In 1086 Godebold was demesne tenant of 1˝ hides and 30 a. in Nayland (Suff.), which later became the manor of LITTLE HORKESLEY HALL in Co. Essex. It was held of the manor of Nayland as part of the honor of Rayleigh. The manor descended from father to son in Godebold's family, who took their surname from it. The priory with its manor was granted in 1525 to Wolsey's Oxford college and, in 1528, to his Ipswich grammar school. The manor escheated to the crown on Wolsey's fall in 1530 and was granted to Thomas Cromwell, later earl of Essex.. The overlordship is recorded until 1661. Sir John Wentworth sold the manor to Sir Humphrey Winch and his son Onslowe in 1617 and Onslowe sold it to Sir John DENHAM in 1631. DENHAM was succeeded in 1639 by his son, the royalist poet Sir John DENHAM, who forfeited the manor in 1651. DENHAM apparently sold his interest to John Feilder in 1653. Feilder sold it c. 1660 to trustees for Azariah Husbands who was in possession by 1661.
In about 1641 Dorothy had married William Maynard of Easton (Essex), who in 1640 succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Maynard. She died two months before her father; her husband, who made several settlements of the Passenham estate in 1666-77, survived until 1699, when he was succeeded by Banastre, who himself died in 1718. His titles passed in turn to three of his sons, none of whom married. The youngest, Charles Maynard, in 1766 obtained a grant of a new barony and a viscountcy with special remainder which enabled a distant cousin, also named Charles, to succeed at his death in 1775. To the south of the church, was the original seate of Sir Robert Banastre after he acquired the manor in 1623.
Little Horkesley Church
 | The church, which was granted to Little Horkesley priory at its foundation c. 1127, was both conventual and parochial until the Dissolution. It was presumably the former priory ownership which led Edward Husbands, patron and impropriator, to claim in 1705-6 and in 1727 that the church was free from episcopal and archidiaconal visitations. The lord of Little Horkesley Hall was in 1332 said to hold the advowson of the priory, and the cure may have been served by the monks. After the dissolution of the priory in 1525 the advowson of a perpetual curacy apparently descended with Little Horkesley Hall. The priory's chaplain received £6 13s. 4d. in 1525, and the later impropriators apparently provided funds from the tithes for the maintenance of a curate or vicar. A parish priest was recorded in 1550. The curacy was said in 1650 to be worth £20, probably paid out of the rectory by the impropriator. In 1717 the curate received £34 a yeare from the rectory. An estate in South Hanningfield was purchased in 1720 with £200 from Edward Husbands and £200 from Queen Anne's Bounty. There was no ancient vicarage house. |
In 1517 Sir William Findern left all the books and vestments in the vestry to the church and made bequests to the high altar and the altars of St. Mary, St. Catherine, and the Trinity. The priest paid 2s. rent to Little Horkesley Hall manor for obit lands c. 1530 and there were church, presumably obit, cows in the 1540s. In 1546 the Crown confiscated lands left for other obits and that left for the maintenance of a rood light by John Falcon (fl. late 15th century), founder of a chantry chapel in Great Horkesley. In 1552 the churchwardens had 20s. from the stock of an otherwise unrecorded parish guild, and two sales of church goods raised over £8, most of which was spent on church repairs.
Thomas Newcomen, unpopular Laudian rector of Holy Trinity, Colchester, was curate in the 1620s. In 1634 the royalist William Lynne of Westwood Park complained of sectarian preaching and accused William Ball of the Priory of intending to enlarge his grounds with part of Little Horkesley churchyard. In 1636 the curate appeared before the Court of High Commission, presumably for his puritan beliefs. Although no minister was reported in 1650, and the patron Sir John DENHAM was described as a delinquent, it was later said that DENHAM's bailiff appointed a curate c. 1645-53.
Azariah Husbands, and his widow Elizabeth, provided a curate until c. 1676. Their son Edward refused to appoint one and in 1679-80 the bishop granted a sequestration of the tithes to the leading inhabitants, who appointed a curate. In 1683 six inhabitants refused to pay tithes to Husbands unless he provided a minister, but they lost their case probably because Husbands appointed one. In 1697 the curate sued the lessee of the Priory for non-payment of tithe.
In 1684 the church needed a new bible and books of homilies and canons. They had been provided by 1687 when a total of £108 2s. 8d. was spent on church fittings and substantial repairs. The parish vestry only agreed as late as 1713 to rail in the communion table. In 1723 a neighbouring clergyman served as curate, holding one service on Sundays and communion six times a year. James Husbands, impropriator and patron from 1736, served the church in 1738. He was also rector of Ashdon (1729-30) and Fordham (1743-9) and he probably set up the parish library recorded in 1718. In 1738 he usually held services twice on Sundays, and communion at least five times a year. Between 1778 and 1818 William Barry, vicar of Wiston (Suff.), served the church for the absentee curate, holding one service on Sundays and communion four times a year.
The medieval church, dedicated to ST. PETER c. 1127, and to SS. PETER and PAUL c. 1190, was struck by a landmine in 1940 and completely destroyed. It comprised an undifferentiated nave and chancel with north and south chapels, a south aisle that extended alongside a west tower, and a south porch. That church was probably the nave of the medieval priory church whose monastic chancel lay to the east. The north wall of the nave was probably 12th-century, the tower mid 14th-century, and the south aisle and chapel 15th-century. The porch, which was largely rebuilt in the 18th century, and the north chapel, which was rebuilt when the church was restored in the 19th century, were added in the 16th century. The north chapel may have been the Trinity chapel built by Sir William Findern before 1515. After the priory's dissolution the chancel of the priory church was demolished, the chancel arch blocked, and a new chancel formed from the eastern two bays of the nave. In 1552 there were four bells. At least one was 15th-century, two were replaced in the 17th-century, and only three were recorded in the 18th century possibly because one was already cracked and useless. One 16th- century and four 17th-century bells were transferred to the new church from All Saints' church, Colchester, in 1958. There was a silver chalice in 1552, and a silver chalice and paten in 1684 and 1687.
Three wooden effigies survive, probably commemorating Robert Horkesley (d. 1295) and William Horkesley and his wife Emma (both d. 1332). The surviving brass of Bridget Marney (d. 1549) and her two husbands was originally from a tomb in the chancel. The inscription correctly identifies her second husband as John Marney, Lord Marney, but her first husband was William, not Thomas, Findern. On the reverse is a shrouded effigy of a lady c. 1490. Another female shroud brass is probably of Catherine Leventhorp (d. 1502). Brasses of the brothers John (d. 1430) and Andrew Swinbourne (d. 1418), from a tomb in the south chapel, were complete in 1796 but largely destroyed in the earlier 19th century and only fragments remain.
'Little Horkesley: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 239-41.