ONGAR HUNDRED Norton mandeville 



like its modern appearance. Most of the fields mentioned 

 in the charter of about 1 260 can be identified on the 

 parish map of 1740 (see below, Manor). By the time 

 of the tithe award (1847) there were rather more, and 

 smaller, fields than in 1740, but there have been no 

 important changes since then. In 1740 there were four 

 farms in the parish of over 50 acres but only one of 

 these, Norton Hall farm (264 acres), was over 100 

 acres." 8 The size of the farms has tended to increase 

 since then. From about 1864 to 1919 all the western 

 part of the parish belonged to the Forest Hall estate, 

 and life at this end of the parish must have centred on 

 Forest Hall, a great house with a private saw-mill and 

 its own gas-works." As late as 1939 Forest Hall con- 

 tinued to offer opportunities of employment, though no 

 longer the centre of a large estate, but since 1943 it has 

 been empty. 



The parish is supplied via Ongar with water pur- 

 chased from the Herts, and Essex Waterworks Co.^" 

 Electricity was first supplied in February 1943.^' There 

 is no gas supply. Letters were formerly received from 

 Ongar, and more recently from Ongar and Ingate- 

 stone.^^ The parish has always depended mainly on 

 road transport. The nearest railway station for 

 London is at Chipping Ongar, about 3J miles from 

 Norton Heath, and for north Essex and E. Anglia at 

 Ingatestone, about 5 miles away. 



Two manors of NORTON were entered in Domes- 

 day Book. One of them had been held in 

 MANOR 1066 by a woman named 'Godid', as i 

 hide. After the Conquest she had given it 

 to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's but the gift was 

 irregular; at least the canons 'could not produce the 

 king's writ or permission' for its alienation to the 

 Domesday Commissioners.^^ There is little doubt that 

 this was the manor which later became known as 

 Foliots Hall a/ias Forest Hall in High Ongar (q-v.). 



The other manor of Norton was held in 1086 by 

 Wimund as tenant of Hamon t/apifer.^* It had been 

 held in 1066 by 'Gotil' as a manor and as i^ hide and 

 1 5 acres. It is probable that Gotil and the above Godid 

 were identical and thus that in 1066 both manors of 

 Norton were held by the same person. 



Hamon dapifer was succeeded (probably before 

 1 1 00) by his eldest son Hamon, also dapifer, and 

 Sheriff of Kent. The younger Hamon was alive in 

 1 129, but dead by Michaelmas 1 1 30. He was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother Robert Fitz Hamon, whose 

 daughter and heir married Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 

 bastard son of Henry I.^' The overlordship of Norton 

 followed the same descent and ultimately passed with 

 the earldom of Gloucester to the Clares. Gilbert de 

 Clare, Earl of Gloucester (d. 1 3 14), was lord in 1311.^* 

 The overlordship subsequently escheated to the Crown 

 as part of the honor of Gloucester. In 1524 it was 

 stated that Norton Mandeville was held of the king as 

 of the honor of Mandeville.^' No doubt the similarity 



'8 E.R.O., D/DCc Pi : Map of Norton 

 Mandeville 1740. There were 84 acres 

 in the parish belonging to Forest Hall, 

 High Ongar. The fields at Norton Heath 

 were smaller than those farther west, and 

 included some of strip shape, suggesting 

 previous open field cultivation in this part 

 of the parish. 



'» See High Ongar. 



'0 Inf. from Herts. & Essex Water- 

 works Co. 



" Inf. from Eastn. Elec. Bd. 



" Kclly'i Dir. Essex (1845 f.). 



" y.C.H. Essex, i, 442A. 



" Ibid. 5030. 



2* For Hamon dapifer and his heirs sec 

 Domesday Monachorum of Christ Church, 

 Canterbury (ed. D. C. Douglas), pp. 55— 

 58. 



2' Merton College Deed 3209. 



" DL30/73/899. 



28 Sir C. Hattons Bk. of Seals (ed. L. C. 

 Loyd and D. M. Stenton), p. 230. 



" Ibid. 



30 V.C.H. Bucks, i, 370. Another branch 

 of the Dammartins held several manors in 

 Surrey of the honor of Clare: V.C.H. 

 Surrey, iii, :5i, 191, 305, 316, 321, &c.; 



of name had caused the manor to be treated as part of 

 that honor. In fact, as shown below, the manor and 

 parish took their name from a family of tenants hold- 

 ing of the honor of Gloucester. 



By the end of the 12th century the tenancy of the 

 manor had passed to the Dammartins. In 1 1 8 1 Odo 

 de Dammartin was acting as farmer of the manor of 

 Forest Hall in High Ongar (q.v.). William de Dam- 

 martin (d. 1 195) was a tenant in Norton.^' He had 

 succeeded his brother Bartholomew, who died before 

 1 190; they were sons of Manasser de Dammartin.^' A 

 Manasser de Dammartin was benefactor to the abbey 

 of Missenden (Bucks.) with which the Clares had con- 

 nexions. ^o 



The heir of William de Dammartin was his daughter 

 Galiena. After William's death the king gave the ward- 

 ship of Galiena to William Brewer, who married her to 

 his brother John (d. i2io).3i After John Brewer's 

 death Galiena married Robert de Burgate. Robert died 

 some time after Easter 1220, and by 1228 Galiena had 

 married a third husband, Ernald de Mandeville, 

 'whose name suggests that he was a descendant of 

 Ernald de Mandeville, the disinherited son of the ist 

 Earl of Essex'.32 By her second marriage Galiena had 

 a son, Peter de Burgate, and a daughter Anastasia de 

 Burgate who married John le Merk. By her third 

 marriage she had two sons, John and Hugh de Mande- 

 ville. Ernald de Mandeville was still alive in 125 1, 

 when he and Galiena conveyed 80 acres of land in 

 Norton to William de Frith and Parnel his wife.'^ 

 Ernald probably died soon after, for in 1254 Galiena 

 conveyed the manor of Norton to her son John de 

 Mandeville, retaining a life interest in it-S* By another 

 deed of about this time John granted back the manor to 

 Galiena, receiving in return 60 acres in Norton. ss In 

 or before 1258 Galiena granted to John 76 acres of 

 land and l acre of meadow in her vill of Norton.^* 

 This last grant is of great interest because of the detailed 

 descriptions in it. Forty acres of the land granted lay 

 in Westfield, next to the land of the Rector of High 

 Ongar and that of Waleran de Monceux." There 

 were 8 acres in a field called la Mora, 15 acres in 

 another field also called Westfield lying next to the 

 land of St. Paul's, which Richard Foliot then held, 

 I acre called Old Apeltun in the same field, 10 acres 

 called Kelleveland and 3 acres in Westfield lying be- 

 tween Kelleveland and the land of Galiena which 

 extended from the land of Richard Foliot to the king's 

 highway. The acre of meadow lay next to the meadow 

 of the Rectoi of High Ongar. The grant reserved to 

 Galiena a path i perch in breadth in the north part 

 next to the fence of one John which led from the king's 

 highway called Westrete to the 'bank', for passage and 

 cartage to her field called Longemad. John was to have 

 free passage from the church of Norton by the road 

 leading to Ongar, i.e. in the field called Chirchefeld 

 near the long fence from the south. The location of 



these Clare connexions are interesting, but 

 may not be significant since the Clares 

 did not become overlords of Norton 

 Mandeville until the 13th cent. 



3' Sir C. Hatton*s Bk. of Seals, p. 279. 



3» Ibid. 



" Feet ofF. Essex, i, 187. 



3* Ibid. 199. The name of the manor ia 

 here wrongly transcribed. 



35 Merton Coll. Deed 3195. 



3» Sir C. Nation's Bk. of Seals, p. 278. 



37 Monceux was lord of the manor of 

 Ongar in High Ongar (q.v.). 



151 



