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

Reinold and Matthew Marvin 153
estate were the Papillons, the Clays, and the Francis family
of Colchester ; and in 1897 it was owned by the Rev. Wm.
Adderley Francis, of Little Tey, Essex, who is Lord of the
Manor. Not far away, about 1600, stood the mansion of the
Clares. The Lodge now standing in the Parish is owned by
Lord Ashburton.
The land is of uneven surface, diversified with hill and
dale, and the village is pleasantly situated around a beautiful
" Green " or common of forty-two acres, which once formed
a portion of the Park attached to the seat of the De Veres.
This Green was, in early times, a favorite place for annual
Fairs ; one, which for centuries was held on the Monday
after St. Swithun's day (July 15), continued as late as 1855,
and possibly later ; there was another, on Trinity Mon-
day, for cattle, and still another on the last Friday in Sep-
tember, for sheep. We are informed that these have now
ceased.
The Church of St. Mary, in which our ancestors Reinold
and Matthew were christened, stands on the west side of this
Green, which it faces. It is built, says Hadfield, "of a rough
stone of a most remarkable kind, being of a dark brown
color," known in that vicinity as "ragstone" or Purbeck
stone, and resembling red sandstone mixed with iron ore.
The tower is square, with embattled top, and is fifty-five or
sixty feet in height ; this is built of flints intermingled with
a stone similar to that of the body of the Church,— many of
the latter, says Morant, "like iron," and appearing "like a
heap of gravel petrified together. Some of the stones are