Description
Babraham, anciently Badburham, or Bradbumham, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands on an affluent of the river Cam, near the Gogmagog Hills, 2 1/2 miles ENE of Whittlesford station on the G.E.R., and 6 1/2 SE of Cambridge. It has a post office under Cambridge; money order and telegraph office, Sawston. It was formerly a market-town. The parish comprises 2387 acres; population, 280. The manor belonged to Algar, Earl of Mercia; passed, about the year 1576, into the possession of Sir Horatio Palavicini, a Genoese; and now belongs to the Adeane fani ily. Sir H. Palavicini collected the Pope's taxes in England during the reign of Mary; converted them to his own use, and became Protestant, on the accession of Elizabeth; became a favourite of that queen, one of her negotiators in Germany, and a commander of one of her ships against the Spanish Armada; and died at his seat in Babraham; and his widow was married to Sir Oliver Cromwell, the uncle of the Protector. A curious epitaph on him is given in Lord Orford's Anecdotes of Painting. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, ?126 with residence. An almshouse and a free school, with income of ?134, were founded in 1723 by Lebinus Bush and Judith Bennet, and a monument to the latter is in the church. Babraham Hall is a fine red brick mansion, standing in a park of about 200 acres.