UPMINSTER, (Essex) near Hornchurch, b. upon Weald and Warley, is parted from the liberty of Havering by the little r. Snyreburne, and is so called from the lofty situation of its Ch. There is one manor here, containing most part of the p. which bel. in the R. of Hen. III. to the Engaines, who held it so long, that it got the name of Gaines. From them it descended by marriage to the Pakenhams, and passed thro' the Cheyneys, Deincourts, Waytes, Lathams, Dewes's, &c. and was sold in 1721 by the widow of Mr. Graves, who had enjoyed it about 60 years, to Amos White. The manor of Upminster-Hall was given by Harold to Waltham-Abbey, whose abbot had a chapel here, yet remaining, with a font in it, and a caemetery for the use of his tenants and dependants; the latter since turned into a garden, where human bodies have been dug up. On the Diss. Henry VIII. granted this estate to Cromwell E. of Essex; and after his forfeiture of it granted it for 848 l. 8 s. 11 d. to Ralph Latham of London, goldsmith, together with the yearly rent of 38 l. 19 s. 8 d. This grant was full and absolute, with all the honors, &c. and excepted it from all service to the crown. In 1641 Ralph Latham, son to the common serjeant, sold this estate for 6640 l. to the Viscountess dowager Campden; and it was afterwards the E. of Gainsborough's till 1685, when it was purchased by Capt. Andrew Bransill of Dartmouth; after whose death in 1707, it went to his son, the late Champion Bransill. The steeple and part of the Ch. here was burnt down by lightning in 1638.