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| Aerial View of the Ryes Moated Site[1] |
History and Description of The Ryes, Rise Marses, or Rise Hall, in Hatfield Broad Oak, in the ancient hundred of Uttlesford, Essex.
Contents |
Location and Origin
The manor of RYES or RISE MARSES, in the west of the parish of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, was originally ½ a hide known as ‘Siriceslea’, which, prior to the Norman Conquest, belonged to the manor of Hatfield Regis, held by a ‘sokeman’ or freeman, who enjoyed extensive rights over his land. The soil is heavy clay with substantial flint content.
Ownership
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- 1066 - Geoffrey de Mandeville.
- 1086 - Robert Gernon.
- Domesday survey: held by the Crown and granted to Haimo Corbeil sometimes known as Hamon the Sheriff or Dapifer[3][4] of whom it was held by Ralph de Marcy.
- There is no other reference to the overlordship of Hamon or his descendants, and at later periods Ryes seems always to have been classed as a free tenement – part of Hatfield Regis manor.
- Marcy family. The land holding took its other name from this family.
- 1150 - A sister of Ralph de Marcy, Grizel, probably the granddaughter of Domesday tenant Ralph de Marcy, married Humphrey Barrington, a forester of Hatfield.
- William de Marcy witnessed a charter in Hatfield Broad Oak under Edward I.
- Ryes came later to the Braintree (or Branktree) family. Adam Braintree held land in the district in 1307, and in 1340 was a taxpayer in Hatfield Broad Oak.
- Agnes, widow of William Bismere, held Ryes at her death in 1442 or 1443.
- John Taverner in 1450 held a messuage and 1½ virgate once belonging to Adam Braintree and comprising 134 acres. Taverner died c. 1473, and
- his daughter Joan, wife of Nicholas More, sold Ryes in 1478 to
- Richard Cornish. In 1487 Cornish granted the reversion of Ryes, together with that of Lea Hall, to
- Nicholas Leventhorpe, who held it in 1497.
- Nicholas Leventhorpe (d. 1505 or 1506) was succeeded by his son William, who
- in 1524 mortgaged Ryes, now described as a manor, to Thomas Frank. William Leventhorpe was dead by 1525, when his widow Joan and her next husband Geoffrey Jennings conveyed Ryes to
- Thomas Frank (d. 1558), who was succeeded at Ryes by
- his son Thomas (d. 1580), who bought the neighbouring manor of Bollingtons in 1561.
- Richard Frank (b. bef. 1558, d. 1627), son of the last, was succeeded by his son
- Sir Leventhorpe Frank, who in 1638 sold Ryes to
- Sir James Stonehouse (Bt.), of Amberden Hall, Debden. The manor descended with the baronetcy in the Stonehouse family until 1677, when they sold it to their relative
- Dr. Benjamin Woodroff, who sold Ryes in 1701 to
- Jeffrey Stanes of London, who died in 1732 and was succeeded by his grandson
- Stanes Chamberlayne (d. 1782),
- whose son and heir Stanes Chamberlayne died in April 1834.
- After that, Ryes Hall, then with 265 acres, was sold to Sir John Archer-Houblon of Great Hallingbury, who demolished it.[5]
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While the Victoria County History states that Sir John Archer Houblon demolished the Ryes before 1838, it is a fact that the building, or as implied, perhaps only part of it, seemed still to be standing in December 1842, when the Illustrated London News included an article about Hatfield Broad Oak, with the words:
Description
The beautiful [8]manor of Ryes, Ryse, or Hatfield Ryes, designed by Inigo Jones himself, [9] occupied a rectangular moated site within which are still some brick boundary walls, or kitchen garden walls (now almost completely covered with ivy) of the late 16th or early 17th century. The only known existing illustration of Ryes comes from the pen of a Chamberlayne female, probably Emma Chamberlayne, who was born there and sketched the house before the death of her father. The sketch is included in a small notebook containing genealogical information about the Chamberlayne family collected over many years, and in the possession of one of the Chamberlaynes today.
Ryes is said to have resembled Pishiobury Park in Sawbridgeworth and Hamels Park in Braughing (Herts.) but on a smaller scale. [5]The picture (L) of Pishiobury is given for comparison's sake.
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| Pishobury[10] |
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| Ryes: by Emma Chamberlayne |
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| 17th Century kitchen garden wall |
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| Ryes Pond |
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| Ryes Moat |
The moat is clearly visible, as is a pond which is banked up with cut stones at one end. An entrance, demarcated with slim iron pillars of classical design, can still be seen.
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| Ryes gatepost |
Ryes had 20 hearths in 1670.[11]
Jeffrey Stanes improved the house and grounds, leaving instructions in his will for their maintenance. An avenue of chestnut trees to the west of the site may date from his time.
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| Horse Chestnut Tree Avenue |
The present Ryes farmhouse, south of the moat, is of the early 19th century, but incorporates some older materials.[5]
An interesting snippet of information comes from an article entitled The Riddle of a Clock- Great Hallingbury's Timepiece by H. C. Andrews, M.A. F.S.A. in the Herts and Essex Observer from Saturday 04 November 1933:
When, some months since, I promised the Editor of The Herts and Essex Observer to provide him with the history of the clock which now adorns the tower of Great Hallingbury Church, and, as it formerly did from Hallingbury Place, now from that tower once more sets the time to the village to the great appreciation of the community, I little knew the puzzle it would entail. Even now the puzzle is not solved, and I would welcome from Observer readers any information which would render this history of the clock more certain. In the year 1749 a certain John Briant was born at Exning near Newmarket, to a "respectable foreigner."
It has been suggested to by my friend Mr. Robert Briant, of Streatham, that John, like himself, came of Huguenot stock. By the year 1740 he had settled at Hertford, and set up his bell-foundry under the patronage of James Cecil, sixth Earl of Salisbury, who lived seven miles away at Hatfield House. Prom this foundry issued during the next forty-nine years, until Briant's death in 1829, a stream of over four hundred superb bells. They are to be found in every county in England southward of the borders of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Hertfordshire alone possesses over a hundred and Essex more than forty. Another important branch of John Briant's activity was turret clocks. Of these I have found more than twenty and am constantly adding to the list. A side-line was long-case or "grandfather" clocks, of which I have discovered three and would welcome any additions. So much for its maker. The clock, as I am authoritatively informed by Mr. Frederick F. Ashwell, of the firm of Ashwell and Chambers, of Bishop's Stortford. who have had charge of it ever since it has been at Hallingbury Place, can definitely be dated to about the year 1780; and the only alteration to it took sixty years ago when old anchor escapement replaced by the new dead beat escapement by his father, Mr. A. Ashwell. The type of the works is exactly the same as the clock supplied by Briant to The (sic) Lordship, Much Hadham, in 1781. But the difficulty is that, although the clock dates from about 1780, and thus is one of John Briant’s earliest works, its bell was cast by him in 1809, and on its wooden dial is painted " I.A.H. 1838." How then can these apparent be reconciled?
There is a definite tradition that the clock came from Ryes manor house at Woodside Green, in Hatfield Broad Oak parish. Ryes manor early in the eighteenth century was the property of Jeffrey Stanes, and when he died, aged 65, on 1st February 1731, as his memorial in Hatfield Broad Oak Church records, it came to his only daughter Sarah, who was wife of Richard Chamberlayne, of Princethorpe, Warwickshire, and to the Chamberlayne family.
To Richard (d. 28th March, 1758, aged 75) and Sarah d. 10th January, 1742, aged 51 succeeded their son Stanes, who was named after his mother's family. He married on 22 August 1745, Thermuthes, eldest daughter and co-heir of Thomas Smith, of Kennet, Wiltshire, and niece and heir of Robert Plomer of Hoddesdon (who died 11th January 1740 aged 52, and was buried at Great Amwell. Their memorial at Hatfield Broad Oak records his death on 28th June, 1782, aged 62: and her death on 11th July 1789, aged 68. (1). Ryes came to their son, another Stanes Chamberlayne and it is most probably he who purchased the clock from John Briant, and had it erected there. His wife was Mary, daughter and heir of William Brocket of Spains Hall, Essex, a descendant of the Hertfordshire Brockets.
I surmise that in 1809 the bell of the clock was found to be cracked or otherwise damaged, so Briant was called in to re-cast it. it bears the inscription "John Briant, Hertford, fecit 1809.” Since making the clock, he had done considerable work in the district. At Bishop's Stortford in 1791 he had re-cast bells 3, 7 and 9 and in 1802, number 8. For Great Hallingbury Church in 1794 he cast the fifth bell; and the next year number 6 (now number 8) for Sawbridgeworth Church. Subsequently to the Ryes clock bell, in 1820, he added numbers 1 and 2 to the Bishop's Stortford peal, and installed the clock there at the same time. On 22nd May, 1819. Mary "the wife of Stanes Chamberlayne of Ryes" died, aged 61, was buried at Hatfield Broad Oak. Subsequently Stanes Chamberlayne sold Ryes to John Archer Houblon. The exact date is uncertain, but it must have been before 1834, for he died aged 84 on the 12th April of that year, and on his memorial in Hatfield Broad Oak Church, is described as " late of Ryes." (Note: according to his Will, Stanes Chamberlayne II left Ryes to his eldest son, Stanes Brocket Chamberlayne, (later Stanes Brocket Brocket), so it must have been he, and not his father, who sold Ryes to John Archer Houblon. This, especially considering the bitter family feud which took place before Stanes II's death.) The new owner of Ryes in 1836 provided a new wooden dial to the clock with his initials and date, "I.A.H. 1836": and it remained there, I surmise until he pulled down the house and, removing the clock, re-erected it over the stables at Hallingbury Place. The date on the dial proves that this removal did not take place earlier, for just before 1831, Mr. Archer Houblon's father, John Houblon, for reasons of economy, had removed to Welford, Berks. and let Hallingbury Place: it was not until 1837, six years after his father's death, that Mr. Archer Houblon re-occupied it.
I have unable to ascertain the date when Ryes was destroyed. Canon Galpin, late of Hatfield Broad Oak, and until recently of Faulkbourne, has suggested that it may have taken place when Mr. Archer Houblon enclosed Hatfield Forest. That was about the year 1854. All that remains to-day to mark its site is a fine old avenue of lime trees, and the walls of the kitchen garden, adjoining which is a farm house owned by Mr. Gaye.
The subsequent history of the clock is so well known that my excuse for repeating it here is to complete the record for future generations. Two years ago, Hallingbury Place itself suffered the same fate that had befallen Ryes. Mr. Arthur Franks purchased the stables, and finding that the brick walls concealed a beautiful old timber framed house, restored it splendidly to its original condition. He took down the turret above the stables which housed the clock and its bell, greatly to the sorrow of the inhabitants of Great Hallingbury, for it had for years set the time for the district. He therefore presented it to the Church, where it has recently been placed in the tower.
It was found that the old wooden dial was too large and weather-worn to be used, and so a new metal skeleton dial, four feet in diameter, has been fitted. It was also decided that the bell tower was unable to house the bell, and the clock has therefore been arranged to strike on one of the other bells. The renovation and installation was the work of Messrs. Ashwell and Chambers.
As the clock and bell are so closely associated with Hertford it is fitting that the bell and the old dial have now found a home in the Hertford Museum, where the bell has the company of the old fifteenth century Hertford Market bell, and of another cast by Robert Taylor in 1803, for Tolmers, Little Berkhamstead, Herts.
(1). Their youngest daughter Hannah married Samuel Leightonhouse of Orford, Ugley. She died 21st June 1828, in her 74th year, and was buried with her husband at Ugley. [12]
The clock's wooden dial is in the Hertford Museum's storage unit today. It shows the initials I. A. H. and the date 1836 in its centre. This leads one to conclude that Ryes was indeed demolished before 1836.
Sources
- ↑ Ryes Lane. Google Maps. Ryes Lane, Bishop's Stortford, UK. Retrieved from Google Maps (Here;) Accessed 7 Sept 2021.
- ↑ Composite of: 1. Domesday Book Relating to Essex., (1864)., Retrieved from Google e-Books (Here;) Accessed 11 Mar 2024. 2. 2. Photograph taken from personally-owned copy of: Martin, Geoffrey, (2003)., Domesday Book. A Complete Translation., (p.1010)., Penguin.
- ↑ Domesday Book, Witham, Essex. Retrieved from Open Domesday (Here;) Accessed 20 Sept 2022.
- ↑ Victoria County History of Essex 1.djvu/484. Retrieved from Wikisource (Here;) Accessed 20 Sept 2022.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ed. W R Powell, Beryl A Board, Nancy Briggs, J L Fisher, Vanessa A Harding, Joan Hasler, Norma Knight and Margaret Parsons. Parishes: Hatfield Broad Oak, in A History of the County of Essex: (Vol. 8, pp.158-186). (London: Victoria County History, 1983). Retrieved from British History Online (pp158-186;) Accessed 20 Sept 2022.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Freely available from: The Illustrated London news (1842). Retrieved from Bayerischer Staatsbibliothek (Here;) Accessed 8 May 2022.
- ↑ British Newspaper Archive. Illustrated London News. Saturday 31 December 1842. Retrieved (with subscription) to BNA (Here;) Accessed 24 Mar 2023.
- ↑ Houblon, Alice Frances (Lindsay) Archer, Lady., (1907)., The Houblon Family; Its Story and Times. Vol. 2. (pp.113-4). London: Constable. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (p.113;) Accessed 11 July 2022.
- ↑ Cromwell, T.K-., (1819)., Excursions in the County of Essex. (Vol 2). London: Longman. Retrieved from Google e-Books (p.74;) Accessed 11 July 2022.
- ↑ Chauncy, Henry, Sir., (Jan 1700)., The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire: With the Original of Counties, Hundreds Or Wapentakes ... the Foundation and Origin of Monasteries, Churches ... and Vicarages ... Faithfully Collected from Public Records ... and Other Select Authorities. Together with an Exact Transcript of Domesday Book, So Far as Concerns this Shire, and the Translation Thereof in English. To which are Added, the Epitaphs and Memorable Inscriptions in All the Parishes ... B. Griffin. Retrieved from Google e-Books (Here;) Accessed 1 May 2024.
- ↑ Essex Hearth Tax Returns Michaelmas 1670. Retrieved from Doczz Net (p.420;) Accessed 20 Sept 2022.
- ↑ British Newspaper Archive. Andrews, M.A. F.S.A. H. C., (Saturday 04 November 1933), The Riddle of a Clock - Great Hallingbury's Timepiece, Herts and Essex Observer. Retrieved (with subscription) from BNA (Here;) Accessed 24 Mar 2023.
