A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



meetings, but there is no evidence that this decision was 

 acted on. Attendance varied from 5 to over 20, being 

 krgest at Easter. Up to 1742 William Stane of Forest 

 Hall appears to have acted as chairman of the vestry 

 when he was present. When he was absent the rector 

 was chairman, and after 1742 it was the rector who 

 usually presided. 58 Other prominent vestrymen were 

 Wilham Baker of Withers Pawne and his son Bramston 

 Baker, and William Wright, who was tenant of Paslow 

 Hall early in the i8th century. 



In 1734 the vestry arranged that a house should be 

 built on waste ground belonging to the manor of 

 Withers Pawne for the use of James Paveley, the parish 

 clerk. Later in the same year Paveley was ordered to 

 sell off the beer he had brewed in his house and he was 

 forbidden to brew any more. In 1736 he was granted 

 a salary of 40J. a year, to be paid quarterly, evidently 

 in place of a gratuity at Easter. Robert Miller was 

 appointed clerk in 1775 at an annual salary oi £z 2S. 



For much of the period the Easter vestry was held 

 in two sessions. At the first the overseers' rate was 

 granted and usually also those of the churchwardens 

 and constables. At the second and more important 

 session, which actually took place in Easter week, the 

 accounts of the above officials were examined. At the 

 Christmas vestry, on 26 or 27 December, the accounts 

 of the parish surveyors of highways were examined and 

 their rates granted. Throughout the period a penny 

 rate produced a little over £"]. 



The great size of the parish and its detached parts 

 raised unusual administrative problems. During the 

 first 20 years of the 1 8th century there was another 

 problem also: the overlapping of the powers of the 

 vestry with those of the manor court of Paslow, which 

 has been described above. Constables' accounts are 

 entered in the vestry book from 1703 onwards, and in 

 1707 Thomas Bridgman was elected constable in the 

 vestry. William Mead and Samuel Barnard, who were 

 both elected constables in the manor court in 1711, 

 rendered their accounts as parish constables at subse- 

 quent vestries. The constables appointed for the manor 

 in 17 19 and 1721 also accounted to the vestry. In 

 17 19 Samuel Barnard acknowledged the receipt of 

 1 2/. id. from William Wood in respect of charges at 

 the court at Paslow. Wood was apparently settling 

 accounts on succeeding Barnard as a constable, and the 

 entry seems to imply some financial relationship be- 

 tween manor court and vestry. After 172 1 two 

 constables continued to account to the vestry and no 

 doubt were always nominated there. During the later 

 part of this period the nominations were sometimes 

 entered in the vestry book, and were confirmed in the 

 usual way by the J.P.s. By about 1750 there was only 

 one constable." John Bettis held the office for many 

 years between I750and 177 5. The constable's expenses 

 were about ^^8 a year at the beginning of the period 

 and about ^^20 at the end. 



Up to about 1720 there were usually two parish 

 surveyors of highways. From 1725, if not earlier, 

 there were at least three. Each surveyor had responsi- 

 bility for part of the parish. One usually looked after 

 Marden Ash and 'Bobbingworth hamlet', a second 'the 

 body of the parish', and the third 'Paslow Hall manor'. 



5* Robt. Salmon was rector 1701-33. 

 He was succeeded by Jos. Henshaw. It 

 has been assumed that the person signing 

 the minutes first was chairman. 



59 A single name was usually put before 

 the J.P.'s but sometimes they made their 



In 1737-9 an additional surveyor was appointed with 

 separate responsibihty for Bobbingworth hamlet. In 

 1740 and later the parish was usually divided into 

 three areas as before but two surveyors were sometimes 

 appointed for each area. In and after 1758 there was 

 a variation in the areas. One surveyor looked after 

 Marden Ash, the second Paslow and Bobbingworth 

 hamlet, and the third the body of the parish. Up to 

 1735 th^ surveyors' rate was usually about iji/. For 

 the rest of the period it was usually about 3</. In 1741 

 it was 5 Ji/. No reason has been found for this unusually 

 high rate. In 1732 the vestry ordered the overseers 

 [sic] of highways to charge their accounts with an 

 allowance of 2d. a day for the labourers' beer, but with 

 no other charges for beer provided for servants. 



The parish overseers of the poor, hke the surveyors, 

 often accounted individually to the vestry. It is some- 

 times stated that one overseer was responsible for 

 Paslow Hall manor and the other for the body of the 

 parish. At the beginning of the i8th century the cost 

 of poor relief in the parish was about £^0. It rose to 

 over ^^130 in 17 16 but rarely exceeded that figure up 

 to 1750. In 1760 it was £'i()0, in 1774 Cii'i' ^'^'^ 'fi 

 1783-5 it averaged ^£470.*" By 1 801 the total rate had 

 risen to ^^1,989.*' It fell between 1805 and 1812 to 

 an average of about ^^1,300 but rose to a new peak of 

 ;^2,054 in 1817.^2 In 1821 it was ;{^!,67o.*3 



There is no evidence of a parish poorhouse before 

 1775. In October of that year the vestry paid £20 

 towards the purchase of a house called Scarlets from 

 William Coe of Stondon Massey. This was the first 

 instalment of a purchase price of ,£220. In the entries 

 for 1776 (the last in the vestry book) there are references 

 to the parish house. Scarlets adjoined the Tabor alms- 

 houses to the west. The almshouses themselves had 

 since their foundation been administered by the rector, 

 churchwardens, and overseers; the accounts of the 

 almshouses were entered in the vestry book and the 

 almsmen were partly supported out of the poor rates.** 

 There is hardly any evidence about the number of 

 persons supported out of the poor rates. In September 

 1752 there were 20 receiving a total of ;^i 9^. 31/. a 

 week. The highest individual payment was 3/., and 

 the lowest 9</. In September 1757 the vestry ordered 

 the provision of 'a pair of shoes and hat for the black 

 boy'. 



In 1836 High Ongar became part of Ongar Poor 

 Law Union. 



William Pawne (d. 1578) directed in his will that 



the residue of his estate should be used to 



SCHOOLS establish and maintain a school in his 



manor of Chivers Hall (see above) .*s 



There is no sign that such a school was in fact founded. 



By the terms of Dr. Walker's Charity (founded 

 1687) a child from High Ongar might be sent to the 

 charity school at Fyfield (q.v.). How long the right 

 was exercised is not clear. It had been commuted by 

 1834 for a small cash payment and later lapsed al- 

 together (see below, Charities). 



About 1799 the rector's wife and two other ladies 

 established a girls' school at High Ongar, and by 1 807 

 some 20 girls were learning to read and sew.** This 

 experiment was probably the origin of the National 



in the hundred. In 1816, 1820, and 1821 

 it was second only to Chigwell, which had 

 a larger population. 

 ^* See below, Charities. 



65 C142/181/55. 



" E.R.O., D/AEM 2/4.. 



choice from two. 



'" For the last figure see E.R.O., Q/CR 

 I/.. 



" E.R.O., e/CR 1/9. " Ibid. 



(■' Ibid. e/CR 1/12. In 1817, i8i8,and 

 18 19 the High Ongar rate was the largest 



186 



