Cashio, or Cashiobury

CASHIO, or Cashiobury, a hamlet, in the parish and union of Watford, hundred of Cashio, or liberty of St. Alban's, county of Hertford, 1½ mile (N. W.) from Watford; containing, with the hamlet of Leavesden, 1548 inhabitants. In the time of the early Britons this was a place of importance, being the seat of Cassibelaunus, King of the Cassii. The Saxon kings of Mercia also made it their residence; Offa included it in the possessions that he gave to the monastery of St. Alban's, and called the hamlet Albaneston, which was again changed by the Normans into Caisho, since converted into Cashio. Edward IV. constituted it a liberty, and it continued annexed to the crown from the period of the Dissolution until James I. granted the whole liberty of the monastery of St. Alban's to Robert Whitmore and John Eldred.