The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

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The English Ancestry of
near its northern border the old road running to London by
the way of Colchester ; it is eight miles south-east of the
latter place, and sixty-two miles from London, on the Ten-
dring Hundred branch of the Great Eastern Railway. It
takes its name, says Morant, "from bent, a sort of grass, or
place where rushes grow, and ley, pasture or unploughed
ground." In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Ulwin was
owner of the Parish. At the time of the Survey, Alberic
de Vere, ancestor of the Earls of Oxford, held it. His
estate is valued in "Domesday," and his descendants re-
tained it till 14.61, when, during the Wars of the Roses, it
fell to the Crown (Edward IV) by attainder,— perhaps for
the attachment of its owner to the cause of Henry VI, the
last of the Lancastrian Kings.
The De Veres regained a large estate here on the acces-
sion of Henry VII, in 1485, which was subsequently sold for
a debt to the Crown, to one Glascock. The next owner was
Sir Roger Townshend, who held it of Queen Elizabeth " in
capite by knight's service;" he died in 1590, and it then
passed to his son Sir John, his grandson Sir Roger, baronet,
and then to Sir Horatio, who sold it to a London merchant,
Nicholas Corsellis. The Townshends were therefore " Lords
of the Manor " when our ancestors were living there.
The De Vere mansion stood in "Hall Field," and was
once a splendid and stately seat, with moat and fish ponds,
aad a handsome park, but nothing now remains of the an-
cient building. The present manor house is situated on
the north side of the Church ;
the later owners of this