Luton church, historical and descriptive

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Preface

More than seven centuries ago a Norman rhymer, Geoffrey Gaimar, recording the capture ot a British town which had taken place wellnigh six hundred years before his day, assigned to it the name and title of *'la cit6 de Luitune." Like the old Saxon chronicler, when relating this same event (r. 571), he, no doubt, meant to give, not the native name of the British camp, which seemingly perished from memory along with the structure itself, but that of the fort or town which arose on its ruins, or in their immediate neighbourhood The earlier writer named it, as styled in his day, " Lygean-burh,*^ " the fort upon the Lea ; " the later, three hundred years afterwards, designated it by the name of the township and parish in which it was by this time included, and of the well-known town which had taken its place, Luton.

Gaimar's name for it, therefore, is a plain index of the survival to his day of the tradition as to where in the Midlands that fatal struggle took place, whilst the accompanying title bears witness to the ancient renown of the township of Luton, as having, in days of yore, contained a "city," even "a royal city," as both Saxon and Norman historian, the Ealdorman Ethelweard and Henry of Huntingdon, assert the British town to have been. "A royal city," eventually; in consequence, a "royal manor," "of ancient demesne," even in the days of the Norman Conqueror, with a history commencing conterminously with the first recorded struggle in the Midlands between Saxon and Briton — its name the only one to be met with, besides that of Bedford, in the history of the shire for the first three hundred and fifty years of Anglian rule — Luton is not an upstart of to-day.

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PREFACE.

More than seven centuries ago a Nonnan rhymer, Geoffrey Gaimar, recording the capture of a British town which had taken place weDnigh six hundred years before his day, assigned to it the name and title of ''la cit6 de Luitune." Like the old Saxon duomder, when relating this same event (r. 571), he, no doubt, meant to give, not the native name of the British camp, which seemingly perished from memory along with the structure itself, but that of the fort or town which arose on its ruins, or in their immediate neighbourhood. The earlier writer named it, as styled in his day, " Lygean-burh,** " the fort upon the Lea ; " the later, three hundred years afterwards, designated it by the name of the township and parish in which it was by this time in* chided, and of the well-known town which had taken its place, Luton.

Gaimar's name for it, therefore, is a plain index of the survival to his day of the tradition as to where in the Midlands that fatal struggle took place, whilst the accompanying title bears witness to the ancient renown of the township of Luton, as having, in days of yore, contained a "city," even "a royal city," as both Saxon and Norman historian, the Ealdorman Ethelweard and Henry of Huntingdon, assert the British town to have been. " A

y^ royal dty," eventually; in consequence, a "royal manor," "of ancient demesne," even in the days of the Norman Conqueror,

^ irith a history commencing conterminously with the first recorded stniggle in the Midlands between Saxon and Briton — its name the only one to be met with, besides that of Bedford, in the history of the shire for the first three himdred and fifty years of Anglian nile— Luton is not an upstart of to-day.

VI PREFACE.

Yet modern writers have in general, with a singular disr^ard of both etymological and historical intimations, attributed wellnigh all that is recorded of its earliest history to some town or village not heard of till generations later, whilst even the tradition of those more recent events and persons which are plainly and rightly accredited to it in well-known records, has, for the most part, died out of the memory of its present population.

Yet Luton, as will 'be seen, has played its part, and a not inglorious or altogether unimportant part, from the very earliest times, in the story of the nation. It possesses one site, at least, within its borders of more than ordinary, it may be of unique interest, and two or more manors of perhaps little less historical consideration. It can claim among the lords of its chief manor, besides a long succession of worthy kings, some of the foremost champions of liberty and men of the most noble character, and it has seen in its streets or heard in its fanes many of the notables of both mediaeval and modem times ; whilst it can show in the history and present aspect of its venerable parish church, with its well-authenticated succession of clergy dating from Saxon tiroes to the present hour, an evidence as well of the continuity of the National Church, alike through changes of race and dynasty, of policies and creed, as of the still-existent beauty of one at least of her mediaeval fanes, notwithstanding both royal and fanatical despoilers.

Primaeval men, both Paleolithic and Neolithic, have left here, as elsewhere in the county, the mark of their residence in stone implements and weapons, in hatchets and scrapers, in spear and arrow-heads. British princes, both of early and of late date, as well as Roman officers with their subalterns, have almost certainly dwelt within its borders. Anglian, Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings have, in turn, owned its broad acres, and through a long series of years claimed annually from their tenants thereon their "honey and other provision for the royal table," their sumpter horse and hunting dogs, besides their four ounces of gold for their queen's wardrobe, even if they have not themselves, as one at least is recorded to have done, rested at their vill or

PREFACE. VU

"boxy'* there as they moved from manor to manor. Once at kisty also (November 12th, 931), subject kings and the whole hierarchy of the kii^dom, with all the chief nobles of the land, met their sovereign in solemn witenagemot of the whole nation — the grandest assembly of the kind on record — at his Luton mansion, where, as usual when such meetings were held at one of his manors, they " enjoyed the hospitality of the king."

The coins, too, and the tiles, the weapons, utensils, and bones of these several races found in the valley of the Lea, at Leagrave and limbury, at Dallow and the Hoo, and elsewhere therein, attest that each race in succession lived and toiled as well as fought and died there.

Men of mark, too, Earls of Perche, Albemarle, and Pembroke, the Princess Eleanor Plantagenet and her canonized husband, Simon de Montfort, John, Duke of Bedford, the wise and patriotic coimdllor of Henry VI., Mortimers, Wenlocks, Rotherams, Na{ners, and Stuarts, all names had in high estimation in their day, have each in succession held its chief manor, while others of no little note also, as Robert, the princely Earl of Gloucester, Robert fltzwalter, "Marshal of the Army of God and of His Church " in the days of Magna Charta, Hoo, Cheney, Lucy, and others, have possessed its other lands and manors. A Stuart queen on her progress with her husband through his kingdom (1605) "reposed" at one of its homesteads. A prime minister (the Earl of Bute) built and resided at its chief mansion in modem times. A poet, John Pomfret, very popular in his day, bat finding an unhappy and early grave, was bom in its vicarage. George Fox, John Wesley, Dr. Johnson, each has recorded in his diaiy his visits to the town; while tradition adds to the list of occasional preachers there the name of the author of the Pilgrim^ s Progress. An archbishop of Canterbury (John Peckham) in his dress as a Franciscan friar held a visitation there (1279). Reginald Pole, though cardinal and primate of all England, thought it not beneath his dignity to accept from the Crown, by special Act of Parliament, part of the tithes of the parish church.

The nobility of the land in the crisis of 1245 named it as their

Vlll PREFACE.

trysting-place, ostensibly for a tournament, virtually to oppose the Pope's pretensions and exactions. The manor of Luton is the chief manor of the hundred, its parish boundaries the most extensive in the county, its population second in number only to that of the chief town of the shire. The revenues of its church — of both its rectory and vican^e — ^from time immemorial the largest on record of all its neighbours; ''the ordination" of its vicarage — ^the result of a long contest between bishop and abbot — ^the designed model after which all succeeding vicarages were to be formed. Of its clergy, not a few have risen to the highest offices and dignities in the Church, one aspiring even to the Popedom itself. Hospitals, once planted upon its soil, claimed, legitimately, as their founders, one the first of the Plantagenet kings, the other his unbending subject, the murdered and canonized Thomas k Becket.

It is part of the scheme of the following pages to give a short biography, as far as ascertainable, of each of the persons who have been most intimately connected with the church.

But the chief design of the work is to give as full an account as practicable of the history of the church of the parish from the earliest times to the present day. That history appears to go back to the remotest period, even to that of the introduction of Christianity into this part of the country. If the conjectures hereafter made be well founded, then the church at Luton bore a prominent and honourable part in the first propagation of the gospel in the Midlands. It has been found, happily, that events connected intimately with the church of the parish, both at an early and at a later period, have been noted and preserved with unusual fulness. Similar events may have been happening and probably were happening elsewhere, even in the immediate neighbourhood, but they have not always been similarly recorded or the account preserved. The history of Luton church may therefore be taken as a specimen, and probably a fair specimen, of how it was faring with a large proportion of the numerous churches throughout the land, numbering, it is reckoned, at the date of the Survey, some six or seven thousand, and increasing

PREFACE. IX

gudiially to double that amount during the succeeding eight centuries.

This gives to that history a more than local and limited interest Contentions concerning rights of patronage, monastic appropriations of revenues, papal and royal exactions, "ordinations" of vicazages, disputes concerning tithes and glebes, the building, the D^ect, the decay or consumption by fire of the material fabric of the church; its frequent, almost continuous, restorations; generous giants made for the more solemn and decorous perfonnance of divine offices therein ; the increasing beauty of the architecture of the sanctuary ; its gradual decline to the poorest imitation of domestic forms, and the revival again of a purer and more reverent taste and style; the introduction of the various kinds of monuments to the dead, each age having its own ideas of appropriateness; the erection and recasting of bells, each bell so often telling its own tale, and not seldom that of the parish also ; the institution of rectors and vicars, and the appointment of chantry priests ; the variableness in the number of official assistants in the conduct of public worship, and the establishment of guilds to help the clergy both within and without the church — these and many suchlike facts and events which are recorded in the following pages are such as might be found with but slight modifications in the story of almost every parish around, could that story but be unfolded.

But beyond the changes thus continually going on, at Luton as elsewhere, the fulness of the records connected with its church bas made it x>ossible to exhibit a series of rectors and vicars believed to be almost unique. The twelfth century, even when ve have the names of the rectors during the days of the Confessor and the Conqueror, is too often a blank in the list of the clergy of a parish. The Gesta Abbatum S, Aibani helps us to bridge over ^ period in the case of Luton. By this means, supplemented by later documents, the continuity of the church through its Bunistry is exhibited throughout a period of at least eight hundred years— an interesting instance in itself, and valuable as showing that, if other early documents had been preserved, the same con-

X PREFACE.

tinuity of clergy might have been proved to have existed in almost every other parish church.

Though} owing to the paucity of Saxon documents, it is quite impossible to trace in all its stages in any parish the early development of the parochial system, yet something of it may be seen in the case of Luton, and some basis seems to be afforded for justifiable conjectures as to its further growth there. As being a royal manor, and situated where it was, it was probably as early as any in Mercia a complete parish with its own priest, and its church endowed with both land and tithe. An attempt has been made even to fix the date of that foundation.

As was to be expected, the story of Luton church has been from the first more or less connected with the general history both of the church and of the country. Without unnecessary digression that connection, in order to the better understanding of the facts and events related, has been at times exhibited, the bearing of each upon the other being often of considerable local interest. Where the introduction, however, of that history would have broken the continuity of the narrative, it has, when chiefly connected with the parochial history of Luton, if too long for a footnote, been generally consigned to the Appendix, whilst in the instances where the subject is also of county or more general interest, the discussion of it has been made to form part of a distinct portion of the work (Part IV.).*

HENRY COBBE.

Maulden Rectory.

* Part III., "The History of the Wenlock FamUy," and Part IV. are not at present in course of publication.

The proofs of this work were only corrected by the author to the end of Part I. The following notice appeared in The Guardian of November 3othy 1898:

*' In Memoriam — Henry Cobbe.

^ By the death of the revered Henry Cobbe^ a charming personality has been removed from the life and work of the Church in South Bedfordshire. Although he had reached a great age, his appearance and manners were young and vigorous, but an autumn chill developed into broncho-pneumonia, failure of the heart supervening, and he peacefully ended his happy and useful life two days after completing his eighty-first birthday. He was widely known as a scholar and antiquarian ; but, while his knowledge and literary tastes, if indulged, might have given him, like his gifted sister. Miss Frances Power Cobbe, considerable celebrity, he was contented to live his life as a country rector. He has left behind him a completed MS. on the antiquities of Luton, which we believe is in the process of publication. This has been the work of many years.

"The deceased, who was bom on November nth, 181 7, was the fourth and youngest son of the late Charles Cobbe, of Newbridge House, Donabate, County Dublin. One of his ancestors was Archbishop Cobbe, of Dublin (bom in 1686 and died in 1765X who built Newbridge House about 1737.

" Henry Cobbe was an Oriel man and graduated at Oxford in 1840, taking holy orders in 1842 from the Bishop of Kilmore. He remained a curate at Kilmore until his appointment in 1846 as incumbent of Grange, in Armagh. In 1866 he was preferred to the rectory of Milton Bryant in Bedfordshire, and in 1879 ^<> Maulden rectory, in the patronage of the Marquis of Ailesbury. In 1894 the Bishop of Ely gave him the position of rural dean in the deanery of Ampthill, where he received the unstinted confidence and regard of all the clergy. He was carried to the grave by the clergy of the deanery, who were followed by a host of sorrowing friends and parishioners.

"He merited and met the reward of a simple, eamest, and kindly life spent for the honour of his Master and the good of his people."

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PREFACE.

More than seven centuries ago a Norman rhymer, Geoffrey Gaimar, recording the capture ot a British town which had taken place weUnigh six hundred years before his day, assigned to it the name and title of "la cit6 de Luitune." Like the old Saxon chronicler, when relating this same event {c. 571), he, no doubt, meant to give, not the native name of the British camp, which seemingly perished from memory along with the structure itself, but that of the fort or town which arose on its ruins, or in their immediate neighbourhood The earlier writer named it, as styled in his day, " Lygean-burh,* "the fort upon the Lea;" the later, three hundred years afterwards, designated it by the name of the township and parish in which it was by this time in* eluded, and of the well-known town which had taken its place, Luton.

Gaimar's name for it, therefore, is a plain index of the survival to his day of the tradition as to where in the Midlands that fatal

^ struggle took place, whilst the accompanying title bears witness

* to the ancient renown of the township of Luton, as having, in

days of yore, contained a "city," even "a royal city," as both

Saxon and Norman historian, the Ealdorman Ethelweard and

Henry of Huntingdon, assert the British town to have been, "A

^ royal city," eventually^ m consequence, a "royal manor," "of ancient demesne," even in the days of the Norman Conqueror,

N with a history commencing conterminously with the first recorded

struggle in the Midlands between Saxon and Briton — its name the

- only one to be met with, besides that of Bedford, in the history

of the shire for the first three hundred and fifty years of Anglian

rule — Luton is not an upstart of to-day.

Xll CONTENTS.

Wftrren imposes a Tithe upon his demesne at Lnton^Baldwm de Bethune, Lord of the Manor — Geoffrey's successor — Earl Baldwin's Confirmation of the Abbey's property and privileges — Change of the market-day from Sunday to Monday — The Manor of Biscot — Robert Fitzwalter — ^The Dunstable Chronicle Pp. 67-97

CHAPTER VI.

TH£ RBIGN OF HENRY IIL, A.D. I216-I272.

Ecclesiastical matters at Luton and in the neighbourii^ parishes — Bishop Wells and the institution and endowment of Vicarages — Ordination of the Vicarage of Luton — John de S. Albans the first perpetual Vicar — Falkes de Breaut^ — ^William Marshall, and Earl of Pembroke — Lady EleanoTp Countess of Pembroke — ^Simon de Montfort, E^l of Leicester — ^An Early- Englbh Church — Adam de Biscot, the second Vicar, becomes a Preaching Friar — Rural Deaneries — Bishop Robert Grosseteste • • Pp. 99-125

CHAPTER VIL

LATB PLANTAGENET TIMES, A.D. I272-I399.

The Manor of Dolowe — The Ecclesiastical Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV. — The Vicars of the period — The fire at Luton — The Church's revenue — The Black Death — Deprivation of a Vicar. Appeal to Rome — The " Decorated " Church — Philip de Limbury — A Native of the Abbot — Vicars warned against Lollardy Pp. 128-150

CHAPTER VHL

LANCASTER AND YORK, A.D. 1399-1485.

Decline of Monasticism — Proces^ons to S. Albans — ^John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, Lord of the Manor— Bells for the Church— Theft of S. Luke's relics — Vicar Penthelyn and his two successors — ^The last mediaeval restoration of the Church — Abbot Wheathamstead parts with a farm of the Abbey at Luton — The founding of the Wenlock Chapel — The Abbot purchases a tenement at New Mill End for a Tithe Barn — Restoration of the chancel by Abbot Wheathamstead — The Hospital of B.V.M. and S. Mary Magdalene of Luton — The Guild of the Holy Trinity — A Welsh Prelate " provided " for the Vicarage . . Pp. 152-167

CHAPTER IX.

THE TUDOR PERIOD, A.D. I485-1603.

Adrian de CaStello (1492- 1502) an aspirant to the Popedom— Edward Sheffield^

LL.D. (1502-1526)— Richard Doke, D.D. (1526 )— Thomas Heiytage

( 1537) — " Reformation" changes — ^John Gwynneth, Mus. Doc. (1537-

CONTENTS. Xllt

CHAPTER X.

THE STUART PBRIOD, A.D. 1603-1714.

Edmund Brockett, A.M. (1595-1617)— John Birde, B.D. (1617-1643)— Intnided mimsters (1643-4- 1660)— Thomas Pomfrett, A.M. (1660-1705)

CHAPTER XL

THK GEORGIAN BRA, A.D. I714-1837.

Oiristopher Eaton, M.A. (i7o6-i745)~Geoige Barnard, M.A. (1745-1760)— William Prior, D.D. (1760-1779)— The Hon. William Stuart, A.M. (1779.1795)— James Russell Deare, LL.B. (1795-1798)— Stuart Corbett, M.A. (1798-1804)— Charles Henry Hall, D.D. (1804-1827) Pp. 330-242

CHAPTER XII.

THB VICTORIAN AGE, A.D. 1837-

C^on William M'Douall, M.A. (1827-1849)— Thomas Stkes, M.A: (1850. 1854)— Thomas Bartlett, M-A. (1854- 1857)— Thomas Williamson Peile, D.D. (1857-1860)— George Quirk, M.A. (1861-1862)— James O'Neill, B.D., R.D. (1862-1896)— Edmund Robert Mason, M.A. (1897-

Rectors and Vicars 257

C^iATES AND Officiating Ministers of the Parish Church . 264

(^rchwardens of the Parish Church 266

District Churches and their Incumbents 269

Part II

The Church op S. Mary 289

Monuments and Inscriptions 318

The Bells .357

APPENDICES TO PART I.

Chapter I. Introduction

A. Various Lutons — B. Places in Bedfordshire mentioned in Pre-Norman Records— C Extended Latin Text of Domesday— D. Offa's Charter- E. The Royal Manors of Bedfordshire— F. Early History of Bedfordshire, (h) Lygeanburh. (c) Dray's Ditches, (d) Wayland Bank, (e) Green's Theories Pp. 369438

XIV CONTENTS.

Chaptbr II. Early English Times, a.d. 653-919.

G. Bishopescote — H. Offia's Expeditions — I. Neglect of Fyrd . Pp. 439-447

Chaptbr III. Anglo-Danish Times, a.d. 9x9-1066.

J. Private Chapels — K. Error of Florence of Worcester — L. Lygeton and its Church — M. Early endowment of Churches — N. Witenagemots — O. Bury. P. (a) Dolowe Manor, (b) Dallow in Lymbury Hamlet • Pp. 44S-467

Chapter IV. Norman Times, a.d. 1066-1154/

Q. Freedom of the Church from secular service — R. Revenue of the Manor of Luton, temp, Henry I. — S. Geoffrey, Count of Perche — ^T. Robert, Earl of Gloucester — U. Conjectures as to the Architecture of the Norman Church — V. Marriage of the Clergy — W. Grant and Confirmation of the Church to S. Albans — X. Houghton Church — Y. Approximate dates of the events related in Chapter IV Pp. 470-487

Chapter V. Early Plantagenbt Times, a.d. 1154-1216.

Z. Richard, Archdeacon of Poictiers — AA. Hospital of SS. Maiy and M. Magdalene — AB. Hospitals for lepers — AC. Farley Hospital ~AD. Confirmations of the Churches of Luton, etc, to S. Albans — AE. Marriage Contract between Alice de Bethune and Vi^illiam Marshall — AF. King John's Confirmation of Earl Baldwin's grant of land in Luton to Santingfield Hospital— AG. Pedes Finium— AH. Text of Earl Baldwin's Confirmation of privileges to S. Albans — AL Biscot — AJ. Enfeoffment of Reinaldus de Bissopescote — AK. Robert Fitzwalter • Pp. 493-5 iS

Chapter VI. The Reign of Hbnry III., a.d. 12x6-1272.

AL. Turvey — AM. Liber Antiquus Hugonis Wells — AN. Ordination of Vicarages — AO. Houghton and Pottesgrove Churches — AP. Parochial Chapels— AQ. The site of Falkes' Castle^AR. Rural Deaneries

Chapter VII. Latb Plantagenbt Times, a.d. 1272-1399.

AS. "Members" of the Manor of Dolowe— AT. Monastic Colleges— AU. Nativi Pp. 565-568

Chapter VIII. Lancaster and York, a.d. 1399- 1485.

AV. Bedfordshire Chantries, obits and lights — AW. John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, K.G.— AX. Penthelyn's Will— AY. Thomas, Lord Hoo, of Hoo Pp. 569-576

Chapter IX. The Tudor Period, a.d. 1485- 1603.

AZ. Papal intrusions and exactions — BA. Suit of Vestments — BB. The Will of Edward Sheffield— BC. The Will of John Barbour— BD. The Will of Thomas Herytage— BE. Luton Tithes— BF. Indenture, 1586— BG. DoUow Manor and its appurtenances — BH. The possessions of ''The Fraternity of Luton " — BI. Gwynneth*s Publications . . Pp. 578-61$

CONTENTS. -xv«-

Chapter X. The Stuart Period, a.d. 1603-1714.

BJ. SeqnestratioDs of the Estates of Sir R. Napier, Bart, and Sir F. Crawlej, Knt. — BiL Lawsuits concerning Tithes .... Pp. 619-623

Chapter XI. The Georgian Era, a.d. 1714-1837.

BL. Specalmn Diocesios— BM. The Terrier of the Church, 1707— BN. The Stuart Family — BO. Particulars of the Church and Vicarage House, 1825

Chapter XII. The Victorian Age, a.d. 1837- BP. Histoiy of the various Restorations ...... P. 634

Appendix To Part II

Costome and Date of Efifigies of Priests P. 647

Table of Charitable Donations P. 650

Index P. 653

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Portiait Froniispieci

Lotoo Cburdi from the North-East, with Wenlock Chapel . . . i

KingOflb 5

LatoD Oiiirch from the South-East, with Hoo Chapel .... 288

Interior, looking East ^9^

Chancel, lookix^ North, with Arches leading into Wenlock Chapel . 292

Chancel, looking South, with Abbot Wheathamstead's Sedilia, etc. . 294

DTindow oC Bamaid's Chapel and Priest's Door 299

Piraa in Hoo Chapel 3^3

Tnnsitional Arch, South Aisle 3^5

West Window of South Aisle ... . . . . 3^^

Intoior, kwking West.— Baptistery 310

West Window of North Aisle 3i2

Early Ea^ish Arch, North Aisle 3^3

Pbdna hi Wenlock Chapel 3i5

bterior of Sacristy Z^^

Mookiings of Pillar in Sacristy 1^1

finss of Edward Sheffield, Vicar 320

Brass of Hugh atte Spetyl and his son John 3^1

Ancient Stone Coffin Lid 3^

Decorated Niche with Effigy of Priest, South Aisle .326

Bnss of Anne Warren and her Husband 33^

Bias of John Ackworth and his Wives 335

Boss of Woman 337

Tomb of WUUam Wenlock, Master of Farley Hospital . . . . 33^

Winiam Wenlock 34i

Ornament in Cornice over the Wenlock Tomb 34^

BiassofaVefledLady ..-350

Tomb of Sir John Rotheram 35^

Tomb of George Rotheram 355

TheTower 35^

Someries Castle 3^7

Gkound Plan of the Cuu&ch . 368

THE HISTORY OF LUTON CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction

I. Bedfordshire, Luton,

Early historical notices of any portion of that central part of England in which Luton * is situated — now popularly called " the Midlands" — ^are admittedly few and meagre.* The immediate district with which the township has been connected since the beginning of the tenth century has been known from that date as the county, or shire, of Bedford ; and as such must have had a somewhat distinct and corporate existence and therefore a special history of its own. Yet even of this period up to the time of the Norman Survey, beyond a few casual allusions, and those chiefly to be found in monastic and private documents, we have hardly a single fact recorded relating to any place within the borders of the shire. It is not surprising, therefore, that there should be still fewer notices of preceding times. Nevertheless in the three previous centuries the district must have been the scene of events of much greater moment than during the later period. At its commencement, soon after the inroad of the West Saxon^ in 571, even if not previously on the north of the Ouse, the original inhabitants, the Romanized Britons, were being more or less speedily dispossessed of their towns and forts, their homesteads and holdings ; they themselves were slain, driven away or enslaved, and their place taken by another and more vigorous race — the ancestors, presumably, of many who still dwell within its bounds. Later on came, no doubt, struggles between the various tribes and families of the invader for the possession of the best of the land \ rivalries

^ Appendix A, Various Lutons,

^ '* Mercia has left us neither the name of an author nor even a meagre chronicle" (Lappenbei^, Hist, of England^ p. 221).

2 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP.

between small clans or states, and still more frequently between their rulers ; and then the gradual absorption of these smaller into one larger ealdormanry or petty kingdom ; this last, perhaps, somewhat conterminous with the present county and eventually determining its boundaries. It was probably at this stage of the development of kingship among them, that the Mercian monarch, Penda, annexed the entire region to his own dominions. The district now called Bedfordshire thus became part of the great kingdom of Mercia. This was speedily followed by the greater change wrought in the character and habits of the people by their conversion to Christianity and the general advance of civilization.

The records of these events would have been of no little interest to after-generations ; but if, perchance, the account of any portion of them was ever preserved in either of the monasteries of Mercia, it doubtiess perished when those seats of learning and piety were rifled and burnt in the ninth century by the next invader of these shores, the ruthless Dane. It was hardly to be expected that occurrences which happened in so small a district, and so similar to those which were taking place elsewhere, should find any but an exceptional place in the annals of a distant monastery. It is only, therefore, on those few occasions when its affairs came to be connected more or less directly with those of some other kingdom, — as with that of the West Saxons in 571, and of Northumbria in 652, — that any allusions to them occur either in the Ecclesiastical History of Bede * (if his words include the district in question) or in the wider record of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicled Consequent on this, and owing to the rarity of other early manuscripts, scarcely more than one or two references to any events which can with certainty be attached to some acknowledged place ' within the district are to be found chronicled in any one century of the Saxon