TENDRING HALL AT STOKE-BY-NAYLAND, EIGHT MILES NORTH OF COLCHESTER, stood on high ground overlooking the River Stour. William Tendring's house of the late thirteenth century had passed by the end of the fifteenth century to the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk. The medieval house of the Howards was rebuilt after the estate was acquired by Sir Thomas Rivett in 1563. A tower from this Tudor house survived when the rest was taken down in the eighteenth century. After the Rivetts Tendring was owned by the Windsor family for three generations.

In the first half of the eighteenth century Tendring was owned by Sir John Williams, an alderman of the City of London, a merchant ‘at the head of the Turkey trade’ and ‘one of the greatest exporters of cloth in England’. In 1748 he settled the estate on his son, Richard Williams, a ‘dealer and chapman’. Richard became bankrupt shortly thereafter and his financial affairs were the subject of an Act of Parliament. While the assets his wife had brought to their marriage were reserved for her and their children the estates which he enjoyed under his father's settlement were allocated to his creditors. Tendring was sold in March 1750 to Admiral Sir William Rowley, the first of a line of distinguished naval officers. In the years that followed the land holdings of the Rowleys were increased by the purchase of a number of neighbouring estates, including in 1785 the nearby Shardelowes estate from the trustees of Sir John Williams.

On his death in 1768 Sir William was succeeded by his son, Joshua, Rear Admiral of the White, who was created a baronet in 1786. Sir Joshua's wife, Sarah, was the daughter and heiress of Bartholomew Burton, Governor of the Bank of England, a painting of whom by George Dance which hung at Tendring was sold to the Bank in 1933. Sir Joshua was responsible for the rebuilding of Tendring Hall, his new house dating from 1784–6 being designed by Sir John Soane.