A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Roman Catholic and was allowed by the Crown to 

 do so.»» 



Jane Shelley's attempt to regain her husband's pro- 

 perty included an attempt to eject Byrd from Stondon 

 Place. Her petition to Elizabeth I was unsuccessful 

 but in 1603 James I issued letters patent securing her 

 title to Stondon Place.' She then resumed her efforts 

 to eject Byrd, but although she had been recognized 

 by die Crown as the owner of the property his lease 

 remained good and he remained at Stondon Place.* 

 Meanwhile, in 1604, John Shelley had regained pos- 

 session of the manor of Stondon, paying j^l 1,000 to 

 the Crown for this. Of that sum yTi.ooo went to Lord 

 Howard of Effingham, who had been negotiating for the 

 purchase of the manor, by way of compensation. Jane 

 Shelley died in 16 10 and shortly afterwards John 

 Shelley sold his rights in Stondon Place to William 

 Byrd, who continued to live there until his death in 

 1623.3 



Stondon Place remained in the possession of the 

 Byrds until about 165 1 when it was bought by Thomas 

 Coffin. From about 1638, however, they no longer 

 lived there. In 1653 John Leech bought the property 

 from Coffin and about 1655 Prosper Nicholas became 

 the owner .< Nicholas died in 1689 and Stondon Place 

 passed to his eldest daughter Martha, later wife of Dr. 

 Josiah Woodward. Soon after 1700 she sold it to 

 Richard How of Broxbourne (Herts.).' 



John Shelley sold the manor of Stondon in about 

 1610 to Sir Nathaniel Rich.* He died in 1636 leaving 

 Stondon to his nephew, also Nathaniel Rich.' He died 

 in 1 70 1 and was succeeded by his son Nathaniel, 

 receiver-general of the Land Tax for Essex.* In 1706 

 an Act was passed enabling the latter to compound 

 with the Lord Treasurer for the amount which he 

 owed. 9 The manor of Stondon was then sold to 

 Richard How, already the owner of Stondon Place. 

 He rebuilt Stondon Place, which was henceforth the 

 manor house.'" 



How died in 1708 and was succeeded in turn by his 

 two sons Richard (d. 1723) and John (o.s.p. 1748)." 

 John left Stondon to a distant relative, William Taylor 

 of Much Hadham (Herts.). Taylor died in 1752 and 

 was succeeded by his son William, who in accordance 

 with John How's will assumed the additional surname 

 of How. William Taylor-How (d. 1777) was suc- 

 ceeded in turn by his sisters Jane Taylor (d. 1793) and 

 Ann. In 18 16 Ann Taylor sold the manor, including 

 Stondon Place, to Miss Joanna HoUingworth, an old 

 friend. Shortly before this conveyance took place part 

 of the Taylor estate had been detached. Cannon's 

 Farm was sold to the Society of Friends and old 

 Stondon Hall and its farm to the Revd. G. G. Stone- 

 street, later Prebendary of Lincoln. Miss HoUingworth 

 died in 1829. During the last few years of her life she 

 was joined at Stondon Place by Mrs. Ann Meyer, the 

 widow of a wealthy Hamburg merchant who had been 

 a cousin of Miss HoUingworth. After the death of 

 Miss HoUingworth Mrs. Meyer bought the manor 

 from the executors, the purchase money being divided 

 under the terms of Miss HoUingworth's will among 



Mrs. Meyer's son and grandchildren. Mrs. Meyer 

 died in 1841 leaving her estate to her grandson Philip 

 Herman Meyer. P. H. Meyer enlarged the estate by 

 the purchase of Chivers Farm (i 842) and Gates ( 1 848). 

 In 1849 he owned land in the parish amounting to 

 some 250 acres,'* and in 1 8 50 he further acquired Grove 

 Farm, of 33 acres, which had belonged to the estate 

 before 18 14 and in 1838-42. He was not resident in 

 the parish in 1849 but in 1857 he returned to live at 

 Stondon Place. In 1861 he bought Stondon House 

 and went to live there, letting Stondon Place to Capt. 

 James Hastie. In 1866 Stondon House was burnt 

 down; many manorial documents were destroyed with 

 it. The house was rebuilt and Meyer died soon after, 

 in 1870. The manor was held after his death by his 

 widow, who in 1874 married Col. F. J. Baker. A 

 manor court was held at Chivers in 1897, perhaps for 

 the last time. Mrs. Baker was succeeded on her death 

 in 1907 by her nephew H. J. Meyer. Before this, in 

 1904, Stondon Place and about 75 acres of land had 

 been sold to Tyndale White, who had been the tenant 

 from about 1885. '3 The house had been burnt down 

 in 1877 and rebuilt a year or two later. White's house 

 was thus the third of the name. H. J. Meyer was still 

 stated to be lord of the manor in 1917 but by 1922 the 

 manor had been acquired by Mr. A. S. Cochrane.'* 

 No substantial estate now (1954) remains attached to 

 any of the former manor houses. 



The oldest surviving manor house is Stondon Hall, 

 which probably stands on the site of the original manor 

 house's It has for 250 years been merely a farm-house. 

 The building is of two stories with tiled roofs, possibly 

 built on an H-shaped plan but altered and seemingly 

 partly rebuilt. 



The principal (west) front has projecting gabled 

 wings, the northern of which is partly timber-framed 

 and retains some external plastering. This wing is 

 probably the oldest part of the present building and 

 may date from the 1 5th century. The projecting brick 

 chimney on the north side was entirely built after bomb 

 damage received during the Second World War. The 

 southern wing dating from the early 17th century is of 

 brick. 



Internally there are beams, panelling, and doors of 

 1 6th- and 17th-century types and on the first floor in 

 the north wing a plaster overmantel with twin round- 

 arched recesses and surmounted by an entablature. The 

 hall is now divided into two tenements. Behind it to 

 the east are the remains of a moat now (1953) in course 

 of being filled in. 



The second manor house, Stondon Place, had origin- 

 ally been a farm-house but was rebuilt about 1707 (see 

 above) and was the residence of the lord from then 

 until 1 861. This 18th-century house was completely 

 destroyed by the fire of 1877.'* A new building was 

 erected on the same site a year or two later and this still 

 survives. It is in Georgian style of two stories in red 

 brick with round bays at each end of the main front." 

 It has a small lodge by the main entrance and extensive 

 outbuildings. It is now untenanted and neglected and 

 overgrown with creeper. 



« E. H. Fellowes, ffilUam Byrd, 20; 

 and cf. 38-48. 



' Ibid. 23. * Ibid. 23, 30. 



» Ibid. 23. 



< Ibid. 33; Reeve, Stondon Massey, 

 41-42, 163. 



» Reeve, op. cit., 42-43. 



* Ibid. 36. See above. Worthies. 



' Ibid. 



' Morant, £iJ«jf, i, 188. 



' c.y. XV, 357. 



'0 Reeve, op. cit. 



" The following descent is from Reeve, 

 op. cit. 43-53, iSi-3- 

 >2 E.R.O,, D/CT337. 

 " E.R.O., Sale Cat. 1923; Kelly s Dir. 



Essex {1886). 



*♦ Kelly's Dir. Essex (19 17, 1922). 



^5 For a photograph of the house c. 1900 

 see Reeve, Stondon Massey^ 38. 



'^ Reeve, Stondon Massey, 52. 



'7 Ibid. It was evidently rebuilt on the 

 pattern of the previous house : Reeve, 

 Stondon Massey, lyx—i. 



244 



