Sutton (All Saints)

SUTTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union and hundred of Biggleswade, county of Bedford, 1¾ mile (S.) from Potton; containing 415 inhabitants. It comprises upwards of 2000 acres; the soil is sandy, and the surface varied. The parish was the seat and royalty of the celebrated John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who conferred Sutton and Potton upon Sir Roger Burgoyne and his heirs, by a curious laconic deed in doggerel verse, which is preserved among the ancient records in the Arches, Doctors' Commons. The manor-house was burnt down in 1826. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20, and in the patronage of St. John's College, Oxford, with a net income of £362: the tithes have been commuted for £10, and there are 32 acres of glebe, with a house, near which is a fine chalybeate spring. The learned Bishop Stillingfleet was rector of Sutton, and here wrote his Origines Sacræ.