Thomas Penyston (later Sir Thomas) lived in Chadwell Place with his stepfather after his mother, who had married Sir Alexander Temple, died around 1607. In 1611, he married his stepfather’s niece, Martha Temple. Thomas was in the retinue of Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset. Thomas and Martha lived in the Lordship House in Tottenham (now known as Bruce Castle) which they leased from the Earl of Dorset. In the grounds of their house was an oak tree about thirty years old. That oak tree, now over four hundred years old, survives and is the oldest oak tree in Tottenham.