THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
159
that stood wholly in the parish of Broxted. Like its predecessors, if any,
this house was without doubt largely constituted of timber and some
remains in the roof timbers were incorporated in the present house. In
1494 Richard Large's executors sold the estate to Richard Quadryng, esq.,
for 800 marks sterling, but only eight years later, viz., in 1502, the estate
again changed owners, being acquired, by purchase, by Sir John Cutte,
Treasurer of the Household to King Henry VIII., and to him we are
indebted for the erection of the house in which we are now assembled.
Leland, in his Itinerary, says:—"Old Cutte builded Horeham Hall, a
"very sumptuous house in Est-Sax by Thaxstede and there is a goodly
"pond or lake by it and faire parkes thereabout."
Sir John Cutte must have commenced building on an ambitious scale
very shortly after coming into possession, and evidently pushed on
rapidly with the work, for it was completed before his death, which
occurred in 1520. Completed that is so far as the house proper is con-
cerned, for apparently he had started, or was proposing to start, the
building of a chapel at Horham Hall, for in his Will he directs:—"My
"body to be buried in the parisshe church of Thaxted unto such tyme
"as my chapell be fully buylded as hereafter shall ensue and then my
"body to be removed and buried by the discrecion of myn executors
"in the new chapell," and again, "the chauntery prest specially to pray
"for the soul of the most famous Kyng of most blessid memory, for my
"Soule, and for the soules of all other before named, and to syng and
"saye masse in the said parish churche of Thaxted at the aulter of the
"Trenite there unto such time as the chapell that I wold have made and
"bylditt be fully made and buldyt and after the said chapele be made
"and buyldyt then to synge and saye masse in the same chapell for ever."
Mr. West, in 1856, found remains of this chapel with the. walls below
but whether the body of Sir John Cutte was ever removed to it from
Thaxted church in accordance with his instructions is not known.
Sir John was succeeded by his son John, who died in 1555. His son,
the third John, appears to have been the last of the Cuttes to possess
Horham. He sheltered the Spanish Ambassador (perhaps at Horham
Hall, although this is uncertain), who was committed to his care by
Queen Elizabeth during the period when a sickness raged in London and is
described as "more magnificent than prudent." It was during the
Cutte regime that Queen Elizabeth was twice entertained at Horham
Hall, while on her Progresses through Essex. She was there on 5 Sept.,
1571, for Lord Burleigh writing on that day to the Earl of Shrewsbury
dates his letter "from the Court at Hor'm near Thaxted in Essex." The
Queen remained there until the 14th of the same month and proceeded
thence to Mark Hall in Latton, She was there again in 1578, probably-
staying on this occasion for five days, for Councils were held on 7th and
11th of September. In 1599 Sir William Smijth of Hill Hall, in Theydon
Mount, was in possession, no doubt by purchase, and in this family it
continued until 1854, that is 255 years, the longest spell of family owner-
ship that Horham Hall has known. By an exchange of estates in that
year between Sir William Bowyer Smijth and F. G. West, the latter
entered into possession. Mr. F. G. West contributed to the East Anglian
during the years 1860-1863 a series of articles on the "Coats of Arms in