BRAUGHING HUNDKUU stanstead abbots 



but rebuilt in 1 874.' To the north of the church is 

 Hill House, the residence of Mr. B. Richardson, and 

 Wan-ax, that of Mr. E. H. Barlow. The vicarage in 

 the Roydon road is part of the Baesh trust, 6 and is 

 held on lease by the vicar. 



The south-west part of the parish between the 

 Lea and the Stort lies very low, and the Rye Meads 

 adjoining the Stort are liable to flood. Apparently 

 in the 1 5th century the state of flood was permanent, 

 for the district round the Rye House was then known 

 as the Isle of Rye. 5 The extent of the island, 

 which was imparked by Sir Andrew Ogard in 1443, 

 seems to have been about 157 acres, 10 from the Lea 

 on the west to the ditch running from the Stort to 

 the Lea on the east. It thus included Rye Farm, 

 about mid-way along this ditch, and the fields formerly 

 called the Warren, now used as a sewage farm for 

 Ware." The lord of Rye Manor maintained a 

 bridge over the Lea, and he also kept up a causeway 

 through the Rye Meadows, which was used by 

 coaches, &c travelling to and from Norfolk and 

 Suffolk {via Stortford) as a more direct way than the 

 main road, for the use of which they paid a toll 

 to the lord. 12 The present road across the meadows 

 was made by Sir Charles Booth, and the tolls are 

 now taken by the owners of the Netherfield estate. 



The chief historical interest in Stanstead Abbots 

 attaches to the Rye House. Richard Rumbold, a 

 maltster and old army officer, one of the most 

 desperate of the conspirators in the famous plot 

 within a plot, was lessee of the Rye House in 1685. 

 One suggestion which he is said to have made for the 

 assassination of the king and Duke of York was to 

 blow up the playhouse when they were both inside ; 

 a plan rejected by the other conspirators, who 

 probably remembered the failure of Guy Fawkes 

 in a similar attempt. When other proposals fell 

 through he suggested the use of the Rye House for 

 the murder, as from its lonely situation and high 

 inclosures it seemed to offer a suitable shelter for the 

 conspirators. Forty of these were to hide in the 

 Rye House and waylay the king on his return from 

 Newmarket. After the murder they were to 

 retire into the house, which, being guarded with a 

 moat and brick walls, could easily be defended 

 against the country people. 13 Travellers from New- 

 market, after crossing the Rye Meadows, would have 

 to pass along a narrow lane with a thick hedge and 

 ditch on one side and a long range of buildings 

 belonging to the Rye House on the other, past 

 which were the moat and garden wall, and further on 

 a bridge over the Lea and another over the New 

 River. It was proposed to place a body of horse 

 and foot in the outer courtyard, who, when the king 

 ; " : ' T "'-" J "- ' '■— • - '"ue out into the lane, this 



and duke arrived, « 



having been previously blocked by an overturned 

 cart. 14 The plan was frustrated by the unexpected 

 return of the king and Duke of Vork to London 

 owing to a fire at Newmarket, and before another 

 opportunity occurred the plot was revealed by Joseph 

 Keeling, one of the conspirators, and the king's 

 vengeance fell on the whole Whig party. 16 Rumbold 

 escaped, and fought in the rising in Scotland under 

 Argyle. He was taken prisoner when Argyle's 

 forces were routed, and although mortally wounded 

 was executed at Edinburgh, ' the pleasure of hanging 

 him,' as Macaulay said, being 'one which the con- 

 querors could not bear to forego.' ls The contem- 

 porary official account of the plot gives a plan of the 

 house. 17 North of the gatehouse, which occupies 

 the south- cast angle of the site, were two small rooms 

 and a kitchen ; on the west there was a small stair- 

 case, and next to it a hall 30 ft. by 24 ft. 18 In the 

 north-west angle was a well staircase. There was a 

 great parlour 35 ft. by soft, at the west end and a 

 smaller one 17 ft. by 16 ft., also other apartments 

 and passages. The house was apparently built round 

 a court (ckustrum) of brick, and outside had an 

 inner and outer court, the whole being surrounded 

 by a moat. 18 Of the main part of the building only 

 the gatehouse remains. This was used as a workhouse 

 for the parish before the Poor Law Act of 1834, when 

 the inmates were removed to Ware. In 1904 it was 

 acquired by Messrs. Christie & Co. (see Rye Manor). 

 It is now used as a show place, and an inn built in 

 the forecourt of the house is a famous resort of 

 excursionists and anglers. The 'great bed of Ware,' 

 apparently immortalized by the reference to it in 

 Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, was brought here from 

 the Saracen's Head at Ware. It bears the date 1463, 

 but it did not probably exist before the latter part of 

 the 16th century. It is a four-post bedstead of carved 

 oak, and measures 1 1 ft. square and 8 ft. high. 



Easneye Wood (Isneye, Hysenhey, xiii cent.) in the 

 north-west of the parish contains a tumulus. This 

 was opened in 1899, but only calcined bones of pre- 

 Roman date were found. 20 In 1253 the Abbot of 

 Waltham Holy Cross had licence to make two roads 

 through the wood in place of two other roads out- 

 side it, 21 and in 1332 another licence was obtained 

 for imparking it. ss A lease of the lodge in the park 

 with the lands belonging, of the Lady Grove, Stan- 

 stead Grove a/iai Almond's Frith, and all the woods 

 in the manor of Stanstead Abbots was made to John 

 Rodes of this parish for fifty-seven years in J^z6. 2S 

 The farm of these lands was granted with that of the 

 manor to Anne Boleyn in 1532. 9 * In the reign of 

 Elizabeth John Raymond had a lease of Isney Park 

 together with the Great Farm of Stanstead. 35 When 

 the estate was acquired by Thomas Buxton (see manor 



7 Urwick, Nonconformity in Rati. 691 ■ 

 see Close, S o Geo. Ill, pt.rliii, no. n, u. 



8 See under Charities. 



9 In the 13th century a number of 

 persons were responsible for the upkeep 

 of bridges in ' La Rye ' (sec Fkc. ds Quo 

 Warr. 28;, 286). 



10 See Sir Andrew Ogard's licence to 

 impark in descent of manor. 



11 See Eatt Sera. Arch. Soc. Tram. 



Imon, Rut. of Harts. 250. 

 true account end declaration of the 

 tmspiracy against the latt iiW, &c. 

 1686). S 



H\ 



14 East Hern. Arch. Sac. Trans. 

 31, quoting from A trut acct., &c. 



15 Drawings of the Rye House a 

 prints of Keeling, Algernon Sidney a 

 the Duke of Monmouth are in Illus 

 of Herts. (Add. MS. 3;, 352). 



1S Macaulay, Hist, of Engl. \, z 7 

 Macaulay givea him a high character a; 

 condones his share in the Rye House pli 



17 Reproduced in an article in the E. 

 Mem. Arch. Soc. Trans, ii, 3:1. 



19 This must be the 'aula' who 

 measurements are given as 34 ft. : 

 24 ft. in the Ittn. of William of Worcisi 

 (ed. Nasmyth), 86. 



{')- 



10 Em Herts. Arch. Soc. Tra 

 7- 



11 Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, P- 



■ Inq. a.q.d. file 105, no. 7 ; Cal. Pat. 



367 



