 The town, originally spelled "Hengham", is an ancient settlement, as its Saxon name denotes.It was the property of King Athelstan, in 925, and of William the Conqueror in 1066 and 1086 as a well populated parish in the hundred of Forehoe, and retained many privileges coming from its royal ownership, including "the grandeur of ... St Andrew's," a parish church rebuilt in the 1300s.Thomas de Morley, 5th Baron Morley is buried in its chancel.