Place:Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Little Hadham is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire District of Hertfordshire, England. At the UK census of 2001 it had a population of 1,081. It is situated on the A120 road, which connects it to the nearby town of Bishop's Stortford.

Hadham Hall, an ancient manor house situated 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southeast of the village on the Stortford Road, was the family seat of the Capell (or Capel) family, also of Rayne in Essex. It was bought by Sir William Capel, who served twice as Lord Mayor of London in 1503-4 and 1510. the family seat remained at Rayne until the 1570s when Henry Capel built a new house at Little Hadham. In 1578, Sir Edward Capel welcomed Queen Elizabeth I as a guest at Hadham Hall; an account of the time records her visit to "Mayster Kapel's, where was excellente good cheere and entertaynement." Arthur Capell (1608–1649) was a noted member of Parliament who was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron Capell of Hadham in 1641. In 1627 Arthur Capell married Elizabeth Morrison, heir to the Cassiobury Estate in Watford, and the Capell family became closely associated with Cassiobury. Capell supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War, and was condemned to death by the Parliamentarians and beheaded in May 1649. In 1661, after the Restoration, Arthur Capell's son, also called Arthur Capell, became the 1st Earl of Essex. He moved the family seat to Cassiobury House, which he rebuilt.

After the move to Watford, Hadham Hall fell into disrepair and was partly demolished, although it was retained by the Capell family and the estate continued to be farmed by tenant farmers. The Capell used the hall to entertain important guests such as King William III, who visited in April 1698. The hall was refurbished around 1720 in the Queen Anne style. In 1900, George Devereux de Vere Capel, the 8th Earl of Essex, sold the Hall and accompanying land to a London merchant, William Minet, who set about restoring the hall. Hadham Hall, now a private residence, is a Grade II* listed building.

Research Tips

• Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Register Office Block CHR002, County Hall, Hertford SG13 8EJ. Indexes and Catalog
• GENUKI on Hertfordshire (individual parishes covered separately)
• Hertfordshire Family History Society
• Edwinstree Hundred is not covered in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire as provided by British History Online.
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time