ONGAR HUNDRED 



MORETON 



Elizabeth of John, Lord Segrave(d. iSSS)."" Mowbray 

 died in 1368, leaving as his heir his son John, later ist 

 Earl of Nottingham.'*^ By 1383, when John, Earl of 

 Nottingham, died without issue, his estate at Moreton 

 had become known as LADYHALL, apparently 

 through its association with Juliane de Sandwich, and 

 by the end of the century was described as a manor .^3 

 From the i6th century it was more commonly known 

 as UPPER HALL. 



John was succeeded in 1383 by his brother Thomas, 

 later Duke of Norfolk, who granted a life interest in 

 Ladyhall to William Hall, with reversion to himself.** 

 Hall died in i4oo.*s The Duke of Norfolk had died 

 shortly before and left as his heir his son Thomas, a 

 boy of 14."'* At the end of 1401, although Thomas's 

 lands had been assigned for his household expenses, 

 the king granted the custody of Ladyhall to John de 

 Burgh during Thomas's minority provided that he 

 accounted at the Exchequer for all issues above the 

 value of 24 marks a year.*^ 



Thomas was beheaded in 1405 and his lands 

 escheated to the Crown.*' In 1406 the king granted 

 the 'messuage called Ladyhall' to his esquire Nicholas 

 Alderwich and his wife Alice to hold for life 'to the 

 value ai £20 a year so that they answer for any surplus 

 at the Exchequer'.*' Within the next ten years the . 

 manor was restored to Thomas de Mowbray's brother 

 and heir John, who was granted the title of Duke of 

 Norfolk in 1425:50 the manor probably descended 

 with the title until the death of the 4th Duke of Norfolk 

 in 1476.5' Afterwards the manor was probably held 

 by John, Lord Howard, who succeeded to a moiety 

 of the Mowbray estates on the death in 148 1 of his 

 cousin Anne, only daughter and heir of John, 4th Duke of 

 Norfolk.52 Lord Howard was created Duke of Norfolk 

 in 1483 and Ladyhall probably descended again with 

 this tide until 1538.53 In 1538 Lord Edmund 

 Howard, a younger son of Thomas, 7th Duke of 

 Norfolk, was licensed to alienate the manor to his 

 brother Thomas, 8th Duke of Norfolk, who im- 

 mediately granted it to Sir Richard Rich, later ist 

 Baron Rich.5* Subsequently for nearly two centuries 

 the manor of Upper Hall followed the same descent 

 as Nether Hall. 55 In 1708 it had 11 freeholders and 

 17 copyholders whose rents amounted to £(> \\s. \od., 

 much more than those of Nether Hall.5* In 1722, two 

 years after selling Nether Hall, John Woodward con- 

 veyed Upper Hall to Lewen Cholmley of Sutton 

 (Surr.).57 Cholmley was succeeded by his son Lewen 

 who died in 1753.5' The manor was then held by 

 Mary Cholmley, widow of Lewen, until at least 



1760.59 In 1763 John son of Lewen Cholmley con- 

 veyed the manor to John Hookham (d. 1786), a rich 

 London merchant.*" Hookham's heir was his only 

 child Jane, wife of John Frere of Roydon Hall (Norf.).*' 

 John Hookham Frere, author and diplomatist, the 

 eldest son of Jane and John Frere, succeeded to the 

 family estates on his father's death in 1807.*^ He died 

 in 1 846 having been for many years resident in Malta.*' 

 Soon after his death the manor of Upper Hall seems 

 to have dissolved. A manor court was held as late as 

 1 82 1 and writers during the next 40 years continued 

 to describe the estate as a manor, but by 1874 Nether 

 Hall had come to be described as the only manor in 

 Moreton.** The lords of the manor of Upper Hall 

 were never resident in the parish. Henry Starkey was 

 tenant of the estate before 1750 and members of his 

 family continued to farm the land and live at the hall 

 until 1 8o9.*5 In 1 8 1 1 the Rector of Moreton wrote 

 that before 1 809 Upper Hall Farm had been 'occupied 

 by a family of Dissenters for so long a period that no 

 one living was able exactly to ascertain what seat in the 

 church belonged to it'.** In view of the uncertainty 

 the rector gave the new tenant, John Ingham, permis- 

 sion to sit in his own pew.*' John Ingham was tenant 

 of the estate until 1819-20 when he was succeeded by 

 George Rogers.*' In 1840 Rogers still farmed the 

 whole estate which then consisted of 246 acres.*' 

 After J. H. Frere's death in 1846, D. Taylor Gingell 

 took over the lease and farmed the estate for the 

 remainder of the century.'" 



The present house may date from the i6th century 

 but has been much altered. The older part has a T- 

 shaped plan with a wing projecting on the north side. 

 In the south wing a brick fireplace, probably of the 

 1 6th century, has been uncovered. It has a stop- 

 chamfered four-centred arch and the chimney above it 

 has two diagonal shafts, now cement rendered. Several 

 additions have been made to the house, the most recent 

 in gault brick probably dating from the 19th century. 

 There is an eight-bay timber barn with one porch wing. 

 A post inside the barn is dated 1782 and initialed 

 R. P. 



The early history of 5 UNDISH alias BRENDISH 

 alias BR UNDISH manor is obscure. It probably took 

 its name from the family of John de Burndish which 

 came from Brundish (Suff.). From 1305 until his 

 death in 1336 John de Burndish held a life interest in 

 the half of Moreton manor which belonged to John 

 de Lenham. On the death of John de Burndish this 

 half manor reverted to Eleanor GifFard, the heir of 

 John de Lenham." In 1338 John and Eleanor GifFard 



*' Complete Peerage, ix, 384. John, 

 Lord Scgrave (d. 1353), was a cousin of 

 John de Segrave (d. 1 349) and the heir of 

 part of his lands in 1 349. 



*^ Complete Peerage, ix, 384. Cf. Cal. 

 Inq. p.m. xii, p. 380. 



« 0136/27/6; Morant, Essex, i, 145. 

 In 1383 the estate was still described as a 

 half manor. In and after 1399 it was 

 always described as a manor, though not 

 always in the 15th cent, by the name 

 of Ladyhall. 



** €136/27/6; C137/16; Complete Peer- 

 age,\x,-i%^. « Ci 37/82. 



♦* Ci 37/16; Complete Peerage, ix, 384. 



*' Cal. Pat. 1401-5, 24. 



*• Ci 37/63; Complete Peerage, ix, 384. 



*•> Cal. Pat. 1405-8, no. 



5° Cal. Pat. 1413-16, 320; Complete 

 Peerage, ix, 384, 605—6. 



5' Complete Peerage, IX, 6oS~i). 



52 Complete Peerage, ix, 610— 11. The 

 manor of Bundish Hall (see below) was 

 held of John, Lord Howard, in 148 1. 



53 Complete Peerage, ix, 61 1-20. 



54 CP25(2)/i2/66 Trin. 30 Henry 

 VIII. 



55 C142/147/14I, 192/29, 494/120; 



CP25(2)/293 Trin. 6 Jas. I; CP25(2)/829 

 Hil. 10 Will. Ill; E.R.O., D/DB T656; 

 ibid. D/DGe T75. 



56 E.R.O., D/DU 201/12. 



57 CP25(2)/ioi4 Mich. 9 Geo. I. 



58 E.R.O., D/DB T6s6; W. Talbot, 

 MS. Hist. Moreton. 



5» E.R.O., D/DB T656. 



"> CP25(2)/i3o6 Hil. 3 Geo. Ill; 

 D.N.B. vii, 707. 



'■ E.R.O., Q/RSg 4, p. 54 i D.N.B. vii, 

 707. 



62 D.N.B. vii, 708. He was a fnend of 

 Canning and Coleridge. *' Ibid. 



'♦ E.R.O., D/P 72/25/ 1 8 ; D. W. CoUer, 

 People's Hist. Essex, 480; ff kite's Dir. 

 Essex (1848), 426; Kelly's Dir. Essex 

 (1874). 



'5 E.R.O., D/P 72/3/2; ibid. D/P 

 72/25/12; ibid. Q/RPl 705-15. 



66 E.R.O., D/P 72/25/20. 67 Ibid. 



68 E.R.O.,e/RPl 715-25. 



69 E.R.O., D/CT 244; ibid. D/P 72/21. 

 The owner of the estate in 1840 was* 

 described in the Moreton Tithe Award as 

 Robert Henry Frere. No mention of 

 Robert Henry can be traced in the Frere 

 family lineage, however, and the name was 

 probably a misinterpretation of 'Rt. Hon.', 

 John Hookham Frere being a privy council- 

 lor. 



7» E.R.O., D/P 72/21; ibid. Q/RPr 

 1/27 & 34; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1874 f.). 



7' Cal. Iriq. p.m. vii, p. 493. See above. 

 Manor of Nether Hall. 



