HOUGHTON-CONQUEST, a parish in the hundred
of REDBORNESTOKE, county of BEDFORD, 2 miles
(N. by E.) from Ampthill, containing 651 inhabitants.
The living is a rectory, with whicfrthat of Houghton-Gildable
was united in 1637, in the archdeaconry of Bedford,
and diocese of Lincoln, rated jointly in the king's
books at £25.18. 9., and in the patronage of the Master
and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge. The
church, dedicated to AH Saints, contains several monuments
to the Conquest family; besides one to the. memory
of Thomas Archer, rector of the parish, who made a curious
entry in the register respecting his own coffin,
dated in 1623; and another to that of Dr. Zachary
Grey, editor of Hudibras, and a commentator on Shak-
speare, also incumbent of this parish. There is a place
of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. This .place derives
the adjunct to its name from the family of Conquest,
lords of the manor prior to the thirteenth century,
whose mansion, ornamented with grotesque carvings, is
now a farm-house; here James I. sojourned two days,
in 1605, on a visit to Sir Edmund Conquest. A free
school and almshouses for six poor persons were founded
and endowed by Sir Francis Clerke, in 1632; the salary
of the master is £16, and the almspeople receive £8
per annum, which is divided amongst them. In 1691,
Edmund Wylde, Esq. bequeathed £ 140 to be expended
in land, desiring the rental to be applied to the repair
of these premises, and the surplus to be given to the
poor people; there are twenty-two scholars. Houghton
Park house, now destroyed, was a celebrated seat of the
family of Bruce, Earls of Elgin and Aylesbury.