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Hinxworth (St. Nicholas)

HINXWORTH (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Royston, hundred of Odsey, county of Hertford, 4½ miles (N.) from Baldock; containing 328 inhabitants. The parish comprises by computation 1300 acres of pasture and arable land, the latter of which predominates; the soil is a strong clay, producing good crops. Two ancient manor-houses, called respectively Hinxworth Place and Hinxworth House, are now occupied as farmhouses. A pleasure-fair is held on the festival of St. John the Baptist. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £16; net income, £300; patron, the Rev. John Lafont: the tithes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1802. The church is an ancient structure, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a low spire, and contains about 230 sittings; in the chancel is a tablet to the memory of John Lafont, Esq., descended from a Protestant branch of an old French family, and who was interred here in 1834. In the neighbourhood, urns inclosing ashes and burnt bones were discovered in 1724, also several human skeletons, with a glass tribulus, lachrymatories of glass, pateræ of red earth, &c.; and in 1810, two beautiful and very scarce Greek coins, or medals, were found in a state of entire preservation, one being of Mithridates, King of Pontus, the other of Perseus, King of Macedonia.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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