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During Edward the Confessor's time, Edric de Laxfield was Lord of
Horsey, and let Horsey to four Freemen. William the Conqueror
granted the Manor to Roger Bigot, the ancestor of the Earls of
Norfolk, but was sequestrated by the King for rebellion and his
estates regranted to his brother Ralph. Domesday values Horsey at
£6. 11s. 4d. Following several owners during the 12th and 13th
Centuries, in 1282 the Estate passed into the ownership of Sir
Oliver de Ingham of Ingham, a small village about 5 miles
northwest of Horsey. Four generations later, the then Lord,
Sir Oliver de Ingham died, leaving the estate to his daughter
Elizabeth, who died in 1350 without issue. She was succeeded at
Horsey by Joan, her aunt, who married first Roger Lord le Strange,
and second Sir Miles Stapleton KG.
The descent of the Manor was then as follows:
Sir Miles STAPLETON
= Joan de Ingham
Sir Miles de STAPLETON = Ela, dau
of Sir Edmund UFFORD
Sir Bryan STAPLETON
= Cecilia dau of William, Lord Bardolf
Sir Miles STAPLETON
= Elizabeth, dau of Sir Simon Felbrigg
Elizabeth STAPLETON
= Sir William CALTHORP
Sir Francis CALTHORP
= Elizabeth, dau of John WYNDHAM
William CALTHORP, Lord of Horsey, which he conveyed to Sir
William WODEHOUSE of Waxham, ancestor of the present Earl of
Kimberley.
Sir William WODEHOUSE seems to have reconveyed it in very
short order to Sir William PASTON, who was Lord of Horsey in
1554. the PASTON's held the land for many years, until it passed to
the Earl of Yarmouth, who was Lord in 1740. from Lord
Yarmouth it became the property of Lord ANSON, an ancestor of
the Earl of Lichfield, and then to Lord BATEMAN and, by
marriage, to Major WHYTE-MELVILLE.
In 1803 Robert RISING purchased the Estate from Berney
BROGRAVE of Waxham Hall, when it was of little value, being
generally flooded. At this time Horsey was a wild and desolate
place, known locally as Devil's Country due to it's wildness.
By repairing the sea-bank, draining the marshes, planting quickthorn
hedges and making a road to Somerton, he transformed the Estate into
one of the most fertile in the county. Robert died in 1841
aged 72 years, leaving the Estate to his son, Robert RISING,
who rebuilt the Hall in
1845
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