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
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