|
Brightwell
Brihtewella or Brihtoluestana
In the 1st of King Edward II., John Cavell was seated at Brightwell Hall; he
left Agnes his sole daughter and heiress, who married, to ______ Lampet, a
descendant of whom is the John de Lampet mentioned by Kirby.
The Jermy's were owners of this lordship in the time of King Henry VIII., if not
earlier, and appear to have been seated here.
Sir John Jenny, K.B. son of Edmund Jermy, of Metfield, in Mendham, Esq., was
lord of this manor; and purchased of Sir Thos. Pope, grantee, the lordships of
Foxhall, Coddenham, Greeting, and Stonham, which lately belonged to the Priory
at Ipswich. Sir Thomas Pope died in 1558, the 1st of Queen Elizabeth.
This Sir John Jermy married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Teye, Knt., by whom
he had Francis Jermy, Esq. (the person whom Mr. Kirby says held this lordship in
the time of the said Queen.) He married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir
Wm. Fitz-Williams, Knt., of the kingdom of Ireland, and had issue
Sir Thomas Jenny, K.B., who married Jane, daughter and heiress of Edward Stuart
(or Styward), of Feversham, in Cambridgshire, Esq., and Jane, who married Sir
Henry Sidney, of Walsingham, in Norfolk; where they were both interred; Sir
Henry in 1612, and his wife in 1638.
Sir Thomas had issue, by the said marriage, four sons: Thomas, Edmund, John, and
William. The property about this period, became vested in the family of Hewett.
Sir William Hewett, Knt., sold it to Sir Anthony Wingfield, of Letheringham,
Bart; and Sir Richard, his son, sold it to Thomas Essington, Esq., who, in 1655,
was a resident here, and repaired at his own expense the almost ruined church1,
rebuilt the steeple, and new seated the nave and chancel, in which is a vault,
the entrance to the same having a marble slab, with "The Essington's Vault,"
inscribed thereon.
The chancel also contains two small monuments of alabaster, the work of a
German, whose ancestors were Italians. These are memorials to two of the
children of Thomas Essington, Esq., and Anne his wife, daughter of John Janson,
of Ashbye Ledger, in Northamptonshire, Esq. Their children, living in 1602, were
John, Martha, and Samuel.
The Barnardiston family succeeded that of Essington, and continued lords here
several years. Sir Samuel Barnardiston, Bart., so created May 11, 1063, was
third son of Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, of Kedington, in this county, Knt., and
Jane his wife, daughter of Sir Stephen Soame, of Great Thurlow, in this county,
Knt. He married, first, a daughter of Joseph Brand, of Edwardstone, in this
county, Esq.; and secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir Abraham Reynardson, Knt., Lord
Mayor of London.
Sir Samuel died, without issue, in 1707, and the title, as settled by the
patent, descended to Ms nephew Samuel, eldest son of Nathaniel, his elder
brother; who also died without issue, in 1709, when the title descended to
Nathaniel Barnardiston, another nephew of Sir Samuel, the first baronet, and
eldest son of his younger brother; who died in 1711, without issue male, and the
title became extinct.
This property afterwards passed to the family of Shaw; then to John Vernon, of
Wherstead, in this county, Esq., who died in 1818; when Sir Robert Harland, of
Nacton, Bart., inherited in right of his wife, sister and heiress of Mr. Vernon,
who is the present proprietor.
A very curious and scarce print, from a drawing by Knyff, gives a bird's-eye
view of the mansion here, the out-buildings, plantations, and a large piece of
water, attached to it. About the year 1730, this mansion was taken down, on the
site of part of which a farm house remains.
ARMS. Jermy: argent; a leopard saliant guarclant, gules; sometimes
emblazoned, argent; a lion rampant guardant, gules: crest, a griffin passant,
proper. Wingfield: argent; on a bend, gules, between two bendlets, or
cottises, sable, three hawks' lures, or wings, conjoined. Barnardiston:
azure; a fess dancette, ermine, between six cross crosslets, argent.
1. A neat view of this church and font, from a drawing by J. G.
Lenny, is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1829, Part ii. p. 209;
accompanied with some topographical notes from a manuscript of the time of
Charles II., presented to the College of Arms, in 1803, by the late Lord
Thurlow; and communicated by the Rev. Frederick Henry Tumor Barnwell, F.R.S. and
F.A.S., with some additional remarks from the pen of that gentleman; from which
this enlarged notice of the parish is principally derived.
County
of Suffolk
Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page |
|
Add/Correct a Link