A History of the County of Hertfordshire Volume 4 - Layston pages 77 to 88

arms: quarterly, 1 and 4, Argent a cheveron sable between three rooks proper, each holding an ermine tail in its beak sable ; a and 3, Or a leopard gules, with the crest of a rook. Underneath is the inscription : 'This windowe was mad & . . . . ed at the only Charges of William and Mary Reynolds the Sonne and daughter of Lewes Reynolds sometyme Vicar of Laist[on]e. 1622.'

ADVOWSONS The earliest reference to the church of St. Bartholomew occurs is the reign of Henry II when Hugh Triket gave the manor of Corneybury in Wyddial to the Prior and canons of Holy Trinity, London, and also remitted them all right in the church of Layston which they had formerly held of him and his ancestors.(49) They received licence to appropriate the vicarage from Richard Fitz Neal,(50) Bishop of London 1189 to1198.(51) The advowson and rectory of St. Bartholomew descended after the Dissolution with the manor of Corneybury.(52) By the beginning of the 17th century it was found that the position occupied by the church was inconvenient. The River Rib flowed between the town of Buntingford and the parish church, and although there was little more than half a mile between the two, the road was sometimes rendered impassable by floods.(53) It was therefore determined to build a chapel of ease in Buntingford, and from this time St. Bartholomew's, although the mother church, became of diminishing importance. At the end of the 19th century services were only held there in the summer months(54) and its condition was described as deplorable.(55)

The patronage of the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Alswick,(56) was origi¬nally in the hands of the lord of the manor of Alswick, but when in the reign of Henry II the church of Layston was granted to the Prior and canons of Holy Trinity, Richard Fitz William, lord of the manor of Alswick (q.v.), made a grant to the prior of all his right in the church(57) and I acknowledged it to be a chapel to the mother church of Layston. After the dissolution of Holy Trinity in 1531(58) the king sold the chapel to Sir Henry Parker, who took for his own use the church plate, which was valued at £6, and sold the bells and all the timber, lead and stone of the chapel to William Hammond and Henry Grave of Buntingford.(59) The chapel was never restored, but its site may still be traced on the south side of Alswick Hall.

The advowson of the chapel of St. John the Baptist, Buntingford, belonged to the lord of the manor of Throcking and was attached to the part of the manor called Vabadun’s fee.(60) In 1292 Roger Brian, lord of the manor of Throcking, founded a chantry there and granted 2 acres of land and 100s. rent in Hinxworth, Throcking, Clothall and Aspenden for the support of a chaplain.(61) By the end of the 15th century the chapel was evidently in want of repair, for Leonard Hyde, by his will proved February 1508—9, left 40s. for its ' fynysshing . . . if the parson of Throcking or any other well disposed man will it edify.' (62) By this it is probable that at this date the chapel had no chaplain of its own, but was served by the rector of Throcking. By the end of the following century the chapel had fallen into such decay that it could no longer be used.(63) The loss of it was much felt by the people of Buntingford, who had been accustomed to attend the chapel and who were frequently cut off from the church of Layston by the floods of the River Rib.(64) The difficulty was met by the Rev. Alexander Strange, the vicar of Layston, who, taking as his motto ' Begghard or beggard,' exerted himself to collect money to rebuild the chapel. In 1614 the present chapel was begun and in 1628 it was completed and rededicated to St. Peter. From the time of its rebuilding the advowson of St. Peter's Chapel has descended with Layston Church, to which it has been a chapel of ease.

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