This parish is separated from Gestingthorp by a shallow brook, * from which it Bulmer . extends eastward to Middleton.
Its boundaries are Wickham St. Pauls , southward , and Belchamp Walter to the north : its distance from Sudbury two, from Halstead six, and from London fifty-two miles .

The village consists chiefly of capital houses, among which may be particularised Smeeton Hall; Goldingham Hall, occupied by S. Firmin; Black-house, the residence of Thomas Pung, Esq .; and the handsome mansion-house of David Badham, Esq.

The surrounding country presents extensive and agreeable prospects. In all situations where draining is not required , the soil of this parish is exceedingly productive , and a rich vein of white sandy loam occurs , from which the produce is not unfrequently four or five quarters of wheat , six or seven of barley , seven or eight of oats , and four or five of pease.
Some hops are grown here. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, these lands were in the possession of Wisgar and Godwin, and of several freemen; and , at the time of the Domesday survey , had become the joint property of Richard Fitz - Gislebert , Robert Malet , and Eustace, earl of Boulogne . The parish contains seven manors . Butler's Hall , about a mile distant from the church , is the capital manor , holden of Butler's the honour of Clare . It was given , by the Conqueror , to Richard , the son of earl Gislebert , and , in 1361 , was holden by Thomas de Butler , by the service of one knight's fee . His son Thomas was his successor.§ Sir Andrew Boteler , by his will , dated 12th December , 1429 , left this manor to John Howard , Richard Waldegrave , and others . In 1551 , John Hunt died in possession of this estate , which descended to John , his grandson , the son of Richard . He sold it , in 1567 , to Thomas Milksop , Esq.¶ who resided here , and died in 1588 , holding the estate of the queen , as of her honour of Clare , by the service of one knight's fee . Henry Milksop , his son , sold the estate to John Daniel , Esq . of the family of that name , at Messing , and of Acton in Suffolk : his death in 1596 transferred it to his son Francis , who was also possessed of Grandon Hall . ** He married the daughter of Richard Martin , Esq . of Long Melford , by whom he had John ; and Nicholas , the possessor of this estate in 1635. * His son , John Daniel , Esq . married Elizabeth , daughter of Sir Edward Waldegrave , knt . of Stansgate , in Norfolk , by whom he had Charles; Frances, married to Laurence Thril , of Sussex ; Margaret , to James Sturgeon , of Wickham St. Pauls; and Ursula , to Thomas Short , M.D. of Bury St. Edmund's. On the death of John Daniel , it fell to his son Charles , who married Mary , daughter of Standish , of Standish , in Lancashire , and had by her Francis and Anne , who both died at an early age ; and John and Elizabeth . John , who died unmarried , † sold this estate to Robert Jennens , Esq . of Acton Place , whose family have retained possession to the present time . Goldingham Hall . The Goldingham family . About a mile north - west from the church is the ancient manor - house of Goldingham , which , in the time of Edward the Confessor , was in the possession of a freeman named Godwin . The Conqueror granted it to Robert Malet, lord of Eye, and great chamberlain of England; his under tenant, as specified in Domesday, being Hubert de Montchensy, lord of Edwardstown, in Suffolk. This lordship , or at least the demesnes of it , was afterwards given, by Robert Malet , to one of his knights, named Goldingham , ‡ out of whose family it had not passed at the commencement of the sixteenth century. In 1254 , William de Goldingham , then of age , and holding a knight's fee in Bolo- more , was presented for not having taken the order of knighthood.§ Alan de Goldingham, a knight banneret , was high sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1308 and 1309 ; || and Sir William Goldingham occurs in the returns of the gentry of Essex, in 1433.¶ The family , which was seated at Chigwell , had also an estate at Belsted , near Ipswich , in Suffolk ; in the church of which parish many interments of their ancestors took place , ** from the year 1413 and upwards. They became possessed of Twinsted Hall in 1480 , which , in 1516 , was in the proprietorship of John Goldingham, who also held this manor. He married , first , Jane , daughter of Lowth , by whom he had John , Alan , and Thomas . By his second wife , Thomasine , daughter and heiress of