DIGSWELL, called Dicheleswelle in the Domesday Book, was, in the time of Edward the First, the property of Lawrence de St. Nicholas, who, in answer to a writ of quo warranto, produced a grant from Henry the Third, of a weekly market, and a ten days annual fair, for this Manor. In the reign of Richard the Second, it belonged to the Perients, of whom John Perient was Squire of the Body and Penon-bearer to that Sovereign; and, in the next reign, Master of the Horse to Joan of Navarre, second wife to Henry the Fourth. His descendant, Thomas Perient, Esq. who was Sheriff of Essex and Herts in the twenty-seventh of Henry the Eighth, left four daughters, co-heiresses, by Mary, the eldest of whom, married to George Horsey, Esq. this Manor was conveyed into his family; and was afterwards sold by his son Ralph, to George Perient, Esq. a descendant of its former owners. He was Sheriff of this county in the second of James the First; and sold Digswell to Richard Sedley, Esq. who was also Sheriff of Herts. in the twenty-second of the same King. William, his son and heir, again sold it to Humphrey Shalcross, Esq. who was Sheriff in the sixth of Charles the Second; and from his family it was conveyed in marriage, by an heir-female, to Richard Willis, Esq. who dying in 1781, it descended to his daughter, by whom the estate has been sold to the present Earl Cowper. The Manor House is an ancient building, and has been let to various tenants.

The Church at Digswell is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, and contains some fine Brasses in memory of the Perients. On a slab in the chancel, are those of JOHN PERIENT, and his Lady, who are represented by large figures: the former as a Knight, "in a pointed helmet, adorned with engrailed facings, and having plated armour, with roundels at the shoulders and elbows: a kind of collar or belt is round his neck; a long strait sword, without a cross-bar, at his left side; a dagger at his right; and at his feet a leopard couchant. His Lady, at his right hand, is in a singular triangular head-dress, the curls coming down in a point to her neck; and at the top a wreathed fillet: she has slender arms, the wrist-bands studded, and wears a mantle: at her left foot is a dead hedge-hog." [Sepulchral Monuments, Volume II - contains an engraving of these figures.] The inscription round the verge of the slab is now mutilated, but has been given as follows by Weever: