102
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
been demolished only in late 1026) along the lane to Hedgeman's Farm and
so on by field path to Gaysham Hall, which was the first point of call.
Here the visitors were cordially received by Mrs. Brown, wife to Mr. Rupert
Brown, the owner, and a detailed inspection of the farmhouse, within and
without, was made. The Hon. Secretary had brought with him some
photographs of the building recently taken for the Club's Pictorial Survey
of the County, and Mr. Hall Crouch produced sketches of the premises
as they were in 1800. To the party assembled in the oak-panelled dining
room of the farm Mr. Crouch read an account of the history of the estate as
follows :—
" The earliest mention I can find of the name Gaysham is in Fisher's
Forest of Essex (p. 172), where it is recorded that in 1292 it was found
'that the Abbess of Barking ought to have her woodwards (viz. foresters)
sworn to the King of the five great woods of Alfrefen, Hyneholt, Gaysham,
Alesereth and Henglegh wood, which belonged to her house and manors,
and were fully within the regard of the Forest.'
" Gayseham's Hall in the Forest," as it was called, was, in 1360, the
property of Thomas Sandwich, whose duty it was to provide supplies to the
household of the Black Prince, and who held it under the Abbess and
Convent of Barking, together with about 160 acres of land.
" In the reign of Edward IV. this estate appears to have been vested in
the Convent, and the mansion to have been used as a country seat by the
Abbess. Later it was leased by Ralph Tracy, but it eventually fell into the
hands of Henry Vill., and,forming part of the dissolved Monastery, was,
at the Dissolution, valued at £10 6s. 8d. The King, in 1545, granted it,
with the lands thereto belonging, and a portion of tithes, together with
Stone Hall, to Sir Wm. Denham, whose son-in-law, Wm. Abbot, sold it
in 1557 to Clement Sisley.
" This Clement Sisley is supposed to have sold it about 1569 to Arthur
Breame, who, in 1571, alienated it to Vincent Randall. Edward Randall
died, seized of it in 1577, and in 1604 it was sold by the Randalls to Hugh
Hare, Esq., who a few years later, viz., in 1609, transferred it to Gabriel
Wight, Esq., son of Thomas Wight. This Gabriel died in 1621. It re-
mained in the Wight family for many generations, and descended to Henry
Wight, Esq., who died without issue in 1793, having devised a moiety of
his estates in Essex and Surrey (after the death of his sister Elizabeth,
relict of Sir James Harrington, Bart., and later wife of the Rev. John
Chaunler, and of Mrs. Elizabeth Wight, widow) to John Wight, Esq., of
Brabeufhouse, near Guildford, for life, with remainder to his right heirs,
and the other moiety to Wm. Martin, the younger, son of Wm. Martin,
of Blacksmith Hall, and the heirs of his body. The Martins were relations
and descendants of Wm. Martin, who married Elizabeth Wight, great
grand-daughter of the above Gabriel. A grand-daughter of the said
Wm. and Elizth. Martin, Sarah, married Wm. Hibbit, whose son, John
Wight Hibbit, by royal licence, dated Sept. 2, 1818, took the name of Wight
only. He died in 1867, and the newspapers of 1870 contain a long and
interesting case decided by Vice-Chancellor Sir W. M. James regarding
his estate. Within a few years the Hall was sold, viz., on May 15, 1873,
together with Manor House Farm and Rabbits Farm, both in Little
Ilford parish.