Hic Jacer Galfridus Joslyne et Katherina ac Johana uxor ei In a chantry connected with the north aisle, several of the Chauncy family were interred; and on a slab in the pavement, bearing the name of William Chauncy, is the following inscription, beneath two shields; one of which has the five wounds, and the other a cross fleury, in chief, a lion passant guardant. Te ergo quesimus tuis familis subuem quos presioso sanguine Round the verge of an ancient stone, in the nave, is this inscription in Saxon characters, for a former Rector of this Church; and which has been given incorrectly both by Chauncy and Salmon: Hie Jacet Thomas de Aungerville quondam Rector ecclesie Among the other monuments are several to the memory of the Hewyts, formerly Lords of this Manor, and of Pishobury; whose burial vault is beneath the entrance to the chancel. The figure of George, Lord HEWYT, who was created a Baron by James the Second, in 1689, and died in the same year, at the age of thirty-seven, is represented in armour, standing upright, and surrounded by trophies, SIR WALTER MILDMAY, Knt, and MARY, his wife, daughter of Sir William Walgrave, Knt. of Smal bridge, in Suffolk, were also buried, and have a monument in this Church. According to the late returns, the number of houses in this Parish amounted to 186; that of inhabitants to 1687. PISHOBURY, in the Parish of Sabridgeworth, was anciently the property of the Magnavilles, but afterwards belonged to the Fitzgeralds, and the Scropes of Bolton. Henry, Lord Scrope, conveyed it to trustees for the use of Henry the Eighth; and Queen Elizabeth granted it to Walter Mildmay, Esq. afterwards Sir Walter, who was Sheriff of Herts in the thirty-second of Elizabeth, and erected a mansion at Pishobury for his own residence. His son, Sir Thomas, sold it to Sir Lionel Cranfield; and it has since 1 passed passed through various families to that of Milles. The situation of the House and grounds is very pleasant; the river Stort nearly encircles the south and east sides. GILSTON formed part of the estate of the Magnavilles, and afterwards of William D'Albini, whose daughter and heiress, Isabel, married Robert de Roos, Lord of Helmesley, in Holderness, by whom the manor was divided into two, called Great and Little Gilston; and also Overhall, and Netherkall. These have descended, by purchase, and otherwise, through the families of the Giffords, Chaunceys, Gores, and others, to William Plumer, Esq. one of the present Members for this county; whose principal residence is at GILSTON PARK. The more ancient seat of this gentleman is at BLAKESWARE, in the parish of Ware; an estate that was purchased by his father, John Plumer, Esq. In the north aisle of Gilston Church is an ancient slab, the lower part covered by a pew, on which is sculptured a cross fleury; and above it the words ALYS DE RDS, who appears to have been wife to John de Ros, or Roos, a Lord of this Manor in the time of Edward the Third. Several of the Gores lie buried in this fabric. HUNSDON is a pleasant village, situated on a rising ground, overlooking the fertile meadows watered by the Stort. In the time of King John, the manor was held by Sir Walter de Montgomery, Count de Ferrariis; but it afterwards became the property of the Engaines, and from them, by a co-heiress, passed to the Goldingtons. In the reign of Henry the Sixth, it belonged to Sir William Oldhall, who was Knight of the shire in the twenty-ninth of that Sovereign; and whose son, Sir John Oldhall, built a large castellated Mansion here in the time of Edward the Fourth, at an expense of more than 7000l. After he was slain in the battle of Bosworth Field, this manor was seized by the Crown, and was granted, by Henry the Seventh, to his mother, the Lady Margaret, Countess of Derby, and her husband, Thomas, Earl of Derby, for life. Henry the Eighth built a Palace here, afterwards called HUNSDON HOUSE, and destined it to the education of his chil dren. He also connected the manor with those of Stansted, and * Chauncy's Herts, p. 197. and Royden, in Essex, and erected them into the Honor of Honesdone." Queen Mary annexed the manor of Hunsdon, with several others in this county, to the Duchy of Lancaster: but it was again separated, and granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Cary, who was the son of her unfortunate mother's sister, Mary Boleyn, by her husband, Sir William Cary, and who was afterwards created Baron Hunsdon by the Queen, and made a Knight of the Garter, besides having several important offices conferred on him. His great grandson, John, second Earl of Dover, sold Hunsdon to William Willoughby, Esq. afterwards Lord Willoughby, of Parham; who, in the year 1671, again sold it to Matthew Bluck, Esq. from whose family it was purchased by the Calverts, and is now the property of Nicholson Calvert, Esq. Hunsdon Salmon's Herts, p. 252. + The following particulars of the death of this Earl are inserted in Hasted's Hist. of Kent, Vol. III. p. 42, octavo edit. "Lord Hunsdon was highly favored by the Queen, who continually employed him in offices of trust, and negociations of great importance. In her fourth year he was elected Knight of the Garter, being then Captain of the Band of Pensioners, and of the Privy Council, and afterwards Lord Chamberlain, and General Warden of the Marches towards Scotland. Notwithstanding which, thinking himself slighted by the Queen, in her not giving him the dignity of Earl of Wiltshire, a title which he thought in some measure belonged to him in right of Mary, his mother, and which he had frequently solicited, he took it so much to heart, that it threw him into a dangerous sickness, which at length put an end to his life in the thirty-eighth year of that reign; though the Queen, to make some amends for her hard usage of him, whilst he lay on his death-bed, paid him a gracious visit, causing his patent for the above earldom to be drawn out, his robes to be made, and both to be laid on his bed. But this Lord, who could dissemble neither sick nor well, told her, that as he was counted by her unworthy of this honor whilst living, so he counted himself unworthy of it when dying. He was buried in the Abbey Church of Westminster, where a noble and costly monument was erected to his memory.” Hunsdon House has been much reduced, but has still a venerable appearance, and is surrounded by a moat. In Strype's Memorials are letters dated from Hunsdon, by Prince Edward; and his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, appear to have resided here for several years. With them also, was educated their second cousin, the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the Earl of Surrey's Fair Geraldine, who was grand-daughter to the Marquis of Dorset, the brother of Elizabeth, Henry the Seventh's Queen.* The Princess Mary resided here when Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen, after the death of Edward the Sixth; but then retired to Framlingham Castle for safety. In Hunsdon Church, in a small Chapel, or Burial-Place, of the Lords of the Manor, is a monument, and inscription, in memory of "SIR JOHN CARY, Knt. Baron of Hunsdon," who succeeded his brother George, second Lord Hunsdon, on the death of the latter, in September, 1603. He had been made Governor of Berwick, and Lord Warden of the East Marches, by Elizabeth; and continued in the north till the accession of James the First, whom he accompanied in his progress to the Metropolis: he died in the year 1617. Several of the Calverts lie buried here; some of whom have monuments: and in the chancel is the monument of SIR THOMAS FORSTER, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who died in May, 1612, at the age of sixty-three. Near the pulpit is also a slab, "Strype has preserved a curious Letter, relating to the maintenance of the Lady Elizabeth after the death of her mother: it is written from Hunsdon, by Margaret, Lady Bryan, governess to the Princess, (Elizabeth,) and who, as she says herself, had been made a Baroness on her former preferment to the same post about the Lady Mary; a creation which seems to have escaped all our writers on the Peerage." Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors. + This Nobleman was the fourth son of Henry, first Lord Hunsdon. Robert, Lord Leppington, his youngest brother, wrote "Memoirs of his own Life," which were published by the late John, Earl of Cork and Orrery, in 1759, and contain many interesting anecdotes of the times of Elizabeth, and her successor, James the First: he was the first person that conveyed the intelligence of the death of Elizabeth into Scotland. a slab, inlaid with a very curious Brass, representing a Huntsman, with his bugle-horn and broad-sword, levelling a cross-bow at a stag, while Death, delineated as a skeleton, is pointing a dart at his breast: beneath is this inscription: BELOVED OF ALL WHILST HE HAD LYFE NEAR TO THIS DEATH'S SIGNE BRASS DOTH LYE; YEARS THIRTY-FIVE IN GOOD RENOWN PARKE AND HOUSEKEEPER OF THIS TOWN. OBIIT 12 DIE DECEMBRIS Ao. D'NI 1591, ET. 60. Tradition represents the Huntsman as dying suddenly, while in the act of shooting at a buck: his motto is Sic Pergo; which a celebrated antiquary has translated, Thus I go on till the same fate befalls me." EASTWICK had formerly the privilege of a market, and a three days' fair, granted by Henry the Third to Richard de Toni, to whom he had previously given the manor. In the Church is the effigies of a Knight Templar; and a mural monument for JOHN PLUMER, Esq. of Blakesware, and MARY, his wife, daughter of William Hale, Esq. of King's Walden: the former died in 1718, 19, at the age of sixty-five; the latter in 1709. STANSTED ABBOT is recorded in the Domesday Survey, as a borough-town, governed by a Port-reve, and having seven Burgessés: but it is now only an inconsiderable village. Roger de Wauney, who was Lord here in the time of William Rufus, and Henry the First, gave the Church of Stansted to the Priory of Merton in Surrey; and Michael, his son, granted a moiety of the manor to the Abbots of Waltham, in the reign of Henry the Second: the other moiety he sold to the King, who afterwards bestowed it on the same Abbots. Henry the Eighth, in his twentythird year, obtained it in exchange for the Priory of Blackmore, in Essex; Gent's Mag. March, 1795, p. 200. A Cut of the Brass is inserted in the same Volume, fronting p. 13. |