Stanstead Hall

Stansted Hall was the seat of the de Bourchier family from at least the 14th century, when it was the seat of John de Bourchier and his wife Helen of Colchester. Their son Robert de Bourchier was born at Stansted Hall; he went on to become Lord Chancellor of England in 1340, the first layman to hold the post. He received a licence to crenellate Stansted Hall from Edward III in 1341. On Robert's death to the bubonic plague in 1348, ownership of Stansted Hall was inherited by his son John de Bourchier.^[2]

Stansted Hall remained with the Bourchier family until the 1540s, when heiress Anne Bourchier left her husband William Parr; the acrimonious split saw Parr receive the house. ^[3] Parr later sold Stansted Hall to Sir William Waldegrave.^[3] The building was eventually purchased by Samuel Courtauld in 1907, and later passed by marriage to Rab Butler. It remains in private ownership to this day, and in 2022 was listed for sale for £6.5 million.^[4]

• John de Bourchier, Judge of the Common Pleas^[2]
• Robert de Bourchier, Lord Chancellor of England^[2]
• William Parr, Earl of Essex and brother-in-law of Henry VIII^[3]
• Samuel Courtauld, industrialist and art collector^[3]
• Rab Butler, de facto Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom^[1]