THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 105
Hall, in 1629, father and son respectively, and both Masters of the Iron-
mongers Company for various years. Sir James, the first of Clay Hall,
founded the Free School at Barking, built the first bridge over the Roding
at Wanstead, and signed the Wanstead Protestation of 1641.
"The house continued in the Cambell family many years. Sir Hy.
Cambell, Bt. (grandson of Robert, brother of Sir James), who died in 1699,
left one daughter, Anne, who married Thomas Price, of Westbury Park,
Bucks, whose son, Cambell Price, sold it in 1742 to Peter Eaton, the last
of the Eatons of Woodford. Mr. Eaton died in 1769, his next of kin being
Miss Hannah Markland, niece of Mary Eaton of Woodford, whose arms,
with those of her husband, Capt. Nicholas Eaton, Eaton impaling Eaton
(they were cousins), may still be seen on the iron gates at Grove Hall,
Woodford. The estate therefore descended to Miss Markland, who devised
it by will to her kinsman, John Monins, of Grove Hall, grandson of Mary
Monins, nee Eaton, and aunt to the before-named Capt. Nicholas
Eaton. Clay Hall remained in the Monins family until Mr. J. H. Monins,
of Ringwould House, Dover, sold it in 1918 to Mr. E. J. Webster, of
Wanstead, the present owner.
"The old mansion was demolished about 160 years ago, probably during
the ownership of Peter Eaton, and the present farmhouse erected. There
yet remains in the garden what is supposed to be a cellar of the old house.
" Some 80 years ago the occupier of the farm was one Wm. Ingram. He
died in 1853. The next tenant was Wm. Lamb, whose son James con-
tinued the tenancy and by his wife, who was an Ingram and grand-
daughter of the above Wm. Ingram, became the father of the present
occupier, Mr. Frank Lamb, who was born and who has lived all his life at
Clay Hall. To-day the farm consists of 177 acres.
" Sir Christopher Hatton, cousin, and at length heir of Sir Christopher
Hatton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth, appears to
have had some temporary interest in the estate, and to have resided several
years at Clay Hall. He never owned the estate, which was in his day, as
we have seen, the property of the Colt family. The Chapel which he
built and which was consecrated by Thomas Morton, Bishop of Chester
in 1616, by virtue of a commission from John King, Bishop of London,
still remains as a stable. Christopher Hatton died in 1619 and was
buried in Westminster Abbey.
" There were never any burials in the Chapel. Tasker, in his Ilford,
Past and Present (p. 9S) says that in 1642 Thomas, grandson of Sir James
Cambell, and afterwards a baronet, built a family vault in the north
aisle of the Chapel, and was there buried. This results from a mis-reading
of Morant's History (vol. i., p. 7). The vault which Sir Thomas built
adjoined the north aisle of Barking Church, and it is there he was buried
in 1665. The inscription given hereafter shows also that Sir Thomas was
grandson of Sir Thomas Cambell, not of Sir James (see Plate 7).
" As regards the initials, etc., already mentioned, flanking the entrance
to the house are two stone balls, 19 inches in diameter, one bearing the
initials 'tch' and the other the date '1648.' Each of these balls
rests on a stone base 10 inches wide and 211/2ins. high, and each has an
oval cartouche of arms, the former Cambell quartering Willington with a
crescent for difference in fesse point, and the latter Cambell quartering
Willington impaling Corsellis.