The Essex Record Office holds records about the county, its people and buildings and provides a useful resource for individuals interested in family, house and local history.
Do you have an ear for music? An investigative streak? An interest in audio archives? Or, even better, all three?
We are looking for volunteers to help catalogue recordings of the Essex Youth Orchestra (EYO) and Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra (CYCO) from the 1960s to the 2000s.
The next step in the project is to make information about the recordings available on our catalogue, Essex Archives Online, and (rights-permitting) share some the recordings online.
Ideally, we’d like volunteers to listen to the recordings, identify
the pieces performed, and write time-coded descriptions for our catalogue. For
those less familiar – or a bit rusty! – with classical music, some of the concert
programmes are available to help.
If you are interested, please get in touch with our Sound Archivist, Kate O’Neill. We would especially love to hear from you if you were involved with the EYO or CYCO yourself. You can volunteer remotely or here in the Searchroom at the Essex Record Office, so you’ll be able to get involved whether you’re based in Essex or further afield.
Essex Festival poster, nd.
Harlow Playhouse concert poster, 1972
About the Essex Youth Orchestra
The Essex Youth Orchestra (EYO) was founded in 1957 and continues to this day as Essex Music Services’ flagship ensemble. The EYO has consistently maintained an excellent reputation for the very high standard of its performances, in part down to its history of distinguished conductors, such as John Georgiadis.
Essex Youth Orchestra perform Holst’s ‘Brook Green Suite’ in Thaxted Church on the 75th anniversary of the Thaxted Music Festival, 28 December 1989 [SA 1/927/1]. Recorded by BBC Essex.
There are over 50 recordings of EYO performances in the
Essex Sound and Video Archive. They feature a range of composers, from Mozart,
Beethoven, and Bach to those with a local connection such as Holst, Britten,
and Gordon Jacob. The EYO regularly performed at local festivals and on tour,
with concerts in the USA in 1972, Israel in 1976 and East Germany in 1982.
The first performance of Gordon Jacob’s ‘Sinfonia Brevis’, performed by Essex Youth Orchestra at Saffron Walden County High School, 5 April 1975 [SA881].
Tenth anniversary concert programme, 1967
Israel concert poster, 1976
Chamber concert programme, 1973
Italy concert poster, 1985
About Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra
Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra (CYCO) was founded in
1982 to provide talented local musicians an opportunity to play in an ambitious
chamber orchestra. It also featured notable musicians, with trumpeter George
Reynolds conducting from 1984. It closed in 2007.
Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra performing at the Colchester Rose Show in July 1984 [SA645]. Do you recognise the piece being performed?
The CYCO archive was deposited at the Essex Record Office in 2012. Alongside programmes, posters, and press clippings, the archive includes twenty recordings of CYCO performances, from concerts at the annual Colchester Rose Show to the first performance of Alan Bullard’s ‘Colchester Suite’.
Presenter Liz Mullen explains the inspiration behind Alan Bullard’s ‘Colchester Suite’, commissioned for Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra in 1983 [SA645]. From ‘Folio’, Anglia Television’s arts programme.
The aim of the Essex Ensembles Assembled project
The project aims to preserve recordings of the Essex Youth Orchestra and Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra and make them available for future generations to enjoy. It is funded by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings.
As an aural record, the recordings provide a unique insight into the changing nature and repertoire of youth orchestras in Essex over the past fifty years, and give a platform to local musicians, conductors and composers.
They also capture music-making that is often lost to posterity, with performances by the Second Essex Youth Orchestra as well as the First, and the occasional wrong notes and coughs from the audience.
Nevertheless, as a whole the recordings reveal a high standard of performance, and demonstrate what young people can contribute to music in Essex and beyond.
Conductor John Georgiadis and four Essex Youth Orchestra members talk about their involvement with the orchestra on the EYO’s 30th anniversary in 1987. Recorded by BBC Essex [SA 1/1291/1].A collage of photographs from an Essex Youth Orchestra concert programme.
The tradition of the Dunmow Flitch Trials is commonly dated back to 1104 when a local Lord and Lady supposedly visited the Augustinian Priory of Little Dunmow disguised as paupers. They asked the prior if he would bless their marriage which had taken place a year and a day previously. Impressed by their apparent devotion to each other, the prior responded by presenting them with a flitch of bacon (which the Priory cook happened to have been carrying past at the time).
At this point the Lord, Reginald Fitzwalter, threw off his present garb and thanked the prior for his willingness to believe in their love. He then gifted some of his land to the Priory on the condition that a flitch of bacon would be given to any couple that could come to the Priory and prove their continued devotion to each other a year and a day after their marriage.
As charming as it is, this story has obviously been the cause of much doubt over the years – but what can’t be doubted is the fame that the Dunmow Flitch Trials had gained by the 14th century. Both William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer refer to the trials in their books, and they both used language which assumed readers were already familiar with the tradition. However, the first official record does not appear until 1445 when Mr and Mrs Richard Wright were awarded their flitch of bacon.
The tradition lapsed over the years and, in 1832, Josiah Vine’s request for a trial was refused on the grounds that it was ‘an idle custom bringing people of indifferent character into the neighbourhood’.
Fortunately, the novelist William Harrison Ainsworth sought to revive the tradition in 1854 with his book ‘The Custom of Dunmow’ and in the following year he personally presented the flitch to two couples. One was a French gentleman and his English wife: the Chevalier and Madame De Chatelain. The other was a local couple from Chipping Ongar: James Barlow, a builder, and his wife Hannah.
During the trials, both couples were required to prove their enduring love before a jury of six maidens and six bachelors. There was also an opposing council which represented the donors of the flitch of bacon and challenged the evidence with the aim to dissuade the jurors from awarding the flitch to the couple. Successful couples were then seated in the Flitch Chair and carried in a parade, at the end of which they were required to take this oath:
‘We do swear by custom of confession That we ne’er made nuptial transgression; Nor since we were married man and wife, By household brawls or contentious strife, Or otherwise at bed or at board, Offended each other in deed or word; Or since the parish clerk said “Amen,” Wished ourselves unmarried again; Or in a twelvemonth and a day, Repented not in thought or in any way, But continued true and in desire As when we joined hands in the holy quire.’
After the Dunmow Flitch Trial, an album was compiled to commemorate the occasion. It consists of the following framed items: a painting of James Barlow, a sketch of James and Hannah Barlow, a commemorative certificate, and a picture of the Dunmow Town Hall. At the back of this album is a disguised compartment holding letters about the planning of the event, a programme from the day itself, a pamphlet about the history of the Dunmow Flitch and (perhaps most remarkably) the shoulder bone from the Barlow’s flitch of bacon!
Essex
Gardens Trust and Essex Record Office joint Symposium
Saturday 2 April, 10:00am to 3.30pm at the ERO, Chelmsford
We are delighted to be holding a
joint all-day symposium in Chelmsford with the Essex Gardens Trust on Saturday
2 April 2022. This event was originally conceived and planned before the
pandemic and after some enforced rescheduling, is now going ahead. The theme of
the day is to explore some of the many challenges that heritage landscapes and
gardens face today in trying to balance competing priorities of preservation,
conservation, ecology, sustainability, and public access.
We will be welcoming to Essex, Peter Hughes, QC and
Chair of The Gardens Trust whose talk is entitled “Opening the gates – Conservation and the
Challenges of Garden Tourism”. Peter chose this subject for his
Masters’ degree dissertation in Garden and Landscape History and undertook a case
study of six important gardens around the country, some in public and some in
private custodianship, and interviewed head gardeners and other prominent
figures involved in garden conservation.
A talk by Alison Moller – Garden
Historian, lecturer, and researcher – will provide the landscape context for
Essex landscape heritage sites tracing the geological formation of the land
beneath the historic landscapes of Essex.
Landscape Architect, Liz Lake will explore
how our historic landscapes can be a source of inspiration for modern day
designers and an additional reason why they should be managed and conserved.
Liz will pick out key features from historic designed landscapes and looks at
how they have been reworked for our times.
Stephen Smith,
Historic Gardens Consultant will speak on “A Vision for Landscape Conservation”. Many
historic gardens and landscapes are managed by bodies with a culture and
expectation which diverges greatly from those which envisage their restoration
and conservation. For example, prejudice against exotic plant species on the
one hand and an underappreciation of habitat management on the other are common
points of divergence. He will argue that the different approaches can be
detrimental to the original vision of a conservation project. In his paper,
Stephen Smith will share his observations, drawing on examples of landscape
conservation schemes on the London fringes of Essex and beyond, to identify the
problems as well as proffer some mutually beneficial solutions.
And finally, Ailsa Wildig – Chair of
The Tuesday Research Group, at Warley Place will talk about How Warley Place still respects its
garden history – From historic garden to nature reserve looking
at the challenges facing those managing and caring for Ellen Willmott’s
historic garden, that was recently listed as ‘at risk’ by Historic England.
This should be a fascinating day
exploring some of the challenges facing those conserving historic landscapes
and gardens and will also provide the opportunity to meet or catch up with
others working or with interests in these fields.
Hidden at the back of an otherwise innocuous court book from Ashdon Rectory is this unimposing memento of ‘an unprecedented scene’ which took place between December 26th 1813 and March 20th 1814 when the surface of the River Thames in London froze fully solid. As with numerous such occasions before this the locals of London contrived to hold an awe-inspiring ‘Frost Fair’ upon the frozen surface. This small copy of the Lord’s Prayer was printed on the Thames itself on February 5th 1814.
The tiny printed prayer is pasted in the back of the court book, under a written description of the unusual weather and some of the events that were impacted by it (D/DU 153/4)
Such mementos were not uncommon; when Charles II visited a frost fair on January 31st 1684 he bought a printed ticket to commemorate the occasion. Held at the Museum of London, the ticket lists the members of the court who attended alongside the King. The very first documented frost fair took place even earlier than this in 1608, where one could even get a shave in the middle of the frozen river. The fairs were filled with the novelty of such everyday tasks being performed on the ice. Vendors set up funfair games, fortune telling, and stalls selling all variety of food, drink, and trinkets.
Unfortunately,
the frost fair immortalised in the Ashdon Rectory court book was the last of
its kind. The demolition of the medieval London Bridge in 1831, and other
changes to the Thames made during the Victorian era, altered the flow of the
river so that the water was deeper and swifter and did not freeze so easily.
However, there is further evidence of smaller freezes which affected the rivers in Essex as late as the 20th century. Rivers in Southend, Leigh-on-Sea and Rochford froze to dramatic spectacle in both 1905 and 1929.
Although the ice was thick enough to walk on no frost fairs were held during these smaller freezes and, looking at these photographs, we can see why no one would want to risk ice-skating on these unruly frozen waves!
An even more recent example occurred in 1963 and presented such an inhospitable scene in Southend, Benfleet, and Battlesbridge that G.A. Robinson was moved to dedicate a whole scrapbook to the icy scenes.
The first page of a leather-bound photo album which goes on to describe its aim of memorialising the 1963 freeze and refers back to the postcards which were used for a similar purpose in 1905 and 1929. (D/DU 1464/68)
Nowadays ice is found mostly on our car windscreens, making it difficult to picture such monumental scenes for ourselves. If you need more photographic evidence to fully comprehend these extreme conditions, make sure to check out our latest Curiosity Cabinet in the Searchroom.
What is the most Christmassy recipe you can think of? Does
it help if we sing a song?
“Little Jack Horner
Sat
in the corner,
Eating
a Christmas pie;
He
put in his thumb,
And
pulled out a plum,
And
said, “What a good boy am I!”
So, to help get us in the festive spirit, we decided to explore the different variations of plum cake recipe’s in our own archives:
‘To Make a Plumb Cake’ by Elizabeth Slany (c.1715)
“Take 4 pound of flower and 4 pound of currans ½ a pint of sack plump the currans then take a quart of ale yest ¾ of a pound of sugar 10 eggs & half the whites a little nutmeg mace & cinnamon & a few cloves a pound of almonds blanch’t & beaten fine orange flower water a quart of cream boyl’d + when you take it of the fire put a pound of fresh butter in it heit [heat] till it is blood warm then mix the spices currans & a little salt with the flower then put in yest almonds cream eggs & mix them with a spoon then set it rising you may put in some musk & ambergrease [a waxy substance that originates in the intestines of the sperm whale, with a pleasant smell, which is also used in perfumery]your oven must be very quick and you must put it in a hoop an hour or a little more will bake it your bottom must be paper.”
‘To Make a Plumb Cake’ from Elizabeth Slany’s 1715 ‘Booke of Reciepts’ (D/DR Z1)
‘Little Plumb Cakes’ by Mary Rooke (c.1770-1777)
“Take one pound of flour, six ounces of butter, half a pint of cream, a quarter pint of yeast, two eggs, a little mace shred very fine, mix these into a light paste, and set it before the fire to rise, then put a quarter or half a pound of currants and a quarter of a pound of sugar, bake them on tins.”
‘Little Plumb Cakes’ from Mary Rooke’s 18th century recipe book (D/DU 818/1)
‘Oxfordshire Baked Plum Pudding’ by the Lampet Family
(c.1807-1847)
“Put one pound of stale white bread sliced into as much new milk as will soak it, and let is stand all night. Now pour the milk from it and break the bread well with the hand – add half a pound of a suet chopped fine – three quarters of a pound of raisins – a quarter of a pound of currants shaking a little flour and salt among the fruit – half a nutmeg – two or three blades of mace – a clove or two pounded very fine – a little brandy – and sugar to the taste – mix all these ingredients well up together with four eggs well beaten – bake it.”
‘Oxfordshire Baked Plum Pudding’ from the Lampet Family’s 19th century recipe book (T/B 677/2)
Let’s play spot the difference!
The Lampet recipe is probably the most different: it uses bread with only a little extra flour, swaps butter for milk, and is the only recipe to use suet and alcohol.
Elizabeth Slany’s recipe has some of the most unusual ingredients such as musk and ambergrease, and orange flower water.
All three recipes use: eggs, currants, mace, yeast, and sugar.
Elizabeth Slany and the Lampet Family add nutmeg and clove for extra flavour
None of the recipes include plums!
Do you make plum cake/plum pudding for Christmas? Which of these recipes is most similar to your own?
If you want to see more festive recipes, we currently have
Mary Rooke’s recipe book on display in the Searchroom for a seasonal Curiosity
Cabinet. Recipes on display include gingerbread and the various components of a
mince pie!
Project Archivist, Hector Mir has been working tirelessly this year to catalogue the records of the Harlow Development Corporation with the full catalogue ready to be launched on the 1st December this year on Essex Archives Online. This project has been made possible by an Archives Revealed cataloguing grant from The National Archives.
In his post below Hector explores the records of one of Harlow’s most notable features, it’s fantastic sculpture.
A/TH 3/10/45/2 – “City” by Gerda Rubinstein, in Bishopsfield. Henk Snoek, 1972, Copyright Harlow Development Corporation
Since its very beginning in 1947, the Harlow Development Corporation and its General Planner, Sir Frederick Gibberd, acquired a firm commitment to link the new town they were building with the culture and the arts. This aim is especially visible in respect of sculpture. From as early as 1951 up to the present day, the new town has filled up its streets with the works of some of the most renowned sculptors.
Such important activity appears well referenced in the papers of the Harlow Development Corporation Archive, which the Essex Record Office has now opened up by creating a new online catalogue (A/TH).
The main source comes from the
file “Sculpture” (A/TH 2/6/1), which includes papers relating to “Contrapuntal
Forms” by Barbara Hepsworth (1951), murals from the Festival of Britain
Exhibitions (1952), Centaur’s statue (1953), Henry Moore’s “Family Group”
sculpture (1955-1956), Early Memorial (1959), “Kore” sculpture (1975),
sculptured head of Sir Frederick Gibberd (1979).
A/TH 3/10/15/71 – Photograph of “Family Group” by Henry Moore in the Civic Square. Henk Snoek, 1972, Copyright Harlow Development Corporation
Scattered information on sculptures, including lists of Harlow Arts Trust sculptures (June 1968) can be found in the files related to Patrons of the Arts – Harlow Arts Trust (A/TH 3/2/8/33-36), covering the whole existence of the Corporation (1948-1980). The is also a file on Play Sculptures in the sixties (A/TH 3/3/3/4).
A sculpture unveiling has been
always an important ceremony. We keep the files of three of those events: the
unveiling of Henry Moore’s “Family Group” sculpture in 1956 (A/TH 3/8/3/54),
which includes invitation card and programme; “Kore” sculpture in 1975 (A/TH
3/8/3/2); and the unveiling of an obelisk at Broad Walk in 1980 (A/TH 3/8/3/50
and A/TH 3/11/65), including invitation card, programme and diagram of
construction.
Sculptures are also well
represented in the Social Development Department Photographic Collection (A/TH
3/10). Two files with 30 photographs cover specifically the subject (A/TH
3/10/26 and A/TH 3/10/44), with pictures of “Family Group” and Bronze Cross by
Henry Moore, “Wrestlers”, “Chiron” by Mary Spencer Watson, Eve by Auguste
Rodin, “Contrapuntal Forms” by Barbara Hepworth, “Help” by F.E. McWilliam, “High
Flying” by Antanas Brazdys, “Kore” by Betty Rea, “Motif No. 3” by Henry Moore, “Trigon”
by Lynch Chadwick, “Echo” by Antanas Brazdys, “The Boar” by Elisabeth Fink,
Fountain Figure and Lion by Antoine-Louise Barye. As well as another file with
12 photographs of Henry Moore’s “Family Group” Sculpture (A/TH 3/10/25). There
are also loose photographs of “The Sheep Shearer” by Ralph Brown, outside
Ladyshot Common Room (A/TH 3/10/8/72) and
“Boy eating apple” a statue in bronze by Percy Portsmouth, commissioned by the
Harlow Art Trust and situated on the wall of the Mark Hall Branch Library in
The Stow (A/TH 3/10/9/10).
A/TH 3/10/26 – Folder of photographs, two photographs of “Eve” by Auguste Rodin are visible (A/TH 3/10/26/3 and A/TH 3/10/26/4). Copyright Harlow Development Corporation. A/TH 3/10/15/1 – School children in Harlow creating their own works of art. Copyright Harlow Development Corporation.
Finally, an excellent overview can be found in the 31 page booklet ‘Sculpture in Harlow’ (A/TH 3/11/17), published by Harlow Development Corporation in 1973.
A/TH 3/11/17 – “Sculpture in Harlow” booklet, 1973. Copyright Harlow Development Corporation.
Our latest Searchroom Curiosity Cabinet features a selection of wax seals and seal matrixes from our collection. For those of you who can’t visit to see the display in person, we thought we’d share a bit more information here.
Unicorn Seal in Red Wax
Medusa Seal in Red Wax
Apollo Seal in Red Wax
Wax seals were first used in the Middle Ages, although the Roman’s practiced a similar method with bitumen and the Ancient Mesopotamians made seal-indents in clay tablets. One of the first English examples of a wax seal being used in an official capacity was by Edward the Confessor c.1042-1066.
People used their coat of arms, family crest, or any other iconography that was important to them. Mythological symbols were particularly common.
An ‘applied seal’ is when the wax is applied directly to the page. However, the seal can also be arranged to hang on a tag or cord which is known as a pendant seal. Larger pendant seals are sometimes encased in cases, called skippet’s, which protect them from damage.
The size of the seal often correlated with the importance and status of the person whom it belonged to. This Great Seal for Queen Victoria, enclosed in its own metal skippet, is the perfect example!
As well as being used to authenticate the document, applied seals were useful in making sure that letters were not tampered with – a broken seal was a sure sign that the contents of your letter were no longer private! Today they are mostly used for decoration on posh stationery, such as invitations.
The wax impression is created using a ‘seal matrix’, which
features a negative image; this is pressed into the wax to produce the positive
image. The most popular type of seal matrix is the signet ring, evidence for
which dates back as far as Ancient Egypt. Signet rings have also been used as
symbols of wealth and power throughout history and were often destroyed when
their owner died to prevent forgeries.
This seal matrix, dated to the early 14th century seal matrix, was dug up near the Little Dunmow Priory almost 100 years ago. It probably belonged to one of the priors.
If you want to see the full display, including a soap box full of seals and a 17th century seal matrix, it will feature in the Curiosity Cabinet until November. The Great seal of Queen Victoria is really something impressive to see in person – our photo does not do justice to its size!
You’ve
just clicked on a bit of history from right here in the City of Chelmsford.
Many people know Chelmsford is the birthplace of radio, it’s where Marconi chose to build his first factory and where ideas and experiments
unfolded across the years, but it’s so much more than that, it’s where our
future world of communication began.
Over
a hundred years before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Marconi was laying down the
foundations of the communication explosion of the 21st century. One of the
first truly global figures in modern
communication,
he was the first inventor to not only communicate globally but think globally
about communication.
From
telegraph to telephone and radio to the world wide web, mobile phones and
satelitte navigation, the link between then, now and the future is the
development of wireless communication.
Essex
Record Office continues to capture and preserve our local histories with
written material, historical documents, recordings and interviews. The Essex
Record Office is also home to a collection of over 150,000 images that
catalogue the places, people, objects and machinery of the Marconi Company.
Artist,
Elaine Tribley, was given access to this collection as part of an Essex 2020
Artist in Residence project with the ERO. Focusing on the photographed objects
she produced a series of artworks enlarging and placing them into the
landscapes around the Records Office
adding
reflective texts. Elaine says “I not only wanted to bring these objects to our
attention, challenging their place, Marconi’s place in our future, but I also
wanted to celebrate the fact that this incredible collection of photographic
history is right here in our own City”.
Two of these works were chosen to be displayed at Chelmsford’s rail station
to coincide with the British Science Festival being held in the City.
For the last few months ERO has hosted two student placements jointly funded by the Friends of Historic Essex and University of Essex. They have both written for us about their experiences and what they have discovered here at ERO. In his blog post below Aaron Archer explores the huge wealth of information held within parish Poor Law documents. If you enjoy this article, Aaron has also written a separate article for the Friends of Historic Essex –News – Friends of Historic Essex
During my placement at the Essex Record Office, I have been cataloguing the parish records of north-east Essex. Dating broadly from the late seventeenth century through until the mid-nineteenth century, many of the documents contained within this collection relate to the Poor Law and the daily administration of the various parishes.
The ‘old Poor Law’ which
concerns these documents began with the acts of Elizabeth I between 1598 and
1601, and effectively outlined those who were considered ‘the deserving poor’
and those that ‘refused to work’.[1]
The responsibility of this poor relief system lay with the parishes, particularly
the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, who enacted the day-to-day
workings of the system.[2]
Whilst my time has largely
involved cataloguing these various documents, such as settlement certificates,
apprenticeship indentures and removal orders… I must confess – I have been
unable to resist taking some notes on some of the more colourful or exceptional
stories uncovered within these records!
Also, I should preface this by stating that all of what I record here has been uncovered with minimal research – and that alone should demonstrate the wealth of information and the variety of stories that one could find if you are actively seeking to research a similar topic (or looking for a research starter!).
Let us begin the examples of
William Allen and Deborah Brooks. These names occur more than once each within
the bastardy bonds of the parish of St Peter’s in Colchester.
On 10 June 1823, Deborah Brooks
underwent a voluntary examination (D/P 178/15/2/4) relating to the illegitimate
child she had recently given birth to. Such an examination was necessary to
determine whether the child would be chargeable to the parish in which the
examination was taking place. During this, Brooks reputed that William Allen, a
blacksmith from Brightlingsea, was the father of the child. As such, Allen
would be liable to pay a bastardy bond of £2 immediately to the churchwardens
of St Peters for any costs incurred by parish, then a further two shillings per
week in support of the child, and a further sixpence per week to support
Brooks. Clearly, illegitimate births like these were costly. According to the
National Archives’ currency converter, £2 was the equivalent of 13 days wages of
a skilled worker.
Yet, this is not the last we
hear of William Allen. On 2 December 1823, Alice Cook of St Peter’s, Colchester
undertook a voluntary examination relating to her illegitimate pregnancy (D/P
178/15/2/5). Once again, the name William Allen was stated when it was
questioned who the father may be. This time, William Allen was said to be a
drover from Ardleigh. In this instance, Allen was ordered to pay a bastardy
bond of £1, 16 shillings to St Peter’s, then a further two shillings and
sixpence per week to Alice Cook and the child once it was born.
D/P 178/15/2/5 – Voluntary examination of Alice Cook 2 December 1823
Of course, this very well could
have been a separate individual, however it is also a stretch that two women
from the same parish became pregnant to two different men sharing the same name,
and only six months apart… If these cases do indeed involve the same individual,
then William Allen certainly was an unfortunate soul to fall into the same
situation twice – and with only 6 months in between cases!
But we must not forget Deborah
Brooks either. Her name also appears again on the 10 September 1824. Again, she
underwent an examination regarding her illegitimate pregnancy, and on this
occasion, Charles Wenlock, a mariner from Brightlingsea, was the reputed father
(D/P 178/15/2/8). The parish of St Peter’s wrote up a bastardy bond for £4 and
one shilling, plus the further weekly one shilling and sixpence for the child,
and sixpence per week for Brooks, however it appears that things were not so
simple for Wenlock. An attached note states that Wenlock had changed addresses
during this period and thus was unaware of
the money he now owed. When he was eventually found on 29 June 1827, he owed a
total of 146 weeks of unpaid maintenance amounting to £10 and 19 shillings! For
reference, this was about two months wages for a skilled tradesman.
D/P 178/15/2/8 – The bastardy bond of Charles Wenlock for Deborah Brook’s child, and the attached note
These stories present some
interesting implications. Firstly, and most apparently, these instances offer
an insight into relationships and people’s perceptions towards sex. Clearly
people were frequently engaged in physical relationships outside of wedlock
despite religious doctrine and expectations still being a considerable part of
society. Moreover, these relationships were not just between people from
neighbouring parishes, but sometimes parishes miles apart – suggesting how
mobile people were on a regular basis.
Secondly, there is the suggestion
that bastard births were a broader social problem for early modern parishes,
and one that exacerbated an already stretched and flawed relief system. A small
note amongst St Peter’s records states that in 1819 a total of £1368, 11
shillings and 4 pence was levied in local rates. Of this, £1247, 7 shillings
and 1 pence was expended in poor relief alone, highlighting that there was
little flexibility for further strain on the existing system. This made it
imperative for parishes to ensure illegitimate births were chargeable to the
correct parishes to avoid footing the bill.
Unfortunately, this did lead to
more tragic examples, too. For instance, the case of Ann Bugg, whose issues
with the poor relief system and an illegitimate birth proved harrowing.
On 20 April 1816, Ann Bugg, a
single woman living in St Peters, was removed from the parish with her child
George (D/P 178/13/2/21), and was returned to her last legal settlement, St
Mary in Whitechapel. This was not unusual, as parishes were likely to remove
single men and women, probably to avoid instances of illegitimate births. Yet
two months later, on 10 June 1816, the churchwardens of St Mary sent a copy of
Ann Bugg’s bastardy examination to St Peter’s. In it, the churchwardens of St
Mary suggest that the child was chargeable to St Peter’s rather than them, as
the child was born there. The emergent argument here being one of an individual
removed to their legal settlement, yet her child being born in another parish,
with two overseeing parties unwilling to deal with the situation by placing the
responsibility on each other.
Engraving of St Peter’s Church Colchester
As we have already seen,
however, St Peters was particularly stringent in its budgeting and chose to
argue the case rather than foot the bill. The situation escalated, and the Justices
of the Peace were employed to address the situation. They officially recognised
the complaint of St Peters on 8 July 1816 (D/P 178/15/5/1), and two days later
issued an official summons (D/P 178/15/5/2) to the churchwardens of St Mary, on
the grounds of their refusal to reimburse St Peters for the costs incurred for
Ann Bugg’s bastard child. The matter was to be addressed at the next Quarter
Sessions.
This was not to be the last of
the story, however. In 1820, the issue arose again when the parish of St Mary
once again wrote to St Peters (D/P 178/15/5/3), stating they had no knowledge
of Ann Bugg’s child and the birth, and therefore refused any steps towards
reimbursing St Peters for all the of the costs incurred. Meanwhile, during this
four-year quarrel between the two parishes, it is unknown whether Ann Bugg
received any support for herself or her child from either parish.
The last mention of this case
comes from a small note dated 28 June 1821 (D/P 178/15/5/4). In it, an
individual named John Bugg, agreed to reimburse St Peters for the costs
incurred during the entire ordeal. This amounted to £4, 14 shillings, though
the note states that at this point Ann Bugg’s child had passed away since.
D/P 178/15/2 – Bundle of bastardy papers
Quite clearly, this unfortunate
story highlights the problems associated with the patchwork-quilt like system
of parishes and poor relief seen during the Poor Law. It both demonstrates the
loss of a young life due to the financial worries and bickering of inter-parish
relations, along with the neglect of individuals based on the grounds of “not
our problem”. Thus, it is no surprise that the system was unsustainable and saw
‘reform’ in the 1830s – though, this had its own whole series of problems!
It should be clear by now that
these parish records can contain some fascinating insights into the lives of
early modern individuals. As a historian, I previously would not have
considered the depth seen these documents, nor the kinds of stories I have
uncovered with relatively little research. After all, these stories I have
covered here have literally only come together whilst passing through the
various stacks of documents that have slid across my desk.
With this piece I hope I have
been able to shine a light on the stories that one can find within parish
records, such as bastardy bonds and removal orders, and demonstrated the
potential that they have. With them family historians can uncover a much deeper
understanding of the movements of their ancestors and the struggles they faced.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of room for historians to explore microhistories of
individual lives of people like Deborah Brooks, William Allen, and Ann Bugg.
These parish records are
fascinating, and I would strongly encourage people to expand their scope beyond
the singular documents they seek. Rather than focus solely on a specific
document, explore other documents within the same box number – you will be
surprised at some of the stories you can uncover!
References
[1] Samantha Williams, Poverty, Gender and
Life-Cycle Under the English Poor Law 1760-1834, (Croydon: Boydell Pres,
2011), p.2.
[2] W.E. Tate, The Parish Chest: A Study of
the Records of Parochial Administration in England, Third Ed. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 30.
In a recent internet deep-dive in search of social media inspiration, we came across a recurring statement declaring Agnes Waterhouse, a local Essex woman, as the first person executed for witchcraft in England in 1566. Marion Gibson, currently a professor at Exeter University, has kindly written this blog post for us, to tell us a little bit more about Agnes and why these claims about her are actually fake news.
Agnes Waterhouse was a widow from the village of Hatfield Peverel who was tried in Chelmsford for witchcraft in the summer of 1566. It’s as a witchcraft suspect that her name appears on a list of accused felons held by the Essex Record Office, among the Quarter Sessions rolls.
Q/SR 19/5 – Quarter Session Roll from 1566 which lists Agnes Waterhouse, Joan Waterhouse, and Elizabeth Frances as felons suspected of witchcraft from Hatfield Peverel
A “felony” was a serious crime, punishable by death, and the group of suspected felons who included Agnes passed through the lower court of Quarter Sessions in 1566 on their way to the higher court of the Assizes. There they would be tried and sentenced.
Agnes was going to the Midsummer Assizes, held in the hot
months when England’s top judges got out of London and had time to sit in
judgement over suspected provincial criminals. In Chelmsford the Assizes were
held in the Market Cross House, which stood just in front of the present-day
Shire Hall. The Essex historian Hilda Grieve describes it as:
‘an open-sided building, with eight oak columns supporting upper galleries and a tiled roof. The galleries, which overlooked the open “piazza” below, were lit by three dormer windows in the roof… the magistrates and justices sat in open court, which measured only 26 feet by 24 feet, with the officers of the law, counsel and clerks, plaintiffs and defendants, jurors, sureties, witnesses and prisoners, before and around them, while spectators, hangers-on, and those awaiting their turn, crowded into the galleries above or thronged the street outside.’
The
Market Cross House was an unsatisfactory courtroom – packed, noisy and horribly
public – but it was Agnes’ destination in summer 1566 after she had been
accused as a witch.
Witchcraft was a crime that came to Assize courts regularly, but only after a new Witchcraft Act had been passed by Parliament in 1563. The new Act stated that witches who were convicted of lesser offences – like making farm animals sick – would be punished with one year in prison. Witches who were convicted of killing a person, however, were to be hanged.
Agnes was accused of murder by witchcraft, for which she would be executed if she was found guilty. She was said to have killed her neighbour William Fynee. When questioned, she also admitted harming pigs, cows and geese in her village. Eventually she said she had murdered her own husband in 1557 because they lived “somewhat unquietly” together; it is possible that this confession was drawn out, in part, by some guilt she may have felt over relief at his death and the relative freedom that widowhood granted her.
Agnes also confessed to owning a demonic spirit in the form of a pet cat called Sathan, given to her by her sister Elizabeth Fraunces, and this cat had killed her husband and done all the harm of which Agnes stood accused.
Elizabeth Fraunces and also Agnes’ daughter Joan were accused of witchcraft alongside her. Joan was just eighteen years old. She was accused of bewitching another teenager, the Waterhouse’s neighbour Agnes Browne. Joan and her mother, twelve year old Agnes Browne told the court, had sent a black dog to torment her. It brought her the key to the Browne family’s dairy and stole or damaged some of their butter. More seriously, the dog tempted Agnes Browne to suicide by bringing her a knife. He told her this was “his sweet dame’s knife” and when he was asked who this was, Agnes Browne said “he wagged his head to your house, mother Waterhouse”. As well as being a talking dog, this demonic tempter had a monkey’s face and a whistle hung around his neck: a strange beast to see trotting around Hatfield Peverel!
Agnes Waterhouse told Agnes Browne that she was making this story up: “thou liest” she told the girl stoutly. She added that she didn’t even own a dagger. It sounds as though Agnes Waterhouse was in court facing down Agnes Browne – and this account of the trial may be true. But Agnes Waterhouse didn’t need to confront Agnes Browne. She had in fact already pleaded guilty to witchcraft. Most accused felons fought for their lives by pleading “not guilty” but Agnes Waterhouse didn’t. Why did Agnes plead guilty, and why was she still fighting on in the courtroom after she had confessed? The answer is probably Joan. By pleading guilty and then standing beside her daughter to take the blame perhaps Agnes hoped to save Joan from execution.
A woodcutting, supposedly of Agnes Waterhouse, from a 1566 pamphlet of the trial.
The case made what we would now think of as “headlines”.
Someone gave the statements of the accused witches to a London publisher, who
added an eyewitness account of the courtroom scenes, a couple of very bad poems
and a description of Agnes’ execution. Yes, that was her fate, and 29th
July is the anniversary of her death. Agnes Waterhouse was executed with the
other felons convicted at the Assizes, hanged in front of a crowd gathered at
the gallows in Chelmsford. The site of her death lies on the road leading
towards Writtle.
It was a sad end to Agnes’ life, but it was a golden opportunity for journalists. The publisher rushed out a booklet about the case and even added a portrait of Agnes to his story, a woodcut print labelled in blackletter font and showing a woman looking oddly pious, with her hand upraised in blessing. There’s a good reason for this mismatch between story and woodcut.
The picture isn’t actually of Agnes at all. It was just a woodcut from the publisher’s stockroom, with space in the label to insert metal blocks of type. In this way the publisher could give any name to the woman depicted. Witches were usually women, this was a picture of a woman: that would do.
This bit of fake news isn’t the only myth to get stuck to Agnes over the course of the last four hundred and fifty years, however. She’s routinely described as the first witch to be executed for witchcraft in England. In fact, witches had been being executed in England and the wider British Isles for centuries, often because they were judged under laws concerning treason or heresy. Examples include Petronilla de Meath from County Meath, who was executed in 1324 and Margery Jourdemayne from Eye in Suffolk, who was executed in 1441. Both women were burned at the stake. But it is true that Agnes is the first media superstar of the age when witch-hunting got serious in England. She’s a “first witch” because she’s the first witch we know about from a printed news story. In the sixteenth century, that was extraordinary fame.
We should remember Agnes on the anniversary of her execution. She died surrounded by her enemies, likely jeering and jostling for a better view, but she died knowing that her daughter Joan had been acquitted, just as Agnes had hoped.
——————————————————————————————————————–
All the details of the case are taken from the news pamphlet ‘The Examination and Confession of Certaine Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie of Essex (1566)’.
You can read more about Agnes, including the whole text of this pamphlet, in Marion Gibson, ‘Early Modern Witches’ (London: Routledge, 2000)
In the meantime, St Andrews Church in Hatfield Peverel is probably the closest glimpse we can get of the Hatfield Peverel that Agnes knew.
Much of the building dates to the 19th century restoration, but the nave and central tower arch from the original 12th century priory still remain and Agnes would have looked on these features much as we do now, as an enduring memento of history. (Photo by Fred Spalding c.1940)
