Wymondley, Little (St. Mary)

WYMONDLEY, LITTLE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Hitchin, hundred of Broadwater, county of Hertford, 2½ miles (S. E. by E.) from Hitchin; containing 288 inhabitants. It comprises about 1160 acres; the soil is similar to that of Great Wymondley, and the surface is hilly. In the village is a college for educating Protestant dissenting ministers, founded in 1729 by W. Coward, Esq., with a chapel attached; the establishment originated at Northampton, and the celebrated Dr. Doddridge was its first theological professor. It possesses a valuable library of about 10,000 volumes, with an extensive and complete philosophical apparatus. There are two professorships, one including the theological, philosophical, and mathematical departments; and the other, every branch of classical literature. The living is a donative curacy; net income, £20; patron and impropriator, S. H. U. Heathcote, Esq. The church contains some very ancient gravestones. A priory of Black canons in honour of St. Lawrence, was founded here in the time of Henry III., by Richard Argentein, and at the Dissolution had a revenue of £37. 10. 6. No remains exist of the building; its site is marked by some avenues of stately box-trees, and there is an old well, to the water of which tradition ascribes considerable efficacy.