176 MONK WOOD, IN LOUGHTON. 



William de Bosco, Richard Alcher and Gregory de Thayden. The 

 last is probably identical with the man of that name who was a 

 Verderer in a.d. 1250. 



Nor was this the conclusion of the whole matter. Following on 

 the three charters just recited we have two others, from which we learn 

 that both Roger and Geoffrey still had seventeen acres of wood and 

 waste left to them, of which Roger's share was three acres and three- 

 parts of a rood (rode), and this they also made over to the canons. 

 The grant made by Geoffrey was subsequently confirmed by Edward, 

 his son. A pleasing unanimity has marked the proceedings up to 

 this point ; but the new joint-possessors do not seem to have 

 succeeded in maintaining it. For, on the Thursday next after the 

 Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, in the twenty-fourth year of the 

 reign of King Henry, the son of King John (June 14, a.d. 1240) 

 Henry, Abbot of Waltham, ard Hugo, Abbot of Stratford, found it 

 desirable to meet in the mother church of Chelmsford and there to 

 compose certain differences which had arisen over their common wood 

 in Loughton Snarrynge. The result of their meeting is recorded in a 

 charter, by which it is solemnly provided that, when either Abbot 

 wishes to fell any timber, the bailiff of the one shall send for the 

 bailiff of the other, and the two shall, by common consent, fix upon 

 four trees of equal value, of which the Abbot of Stratford shall have 

 first choice as to two, and the Abbot of Waltham take whichever he 

 prefers of the two remaining. Into the other provisions we need not 

 enter here. 



So far so good, says a logical reader : we have a wood and we 

 have monks ; but there is nothing to show that the wood was called 

 " Monk Wood " ; nor even if it were so called, that it was the 

 particular wood which now goes by that name. To meet these 

 objections, which are reasonable enough, we must carry the reader 

 from the thirteenth to the second half of the sixteenth century, when 

 Elizabeth, by the grace of God, was Queen, and, withal, lady of the 

 manor of Loughton, alias Lucton. 



From a Commission to survey, dated May 20, 1582, we learn that 

 "greate spoyle and waste" was alleged to have been committed in 

 the felling of a parcel called " Moncke Wood," parcel of the Manor 

 of Loughton, lately sold to Robert Wroth, Esq. by Thobie Hough- 

 ton, surveyor of woods to the Duchy of Lancaster. The three 

 commissioners named were directed to repair to Mouncke AVood, 

 then and there calling before them Robert \\'rothe and others. Their 



