STEPHENS (ST.), a parish in the hundred of CASHIO,
or liberty of ST-ALBANS, county of HERTFORD, 1
mile (S.W.) from St. Albans, containing, with Park,
Smallford, and Windridge wards, 1580 inhabitants. The
living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
St. Albans, and diocese of London, rated in the king's
books at £15, endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of-Cator,
Esq. The church, situated on the Roman Watlingstreet,
occupies the site of that built, in the reign of
King Eldred, by Ulsinus, sixth abbot of St. Albans. A
fine brass eagle with expanded wings, on an ornamented
pedestal of the same metal, was dug up some years
ago in the churchyard, and is now used as a stand in
the chancel for Fox's Martyrology. The rivers Ver and
Colne run through the parish, in which many Roman
coins have been found.