Bristowes, formerly Lords of the Manor; and above, the Royal Arms of England, within a bordure charged with the cognizances of the houses of York and Lancaster: these arms are now preserved in the window of a house near the Church. The Font is of an octagonal form, ornamented with various mouldings, and having three trefoil-headed blank arches on the upper parts of each of its different faces.

The New Church was erected at the expense of Sir Lionel Lyde, under the expectation that he should be permitted to add the site of the ancient one to his park; but when the roof of the latter had been destroyed, and all the timbers carried away, and the building otherwise greatly dilapidated, an injunction was issued by the Bishop, to prevent its being further spoiled, on the principle that ground once consecrated, ought not to be converted to secular purposes, without evident necessity.

At the HOO, which derives its name from the very ancient family of Hoo, near Kimpton, is the pleasant residence of the Honorable Thomas Brand, Esq. son and heir of the late Thomas Brand, Esq. by Gertrude, now Baroness Dacre, and grandson of Thomas Brand, Esq. the purchaser of this estate, by Lady Caroline, daughter of Eveline, first Duke of Kingston. The Brands were more anciently seated at Great Ormead, in this county, which still continues in the family. The Hoo manor was formerly the property of the Keates, Baronets, of this place, whose burial-place is in the neighbouring Church of KIMPTON.

KNEBWORTH was anciently the inheritance of the family of Hoo, of whom Robert de Hoo obtained a Charter of a weekly market for this manor, in the twentieth of Edward the First; and also liberty of free-warren in all his demesne lands of Knebworth and Harpenden, in this county. It was afterwards possessed by the Hotofts, who seem to have obtained it by purchase from the family of Perrers. Idonea, daughter and heiress of John Hotoft, married Sir John Barre, Knt, who was possessed of it in the reign of Edward the Fourth; and left a daughter, named Isabel; first married to Sir Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devonshire; and afterwards to Sir Thomas Bouchier, Knt. According to Chauncy, Sir Thomas

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Thomas Bouchier sold this estate to Robert Lytton, Esq. who was Keeper of the Wardrobe to Henry the Seventh, and one of his Privy Council. In his family it continued till the death of Sir William Lytton, Knt. without issue, in the year 1705, when Judith, his eldest sister, and co-heiress, the wife of Sir Nicholas Strode, conveyed it into his family, in which it continued till the death of Lytton Strode, Esq. grandson of Sir Nicholas and Judith, who having no issue, bequeathed it from the blood of the Lyttons, to William Robinson, Esq. his cousin-german, the son of his mo ther's brother, who took the surname of Lytton, and was succeeded by his son. He dying in 1762, without surviving issue, the estate descended to the present possessor, Richard Warburton Lytton, Esq. who is the son of Barbara, the daughter of the abovenamed William Robinson, Esq.

The ancient seat of the Lyttons is called KNEBWORTH PLACE: the Manor-house is a spacious quadrangular range of brick building, surrounding a court, and having a square castellated pile in the centre of the principal front, of an earlier period than the other parts of the structure. At a little distance is the Church, a small fabric, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and consisting only of a body and chancel, with a tower at the west end, and a Chapel, or burial-place, of the Lyttons, on the north side of the chancel. On a slab in the chancel, is a very fine Brass in memory of SIMON BACHE, Canon of St. Paul's, and Treasurer of the Household to Henry the Fifth: he died on the nineteenth of May, 1414; his figure is represented in a very rich robe, elegantly engraved. Between the chancel and the Chapel of the Lyttons, is an altar-tomb for JOHN HOTOFT, and his Lady, with a defaced inscription round the verge, from which it appears, that he was Treasurer of the Household to Henry the Sixth: from his arms being represented in the chancel window, and also on the outside of the tower, Salmon supposes him to have built the present Church. The Chapel contains several handsome monuments, and other memorials, in commemoration of various individuals of the Lytton family.

PAUL'S

PAUL'S WALDEN, or ABBOT'S WALDEN, was given by King Offa, or Egfrid, his son, to the Monastery of St. Alban, to which it continued attached till the Dissolution; after which Henry the Eighth granted it to the Church of St. Paul, London; and to this foundation it yet belongs. On this manor is an ancient Mansion, held under that Church, and which was some time possessed by the family of Gilbert, from whom it passed, by an heiress, to the family of Bowes, of Gibside, Durham; and from them to the Strathmores, by the marriage of Mary Elianor, daughter and heiress of George Bowes, Esq. to the Earl of Strathmore. This House was some time since occupied by the Earl of Burford, now Duke of St. Alban's.

STAGENHOO, or STAGENHOE, in the parish of Paul's Walden, was anciently parcel of the possessions of the Verduns, of whom John de Verdun levied a fine on this manor in the time of Edward the Third. From them it passed to the Pilkingtons, of Pilkington, in Lancashire, who held it till the time of Henry the Seventh, when Sir Thomas Pilkington, Knt. espousing the cause of Lambert Simnel, was slain in battle at Stoke, near Newark, in 1487, when his great estate was seized by the Crown. Shortly afterwards the King granted it to George, Lord Strange, son of the Earl of Derby, from whom it passed, by purchase, to the Godfreys, who sold it to Richard Hale, Esq. of King's Walden, whose son, William, gave it to John, his seventh son, who received the honor of knighthood in 1660, and was Sheriff of this county in 1663. Rose, his daughter and heiress, conveyed it by marriage to Sir John Austin, of Bexley, in Kent, Bart. Their son, Sir Robert Austin, sold it to Robert Heysham, Esq. who dying without issue in 1734, bequeathed it to his kinsman, Giles Thornton, of St. Botolph's, London, who assumed the name of Heysham, and whose grandson, Robert Thornton Heysham, Esq. is the present possessor. The House is a handsome building, standing in a small Park: it was built by Sir John Hale, Knt. about the year 1650.

The manor of KING'S WALDEN was held of Earl Harold in the time of Edward the Confessor; but after the Conquest, it continued in the Crown till it was granted, by Henry the First, to

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Peter de Valoines; from whom it passed to the Nevilles. It was afterwards possessed by various families; and in the time of Queen Elizabeth, was purchased by Richard Hale, Citizen and Grocer, of London, whose descendant, George William Hale, Esq. grandson of Sir Bernard Hale, Knt. a Baron of the Exchequer in the time of George the Second, is now possessor; and is married to a sister of the present Lord Viscount Grimston. The Manor-house stands in a small Park, well wooded with good oak timber.

At DINSLEY, or TEMPLE DINSLEY, a hamlet in the parish of Hitchin, was a PRECEPTORY of Knights Templars, founded in the time of the Baliols, Lords of Hitchin, who granted various lands to that Order. These possessions afterwards became the property of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who retained them till the Dissolution; when Henry the Eighth granted the manors of Temple Dinsley, and Temple Chelsin, with all their appurtenances, to Sir Ralph Sadlier, Knt. one of his principal Secretaries of State, in consideration of the sum of 8431. 2s. 6d. On the death of Sir Ralph, in the twenty-ninth of Elizabeth, this manor devolved, by settlement, on his second son, Edward Sadlier, Esq. in whose posterity it continued till the reign of Queen Anne, when it was sold by Sir E. Sadlier, Bart. to Benedict Ithell, Esq. His last surviving daughter, and, at length, sole heiress, bequeathed it to her Steward, Thomas Harwood, who, in the year 1786, left it to his nephew, Joseph Darton, whose son was possessor in 1800. The mansion of the Sadliers, a handsome building, was pulled down a few years ago. From a Quo Warranto roll of the sixth of Edward the First, quoted by Chauncy, it appears that the Prior of Wymondley held the site of the Castle at Dineslie by the yearly rent of ten shillings.

OFFLEY, GREAT OFFLEY, or Offley St. Leger's, is recorded to have received its former appellation from the Mercian King Offa, who had a Palace here, in which he died. The manor continued in the Crown till the time of Earl Harold, on whose defeat and death at Hastings, it fell to the Conqueror, who retained it till after the time of the Domesday Survey. It was afterwards granted to the family of St. Leger, or Leiger, who possessed it during se

veral descents, and from whom it at length passed, by an heir general, into the family of Hoo, in the reign of Edward the Third. Thomas de Hoo was a Knight of the Garter, and was also created Baron Hoo, of Hoo in the county of Bedford; and Baron Hastings, of Hastings, in the county of Sussex, in the twentysixth year of Henry the Sixth. He left four daughters, his coheiresses; Anne, the eldest of whom, married Sir Geoffrey Boleyne, Knt. a wealthy citizen of London, and by that match conveyed this manor into the Boleyne family. Sir Thomas Boleyne, Knight of the Bath, grandson to Sir Geoffrey and Anne, was created Viscount Rochford, in the seventeenth of Henry the Eighth : he was afterwards chosen a Knight of the Garter; and in the twenty-first of the same King, was created Earl of Wilts, and Ormond. He died in the thirtieth of Henry the Eighth: his only son, George, Viscount Rochford, was beheaded about two years before his own death; as was also Ann, one of his daughters, the ill-fated partner of Henry's bed and throne.

Long before the death of the Earl, this manor had been sold to Richard Farmer, Esq. from whose family it was purchased, in the reign of Philip and Mary, by Sir John Spencer, of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire; whose eldest son, Sir John, was progenitor of the Dukes of Marlborough, the Earls Spencer, and other noble families. Sir John, the purchaser of the manor, gave it to Sir Richard Spencer, his fourth son, whose son, Sir John, was created a Baronet in the first of Charles the First; but he dying without issue male in 1633, the title expired with him; and this estate passed by settlement, to his brother, Sir Brocket Spencer, who was created a Baronet in 1642. This title, after being enjoyed by his son Sir Richard, and his grandson, Sir John, terminated with his, Sir Brocket's, second son, also named John, in the year 1712. Elizabeth, eldest sister, and co-heiress of the last Sir John Spencer, married Sir Humphrey Gore, of Gilston, in this county, by whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir Henry Penrice, Kut. LL. D. By him she had two children; a son, named Spencer, who died without issue; and a daughter, called Anna Maria, who married Sir John Salusbury, LL. D. Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. This lady had no children; and she having VOL. VII. MARCH. 1806. L

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