BRAINTFIELD, a parish in the hundred of CASHIO, or liberty of ST-ALBANS, though locally in the hundred of Hertford, county of HERTFORD, 3 miles (N.W.) from Hertford, containing 232 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £11 6., and in the patronage of the Rev. E. Bouchier. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. According to Matthew Paris, this was the first ecclesiastical preferment held by the celebrated Thomas a Becket; a small pona near the parsonage-house still bears his name.