OFFLEY, a parish in the hundred of HITCHIN-and-PIRTON,
county of HERTFORD, 3 miles (W.S.W.) from
Hitchin, containing 873 inhabitants. The living is a
discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon,
and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £ 9,
and in the patronage of the Marquis of Salisbury. The
church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, has a very
handsome chancel, erected, in 1777, by Dame Sarah
Salusbury, who also left £ 1000, which has been applied
to the foundation and support of a charity school; the
children, seventy in number, are partly clothed. Mrs.
Alice Pigott, in 1724, endowed the living with a rentcharge
of £20 in aid of the vicarial tithes, and bequeathed
another of £10 for apprenticing two poor children.
Offley received its name from King Offa, who
resided, and is said to have died, here. In a wood at
Highdowns are several barrows and dikes, supposed to
be of British origin.