Brenda Ann Collins (brendaannc @t ntlworld.com) of Lancing, Sussex, asks: I wonder if the Victoria County History has an reference to My Dells. I have the Will of Isaac Dell 1776, of Wigginton, yeoman farmer of Newground, and a few other Wills etc. Isaac lived right on the boarder of Aldbury/Wigginton and I have been trying too work out the properties, that my Ancestors lived in or owned in Wigginton, Northchurch and Aldbury. Children with the surname Dell were baptised in Wigginton, Aldbury and Northchurch. I have all igi records, all census, except 1841, to help me build this family.

Charles Smith's Map of Hertfordshire, 1808

The early histories of Hertfordshire such as Chauncy, Salmon, Clutterbuck and Cussans were written in such a way as to make them attractive purchases for the owners of the larger country houses - who were virtually the only people that could afford them. These books concentrate on the church and the ownership of the manors and large country houses within the parish. Mere farms and farmers are rarely mentioned, while the only evidence of the labouring classes and the poor is by describing the generosity of the rich in building almshouses, etc. While the Victoria County History goes further, with sections on a wide range of topics, its descriptions of the parishes very much follow the approach of its predecessors. None are good sources for identifying the owners/tenants of ordinary farms (as opposed to former manors) or their boundaries.

Cussans goes a bit further down the social scale than the others. For many parishes it gives details of the "better class" memorials in the churchyard which by Victorian times will have included those of well-to-do farmers and businessmen. It contains the following in its description of Northchurch. 

James Dell departed this life 7th August. 1846, aged 62. Also John, Elizabeth and Frances, son and daughters of Isaac and Ann Dell. Also another daughter, Mrs Sophia Roberts, wife of Samuel Roberts, of 5, Bayswater Terrace, Kensington Gardens, London, who departed this life December 19th, 1860, aged 61.

If you want to identify the land farmed by your Dell ancestors you will need to study surviving tithe, inclosure and estate maps, spend hours extracting data from land tax returns, and looking at manorial records. In general this will mean looking at the original documents (usually in HALS) and I suggest you get a copy of Tracing Your Family History in Hertfordshire before visiting HALS. 

You may be lucky and find what you are searching quickly - but don't hold your breath - particularly if you are interested in the 18th century. I have attempted a similar activity with a farm in the parish of Sandridge, trying to find out who farmed the several smaller farms which were later combined as one. So far it has involved two visits to the Northamptonshire Records Office (which holds the manorial records and extensive estate papers), visits to HALS at Hertford (for land tax and other records) and the British Library in London (which hold an early estate map). Other information came from the St Albans archives (now also at HALS). 

There are web pages for Aldbury, Northchurch, Tring and Wigginton

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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