ONGAR HUNDRED 



CHIPPING ONGAR 



of Ongar in annual rent for the cemetery'. 53 In 1254 

 the rectory was valued at 4 marks. S'* Chipping Ongar 

 was not included in the list of churches of Ongar 

 deanery in the Taxatio of 129 1, presumably because 

 the rectory was worth less than 6 marks. 55 It was not 

 even included in the list of smaller livings of the arch- 

 deaconries of Essex and Colchester. 5* John de Welde 

 of Ongar, by his will proved in 1337, directed that his 

 body should be buried in the church of St. Martin, 

 Ongar. He bequeathed ^5 to cover the expenses of 

 his funeral, at which a brown 'turthel' cow with its 

 calf was to be led before the body as a mortuary, and 

 he also left a cow and 3 lb. of wax to maintain a candle 

 burning daily at Mass in the church before the altar of 

 St. Mary and St. Margaret. 5' In 1340 the taxable 

 value of the living was stated to be £\o, but this can 

 hardly have been correct. 58 In 1428 it was reported 

 that the church was assessed for subsidy on a tax de 

 novo of 48^.59 The taxable value was thus rather less 

 than it had been in 1254. 



In 1535 the rectory was valued at C^.'"' In 1548 

 it was united by Act of Parliament with that of Green- 

 stead (q.v.) but the union was ended in 1554 by 

 another Act which asserted that the Statute of 1 548 

 had been brought about by the 'sinister labour and pro- 

 curement of William Morris'.*' According to the Act 

 of Union the church of Ongar was 'dissolved' and that 

 of Greenstead became the parish church of the joint 

 parish. The site of the church and the churchyard of 

 Ongar became the property of William Morris, pre- 

 viously the patron of Ongar.*^ This last provision was 

 no doubt responsible for the charge against Morris. 

 It is indeed difficult to believe that any worthy motives 

 lay behind the Act of 1 548 : had it not been revoked the 

 inhabitants of Ongar would have been deprived of 

 their own church and compelled to journey a mile or 

 more to the tiny church at Greenstead. The Act of 

 1 5 54 was opposed by some of the inhabitants of Ongar, 

 evidently those with a vested interest in the site of the 

 church and churchyard. In that year the Privy Council 

 ordered Sir Henry Tirell, Anthony Browne, and 

 William Barneys 'to call before them the inhabitants 

 of Ongar and the widow of William Morris and 

 examining the parties that without authority of their 

 own heads attempted lately to pluck down the church 

 walls there, to set such order among them for their 

 good quiet and stay of their friends doing therein'.'^ 



During the Protectorate the minister of Chipping 

 Ongar received an augmentation of income from the 

 Trustees for the Maintenance of Ministers.** The 

 church formed part of the Sixth Presbyterian Classis, 

 called the Ongar Classis, formed in 1648.^5 In 1661 

 the rectory was valued at ^^40. Previous estimates in 

 the 17th century had been ^18 in 1604 and £50 in 

 1650.** 



In 1723 the living was augmented by the addition 

 of the present rectory house, with about 5 acres of 

 glebe adjoining. This was bought for ^£409, of which 



" Pipe R. 1210 (Pipe R. Soc. n.s. xxvi), 

 206. s« Lunt, yal. of Nortvich, 336. 



" Cf. Rose Graham, Eccl. Studies, 298. 



" Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 23. 



5' Cat. And. D. i, A. 4.66. 



5» Inq. Non. (Rec. Com.), 316. 



5' Feud. Aids, ii, 205. 



<"' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 437. 



*" I Mary c. 10 was the repealing Act. 

 The Act of 1 548 has no number. Cf. E.R, 

 iv, 241 ;Z,.y. i, 336*, 455a, 456A. 



" Newcourt, ;?f;>er/. ii, 288. 



" Acts cfP.C. 1554-6, 34. 



'■t E.R. XXX, 173-Si H. Smith, Eccl. 

 Hist. Essex, 202, 213. 



<" Davids, E-vang. Nonconf. in Essex, 277. 



" f'.y^.T. N.s. xxi, 78, 83. 



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

 12. 



'8 Ibid. 



'» Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 55. 



'» Ibid. 



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

 12. 



'2 Ibid. 13. " Ibid. 14. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 262; R. I. Porter, 



j^i09 was contributed by the Revd. Jacob Houblon, 

 Rector of Bobbingworth, £100 by Edward Colston, 

 and ;{^200 by Queen Anne's Bounty .*' Before its pur- 

 chase the rectory house had been the home of William 

 Atwood and had been named 'Lovings'.*' The north 

 wing (now the kitchen, scullery, and pantry) had been 

 built in the 1 7th century.*' The main wing was added 

 early in the 1 8th century.'" It is a lath and plaster build- 

 ing of two stories with attics. The facade is symmetri- 

 cal. The front door has pilasters and a pediment and 

 there are two windows each side of it. The former 

 rectory house had stood near the church on the north 

 side." In 1784, by a faculty dated 2 August, the 

 rector was empowered to take down the old house, 

 with the stable adjoining it, which had for many years 

 been let as two 'poor ruinous cottages' at 50/. a year." 

 A terrier of 18 10 describes the land upon which the 

 house had stood. It was 105 ft. long and measured 

 35 ft. across at the western end, 25 ft. at the eastern 

 end and 1 2 ft. in the centre. There was another piece 

 of glebe at the east side of the church, running down 

 to the pond." By 1841 both these pieces of land had 

 become part of the estate of Brook Hurlock, owner of 

 the White House.'* The Revd. R. I. Porter, who 

 wrote his Notes on Chipping Ongar in 1877, could find 

 no record of a quid pro juo.''^ The tithes of the parish 

 were commuted in 1841 for ^^146.'* 



Richard Vaughan (1550 .'-1607) successively Bishop 

 of Bangor, Chester, and London, was Rector of Chip- 

 ping Ongar 1578-80." John Lorkin, appointed 

 minister of Chipping Ongar in 1659 or 1660, was 

 ejected in 1662.'* George Alsop, rector from 1670 to 

 1673, seems to have been vigorously orthodox, for in 

 1670 he was appointed by the bishop to read divine 

 service at the Quaker meeting house in Gracechurch 

 Street, London." 



The parish church of ST. MARTIN consists of a 

 nave, chancel, south aisle, north vestry, and west porch, 

 with a western bell-turret surmounted by a shingled 

 spire, and a gallery at the west end of the nave. 8° The 

 chancel and nave were built at the end of the nth 

 century. The walls are of coursed flint-rubble with 

 the quoins and jambs of the north doorway of bricks, 

 possibly Roman, and some courses of tiles in the walls. 

 In the chancel there are two original round-headed 

 windows, .one at the east end of the north wall, the 

 other opposite to it on the south wall. Between the 

 windows on the north wall is a round-headed recess 

 pierced by a small opening or hatch with external 

 hinges and bolt-socket, perhaps originally an anchorite's 

 cell. Flanking the present window in the east wall of 

 the chancel are traces of four single light lancet windows 

 showing that there was an original arrangement of six 

 windows in two tiers under a higher gable. The original 

 doorway on the south of the chancel is now blocked. 

 On the north wall of the nave there is one original 

 round-headed window; another, to the west of the 

 present west window of this wall is now blocked; there 



op. cit. 14. 



'5 Op. cit. 14. It is possible that thi» 

 part of the glebe was that which the parish 

 vestry agreed in 1795 to accept in exchange 

 for another piece previously occupied by 

 the poorhouse (see Parish Government 

 and Poor Relief). 



" E.R.O.,D/CT262iPorter,op.cit. 14. 



" D.N.B. 



'8 E.A.T.-N.s. xxi, 78, 83. 



'9 CaL.S.P. Dom. 1670, 314. He was 

 violently opposed and had to escape. 



'" Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 52. 



163 



