Purleigh is a village on the
Dengie peninsula about south of
Maldon in the English county of
Essex. The village is part of the Purleigh ward of the
Maldon district.
The place-name 'Purleigh' is first attested in a charter of 998, where it appears as ''Purlea''. In the
Domesday Book of 1086 it appears as ''Purlai''. The name means '
bittern clearing'.
Governance
An
electoral ward
A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...
in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to
North Fambridge with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 3,419.
Descent of the manor
Eustace, Earl of Boulogne
At the time of the
Domesday survey of 1086, the
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
of Purleigh was held by
Eustace II, Count of Boulogne (d.1087).
Denys

Having previously been possessed by the Grey and Capel families, in the late 15th century the manor was acquired by
Hugh Denys (d.1511),
Groom of the Stool
The Groom of the Stool (formally styled: "Groom of the King's Close stool, Close Stool") was the most intimate of an List of English monarchs, English monarch's courtiers, responsible for assisting the king in excretion and hygiene.
The physica ...
to
King Henry VII
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort ...
(1485–1509). He died without progeny and bequeathed the manor to his younger half-nephew John Denys of
Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, in which family, having modernised the spelling of its name to "Dennis", the manor remained until the early 18th century. William Dennis, 5th in descent from John, died in 1701 and was buried at Pucklechurch. He was
Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1689 and died without male issue, leaving two daughters as his co-heiresses. Mary (d.1739), the elder, married Col. James Butler, of the family of the
Earls of Ormond Earldom of Ormond may refer to:
*Earl of Ormond (Scotland), created twice in the Peerage of Scotland for the House of Douglas
*Earl of Ormond (Ireland)
The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Orm ...
, and Elizabeth the younger daughter married, as his second wife, Sir Alexander Cuming of Culter, Aberdeenshire. The manor was retained by both sisters jointly, but was occupied by the tenant John Leaver, and comprised the
manor house called Purleigh Hall, a garden, orchard, 100 acres of land, 80 acres of
meadow, 140 acres of
pasture and 80 acres of woodland. It then passed, probably by sale, to William Neale, described as a "clerk" in a decree of the High Court of Chancery dated 29 January 1741, in an action brought by the nieces of Mary Dennis and by Cassandra Cuming, the daughter of Elizabeth Dennis and the representatives of the infant James Cuming.
Bonnell
Neale sold it in 1742 to James Bonnell. James was the son of Captain John Bonnell (d.1703), a merchant of London, possibly the Captain John Bonnell of the
East India Company who sailed the ''Chandos'' to
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
4 February 1689 -1 January 1691. James was executor of the will of his mother Margaretta Bonnell (d.1737), his father's second wife, and sister and heiress of a
moiety
Moiety may refer to:
Chemistry
* Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule
** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species
Anthropology
* Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...
of the estate of Edmund Waterson of Graces in
Little Baddow in Essex, who by his last will ordered his personal estate to be invested in land in Suffolk James's siblings, John and Sarah Bonnell, authorised him to pay £4,000 (out of the total moiety of £14,735 5s.) for the purchase of the manor and farm of Purleigh Hall. Sarah Bonnell (d.1768) left at her death £3,500 in public funds for the endowment of a
charity school for girls in
West Ham, still surviving as the
Sarah Bonnell School, the oldest girls' school in England. An elaborate white marble monument exists to Capt John Bonnell and his family in the Monoux Chapel of
Walthamstow
Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...
Church.
James Bonnell was lord of the manor of Purleigh in 1759. James Bonnell purchased Pelling Place and adjoining land including Beaumont Lodge in
Old Windsor, Berkshire. James Bonnell of Spring Gardens, St Martin-in-the-Field, Westminster, died in 1774 and his estate was the subject of a case in Chancery between James Beal (d.1815), of St. James's, Westminster, plaintiff, who had assumed by royal licence dated 1774 the additional surname and arms of Bonnell, as was required by the will of James Bonnell, and John Bonnell of Newcastle and other Bonnell
deforciants ('land-owners') from Durham. In 1853 by deed of gift Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell (1763–1853), spinster, of Pelling Place, Windsor, lady of the manor of Purleigh, who had herself adopted the additional surname of Bonnell in 1841, conveyed to James Bonnell, esq., the whole Bonnell estate. James was the middle son of James Bonnell (d.1850), who set up as a chemist and druggist in
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
when a young man in 1796, who became a manufacturer of aerated soda water, trading from premises in English Street, Carlisle. He sold the business in 1846, none of his sons having wished to continue in the trade. James jnr. in 1854 married Elizabeth Lowther, his cousin through his mother Esther Lowry (1771–1822). In 1860 James Bonnell obtained a licence to add the name Harvey before Bonnell. James Harvey Bonnell died in 1869 aged 60, as his gravestone in Purleigh Churchyard attests. The tenant in occupation in 1836 was William Clarke (senior). Clarke was born at
Little Hallingbury, about 20 miles away, but his wife was born in 1814 at Purleigh. A painting of the Bonnell family armorials is held by Essex Archives,
blazoned as follows: ''Argent, a cross gules charged with five cross crosslets argent between four of the fame gules'', alternatively: ''Argent, a cross gules quarterly pierced 9 cross crosslets 3, 3 and 3 counter-charged''.
Queen Adelaide breakfasted with the Bonnell family on one occasion at Pelling Place, when the family gave her a shell-work vase, one of a pair home-made circa 1779-1781 by Mrs Beal Bonnell and Miss Harvey Bonnell, the other of which stood on a mantelpiece at Pelling and is now in the
Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Irving
The manor passed to the Irving family by the marriage in 1871 of Elizabeth Bonnell, of Pelling Place, to William John Irving of
Penrith, Cumbria. The marriage settlement dated 6 March 1871 deals with the manors of Purleigh and Waltons, together with a number of farms, land, a windmill, as well as Pelling Place itself and large tracts of land in Old Windsor. William was a solicitor, the son of William Irving (1808–1870), FRCS, of Crown Square, Penrith, by Jane Raw of Leaming House,
Watermillock
Watermillock is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Matterdale, on the western shore of Ullswater, in the English Lake District, Cumbria. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 448. On 1 April 1934 the civil parish was ...
, also in Cumbria. A tragedy occurred in the summer of 1884 when William J. Irving and his children Elizabeth, Charles and John drowned.
Purleigh Colony
The Purleigh Colony, established in 1896 at Cock Clarks, was a
Tolstoyan anarchist colony that grew out of the Croydon
Brotherhood Church. Initially based on a 10-acre plot, as the group grew the colony began to rent local cottages with land attached. The colony ran a printing press, publishing translations of
Tolstoy and for a while The New Order magazine. For a time the colony sheltered some of the
Doukhobors, forced to leave Russia to avoid political persecution. The colony was always a fissile mix, and began to break down towards the end of 1900; some colonists moves with the Doukhobors to Canada, while others went on to form the
Whiteway Colony in Gloucestershire. A further group, headed by Tolstoy's literary agent,
Vladimir Chertkov, moved to
Tuckton near
Christchurch in Dorset, where they traded as 'The Free Age Press' – producing dirt-cheap versions of Tolstoy's religious and ethical texts, for an English readership.
Local amenities
There are three public houses, The Bell, The Fox and Hounds and The Roundbush. The Bell is a 14th-century building that was refurbished in the 16th century.
The local school is Purleigh Community Primary School.
Purleigh playing field is home to Purleigh Cricket Club, who in 2008 broke a British record by scoring 499–5 in just 45 overs against Herongate II.
All Saints' Church
The parish church is All Saints. It is of 14th-century origin.
Lawrence Washington, the great-great-grandfather of the first U.S. president,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
, was
rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
in the village from 1632 until 1643, when he was ejected from Purleigh for being a "common frequenter of ale-houses". When he died in 1652 he was buried in the graveyard of All Saints' Church,
Maldon.
[The Link from Rev Lawrence Washington of Purleigh to President George Washington ](_blank)
/ref>
Rev Robert Francis Walker who was a curate
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...
, from 1819 to 1854, and a well-known translator of Christian books from German to English, is buried in the churchyard.
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Maldon District