History and Antiquities of the Country of Hertford Icheton,
Lefstanchirche otherwise Layston Vol III pages 427 to 438
THIS Vicarage lies within the Diocese of London, the Archdeaconry of Middlesex, and the Deanery of Braughing.
In the Ecclesiastical Taxation made by order of Pope Nicholas the Fourth, in the 20th year of the reign of King Edward the First, A. D. 1291, this Rectory was rated at £8. 13s. 4d. per annum(a).
In the Survey made upon the dissolution of the Monasteries, in the 26th year of King Henry the Eighth, it was valued, with the Chapel of Alswyk decayed, and Buntingford, in the King's Books at £14. 6s. 3d. per annum (b).
The Commissioners appointed by the Parliament to inquire into the state of Ecclesias¬tical Benefices in the year 1650, found that this Vicarage was worth £50 per annum, and that Alexander Strange was Vicar, and that there was a Chapel in the town of Bunt¬ingford not endowed, which was commonly served by the Vicar of Layston (c).
This Vicarage was given, with the Manor of Cornei, to the Priory of the Holy Trinity, and was afterwards confirmed to the Canons there by Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, and after that appropriated to their own use by Richard Fitzneal, his next immediate successor in that see, and a Vicarage ordained and endowed as followeth :
"Omnibus St. Mariae Ecclesiae filiis, Richardus Miseratione Divina London. Ecclesiae Minister, salutem in Domino. Episcopalis Officii sollicitudinem viros religiosos pro-pensius fovere, et possessiones suas et bona, quibus in die servtio possint ubeius sustentari, autenticis instrumentis eis confirraare pariter et communire, ea propter attendentes religionem, et ordinis honestatem dilectorum in Christo flliorum nostrorum Canonicorum S. Trinitatis, London, inherentes et vestigiis bonae Memoriae G. London* Episcopi, predecessoris nostri, Ecclesiam de Lefstanchurch cum pertinentiis suis, eis ab Hugone Tricket concessam, et praadicti predecessoris autoritate, sicut in cart is eorum quas inspeximus manifeste patet, confirmatam, eis habendum, et perpetub possidendam concedimus, et Episcopali quae praesidemus autoritate cotifinnamus, statuentes ut, ad uberiorem Domus et Canonicorum sustentationem, decimas omnes Garbarum de eadem parochia in usus proprios habeant et convertaut. Vicarius autem perpetuus, quicunq' ad presentation em Canonicorum in eadem Ecclesift ministrabit, ad sui sustentationem habebit omnes alias decimas preterquam de Dominico illorum, et omnes obveritiones ad ecclesiam pertinentes, et liberam terram ecelesias, cum domibus et redditibus hominum de eadem libera" terra tenenium, qui et Canonicis de eadem Vicaria, Marcam aunuam persolvet, et Episcopo Diocesano, et officialibus suis, et consuetudinibus Ecclesiae, respondebit. Ne igiturquse a. nobis solenniter acta sunt possint tractu temporis irritari, Paginae presentis annotatione sigilliq' nostri testiinonio corroborare curavimus. Hiis testibus, Petro Archid. London. M. Alardo, Will, de Ely, M. Rogero Canonico S. Pauli, Alano et Riebardo Capellanis de Walden (d)."
Thus this Church was appropriated to the aforesaid Priory, and a Vicarage ordained and endowed, of which the said Prior and Canons continued Proprietors and Patrons till their suppression, upon which they came to the Crown, and King Henry the Eighth, in the 33d of his reign, granted them and the Manor of Corneybury to the Lord Chancellor Audley, and his heirs, and by the intermarriage of Margaret, his daughter and sole heir, with Thomas Duke of Norfolk, they came to the said Duke, who sold the same to John Crouch, Citizen and Clothworker of London (e). From this time the Advowson of this Vicarage hath continued appendant to the Manor of Corneybury, and is at present vested in William Butt, Esquire, the present Lord thereof.
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