Chappel: Manor

MANOR

Most land in Chappel was held of Crepping and Great Tey manors, (fn. 1) and no estate there was separately recorded in Domesday Book. In 1347 the Crepping court appointed officers for 'Bridgehall manor', and land in Great Tey or Chappel was held of 'Bridgehall fee' in 1402 and of 'Bridgehall manor' in 1593, (fn. 2) but there is no later record of a separate Bridgehall manor.

BACONS, a medieval freehold called a manor from the 16th century, (fn. 3) derived from a ploughland held of Great Tey manor in 1283 by Roger son of Richard who probably also held land of Crepping manor. (fn. 4) By 1306 the estate had passed to Thomas and Denise Bacon, and by 1309 to John Bacon who held over 200 a. of Crepping manor in 1340. (fn. 5) John seems to have been succeeded by Margery, daughter of Edmund Bacon and wife of William de Molyns, although Denise Bacon held over 200 a., pre- sumably in dower, until her death in 1349. William de Molyns and Margery obtained pos- session in 1352. (fn. 6) In 1374 Roger at March held the estate, and in 1415 Robert Rikedon (who may have been mesne lord). William Calthorpe died seised of the estate in 1421, and was suc- ceeded by his grandson, another William Calthorpe, from whom Bacons passed to John Calthorpe, then to John's son Philip (d. 1549), and to Philip's daughter Elizabeth, wife of Henry Parker. (fn. 7) In 1562 William Woodhouse and his wife Elizabeth, presumably Elizabeth Calthorpe, sold the estate to John Turner of Crepping Hall (d. 1579). (fn. 8) Bacons descended with Crepping until John Smith's death in 1621, when it seems to have passed to his nephew, another John Smith, who sold it in 1645 to William Stebbing. (fn. 9) Stebbing sold it in 1650 to Christoper Scarlet, who was succeeded the same year by his son Thomas. Stephen Smith of Crepping Hall disputed Thomas Scarlet's title, and in 1664 the estate was divided between them. The two moieties descended in the Smith and Scarlet families until 1713 when both were sold to John Little. Little died before 1744 and was succeeded by his daughter Susan Foster. Thomas Stuck was lord in 1770 and in 1786, but by 1790 the manor had passed to Samuel Shaen. (fn. 10) He died in 1799 and his widow Hephzibah held the manor until 1823 when she conveyed it to her daughter, another Hephzibah Shaen, who immediately sold it to John Rogers. Rogers died in 1867 and was succeeded by his son J. T. Rogers, who enfranchised the copy- holds. (fn. 11) The house and land apparently passed into the possession of Charles Alexander (d. 1775) of Crepping Hall, and descended with Crepping until 1841 or later. (fn. 12)

The house was rebuilt as a square, red-brick, farmhouse in the mid 19th century, presumably for William Dean (d. 1852), its tenant by 1810. (fn. 13)