A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



The agreement was made in the presence of Beatrice, 

 who did fealty .** Adam here appears to have been a 

 mesne lord. 



A William de Paris of North Weald died about 

 1338, leaving tenements in the parish of All Hallows- 

 the-Great, London, to Roger de Waltham, corder, and 

 to Sir Ralph Spigurnel and Alice his sister, wife of the 

 testator.*' 



No further mention of the estate has been found 

 until late in the 15 th century. In 1482-3 Paris Hall 

 seems to have been held by John Symonds, who in that 

 year was said to have made an agreement with Sir 

 Thomas Tyrell providing for the settlement of the 

 manor upon John and Joan his wife and their issue, 

 with remainder to Tyrell.''" John and Joan were also 

 said to have agreed to pay Tyrell £\ a year during 

 their lives.^i In 1501 Joan Symonds, now a widow, 

 filed a suit in Chancery against TyreU and other persons 

 alleged to be trustees and to have refused to make over 

 to John and Joan their estate in the manor. Tyrell 

 replied that the annual rent of ^4 had not been paid 

 for more than seventeen years and that the other per- 

 sons named in the writ had never actually been 

 enfeoffed to uses.^^ Joan did not appear in court and 

 the case was dismissed. ^s Two years later Paris was 

 among the possessions left by Sir John Shaa (d. 1 503).''* 

 The manor was then said to consist of 600 acres of land, 

 1 20 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, 60 acres of 

 wood, and ^^5 rent in Harlow, Latton, North Weald, 

 and other parishes. Sir John was succeeded by his son 

 Edmund. Some time later, between 151 5 and 1529, 

 Edmund was engaged in litigation with the trustees of 

 the settlement of the manor made upon him by his 

 father.'s 



Edmund Shaa's heir was his daughter Alice, who 

 married William Pooley of Boxted (Suff.) in 1 548.'* 

 After William's death (1587) Paris Hall passed to his 

 son John." John Pooley died in 1593 and was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother William.^s In 1594 William 

 Pooley conveyed the manor to Thomas and Katharine 

 Fuller.79 



According to Morant Fuller was a clothier of 

 Coggeshall.*" Paris Hall descended in his family for 

 about 180 years. A William Fuller held it in 1705*' 

 and another of the same name in Morant's time {c. 

 1768).*^ By 1775—6 Paris Hall had been acquired by 

 William Hollick.83 He conveyed the manor in 1798-9 

 to William Wedd Nash.*"* Nash held it only until 

 1804-5 when it passed into the possession of John 

 Denner.85 In 1822-3 '' came to a Mr. Chatham. ** 

 In 1825—30 the owner was Mrs. Chatham. *' James 

 Ewing held Paris Hall in 1841 and 1848.88 By this 

 time it had ceased to be styled a manor. In 1841 it 

 was a farm of about 120 acres. 



In 1780 Paris Hall was leased to Joseph Clarke. 8' 

 Thomas Stallibrass was the tenant in 1796— 1822 and 



68 Feel of F. Essex, ii, 216. '« C142/238/94. 



<"> Kal. of frills at Ct. of Hustings, ed. " CP25(2)/i36/i735 



Sharpe, pt. i, 1338. ^ill^S- 



7001/245/95,96. 



'" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



73 Ibid. 



7« Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. FII, ii, p. 430. 



75 C 1/447/59. Edmund desired a good 

 estate in the manor before his marriage to 

 Lore, dau. of Sir Roger Wentworth; cf. 

 Visits, of Essex (Harl. Soc), 314. 



'6 Visits, of Essex (Harl. Soc), 486; 

 C142/217/122. 



77 C142/2I7/122. 



*" Morant, Essex, i, 151. 

 «■ CP43/488, rot. 8. 



82 Morant, Essex, i, 151. 



83 CP25(2)/ii22 Mich. 16 Geo. III. 



84 CP25(2)/i3ii Mich. 39 Geo. III. 



85 E.R.O., Q/RPl 444-6. 



86 Ibid. 463-4. 



87 Ibid. 466-71. 



88 E.R.O., D/CT 387; fTiite's Dir. 

 Essex (1848). 



89 E.R.O., Q/RPl 421. 

 »» Ibid. 437-65. 



John Stallibrass in 1823-4."' I" 1825-30 John 

 Skingle was tenant" and in 1841 Charles Smith. w 

 Early in the present century the farm belonged to 

 Frederick Bond, who owned it until about 1938. It 

 was then bought by a Mr. Good. In 1946 or 1947 it 

 was bought by a Mr. Parris and it is now owned by his 

 sons, Messrs. V. and L. Parris. '^ The house and garden, 

 apart from the farm, were bought at the same time 

 from Mr. Good by Mr. Denning, their present 

 owner.''* 



Paris Hall is a timber-framed house built late in the 

 1 6th century, possibly by Thomas Fuller after he 

 acquired the property in 1 594. It is a long rectangular 

 building with gabled ends and a fine central chimney 

 with six tall octagonal shafts. Near the west end a 

 small staircase wing projects on the south side of the 

 house and at the farther end there is a single-story 

 service wing, evidently a later addition. Four late- 

 l6th-century fireplaces have been uncovered inside the 

 house. To the south and west of the house are two 

 arms of a rectangular moat. 



In the late 12th century the advowson of North 

 Weald was appurtenant to the manor. 

 CHURCH Before 1161 Henry de Essex had made a 

 grant to the nunnery of St. Mary, Clerken- 

 well, of a tithe of his food, drink, candles, and game." 

 After his fall in 1163 certain payments were made to 

 Clerkenwell out of his estate.'* Before 19 October 

 1 186 the rectory and advowson of North Weald had 

 been granted to the nunnery by his wife Cecily. This 

 grant was confirmed by her son Henry de Essex, the 

 younger, and in 1 194 by Hugh de Essex, another son.'^ 

 It has been suggested that the grant was made in place 

 of the previous annual payment.'8 



William, Bishop of London (i 199-1 221), confirmed 

 the grant on condition that a competent vicar should 

 be assigned." In 1275 John, Bishop of London, con- 

 firmed the appropriation of the rectory but ordained 

 that he and his successors the bishops of London should 

 hold the advowson of the vicarage." The bishops sub- 

 sequently presented the vicar at every vacancy until 

 1495, when the Prioress of Clerkenwell again pre- 

 sented.^ At the next vacancy in 1 5 1 1 the right of 

 presentation was disputed. The bishop presented on 

 this occasion but the issue was taken before the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury and the Chief Justice of the 

 King's Bench, who in 151 5 decreed that in future the 

 prioress and the bishop should present alternately. The 

 prioress duly presented in 15 19 but before her next 

 turn the priory was dissolved.^ The Bishop of London 

 continued to present in his turn until 1852, when the 

 alternate patronage was transferred to the Bishop of 

 Rochester.* Later rearrangements of dioceses have 

 resulted in the alternate patronage being transferred 

 successively to the Bishop of St. Albans and to the 

 Bishop of Chelmsford. 5 



«i Ibid. 466-71. 

 E.R.O., D/DC " E.R.O., D/CT 387. 



'3 Inf. from Mrs. Denning. »♦ Ibid. 



95 W. O. Hassall, 'Essex Properties of 

 the Nunnery of St. Mary, Clerkenwell*, 

 E.A.T. N.s. xiiii, 24. 



96 Ibid. 97 Ibid. 



98 Ibid.; £.^.r. N.s. xiv, 112. 



99 E.A. T. N.s. xxiii, 24. 

 ' Ibid. 25. The bishop was patron of 



the nunnery. 



2 Ibid. ; Newcourt, Kepert. ii, 643. 



3 Ibid. 



4 Land. Gass. 4 June 1852, 1585. 



5 Crockford's Cler. Dir. 1852 f. 



290 



