Michaelstowe Hall is a manor house in the village of Ramsey near Harwich, Essex, England.
The present Michaelstowe Hall dates from 1903, but the Michaelstowe Estate has a long and varied history which can readily be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086. Located a few hundred yards to the east of Ramsey Parish Church, Essex, Michaelstowe Hall is set back from the main Harwich road in 17 acres of landscaped grounds.Grade II listed in 1987, the main three-storey 1903 structure is of red Berkshire brick with white stone facings and a slated roof. Electric lighting was provided from the private lighting plant located near the stables. The main residence included seven family bedrooms, two fitted bathrooms, and a billiards room. A luggage lift and speaking tube served all three floors.
The stable block is surmounted by a clock tower and provided stalls for eight horses and a garage for three motor cars or carriages.The 1777 Andre and Chapman map of Essex shows an earlier Michaelstow Hall on the main road immediately adjacent to St. Michael's church at the top of Ramsey Hill, four hundred yards west of the current location. This earlier building mysteriously disappears completely from local maps around 1850.
In February 2011 Michaelstowe Hall was sold to Southend Care Ltd. Since new ownership it has been renamed as Ramsay Manor. Ramsay Manor has had extensive refurbishment in order to modernise the building to bring it to the forefront of elderly residential care.
1086-1750
Domesday Book
The Domesday Book records two parcels of land in the area, "Michaelstou" and "Ramefeia".
These were later divided into seven manors: those of Roydon Hall, Ramsey Hall, Michaelstowe, East New Hall, Strondland, Le Rey (Ray Island), and Foulton. A manor is defined as a division of countryside, each manor being subject to a lord who held a manorial court and governed by public law and local custom.
In 1379 King Richard II granted licence to give 200 acres of Michaelstowe to the Monastery of Saint Osyth, but following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536 the manor was divided with a "moiety" (half) being granted to Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth, and a "moiety" to Sir George Whitmore. Sir George Whitmore was Lord Mayor of London in 1631.
William Whitmore
William Whitmore succeeded his father George as lord of the manor of Michaelstowe in 1652. He died in 1678 and is buried in the churchyard at Ramsey. The estate then passed to his young son (also named William). However soon after, the young William Whitmore was killed when a pistol accidentally misfired in the carriage he was traveling in. As William died under age and without issue, the Michaelstowe Estate passed to trustees and was later sold to Sir Thomas Davall, MP for Harwich from 1695 to 1708.
Sir Thomas died in 1712 leaving the estate to his two infant sons but following a lengthy legal case the estate was granted to a cousin, Daniel Burr, on 30 May 1722. In 1750 Daniel Burr sold the estate to Nathaniel Garland, a wealthy mercer, who became first member of the Garland family to become lord of the manor of Michaelstowe.
1750-1920: Garland family
For nearly two hundred years from 1750 to 1920, Michaelstowe Hall was occupied by five generations of the Garland family: