Inherited by Elizabeth nee Harbottle, wife of Henry Wingfield [Letheringham-Crowfield Line] in 1598 and left to their son, Harbottle Wingfield I, the keen genealogist (b. 1583 and his papers given in 1683 to John Gibbon, Blue Mantle, College of Arms, back from Virginia). Harbottle was married to Elizabeth Scrivener, sister of Matthew Scrivener who joined Captain Edward-Maria Wingfield in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
Crowfield Hall was down the track (drive) beside the church – a fascinating site. Dying in 1661 their son, Henry, left Crowfield to his son & heir, Harbottle Wingfield II [Copinger, 11,295], who sold it to Daniel Browning of Twickenham, Surrey, between 1661 and 1674, emigrating to Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1674. It is not known when the house was demolished, but the site and the church are worth a visit.
As you walk along the track towards the church you may notice what appears to be a moat to your left. This is exactly what it is. The moat enclosed the first manor house of the manor of Crowfield-cum-Bocking. However, by 1673 the Lord of the Manor had relocated himself to Bocking Hall, which lies about half a mile south west of the church, and renamed it Crowfield Hall. The first hall was reduced to the status of a farmhouse and eventually it was demolished. An archaeological excavation on the island in 2008, revealed ‘building foundations, together with 12th to 14th-century pottery with a few sherds (historic or prehistoric fragments of pottery) perhaps slightly earlier and later.’
