A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



a new estate under a new title. Before approaching the difficult 

 subject of the changes under the new order in the status of what we 

 may term the peasantry, we may glance at the witness to the Conquest 

 borne by the map of Essex. 



There is no county perhaps that bears more clearly than Essex 

 the imprint of the Norman Conquest. Two of its parishes indeed 

 have actual French place-names, 1 and one the name of a Frenchman. 2 

 The suffixes which serve to distinguish its villages of the same name 

 are rich in memories of Domesday lords, both barons and under-tenants. 

 Helion('s) Bumpstead, Hatfield Peverel, Norton Mandeville, Woodham 

 Ferrers, Theydon Gernon and Belchamp Otton preserve the names of 

 Domesday barons, whether derived directly or through cadets of the 

 house. The name of Warish Hall in Takeley disguises that of St. 

 Walery, the saint whose relics the Norman host had adored at the 

 mouth of the Somme, and whose sending the longed-for southern 

 wind was rewarded after the Conquest by the gift of Essex manors. 

 And what shall we say of the under-tenants whose names will meet 

 us in the text ? With Adelulf de Merc I have dealt already ; 3 Garden's 

 Hall in Chishall was the home of William Garden ; Hervey de Ispania 

 is commemorated not only in Spain's Hall in Willingale Spain, but in 

 Spain's Hall in Finchingfield ; and in Stondon Massey is disguised the 

 name of Ralf de Marci. By a similar disguise the Tolleshunt of 

 Mauger has become Tolleshunt Major, and the Shellow of Lambert 

 (de Buelle) the modern Shellow Bowells. The Roding of Hugh de 

 Berneres is Berners Roding to this day. 



It was again the Norman Conquest that brought to England such 

 houses as those of Grai, Mortemer, and Giffard, of Beauchamp, Munteni, 

 and Montfiquet. Their association indeed with Essex may be later 

 than the date of the great Survey, but in Grays (Thurrock), Woodham 

 Mortimer, Bowers Giffbrd, Beauchamp Roding, Mountnessing and 

 Stansted Mountfichet the memory of Norman lordship is vividly pre- 

 served. To lords of the alien race are also due the names of Layer 

 Marney, Layer Breton, and Layer de la Hay, of North Weald Basset, 

 Theydon Bois, Stapleford Tawney and Colne Engaine. The change 

 from the English ' Alferestune ' to the present ' Bigods ' in Dunmow 

 a name which Lady Warwick's enterprise has made widely known 

 typifies the great transfer. Within two miles of it B(l)amsters Hall 

 preserves the name of the Blancmoustier family, tenants of the house 

 of Warenne, whose own Norman stronghold of Bellencombre is the 

 origin of the name of Belcumber Hall in Finchingfield. In Sible 

 Hedingham the manor of ' Grassals ' had once been the holding of 

 Geoffrey Grosvassal, a knightly tenant of the house of De Vere, while 

 Hosden's farm in Great Maplestead, not far away, preserves the name 

 of a family descended from Hugh de Hosdenc, a Domesday under-tenant 

 in the three eastern counties. The Counts of Guines have bequeathed 



1 Beaumont and Pleshey (see pp. 396, 509, note 4 and p. 298 above). 

 Virley. For Robert de Verli see p. 389. See p. 344 above, 



356 



