LANGLEY (ABBOT'S), a parish in the hundred
of CASHIO, or liberty of ST-ALBAN'S, county of HERTFORD,
1 mile (E. by S.) from King's Langley, containing
1733 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the archdeaconry of St. Alban's, and diocese of London,
rated in the king's books at £15, endowed with
£200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty. Sir
J. Filmer, Bart, was patron in 1821. The church, dedicated
to St. Lawrence, is partly Norman, and partly in
the later style of English architecture; it has a square
tower surmounted by a short spire, and contains some
handsome monuments, and other sepulchral memorials.
The Grand Junction canal passes through the parish.
Nicholas de Breakspear, who first instructed the Norwegians
in Christianity, and the only Englishman ever
raised to the popedom, was born in this parish, though
the place from which he took his name is situated in the
adjoining parish of St. Michael: he assumed the title
of Adrian IV., and was poisoned in 1159, in the fifth
year of his pontificate, by a citizen of Rome, whose son
he refused to consecrate bishop.