.... the last male of this family of the direct line, died in the seventh of Richard the Second, leaving only two daughters: Joan the wife of John, son and heir of John, Lord Botetourt; and Margaret, the wife of Sir John de Peyton.

Joan had by Botetourt a daughter called Joan, married to Sir Robert Swinborne, one of whose daughters and co-heiresses was married to John Helion, and had by him, John, who married Editha, daughter and heiress of Thomas Rolf, Esq. of Gosfield Hall, and died the twenty-eighth of Henry the Sixth, possessed of the manor of Gerners, so called from a branch of the Gernon family seated in Warmingford, to which manor the advowson of the priory and church of Lees belonged, being holden of the king , in capite, of his duchy of Lancaster. Editha surviving him, was again married , and enjoyed these estates till her death in 1498. By Helion she had Philippa and Isabella.

Isabella was married to Humphrey Tyrell, Esq., of Warley, by whom she had Anne, married to Sir Roger Wentworth, of Cobham Hall; and he, in her right, presented to this abbey and church; before her decease, this house was dissolved, and in the king's hands.

On this event the king granted this priory, with the manors of Little Lees, Camsey, Berns and Herons, in Great and Little Lees , and an annual pension of five marks issuing out of the rectory and church of Great Birch, to Sir Richard Rich, chancellor of the court of augmentation, an eminent lawyer, whose talents rendered him a very useful assistant in the suppression of religious houses.

On gaining possession of the priory, Sir Richard made great alterations in the buildings, which he enlarged, and formed into a magnificent dwelling, the capital seat for himself and family.
It was built of brick, and consisted of two quadrangles, surrounding an outer and inner court, the latter of which was faced with freestone and hard mortar.

There was also a spacious banqueting house, and the gardens were laid out with taste and elegance. The oldest records give an account of a park here, and that which surrounded the priory consisted of four hundred acres: to this Sir Richard added two other parks of nearly equal extent ; and other improvements were made by his successors, by which it became so attractive in its appearance , that on the death of Charles Rich , earl of Warwick, in 1673 , Dr. Walker, in his funeral sermon, speaks of it as "a secular elysium ; a worldly paradise; a heaven upon earth."

The Princess Elizabeth was confined here during some part of the reign of her sister Mary. The family of which Sir Rich family. Richard was the progenitor, and which was seated here in great splendour upwards of a century, were originally from Hampshire, where John le Rich flourished at Rich's Place, about the time of Edward the Second. His great grandson, Richard Rich, Esq . , was of London; he died in 1414, and was buried in St. Lawrence's church in .......