Regular readers of this Blog will know how much we at the Record Office enjoy using our venerable 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and recently I had cause to consult it once more to check a meaning.
One of the joys (there are so many!) of working at ERO is the instances of serendipity occurring – be it the documents being looked at or the happy coincidence (serendipity) of working in the Searchoom on a particular day and meeting new researchers. The summer brings all sorts of exotic things across the globe to our own shores; often they will have drifted here via the Gulf Stream or blown over the ocean by contrary winds. Some visitors though, have a premeditated reason to travel thousands of miles to reach us, and quite often, even here, in the Searchroom we have our own long-distance travellers descending on us. The reasons can be legion: perhaps they are here from the other side of the world tracing their Essex family history containing an ancestor who might have been given free passage to Australia, against their will, for some nefarious crime. Or maybe it is tracing the medieval history of one of our villages or the treatment of the aged in early-modern Essex. We never know who will be walking through our door and what they will want to look at.
A month or two ago we had just one such visitor who came to us from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (which according to the ‘measure’ tool in Google maps is about 3,970 miles away!), Dr Emily Spunaugle. Emily was over here researching early nineteenth century Wanstead, which was once in the historic county of Essex. After almost a day with us and having looked at many documents, Emily came across a book from our library that she had been waiting a long time to see: Rambles in Waltham Forest: a stranger’s contribution to the triennial sale for the benefit of the Wanstead Lying-in Charity from 1827.
Our particular copy of the book also, entirely unexpectedly, answered an important question for which Dr Spunaugle had long been seeking an answer.
Rambles in Waltham Forest: a stranger’s contribution to the triennial sale for the benefit of the Wanstead Lying-in Charity 1827 (LIB/634.9 BLE)
There was much excitement and a photo was demanded
Dr Emily Spunaugle
It is lovely to be able to help researchers to make the most of their visits and being a regular using of archives myself, I know what it feels like to have that ‘moment’ when your research falls into place. Emily has subsequently contacted us to say that
As an academic, I’ve conducted research in countless libraries, local museums, and record offices around the United Kingdom during my career, and none have been so welcoming and helpful as the Essex Record Office. During my visit, workers expressed appropriate and genuine interest in researchers’ topics, including my own, and consulted with their colleagues for additional expertise when needed. From the wayfinding information on the website to the friendly service of the in-person visit itself, it’s apparent that the ERO wants researchers to come and use their collections, and actively sees this as their mission. Here’s hoping my next research project also involves Essex!
So, whether you are planning on visiting us from near or far (and we do want you to visit to look at the documents we car for), we look forward to seeing you and hope that you have as successful a visit as Emily did. Thinking about it, Emily experienced some serendipity in the Searchroom, as much as we did in being able to help her: serendipity squared – now that’s something powerful in this day and age!
For many families children have returned to school after the long summer break. We thought it an excellent opportunity to display some school related items from the Collections.
On display we have a school exercise book of John G Freeman from 1888 (D/DGs/F91), when he was in the Upper Fifth form, and a copy of his school report from July 1887 (D/DGs/F89).
John was from Southend and attended Dame Alice Owen’s School in Islington. The type of lessons John had is reflected in his exercise book – trigonometry, algebra and composition for example, complete with feedback on his work from the Form Master. References to the neatness of margins might be familiar to teachers and parents alike!
On viewing John’s school reports, it appears he was on the whole a good student and impressed his Form Master.
John later went on to become an electrical engineer, an emerging profession at that time.
The vast majority of the records preserved at the Essex Record Office have been donated or loaned freely for the benefit of the public. We, and generations of researchers and residents, are grateful for the generosity of donors and owners of records who help to ensure these documents are safely preserved and widely accessible to the public.
However, from time to time the Record Office is alerted by The National Archives to documents coming up for auction. If it is something significant enough and suitable to acquire for the archive, we seek external funding for the full cost of the purchase. Our first approach is usually to the Friends of Historic Essex, the charity that supports ERO. For relatively small amounts, the Friends are generally more than happy to finance the purchase of documents themselves, which are then added to our holdings for all researchers to access.
Occasionally the documents we are told about are more expensive than the Friends on their own can fund, so we may need to apply to other awarding bodies to help build a bigger pot of cash. The Essex Heritage Trust, the Essex Society for Archaeology and History and other local organisations have kindly provided grants for this. But for higher value documents it is often the support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries (FNL), with their generous contributions, that has allowed us to successfully acquire the item in question.
However, this is not always the case and just recently we were delighted to be directly approached by a vendor who had just purchased a document which we unsuccessfully bid for in 2019 – the ‘Survey and Valuation of the Estate of the Earl of Essex in Parishes of Stebbing, Saling, Rayne and Bocking’, which we remembered as ‘the one that got away’!
In 2019 we were alerted that this volume was about to be auctioned and the then Chair of the Friends, Dr Chris Thornton contacted FNL, who gave a promise of funding, and the Stebbing Local History Society (SLHS) to see if they might be willing to contribute as well.
The very active SLHS were excited with the possibility of this volume being acquired for the ERO, as they have a long-running research programme with American academic Prof Lawrence Poos of the Catholic University of America, looking at the landscape history of their parish.
For many of our parishes, the earliest complete map showing individual plots of land detailing ownership, tenancy and land use can often be that created (with the accompanying ‘Award’) for the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, with the resulting maps dating from the late 1830s into the early 1850s. While there will almost always be earlier estate maps, these can often be of only limited areas rather than an entire parish. Therefore, this volume which contains many maps of areas across Stebbing, as well as adjoining parishes, would be very useful as it shows the area 40 or so years earlier than would have been surveyed on the Stebbing tithe map (D/CT 332B).
All was progressing nicely: a member of SLHS had visited the auction house to examine the volume to give it the once over and had given the ‘thumbs up’; a decent sum of money had been pledged and our bid was made. Come the day of the auction, we waited with bated breath to see if we were successful – and we were not! SLHS passed on their details to the auction house, for forwarding to the successful purchaser, in the hope that they might be permitted to photograph it for academic purposes – nothing was heard. Chris Thornton counselled us to keep an eye out for it appearing again in the future, for you never know …
Fast forward six or so years and ERO were approached early in 2026 by someone who had been attending an antiques fair and had come across the very same volume of maps on a stall and being retailed for much less than we had lost it for. Realising its importance, he purchased it and got in contact to offer it to the Record Office for what it had cost him. ERO sprang into action and approached the Friends of Historic Essex to ask if they would cover the purchase price. They of course said yes.
However, it was remembered that SLHS had been approached before and the Friends thought it only right and proper to let them know that they were about to purchase it. And this is the lovely bit: SLHS came back, quick as a flash, having spoken with Prof Poos over in America, saying that between them they would pay the purchase price of the volume as well as the cost to have it digitised so that interested researchers around the world would be able to have access to the maps via Essex Archives Online. Prof Poos says:
It’s heartening to be reminded that though we can’t buy history, we absolutely can sponsor its rescue. I’m just pleased to have been able to help the Essex Record Office ensure that this book will be where it belongs, partly of course because of my own Stebbing research but equally for the benefit of who knows who will want to study it in the future.
While Graham Jolliffe, Chair of SLHS adds:
The Stebbing Local History Society recognises that the ‘Survey and Valuation of the Estate of the Earl of Essex’ volume is the most important piece of Stebbing history that has come on to the open market since the foundation of the society thirty years ago. After the disappointment of not being able to secure its purchase in 2019 we are absolutely thrilled that it is now in public ownership and in the very safe hands of the Essex Record Office. As a consequence, the SLHS is very pleased to be able to contribute the monies required to enable the volume to be digitised. We very much look forward to being able to use it to throw a light onto Stebbing in the late 18th century.
On a recent research trip to Essex, the Record Office and FHE were pleased to host Prof Poos and Graham Jolliffe for a first showing of this important document.
(L-R) Jenny Butler, Chair of FHE; Richard Anderson, Archive and Collections Lead, ERO; historian and academic Prof Larry Poos; and Graham Jolliffe, Chair of SLHS Plan of Porters Hall, Stebbing
Also present was the current Chair of The Friends of Historic Essex, Jenny Butler:
The Friends were delighted to be asked to fund the purchase of this important collection of maps for the Record Office, having missed out on acquiring them in 2019, especially so after my predecessor as Chair, Dr Chris Thornton, had raised a considerable ‘fighting-fund’ from several funders. The Friends are even more pleased to have helped identify our current generous donors which has allowed our own resources to be preserved for future purchases of documents.
First page of the detailed breakdown of the lands of Porters Hall
This volume of maps has been added to the archive of documents that the Record Office looks after, covering almost a thousand years of the history of the county.
If you would like to visit and undertake your own research with us, you can find out more about visiting here.
![Serendipity (/ˌser.ənˈdɪp.ə.ti/). [f. Serendip, a former name for Ceylon +-ITY.
A word coined by Horace Walpole, who says (Let. to Mann, 28th Jan 1754) that he had formed it upon the title of the fairy-tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip', the heroes of which 'were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of'.]
The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident.
1754 - H. Walpole Let. to Mann 28 Jan., This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity.
1880 - E. Solly Index Titles of Honour Pref. 5 The inquirer was at fault, and it was not till some weeks later, when by the aid of serendipity, as Horace Walpole called it-that is, looking for one thing and finding another-that the explanation was accidentally found.](https://i0.wp.com/www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1.-OED-serendipity.jpg?ssl=1)
