A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Vere.' Soon afterwards William Lewyn, apparently 

 acting on behalf of his brother-in-law Anthony Luther, 

 negotiated with Byrd for the purchase of the lease."* 

 Byrd agreed orally to the transaction but later, con- 

 sidering that the oral agreement was not binding, 

 transferred the lease to his own brother John Byrd. 5 

 After Aubrey de Vere's death in 1579-80 Anthony 

 Luther claimed that the lease had been lawfully con- 

 veyed to him by 'parol' from William Byrd in about 

 1574.* Luther obtained the verdict of a Queen's 

 Bench jury in his favour but Byrd was not satisfied, 

 alleging that the jury was packed.'' In 1580 the parties 

 agreed that the case should be referred to arbitration.* 

 In December 1580 the arbitrators declared that the 

 agreement of about 1574 was lawful but that in their 

 view Luther should surrender his claim on the ground 

 that Byrd, having guaranteed the lease to his brother 

 John, faced financial ruin if he could not fulfil his 

 pledge.9 Meanwhile in April 1 580 the Earl of Oxford 

 had sold the manor to John Byrd for ;^620 so that be- 

 fore the arbitration award was announced, John Byrd 

 had become owner of the estate which then comprised 

 50 acres of arable, 40 acres of meadow, 100 acres of 

 pasture, 160 acres of wood, 300 acres of heathland, 

 and ;{^io in annual rents.'" It is not clear whether the 

 dispute about the lease continued after 1580 but in 

 1583 John Byrd sold the manor to Philip Smith, 

 haberdasher, of Henley-on-Thames (Oxon.)." 



Smith held his first court in 1 584, when there were 

 8 freeholders and 8 customary tenants of the manor. '^ 

 In 1594 he sold the manor for ,C'>95° to Richard 

 Wiseman of London, goldsmith, who died in 1616 

 leaving as his heir his son Sir Robert Wiseman. '^ In 

 1616 Sir Robert leased the estate for eighteen years to 

 Francis Springham at {j)i \os. a year but reserved to 

 himself the rents and services of freeholders and copy- 

 holders and all the manorial rights.'* He died in 1641 

 leaving as his heir his brother Sir Richard Wiseman. 's 

 In 1648 Richard mortgaged the manor to Robert 

 Edwarde for ;^l,50o.'* In 1650 Richard mortgaged 

 it to Sir Thomas Hewett for the same sum in order to 

 pay his debt to Edwarde." Wiseman died in 1654 

 leaving his debt to Hewett unpaid.' 'He was succeeded 

 by his son Richard who immediately sold the manor to 

 Carew Hervey Mildmay of Marks Hall, Romford, 

 for a total of £4,410 of which ^^2,8 50 was paid to 

 Wiseman and the remainder to Hewett in order to 

 redeem the mortgage." The estate then consisted of 

 583 acres.'o Afterwards the manor of Battles Hall 

 descended with Marks Hall.^' After the death in 

 1784 of Carew Hervey Mildmay, great-grandson of 

 the purchaser of Battles Hall, the estate passed to his 

 daughter Anne and afterwards, in 1789, to his great- 



niece Jane, wife of Sir Henry Paulet St. John, ist Bt., 

 who in 1790 adopted the surname of Mildmay." 

 After the death of Sir Henry in 1808 his widow held 

 Battles Hall until after 1845.23 At that time the estate 

 was exactly the size it had been in 1655.^ Later it was 

 sold to the Crown, probably with Marks Hall in 

 1 8 54.25 It is still Crown property .26 



The manor house is of two stories, timber-framed 

 and roughcast, and has a tiled roof with gabled dormers. 

 It probably dates from the i8th century but has been 

 considerably modernized. 



At the end of the 14th century KNOLLS HILL 

 alias KNOfVLES HILL was apparently owned by 

 Henry Despenser, Bishop of Norwich (d. 1406), who 

 also held the manor of Bishops Hall in Lambourne 

 (q.v.)." By 1604 it had passed to the Stoner family of 

 Loughton (q.v.). Francis Stoner (d. 1604) made it his 

 seat and left his son Clement as heir to the messuage 

 and to the 94 acres appurtenant to it.^s In 1606 

 Knolls Hill was the centre of an estate which com- 

 prised some 285 acres, including Knolls Hill farm 

 (94 acres), Wrights farm (51 acres), both of which 

 were held as freehold tenements of the manor of 

 Battles Hall, two copyhold tenements totalling 35 

 acres, and the manor of Bishops Hall.^" Clement 

 Stoner died in 161 2 leaving his son Francis as heir to 

 this estate.30 Francis was succeeded by his daughter 

 Amy, wife of George Waldron.3' George died in 1690 

 and Amy in 1712.32 They left no issue.33 Meanwhile, 

 before 1675, the manor of Bishops Hall had become 

 separated from the estate. By I7343'* Knolls Hill had 

 been purchased by Sir John Fortescue-Aland, lord of 

 the manor of Lambourne (q.v.) and it descended with 

 that manor until the 20th century.'s 



Sir John Fortescue-Aland made Knolls Hill his 

 residence and 'by several judicious improvements, at a 

 very considerable expense, rendered it a most delightful 

 place'.J* The house itself stood on part of the present 

 farm-yard. By 1835 part of the mansion had become a 

 farm-house but 'well executed portraits of the family 

 are yet to be seen in one of the rooms'.^' The mansion 

 was demolished in the middle of the 19th century; a 

 pair of mid- 19th-century cottages, said to have been 

 built with bricks from it, have recently been converted 

 into a house for the present owner of Knolls Hill farm, 

 Mr. D. Kelly. Traces of the former terraced gardens 

 of Knolls Hill can still be seen. 



The rectory of Stapleford Abbots was never appro- 

 priated. The advowson was held by the 

 CHURCH abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, lord of the 

 capital manor, until the Dissolution. ^8 It 

 then passed with the manor to the Crown. In 1541 it 

 was granted with the manor to John Maynarde who 



' SP12/157/25, 26; E.R.O., D/DFa 

 T9. For Byrd see also Stondoa Massey. 

 « Ibid. 

 5 Ibid. 

 Ibid. 

 ' Ibid. 



« E.R.O., D/DFa T9. 

 « Ibid. 



>» E.R.O., D/DM Ts6. 

 ■' Ibid. 



" E.R.O., D/DM 175. 

 » CP25(2)/i36/i73S; E.R.O., D/DM 

 T56. 



■< E.R.O., D/DM T158. In 1596 



Richard Wiseman had leased the estate for 



1 9 years to Richard Spencer, yeoman, at a 



rent of ^80 a year: E.R.O., D/DM T56. 



" E.R.O., D/DM T56. 



■6 Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



■« Ibid. " Ibid. 



" E.R.O., D/DM P17. 



" E.R.O., D/DM 183; ibid. Q/RPl 

 685-713; H. A. St. John Mildmay, 

 Memoir of Mildmay Family^ 163, 195. 



2^ Burke, Peerage (1913), 1348—9; 

 E.R.O., Sage Coll. 760; E.R.O., g/RPl 

 685-737; H. A. St. John Mildmay, 

 Memoir of Mildmay Family^ 163, 195. 



" E.R.O.,e/RPl 7,4-37; D/CT 330. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 330. 



25 E.R.O., Sage Coll. 760; H. A. St. 

 John Mildmay, Memoir of Mildmay 

 Family, 195; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1902 f.). 



2* Inf. from the Rector of Stapleford 

 Abbots (1953). 



228 



" Morant, Essex, i, 178. 

 28 C142/285/116. 

 " E.R.O., D/DFa Ei. 



30 C142/327/149. 



" Morant, Essex, i, 178. 

 " Ibid. 

 " Ibid. 



3« n.R.O.,DIDLor;i ; Ref>.Com.CAar. 

 {Essex), H.C. 216, p. 243 (1835), xxi (i). 



35 E.R.O., D/CT 330; T. Wright, Hist. 

 Essex, ii, 413. 



36 Hist. Essex hy Gent, iv, 37. Sir John 

 also built a school at Bournebridge for boys 

 of Stapleford Abbots and Lambourne : see 

 below, Schools. 



3' T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 413. 

 3' E.A.T. N.s. xviii, 18; Newcourt, 

 Repert. ii, 554-5. 



