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the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
Landowners in the Civil War and the Commonwealth
1642 - 1688, Civil War to Glorious Revolution
Ownership of the manor of Leyton Grange was split 3 ways during the Civil War, which seems like an exceptional arrangement for exceptional times. This will have had the effect of strengthening the position of the Hicks family of Ruckholt Manor, leaving them undisputed leaders of the Leyton community.
Leyton had its Roundheads. Between 1639 and 1644 Samuel Keeme was Rector of Leyton, but it was not the only parish for which Keeme was minister and he probably spent little time there. Keeme joined the Parliamentarian Army in 1641 and gave sermons in the Parliamentarian cause on some prominent occasions.
Lawrence Moyer was a merchant of St Stephen’s Walbrook and Warden of Trinity House. He was a Leyton Churchwarden in 1649, and was called Captain. Gratitude to a Captain ‘Mowyer’ was expressed in the House of Lords 1642-1643 for helping Parliament in the Civil War struggle 1. His brother Samuel of Pitsea Hall was a member of ‘Barebone’s Parliament’. Lawrence Moyer served on a 1656 committee for rebuilding the church, and as a trustee of John Smith’s Almshouses from 1653 to 1683. Moyer sounds a French name but may have been Irish or Scottish. Captain Lawrence Moyer was living in Leyton from 1649 or earlier when he bought a property on the south side of what is now Hainault Road, near the junction with Leyton High Road. He was Warden of Trinity House. His home had 12 hearths by 1662.
William Hicks, lord of Ruckholt Manor, was made a baronet in 1619 and bought Ruckholt House from an older half-brother in 1635. Initially he supported Parliament against Charles I but he changed sides during the Civil War.
