A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Eustace Chipping Ongar passed as part of the honor of 

 Boulogne to his daughter Maud and her husband King 

 Stephen. 5* Between December 1153 and October 

 1 1 54 the manor was granted by William, son of Maud 

 and Stephen, to Richard de Lucy, later the justiciar 

 of Henry II. Ongar castle became the caput of 

 Richard's honor of Ongar. Henry II visited the castle 

 in the spring of 11 57 and was sought out there by 

 Richard's brother Walter de Lucy, Abbot of Battle. ss 

 In 1 1 58 Richard de Anesti went to Ongar castle to 

 deliver a writ to Richard de Lucy.s^ Between 1 1 5 5 

 and 1 1 59 the king granted de Lucy 100 acres of assarts 

 'in the forest from Stanford, and Greenstead and 

 Ongar'.57 



Richard de Lucy retired to the cloister in 1 179, and 

 died in the same year. His son and heir Geoffrey had 

 predeceased him and he was succeeded by Geoffrey's 

 elder son Richard. ss Richard the younger was dead 

 before Michaelmas 1 182, and was succeeded by his 

 brother Herbert. s" In 1 1 85 it was stated that Herbert 

 and his lands were in the custody of his uncle Godfrey 

 de Lucy (the future Bishop of Winchester). *° Godfrey 

 was then said to have had custody for four years." 

 Herbert de Lucy was dead by 1 1 89, when Godfrey 

 was holding the ^^5 that had previously been his in the 

 hundred of Ongar.*^ 



The heirs of Herbert de Lucy were his sisters. The 

 Bishop of Winchester, however, continued to hold the 

 honor of Ongar until 1194, when it was given to 

 Geoffrey de Lascelles, the husband of Maud, daughter 

 of Herbert de Lucy's sister Maud.*^ In the same year 

 Rose of Dover, another sister, promised the king ^700 

 for permission to marry and for half of the inheritance 

 of her brother and grandfather.^ Geoffrey de Lascelles 

 seems to have retained Ongar until 1 204, when it was 

 granted to Geoffrey FitzPeter, the justiciar.^s FitzPeter 

 farmed Ongar at £9it, a year until Christmas 1209, 

 when Robert Peverel became keeper.** In January 

 1 2 14 he was credited with the amount he had spent 

 on wine for use at the king's household at Ongar on 

 the Thursday after Christmas.*' 



In 1 2 14 Maud de Lucy, widow of Geoffrey de 

 Lascelles, was married to Richard de Rivers, a veteran 

 servant of the king.** In 121 5 Richard was granted 

 permission to make two deer leaps in his great park of 

 Ongar 'as he had right and custom to do'.*' In 1217- 

 18 Richard was holding Ongar with Maud de Lucy 

 of the honor of Boulogne.'" This was a correct state- 

 ment of the overlordship. The honor of Ongar built 

 up by Richard de Lucy comprised fees held of the 



honors of Boulogne, Gloucester, and Mortain. Some 

 of the Gloucester fees lay in Essex, and one of them, 

 Greenstead (q.v.) was near Ongar." This was probably 

 the reason for later incorrect statements that the manor 

 of Chipping Ongar was held of the honor of 

 Gloucester.'^ 



Richard de Rivers died in 122 1-2. In March 1222 

 Richard his son and heir by Maud de Lucy was 

 granted permission to hold a fair at Ongar until he 

 came of age.'s Maud de Lucy herself survived until 

 about 1243. Her heir was her grandson John, son of 

 Richard, who was aged 4 in September 1243 {p^ 

 1244).'* Custody of Maud's lands was granted to 

 Philip Basset.'s 



John de Rivers died in 1294 and was succeeded by 

 his younger son John.'* The younger John was sum- 

 moned to Parliament as a peer and is thus held to have 

 become Lord Rivers (of Ongar)." As John de Rivers, 

 lord of Ongar, he was one of the barons who sent a 

 letter to the pope in February 1 301, but his seal is not 

 appended to the letter.'* In 1302 he had licence to 

 let the manor of Chipping Ongar to farm for five years 

 to John de Sandale, a royal clerk, the castle and knights' 

 fees being excluded." In 1321 or 1322 John de 

 Rivers claimed the reversion of the manor and castle of 

 Ongar which he had leased for their lives to Gilbert de 

 Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and Maud his wife.*" The 

 date of this conveyance is not known. Presumably it 

 was between 1302 and the death of the Earl of 

 Gloucester in 1314. Ongar was one of the places in 

 which the earl had fees in that year, and which were 

 being held in dower by his widow, who died in 1 320.*' 



John de Rivers appears to have been in the rebellion 

 of 1322. He probably died in that year, but whether 

 he held Ongar at his death is not clear. *2 Nor is it 

 clear whether he was the host when Edward II visited 

 Ongar castle in November I32i.*3 Hugh de Audley, 

 Earl of Gloucester (d. 1347) died in possession of the 

 manor of Chipping Ongar, of the inheritance of 

 Margaret of Clare his wife.** Margaret had died in 

 1342.*^ Their daughter and heir Margaret was the 

 wife of Ralph Stafford, Baron Stafford, and later Earl 

 of Stafford.** In 1348 the king granted a licence for 

 the manor of Ongar to be entailed upon Ralph and 

 Margaret and their heirs.*' This settlement was 

 carried out in 1 35 1.** Ralph died in 1372 and was 

 succeeded by his son Hugh.*' Hugh died in 1386, 

 leaving Chipping Ongar to his son Thomas.'" 



From this time Chipping Ongar descended with the 

 other possessions of the earls of Stafford, who later be- 



5< E.A.T. N.s. vii, 142-52. 



*5 Ibid. 144. The grant was confirmed 

 by Henry II in 1155-9: ibid. 145-6. 



5* Ibid. 147. This was in connexion 

 with the Anesti lawsuit. 



57 'Notes on the pedigree of Lucy of 

 Ongar', E./i.T. n.s. xx, 102-6. 



5* Ibid.; Pipe R. 1180 (Pipe R. Soc. 

 xxix), 2. 



s» Pipe R.ii%z (Pipe R. Soc. xxxi), 98. 



*" E.A.T. N.s. vii, 151. Herbert was 14 

 years old in 1185. " Ibid. 



«» Pipe R. 1 1 89 (Rec. Com.), 20. 



" Pipe R. 1 195 (Pipe R. Soc. n.s. vi), 

 217; E.A.T. N.s. XX, 102-6. 



'■• Pipe R. 1 194 (Pipe R. Soc. N.s. v), 

 250. It is doubtful whether she got pos- 

 session of any of the lands at this time. 

 See S. Painter, The Reign of King John, yc,. 



'5 Pipe R. 1204 (Pipe R. Soc. N.s. 

 xviii), 24. Geoffrey de Lascelles had been 

 overieai in the king's service in 1203: 



Complete Peerage., xi, 1 2. He was possibly 

 killed in the war. 



" Pipe R. 1 2 10 (Pipe R. Soc. n.s. xxvi), 

 206. 



6' Rot. Litt. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 1 59. 

 This was clearly for the entertainment of 

 the king himself, for John was at Ongar 

 on 30 and 31 Dec. 121 3. 



'8 Complete Peerage, xi, 12. Richard 

 gave j^500 for the marriage. 



'» Rot. Lilt. Claus. i, 221A. 



"> Bk. of Fees, 241, 1433. The honor of 

 Boulogne was now a royal escheat. 



" E.A.T. U.S. vii, 148-9. 



" See e.g. Cal. In^. p.m. i, p. 6; ibid, iv, 

 p. 345. About 1300 the manorof Chipping 

 Ongar was granted by John de Rivers to 

 the Earl of Gloucester (see below), but this 

 did not affect the overlordship. 



" Rot. Litt. Claus. i, 490*. 



'< Complete Peerage, xi, 12-13. 



'S Ibid. 



160 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. iii, p. 109; Ci 33/67 j 

 Complete Peerage, xi, 13-14. 



" Complete Peerage, xi, 14. 



" The Ancestor, vii, 256. 



" Cal. Pat. 1301-7,76. 



8° Complete Peerage, xi, 14. 



8' Cal. Inq. p.m. v, p. 349. 



8* Complete Peerage, xi, 14; Cal. Fine R. 



1 3 '9-^7. 54> H3-4- 



83 Chrons. Edw. I and II (Rolls Ser.), i, 

 300. John de Rivers had a son and name- 

 sake who was apparently killed at Bannock- 

 burn : ibid. 231. There was some con- 

 fusion in the period 1300-22 between the 

 lands of father and son. 



8* Cal. Inq. p.m. ix, p. 56. 



85 Complete Peerage, v, 719. 



86 Complete Peerage (orig. edn.), vii, 209. 

 8' Cal. Pat. 1348-50, 19. 



88 CP25(i)/287/44, Trin. 25 Edw. IIL 



8' Complete Peerage (orig. edn.), vii, 210; 



Ci35/File230. »» Ci36/File 47. 



