Copford Hall

From A History of the County of Essex

The manor of COPFORD HALL was part of the possessions of Aethelric (d. c. 995) which he devised to Aelfstan, bishop of London, and his successors. (fn. 84) Before 1086 the king gave 17 a. of it to Robert Gernon, who held lands in Birch. (fn. 85) The rest of the manor remained in the see of London until it came to the Crown, presumably on the deprivation of bishop Bonner in 1559. (fn. 86) James I sold it in 1610 to John Argent and John Phillips, both of London. (fn. 87) Argent, who in 1593 had married the widow of the tenant, Reynold Mountjoy (d. 1589), had sold the manor by 1612 to Reynold’s elder brother, Edmund Mountjoy of Wethersfield (d. 1623). Edmund was childless and exercised the lordship jointly with his nephew, William Mountjoy, son of Edmund’s other brother Alan. William had presumably died by 1614 for there after Alan Mountjoy (d. 1625) was described as the lord. (fn. 88)

John Haynes had bought the manor by 1626, but was in America from 1633 until 1651, where he became governor of Massachusetts and then of Connecticut. Emanuel Haynes acted as lord in his absence. In 1654 John was succeeded by his son Robert Haynes (d. 1657) and then by Robert’s brother, Hezekiah, who had been one of Oliver Cromwell’s majorgenerals and who was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1660 to 1662 for alleged treason. Hezekiah died in 1693. (fn. 89) His son John, on whom he had settled Copford, predeceased him in 1692 and the manor passed to his grandson John, who died childless in 1713, and then to John’s younger brother, Hezekiah. That Hezekiah Haynes, who died childless in 1763, devised it to his cousin John Harrison, who conveyed it in 1783 to his son John Haynes Harrison (d. 1839). (fn. 90)

J. H. Harrison’s son, Fiske Goodeve Fiske-Harrison (d. 1872), succeeded, then Fiske’s nephew Thomas H. Harrison (d. 1895), Thomas’s brother William T. Harrison (d. 1920) who was bishop of Glasgow and Galloway 1888-1903, William’s son Cyril Colvin Fiske Harrison (d. 1937), and C. C. F.’s widow, Mrs. A. G. D. Harrison. She held the lordship until 1946, when A. Brian C. Harrison, a descendant of Hezekiah Haynes (d. 1693), succeeded; he was Conservative M.P. for Maldon 1955-74 and was still lord in 1998, although much of the land had been sold in 1979. (fn. 91)