ONGAR HUNDRED 



ment was indeed based on early- 14th-century records and described the 

 customs of that period. 



The document lists the names and tenements of all those owing suit at the 

 three weeken court or other courts of the hundred, and the names and tene- 

 ments of those liable by reason of tenure to maintain prisons and pounds. It 

 also lists the vills which by custom came to the sheriff's tourn, in each case with 

 the reeve, the copyhold tenants from which the four suitors at the tourn were 

 chosen, and the free suitors at the tourn. These places are identical with those 

 in which, according to the document, courts leet were held by the lord of the 

 hundred, or from which he received the common fine, except that Abbess 

 Roding and Beauchamp Roding occur only in the tourn list. 



The document describes at length the annual ceremony of the wardstaff of 

 the hundred. 31 This started on the Sunday before Hock Monday, when the 

 hundred bailiff cut a willow wand from Abbess Roding Wood: this was the 

 wardstaff, which gave its name to the bailiff's alternative title. The staff was 

 conveyed from the wood to Rookwood Hall, where it was placed in the hall. 

 There it remained while the bailiff refreshed himself. It was then taken 'by 

 sun shining' to Wardhatch Lane near Longbarns (in Beauchamp Roding) and 

 was there met by the lord of Rookwood Hall with all tenants of the Abbess 

 Roding 'Watch', whose duty it was to guard the staff. The lord of Rookwood 

 Hall had also prepared 'a great rope called a barr' which he now caused to be 

 stretched across the lane to stop passers-by. The wardstaff was laid beside the 

 rope while the bailiff called the roll of the watch, and charged them 'to watch 

 and keep the ward in due silence so that the king be harmless and the country 

 scapeless'. The watch lasted until sunrise next day, when the lord of Rook- 

 wood Hall took up the wardstaff and made a notch in it, signifying that he and 

 his men had performed their duty for the year. Finally he handed the staff to 

 the bailiff to be taken to the lord of the manor of Fyfield, delivering as he did 

 so 'the tale of the wardstaff', a narrative in Middle English verse relating how 

 his watch had carried out its duty.^^ The staff was then presented to the lord of 

 Fyfield Hall, who examined the notch made in it by the lord of Rookwood 

 and then went through a ceremony similar to that at Abbess Roding. The 

 Fyfield Watch, which was kept at the 'Three Wants' in Fyfield, was followed on 

 successive days by seven other watches at different places in the hundred, pro- 

 ceeding in a clockwise direction. 



Elsewhere in the same document there are details of the number of men in 

 each watch, and the names and tenements of those who were bound to provide 

 the men. The smallest watches were those of Abbess Roding (3 men) and 

 Theydon Garnon (5), the largest Magdalen Laver (19) and Chigwell (14). 

 Those who furnished the men for the watches had to pay %d. a man, probably 

 for food. The lord of Lambourne Hall also provided straw for his watch.33 



There is a reference to the wardstaff of Harlow hundred in the reign of 

 Henry IID+ but the earliest contemporary reference that has been found to the 

 wardstaff of Ongar was in 1 33 i, when Robert William of Havering, who had 

 been outlawed for felony, was said to have held land in Lambourne for which 



3' This part has been printed: Salmon, Hist. Essex, 68-70; Morant, Essex, i, 126-7. 



32 Although the narrative appears to be basically in Middle English it is not entirely homogeneous and there 

 are some later word forms. 



33 For the watches and their services see E.A.T. n.s. ix, 216-19. 

 3+ Morant, Essex, i, 127 n. 



