Parish Registers: Roxwell (4)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Roxwell (3)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Roxwell (2)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Archaeological Society: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Roxwell (1)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Thaxted (3)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Thaxted (2)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Thaxted (1)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Council for British Archaeology. Home Front Legacy Day School at Waltham Abbey Gunpowder Mills, Saturday 16 May 2015

Essex Society for Archaeology and History with the Essex Industrial Archaeology Group: Visit to Langford

 The next visit in the ESAH programme of industrial interest is a guided tour of

Beeleigh Mill on Saturday 25^th April at 2:00 pm

Beeleigh Steam Mill, at Langford near Maldon, is a highly significant surviving example of 1840s milling technology. The virtually complete Wentworth compound beam engine remains attached to the unique iron-riveted elephant boiler. In the adjoining room is a cast iron corn mill on the circular principle favoured by millers into the C19th. Alongside the mill are the remains of the docks in which barges from the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation could be loaded and unloaded. 

There will also be a guided tour of the C12th St Giles Church, Langford where refreshments will be served. The church is unusual in that it has a western apse. For more information about the church click here for the article which was produced when the Society visited Langford in 1906.

Bookings can be made with Dr Graham Gould

Parish Registers: Birdbrook (5)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Birdbrook (4)

Parish Registers: Birdbrook (3)

Parish Registers: Birdbrook (2)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

Parish Registers: Birdbrook (1)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

British Archaeological Trust

Copped Hall, Epping. Archaeological Dig this Summer

Friends of Essex Churches Trust: Spring Study Day, Wednesday 6 May 2015

FRIENDS OF ESSEX CHURCHES TRUST

SPRING STUDY DAY

Wednesday 6^th May 2015

Our Spring Study Day will be led by Dr Christopher Starr the Essex church historian and Vice Chairman of the Trust. It will take place in the south west of the county, and we will visit a relatively compact group of five medieval churches in the course of the day. Please note that the order in which we visit the churches is as usual determined by the availability of refreshments.

We will meet at St Mary the Virgin, Stapleford Tawney (TQ 501987/RM4 1DQ) L+P** where the first talk will begin promptly at 10.15 am. Light refreshments will be available after the talk. Our second church will be St Margaret, Stanford Rivers (TL 533008/CM5 9QS) P**. We will stop for lunch after the talk; there are pubs and places for picnics in the vicinity. We resume our tour at 2.00 pm at St Thomas the Apostle, Navestock (TQ 562972/RM4 1EX) P** We will then proceed to St Mary & All Saints, Lambourne (TQ 479961/RM4 1AH) L+P** and our final destination for the day will be St Mary the Virgin, Stapleford Abbotts (TQ 505955 /RM4 1ES) L+P** where once again light refreshments will be available. Please remember that the refreshments are provided at the expense of the churches we visit, so if we have them we should make a suitable donation for them.

** L=Lavatory in or near church P= Parking available close to church.

Contact number for Dr Christopher Starr is 07711 563545, email kanonium@hotmail.co.uk and for further information about the itinerary contact Mrs Susan Clark-Starr 07956 463628     stelladora@hotmail.co.uk The charge for the Spring Study Day is £7 for members and £10 for non-members; please remember that this does not include lunch. Note that the Autumn Study day will be held on Saturday, 10^th October 2015 when we will visit a group of medieval churches near Brentwood.

________________________________________________________________________

To: Mrs Susan Clark-Starr, 10 Kings Meadow, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 0HP Tel: 01787 242121 I/We wish to attend the FECT Study Day on Saturday, 6^th May 2015 and enclose a cheque made payable to FRIENDS OF ESSEX CHURCHES TRUST for £………..

Name…………………………………………………………Signature……………….............

Address………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tel. number…………………..Mob. number…………………email address…………………                                      

I am unable to attend the Spring Study Day but enclose a donation of £………

Charity number 236033

Parish Registers (10)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

22.   Historical events

At Cold Norton it is recorded:

“Memoranda

“Anno Domini 1683

“Memorandum that a great frost began December 18 or thereabouts which continued till February.  This frost was so violent that several people for several days went backwards and forwards over Fambridge Ferry upon the ice in which River as low water there is nineteen foot of water at least as I was told by the ferryman.  Richard Clarke.”

At Purleigh:

“Mem. Novemb ye 26 1703 about one of ye Clock in ye morning, there arose ye most outragious tempest ye ever was heard or read of in England it held till seven a eight o’clock in ye morning it layd naked most peoples dwelling houses, Barns, Stables & all other houses, & multitudes of them were levell’d unto ye ground – it blew down, Steeples, unkept our Churches & made thousands of tall & sturdy oakes, elmes & other trees root & body & branch toosubmit to ye violence of an outragious blast yt brought you to the ground & made tm fit fired for ye flames.”

St Leonards, Colchester, records “entries of Briefs from 1703 to 1713, also 2 King’s letter collections for S.P.G. in 1742 & 1752. The largest collections appear to have been for two Palatinate Briefs; & for the Protestants in the Principality of Orange.”

Miscellaneous

Items which do not fall under any of the above questions from Barking include:

“Baptisms

“1653. July 24 … Francis, the sonne of an AEthiopion

“1682. Sep 17 … Jonas a Ni**o Baptized att Church

“Marriages

“1669. Ap. 14 … John Brookes & Margaret Salter widdow maryed by license at ye Fleet Chappel, London.

“Burials

“1593. Jan 30 … Richard Stephens otherwise called Bald Dicke

“1595. Aug 24 … Thomas Poiner, Servt of Mr Powle, Slaine by the fall of a gate post.

“1662. Jan 2 … - Ewers a Quakee

“1708. Ap. 24 … Queene of ye Gipsies.

Rev. W P Babington, Manningtree wrote, “I find therefore nothing to communicate but the following, which is somewhat curious:

Jan 17 1746

Nathaniael Cutton made oath that 11 calves which were going to be driven from Mistly in Essex to Bergholt in Suffolk were not then nor had not been ever infected with any distemper.”

Rev John H Sperling, Wicken [Bonhunt] Rectory, gives details of register commencement dates adding, “Just now I am restoring my church and building a new Rectory house, and as I am my own architect I shall have very little time”.

Parish Registers (9)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

21.   Note how the Registers are kept during the Great Rebellion

William Palin, Rector of Stifford reported that “my parish seems to have ridden through the storm at the Rebellion without harm”.

Historical Association Lecture: Saturday 11 April 2015

Historical Association, Essex Branch

 The Three Deathbeds of Louis XV: the King's mistresses and the King's conscience.

 A talk by

Dr. Anne Byrne

Associate Tutor, History Dept. Birkbeck College, London University

Saturday 11 April 2015 at 2.30pm

 Trinity Methodist Church

Rainsford Road, Chelmsford , CM1 2XB

(near train and bus stations; free parking at Church or at County Council car-park opposite)

Visitors and prospective members warmly welcome – donation of £2 is requested.

Dr Anne Byrne is currently preparing a book based on her doctoral thesis entitled 'Public ceremonies in the reign of Louis XVI, 1774-5'.  Her research interests are based on court history, ritual and ceremony, participation, gender, and emotions history, all in France.  Her newest project revolves around positive public emotion towards the king from the mid 18c, something that has so far received almost no attention in the historiography.  Her talk on the deathbed of Louis XV will include material on Madame de Pompadour.

Contact:  email essexha1@btinternet.com

Parish Registers (8)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

19.   Inductions

Rectors of Fowlness

James Kennedy … 1700

George Dell … 1706

Benjamin Collins … 1716

John Pennington … 1727

Thomas Dent … 1734

Thomas Thompson … 1757

Daniel Halloway … 1771

Henry Finch, a relative of Lord Winchelsea … 1785

Robert Pemberton … 1786

Thomas Ellwood … 1813

Thomas Archer … 1815

James Knight … 1832

Harvey Vachell … 1844

Samuel Neale Dalton … 1848

Rectors of Stifford

Anthony Barker … buried April 1575

Obadiah Bradshaw … buried October 1618

John Boden … buried April 1619

James Iken … presented 1619

Dan. Latham … 1645

Hier Polkin … 1652

Denzill Price … 1674

James Robertson … 1678

Samuel Hilliard … 1709

Robert Talbot … 1742

Samuel Francis Swinden … 1763

Nicholas Holland … 1764

Francis Cuthbert … 1772

James Silewood … 1784

John Henry Hogarth … 1821

William Palin … 1834

Rectors of Wickham St Paul

James Chalmers DD … died 1761

John Erskine M.A. … 1719

William Gibson M.A. … 1835

William Key Borton M.A. now in possession.

Parish Registers (7)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

16.   Biographical Notices, or remarks upon deceased persons.

At Hutton:

“1659. A man child of Frances & Jone Drury still born, was buried the fifth day of Feberary.

“1687. William an Indian slave taken from about Bombay in the East Indies, was baptised the twenty fifth day of September, he not remembering the name of his parents took to himself the sirname of Bombay, and at his baptism received the Christian name of Williams.

“1702. Bap by a Dissenting Minister Henry Prior, the son of John and Anna Hunt April ye 17^th.”

At Purleigh:

“May 6 1714.  Elizabeth Homes, a vagabond wandring woman, were sick & weak was by ye Overseers of Norton shot out of a tumbrell at ye round bush in our Parish, & there had perished had not our Overseer Jn. Laver fetched her into his barn & laid her in a bed, & fed her with nourishing things for a fortnight, & yn she died & was buried in ye Churchyard, & was carried token grave be ye Churchwardens & Overseers of ye poor of this Parish & affidavit was made. She was a gentlewoman of some note, born at ye West Indies. She said her father was governor of an Island there & yt her husband & child was drowned a getting a board ye ship at wh she was discharged”

“November 9^th 1717.  William Dummerboough a single man was buried being a very rotten youth.”

At Tendring:

“A man found murdered in the fields of Tendring was buried Aug 14 1704.

“1737.  An infant with 10 fingers & 12 toes.”

Several travellers are recorded at Roxwell.  In addition:

“1745. Jan 31. Fryday. A person found dead on Radley Green on Wednesday the 29^th Jany guesed to be between 30 & 40 yrs old.”

At East Hanningfield it is noted that “a Burial Tax of Threepence first noticed Nov 7 1790 also Baptisms May 23 1790, but not mentioned, when the Word Pauper is written. It ceased in September 1794.”

Parish Registers (6)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

15.   Periods of great mortality, especially of the Great Plague year.

Periods of great mortality at Barking: “1593, 1603, 1625, 1665, 1666, 1729. In these years the mortality was double the average, or thereabouts: except 1603 by far the most fatal year, & in which there was more than 3 times the average.”

Only one burial is reported at Birdbrook in the Plague year – 1665.

“There was no great mortality in the Plague year” at Roxwell,”– 2 deaths described as ‘of London’ in 1665, and 3 baptisms in the same year, parent similarly described – as tho’ Londoners were taking refuge in the country.”

Parish Registers (5)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

11.   Entries of Unbaptised persons, Suicides, and Excommunicated persons

At Barking:

“1749. Aug 28 … Benjamin Mason (Lunatick, Suicide)”

At Purleigh:

“1616. Goodman Justice buryed the 20^th of May without the bounds of the Churchyard, without any ringing of the bell, a reading any prayers over him, because he stood excommunicate att his death.

“1624.  A vagrant man unknown buryed. Oct 24.

“1631. Buryed the 28^th day a stranger that was found sicke & dyed in our parish whose name (as y[e]t seems by a passe found in his pockett) was Edward Field (?) who was sent (by his passe) from Lutton [Latton] in Essex towards Lasfield [Laxfield] in Suffolk.

Parish Registers (4)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

10.   Burials in Woollen

In a full return for Barking, many such entries are reported: “The earliest is;

“1678. Aug 26 … Abraham Robinson was buried in woollen whereof Margaret Newell made Affidavit before Tho. Colman Esq one of the Majesties justices of ye yeare for ye County of Essex.

“The following is an entey of a burial in linen.

“1684. Ap. 22 … Mr Edward Halley of London, Merchant, was thered & buryed in linen, & £2.10 pd to this parish for ye use of ye poor.

“The latest instance is,

“1684. Dec 22.  Henry Fox buryed in woollen as Tho. Wetherheade made affidavit before Jn. Tho. Faythawe”.

At Faulkbourne burials in woollen are recorded between 1690 and 1719.

At Hutton the Register says, “A True and Exact Register (According to the statute for burying in woollen) of all such burialls as have happened, since the beginning of August 1678 in the Parish of Hutton.”

Entries for burial in wool only appear in the Stifford register between “Sep 20 1720 to Sep 1724”.

“From 1678 to 1812 there is a regular series of Affidavit received of burying in woollen” at Tendring.

“Most of the Thorrington Register book the burials in Woollen began in 1678 & continued until 1692.  The Frating Register book no entries are made as to burials in Woollen.”

At Wickham Bishops burials in woollen were recorded between 1678 and 1789.

Parish Registers (3)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

9.   Entries of Interment a specially described as with a coffin, without a coffin; with a sermon …

At Purleigh:

“Oct 27 1706.  Henry Barefoot a stragling fellow, was buried without a coffin.

At Tendring:

“1668/9.  Mary wife of George Lones clerk buried Feb 9 with a sermon”.

At Birdbrook:

“Martha Blewitt [th]e wife of nyne husbands successively buried eight of them: but* last of all [th]e woman dy’d allso & was buried. May 7^th 1681(?).  the transcript notes that this was the same as the sermon text – she is commemorated in the tower of the church.

Parish Registers (2)

Taken from the archives of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: S/SEC/4/1, dated 1858

6.   Note records of Proclamation of Marriage in Market-places; and of secular marriages performed by magistrates, and other laymen, during the Commonwealth.

The Revd. Frederick Spurrell, of Faulkbourne Rectory says “the earliest marriage by ‘lycense’ is 1618.  From 1653 to 1658 six entries of ‘Contract of matrimony between --- & --- was published three Lord’s days, viz --- -- & --.’ From 1675 to 1708 numerous marriages of both parties from neighbouring Parishes, as if Faulkbourne was a peculiarly Favourable place for marriage.”

“Jany the 8 1653.

“Memorand. that Richard Strutt of Faulborn Hall in the County of Essex, being elected by the chief inhabitants of that parish to be Register thereof, for marriages & Burialls, according to an Act of Parliament made the 24^th of August 1653, was approved of sworn Register by me Arthur Barnadiston Esq are of the Justices of the Peace of the County aforesaid in witness whereof I have subscribed my hand the day & year above written. A Barnadiston.”

At Little Horkesley:

“During the Commonwealth the registers are carefully kept (the writing however is not quite so good).  It would seem that about this time Little Horkesley was a favourite place for marriages as a majority of the entries are of persons from other parishes.”

The Register at Brdbrook includes the following entry at the end of 1655:

“The Registering of names after [th]e usual manner ceasing from this time ill [th]e year 1659. Those who desire to find [th]e names of any baptised married or buried are to inquire till this time of Mr Thomas Hickman of Bumpsted … “