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The Chapel of St. Katherine in Hoddesdon
Created 21 June, 2008
A RECORD of an action brought in the King's Bench in 1242 by Magister Alexander de Swereford, is the first indication of there being a place of worship in Hoddesdon. The action was brought against Humfrey de Bassingbourne and his mother, owners of Hoddesdonbury and tenants of the Bohun property, claiming the right of presentation to the chapel at Hoddesdon'.
In the tenth year of Edward III, 1336, William de la Marche, referred to in earlier charters as 'the King's Cook', following a prayer to the King, obtained a grant of 'certain void space belonging to us in Hoddesdon, 30 feet of ground in length, and 20 feet in breadth, to be held of us in chief, so that he may build anew on the aforesaid place, a chapel in honour of St Katharine, and that he may give that chapel to any chaplain or man of religion on whom he may choose, and that the chaplain or man of religion may hold the same, the statute of lands and holdings in mortmain notwithstanding'. Tradition states that William de la Marche owned and lived in a house on the site of the Maidenhead Inn, but during his life he held many and varied offices, so that it seems unlikely that he resided there for any length of time. In 1326 he had been granted a pension by the Abbot of St Albans for services rendered; in 1327 he was granted the position of Chief Crier in the Court of King's Bench for life, but in 1328 this grant was revoked on the ground that it was made in forgetfulness of a former grant thereof to Geoffrey de Say. Having certified that Geoffrey had been guilty of extortions he again obtained the Crier appointment, again made for life, but in the following year, having got into difficulties with his accounts, he had to petition the King for relief. He was pardoned and appears in the record no more.
In 1370 there appears to have been some doubt as to which parish the Chapel stood in, Amwell or Broxbourne, and an inquiry by the lord of the manor of Amwell in that year, shows that the Chapel was originally completely within that parish. The record of the inquiry is quaint and the statements of the many witnesses far from clear.
An Inquisition of a Chapell Witnesses sworn of the lord John of Amwell syen and put up in thies things following, that is to say that the Chapell of St Katharine is openly constituted and set! within the parke and bounces of the parish of Amwell; also that one, Wm de la Marche parishoner of the sd p of Amwell founded and built the Chapell in the honour of St Katharine. Item the said founder of the Chapell willed and ordeyned in the foundation of the said Chapell that it shoulde not extend from the Est pte over or above a house of the said William de la Marche openly seat. Also between the Chapell and a house of a smythe, being from the Chapell the space of xl foot or more; there are certain signs and tokens commonly called stacks put, which devided the parishes of Amwell and Broxbourne. And shortly after for the more use of the same, one Richard at Ponde of the parish of Amwell planted and set up a tree within the same signs and tokens by the space of vj feet or more, wherein the Chapell standeth, that the parishoners of Amwell may surely stand to be within the bound and marks in place or sightes to be made ther.
Also that Gilbert Messanger within the same markes of the sd Chapell, was left half deade, also they say beforetime that Wm de la Marche by the means of our sovn Lod the Kyng, builded the said Chapell. When any misfortune happened in that place where the sd Chapell is builded, these bounds were made by men of Amwell and not by any other person.
Not a very lucid statement; the original document contains no punctuation but it is hoped that the attempt that has been made to overcome this lack, will make it readable.
In 1510 Sir William Say, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and a great benefactor to the district, gave at least one of the Chapel's three bells, and possibly the other two. Sir William, twelve years later, built a Chapel on the north side of the chancel of Broxbourne Church. Only one of the ancient bells remains today, still striking the hours in the present Clock Tower.
It is one of the few pre-reformation bells in the district and bears the inscription 'Sancta Anna ora pro nobis' and the founder's mark of Thomas Bullisdon who was casting bells in London in 1510. The only other bell in Hertfordshire bearing this maker's mark is the tenor bell at Anstey.
The records have little to tell us between this time and 1600; one only learns of the Chapel's continued existence from passing allusions in the court rolls, and from the study of deeds of the period. It appears to have been used for the transaction of a variety of business matters, really serving the purpose of a Town Hall. Its priests must have been attires of a distinctly irreligious type if one is to believe the statements of those who suffered from their strange behaviour.
One Lee, a curate of the Chapel, is mentioned in the Court of Star Chamber Proceedings, Henry VIII, vol XV, folios 95 and 96, in connection with a riotous attack on a funeral party passing through the town in 1534, taking the body of Sir William FitzWilliam to Northampton for burial.
When Marmaduke Rawdon, later to be knighted by King Charles I for the great services he rendered the Royalist cause in the Civil War, came to Hoddesdon and built his house in the High Street, he evidently took the Chapel in hand, and in order to relieve it of its secular connections, built a Market House about 20 yards south of the site of *Mr Stagg's shop, completely dividing the highway.