This might be a little long but:
In 1841 George Starkins owned 613 acres in the parish of High Laver; of this he then occupied 426 acres.
Between 1841 and 1843 John and Thomas Inkersole came into possession of the manor. In 1848 the manor farm consisted of 68 acres and was occupied by Thomas Inkersole. The Inkersoles also owned an estate of 155 acres which had previously been in the possession of George Starkins. They were still lords of the manor in 1860 when the last recorded court was held.
Thomas and John Inkersole were great nephews of George Starkins and I'm trying to find them and other connections namely Wedd of Cambridgeshire and Chaplin of Bishop's Stortford all of whom seem to have disappeared in the mists of time.
Also:
Dunmow and Stanstead Observer December 10, 2009
Chantry House, one of the oldest former residences remaining in Bishop's Stortford, was built by George Starkins, now unremembered but in his day a highly successful businessman and farmer. It became his principal home in 1824.
In April 1823, Cockett & Nash, of Royston, designed the house for him at Chantry. It was a handsome residence with large windows just inside the present day gateway; its appearance is identical with today's building, now used as offices.
Inside it has been modernised, but downstairs much of the decorative pargetting to the beams remains; upstairs there are large rooms and a finely panelled dressing room.
George's father died in 1785 and left him a farm and the windmill in Henham. His interests expanded; in 1796 he was a currier (dressing, finishing and colouring tanned hide) and in 1811 a tanner - the business probably deriving from John Jones, his father-in-law. Property in Elsenham came to him after his mother died in 1821 at the age of 92.
In around 1826 George formed a tannery business partnership with Frederick Chaplin, 26, son of George's Congregational Church minister, the Rev William Chaplin. Most likely Frederick learned this trade from George at the Water Lane tannery. An 1837 field plan maps his 1,000 acre farmland in Matching and High Laver.
George's death at the age of 77 on January 23, 1843, was recorded in The Times.
He left 1,300 acres of Essex farmland, £7,500 of cash legacies (worth about £725,00 today), a beer house in Elsenham and 290 gallons of ale in his cellar.
His will caused some drama. Firstly, the map: it indicated how his holdings should be divided to provide income for his relatives and their descendants. Sworn testimony records that on January 24 his Royston solicitors transmitted the will to Frederick (an executor) who read it over; he knew of the map's importance and so locked the door to the Chantry House dressing room where it lay in a japanned deed box.
The Map lists the following properties:
The Reversion
The Readings
Househam One Farm or Clarkes
Tadgets Farm
Logters Farm
Fagotters
Manor of Oates
Hog Farm
Monters Farm
High Laver Farm
All in or around High Laver and Matching, Essex and in total worth £10257.17 in 1837 which equates to £4,5,2371.19 today (2010).
After the funeral on February 1, the door was unlocked by the executors, the map was fetched downstairs and examined by those gathered and the will was read.
More dramas occurred when it turned out that George's birth was unrecorded (his mother's Bible contained the necessary family detail) and the Elsenham property had no deeds of ownership!
Frederick Chaplin inherited the Chantry estate. The house contents were mostly sold, but not, it seems, the ale.
