This parish is not more than three miles in circumference: it occupies high ground, and is bounded by the parishes of Alphamstone, Twinstead, and Middleton.

The only vestiges that remain of the ancient manor-house of Henny Hall are some slight appearance of the excavation left where the cellars and vaults were situated; and the name of Hall Field given to the meadow formed from the ground by which it was immediately surrounded, and which formerly was part of an extensive park. This manor was originally the chief lordship of these two parishes , yet it was holden under that of Lamarsh . The Manduits were the most ancient owners on record : Gilbert Manduit held under the heirs of Simon Cantelupe , and died in 1260 : John was his son and heir . Robert Manduit held this manor and other lands here in 1314 . The ancient family of Fitz - Ralph succeeded : Maud , the widow of William Fitz- Ralph , in 1329 , held this estate under Edmund , earl of Kent ; afterwards it was holden of John Plantagenet , earl of Kent , by John Fitz - Ralph ; and , in 1396 , Sir John Fitz- Ralph held it under Thomas de Holland , also earl of Kent . Sir John , dying in 1440 , without surviving offspring , it went to his sister Elizabeth , who conveyed it , in mar- riage , to Sir Robert Chamberlaine . Sir Ralph Chamberlaine held this estate at the time of his decease , in 1521 ; and Sir Edward , his brother , succeeded in 1541 , fol- lowed by his son Sir Ralph ; whose son , Fitz - Ralph Chamberlaine , sold it to the family of Bedingfield ; from whom it passed , in succession , to the families of Corn- wallis , Gwyn , and Manning . In the year 1666 , it was in the possession of Sir Har- bottle Grimston , bart . from whom it descended to his son , Sir Samuel Grimston , bart . who , dying without issue , left it to his nephew , William Luckyn , Esq . of Messing Hall , afterwards created viscount Grimston : he sold this manor to Thomas Sewell , attorney , whose family appear to have previously been in possession of the demesne lands , which , from an early period , had belonged to a family named Gibelon . Thomas Gibelon * was of this family , and lived about the time of King Edward the Fourth ; on his decease , he left an only daughter and heiress , married to John Sewell ; whose descendant , John Sewell , of Henny , held lands in Halstead , called Painters and Partriches , which he purchased of Nicholas Starling . On his decease , in 1590 , he left two sons , Thomas and Robert ; of whom the latter married the daughter of Bruno Ryves , dean of Windsor , and had by her Jonathan Sewell , Esq . a colonel in the army . The eldest son , Thomas Sewell , Esq . of Great Henny , married Rachel , daughter of Edward Alston , of Newton , in Suffolk , gentleman . This lady bore him Thomas , ' John , Edmund , and Robert ; of whom the two last died bachelors . John , the second son , marrying Anne , daughter of Walter Staneway , Esq . of Broom Hall , in Shrop- shire , had by her John , who died unmarried , and five daughters . Thomas , the eldest son of Thomas Sewell , at the time of his decease in 1707 , left , by his wife Alice , daughter of Joseph Beaumont , Esq . of Hadley , three sons , Thomas , Joseph , Beau- mont ; and two daughters , Mary and Alice . Joseph , the second son , married the daughter of - Scarling , of Sudbury , by whom he had Joseph and Margaret . Thomas Sewell , Esq . the eldest son and heir , educated at the Inner Temple , London , married , first , Elizabeth , daughter and heiress of Richard Hardwick , Esq . of Spalding , in Lincolnshire , and had by her Thomas , who was of Magdalen College , Cambridge , where he died in 1721. He had also by his first wife another son , named Hardwick , and a daughter , Alice , married to Richard Maltyard , Esq . of Thurston Hall , in Hawkedon . The second wife of Thomas Sewell , the father , was Rebeckah , daughter of the Rev. George Carter , rector of Pentlow . He died in 1727 , and was succeeded by his son Hardwick , whose successor was his sister's son , Hardwick Sewell + Richardson , Esq . The estate afterwards became the property of Crump , Esq . Church House . Church House is an ancient mansion , near the church - yard , and , with the estate belonging to it , was successively the property of the Fitz - Ralphs , the Chamberlains , and the Goldings ; from this last family it passed to proprietors named Elliston , Walker , and others . The church is very pleasantly situated on an elevation , commanding a fine prospect over the Stour into Suffolk . It is dedicated to St. Mary , and has a wooden tower , in which there are five bells . This living has a glebe of fifty - two acres . A chantry was founded here by Thomas Gibson , and some obits and grants for CHAP . V. lamps ; the endowments for these were , after the suppression , conveyed to Thomas Chantry . Golding and others . In 1705 , Thomas Sewell , of this parish , gave seven roods of land , in Henny Charities . meadow , to buy three penny loaves , to be given to three of the poorest people that come to Henny church every Lord's day , as long as the world endures . Martin Cole , draper , of Sudbury , by will , charged Shernford mills , in Great Henny , * and two meadows , called Great and Little Holmes , in Lamarsh , with the payment of £ 14 on the first day of May for ever , for the following purposes : to buy two hundred yards of French canvass , for fifty shirts and fifty shifts , to be given to the poor of Sudbury on Ascension - day ; £ 10 to be paid for the materials , and for making , £ 1 . To the minister of St. Peter's , Sudbury , for preaching a sermon there in the morning , 6s . and 8d .: to the minister of All Saints , for preaching at St. Gregory's , in the afternoon , the same sum ; and also 6s . and 8d . to the town - clerk , for entering the names of the poor in a book ; and £ 2 to be spent in a love - feast , and meeting of the corporation on the same day , in remembrance of the donor . Mr. Cole died in 1620 . The parish of Great Henny , in 1821 , contained three hundred and sixty - eight , and , in 1831 , four hundred and fourteen inhabitants .