According to the. Illage website, the first record of Woburn was in 969 AD as a hamlet. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. The same source asserts: "the name Woburn comes from the Old English words 'wo', which means crooked, and 'burn' which means village. In 1145 Woburn Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks. In 1538, at the dissolution of the monasteries, the monastery was granted to the first Earl of Bedford."