A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



after the Collinses disposed of the estates. The owners 

 of Little Laver Hall certainly did not live in the parish 

 from 1 7 14 until after the Meyers acquired the estate 

 in 1804—5.^5 Christian P. Meyer, who succeeded to 

 the estate in 1828-9, was resident by 1848 and since 

 his time the owners of this estate have always lived in 

 the parish.^* Whether the owners of Envilles did so in 

 the first three quarters of the i8th century is not clear; 

 certainly they were not resident between 1780 and 

 1897." 



In 1848 the parish consisted of 968 acres.^^ C. P. 

 Meyer owned 270 acres of which he occupied only 1 5 

 acres.2' John Maryon Wilson owned 249 acres but 

 farmed none of it himself 3o "phe only other sub- 

 stantial owner in the parish was Thomas Poynder who 

 owned, but did not occupy, Hull Green Farm (119 

 acres)." There were two other farms of over 40 acres.^^ 



Then, as now, there was mixed farming in the parish, 

 with a marked predominance of arable. In 1847 it was 

 estimated that there were 716 acres of arable, 150 acres 

 of pasture, and 23 acres of woodland.'s 



There has been a windmill on the site of the present 

 mill since the first half of the 17th century.34 From the 

 late 1 8th century until the First World War the mill 

 descended from father to son, four consecutive millers 

 being named Stephen Roast.'s The first of these, who 

 died in 1797, is said to have left money for his son to 

 build the present mill.^* This was originally a weather- 

 boarded post mill of the usual local pattern. The tall 

 brick base, about 20 ft. high, is an improvement said 

 to date from about 1 86o.37 The wooden superstructure 

 was raised on jacks and props and a second story was 

 added to the round housed* giving ertra height and 

 storage space. It thus became a combination of smock 

 and post mill and appears to be the only example known 

 of this type. The fantail was also added about i860. 

 A miller named Hart^' succeeded the last of the Roasts 

 but the mill ceased working soon after ig30.'»o It is 

 now the property of J. Brace & Sons of High Ongar 

 and is used for storage purposes by their tenant.'" The 

 Mill House, which stands west of the mill, is a timber- 

 framed building probably dating from the 17th century. 



In 1066 LITTLE LAVER was held as a manor by 

 Brictmar.'i^ In 1086 it was held of Eustace 

 MANORS Count of Boulogne by Richard and was 

 worth 10;.*" In 1190 an assize was held 

 to determine whether Eustace de Lagefare had more 

 right to hold the 'land of Lagefare' of the king than the 

 king had to hold it in demesne.''^ In 1200 Ralph de 

 Rochester brought a suit against Eustace de Lagefare, 

 the tenant, for possession of the land.'ts Afterwards they 

 came to an agreement whereby Eustace de Lagefare 

 acknowledged 'all the town of Lagefare' to be the right 



of Ralph de Rochester who granted to Eustace the 

 services of 8 tenants and 27 acres of land to hold of him 

 by the service of J knight's fee."** In I2i2and 1217-18 

 Ralph de Rochester held Little Laver in chief of the 

 king by the service of \ fee and Richard de Rochester 

 and his brother Eustace held the manor of Ralph."" It 

 was probably from this division of the manor between 

 Eustace and Richard that there came to be two manors 

 in Little Laver: Little Laver aliai Bourchiers Hall and 

 Enfields alias Envilles (see below). It seems, however, 

 that until 1325, if not later, the estates held by the 

 successors of Eustace and Richard were considered not 

 as separate manors but as parts of one manor.'** In 

 1307 this manor was held of Robert, 2nd Lord Scales, 

 whose great-grandfather Robert de Scales (d. before 

 1250), had probably inherited it through his wife 

 Alice de Rochester.'" Robert, 2nd Lord Scales, died 

 in 1325 and was succeeded by his son Robert, 3rd Lord 

 Scales.so After this Envilles and Bourchiers estates 

 came to be regarded as separate manors but they prob- 

 ably continued under a common overlord. Certainly in 

 1428 the tenant in chief of both manors was Humphrey 

 Stafford, later Duke of Buckingham (d. 1460). 5' 



In 1303 Bennet le Brun held \ fee in Little Laver.^^ 

 Shortly afterwards the Bourchier family came into 

 possession of this estate. In 1325 John le Bousser and 

 others were tenants of the manor of Little Laver which 

 was held by the service of i fee. 53 Soon afterwards 

 Bousser's estate became a separate manor known as 

 LITTLE LAVER HALL alias BOURCHIERS 

 HALL. In 1 3 30 Robert, afterwards ist Lord Bourchier, 

 was granted free warren in his demesne lands in 

 Laver. 54 In 1346 John Bourchier, son of Robert, held 

 the J fee which Bennet Broun once held.^s In 1384 

 John, now 2nd Lord Bourchier, was granted free 

 warren in the demesne lands of his manor of Little 

 Laver. 56 This manor now followed the same descent 

 as that of Bourchiers Hall in Moreton (q.v.) until 1 5 59 

 when Richard, ist Baron Rich, conveyed it to John 

 Collins.57 Thomas Collins was lord of the manor in 

 1584.58 The estate remained in the Collins family*' 

 until it was sold to Matthew Blucke of Hunsdon 

 (Herts.) who died about 1713.*" From 1563 to 1660 

 or later the Collinses also held Envilles (see below). 

 For some years Blucke had held the office of usher of 

 the rolls of the Court of Chancery and after his death 

 it had been decreed by the court that his private estate 

 should be sold to meet debts arising from his term of 

 office.*' Accordingly in 1714 Little Laver manor was 

 sold for j{^2,ioo to Samuel, ist Baron Masham.*^ At 

 that time the estate contained 300 acres and was in the 

 occupation of Thomas Halden.*' In 1736 Lord 

 Masham settled the manor on his son Samuel at the 



25 See below. Manor of Little Laver 

 Hall; E.R.O., Q/RPl 685 f. 



26 See below, Manor of Little Laver 

 Hall; E.R.O., D/CT 210; Kelly's Dir. 

 Essex, 1859 f. 



" See below. Manor of Envilles ; E.R.O., 

 Q/RPl 685-737; ibid. D/CT 210. 



28 E.R.O., D/CT 210. 



" Ibid. 30 Ibid. 



3' Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid. 



3« E.R.O., Q/SR 281/9; D- Smith, 

 English PVindmills, ii, 4.9. 



35 D. Smith, English Windmills, ii, 49. 



3' Ibid. 



3' E.R. xl, 163. 



3* D. Smith, English ffindmiUs, ii, 49. 



3» Kelly's Dir. Essex (1926). 



« E.R. xl, 163. 



4^ Inf. from present tenant. 



12 r.C.H. Essex, i, 467A. 



'*3 Ibid. See note under High Laver 

 about the difficulty, emphasized by J. H. 

 Round, of distinguishing between High 

 Laver and Little Laver in Domesday. 



'" Pipe R. 1 1 90 (P.R.S. N.s. i), III. 



45 Rot. Cur. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 219. 



46 Feet of F. Essex, i, 22. 

 " Bk. of Fees, i, 121, 240. 

 48 Cal. Inq.p.m. vi, p. 372. 



4'' Feud. Aids, ii, 439; W. Farrer, Uons. 

 and Knights' Fees, iii, 269-70; Complete 

 Peerage, xi, 499—501. The exact relation- 

 ship of Alice to Ralph de Rochester is un- 

 certain but she may have been his grand- 

 daughter. Cf. Morant, Essex, i, 143. 



5» Cal. Inq.p.m. vi, p. 372. 



98 



S' Feud. Aids, ii, 222. 



52 Feud. Aids, ii, 136. 



53 Cal. Inq. p.m. vi, p. 372. 



54 Cal. Chart. R. 1327-41, 191. 



55 Feud. Aids, ii, 160. 



5' Cal. Chart. R. 1341-1417, 296. 



5' CP25(2)/l26/l6o6. 



58 E.R.O., D/DK. M29. 



s« In the records the family name is 

 sometimes spelt Collins, sometimes Collin, 

 and occasionally CoUen. 



60 E.R.O., D/DEw Ti ; Morant, Essex, 

 i, 143. 



61 E.R.O., D/DEwTi. <'^ Ibid. 

 *3 Ibid. The estate was reported to have 



been previously in the tenure or occupa- 

 tion of Richard Collins and William 

 Collins 'or either of them or their assigns'. 



