A History of Preston in Hertfordshire
Countess Judith founded the Roman Catholic Benedictine Abbey of Elstow, Bedfordshire in 1078. She was born in 1054/55 and
was the half-sister of William the Conquerer and the widow of Waltheof, Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon. She had
holdings of land in ten English counties.
Waltheof and his brother conspired with the Danes to subvert the newly-established English dynasty of William only three years
after his conquest of England. When this uprising failed, he submitted to the King who, in response, confirmed his rights as Earl
and gave him his niece, Judith, in marriage.
In 1074, he declined pressure to join with another conspiracy against the absent King but promised not to betray the plotters.
However, Judith learnt of the revolt, told William, and as a result Waltheof was first imprisoned at Winchester and then
beheaded in 1075. It was possibly as a reaction of contrition and atonement for her part in the death of her husband that Judith
built Elstow Abbey. The Abbey was noted in the Domesday Book of 1086.
A Benedictine Nun
A Royal Charter was a formal document issued by the sovereign which granted rights and
privileges to individuals or organisations. Between 1124 and 1135, a Charter of William’s
successor, Henry I, legally confirmed an earlier gift of ‘the Church of St Andrew, Hiche (ie
Hitchin) with lands and liberties’. Rev SR Wigram in his book, Chronicles of the Abbey of
Elstow (on which this article is primarily based) suggests that the Church at Hitchin was
undergoing the process of conveyance either to the Abbey or to Judith who may have made
them over to the Abbey at the time the materials for the Domesday Survey were being
collected (ie 1086). St Andrews Church was annexed to St Mary of Elstow and its name
gradually morphed from Church of the Nuns of St Mary to St Mary’s Church.
Another Royal Charter passed between 1130 and 1160 during the reign of Henry II
confirmed several new gifts conferred on Judith in Hertfordshire. These included:
37 “Of the gift of Maleverer and Cecilia his wife, the Church of
Dumeslai (sic) and six acres of land in the same vill(age).”
38 “Of the gift of Roger de Chandos and by Grant of Robert his son
(who came to England during the Conquest) the whole land which he
had in Dineleshou”
Then, during the reign of Henry III, there was an agreement between Almeric de St Maur, Master of the (Templars) Temple
and Mabilia, Abbess of Elstow for the provision of a chaplain for the chapel at Preston. Three Charters alluded to this during
the rule of Henry III in around 1218/19:
“Covenant between the Masters and Brothers of the Temple and the Abbess
of Elmestowe concerning tithes in Hichen (sic) and the annual payment of
one mark of silver”. The Brothers were to pay the Nuns tithes of corn in the
parish of Hitchin and also the tithes of all newly-tilled lands, men and assizes
at the time of this covenant. The nuns granted that the Templars at Preston in
the parish of Hitchin have a chaplain to be selected by themselves to
celebrate divine service for them throughout the year at the appointed times
(ie three days a week - Wednesday, Friday and Sunday - celebrating Mass,
Matins and Vespers). The nuns for the support of this chaplain shall give the
brothers one mark of silver: one half at the feast of St Michael and the other
half at Easter - and four pounds of wax at the feast of St Michael.
These documents are also of interest as they contain only the second-known historical reference to the place-name, Preston.
By 1533, the holding of the Rectory of Hitchin, including Preston/Dinsley, accounted for around half the income of the nuns. It
was assessed at £66. 13s 4d out of a total holding of less than £128. The Abbey was a casualty of the Dissolution of Henry VIII
and was closed in 1539, when it was transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge. Thus, one monarch gave; and another, took away.
The Nuns of Elstow and Preston
The ruins of the Abbey
‘Dumeslai ‘and ‘Dineleshou’ likely refer to Dinsley - some decades later, in 1185, the inquest
of the Knights Templar recorded ‘In the village of Prestune are four carucates (around 480
acres) given by Bernard de Balliol (who had died by 1167 and Oliver de Malvoier (sic).’
So, during four centuries from around 1086, the dominant religion at Dinsley, and therefore Preston, was Roman
Catholicism.
Elstow Church with the remains of the Abbey