A Fine Gold and Black Enamel Gentlemans Snuff Box. 19th century. The hinged cover inset with a guache minature of a fortified town, opening to reveal an interior engraved with a coat of arms and motto. 2.5cm high. 8.5cm wide. 5.2cm deep. The arms are those for Bendyshe or Bendysh (old spelling). Bendish (modern) of Steple Bumstead, Essex. Now known as Steeple Bumpstead.Thomas Bendish was created a Baron in 1611 (extinct 1717). There were branches of the family in Suffolk and Cambridge and of course many later representatives in other counties, however the South East of England seems to be where most of the recorded use of these arms is to be found. There has been a long history on non-conformist belief in the village of Steeple Bumpstead which continues to this day in the Congregational Church. A Bumpstead man was burnt to death in the parish for his beliefs. Along the Blois Road, leading from Bumpstead to Birdbrook, is a field that has been called the 'Bloody Pightle', and that is where he is believed to have been martyred. In 1527 John Tibauld and eight other village residents were seized and taken before the Bishop of London, charged with meeting together in Bower Hall to pray and read a copy of the New Testament. Although the non-conformists in the village were encouraged by the powerful Bendyshe family that lived at Bower Hall, even their influence could not save Tibauld. He was burned at the stake.The powerful Bendyshe family lived at Bower Hall. Having fallen into ruin after use as a 'prisoner of war camp' in the First World War, Bower Hall was finally demolished in 1926 and the materials sold off. The great staircase found its way to the USA. Bumstead or Bumsted is Anglo-Saxon for ''place of reeds''. The Moot Hall is recorded in the Domesday Book.