A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



he paid is. a year to the bailiff of the hundred for sheriff's aid, did suit at the 

 three weeken court, and paid 2{J. a year for the wardstaff. He had to find two 

 men to watch the wardstaff for a night and to pay /\.J. a year for this, and also 

 had to provide a pound for distraints taken in the hundred for debts owed to 

 the king and a prison to guard prisoners taken in the hundred for a day and a 

 night.35 It seems unlikely that a wardstaff ceremony was still observed in the 

 1 6th century, but references to the wardstaff occur in records as late as the 

 reign of James I.^^ 



35 Ca/. Inf. Misc. ii, p. 286. 3* Morant, Essex, i, 127 n. 



