A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



were being held in the schoolroom there.^' In 1899 

 the old church was sold, together with the neighbour- 

 ing Anchor House, for ^^ijOOO,*" and the money made 

 over to the church at White Roding, which was 

 extended in 1901. The manse remained at Abbess 

 Roding until 1948, when it was sold, and a new manse 

 was built at White Roding.*' Rattee left the district 

 in 1904—5. He had been ill and a fund was raised to 

 pay his debts before he left.*^ 



The Abbess Roding church was demolished soon 

 after 1 899 and nothing now remains of it except the 

 red-brick wall of the forecourt. It stood immediately 

 to the west of the present Anchor House. An oil paint- 

 ing of the front, executed about 1876, hangs in the 

 Congregational church, White Roding. It shows a 

 two-story plastered building with rusticated quoins 

 and a hipped tile roof. At each end of the front is a 

 doorway with flanking pilasters supporting an entabla- 

 ture. The windows, of which there are four to the 

 upper story, have semicircular heads and are divided 

 by mullions and transomes (see plate facing p. 1 1 3). 

 A photograph of the interior, also in the White 

 Roding church, shows a gallery on three sides and on the 

 fourth a high panelled pulpit set between two tall 

 round-headed windows. To the west of the church 

 stood the Sunday school.^^ 



Anchor House, which appears to have become a 

 public house in the 19th century (see above) retained 

 its licence until about 1910.** The iron anchor which 

 served as an inn sign still hangs above the entrance door. 

 The building is timber-framed and roughcast and prob- 

 ably dates from the late 17th or early 1 8th century. To 

 the west of it, near the site of the former church, are the 

 remains of a moat. 



The Old Manse, formerly known as Hill House, 

 was built in 185 1 to the design of the Revd. H. Stacey, 

 then minister of the church. ^s It is a square double- 

 fronted house of brown brick. 



The court rolls of the manor of Abbess Roding sur- 

 vive for 1472-15 3086 

 and those of Berwick 

 Berners for 1 3 82-1 8 19 

 with a gap between 

 1484 and 1574.8' Both courts exercised leet juris- 

 diction and each elected its own constable. The last 

 recorded appointment of a constable for Berwick 

 Berners manor was made in 168 1. A manorial pound 

 is mentioned in the Abbess Roding roll of 1473. 



The earliest surviving minutes of parish vestry meet- 

 ings are entered in a parish register.** They cover the 

 period 1708-52. They are continued in a separate 

 parish book from about 1752 to 1803, but most of the 

 entries for the first dozen years of the new book are 

 illegible owing to decay.*' The Easter vestry at which 

 officers were elected was generally the only one in the 

 year, and the rector usually took the chair. From 1785, 

 coinciding with a change of rector, the vestry's interest 

 in the parish government almost ceased. The entries 

 were no longer signed and recorded only the continuing 

 in office of the same three persons as churchwarden 

 and constables. Their accounts were passed without 



PARISH GOVERNMENT 

 AND POOR RELIEF 



" Kelly's Dir. Essex (1890). 



'» Deed of Conveyance, now at White 

 Roding Congr. Church. 



«■ Char. Com. files. 



" Essex Congr. Union Refs. 1904, 1905. 



M O.S. 6 in. Map (ist edn.), sheet xlii. 



•♦ Inf. from the son of the present 

 owner and grandson of the last licensee. 



" Abbess Roding Congr. Church Bk. 



86 E.R.O., D/DP Mss-84. 



8' E.R.O., D/DHf M28-41 (1382- 

 1484 and 1574-1727); ibid. M16 {1729- 

 1 8 1 9). The last is a book recording courts 

 baron only. 



88 E.R.O., D/P 14S/1/1. 



8» E.R.O., D/P 145/8. 



«» Rep. Com. Char. (Essex), H.C. 216, 

 p. 241 (1835), xxi (i); Char. Com. files. 



scrutiny and there never remained any balance to be 

 carried over. In 1729 it was agreed to hold a vestry 

 dinner at Easter for all ratepayers, each to pay 6d. 

 whether he attended or not. 



The parish clerk had an income of £2 a year from a 

 rent charge left under the will of Nicholas Burton 

 (proved 1678).'" In 1834 the sum was allowed in the 

 rent paid by the then clerk, who happened to live in 

 Falkiners, the house charged. In 1910 the property 

 charged was called Willington Cottages, and the clerk 

 was still receiving the payment in 19 14. The payment 

 is now being made from Falkiners at the rate of 10/. 

 a quarter." 



The vestry appointed two constables, one for the 

 'township' and one for 'Berwick hamlet'; perhaps 

 originally each represented a separate towTiship or vill 

 and subsequently the manors of Abbess Roding and 

 Berwick Berners respectively. Morant {c. 1768) 

 stated that the constable of the hamlet of Berwick 

 Berners attended at the court of the hundred of 

 Dunmow, 'which causes it to be reputed within that 

 hundred'.'^ There had been an ancient connexion 

 between the manor of Berwick Berners (see above) '^ 

 and Dunmow hundred. Separate surveyors of high- 

 ways were nominated for the township and Berwick 

 hamlet and sometimes also separate rates were levied. 

 In 1762 a rate of 313'. in £\ for the hamlet produced 

 just over ^3. An earlier undated memorandum in the 

 parish register shows that a rate for the township pro- 

 duced one third more than that for the hamlet. In 

 1836 the rateable value of the whole parish was 

 ^859.54 



During the first half of the i8th century only one 

 overseer was appointed and he almost invariably served 

 for two consecutive years. There is no reference to the 

 overseer in the parish book covering the second half of 

 the l8th century, but between 1824 and 1836 two 

 overseers were sometimes appointed. '5 During the 

 whole of this latter period five persons only shared the 

 offices of churchwarden and overseer. They occupied 

 the largest farms in the parish and included the widow 

 of a previous overseer. 



In 1 7 1 o the overseer spent ;^20 on poor relief. After 

 that date the vestry minutes ceased to record the 

 detailed disbursements of any officer, but only gave the 

 balance in hand. After 1785 even this was abandoned, 

 and for information on parish expenditure we are 

 dependent on parliamentary returns.'* These show 

 that between 1783 and 1785 an average of ^{^150 was 

 raised by the poor rates. This rose to a peak of over 

 ;^644 for 1 800-1. This was the equivalent of a rate 

 of 15/. in £1 on the rateable assessment of 1825. No 

 other year's rates were as high as this but between 1 800 

 and 1 817 the annual average was about jr400. Be- 

 tween 1824 and 1833 an average of ^^330 was raised 

 each year by the poor rates. 



In 1776 the parish was renting a house for use as a 

 poorhouse." In 1829 it united with Stanford Rivers 

 (q.v.) and other parishes in a voluntary poor law 

 Union under Gilbert's Act. In 1836 Abbess Roding 

 became part of the Ongar Poor Law Union. 



9* Inf. from Miss Rowe of Falkiners. 



'^ Morant, Essex, i, 139. 



" p. 192. 



«« E.R.O., D/P 145/11: Overseer's 

 Rate Bk. 



»5 Ibid. 



»« E.R.O., Q/CR i/i, 1/9, 1/12. 



" Rep. Sel. Cttee. on Overseers' Reins. 

 1777, H.C. ser. i, vol. ix. 



196 



