A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



and subsequent conveyances between the interested 

 parties Chipping Ongar was settled upon Charles 

 Henry Swinburne, Captain R.N., later Admiral.^^ By 

 this time most of the manorial rights had lapsed. The 

 manor court is said to have been held for the last time 

 in 1732.29 In 1835 one who had been resident at 

 Ongar for 23 years stated that he had never heard of 

 any quit or chief rents having been paid to the lord of 

 the manor and that the only manorial rights exercised 

 had been the lease of the fair and market tolls and the 

 appointment of the gamekeeper of the manor.^" The 

 fair and market tolls were sold in 1841 and from that 

 date if not before the manor may be said to have be- 

 come extinct.3' 



Admiral Swinburne died in 1877.32 His widow 

 Lady Jane Swinburne continued to hold the estate at 

 Ongar until her death in 1896.33 After her death it 

 was held for some years by her trustees. None of 

 Admiral Swinburne's children left issue. The last of 

 them to survive was A. C. Swinburne the poet (d. 

 1909). Ongar castle and some of the adjoining land 

 was sold by the Swinburne trustees in 191 8 to Joseph 

 Bennett.34 In 1934 Mr. D. A. J. Buxton bought the 

 castle from the executors of Mr. Bennett.35 



No part of the castle now survives except the earth- 

 works. The plan consists of a flat-topped mount with 

 encircling moat, an inner bailey, a weaker enclosure 

 to the north and east, and the town enclosure to the 

 west.3* 



The mount is ;o ft. high and is about 230 ft. in 

 diameter at the base and 70 ft. at the top. It is now 

 occupied by fragments of flint rubble and brick. The 

 mount is surrounded by a symmetrical moat 50 ft. 

 wide across the water. There is no trace of a bridge or 

 causeway across the moat.37 The bean-shaped inner 

 bailey is defended by a strong inner rampart and moat 

 and covers about 2 acres. The moat was formerly 

 linked at both ends with that of the mound, and is 

 about 80 ft. wide from crest to crest and 26 ft. deep 

 from the top of the rampart. Parts of it have been 

 destroyed during the past 20 years. 3^ The entrance 

 from the town enclosure was in the centre of the west 

 side through a gap in the rampart, on each side of which 

 is a fragment of flint rubble containing what may be 

 Roman bricks. The masonry does not appear to have 

 extended along the rampart, which was probably sur- 

 mounted by a wooden palisade. The outer enclosure 

 on the north and east was less strongly fortified and is 

 indicated by two ponds and a ditch of slight profile. 3' 



Two existing houses appear to have been, at dif- 

 ferent times, the capital mansion of the estate. The 

 White House was certainly the residence of Alexander 

 Bennet in I738,*'' and may have remained so after he 

 succeeded to the manor. In the late 19th century 

 Henry Gibson, Clerk of the Peace for Essex, lived 

 there.'*' The house is a timber-framed structure built 



originally on a half-H plan. A small staircase projection 

 in the angle between the central block and the north- 

 east wing has been enclosed by later brick additions 

 and the plan is now roughly rectangular. In one of the 

 attics is a plastered Tudor fireplace and near it there 

 was formerly a beam dated i'^<)()A^ This probably 

 represents the date at which the house was built. A 

 first-floor room at the north-west end has panelling of 

 about 1700. During the first half of the i8th century 

 a new staircase was inserted, most of the principal 

 rooms were panelled and the roof was probably rebuilt. 

 The present front wall of gault brick was added about 

 1835 and at the same time a partition wall and chimney 

 were built across the former central hall.''3 There are 

 also extensive alterations at the back of the house. 



The Castle House was described in about 1835 as 

 the mansion house of the estate.'** About 20 years 

 earlier it had been the residence of Isaac Taylor, 

 minister of the Congregational church.''^ The present 

 house appears to be the central part of a considerably 

 larger structure dating in the main from the 1 6th 

 century. It is partly timber-framed and partly of brick 

 and has three stories. Prints of about 1830*' show the 

 existing three-gabled block flanked on either side by 

 two-story wings. Behind and to the south-west is a 

 larger wing. The principal windows are shown with 

 mullions and transoms. At this period the lane passed 

 directly in front of the building. The reconstruction 

 of the house took place about 1 840 and most of the 

 plaster detail in the Tudor style was apphed at the 

 same time. The attics retain 16th-century cambered 

 tie-beams and several of the rooms have panelling of 

 this date or a little later. 



As is shown below there has been a church at 

 Chipping Ongar since about iioo if not 

 CHURCH earlier. In about 1254 the advowson 

 belonged to the lord of the manor.*' The 

 institutions of rectors have been recorded from 1363 

 and show that the advowson continued to be appurte- 

 nant to the manor.** William Bourchier presented pro 

 hac vice in 1409, the bishop by lapse in 1441, 1487, 

 and 1557 and the Crown on several occasions during a 

 minority. When the parish was temporarily united 

 with that of Greenstead in 1 548 (see below) the 

 advowson of the new combined parish was vested in 

 Richard, ist Baron Rich, but after the revocation of 

 the Act of union in 1554 the lord of the manor of 

 Chipping Ongar again became patron of the^living. 



In 1635 Maurice Barrow and his wife presented to 

 the living.*' Barrow presented in 1658 and 1664.50 

 Elizabeth Goldsborough presented in 1670, 1673, and 

 1680. 5' After this the advowson descended with the 

 manor estate until the death of Lady Swinburne. In 

 1905 the Guild of All Souls acquired the advowson. s^ 



In the account of Robert Peverel for the farm of 

 Ongar in 1 2 10 lox. was allowed 'to the mother church 



. »« I & 2 Vict. C.23; E.R.O., D/DC 

 27/736. 



»» R. I. Porter, Notes on Chipping Ongar, 

 9 n. According to this statement the rolls 

 had been burnt before 1805. 



30 Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



3* Burke'i Peerage, Swinburne. 



33 Ibid.; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1895, 

 1899). 



3* Inf. from Mr. D. A. J. Buxton. 



35 Ibid. 



3* Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 53-54. The 

 description which follows is based on this 

 account. 



^' In c. 1820 'the only access across the 

 moat was in an old beer cooler, suffered to 

 float there' : D. M. Armitage, Taylors of 

 Ongar, 57. 



3» Inf. from Mr. D. A. J. Buxton. 



3' For a description of the town enclosure 

 see above, p. 155. 



*» E.R. XXX, 184. 



♦' See above, Public Services and Social 

 Life. 



♦* The position of this has been marked 

 by a former owner of the house. 



♦3 The work is said to have been done by 

 Noble of Ongar. 



** T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 332. See 



162 



plate facing p. 157. 



*5 D. M. Armitage, Taylors of Ongar, 

 57, shows a drawing of the house in 

 1821. 



*<> E.R.O., Prints, Chipping Ongar. 



*' E.A.T. N.s. xviii, 19. 



48 Newcourt, Repert. ii, 449—51. 



*' Ibid. 451. For Barrow see above. 

 Manor. 



so Ibid.i^.^.T. N.s. vii, 57. 



" Newcourt, Repert. ii, 451. She was 

 probably the widow of Thomas Golds- 

 borough (d. 1664). 



52 Inf. from the Guild of All Souls. 



