Mount Bures: Manor

MANOR.

The manor of MOUNT BURES was an estate of 1 hide held in 1066 by Ulmer and in 1086 by Roger of Poitou, lord of the honor of Lancaster. (fn. 1) The descent of the overlord ship, which was recorded until 1488, was the same as that of Bergholt Sackville manor, West Bergholt. (fn. 2)

By 1119 the demesne tenancy was held by Robert Sackville, and subsequently descended with that of Bergholt Sackville until 1614 when Richard Weston inherited it. (fn. 3) Richard sold it to Frances Alston of Polstead (Suff.), to hold in trust under the will of her husband, Thomas Alston, for their sons William and Edward. In 1639, Frances, by then the widow of Sir John Temple, released the manor to the surviving son, Edward Alston. Edward sold the manor in 1657 to Richard Wiseman of Torrells Hall, who sold it in 1662 to John Cressener (d. 1696), a wealthy London grocer and brother of George Cressener of Earls Colne. (fn. 4) John was succeeded by his eldest son Edward and then by his second son and fellow grocer George Cressener (d. 1722), who left it to his son, Edward (fn. 5) (d. 1733 or 1734) of Hamburg, a merchant. Edward's widow Mary married Stephen Wolfenden, another merchant of Hamburg. Following Mary's successful defence of a suit against Edward's brother, George, (fn. 6) the Wolfendens sold the manor in 1750 to John Hanbury. He was succeeded by his son Osgood Hanbury, and then by Osgood's son, Osgood, who sold it in 1790 to Abraham Newman. Newman's father Thomas had been the tenant of the demesne farm since 1733. Abraham (d. 1798) was succeeded by his daughter Anne (d. 1829), wife of George Caswell, from whom the manor passed in 1830 to their daughter, Maria, who married Maj. Gen. James Bourchier. Their son Charles Bourchier inherited the manor in 1862 and divided the lands into four lots which he sold in 1863. The lordship was sold separately and in 1996 was held by a local person. (fn. 7)

The manor house, The Hall, has a low building at the north-west corner which was probably the 16th-century service range to a hall which lay to its north. A large red brick house was built to the south and east in the earlier 19th century and there is a late 19th-century block on the presumed site of the hall. The garden is now to the south and east, but a platform to the west of the house and church may have been the early hall garden, mentioned in 1506. (fn. 8) That perhaps served the early house whose main fronts pre- sumably faced east and west.