STANDON, a parish (formerly a market-town) in
the hundred of BRAUGHIN, county of HERTFORD, 8
miles (N. E.) from Hertford, containing 2135 inhabitants.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Middlesex, and diocese of London, rated
in the king's books at £ 14.13. 4., and in the patronage
of the Rev. Henry Law. The church, dedicated to
St. Mary, is a large ancient building, with a tower on
the north side. There are places of worship for Baptists
and Wesleyan Methodists. About five miles from
Ware, on the Cambridge road, in this parish, is St.
Edmund's College, established for the education of the
sons of the English nobility, clergy, and gentry, of the
Roman Catholic religion. The building was erected in
1795, under the direction of Mr. James Taylor, architect,
and consists of a range of buildings four stories
high, and, with its two wings, three hundred feet long;
more than eighty students can be conveniently accommodated.
The course of education is commercial,
classical, and theological: the institution is under the
management of a president and vice-president, and
there are eight professors and masters. The usual period
for continuing at college is twelve years; the first
seven are devoted to history, the mathematics, the
ancient and modern languages, &c., and the remaining
five are appropriated to logic, metaphysics, theology,
and divinity. The occasion of founding this institution
was the expulsion of the English Roman Catholics
from their college at Douay, at the commencement of
the French Revolution. A free. school for the instruction
of poor children was endowed with £33 per
annum, by Thomas Fisher, in 1612, and other benefactions.
The market, which was on Friday, was granted
by Charles II., "together with two fairs; a pleasure fair
is held on the 25th of April. The ancient Ermin-street
runs through this parish.