Place:Great Amwell, Hertfordshire, England
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NameGreat Amwell
Alt namesEmmewellesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 136
TypeVillage, Civil parish
Coordinates51.79443°N 0.013627°W
Located inHertfordshire, England
Contained Places
Inhabited place
Hoddesdon ( - 1866 )
Parish
Hoddesdon ( - 1866 )
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source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Amwell (Great and Little), is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England, located 1½ miles (S.E. by S.) from Ware, and about 20 miles north of London. Great Amwell is also the name of the civil parish within East Hertfordshire district.

The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. The East India College was founded here in 1806, for the education of young men intended for the civil service of the East India Company in India. It is now a public school, Haileybury College.

The New River runs through the village.

On a hill above the church is an ancient mound, the remains of a fortification; and in Barrow field, on the road to Hertford, is a large barrow.

Great Amwell has been the residence of some celebrated literary characters, among whom are:

  • Izaak Walton, (1593–1683) the noted angler.
  • John Scott of Amwell, (1730–83), author of several poems and tracts, who built a grotto, containing several apartments, which still exists.
  • John Hoole, (1727–1803), the distinguished translator of Tasso, and biographer of Scott.
  • The remains of William Warner, (1558?-1609), the poet and historian, are interred in the churchyard.

Also buried here in 1978 was Harold Abrahams, the Olympian who was depicted in Chariots of Fire.

Richard Warren (d 1628) a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620, who settled in Plymouth Colony and co-signed the Mayflower Compact, married on April 14, 1610 at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, Great Amwell, Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker. Richard and Elizabeth are the ancestors of two U.S. Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A hamlet called Amwell also exists a mile south west of Wheathampstead, also in Hertfordshire.

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