Hannah Yip
ACAD (Venn) (ID: STRN588A); Steve Hindle, On the Parish? The Micro-Politics of Poor Relief in Rural England c. 1550-1750 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004), p. 327; Heather Falvey and Steve Hindle, eds, "This Little Commonwealth": Layston Parish Memorandum Book, 1607-c.1650 & 1704-c.1747 (Hertfordshire Record Society, 2003), pp. xiii-xvi.
Alexander Strange, born c. 1570, was the son of an Elizabethan Master in Chancery. He was baptised at St Faith's, London, and matriculated at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, c. 1590, proceeding M.A. in 1596. He was ordained as deacon, aged twenty-four, on 25 September 1594. Strange's patrons included John Crouch, Lord of the Manor in Corney Bury, Buntingford, and the Leventhorpe family of Shingle Hall, Sawbridgeworth. His pupils included Seth Ward, future Bishop of Salisbury. In 1603, Strange proceeded B.D. He was vicar of Layston, Hertfordshire from 16 April 1604 to 1650; a rectory which was worth £50 annually. He also became a prebend of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1637, a position he held until 1650. In 1646, he subscribed to the petition of 63 Hertfordshire ministers to the House of Lords in support of the Directory and the Covenant. He died on 8 December 1650, aged 80. A brass, c. 1620, representing Strange in the act of preaching can be found St Peter's, Buntingford, a chapel-of-ease which he had partly financed. The inscription reads as follows: 'Alexander, little of stature, but eminently great in strength and mind'.