EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



was authorized by Letters Patent." In 1536 the 

 manor of Beeches in Pelham, which had lately be- 

 longed to Thremhall Priory, was granted in tail-male 

 to John Gary and to Joyce Walsingham, to whom he 

 was betrothed." In 1566 it was regranted in tail to 

 Wymond Gary " of Hackney, son and heir of John 

 and of Martha daughter of Edmond Denny," and 

 Wymond in 1587 conveyed it to Philip Allington." 

 Chauncy states that Philip built a 'fair house' on the 

 manor," which at his death in 1595 passed to his 

 son Ghrlstopher, who was only six years old.'" A 

 conveyance in 1616 between Thomas Draver and 

 others and Thomas Byshopp, kt., and his wife Jane" 

 was probably for the purposes of a settlement. 



According to Chauncy, Beeches was bought about 

 the year 1640 by Adam Washington of Lincoln's Inn, 

 who married Elizabeth eldest daughter of Francis 

 Floyer of Brent Pelham Manor, and who devised it 

 by will to his executors to be sold for the benefit of 

 his children.'' It was thus acquired in 1672 by 

 Felix Galvert,** who afterwards held Furneux Pelham 

 Hall," and was conveyed by him to his daughter's 

 husband, William Wright, who was holder in 1700." 

 He in 1743 had been succeeded by his son Gaptain 

 William Wright, an eccentric who had been crippled 

 by a fall from his horse and who occupied the 

 remains of Beeches Manor House, 'together with his 

 horses, hogs and viler animals.' He had made it a 

 rule that no repairs should ever be undertaken and 

 he shifted from one room to another as each reached 

 an inconvenient stage of decay. The outhouses were 

 all demolished and, for lack of stables, the horses 

 were lodged in the dairy, which had neither doors 

 nor windows. 'The first time I ever saw him,' 

 William Gole wrote of Gaptain Wright, 'was by his 

 fireside upstairs in a sort of a dog kennel, for I can 

 compare the room where he was to nothing better, 

 being littered with everything conceivable in it. He 

 sat without shoes, stockings or breeches, in a nasty 

 greasy greatcoat, and nightcap and hat one would 

 not have picked off a dunghill, and a shirt not 

 changed I suppose since it was first bought. There 

 was no other room glazed in the house but this and 

 the next where his brother Felix and son lay, and 

 the hogs and horses walked about as free'y as the 

 maidservants which were in plenty, no less than four 

 strapping wenches who had nothing to do but obey 

 their master and play at cards with him.' Captain 

 Wright died unmarried in 1745, but his brother 

 Felix, who succeeded him, did not comply with his 

 request that he should be carried to the churchyard 

 in his carrion cart. Cole, writing in this year, said 

 that the new lord of the manor was 'a degree better 

 than the deceased' and was 'going to fit the house 

 up.'*° He left the estate to his nephew George 

 Wright, who died without issue in 1768 and whose 

 widow Mary married Stephen Martin Leake.*' His 

 successor William Wright married Margaret Calvert, 

 daughter of Felix Calvert of Furneux Pelham Hall. 

 William Wright had two daughters, Susanna, who 

 married Calvert Bowyer, and Honor, who married 



BRENT PELHAM 



Charles Parnell of Much Hadham."" In 1772 the 

 manor was conveyed by fine by Calvert Bowyer and 

 Hugh Parnell, son of Honor and Charles, and his 

 wife Mary, and by Stephen Martin Leake and Mary 

 his wife, who probably had an interest in it for the 

 latter's life, to Francis Buxton.'* In 1774 Hugh 

 devised his moiety to his son Hugh, of whom it was 

 bought by Calvert Bowyer. The latter in 1 796 sold 

 all the manor to John Woodley, by whose trustees it 

 was sold to Samuel Smith of Woodhall Park, Watton.™ 

 After the death of Mr. Samuel George Smith of 

 Sacombe Park in 1900 the property was sold to 

 Mr. E. E. Barclay of Brent Pelham Hall."" 



The church of ST. MART THE 

 CHURCH VIRGIN consists of chancel 26 ft. by 

 18 ft. 6 in., nave 5 1 ft. 6 in. by 28 ft., 

 west tower 12 ft. by 10 ft. 6 in., and modern south 

 porch and north organ chamber ; all the dimensions 

 are internal. The walls are of flint rubble with stone 

 dressings, the roofs are tiled. 



The nave and chancel were built about the middle 

 of the 14th century and the west tower about the 

 middle of the following century. In the 1 9th century 

 an organ chamber was added on the north side of the 

 chancel, a south porch built and the whole church 

 restored. 



The chancel has a modern east window of three 

 lights with traceried head. In the north wall is a 

 modern arch to the organ chamber, in the north wall 

 of which has been reset a mid- 14th-century window 

 of two lights with flowing tracery. In the south wall 

 is a similar window and beside it is a plain doorway 

 with pointed arch, much restored. In the north wall 

 near the cast end is a small niche with pointed arch, 

 all of modern stonework. The chancel arch is of two 

 moulded orders with label on the west side. The 

 jambs are moulded and have three engaged circular 

 shafts ; the capitals and bases are moulded, the latter 

 having moulded sub-bases. 



There are three windows in the north wall of the 

 nave and three in the south wall. The central 

 window in each wall is of three lights, the others are 

 of two lights. They have all traceried heads of 1 4th- 

 century character, of modern stonework ; the inner 

 jambs are original. The north and south doorways 

 are of two continuous wave-moulded orders, with 

 moulded labels with returned ends ; they are of 

 mid- 14th-century date. The north doorway is 

 blocked, the south door is coeval with the doorway. 

 The arched head is filled with flowing tracery, much 

 worn ; the door has been rebacked. On the faces 

 of the two central buttresses on the north side of the 

 nave are three crosses cut in the stonework ; they each 

 bear the form of a cross paty and are cut to a depth 

 of about l| in. ; they are from 7 in. to 9 in. across. 

 One buttress has two crosses, one about 6 ft. from the 

 ground, the other about 7 ft. higher ; the other but- 

 tress has only one cross, about 4 ft. 6 in. from the 

 ground. They may be consecration crosses. 



The west tower is of three stages, with embattled 

 parapet and slender lead-covered spire. The western 



'^ Cal. Pat. 130T-7, p. 459. 

 " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xi, 202 (4+). 

 ™ Pat. 8 Eliz. pt. i. 

 " VUit. ofHirt!. (Harl. Soc), 135. 

 " Pat. 29 Eliz. pt. xiii ; Feet of F. 

 Herts. Mich. 29 & 30 Elir. 

 " Chauncy, op. cit. 142. 

 " Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxliii, 71. 



14 Jas. I. 



«' Feet of F. Herts. Trin. 



^ Chauncy, op. cit. 142. 



«3 Feet of F. Herts. Trin. 22 Chas. II ; 

 Hil. 23 & 24 Chas. II. 



*• See account of Furneux Pelham. 



85 Chauncy, op. cit. 142 ; Salmon, 

 Hist, of Herts. 289. 



88 Add. MS. 5806, fol. 18, iq, 27. 



97 



^ Clutterbuck, Hist, and Antiq. of 

 Herts, iii, 447. 



8'a Deeds in possession of Mr. F. A- 

 Crallan. 



88 Feet of F. Herts. Mich. 13 Geo. III. 



85 Clutterbuck, Hist, and Antiq. of 

 Herts, iii, 447. 



™ Information from Mr. E. E. Baiclay. 



13 



