This parish is bounded, on the south and south-west, by Gosfield and Weathersfield ; and , on the north and north-west, by Great Yeldham and Toppesfield. It is three miles distant from Halstead, seven from Braintree, and forty-eight from London. The soil in general is distinguished by the same characteristics as that of the greater part of the hundred: it consists partly of light loams on gravel, with some good strong loam, two feet deep, of various degrees of tenacity . A large proportion of the best Essex hops are grown here. The village is very pleasantly situated , near the river Colne; it contains numerous shops, and many good houses , and the population, which is considerable, is supported by various occupations and trades , dependant on agricultural productions, and by supplying the neighbourhood with articles of necessary consumption. There are six manors in this parish . The manor of Preyers , also called the manor of Sible Hedingham , was in the possession of seventeen freemen previous to the Conquest , and , at the general survey , was one of the six lordships which had been given to Roger Bigot , earl of Norfolk , whose second daughter , Adeliza , in the reign of King John , conveyed it , in marriage , to Alberic de Vere , the second earl of Oxford , in whose family it continued till the time of Queen Elizabeth . * Robert de Preyers + held this estate under the De Veres , in the time of King Henry the Third , and the manor seems to have received the name of this knightly family .

Sir Thomas , * the son of Robert de Preyers , married Anne , daughter and heiress of CHAP . V. Hugh de Essex , junior , a descendant of Suene de Essex , baron of Raleigh ; his only daughter and heiress was Margaret , married to Robert de Bourchier , lord chancellor of England in the reign of King Edward the Third ; and it remained in the possession of the Bourchier family till it became extinct , in the time of King Henry the Eighth . † Edward de Vere , earl of Oxford , had for his second lady , Elizabeth , daughter of Thomas Trentham , Esq . of Roucester , in Staffordshire , and settled this estate upon her and her offspring male ; remainder to her brother , Francis Trentham , Esq . to whom it soon afterwards descended ; and his grand - daughter conveyed it in marriage to Brian Cockayne , viscount Cullen , of Ireland ; on whose decease , in 1713 , this manor was sold , with Boure Hall and Greys , to Robert , William , and Samuel Ashurst , Esquires , from whose descendants it passed by marriage , to Sir . Henry Houghton , Bart . of Houghton Tower , in Lancashire , and of the Castle , in Castle Hedingham . Boure Hall is appendant to the manor of Preyers , though it is sometimes men- Boure tioned in records as distinct and independent . The mansion , of which there are no remains , was at some distance from Preyers , in a field which retains its name . Preyers and Boure Hall having been given to the progenitors of the Bigot family , earls mar- shal , they were consequently appendages of that office in succeeding ages ; and it is stated in the records , that Thomas de Vere , earl of Oxford , who died in 1371 , held the manor of Hedingham Sible of the earl marshal , by knight's service . Hall . The manor of Greys retains this name from Sir Thomas Grey , to whom it formerly Greys . belonged ; the mansion was near the church - yard . This estate was in the possession of Godwin , a freeman , in the reign of King Edward the Confessor ; and , after the Conquest , was given to Roger de Ramys , or Raynes , whose under tenant was Ga- renger , a freeman . Robert de Raynes was a descendant of Roger , and held this estate as part of his barony , which continued in his family till the reign of King Henry the Third ; when Richard de Raynes , on his decease , left three daughters , Alice , Amice , and Joan ; the eldest of whom , by marriage , conveyed this estate to Sir Thomas Grey , who , on his death , in the year 1322 , held , with his wife Alice , as of her inheritance , lands here of the exact amount of this estate , which had been , at an early period , considerably more extensive , being described in Domesday - book , as in- cluding a farm called Peppers , on Fory Green , extending towards Weathersfield . It cannot be ascertained at what precise time it passed from the Grey family . Greys was afterwards in the possession of the Vere family , till it was , with their other