A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



afterwards to her son John Goebell.' Jane Luther 

 died in 1745 after paying off her son's debts to the 

 extent of £8,5oo.'» In 1752 Rebecca Goebell and her 

 son John mortgaged the manor for ,{^2,000." In 1768, 

 after Rebecca's death, John Goebell borrowed another 

 £2,000 on the security of the estate and when he died 

 in 1777 the two mortgages were still unredeemed.'^ 

 He left his estate to his sister Rebecca and her husband 

 Gerrard Goebell, a London sugar refiner." Rebecca 

 died a month after her brother.'* In 1778, partly in 

 order to pay off his brother-in-law's debts, Gerrard 

 Goebell mortgaged the estate for ;^9,ooo to John 

 Baker, from whom he borrowed another £1,000 in 

 1784." Gerrard Goebell died in 1786 leaving the 

 estate encumbered with the debt of £10,000.'* He 

 devised all his estate to his second wife Ann who in 

 1787 sold it to Charles Smith of Mile End (Mdx.) for 

 £15,725 out of which she paid the £10,000 owing to 

 John Baker." The manor was held by Charles Smith 

 until 1 8 14 when he was succeeded by his widow 

 Augusta Smith, who held it until after 1832.'^ By 

 1838 it had passed to Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith, Bt., 

 grandson of the purchaser of the manor." It has since 

 descended with this baronetcy.^" In 1838 the manor 

 farm consisted of 219 acres.^' At about that time 

 Suttons was the centre of an estate of at least 1,868 

 acres of which 1,384 acres^^ lay in Stanford Rivers, 

 348 acres in Stapleford Tawney,^^ and 136 acres in 

 Lambourne.M It included the manors of Stanford 

 Rivers, Barwicks, Bellhouse, and Traceys in Stanford 

 Rivers (q.v.) and the manors of Hunts and Pryors in 

 Lambourne (q.v.) as well as Suttons in Stapleford 

 Tawney. 



Suttons was at one time a two-story timber-framed 

 house of the 17th century or earlier. The original plan 

 probably consisted of a central hall with two cross- 

 wings. At the back of the south wing is an early- or 

 mid-i7th-century staircase with flat moulded balusters 

 and square newels. The hall has fine panelling, pilasters, 

 and cornice of the early 1 8th century. About 1 81 5 the 

 house was cased in brickwork and covered with stucco, 

 the eaves were raised and the garden front added. The 

 weather-boarded outbuildings and brick dovecote are 

 probably of the i8th century. 



The advowson of Stapleford Tawney was held by 

 the lords of the capital manor until 1 92 5 .^s 

 CHURCH It has subsequently descended with the 

 advowson of Theydon Mount (q.v.). 



In about 1254 the rectory was valued at 9 marks.^* 

 In 1 291 it was valued at £6 13/. 412'." In 1428 the 

 church was still taxed on this valuation.^* In 1535 

 the rectory was valued at £15 8^. 8^'.^' Its 'improved' 

 value v/as £80 in 1604 and £200 in 1 661.30 fhe 

 tithes were commuted in 1838 for £384; there were 

 then 127 acres of glebe.3' Since 1755 the rectory has 

 always been held along with that of Theydon Mount 

 but they have never been formally united. 



Henry Soames (178 5-1 860), who held the united 



living of Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount 

 from 1839 until his death, was a noted ecclesiastical 

 historian and was appointed Chancellor of St. Paul's 

 Cathedral in 1842." 



The former rectory was originally a two-story 

 timber-framed house built probably early in the 17th 

 century. In the mid i8th century two sides were 

 faced with red brick and a new roof with dormer 

 windows was added, and inside there are panelled 

 rooms and fireplaces of the same date. In 1 771 it was 

 described as 'an exceeding good house'.33 About 1840 

 a new staircase hall and a bay-windowed drawing- 

 room were built. Since 195 1 the rector has lived at 

 Theydon Mount. 



The parish church oi ST. My^RT consists of chancel, 

 nave with west bell-turret, south chapel, and vestry. 

 The walls are of flint-rubble with dressings of limestone. 

 The roof is tiled. The bell-turret is timber- framed and 

 weather-boarded and has a shingled spire. 



The chancel was built about 1220. In the north 

 wall is a lancet window which may be original, though 

 the splay stones have been recut. 



The nave was built shortly after the chancel. A 

 blocked north doorway with chamfered jambs and 

 two-centred arch, partly restored, can be seen extern- 

 ally. 



The south chapel was built about the middle of the 

 13th century. On the east side are two wall-arches, 

 the smaller of which is partly original 13th-century 

 work. Enclosed under the larger is an original lancet 

 window. Three lancet windows in the south wall and 

 one in the west wall may also be of the 13th century, 

 much restored. 



In the 15 th century a square-headed two-light 

 window was inserted in the south wall of the chancel; 

 the stonework of this is much decayed. The, bell turret 

 at the west end of the nave was probably added in this 

 century. It stands on four chamfered oak posts with 

 tie-beams, curved braces, and diagonal struts. 



Some roof timbers of the south chapel are of the 

 1 6th century. 



In 1 862 the church was largely rebuilt and the north 

 vestry, organ chamber, and south porch were added.^* 

 The three lancet windows in the east wall of the chancel 

 are of this date as well as the two-light windows of 

 14th-century design in the nave. The arcade of two 

 bays between the south chapel and the body of the 

 church was built or rebuilt at this time. 



In February 1862 the vestry accepted an offer, made 

 by Sir Charles Cunliffe-Smith, Bt., of Suttons (see 

 above), of £300 towards the cost of restoring the 

 church.35 It is not clear what the final cost of restora- 

 tion was. In May 1862 George Carter of Hornsey 

 Road, Holloway (Lond.), offered to do the work 

 required 'at the Church and Chancel' for £526 of 

 which £105 was for repairing the chancel. He also 

 offered to supply new fittings for an additional £123 

 of which £24 was for seats in the chancel.^* A vestry 



' E.R.O., D/DSd Ti. 



■0 E.R.O., D/DSd T2. 



'■ E.R.O., D/DSd Tijibid. D/DYq 

 ZO-21. 



" E.R.O., D/DYq 20-21. 



" Ibid.: Rebecca and Gerrard were 

 cousins. '4 Ibid. 



■» Ibid.; E.R.O., D/DSd Ti. 



" Ibid. " Ibid. 



«« E.R.O., Q/RPl 685-737. 



>» E.R.O., D/CT 331; Burke, Peerage 

 (1890), 1267. 



" Kelly's Dir. Essex (i874f.)i Burke, 

 Peerage (1949), 186 1-2. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 331. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 327. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 331. 



M E.R.O., D/CT 202. 



^5 Cal, Inq. p.m. iv, pp. 12—13; ibid, vi, 

 p. 69; Newcourt, Reperl. ii, 555-6; 

 Morant, Essex., i, 181; Crockford*s Cler. 

 Dir. passim; E.A.T. N.s. xix, 74; Kelly's 

 Dir, Essex (1926). 



^' Lunt, yal. of Norioich, 336. 



236 



" Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 2 li. 



2* Feud. Aids, ii, 204. 



^» Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 437. 



30 E.A.T. N.s. xxi, 78, 83. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 331. 



32 D.N.B. Previously Rector of Shelley 

 and Little Laver. 



33 Hist. Essex by Gent, iv, 4 1 . 



34 E.R.O., D/P i^ijSlz; Hist. Mon. 

 Com. Essex, ii, 225. 



35 E.R.O., D/P 141/8/2. 



36 Ibid. 



