ONGAR HUNDRED 



LAMBOURNE 



There are said to be two earlier windows to the hall, 

 now blocked.** The whole house has been reroofed. 



The manor of BISHOPS HALL originated in an 

 estate in Lambourne held by the Bishop of Norwich. 

 It is probable that this estate extended into Stapleford 

 Abbots. In 1250 Walter le Blunt and Maud his wife 

 granted to Walter de Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, a 

 messuage, 60 acres of land, 6 acres of meadow, and 

 I acre of wood in Lambourne, which tenement had 

 formerly been held by Andrew le Draper.*' In 1252 

 the bishop received a royal grant of free warren in his 

 demesnes at Lambourne.'" In 1260 Roger le Hunt 

 and Estrilda his wife gave Simon de Wauton, Bishop of 

 Norwich, 14 acres of land in the parish to hold in free 

 alms." Early in 1384 the temporalities of Henry 

 Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, were taken into the 

 king's hands as a result of the disastrous expedition to 

 Flanders which the bishop had led.'^ At a subsequent 

 inquisition it was found that the manor called 'La 

 Bisshoppeshall of Norwich' was held of the Knights 

 Hospitallers and of Sir John Sutton by the service of 

 6s. a year, of the king in chief as of the manor of Haver- 

 ing, by service of making 60 perches of the park pale 

 with his own timber, and of the Earl of Oxford by suit 

 at his three weeken court.'^ The manor contained 80 

 acres of arable worth ly. 44'. a year, 12 acres of wood 

 which could be cut every 20 years and was worth 2S. an 

 acre, 13/. %d. rents of assize, and 1 7( .') acres (of meadow 

 or pasture .') each of which was worth is. 6d. 



The manor was restored to the bishop with his other 

 property in 1385 and remained appurtenant to the see 

 of Norwich until 1 534, when the then bishop, Richard 

 Nix, was deprived of his property on the charge of 

 infringing the Statute of Praemunire.'* Nix was later 

 pardoned, but in 1536, immediately after his death, the 

 temporalities of the see were vested in the king by Act 

 of Parliament in exchange for the former estates of the 

 abbey of St. Benet's Hulme and of the priory of Hick- 

 hng.'s In October 1536 the bishop's manor in Lam- 

 bourne was conveyed to the chancellor. Sir Thomas 

 Audley.'* Audley transferred it in 1538 to William 

 Hale. '7 In 1556 Hale settled the manor on himself for 

 life with remainder tu Thomas Hale.'* This may have 

 been the Thomas Hale of Codicote (Herts.) from whom 

 descended the Hales of King's Walden (Herts.)." 

 How long Bishops Hall was held by the Hales is not 

 certain. It appears to have passed about 1606 to the 

 family of Stoner of Loughton (q.v.) and together with 

 land in Stapleford Abbots (q.v.) formed the estate of 

 Knoll's Hill.' In 1606 the 'manor or messuage of 

 Bishops Motte' was in the possession of Clement Stoner. 

 The site was then 'wasted and overgrown'. The fields 

 belonging to the manor were Nether Barnfield, Upper 

 Barnfield, Wheelers Ridden, Great Perryfield, Little 

 Perryfield, Sedwins, Blackcroft, Stanes, and Sagars. 



The total extent was about 100 acres.^ Stoner died in 

 1612, leaving Francis his son and heir.J 



Bishops Hall seems subsequently to have been sepa- 

 rated from the Knoll's Hill estate. Later in the I7tli 

 century the manor came into the possession of Edmund 

 Colvill, Salter of Maidstone (Kent). He was evidently 

 a Parliamentarian, for in 1662 he was removed from the 

 common council of Maidstone for refusing the oaths of 

 Supremacy and Allegiance.* He died in 1675.' In 

 1 686 his widow Katherine sold Bishops Hall to William 

 Walker, citizen and ironmonger of London.* 



William Walker died in 1708 and was succeeded by 

 his eldest son Thomas (d. 1748).^ Thomas Walker was 

 surveyor-general to George II and M.P. for West Looe 

 (1733), Plympton (1734), and Helston (1741).* He 

 left all his Essex estates to his nephew Stephen Skinner.' 

 Skinner died in 1762 and his widow Mary in 1769. 

 The will of Thomas Walker had provided that his 

 estates should pass after Skinner's death to Skinner's 

 three daughters and their heirs.'" 



In 1772 a private Act of Parliament was passed for 

 dividing the estates." Bishops Hall was included in 

 Lot C of the subsequent partition and became the pro- 

 perty of Mary wife of Sir Thomas Aubrey, 6th Bt. of 

 Boarstall (Bucks.), and daughter of Sir James Cole- 

 brooke, ist Bt., by Mary, eldest daughter of Stephen 

 Skinner.'* In 1774 Sir Thomas and Lady Aubrey sold 

 the manor to William Waylett of Lambourne.'^ Way- 

 lett sold it in 1785 to Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, 

 who had recently returned to England from service 

 against the French as Commander-in-Chief, East 

 Indies.'* 



On Sir Edward Hughes's death in 1 798 the manor 

 passed to his stepson Edward Hughes Ball (d. 1863), 

 who later assumed the additional surname of Hughes 

 and became a social celebrity and dandy, familiarly 

 known as 'Golden Ball'." In i8i8 Ball Hughes leased 

 Bishops Hall to W. J. Lockwood of Dews Hall (see 

 below) for fourteen years.'* The unexpired portion of 

 the lease was surrendered in 1827." The manor is said 

 to have been sold about this time to Edward Dowdes- 

 well. Rector of Stanford Rivers, who gave it to Miss 

 Lockwood Percival (presumably Louisa Elizabeth, 

 sister of Edward Lockwood Percival the younger, for 

 whom see above. Manor).'* After Miss Percival's 

 death (before c. 1838) Bishops Hall apparently de- 

 scended along with the main manor of Lambourne. 



The original manor house of Bishops Hall was no 

 doubt that which in 1606 was described as Bishops 

 Motte, and was then wasted and overgrown (see above) . 

 This moated site can still be identified. Buried tiles and 

 debris at the south-west corner may be the remains of 

 former buildings. 



The second Bishops Hall was built f mile west of the 

 first, probably by William Walker (d. 1708) or his son 



88 Ibid. 



89 FeetofF. Essex, \, 183. 



»o Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, 404. 



" Feel ofF. Essex, i, 237. 



M Cal. Close, 1385-9, 3-4. For the 

 career of Despenser see D.N.B. 



" C145/229. The document is badly 

 stained but the name of the manor seems 

 to be as given above. This makes it 

 reasonably certain that the manor was 

 named after the Bishop of Norwich, and 

 not, as suggested by Dr. Reaney {P.N. 

 Essex, 60—61) after a family named 

 Bishop. 



«■• For Nix see D.N.B. 



95 27 Hen. VIII, C.45 (priv. act.). 



96 L. & P. Hen. ml, xi, p. 377. 



97 Ibid, xiii (i), p. 325. 



98 Cal. Pat. 1555-7, 90. 



99 Burke, Land. Gent. {1906), 746- 



7- 



' Morant, Essex, i, 178. 



2 E.R.O., D/DFa Ei : this includes a 

 sketch map of the estate. Francis Stoner 

 (d. 1604), father of Clement, does not 

 appear to have owned Bishops Hall: 

 C142/285/116. 



3 Morant, Essex, i, 178. 

 * Recs. of Maidstone (i^ib), 146. 



5 P.C.C. Wills, 1671-S (Brit. 

 Soc), 49. 



6 E.R.O., D/DLo T14. 



79 



Rrc. 



1 Ibid. 



8 T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 398-9. 



9 E.R.O., D/DLo T14. 

 '0 Ibid. 



" Skinner's Estate Act, 12 Geo. Ill, 

 C.96 (priv. act.). Cf. E.R.O., D/DLo T14. 



" E.R.O., D/DLo T14. 



■3 Ibid. 



i« Ibid.; for Hughes see D.A^.B. He had 

 fought 5 battles in about a year. 



'5 D.N.B. %, 174. 



" E.R.O., D/DLo T14. 



" Ibid. 



>8 T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 399; 

 Burke, Commoners (1833-8), iv, 82. 



