WATTON, a parish in the hundred of BROADWATER,
county of HERTFORD, 4 miles (N.N.W.) from Hertford,
containing 812 inhabitants. The living is a rectory,
in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and diocese
of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £19. 8. 6.,
and in the patronage of Abel Smith, Esq. The church,
dedicated to St. Mary and St.-Andrew, has a square
western tower, embattled, and a chapel attached to
the north side of the chancel. The river Beane runs
through the parish, which-was also intersected by one of
the Roman vicinal ways, on the supposed line of which
there is still a large stone, apparently of high antiquity
and several coins have been found in the vicinity
Maurice and William Thompson, in 1662, founded, and
endowed with lands and houses, a free school, to which
Abraham Crossland, in 1703, bequeathed a small sum
for the purchase of books.