Early History  

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