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

Reinold and Matthew Marvin 89
In 1897 the Rev. Delaval S. Ingram, M. A., was the incum-
bent, with a living of ^580 and a parsonage, St. John's
College, Cambridge, holding the patronage. The population
of the Parish is given as 845.
The Church dates from an early period. Morant says the
body is "of one pace with the chancel " and both are tiled.
In 1553 there were five bells in the tower, which was built of
stones and flints, its general style apparently much resem-
bling those at Ramsey and Great Bentley. About the middle
of the last century (before Morant's time), the steeple fell ;
the four smaller bells were then sold for .£80, and this sum,
with £,60 or £jo added, was applied to rebuilding it in 1765,
when the large bell was rehung.*
The various estates which he mentions, afford substan-
tial proof that John Marvin was possessed of a goodly prop-
erty for the times ; he was a prosperous farmer, and the
various bequests made to relatives and to the poor of the
three Parishes where his tenants lived, as well as the men-
tion he makes of his flocks and herds and of his personal
effects, give similar evidence, while the marriage of his son
with the daughter of a prominent family of the county
shows something of his social standing. We should like to
know the fate of the " playne gold Rynge, wayenge almoste
xvs." which he bequeathed to his son John, and of the
" golden Rynge with letters, wayenge A Duckett," which he
left to Robert ; while the gift to Hayle, who I believe was
his brother-in-law, of his " nettes and lynes," may indicate
* Morant's Essex, I, p. 489.