A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Poplar (Mdx.).J By his will, made in 17 lo, Josiah 

 Woodward devised to his son John the Nether Hall 

 estate which was then in the occupation of Thomas 

 Prentice and was estimated to contain '180 acres land 

 and 30 acres more called Moreton Wood'.* In 1720 

 John Woodward sold the manor for ^^1,750 to 

 Ambrose Page, a Director of the South Sea Company.' 

 At that time the estate was still in the occupation of 

 Prentice who rented it at £100 a year.* Soon after- 

 wards it came into the hands of the trustees liquidating 

 the South Sea Company and in 1724 they sold it for 

 £2,505 to William Cole, lord of the manor of Magdalen 

 Laver (q.v.).7 From 1724 until 1766 the Nether Hall 

 estate descended with the manor of Magdalen Laver.' 

 Both the Coles and John Cozens lived at Magdalen 

 Laver.' When John Cozens died in 1766 the Nether 

 Hall estate was in the occupation of William Schooling 

 and James Edick.'" Cozens devised this estate to his 

 second son Henry, a miller." In 1773 Henry Cozens 

 mortgaged the estate for £600." He died in 1775 

 leaving the manor, still mortgaged, to his youngest 

 brother, William Cozens. '^ Between 1782 and 1789 

 William Cozens borrowed further sums, making the 

 total mortgage on the estate ;^i,2 50, all of which was 

 owing to Robert Ray.''* By March 1790 Cozens had 

 repaid only ;{^ioo of this debt and he then sold the 

 manor to Robert Tindal for ^^3,800, it being agreed 

 that Tindal should pay off the debt to Ray as part of 

 the purchase money.'s Neither Henry nor William 

 Cozens occupied the manor house or farmed the main 

 part of the lands appurtenant to it.'* Henry Cozens 

 was apparently a miller living in High Laver until at 

 least 1773 and afterwards at Latton." William Cozens 

 did live on the Nether Hall estate but occupied only a 

 small piece of ground, formerly waste ground but 

 enclosed by Henry Cozens, about 2 acres in area and 

 having 'a messuage, stable and other buildings erected 

 thereon' and had besides 3 acres of meadow for per- 

 sonal use.'* The manor house and most of the estate 

 were occupied by William Schooling until 178 1-2 and 

 afterwards by John Schooling until 1790-1." A 

 small part of the estate was occupied in 1 790, as in 

 1766, by James Edick.^" A survey taken in July 1788 

 showed that on the average of the previous 57 years the 

 lord of the manor received £^ p. 8 J//, a year in fines, 

 £t Ss. 2|<2'. a year in heriots, and £3 12/. 6</. a year in 

 rents.^' In 1771 there were nineteen freeholders and 

 copyholders, several less than there had been in 1745.^2 

 Robert Tindal sold the manor, in 1790, less than 

 three months after purchasing it, to Stephen Alger, 

 who held his first court baron in June 1793.^3 Alger 

 never lived on the Nether Hall estate which was 

 occupied by Nathaniel Green from 1 790-1 until 

 181 5-16 and then by James Green who was tenant 



until after Alger's death in 1829.^ Alger's heir was 

 his son V/illiam Hill Alger who was lord of the manor 

 until his death in iSSc^^s James Green still occupied 

 the estate in 1832 but by 1840 W. H. Alger lived at 

 Nether Hall and farmed most of the estate which then 

 consisted of 256 acres.^* He continued to farm until 

 his death." In 1872 there were nine freeholders who 

 paid rents totalling £1 gs. %d. and eight copyholders 

 who paid a total of 16/. '},\d^^ During the time that 

 W. H. Alger was lord of the manor the estate was 

 mortgaged at least once.^' He left as his heir his son 

 William White Alger who also lived at Nether Hall 

 and farmed the estate.^o He died in May 1900 having 

 provided that the manor should be sold by his trustees.^' 

 Nether Hall was accordingly put up for sale by auction 

 in August 1900. The sale catalogue described the 

 manor farm as consisting of 2 1 6 acres of which 1 76 

 were arable.32 Quit and free rents amounted to 

 £1 1 3^. 31/. a year and fines, reliefs and heriots amounted 

 to iCS ^ y^r on the average of the previous 30 years.33 

 The farm on the one hand and the manor 'with courts, 

 fines, heriots, reliefs, quit and free rents, profits and 

 emoluments' on the other hand were offered as separate 

 lots. The manor was sold for ;^26o to the Revd. 

 Frederick William Bussell of Brasenose College, 

 Oxford.3* The farm passed into the hands of Ernest 

 Schwier.ss The Revd. F. W. Bussell was stiU lord of 

 the manor in 1914 but by 1926 the Revd. Joseph 

 Gordon Walker owned the manorial rights.^* In 

 1937 Walker was still lord of the manor and Nether 

 Hall farm was still owned by the Schwier family.^'' 



The present farm-house probably dates from the late 

 17th century. It is rectangular in plan with a small 

 projecting wing at the back. The central chimney has 

 diagonal shafts. Late in the 19th century there were 

 additions to the back and front. In the farm-yard is an 

 altered timber barn, probably of 17th- or 18th-century 

 date. 



Juliane de Sandwich married John de Segrave, 

 younger son of John, Lord Segrave (d. 1325), and on 

 the death of her husband in 1343, her half of Moreton 

 manor passed to their only son John de Segrave whose 

 death in 1 349 was followed in little more than a month 

 by that of his only child, an infant Mary.'* Both John 

 and Mary were probably victims of the plague. As 

 there remained no direct descendant of Juliane, the 

 half manor passed to her cousin Nicholas de Sandwich, 

 son of her father's brother Nicholas. 39 He conveyed it 

 to William de Clynton, Earl of Huntingdon (d. 1354), 

 who regranted it to Nicholas for life with remainder to 

 John de Sandwich, brother of Nicholas, and his heirs 

 and reversion to the earl and his heirs.'"' Within a few 

 years, however, the half manor passed to John, Lord 

 Mowbray (d. 1368), the heir through his wife 



3 E.R.O., D/DDw T122. 



4 E.R.O., D/DMg T31. 



s CP25(2)/ioi3 Hil. 6 Geo. I ; E.R.O., 

 D/DDw Ti22i W. Talbot, MS. Hist. 

 Moreton. 

 6 W. Talbot, MS. Hist. Moreton. 

 ' E.R.O.,D/DU 201/35; ibid. D/DDw 

 Ti22i Hist. Essex hy Gent, iii, 362. 

 * See Manor of Magdalen Laver. 

 » E.R.O., D/DA T199; ibid. D/DU 

 201/35. 

 «> E.R.O., D/DU 201/35. 

 ■■ Ibid. " Ibid. 



" Ibid. ■♦ Ibid. 



'5 Ibid.; CP25(2)/i3io East. 30 Geo. 

 III. 

 «' E.R.O., D/DU 201/35; 'bU- fi/RPl 



685-94. 



" E.R.O.»D/DU 201/35. 



>8 Ibid. 



" E.R.O., Q/RPl 685-96. 



" E.R.O., D/DU 201/35; ibid. g/RPl 

 694-5. 



" E.R.O., D/DU 201/21. 



22 E.R.O., D/DU 201/14-16 and 19. 



" E.R.O., <2/RPl 695; ibid. D/DU 

 201/2 and 35. 



« E.R.O., 6/RPl 696-737; ibid. 

 D/DU 201/36. 



" E.R.O., D/DU 201/36. 



2' E.R.O., Q/RPl 737; ibid. D/CT 244. 



" E.R.O., D/DU 201/36; Kelly's Dir. 

 Essex (1855, 1874). 



28 E.R.O., D/DU 201/23. I" '871 



there had been 9 copyholders. One was 

 enfranchised in 1872. 



" E.R.O., D/DU 201/36. 



30 IhiA.; Kelly's Dir. Essex (189O, 189S, 

 1899). 



3" E.R.O., D/DU 201/36. 



32 E.R.O., D/DU 201/38. 



33 Ibid. 



34 E.R.O., D/DU 201/37. 



35 Kelly's Dir. Essex (1906). 



3* Kelly's Dir. Essex (1914, 1926). 



3' Kelly's Dir. Essex (1937). 



38 Cal. Inq. p.m. viii, p. 309, ix, p. 268 ; 

 Complete Peerage^ xi, 609. 



3' Cal. Inq. p.m. ix, p. 268. 



« Cal. Pat. 1348-50, 430; Feet of F. 

 Essex J iii, 96. 



132 



