ONGAR HUNDRED 



MORETON 



In 1066 MORETON was held by Sexi as a manor 

 and as l hide and 20 acres and was worth 

 MANORS £8.** In 1086 this was held in demesne 

 by William de Scohies of the king in chief 

 and was valued at ^^lO.*' Another 43 J acres which in 

 1066 did not belong to the manor of Moreton was 

 annexed by William and in 1086 was held of him by 

 Ralf.'o This tenement was worth 20J. in 1086 as in 

 1066 but William received 30/. for it." In 1283 the 

 manor was held of the king in chief by the service of 

 finding for him when he went into Wales for 40 days 

 'a horse price 10/., with a leather sack and an iron 

 skewer for fastening the sack, for carrying a weight of 

 2 bushels of corn, with one man'.'^ The manor con- 

 tinued to be held of the king in chief by this petty 

 sergeanty until at least the middle of the 14th century .'3 

 At some date between 1 1 74 and 1 1 82 the tenant of 

 the manor was William d'Avranches.74 In 1 2 1 2 it was 

 held by another William d'Avranches.'s He died in 

 1230 leaving as his heir his son William who died 

 before the end of 1 23 5 .'* The heir of William the son 

 was his sister Maud, wife of Hamon de Crevequer. 

 She had one son, who predeceased his father, and four 

 daughters, Agnes wife of John de Sandwich, Iseult wife 

 of Nicholas de Lenham, Eleanor wife of Bartholomew 

 de Kyriell, and Isabel wife of Henry de Gaunt." On 

 Hamon's death in 1263 the manor fell to the share of 

 the youngest daughter Isabel and her husband.'* 

 When Isabel died in 1283, several years after her 

 husband, she left as her heirs her sister Eleanor, John 

 de Lenham son of her sister Iseult, and Juliane de 

 Sandwich granddaughter of her sister Agnes.79 With- 

 in a few months the manor, which was valued at 

 £2^ l2s. 4/, was by order of the king divided between 

 these three heirs.*" Eleanor was assigned land to the 

 value of 34/.*' The residue of the manor and the chief 

 messuage were divided between Juliane and John, 

 two-thirds of the messuage being given to John and 

 one-third to Juliane.*^ Eleanor seems to have disposed 

 of her share in the manor shortly afterwards and its 

 rights and services became divided equally between 

 John and Juliane. An inquisition taken in September 

 1285 found that half of the manor was held by Robert 

 Burnell as guardian of Juliane and half by John de 

 Lenham and his wife Margery. *3 From this date the 

 two halves had separate histories. Though at first each 

 was regarded as half a manor, they had before 1400 be- 

 come separate manors, eventually known as Bourchiers 

 or Nether Hall and Ladyhall or Upper Hall. After the 

 division of Moreton manor, the services by which it 



had been held of the king were shared between the 

 tenants of each half.*^ 



In 1305 John de Lenham granted a hfe interest in 

 his half of Moreton manor to John de Burndish, on 

 whose death in 1336 it reverted to Eleanor, wife of 

 John GifFard and niece of John de Lenham.** During 

 the next few years John Gifiard alienated a number of 

 tenements, some of which were later held of the king 

 in chief.** In 1342 Gifl^ard conveyed the residue to 

 Robert, afterwards Lord Bourchier, and to Robert's 

 son John.*' When Robert, Lord Bourchier, died of 

 the plague in 1349, leaving as his heir his son John, 

 this 'half of Moreton manor', which had been worth 

 ;^lo, was valued at only ^^6, the decline in value prob- 

 ably representing the general fall in the value of land, 

 occasioned by the plague.** John, Lord Bourchier, 

 died in May 1400, and was succeeded by his son 

 Bartholomew, Lord Bourchier, who died in i409.*9 

 The sole heir of Bartholomew was his daughter 

 Elizabeth who died without issue in 1433.'° In 1430 

 the manor had been settled, failing issue of Elizabeth, 

 on her cousin Henry Bourchier, Count of Eu and 

 afterwards Earl of Essex." He died in 1483 leaving 

 as his heir his grandson Henry, 2nd Earl of Essex (d. 

 1 540).'^ The sole heir of the 2nd earl was his daughter 

 Anne who married William, afterwards Baron Parr, 

 by whom the manor was conveyed in 1 542 to Sir 

 Richard Rich, afterwards Baron Rich.'3 At this date 

 the manor was described, for the first time as far as is 

 known, as NETHER HALL or BOURCHIERS 

 HALL. Lord Rich endowed the chantry which he 

 founded in 1554 for the parishioners of Felsted, Little 

 Leighs, and Great Waltham with 55 acres of land at 

 Moreton.'* On the death of the first baron in 1567, 

 the manor passed to his son Robert, the 2nd baron, and 

 afterwards in 1 581 to Robert, the 3rd baron, by whom 

 it was conveyed in 1608 to Robert Bourne, lord of the 

 manor of Blake Hall in Bobbingworth (q.v.).'5 In 

 1636 Bourne (d. 1639) settled Nether Hall on his 

 second son Robert when the son married Rose 

 Walcott.'* Alice, only child of Robert and Rose 

 Bourne, and wife of John, 3rd Baron Digby, died in 

 1658." Robert Bourne died in 1666 having settled 

 the manor on Digby for life with remainder to Martha 

 King, niece of Bourne.'* In 1669 Martha King con- 

 veyed the reversion to Richard Bourne who in 1682 

 granted it to Francis Drake." Digby died in 1698.' 

 In 1699 Thomas Drake, heir of Francis Drake, was 

 lord of the manor.^ In 1703 William Drake conveyed ■ 

 the manor to Josiah Woodward, D.D., Rector of 



*» r.C.H. Essex, i,Siia. 



" Ibid. William's name was given in 

 other documents as William de Escoiis and 

 William de Scociis. 



'<> Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



'* Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, p. 293. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. vii, p. 493; ibid, viii, 

 p. 309 j ibid, ix, pp. 241, 268, 314. 



'■» Cal. Doc. France, ed. Round, 162. 



" Bk. of Fees, 1215 Dugdale, Baronage, 

 i, 468. The heir to the estates of the 

 William d'Avranches who held Moreton 

 in 1 174-82 was Simon d'Avranches whose 

 heir was the William d'Avranches holding 

 Moreton in 1212 but the relationship of 

 Simon to the two Williams cannot be 

 ascertained. 



" Ex. e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 296; 

 Dugdale, Baronage, \, 469. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. \, pp. 171-2. 



'« Ibid.; Cal. Pat. 1258-66, 267. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, p. 293. 



8» Cal. Close, 1279-88, 226, 244. 



8> Ibid. 



»2 Ibid. 



'3 Morant, Essex, i, 144. There is no 

 evidence that either Eleanor or her 

 husband or their issue died in possession 

 of any rights in Moreton : Cal. Inq. p.m. 

 iii, p. 168; ibid, iv, pp. 40, 242. 



*■» Cal. Inq. p.m. vii, p. 493; ibid, viii, 

 p. 309; ibid, ix, pp. 241, 268, 314. 



*5 Cal. Inq. p.m. vii, p. 493 ; Cal. Pat. 

 1334-8, 228. 



»<■ Cal. Pat. 1338-40, 50, 247; ibid. 

 1340-3, 74i ibid. 1343-5, 306; ibid. 

 1350-4, 486; Feet of F. Essex, iii, 47; 

 Cal. Inq. p.m. ix, p. 298. 



*' Feet ofF. Essex, iii, 64. 



88 Cal. Inq, p.m. ix, p. 24 1 j Complete 

 Peerage, ii, 246. 



89 Ci 37/1 ; Complete Peerage, ii, 247. 



90 Cl 39/59; Complete Peerage, ii, 248. 



" C139/59; Cal. Close, 1429-35, 81, 

 216-17. 



'* C141/3; Complete Peerage, ii, 248-9. 



" CP25(2)/i3/72 Mich. 34 Hen. VIII; 

 L. & P..Hen. Fill, xvii, p. 563. 



9t F.C.H. Essex, ii, 531-2. In 1564 

 Lord Rich converted the endowment. to 

 educational purposes. 



" C142/147/14I, 192/29; CP25(2)/ 



293 Trin. 6 Jas. I. 



9' C 1 42/494/ 1 20. 



9' E.R.O., D/DMg T31; Complete 

 Peerage, ii, 322. 



98 E.R.O., D/DU 201/26-9; 'bid- 

 D/DMg T31; ibid..D/DDwTi22. 



99 E.R.O., D/DDw T122. Richard 

 Bourne was probably a cousin of the 

 Robert Bourne who died in 1666. See 

 Sepulchral Memorials of Bobbing'worth, 

 ed. F. A. Crisp, 30-33. 



^ Complete Peerage, ii, 322. 

 2 E.R.O., D/DU 201/5. 



131 



