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Cheshunt in Hertford County England History and GeographyCHESHUNT, a parish (formerly a market-town) in the hundred and county of HERTFORD, 8 miles (S. by E.) from Hertford, comprising the three wards of Cheshunt-Street, Waltham-Cross, and Woodside, and containing 4376 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Middlesex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £26, and in the patronage of the Marquis of Salisbury. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. Cheshunt College, for the instruction and preparation of young men for the ministry, was originally established at Talgarth, in the county of Brecon, South Wales, by the late Countess of Huntingdon, in 1768, who continued to support it until her death in 1791, when it was removed by the trustees to this place, and re-opened on the 24th of August, 1792. A chapel was built in 1806, and in 1821 a new building was annexed for the accommodation of twenty additional students. The students, who, together with the masters, are appointed by the trustees, are boarded, and instructed in the knowledge of the Scriptures, in English composition on sacred subjects, in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, the elements of the mathematies, civil and ecclesiastical history, and geography; and, on leaving the college at the end of four years, or sooner if deemed able to commence the service of the ministry, are free to join any denomination of Christians they may choose. The institution is supported by the interest on about £8000 stock, a portion of an estate called Cobham, and annual subscriptions, the whole producing about £1200 per annum. The village is situated near the course of the river Lea and the line of the new river, and is supposed to occupy the site of a Roman station, on the Roman road Ermin-street. The petty sessions for the division are holden here. In the parish was a bank separating the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia, during the Heptarchy, the lands on one side of which the elder brother still inherits, and the younger those on the other side. To the north are some remains of a nunnery, founded in the reign of Stephen by Peter de Belengey, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, for nuns of the Sempringham order, in which Henry III. afterwards placed others of the Benedictine order: its revenue, in the 26th of Henry VIII., was estimated at £27. 6. 8., which was granted, 28th Henry VIII., to Sir Anthony Denny. Cardinal Wolsey possessed the united manors of Andrews and Le Mote in this parish, and received from the crown the appointment of bailiff of the honour, and keeper of the park of Cheshunt. Here stood also Theobalds, the favourite residence of Lord Burleigh, and afterwards of James I., who died at it in 1625; it became the occasional residence of Charles I., having been the place where he received the petition from both houses of parliament in 1642, a short time before he placed himself at the head of the army; the greater part of the palace, the park attached to which was ten miles in circuit, was taken down by the parliamentary commissioners for selling the crown lands, in 1650. Near the church is a house in which Richard Cromwell, after resigning the protectorate, lived in retirement under the assumed name of Clark, till his death in 1712. Waltham-Cross, a considerable hamlet in this parish, is distinguished by a beautiful stone cross, erected by Edward I., in memory of his queen, Eleanor, who died at Hardeby, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire: similar crosses were erected at every town where the corpse rested, on its removal to Westminster, of which those of Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham alone remain. Roman coins of the reigns of Adrian, Claudius, Gothicus, and Constantine, were found at Cheshunt, and shewn to the Society of Antiquaries in 1724. The free school was founded about 1642, and endowed with land by Robert Dewhurst, who built the school-house: it is under the management of twelve trustees: the master's salary is £20 per annum. The same benefactor also assigned twenty nobles each, for apprenticing six poor boys to handicraft trades, in corporate towns, appropriating five nobles to be paid as a premium, five in clothing, and the residue for expenses of indenture. There are a National school for boys, and a school of industry for girls. Almshouses for ten widows, at Turner's Hill, in this parish, are endowed with a donation of £500 from James I: the income has been augmented by various additional benefactions. There are several minor donations for the benefit of the poor. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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