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Moyns Park is a Grade I listed [1] country house in Steeple Bumpstead, Essex.
The home of the Gent family, until the late 19th century, was once owned by Major-General Cecil Robert St John Ives, maternal grandfather of Ivar Bryce, the next owner. Bryce was a close friend of the author Ian Fleming, who stayed at the house in the summer of 1956. When Bryce's wife, Josephine Hartford, an A&P heiress and sister of Huntington Hartford, died in 1992, she left the estate to Lord Ivar Mountbatten and George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven. Ivar Bryce's first cousin Janet Mercedes Bryce had been married to David Mountbatten and was the mother of Ivar and George Mountbatten. Lord Ivar Mountbatten lived in the house with his wife, Penelope Thompson, before selling it in 1997. [2] It is said that Fleming made final changes to his novel From Russia, with Love in the house. The house was also the location for several Hammer Horror films. The house was also used as a residential Riding School in and around 1949, with courses in dressage, show jumping and short B.H.S courses. The chief instructor was C. Coombs MBE.[ citation needed ]
The area in the Le Moynes once had lands that encompassed Hedingham Castle and other villages over a swathe of Essex. The Gents held their first court at Moyns in the early 16th century and the estate grew and continued to do so under Sir Thomas Gent (Queen Elizabeth's Baron of the Exchequer, Sergeant-at-Law and later judge).
According to an article in The Essex Countryside of May 1965 by GC Harper, the house was once moated, and takes its name from its first owner who had it built, Robert de Fitzwilliam le Moigne in the early 14th century, but little but the SW wing remains from the 15th century. It remained in that family for 200 years, then passed by marriage to William Gent. His son Thomas became MP for Maldon in 1571 and a 'trusted assistant' to Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth 1's Secretary of State and spymaster, whence he rose to 2nd Baron of the Exchequer. He sat in judgement at the trial of the conspirators of the Babington Plot to assassinate the Queen and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. His wealth and status led him to rebuild the west front, completed by his son Henry, as he died in 1593.[ citation needed ]
Thomas signed a petition to Walsingham requesting he write to the governors of the Dutch congregation in Colchester and demand that 20–30 families return to Halstead to resume the cloth trade there, but to no avail. George Gent (d. 1818) was a magistrate for more than 60 years. The right to appoint the headmaster of the school in Steeple Bumpstead belonged until c.1835 to the owner of Moyns. The Moyns occupancy ceased in 1879 when it was sold to Major General Cecil Robert St John Ives, whose grandson John Bryce occupied it in the 1960s. The gardens of the 200-acre (81 ha) estate had yew topiary, and the paths were said to be planted to a plan by Lord Bacon, with a bowling green being one of the oldest.[ where? ]
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the Secretary of State of England (1596–1612) and Lord High Treasurer (1608–1612), succeeding his father as Queen Elizabeth I's Lord Privy Seal and remaining in power during the first nine years of King James I's reign until his own death.
Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new creation. The most well-known Earls of Essex were Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII, Sir William Parr (1513-1571) who was brother to Queen Catherine Parr who was the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565–1601), a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I who led the Earl of Essex Rebellion in 1601.
Sir Walter Mildmay was a statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, and founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839.
Marquess of Milford Haven is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
The House of Mountbatten is a British dynasty that originated as a British branch of the German princely Battenberg family. The name was adopted on 14 July 1917, three days before the British royal family changed its name from "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "Windsor", by members of the Battenberg family residing in the United Kingdom, due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British public during World War I. The name is a direct Anglicisation of the German Battenberg, the name of a small town in Hesse. The titles of count and later prince of Battenberg had been granted in the mid-19th century to a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, itself a cadet branch of the House of Hesse.
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk,, of Audley End House in the parish of Saffron Walden in Essex, and of Suffolk House near Westminster, a member of the House of Howard, was the second son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife Margaret Audley, the daughter and eventual sole heiress of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, of Audley End.
Sir Thomas Fleming was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1581 and 1611. He was judge in the trial of Guy Fawkes following the Gunpowder Plot. He held several important offices, including Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Solicitor General for England and Wales.
George Ivar Louis Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven, styled Earl of Medina before 1970, is a British hereditary peer and businessman.
Lieutenant David Michael Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven,, styled Viscount Alderney before 1921 and Earl of Medina between 1921 and 1938, was the son of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven and Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna of Torby.
Lord Ivar Alexander Michael Mountbatten, DL is a British aristocrat, farmer, geologist and businessman. He is a former director of SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.
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Steeple Bumpstead is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Haverhill in Braintree district, Essex, England.
Thomas Randolph (1523–1590) was an English ambassador serving Elizabeth I of England. Most of his professional life he spent in Scotland at the courts of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her son James VI. While in Scotland, he was embroiled in marriage projects and several upheavals. In 1568-1569 he was sent on a special embassy to Russia, visiting the court of Ivan the Terrible.
Edward Vassallo Hartford was the founder and President of the Hartford Suspension Company who perfected the automobile shock absorber. The middle son of A&P owner George Huntington Hartford and Marie Josephine Ludlum, Edward was the only son not involved in day-to-day operations of the food chain. However, starting in 1903, he was Secretary of the A&P corporation and along with his brothers George and John, was also one of the three trustees who controlled the company's stock after his father's death.
John Pablo Bryce of Bystock Court, Exmouth, Devon was a member of the British gentry.
The Moray Estate in Edinburgh was an exclusive early 19th century building venture attaching the west side of Edinburgh's New Town.
Penelope Anne Vere Mountbatten, Lady Ivar Mountbatten, known as Penny Mountbatten, is a British philanthropist and businesswoman. She served as the lady of the manor of Moyns Park and then Bridwell Park until her divorce from Lord Ivar Mountbatten in 2011.
The Moot Hall, also known as the Old School House, is a former market hall and school on Church Street in Steeple Bumpstead, Essex, England. The building, which now operates as a library and parish meeting room, is a Grade II* listed building.