MANOR
The early history of the manor of STONDON
MASSEY has not been traced with certainty. Stondon is not mentioned in Domesday Book. It derived the suffix Massey
from the family of Marcy and it has been suggested
that in 1086 it formed part of the manor of Kelvedon
Hatch (q.v.) then held by Ralph de Marcy. (fn. 67) That
manor did perhaps include some land in Stondon, but
the succession to Ralph's Navestock estate (q.v.), to
which his Kelvedon Hatch estate probably became
attached, suggests very strongly that the Marcys who
became lords of Stondon were not his heirs. In the
early 13th century the heir to this Navestock estate, in
direct succession from Ralph (see Magdalen Laver),
was another Ralph de Marcy; this last Ralph did not
inherit Stondon.
The origins of the manor of Stondon are probably
to be found not in Ralph de Marcy's estate in Kelvedon
Hatch but in the manor held in 1086 by Serlo de Marcy
in Margaret Roding. (fn. 68) This manor, which was held
of Hamon dapifer as 1 hide and 15 acres was then
worth £5. Serlo had a son Hamon living in 1131. (fn. 69)
In the early 13th century, and probably by 1197,
another Serlo de Marcy held the manor of Stondon as
well as lands in Margaret Roding later known as
Marks Hall. He had apparently succeeded a Hamon
de Marcy. (fn. 70) The manor of Marks Hall constituted a
chapelry dependent upon the rectory of Stondon
Massey, to which it has continued to pay tithes until
the present day. (fn. 71) It is thus probable that Stondon as
well as Margaret Roding was held from the 11th
century by the first Serlo de Marcy and his descendants.
In 1210-12 Serlo de Marcy held 1 1/3; knight's fee in
Roding (i.e. Marks Hall). (fn. 72) He died before 1244
leaving as heirs his two sisters, Alice wife of John de
Merk and Agnes, wife of Nicholas Spigurnel. In 1244
it was agreed between the sisters that Agnes and
Nicholas and the heirs of Agnes should hold the manor
of Stondon of Alice and John and the heirs of Alice. (fn. 73)
In 1296 and 1308 it was reported that the manor was
held of Ralph de Merk by knight service, the amount
of which was said to be ¾ fee in 1296 and ½ fee in
1308. (fn. 74) In 1485 the tenure was said to be of the Duke
of Bedford as of his hundred of Ongar, by 8d. rent for
all services. (fn. 75)
Nicholas Spigurnel died before 1275 and was succeeded by his son Edmund. In 1275 an inquisition
ad quod damnum was held relating to Edmund's proposed inclosure of his wood at Stondon. The verdict
was that grave detriment would result from any inclosure of the great wood but none from inclosing a
wood of 4 acres adjoining the manor house. (fn. 76) Edmund
died in 1296 and was succeeded by his brother John
who died in 1308. (fn. 77) John's epitaph, in Norman
French, is said to have been visible in the parish church
as late as 1768. (fn. 78) He was succeeded by his son
Edmund who died in 1316 leaving as heir his infant
daughter Joan, later wife of William Gobyon. (fn. 79) Joan
and William were confirmed in their possession of the
manor of Stondon in 1333. (fn. 80) She was still living in
1385 but by 1391 the lord of the manor was John
Gobyon, perhaps her son. (fn. 81) John was still living in
1396 but was succeeded before July 1410 by William
Gobyon. (fn. 82) By 1412, if not earlier, the manor had
passed to Sir John Hende, who had been Mayor of
London in 1391 and 1404. (fn. 83) He died in 1418 leaving
two sons both named John, to the younger of whom he
devised the manor of Stondon. (fn. 84) John Hende the
younger died in 1464. (fn. 85) He had devised the manor,
in default of his issue, to Joan daughter of his elder
brother John and wife of Walter Wrytell, in tail, with
remainder to Joan's mother Griselde, wife of John
Hende the elder and daughter of Hamon Belknap, and
Griselde's heirs. (fn. 86) Joan Wrytell died before her uncle
John Hende and Stondon descended to John Wrytell
her son, who died in 1485 leaving as his heir an infant
son John. (fn. 87) In 1486 the king committed the custody
of Stondon during John's minority to Sir Reynold
Bray, Sir Edmund Shaa and John Shaa. (fn. 88) John
Wrytell died in 1507 leaving an infant daughter and
heir Juliana who died in 1509. (fn. 89) The manor then
passed, according to the entail created by John Hende
the younger, to Sir Edward Belknap son of Sir Henry
Belknap (d. 1487) brother of Griselde Hende. (fn. 90) Sir
Edward died in 1521 leaving as his heirs his four sisters.
Stondon fell to the share of his sister Alice, wife of Sir
William Shelley, a Justice of the Common Pleas. (fn. 91)
Sir William died in 1548 having devised the manor to
his eldest son John. (fn. 92) In 1550 John Shelley died leaving
Stondon to his younger son William, then a minor. (fn. 93)
About this time the manor may have been leased to
Rainold Hollingsworth (d. 1573) whose brass is in the
parish church. (fn. 94)
William, son of John Shelley, was an active Roman
Catholic. He was imprisoned as a recusant in 1580
and spent most of the remainder of his life in confinement. Between 1580 and 1584 he was released
several times on bail and during one of his periods of
freedom he appears to have become implicated in the
Throgmorton plot. (fn. 95) He was rearrested in 1584 for
treason and in 1586 pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to death. He was subsequently reprieved but his estates
were declared forfeit and he remained in prison until
1596, when he was released in failing health, to die
early in 1597. (fn. 96) He left no children and his heir was
his nephew John Shelley. After William's death his
widow Jane tried to obtain possession of Stondon Place,
which was part of the estate and which she claimed as
part of his marriage jointure. This tenement had been
leased by William Shelley in 1582 to Lawrence and
William Hollingsworth for 21 years. (fn. 97) In 1589 the
Hollingsworths divided the property between them.
Lawrence died soon after, leaving his share to his
nephew John Hollingsworth, who sold it to William
Hollingsworth, who thus became sole tenant under the
Crown. William then mortgaged his lease to William
Chambers and in 1593 he and Chambers assigned their
interest in the property to William Byrd, the musician,
for £300. Stondon Place then consisted of about 200
acres. Part of it had been sub-let to Dennis Lolly,
whose lease expired in 1597. (fn. 98) In 1595 Byrd secured
a Crown lease of the whole of Stondon Place for the
lives of his three children successively. His position
was remarkable: although a well-known recusant himself, he was willing to profit by the forfeiture of a fellow
Roman Catholic and was allowed by the Crown to
do so. (fn. 99)
Jane Shelley's attempt to regain her husband's property 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. (fn. 1) She then resumed her efforts
to eject Byrd, but although she had been recognized
by the Crown as the owner of the property his lease
remained good and he remained at Stondon Place. (fn. 2)
Meanwhile, in 1604, John Shelley had regained possession of the manor of Stondon, paying £11,000 to
the Crown for this. Of that sum £1,000 went to Lord
Howard of Effingham, who had been negotiating for the
purchase of the manor, by way of compensation. Jane
Shelley died in 1610 and shortly afterwards John
Shelley sold his rights in Stondon Place to William
Byrd, who continued to live there until his death in
1623. (fn. 3)
Stondon Place remained in the possession of the
Byrds until about 1651 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. (fn. 4) 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.). (fn. 5)
John Shelley sold the manor of Stondon in about
1610 to Sir Nathaniel Rich. (fn. 6) He died in 1636 leaving
Stondon to his nephew, also Nathaniel Rich. (fn. 7) He died
in 1701 and was succeeded by his son Nathaniel,
receiver-general of the Land Tax for Essex. (fn. 8) In 1706
an Act was passed enabling the latter to compound
with the Lord Treasurer for the amount which he
owed. (fn. 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. (fn. 10)
How died in 1708 and was succeeded in turn by his
two sons Richard (d. 1723) and John (o.s.p. 1748). (fn. 11)
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 succeeded in turn by his sisters Jane Taylor (d. 1793) and
Ann. In 1816 Ann Taylor sold the manor, including
Stondon Place, to Miss Joanna Hollingworth, 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. Stonestreet, later Prebendary of Lincoln. Miss Hollingworth
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 Hollingworth. After the death of
Miss Hollingworth Mrs. Meyer bought the manor
from the executors, the purchase money being divided
under the terms of Miss Hollingworth'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 (1842) and Gates (1848).
In 1849 he owned land in the parish amounting to
some 250 acres, (fn. 12) and in 1850 he further acquired Grove
Farm, of 33 acres, which had belonged to the estate
before 1814 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. (fn. 13) 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. (fn. 14)
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. (fn. 15) 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 15th 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
16th- and 17th-century types and on the first floor in
the north wing a plaster overmantel with twin roundarched 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 originally been a farm-house but was rebuilt about 1707 (see
above) and was the residence of the lord from then
until 1861. This 18th-century house was completely
destroyed by the fire of 1877. (fn. 16) 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. (fn. 17)
It has a small lodge by the main entrance and extensive
outbuildings. It is now untenanted and neglected and
overgrown with creeper.
Stondon House, to which the lord of the manor
moved in 1861, is said to have been built by Richard
Jordan about 1740. (fn. 18) About 1824 it was leased by a
Mr. and Mrs. Page for use as a girls' school. P. H.
Meyer had lived there only five years when this house
was burnt down. (fn. 19) It had been rebuilt by the time of
Meyer's death in 1870. (fn. 20) The present house is a large
building of brick with a slate roof and has extensive outbuildings. For some years after the Second World War
it was empty and neglected but it is now occupied and
is in good repair. (fn. 21)