DENHAM, in the hundred of Stoke and deanery of Burnham, lies two miles from Uxbridge in Middlesex, near the road to High Wycombe. The manor was given to the abbot and convent of Westminster in 1299. After the reformation it was granted to the family of Peckham, who continued in possession of it till after the death of Sir George Peckham, in 1586, when it was seized for a debt to the crown. In 1596, the manor, Denham-Court, Denham-Place, and the advowson of the rectory, were all demised to William Bowyer esq. to whom they were afterwards granted in fee. Sir Roger Hill, who was sheriff of the county in 1673, purchased the manor, Denham-Place, and the advowson, of the Bowyers; they are now by female descent the property of Benjamin Way esq.
Denham Place, the seat of Mr. Way, is a large brick mansion, built by Sir Roger Hill, on the site of an old house belonging to the Peckhams. The chapel is fitted up with mantled wainscot and carving, in the style which prevailed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The windows are ornamented with coats of arms in stained glass. In the library is a very curious picture of the house of commons, with portraits of the members. The dresses are of the age of Charles II. and it is probable that it represents the parliament of 1679, in which Sir Roger Hill was one of the members for Amersham: William Williams was then speaker.
Denham-Court continues in the Bowyer family; William Bowyer the grantee, afterwards Sir William Bowyer knt. Was one of the tellers of the Exchequer; his grandson, of the same name, was created a baronet in 1660. The present proprietor of Denham-Court is Sir George Bowyer, in whom two titles are united, for his father, the late gallant Admiral, who possessed Radley in Berkshire by inheritance from the Stonhouses, was created a baronet in 1794, in the life-time of his elder brother, the late Sir William Bowyer. The manor of Denham-Durdants, formerly the property of an ancient family of that name, who were settled at Denham from the year 1259, till 1414, or perhaps later, and afterwards belonging to the Savoy hospital, was given by King Edward VI. to the citizens of London, towards the endowment of St. Thomas's Hospital.
In the parish church are several monuments, both ancient and modern, among the former are some brass plates of the Durdant family above-mentioned; that of Agnes Jordan, the last abbess of Syon; an altar tomb, in memory of Sir Edmund Peckham, who died in 1570 with the effigies of himself and his lady, and that of his son Sir Robert Peckham, privy counsellor to Queen Mary, who married one of the coheiresses of the last Lord Bray, and died in 1569, being then on his travels, and was buried in the church of St. Gregory at Rome: his heart was deposited at Denham, pursuant to his own request. Among the more modern monuments is a series of plain mural tablets, in memory of the Bowyer family, including the late baronet, who died in 1799. The earliest is that of Sir William Bowyer knt. Grantee of the manor, who dies in 1616. There are monuments also for the families of Hill, Lockey, and Way, connected by marriage.
