Hatley, Cockayne (St. John the Baptist)
HATLEY, COCKAYNE (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union and hundred of Biggleswade, county of Bedford, 2 miles (E.) from Potton; containing 99 inhabitants. This place was anciently the property of the Cockaynes, of whom Sir John Cockayne, lord chief baron of the exchequer in the 15th century, made it his country seat; it afterwards came to the family of Cust. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £8; patron and incumbent, the Hon. and Rev. H. C. Cust: the tithes have been commuted for £191. 13., and there is a glebe of about 14½ acres. The church is in the later English style, and consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a tower surmounted by four pinnacles. The interior is fitted up with finely carved wood-work, collected chiefly in Belgium by the present patron; the pulpit, which is of exquisite Italian workmanship, bears the date 1559, and the principal windows are filled up with painted glass.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.