within the churchyard, to the south-west of the tower, is a stone marker for the grave of henry trigg. trigg was the berden parish constable at the beginning of the 19th century, and ran a shoe shop adjacent to berden hall in the village. on the night of 25 march 1814 two men from bishops stortford, a william pratt and a thomas turner, broke into trigg's shop to thieve leather goods. they were confronted by trigg and his father. trigg offered defence by disabling turner, but after a pratt attempt to shoot trigg’s father with a double-barrelled gun, both father and son made to escape. pratt, using the words "now, damn your heart, i will do for you", then shot trigg in the chest, killing him. a year later pratt and turner were captured by the bow street runners, sentenced to death, and sent to the gallows. the words "in memory of henry trigg of this parish aged 36 years who was murdered march 25th 1814 endeavouring to protect his property" were recorded as written on the tombstone. following the execution of pratt and turner, a postscript was reportedly added to trigg’s stone: "march 13th 1815 wm pratt, thos turner both of bishops stortford, herts. were executed at chelmsford for the above offence on their own confession".