A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



ever, suggests that brickmaking was once carried on in 

 that part of the parish, as it was in many places in Ongar 

 hundred, and Defoe's reference to malt recalls another 

 ancient industry of this locality. 



The absence of resident landowners in the i8th and 

 19th centuries left local affairs in the hands of the 

 tenant farmers, and these were sometimes indifferent 

 to the needs of the community-^'' The existence of 

 many nonconformists may also have hampered united 

 action in parish government and education. The pro- 

 vision of the village school and the restoration of the 

 parish church in the middle of the 19th century were 

 both carried out largely at the expense of Capel Cure, 

 the patron of the rectory, who was not a landowner in 

 Abbess Roding and had many responsibihties else- 

 where. 



Two notabilities were the sons of local people and 

 probably lived at Abbess Roding in childhood. Sir 

 Anthony Browne (i 5 10 .^-67), Chief Justice of Com- 

 mon Pleas, was the son of Sir Wistan Browne of Rook- 

 wood. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State 

 under Cromwell, was the son of Thomas Thurloe, 

 Rector of Abbess Roding 16 12-3 3.3s 



Before the Conquest ABBESS RODING (later 

 known as ABBESS HALL) was held by 

 MANORS Leuild (probably a woman) as a manor 

 and 3 virgates. In 1086 it was held by 

 Geoffrey Martel as tenant of Geoffrey de Mandeville. 

 It was then stated that the manor had previously been 

 in the possession of Barking Abbey 'and he who held 

 this land was only the man of Geoffrey's predecessor, 

 and had no power to put this land in possession of any- 

 one but the abbey'.36 



Barking subsequently regained possession of the 

 manor, perhaps as a result of the Domesday survey, 

 and retained it until the dissolution of the abbey in 

 1539.37 In 1291 the manor was valued at £,^ lyj.^s 



In April 1 540 Abbess Roding was granted by 

 Henry VIII to Thomas Cromwell.^' In November of 

 the same year, after Cromwell's disgrace and execu- 

 tion, the stewardship of the manor was given to Sir 

 Richard Rich and in January 1 541 the manor itself was 

 settled upon Anne of Cleves, the king's divorced wife.^" 

 The manor was soon in the king's hands again, for in 

 I 544 it was granted by the Crown to Robert Chartsey 

 and nineteen others.'*' In 1 546 Chartsey conveyed his 

 interest in the manor to Robert Meredith, one of the 

 grantees of 1 544, whereupon Meredith and three other 

 of those grantees transferred their interest to Robert 

 Long.*^ In 1 549 Long, in whom by this time the 

 manor seems to have been solely vested, conveyed it to 

 William Glascock.'*' An annual rent of 24/. 6\d. from 

 the manor was reserved from the grant of I 544 and 

 was granted by the king in 1553 to Oliver St. John 

 and Robert Thorneton.+* 



William Glascock died in 1579 and was succeeded 

 by his son Richard.*' In 1592 Abbess Roding was 



^ See Schools, Parish Govt. 35 D.N.B. 



3' y.C.H. Essex, i, 340, 5053. 



3' Ibfd. 38 Ibid, ii, 117. 



3» L. &f P. Hen. VIII, XV, p. 285. 

 Cromwell was then (ist) Baron Cromwell. 

 He became Earl of Essex in April 1 540, 

 soon after the grant. 



<** Ibid, xvi, pp. 139, 242. 



*' Ibid, xix (2), p. 80. The grant was to 

 be void if the purchase money was repaid 

 within a year. 



'•2 Ibid, xxi (i), p. 77. 



'•3 Cal. Vat. 1 548-9, 60. 



« Ibid. 1553, 83. 



137. 

 For 



43 C142/188/35. 



4' C66/1386; Morant, Essex, i, 

 cf. Cal. S.P. Dom. 159 1-4, 204, 

 Tipper see E. St. J. Brooks, Sir Christopher 

 Hatton, 220-30. 



4' C66/1508 m. I. 



48 CP25(2)/i39/i758; E.A.T. n.s. ix, 

 272. For Berwick Bcrners see below. 



49 Morant, Essex, i, 137. 

 5» Ibid.; Visits, of Essex, 1664-8, ed. 



J. J. Howard, 21. 



3' Morant, Essex, i, 137. 



52 Ibid, i Complete Peerage, ii, 8 1 ; E.R.O., 

 D/DZu 203. 



granted by the queen to William Tipper and Robert 

 Daw, 'the two greedy hunters after concealed lands' .4' 

 In 1599, however, the manor was restored to Richard 

 Glascock,47 who sold it in the same year to Gamahel 

 Capel of Rookwood (see below), younger brother of 

 Arthur Capel (d. 1632), lord of Much Hadham 

 (Herts.) and of Berwick Berners.48 Gamaliel was later 

 knighted, and died in 1613.4' 



The manor passed successively to Sir Gamaliel's son, 

 grandson, and great-grandson, each of whom was also 

 named Gamaliel Capel.so About 1 700 the last Gamaliel 

 Capel sold or mortgaged Abbess Roding to John 

 Howland of Streatham.s' Howland's daughter and heir 

 Elizabeth carried the estate in marriage to Wriothesley 

 Russell, Duke of Bedford. '^ In 1739 their son John, 

 Duke of Bedford, sold it to Stephen Skinner of Walt- 

 hamstow.53 Skinner's daughter Emma eventually 

 inherited the estate. She married (1750) William 

 Harvey of Barringtons (Rolls) in Chigwell (q.v.), and 

 the manor of Abbess Roding subsequently followed 

 the same descent as Barringtons.54 In 1830 'Abbots 

 Hall farm' comprised 2 1 2 acres. Parker's farm, which 

 was part of the same estate, was 224 acres and there 

 were 67 acres of woodland. 's There was then no men- 

 tion of manorial rights and it seems probable that these 

 had been alienated at the beginning of the 1 8th cen- 

 tury. 5* In the partition of the estates of Admiral Sir 

 Eliab Harvey, who died in 1830, Abbess Roding 

 passed to the share of Thomas W. Bramston of Skreens 

 in Roxwell, who had married the admiral's daughter 

 Elizabeth.5' T. W. Bramston held the property in 

 1868.5' j( yyjg bought soon after that date by the 

 Revd. L. Capel Cure but Thomas H. Bramston owned 

 a rent-charge in the parish as late as 1 888.5' jn jgg^ 

 Abbess Hall farm was being farmed along with Rook- 

 wood Farm.*" 



Abbess Hall farm-house is timber-framed and 

 plastered and was probably rebuilt or much altered in 

 the late 1 7th or early 1 8th century. The sash windows 

 were added about 100 years later. South of the house 

 is a large barn with seven bays and two porches. The 

 older parts, which have plastered panels between the 

 studs, may date from the 17th century. The panels 

 of red brick are probably not more than 1 50 years old. 

 There is a granary of similar construction to the north- 

 east of the house. 



The early history of the manor of BERWICK 

 BERNERS is not entirely clear and is made even more 

 difficult to trace by the existence of the manor of Ber- 

 wick in High Easter and that of Berners Roding, both 

 held by the Berners family which also held Berwick 

 Berners. 



In 1086 Eudo dapifer held a manor in Roding in 

 demesne. Before the Conquest it had been held by 

 Ulmar as a manor and 3 hides.*' At the time of 

 Domesday there was a sokeman holding \ virgate and 

 %\ acres who could sell his land although the soke 



53 Morant, Essex, i, 137; E.R.O., 

 D/DBT714. 

 34 See Burke^s Commoners, ii, 434. 

 33 E.R.O., D/DBT714. 



56 Morant, Essex, \, 138; CP25(2)/829 

 Trin. loWm. Ill; CP25(2)/924 East. II 

 Anne; CP43/658 rot. 264; CP25{2)/i3i3 

 Mich. 24 Geo. III. 



57 E.R.O., D/DBT714. 



58 E.R.O., D/DB T700. 



59 E.R.O., Q/RPr 3/18; inf. from the 

 Revd. R. T. K. Griffin. 



"> Kelly's Dir. Essex (1895). 

 «> y.C.H. Essex, \, 494i. 



190 



