On March 3rd. 1540, the Abbot and Canons resigned all their possessions into the King’s hand, and Loughton became a royal manor. Things probably went on much the same for a time. The lease of the ‘farmer’ was confirmed, and he paid to the Kings Treasurer his annual rent of £46, less certain outgoings, including the repair of the water mill; and other tenants of the manor did the same. For Hatfields Henry Mynce paid £2 14s. 8d. Included in the various rents are 34 hens, valued at 2d. each. These hens, handed down as we have seen, from very early times, were sometimes called ‘smoke hens,’ just as we read of ‘smoke-silver.’ And it is probable that they were originally something in the nature of a hearth-tax. It is particularly interesting to note that the England family—from whom England’s Lane has its name—paid two hens and a cock so late as 1675, just as five hundred years earlier our friend John Pyrle paid the same rent for the same freehold land. For a brief period during the reign of Edward VI. the manor ceased to be royal; but Lord Darcy held it for little more than a year, and it was then given to Princess Mary. She, however, about two months afterwards became Queen, and by her the manor was incorporated into the Duchy of Lancaster, with the accounts of which it is always thenceforth associated. It will be convenient here to trace in outline the subsequent descent of the property. John Stonard, the lessee under the last Abbot, left a son Robert, who secured a fresh long lease. To him in turn, a son John succeeded, and his daughter and heiress Susan, married the eldest son of Sir Thomas Wroth, of Enfield. Old John Stonard, a wealthy man, bought Luxborough in Chigwell, where he built a good house. On his death. Sir Robert Wroth and Susan, his wife, entered into the inheritance. To them succeeded their eldest son, also Sir Robert, and he, in 1613, bought the fee-simple of Loughton manor from King James I. In his time there were gay doings at Loughton Hall, which he rebuilt, and where he entertained, as Ben Johnson tell us, all sorts and conditions of men. “The rout of rural folk come thronging in, (Their rudeness then is thought no sin) Thy noblest spouse affords them welcome grace; And the great heroes of her race Sit mixt with loss of state, or reverence Freedom doth with degree dispense. The jolly wassal walks the often round, And in their cups their cares are drown’d.”