BENINGTON, (Hertfordshire) near the midway bet. Hartford and Baldock, was formerly purchased of Alexander de Baliol by John de Bensted, who being a justice itinerant, obtained a grant for a court-leet, a Mt. on W. and a Fair on St. Peter and Paul's day, with divers other privileges since lost. His family enjoyed it four successions; but it came at length to the Bourchiers, Es. of Essex, whose female issue carried it to Sir William Fair, who forfeited it to the crown by his treason; since which, it has passed through divers hands to the Caefars, the present Ld. of it. It had once a castle on a hill, the deep ditches of which are still to be seen.