 to 

 1844 ; (vii) burials 1780 to 1858. 



CHRIST CHURCH, in Port Vale, was built in 

 1868 by Mr. Ahel Smith. It is a cruciform build- 

 ing of stone, in 13th-century style, consisting of 

 chancel, nave of three bays, aisles and transepts, south 

 porch and west bell turret. The parish was created 

 in 1869.* 3 The living is a vicarage, and rhe patron 

 is Mr. Abel H. Smith. 



Of the church of ST. MARY very few records 

 have survived. In 1428 there were less than ten 

 inhabitants in the parish." The church" adjoined 

 the Old Cross ; it appears to have fallen into ruins 

 in the 16th century. 8 ' During the excavations for 

 the public library in 1888 many of the old stones 

 were found w ; some of these were used in the con- 

 struction of a memorial fountain near the library, 

 and consist of the greater part of ; 



v of dui 



BOROUGH OF 

 HERTFORD 



by the west wall of the south transept with the south 

 wall of the nave are signs of the existence of a stair- 

 turret. The thickness of the walls, about 4 ft., 

 indicate that the remains are at least as early as the 

 1 2th century. Several tiles of the 13th and 14th 

 centuries were found on the site. One of these, of 

 the later date, has a vigorously drawn hart upon it. 



The church of ST. NICHOLAS existed in 1291, 

 when the Prior of Wilford (Kent) had a pension of 

 £1 in it.** The advowson of the rectory belonged 

 to the alien priory of Wilford, 85 and hence came to 

 the Crown. 86 St. Nicholas was parochial, but the 

 extent of the parish is unknown. In 1428 it had 

 less than ten inhabitants (householders)." In 1487 



of 1 jth-century date. The arch is moulded, and the 

 jambs are shafted, with moulded capitals and bases. 

 Both arch and jambs are enriched with the dog-tooth 

 ornament. Other fragments are preserved in the 



A messuage called St. Mary Churchyard was 

 included in the grant of the manor to the Earl of 

 Salisbury in 1630. " 



The other parish churches originally in Hertford, 

 namely, St. John the Evangelist <" and St. Nicholas, 

 have disappeared. ST. JOHN'S was built before the 

 beginning of the 13th century,™ and seems to have 

 been pulled down before 1624, when the churchyard 

 formed the mill close of Lyckermill. 91 It is said to 

 have been rebuilt by Thomas Willis, the patron, in 

 1629, 51 and to have been demolished about fifty years 

 later, after the parish was united to All Saints. 51 

 The church stood at the east end of the town, to the 

 north of the present buildings of Christ's Hospital, 

 upon the site now occupied {1912) by the timber 

 yard of Messrs. Ewen & Tomlinson. The founda- 

 tions (which have since been covered in) were 

 excavated during the course of building operations in 

 1893, and reveal the ground plans both of the 

 original church and of the smaller church erected 

 upon its site in the 17th century. The former was 

 a large cruciform building, having an aisleless nave 

 measuring internally about 87 ft. by 29 ft., north and 

 south transepts, each 30 ft. 4 in. by 20ft., and a 

 chancel 24 ft. in width, the eastern foundations of 

 which cannot now be traced. At the angle formed 





, St. Jo, 



i Chorch, Hei 



there is a will of John Lombard of London, by 

 which he wished to be buried in the parish church 

 of St. Nicholas, Hertford. 88 The living had been 

 united to that of St. Andrew by 1535,°' so that 

 probably the chur h was then already disused. ,a> The 

 building is described by Chauncy as standing 'near 

 St. Nicholas Street, at the west end of Back Street, 

 towards the mills in the back yard to the Maiden- 

 head Inn, where the ruins of the church are yet to 

 be seen.' * Moulded stones are occasionally found 

 on the north side of Maidenhead Street where the 

 church stood. 



In the grant of the manor to the Earl of Salisbury 

 in 1630 the ruined and decayed church with the 

 cemetery called St. Nicholas is mentioned.' 



83 Land. Ccx. 22 June 1869, p. 3549. 



* Feud. Aids, ii, 461. 



Si Chauncy (p. 261) calls this church 

 St. Mary the Great, and otter historians 

 have fallowed his example and hare called 

 the priory church St. Mary the Less. 



evidence to support this. The priory was 

 certainly known as St. Mary Monachorum 

 (Co/. Pal. 1 3 81-5, p. 207), and there was 

 a parish church of St. Mary Minor (see 

 references to the parish of St. Maiy Minor 

 on pp. 405&, ;oo«). But the parish church 

 belonging to the priory seems to have been 

 St. John the Evangelist (see below). It 

 leems most probable from the present 

 amount of evidence that the church of 

 St. Mary {Feud. Aid$, ii, 461) or St. Maty 

 the Virgin {Valor Eccl. [Rec. Com.], iv, 

 277) was sometimes called St. Mary 

 Minor to distinguish it from the priory 



church and v 



1 St. Andi 



Old 



before 1535 (F^tf^. [*«■ Com.], i 



85 Pat. 6 Chas. I, pt. x, no. 1. 

 89 For account of the discovery 1 

 foundations see Hens. Mercury, z De 



51 Ct. of Wards, Feod. Surv. no. 17. 



n Chauncy, op. cit. 257. This second 



church is supposed to be the small church 



to have dedicated his church in honour 

 )f SL John the Baptist, but all the docu- 



5°9 



ments dealing with this later church refer 

 to it as St. John the Evangelist. 



**Popt Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 37. 

 Possibly this was one of the churches 

 held by Peter de Valognes in 1086 and 

 was given by him or a successor to 

 Wilford. 



»s This was a cell to Bee Hcllouin 



(<:<./.£«. 1350-4, P . 503). 



86 Ihld - ' 3 I 7"3°. P- 3 i " 3 S°"4. P- 5°3 i 

 ijyo-i+oi, P- 443- 



* Foul. Aids, ii, 461. 



» s P.C.C. Will, Milles, 10. A bequest 

 was made to the repairs of the church in 

 1+95 (ibid. Vox, 30). 



w Vtltr Eat. (Rec. Com.), iv, 277. 





ll fun 



eed (1610), Engl, and 



