Brakespeare Fm
Early-attested site in the Parish of Abbots Langley
Historical Forms
- Brikespere 1538 ECP
Etymology
Brakespeare Fm is Brikespere 1538 ECP. The name of this farm is of exceptional interest. We know that Nicholas Brakespeare, afterwards Pope Adrian IV, came de quodam viculo abbatis , scilicet Langele oriundus (Gesta i, 112), his father being a clerk of moderate estate who afterwards became a monk of St Albans.There can be little doubt that the future Pope was born at this very farm. The family would seem to have continued here from the early part of the 12th century till the 16th, for in a Court Roll of 1540 we have mention of Thomas Brekespere . See R. L. Poole, Studies in Chronology and History , pp. 291–2.