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LINTON, in the hundred of Chilford, and deanery of Camps, is a market town ten miles south-east of Cambridge, and forty-six from London. The market, which is principally for corn, is now on Thursday; it was originally on Tuesday, having been granted to William de Say, in the year 1245, together with a fair for three days, at the festival of St Lawrence : this fair has been discontinued, but there are now two other fairs, the 30th of July, and Holy Thursday; the former is a great sheep fair, the chief business of the latter, besides the sale of pedlary, &c. is the retaining of harvest-men. According to the returns made to parliament under the population-act in 1801, Linton then contained 183 houses, and 1157 inhabitants.
In the reign of King Edward III., there was an alien priory at Linton, which was a cell to the abbey of St. Jacutus de Insula, in the diocese of Dole, in Britanny : it was seised into the hands of the crown, with other alien priories, in the reign of King Henry V., and given by his successor (its revenues then being valued at 23 l. 8 s. 10 d. per annum) to the master and fellows of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge. The grant was made in the year 1439, and was to take place after the death of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, which happened in 1447.
At the time of the Domesday survey, there were two manors in Linton, both of which belonged to Alan, Earl of Britanny; one of these, Linton-Magna, was successively in the families of Say, Busteler, and Paris; the other, Linton-Parva, in the Leicesters and Huntingfields; these manors were united as early as the reign of King Henry VI. in the Paris family; of which they were purchased, together with two manor-farms called Chilford, and Michealots, in the year 1675, by Sir Thomas Sclater, Bart. who, dying in 1684, bequeathed these estates to his great nephew Thomas Sclater, Esq. then a student at Trinity College, Cambridge: he afterwards assumed the name of Bacon, and was, at the time of his death, in 1734, M.P. for the town of Cambridge. In 1768, Mr. Thomas Sclater King, to whose family the same estates had been devised by Mr. Bacon, sold them to Lord Montfort, of whom they were purchased, three years afterwards, by Dr. Keene, bishop of Ely, father of Benjamin Keene, Esq. the present proprietor. On this estate was formerly a park called Catley Park, with a large mansion, which was the seat of Sir Thomas Sclater : the house was pulled down soon after Bishops Keene's purchase, and the offices converted into a farm house. The lord of the manor of Linton-Magna, had in ancient times very extensive privileges, such as right of free-warren, the power of life and death, &c. &c.
In the parish church are several monuments, and other memorials, of the families of Paris, Loan, Flack, and Millicent, and a handsome monument by Wilton, for Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Sclater Bacon, Esq. of Catley park, who died in 1726, and of her brother, Peter Standley, Esq. of Paxton-Place, Hants, who died in 1780. The most ancient monument of the Paris family is that of Sir Philip Paris, who died in 1502 : Philip Paris, who died in 1680, was the last heir male of the family.
The master and fellows of Pembroke-hall have the impropriate rectory, which belonged formerly to the priory: the bishop of Ely is patron of the vicarage.
At Barham, in this parish, was a priory of crutched friars as early as the year 1292; it was a cell to the monastery of Welnetham, in Suffolk. the site of this priory was granted by King Henry VIII. to Philip Paris, Esq. and afterward to John Millicent, Esq. who was before possessed of the manor of Barham, purchased of the Loktons : this manor had been in the family of Furneaux. from nearly the time of the conquest, till about the year 1369 : the Millicents possessed this estate for several generations; Robert Millicent, Esq., the last of the family, died in 1740: the manor and priory were purchased of his representatives, by the Reverend Christopher Lonsdale, who became the second husband of his widow : Mrs. Lonsdale died in 1807, at the advanced age of 93; having bequeathed her estates at Barham to the master and fellows of Pembroke-hall. Barham-hall, late the seat of Mrs Lonsdale, appears to have been formed out of the conventual buildings, soon after the reformation; the hall, chapel and cloisters remain, but have undergone considerable alterations; under Mrs Lonsdale's will, it was appropriated, with a few acres of land annexed to it, as a country-seat for the master of Pembroke-hall for the time being. At Barham-hall are several portraits of the Millicents, one of whom appears to have been usher of the black rod.
Barham and Little-Linton, are hamlets of Great Linton : the tithes of Barham were given by Allan, Earl of Brittany, to the abbey of St Sergius and Bacchus, in Normandy.
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