The family of Dean was originally of Lancashire: Henry Dean, of Tamworth, in Dean that county, married the daughter of Sir Richard Greeneikers, by whom he had a son, y' named John, married to the daughter of Roger Nowell, of Read, in Lancashire, by whom he was the father of William Dean, Esq. the purchaser of this estate. He was first a servant to Anne, lady Maltravers, and afterwards became her husband; by which connexion he acquired large possessions. For that lady being the only daughter and heiress of Sir John Wentworth, of Gosfield, had an immense fortune. She had been previously married, first to Hugh Rich, son of Lord Chancellor Rich; and, secondly, to Henry Fitz-Alan, lord Maltravers: she died in 1580, having no children by any of her three husbands. After her decease, William Dean married Anne, daughter of Thomas Egerton, Esq. of Rine Hill, in Staffordshire: by this lady he had three children; John, Rachel, and Anne. He built an elegant mansion at Dynes, with a fine avenue of elm trees.*

John Dean, Esq. succeeded his father in 1585: he received the honour of knighthood in 1603, was high sheriff of Essex in 1610; also justice of the peace, and lord lieutenant of the county. In 1600, he married Anne, daughter of Sir Drue Drury, of Suffolk, by whom he had Drue, Catharine, Elizabeth, Dorcas, Frances, and Mildred. Sir John Dean died in 1625, and his lady in 1633. Drue Dean, their son and successor, knighted in 1627, married Lucy, daughter of George Goring, earl of Norwich, by whom he had John, who died in infancy; Antony, Anne, Elizabeth, Drogo, and Robert. The lady Lucy, their mother, died in 1637, and Sir Drue's will was dated 1638. On his death, his son Antony became the imprudent possessor of this estate; for, as is observed by Mr. Holman, " being very much addicted to the parliament's cause, and presuming the structure then raised would have stood for ever, he exchanged his fair estate here with Colonel Sparrow, for Hide Park, which that colonel had obtained in consideration of his zeal for the same prevailing cause. Thus he lost the substance for the shadow.":):

The purchaser of this estate was John, the son of John Sparrow, Esq. of Gestingthorp parsonage, who, on his death in 1664, was succeeded by his son and heir, John Sparrow, Esq. who lived at Dynes Hall. He, by his will, settled this estate in trust for the payment of his debts; and it was sold, in 1667, to Mark Guyon, Esq. the son of a wealthy clothier of Coggeshall, of the same name. He took down a considerable Dynel part of Dynes Hall, which he rebuilt in a superior manner, making it a handsome and

iJ'lli,

very convenient seat . He was high sheriff of the county in 1676, and knighted.

* Nearly the whole of these were blown down by the great storm in 1703.

t He had, in his youth, been committed to the care of his great uncle, Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, who usually resided at Dynes Hall during some of the summer months.

Arms of Dean: Sable, a fesse ermine between three chaplets, argent. Crest: On a torse ermine, and sable, a boar's head couped or, muzzled gules.

By his first wife, Elizabeth Fancourt, he had William, his son and heir, and Eliza- CHAP. v. beth. His second wife was Hannah, daughter of Sir Thomas Abdy, Bart. by whom he had a daughter, named Rachel.

Sir Mark, by his will, made in 1689, gives his manors of Dynes, Hosedens, Caxtons, Maplestead Hall, Brent Hall, and Justices in Finchingfield, Radwinter Hall, Great Wigborough, Salcot, and Abbess Hall, to his son, William; and, after his decease, to his daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel. William Guyon, the son, succeeded to these estates in 1690, but died without issue.

Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, was married to Edward Bullock, Esq. of Faulkbourne Hall, but died, with her first child, in childbed.

The other daughter and coheiress, Rachel, was married, first to Thomas Guyon, Esq. and afterwards became the first wife of John, the brother of Edward Bullock, Esq., to whom she bore Rachel; and John, educated at King's College, in Cambridge, a promising young man, who died in the twenty-third year of his age.

In 1705, Edward Bullock conveyed all his interest in this estate to John Bullock, Esq. his younger brother, who came and resided at Dynes Hall.* He died in 1740, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, leaving his only daughter, Rachel, possessed of this and other great estates; and this was purchased of her executors by Henry Sperling, Esq., from whom it has descended to his son, John Sperling, Esq. This elegant seat is pleasantly situated about a mile south of the church, on an eminence, commanding an agreeable prospect of wide extent.

The estate named Byham Hallf was holden under William dc UflFord, earl of Suf- Byham folk, by a person named Sewale, in the year 1381, at which time it was stated to be in the parish of Gestingthorp. From the Sewale family it passed to those of Sexton, Alingby, Hilton, Coe, and Robinson, and also to Mrs. Wash, of Earls Colne. The mansion-house is about a mile north from the church.

A capital estate, named Wallasses, about a mile south-west from the church, in the Wallassea. time of Henry the Third, belonged to Richard le Waleys; and, early in the reign of Elizabeth, was sold by William Harvey to Edmund Harrington, of Great Yeldham, descended from a younger branch of the noble family of that name, barons of Exton, in the county of Rutland, whose descendants retained possession of it till 1712, when

• He was educated at Peter-house, in Cambridge, and the Inner Temple, London; in 1700, he was chosen one of the representatives in parliament for Maldon, which honour he always afterwards avoided. He was twice deputy-lieutenant for the county, and justice of the peace many years. His second wife was Hannah Maria, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Samuel Keck, Esq. master in chancery, who survived him. He lived at Clapham, in Surrey, in the latter part of his life, and died there.

This name is derived from an ancient family, and is written Byham, Bayham, Beyham, Beythaiu. Basilia de Beyham is mentioned in a deed of William Joy, of Little Maplestead, in the reign of King Heury the Third. In a charter of Robert de Vere, it is called Terra de Bayham ; and in writings relating to the convent of Stratford Langthorn, and the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, it is called Terra de Beytham.