A HISTORY OF ESSEX . 



On the same occasion Rivers also claimed view of frankpledge. This was not 

 opposed but in fact before 1 277 this jurisdiction had in some cases already been 

 alienated to the lords of individual manors. It was stated in 1 274-5 that the 

 lords of Fyfield, Stapleford Tawney, Woolston (in Chigwell), Stapleford 

 Abbots, Loughton, Navestock, Beauchamp Roding, and Theydon (Mount.?) 

 possessed view of frankpledge and the assize of bread and ale, that the lord 

 of Woolston also had gallows and the lord of North Weald Bassett had all 

 pleas.28 



In the document of 1 543-6, already mentioned, the lord of the hundred 

 held no courts leet in any of these places nor in Chipping Ongar, Greenstead, 

 Stanford Rivers, Abbess Roding, and Shelley. At four other places, Norton 

 Mandeville, Roding Morrell, High Laver, and Navestock, courts leet were said 

 to be held by the lords of the manor but the common fine was customarily paid 

 by them to the lord of the hundred. During the Middle Ages the manors of 

 Chipping Ongar and Stanford Rivers (q.v.) were held in demesne by the lords 

 of the hundred and there was thus no need to include them in the list of leets. 

 At Greenstead, which was also omitted from the list, the lords of the hundred 

 were tenants in chief of the manor.^' Courts leet for the manor of Abbess 

 Roding (q.v.) were certainly being held in the 1 5th century. But it is clear 

 that the document of 1 543-6, so far as it relates to courts leet, does not describe 

 16th-century practice, for it omits many manorial leets that are known to have 

 existed in the 14th and 15th centuries. 



At High Ongar (q.v.) courts leet were being held for the manor of Paslow 

 Hall at least as early as 1271, and for that of Newarks Norton in 1487. At 

 Abbess Roding, in addition to the leet of the capital manor, there was one for 

 Berwick Berners manor in and after 1382. At Kelvedon Hatch (q.v.) there 

 was a court leet from 1390. 



The manuscript of 1 543-6 quoted above was probably drawn up for John 

 Stoner when he acquired the hundred and revised somewhat during the next 

 three years.^o It includes the text of the grant of the hundred to Stoner, and 

 states that the customs and duties it records were observed in the time of Edward 

 III and Robert Bruce, King of Scots, and long before 'when the Saxons 

 inhabited this realm'. In support of this statement it refers to ancient records 

 made by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hertford [sic] and Essex, Constable of 

 England, and 'lord of the said liberties and hundreds' dated at Pleshey, 10 July 

 II Edward III (1337) and to other records 'written in the Saxon tongue'. 

 These records have not been traced. Humphrey de Bohun (d. 1361) is not 

 known to have held the hundred of Ongar, but his successor and namesake 

 Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex (d. 1373) held the hundred 

 of Harlow, which later came into the possession of the earls of Stafford, the lords 

 of Ongar hundred. The document of 1 543-6 was probably prepared so that 

 Stoner might exact his legal dues as lord of the hundred. All tenants' names in 

 it were up to date but the section relating to the courts leet and some others 

 described below certainly did not represent 16th-century practice; an anti- 

 quarian interest may have led to their inclusion. Probably much of the docu- 



28 Ro/. Hundr. (Rec. Com.), i, 1 53. For North Weald see also Cat. Anct. D. i, A. 755. 



^' But Roding Morrell, which was included in the list, was also held in chief by the lords of the hundred. 



30 E.R.O., D/DRg 1/197. The MS. was formerly in the Round collection at Birch Hall, Colchester. It was 

 calendared in Hist. MSS. Com. J4th Rep. Apf. ft. IX, p. 5, and was also described and partly printed by W. C. 

 Waller, E.A.T. n.s. ix, 212-19. 



