A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



In 1 854 J. F. Wright of Kelvedon Hall wrote to Dr. 



Tavarez, the Roman Catholic 



ROMAN priest at Brentwood, in reply to 



CATHOLICISM a request to furnish informa- 

 tion concerning the history of 

 Roman Catholic worship in the Kelvedon Hatch area. 

 'At Kelvedon Hall, where my family have resided for 

 upwards of 300 years I have little doubt (though I have 

 no positive proof of the fact) that a priest was maintained 

 during the greater part of that time, though possibly 

 only at intervals during times of persecution. The 

 inscription on the ciborium belonging to Kelvedon 

 Hall chapel (Ora pro Eugenia Wright 17 10) is pretty 

 good proof of there having been a priest and chapel 

 then.'*^ The family tradition here stated was probably 

 well founded. In 1 60 5 , when William Byrd of Stondon 

 Massey (q.v.) was presented to the archdeacon as a 

 Popish recusant, it was also urged against him that he 

 had led astray John Wright of Kelvedon, the son of the 

 then lord of the manor and later to become lord him- 

 self, and his sister Anne, into the same heresy. 8? This 

 may be evidence that the Wrights were not Roman 

 Catholics between the time when they acquired the 

 manor and the end of the i6th century. It has not 

 been definitely established that they were Roman 

 Catholics throughout the 17th century; Bishop 

 Compton's census (1676) lists no Roman Catholics in 

 Kelvedon Hatch.'" But for the i8th century there is 

 confirmation of J. F. Wright's statements. John Wright 

 of Kelvedon Hall was registered at quarter sessions in 

 1 7 17 as a papist, and so also was his son John Wright 

 the younger." Eugenia, widow of John Wright of 

 Kelvedon Hall, was similarly registered in 173 1 and 

 another John Wright in 1761.W In the 17th and i8th 

 centuries the Wrights, although they held the advowson 

 of Kelvedon Hatch, do not appear to have presented 

 to the rectory themselves except in 1607. '3 Priests 

 from the Jesuit College of the Holy Apostles also appear 

 to have visited Kelvedon Hall regularly in the middle 

 of the 1 8th century.'* Continuing his letter to Dr. 

 Tavarez, J. F. Wright stated that his family left 

 Kelvedon Hall in 1788 forafewyears. 'Inconsequence 

 a small chapel was fitted up in a room in a farm-house 

 on Kelvedon Common and the Revd. Richard Antr«bus, 

 then the priest at Wealdside (in South Weald), used to 

 attend there at Indulgences, for the accommodation of 

 the Catholics about here.'" J. F. Wright went on to 

 describe the return of his family to Kelvedon Hall in 

 1799 and gave the names of three Roman Catholic 

 priests who lived there as chaplains between 1 799 and 

 1 8 1 3, when his grandfather again left the hall.'* There 

 was no resident priest there after 181 3. The few 

 Roman Catholics in Kelvedon Hatch were served by 

 the priest at Ingatestone Hall and later by the priest 

 in charge of the church at Brentwood, opened in 1837. 

 In J. F. Wright's own time the private chapel at 

 Kelvedon Hall was again in use for Catholic worship. 

 In 1 8 5 7 he was again corresponding with Dr. Tavarez, 

 this time about the proposal to install a confessional in 



the chapel. He told Tavarez that he considered that 

 the chapel was too small for the secrecy of the con- 

 fessional to be maintained — 'and where the confessor 

 is at all hard of hearing the danger is still greater'. And 

 he was further unwilling to obey an order by Arch- 

 bishop Errington to destroy some old altar stones in 

 the chapel. '7 'I beg to say that they will never be used 

 and that they take up very little room. As for saying 

 "cui bono" do they remain, that, I submit concerns me 

 alone and I do not hesitate to say that . . . they have 

 acquired an interest from the fact of their having been 

 here for several generations. ... It is I think no improb- 

 able supposition that over some of them mass has been 

 celebrated in times of persecution by priests who sub- 

 sequently became martyrs.' Wright concluded his 

 letter with a dignified reproach: 'Into these feelings, 

 however, I cannot expect you to enter, as you cannot 

 feel as we English Catholics do on these subjects, who 

 know with how much trouble and difficulty our religion 

 was kept alive in England in former days.''* 



Roman Catholic worship no doubt continued to be 

 held at Kelvedon Hall during J. F. Wright's hfe-time 

 and while his nephew and successor, E. C. Wright, 

 lived at the hall. The chapel at the hall, which was 

 dedicated to St. Joseph, became disused during the 

 occupation of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Jones, but was again 

 taken into use and was restored during the years when 

 the hall was occupied by St. Michael's School." 



In 1829 nonconformist worship was being conducted 



in a licensed house at Kelve- 



PROTESTANT don Common by the Revd. 



NONCONFORMirr D. Smith an Independent 

 minister from Brentwood.' 

 It is possible that there was some continuity between 

 this congregation and that which later in the 19th 

 century met in the building now used as the village hall. 

 Services were conducted there by a visiting minister 

 until about 1 890.^ The building is timber-framed and 

 weather-boarded and was probably built early in the 

 19th century.3 



Vestry minute-books for Kelvedon Hatch survive 

 for the periods 1736—60 and 

 PARISH GOVERN- i835-8i.t 



MENT AND Duringtheperiod 1736-60 



POOR RELIEF vestry meetings usually seem 

 to have been held only at 

 Easter in each year. In only one year^ during this 

 period was more than one meeting recorded. The 

 minutes were brief but were always signed. The Revd. 

 C. Wragg, rector of the parish from 173 1 until 1758, 

 seems never to have attended the meetings. His suc- 

 cessor, the Revd. N. GriffinhoefF (1758-60) attended 

 the only Easter vestry held during his incumbency and 

 was the first to sign the minutes. The number of 

 parishioners who attended the meetings varied between 

 3 and 6. Members of the Wright family, lords of the 

 manor of Kelvedon Hatch,* always attended and 

 usually signed first. 



The minutes rarely did more than record the ap- 



88 R.C. Parish of Brentwood, MSS. 

 Book. Inf. supplied by Revd. B. C. Foley. 



8» E.R.O., D/AEA 23, quoted in A. C. 

 Edwards, English History from Essex 

 Sources, JSSo-iy^o, 13. 



«o See Table on p. 311. ' 



»' E.R.O., Q/RRp 1/12,21. 



«= Ibid. 3/4, 4/6. 



»3 Newcourt, Repert. ii, 352. And see 

 above, Church. 



'< E.R. xxvii, 73-76. 



»5 R.C. Parish of Brentwood, MSS. 

 Book. 



'>*• As to the first chaplain, John Clarkson, 

 J. F. Wright's statement is confirmed by 

 the Register of Papists' Meeting Places : 

 E.R.O., Q/RRw 3. 



" George Errington (1804-86), Arch- 

 bishop of Trebizond in partibus (1855), 

 was co-adjutor to Cardinal Wiseman, 

 1855-62: AMS. 



98 R.C. Parish of Brentwood, MSS. 



Book. 



" Kelly's Dir. Essex (1914 f. and 1933). 

 And see Manors. 



■ E.R.O., Q/CR 3/2/14. 



» Inf. from Mr. J. P. Fitch. 



3 See also above, p. 69. 



♦ Unless otherwise stated all the follow- 

 ing information is derived from these 

 minute-books, which are kept by the 

 rector. s 1758. 



6 See above, Manor of Kelvedon Hatch. 



70 



