ONGAR HUNDRED norton mandeville 



vicinitatem chriuianitatis rendered to the church of 

 Fyfield i sack of corn and i sack of oats.*< Norton 

 must, however, have had its own church within nine 

 years of that date, for Bartholomew de Dammartin 

 (d. before 1 1 90) and Galiena his mother granted the 

 church to the priory of St. Leonard, Stratford-atte- 

 Bow.*s The rectory was appropriated by the nuns of 

 Stratford, who retained it until the Dissolution. No 

 vicarage was ordained, probably because the living was 

 so small. In about 1254 the value was only 6 marks.** 

 The parish is not mentioned in the Taxatio of 1291. 

 In 1428 the taxable value was said to be 8 marks de 

 novofi'' 



In 1 539 the rectory and advowson were granted by 

 the king to William Rolte, one of his serjeants-at- 

 arms.** The benefice remained a donative. The 

 impropriator took all tithes and the incumbent was 

 usually styled a curate, not a vicar. In 1541 rectory 

 and advowson were granted by the king to Sir Ralph 

 Sadler, one of his chief secretaries.*' In 1 543 Sadler 

 conveyed them to William Pawne (d. 1570) lord of 

 Chivers Hall in High Ongar (q.v.).'" They descended 

 with Chivers Hall until 1578, when Bridget and 

 William Chatterton conveyed them to Edward Elliott 

 in accordance with the will of William Pawne." Elliott 

 died in 1595 leaving as his heir his son Thomas, later 

 knighted.'^ In 1627 Sir Thomas conveyed rectory 

 and advowson to Edward Ditchfield senior, Thomas 

 Ditchfield, and Edward Ditchfield junior.'^ In 1656 

 they were conveyed by John Ditchfield and Elizabeth 

 his wife to Anthony Nicholas.'^ 



Anthony Nicholas was impropriator in i683.'5 In 

 1685 he settled the rectory and advowson upon his son 

 John (d. 1714).'* John was succeeded by his son 

 Anthony, who died in 1727, leaving his property to his 

 brother William Nicholas. In the following year 

 William sold the rectory and advowson to William 

 Binkes of North Weald for ^ i ,7 1 2 . Binkes immediately 

 mortgaged them to Nicholas for £1,000. In 1736 the 

 mortgage was purchased from Nicholas by Elizabeth 

 Bay ley, widow. In 1739 rectory and advowson were 

 bought by William Elderton, apothecary of London, 

 who paid £1,625 ^'^ Binkes and ^^1,291 to Mrs. 

 Bayley." A map of the parish drawn for Elderton in 

 1740 by Thomas Skinner still survives.^* Elderton 

 died in 1755, leaving WiUiam his son and heir. In 

 1 76 1 William Elderton mortgaged the property for 

 j(^6oo, and in 1763 he sold it to John Searle, who paid 

 ;^2,6oo for the freehold and £600 to redeem the 

 mortgage. Searle or his father had been tenant of the 

 glebe in I740.''9 He made his will in 1764, on the eve 

 of his departure to China as a supercargo in the service 

 of the East India Co.*" He died after 1772, leaving an 

 only daughter and heir Mary Anne, wife of James 

 Flint of Ospring, Kent. In 1800 Mrs. Flint sold the 

 rectory and advowson to Capel Cure of Blake Hall in 

 Bobbingworth (q.v.).*' They remained in the Capel 

 Cure family and had the same descent as Blake Hall 



until 1923, when the titular vicarage of Norton 

 Mandeville was merged with the vicarage of Black- 

 more.*^ The patronage of the joint vicarage has sub- 

 sequently been vested in the Bishop of Chelmsford.*^ 



Owing to impropriation the curate's income from 

 the benefice continued to be very small after the Dis- 

 solution. In 1769 the curate received only £6 a year, 

 and held services once a month for a congregation of 6 

 or 7 whose lives were said to be endangered by the 

 damp of the church.** By 18 10 the income was ^£58, 

 of which £6 came from the impropriator, £ii from a 

 cottage and 9 acres of land at Radley Green (in 

 Roxwell), £10 from a house and 27 acres of land near 

 Rochford and £\ interest from a £200 endowment 

 from Queen Anne's Bounty. In 1 8 10 the curate raised 

 the rent of the cottage to £24 and that of the house to 

 £60, thus bringing the total income to £()i\:^^ In 

 1847 the tithes of the parish were commuted for £l<)^, 

 of which ;^lo were payable to John Caton, and £1 to 

 John Mullocks. The remaining £i9i^ was payable to 

 Capel Cure, who also owned the 23 acres of 

 glebe.** 



In 16 10 there was a parsonage house at Norton 

 Mandeville, with barn, stable 'and other necessary 

 houses pertaining thereto'. The house was probably 

 on the site of the later Parsonage Farm, \ mile east of 

 the church. By 1740, if not earlier, this had ceased to 

 be occupied by the curate and in 1848 there was said 

 to be no parsonage house.*' The non-residence of the 

 curates was no doubt caused in the first place by the 

 poverty of the living, which made it necessary for them 

 to hold another benefice in addition to that of Norton 

 Mandeville. In the 19th century the curate sometimes 

 held this living alone and in this case evidently had to 

 find his own accommodation.** 



The parish church oi ALL SAINTS is a very small 

 building consisting of nave, chancel, and south porch 

 with a small bell-cote at the west end of the nave. The 

 walls are of flint rubble dating mostly from the first 

 half of the 14th century, but mixed with this are blocks 

 of freestone from a 12th-century church. Buttresses 

 have been built externally at various dates. The south 

 porch dates from 1903. 



As noted above there is reason to suppose that the 

 original parish church of Norton Mandeville was built 

 between 1 1 8 1 and 1 1 90. It is probable that this stood 

 on the same site as the present church. The worked 

 stone, visible in the external walls of the church, has 

 late- 12th-century detail, including nail-head orna- 

 ment. The font bowl, set on a later base, is of Barnack 

 stone, square, with angle shafts, and is of the 12th 

 century. Part of a pillar piscina in the nave with spiral 

 fluting to the shaft is of the same period. The pointed 

 inner arch of the south door may be of the 1 3th century, 

 later reset. The north doorway has a semicircular 

 arch but it has been much restored and the date is 

 obscure. 



During the first half of the 14th century the church 



«■• Dom. of St. Paul's (Camden Soc. 

 1858), 150. 



" Cal. Chart. 1341-1417, 194. 



6' Lunt, fa}, of Norviich, 336; cf. 

 E.A.T. N.s. xviii, 19. 



" Feud. Aids, ii, 205. 



«« L. & P. Hen. yni, xiv (i), p. 161. 



«» Ibid, xvi, p. 383. 



'» Ibid, xviii (l), p. 199. 



" CP25(2)/i20 Mich. 20-21 Eliz.; 

 ibid. Hil. 21 Eliz.; C142/181/55. 



" C142/246/105. Sir Thos. Elliott was 



for a short time lord of the manor of 

 Stanford Rivers (q.v.). 



7J CP25(2)/526 East. 3 Chas. I. 



'« E.R.O., D/DCc T48. 



'5 E.A.T. N.s. xix, 268. 



^<> E.R.O., D/DCc T48. Much of what 

 follows is from this source. 



" Ibid. 



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

 Mandeville 1740. 



" Ibid. 



8" E.R.O., D/DCc T48. 



^S2 



81 Ibid. 



8^ Chel. Dioc. Tear Bk. 1923, 1924. 



83 Ibid. 



8< Description of Eng. and fVales ( 1 769), 

 p. 26. 



85 E.R.O., D/DCc E6. 



8* Tithe Redemp. Comm. Recs. Norton 

 Mandeville Tithe Award and Map. 



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

 Mand. 1740; ffhite's Dir. Essex (1848). 



88 Thus in 1 874 the Revd. F. A. S. Fane 

 was living at Priors, Kelvedon Hatch. 



