Greensted Hall

In Cleeve's will, he directed that after the death of his second wife Greensted Hall was to be sold "for the benefit of my children". In 1752, they sold the manor to David Rebotier, a French Huguenot who became a successful merchant in London. Two years after his death (1771), his son and daughter sold up to John Redman (1730-1798), of Mile End.

In his entertaining will reflective of his character and candid opinions, Redman described himself as, "a citizen of the world, of Upminster in Essex". He was the grandson of two Naval Captains, one of whom developed Redman's Row at Mile End and the other bought Upminster Hall in 1696. While he was independently wealthy, Redman was not idle. He served on various local charitable committees and was best known as something of a revolutionary and a libertarian who championed the American cause and, "that valuable friend of his country in the worst of times, Charles Fox," to whom he willed 500 guineas.

Bored by Ord?

Redman was perhaps not so complementary of his only son-in-law, Craven Ord, whose given profession was that of antiquarian and Fellow of the Royal Society. Aside from undertaking a tour in search of brasses in East Anglia, Ord gave aid to no charities, and sat on no committees. Redman passed over his only child in his will, "having provided handsomely... on her marriage with Craven Ord, of the Cursetors Office".

While Ord was indeed one of the 22 Cursitors - a lucrative, outdated, grace-and-favour role in Chancery that was soon-to-be abolished in 1815 - it is open to interpretation that Redman's misspelling of the office may in fact have been a witty dig at his son-in-law: a 'Cursetor' was a word in old English for a vagabond who spoke, "the lewd lousy language of those lutering lusks and lazy lozells"; and, perhaps it was Craven Ord he had in mind when after taking shots at the, "longheads of the law" and the "fatheads of the church," he took aim at, "the wiseheads of an insolent usurping aristocracy".

It is certainly unusual that the husband of Redman's only child was passed over completely in his will; was not named as one of his four executors; and - as Redman had no male heir - was not asked to take on the name of "Redman," a complement extended instead to Benjamin Branfill, the eldest son of Redman's second cousin.

The clue that sheds the most light on the relationship between Redman and his son-in-law is that sometime in the late 1790s Redman demolished the Dining Room in the north wing at Greensted Hall, "in order to curb the extravagant hospitality of his son". By all accounts, Redman never had a son (his wife died after giving birth to their daughter), only a son-in-law, who was pointedly not invited to share in the joys of his plentiful cellars...

"Not to Spare the Wine in that Cellar"

To meet his various bequests that included £5,000 to the Greenwich Hospital Boy's School and £2,000 to each of his six grandchildren, Redman directed that his executors extract the money from the sale of his "valuable estates at Greensted and Ongar". He suggested that the executors kept Greensted Hall for at least a year and met there at least six times in that year, "to help drink out the wine in the vault" and what wine did remain either at Greensted or his townhouse at Hatton Gardens - where he lived for the most part and kept his best wine - "be divided between them and carried to their respective houses".

Everything that Goes Up...

Between all the drinking, the executors managed not only to meet Redman's bequests but also to retain Greensted Hall in trust for the Ord children. This was accomplished by the sale of timber from the estate that was then in high demand to build ships for the Napoleonic Wars. From 1799 to 1829, Greensted was occupied by the widowed Craven Ord and his children. He spent the last three years of his life abroad "for the benefit of his health" but this was more likely an excuse for escaping his creditors. Before leaving, he sold off his valuable library (which included a Shakespeare First Folio and a 1535 Coverdale Bible) and in 1837, just five years after his death, the Ords were unable to afford the upkeep of the estate and it was sold to the Rev. Philip Budworth, Rector of High Laver.

The Budworths & a Victorian Facelift

Philip Budworth (1784-1861) was a great-grandson of old Alexander Cleeve (d.1738). In 1875, his only son, Captain Philip J. Budworth (1818-1885) gave the old hall a Victorian facelift: the east and south facades were faced in red brick and one of the south wings was extended. The 17th century datestones were retrofitted into the updated facades of which the main east facade was given a new entrance. Greensted remained in the Budworth family but from about 1895 the Captain's sons leased it to Howel John James Price, formerly of Glynllech in Breconshire, who bought it outright in 1926. His first wife, Mary Smith, grew up Greensted House and after she died in 1902 he married Dora, daughter of Robert Gosling J.P., D.L., of Hassobury Manor, Essex, a partner in Goslings Bank.

Australian Crassula & the Galapagos

Howel J.J. Price, former High Sheriff of Essex, died here in 1943. His youngest daughter, Joan Dora Vaughan Price, continued to reside here and was awarded the M.B.E. in 1963 for political and public services in Essex. However, by about 1950, she sold Greensted to Dr Georg (1898-1973) and Mrs Tugendhat and it was during their tenure in 1956 that an Australian species of Crassula was found in the pond. By 1972, Greensted Hall had become home to the distinguished former British Ambassador of Ecuador who became best known for his Preservation work in the Galapagos Islands as President of the Charles Darwin Foundation: Gerard "Corley" Corley Smith (1909-1997), and his wife Joan Haggard. The Smiths remained here certainly up until Corley's death in 1997. It was placed on the market with Savills sometime afterwards and appears to remain a private family home.