A riotous time in Steeple Bumpstead, 1861

Posted on June 18, 2015 by admin

John Crellin, Archive Assistant

Love it or loath it, football has always had the power to hit the headlines. An article from the ERO’s historic annals of the Essex Chronicle describes an off-pitch outbreak of communal violence associated with the ‘beautiful game’ in Victorian times.

On Friday July 19, 1861 the Chelmsford Chronicle, forerunner of the Essex Chronicle, dramatically headlined a story ‘Riot at Steeple Bumpstead’. What followed was a detailed account of court proceedings recording violent clashes between rioters and the police in the normally peaceful village of Steeple Bumpstead.

Report in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 19 July 1861 on the disturbances at Steeple Bumpstead

Parishioners of Steeple Bumpstead had enjoyed the privilege of playing games of various kinds on an area of land in the village known as the Camping Close.

The close was said to be part of the land given to the parish by William Helion centuries ago and leased to the Lords of nearby Bower Hall.

Over the years the area had gradually reduced with the taking over, or enclosure, of sections of it by the Bower Hall estate for agricultural purposes.

Keen on their football, the villagers objected and various incidents of trespass resulted in a boundary, in the form of a ditch, being dug in 1849 by John Snape, then the tenant of Parsonage Farm (part of the Bower Hall estate), to cordon off a part of the Camping Close for his own use.

In the eyes of the villagers this was wrong. Snape was encroaching on their playing field.

In 1860 (with Snape gone and William Dere now tenant of the farm) their unhappiness resulted in some notable foul play when John Clayden, John Salmon and John Bunton, all described as ‘young tradesmen of Steeple Bumpstead’ moved a pile of manure from the area behind the boundary ditch and scattered it over Camping Close land. Later they returned with 20 fellow villagers to play football over the land, in the process treading the manure into the ground.

The three were brought before the magistrate’s court and charged with the offence of damaging a pile of manure. They were found guilty and fined a shilling.

The villagers firmly believed in the ancient rights and the case went to appeal at the Court of the Queen’s Bench. Here the conviction was quashed on the grounds that there was ‘reasonable supposition of right’ on the part of the defenders.

A short time later, encouraged by the verdict, John Bunton, a one-armed veteran of the Crimean War of the 1850s, William Woodham, William Spencer and Charles Willis overthrew a corn rick standing on the disputed area. As a result they were served with a writ by William Dere, to prevent further damage.

Incensed by the issuing of these writs, in the summer of 1861 a large crowd of villagers led by a man described as a ‘warlike veteran village lawyer’ entered another area of disputed land cutting down a hedge and 74 trees from a plantation.

Warrants for the arrest of the five men considered to be the ring leaders were issued, but when the local policeman Constable Robert Spencer tried to execute the warrants he and his colleagues were met with ‘forceful’ opposition amounting to a riot. In the face of such opposition the constabulary withdrew leaving the villagers in command of their Camping Close.

The rule of law was upheld the next day with the arrival of John McHardy, the Chief Constable. He met with the leaders and managed to persuade them to attend court in Castle Hedingham.

They were committed for trial at Chelmsford Assizes and led to Springfield gaol. John Claydon, 18, shoemaker, Charles Willis, 21 labourer, William Spencer, 18, baker, William Woodham 21, labourer and John Bunton, 25, labourer, were all indicted for their symbolic act of defiance in feloniously damaging trees in a plantation adjacent to Bower Hall Park.

The jury found the Steeple Bumpstead five guilty and the judge imprisoned them for one month without hard labour and to be bound over to keep the peace for two years.

Historic newspapers provide a never-ending supply of interesting, odd and surprising details about life in the past, and it’s easy to get lost in them for hours. If you fancy doing just that, make the most of free access to the British Newspaper Archive Online in the ERO Searchroom or Essex Libraries.

A version of this article was published in the Essex Chronicle in 2004 but it was such a good story we thought it was worth sharing again.

Document of the Month, June 2015: Settlement examination of James Sutton, 1821

Posted on June 3, 2015 by admin

Our document of the month for June is a record of a man named James Sutton being questioned by Justices of the Peace trying to establish where he was entitled to claim poor relief (D/P 332/13/4).

James Sutton was attempting to claim poor relief in Rayleigh, but had not been born there. Under the laws of settlement, if it could be proved that a person claiming relief was legally the responsibility of another parish then they could be removed to that place. Settlement examinations often contain a great deal of biographical information about the poor, and there are thousands of them in our collections.

What is notable about this particular examination is that James Sutton gave no information about his place of settlement but stated that he had served for seven years and six months in the 54th Foot and had been wounded in the left arm at the Battle of Waterloo. He continued to serve until 1820 when he was discharged.

He stated that had been awarded a medal for his service but not a pension as he had volunteered from the East Middlesex Militia and had served less than 14 years with the 54th Regiment, and that this meant that he was not entitled to a pension. The Waterloo Medal was the first time a medal was awarded to all ranks (although we cannot find a James Sutton of the 54th Foot on the Waterloo Medal Roll).

2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, which saw the decisive defeat of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the French. Within a few days Napoleon had abdicated and by the end of the year was in exile on St. Helena.

Waterloo brought to an end wars which had raged across Europe from the 1790s. Approximately 15,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle, with another 7,000 Prussian and between 20 and 24,000 French casualties. Nearly 50 years of peace followed in Europe, which was brought to an end by the Crimean War in 1853 when Britain and France fought as allies.

This document will be on display in the ERO Searchroom throughout June 2015.

Finding our way through the National Grid

Posted on June 2, 2015 by admin

Lawrence Barker, Archivist

The ERO has a fine collection of late 19^th and early 20^th century large scale OS maps (1:2500 County Series) available for public consultation in the Searchroom. However, we wanted to extend the collection to include later 20^th century National Grid maps of the same scale. Some mid-Essex maps are available to view but many, among various collections which have been donated to the ERO over the years, remain to be made so.

Just a few of the maps awaiting sorting and cataloguing

A Map Project involving volunteers has been underway for three years to achieve this and has reached the stage where, having identified and listed our remaining maps and their locations, assessing duplication and condition, we are now ready to select those which will be added to the Searchroom collection. The task is complex though, and involves the volunteers spreading out maps around the Searchroom whilst we are closed on Mondays so they can be sorted.

Spreading out maps in the Searchroom ready for sorting

Our team of volunteers comprises Michael and Jane Thomas, who are NADFAS members, John Longhurst, and Andrew Morton who acts as leader bringing his expert knowledge of maps as a former land surveyor usefully to the task.

The sorting and listing of the 20th century National Grid maps is a long term project that will take a few years, but we are looking forward to the end result of making our map collection ever more accessible.

Change in Essex Ancestors subscription rates

Posted on May 28, 2015 by admin

A message for those of you who are users of our online subscription service Essex Ancestors:

Last summer, for the first time since 2011, we raised most of Essex Ancestors’ subscription prices, but we were able to keep the basic 1-day subscription unchanged. We know that our customers appreciated it, but a rise is now essential for us to continue to provide the services that our customers want.

From Monday 8 June 2015 a 1-day subscription will cost £10 including VAT; all our other subscription prices will remain the same. For access to over 750,000 images of parish registers and wills we think that this still represents great value. Essex Ancestors will also remain free to view in the ERO Searchroom in Chelmsford and at the Archive Access Points in Saffron Walden and Harlow.

Don’t forget that our Reprographics Service can email you images of individual documents without subscription, even if the documents appear on Essex Ancestors. The first image of a document costs £2; later images of the same document cost £1.50 each.

Thank you for your ongoing support as we continue to develop Essex Ancestors by uploading ever more content for researchers to use and enjoy.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – Roger de Mescinges

Posted on May 22, 2015 by admin

In our final blog post in the run up to Magna Carta: Essex Connections on Saturday 23 May, we look at a document that is something of a post-script to our recent Magna Carta, but it is an interesting medieval document we wanted to share.

The document is a grant made by Roger de Mescinges [Messing] of all his lands, knights and other tenements of his fee to his son-in-law Thomas Bainard (D/DH VB11).

There are two key features which make it particularly interesting: first, it is possible to give this a definite date, which is unusual in medieval deeds, and second, it gives us an insight into the mindset of a landowner during the unrest following the granting of the Magna Carta in 1215.

Its date can be narrowed down very precisely, because of the reference it makes to the Treaty of Lambeth, which was agreed on 11 September 1217 between the rebel barons, the new King Henry III, and Prince Louis of France, who agreed to give up his claim to the English crown.

After listing the witnesses, this deed states that it was made in the time ‘when peace was made between the lord Henry, King of England and Louis son of the King of France and between the barons of the king’.

It’s also interesting to read that Roger de Mescinges was giving his land to his son-in-law because his own body was ‘so debilitated’ that it was not possible for him to defend his land, labourers and possessions. Land and with it wealth and possessions were held by those able to physically defend it. After nearly three years of civil war, with a great deal of fighting taking place in Essex, Roger de Mescinges had decided that a younger man was needed to defend his land.

Find out more about Essex connections with the Magna Carta with us on Saturday 23 May.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – the fighting that followed

Posted on May 21, 2015 by admin

In almost our last blog post in the run up to Magna Carta: Essex Connections on Saturday 23 May, we take a look at some of the fighting that occurred in the county as a result of the unrest between King John and the rebel barons in 1215.

Within a few weeks of King John’s meeting with the barons at Runnymede on 19 June 1215 it was evident that Magna Carta had not brought peace. The king started to recruit mercenaries from overseas and the barons in turn refused to surrender London.

The barons went to France and offered the crown to King Philip’s son Louis. At the end of November Prince Louis sent a small army to help the barons; they landed in the Orwell estuary and marched on London

King John divided his force into two, setting off north with part of his force. The chronicler Roger of Wendover described the king’s campaign in the north:

The whole land was covered with these limbs of the devil like locusts, who assembled to blot out every thing from the face of the earth: for, running about with drawn swords and knives, they ransacked towns, houses, cemeteries, and churches, robbing everyone, sparing neither women nor children.

The other part of the forces under Savary de Mauléon (one of the king’s mercenaries) and the Earl of Salisbury (John’s half-brother) headed into Essex. The chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall described the effect of the royal forces in the county. By Christmas Eve they were besieging Geoffrey de Mandeville’s castle at Pleshey and from there the royal forces were laying the surrounding countryside to waste, demanding money and men and burning houses, destroying parks and cutting down trees.

On Christmas Day 1215 one of these raiding parties broke into Tilty Abbey during mass, destroying furnishings and breaking open the cellars and carrying away items stored there which had been deposited by merchants.

Watercolour of Tilty Abbey by A.B. Bamford, c.1905 (I/Ba 72/1)

A week later on 1 January Ralph of Coggeshall described how they broke into his own abbey at Coggeshall, and stole 22 horses belonging to the bishop of London, the treasurer, the monks and others.

Savary de Mauléon went on to besiege Colchester Castle in January 1216, retreating to Bury St. Edmunds when he heard that the barons were heading towards Colchester.

Following the conclusion of the king’s campaign in the north, he headed south to Essex. By the end of March both Colchester and Hedingham Castles had surrendered to the king. In May 1216 Prince Louis landed in England with a larger French force. In the next few months, three forces ranged through Essex – the army of the king, the barons’ forces led by William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex (brother of the recently dead Geoffrey de Mandeville), Robert FitzWalter and William de Huntingfield (another Magna Carta baron) and a mostly French force, supporting the barons.

Hedingham Castle (I/Mb 176/1/32)

On 19 October 1216 King John died at Newark. His eldest son Henry III (aged 9) was crowned at Gloucester Cathedral as the barons and Prince Louis still controlled London. The regent for the king was a much respected baron William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. Marshal gradually persuaded many of the barons to support the king. In May 1217 the remaining barons were defeated at the Battle of Lincoln, with many being captured, including Robert FitzWalter, Richard de Mountfitchet and Gilbert de Clare. On 11 September 1217 the Treaty of Lambeth was agreed, with Prince Louis agreeing to give up his claim to the English crown. As well as settling with the French, the treaty made peace with the barons; Richard de Mountfitchet, for example, not only regained his lands, but also his custody of the forest of Essex.

Find out more about Essex connections with the Magna Carta with us on Saturday 23 May.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – the other Essex barons

Posted on May 20, 2015 by admin

In our series of posts about the Essex connections with the people involved in the granting of the Magna Carta in 1215, we have previously mentioned that six of the 25 rebel barons named in the document had strong Essex connections.

We have already whisked through the involvement of Geoffrey de Mandeville and Robert FitzWalter, and here we take a quick look at the other four; Robert de Vere, Robert de Mountfitchet, John FitzRobert and William de Lanvallei.

Effigy of Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in Hatfield Broad Oak church

Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford (his effigy in Hatfield Broad Oak church is to the right) and Richard de Mountfitchet could trace their Essex lands back to the Norman Conquest. The de Vere family were based at Castle Hedingham and the Mountfitchets at Stansted. Together with the de Clare and Bigod families they owned extensive lands in the north of the county.

John FitzRobert was lord of the manor of Clavering and related to the Bigod family. He was also lord of Warkworth in Northumberland, and so part of the other significant group of Magna Carta barons described by chroniclers as ‘the Northerners’.

The final Essex baron was William de Lanvallei, constable of Colchester Castle and lord of the manors of Lexden, Stanway, Great Bromley and Great Hallingbury. He also held lands in Hertfordshire.

Many of the barons benefited directly from their involvement. Within a few days of Magna Carta, the king granted Hertford Castle to Robert FitzWalter; William de Lanvallei became constable of Colchester Castle again; Richard de Clare gained the town of Buckingham; and Richard de Montfitchet was appointed forester of Essex, a title held by his father and grandfather (more on this here).

Find out more about Essex connections with the Magna Carta with us on Saturday 23 May.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – Robert FitzWalter

Posted on May 19, 2015 by admin

One of these men was Robert FitzWalter, lord of Little Dunmow, who was generally seen as one of the leaders of the barons against the king.

He and another Magna Carta baron, Eustace de Vesci had been implicated in a plot against the king in 1212 and fled to France, before later being reconciled and returning to England. During the rebellion against the king he described himself as ‘Marshal of the Army of God’.

FitzWalter alleged that John had attempted to rape his daughter Matilda and following her resistance had seized Matilda and imprisoned her in the Tower of London. Matilda continued to resist John so he sent her an egg filled with poison which she ate and died.

One chronicler, Matthew Paris, described FitzWalter’s daughter as Matilda or Maud the Fair called Maid Marion. However, it was not until a 17^th century play that the character became associated with the legend of Maid Marion and Robin Hood.

It has been suggested that the female FitzWalter effigy in Little Dunmow church (right) marks the burial place of Matilda.

Matilda FitzWalter was in fact the first wife of another Magna Carta baron Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. The de Mandevilles had held extensive lands in Essex since the Norman Conquest of 1066, with castles at Pleshey and Saffron Walden.

Find out more about Robert FitzWalter and other Essex connections with the Magna Carta with us on Saturday 23 May.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – Hugh de Neville

Posted on May 16, 2015 by admin

In the run up to Magna Carta: Essex Connections we take a more detailed look at the Essex connections of Hugh de Neville, a friend of King John who eventually rebelled against him.

Hugh de Neville appears a witness in the royal grant of 2 May 1203 that we hold here at ERO (D/DB T1437/1). He was King John’s Chief Forester, one of the great officers of state, and is named in Magna Carta as one of John’s officials – the men whom the chronicler Roger of Wendover referred to as the king’s ‘evil councillors’. One of the aims of Magna Carta was to curb the powers of royal positions such as Chief Forester.

Hugh de Neville named in a royal charter of 1203 (D/DB T1437/1)

Before John’s reign, Hugh de Neville had served briefly under Henry II, then throughout the reign of Richard I, fighting with him on the Third Crusade. The Essex historian Revd. Philip Morant records that ‘he performed a valorous exploit, by shooting an arrow into a Lion’s breast, and when he rose against him, catching him by the beard, and running his sword into his heart’. This feat was represented on his seal.

Hugh was given lands by both Richard and John, many of them in Essex. Over time he acquired the manors of Langham, Wethersfield, Little Hallingbury and Abbots in East Horndon and served as sheriff of Essex, 1197-1200 and 1202-1203.

Despite being on friendly terms with King John for most of his reign, de Neville appears to have suffered as a result of John’s philandering. John had a reputation for forcing himself on the wives of his courtiers. A French chronicler wrote that he was ‘too desirous of fair women … by which he brought great shame upon the highest men of the land, for which he was much hated’. A chronicler in Yorkshire wrote of John that he ‘deflowered the wives and daughters of the nobility, spared the wives of none whom he chose to stain with the ardour of his desires’. The Oblate Roll for Christmas 1204 recorded that Joan ‘the wife of Hugh de Neville gives the lord King 200 chickens that she might lie one night with her lord’ (i.e. paying the King to allow her a night with her own husband).

John moved quickly to rescind the Magna Carta and the rebel barons invited Prince Louis of France to take the English throne. Louis arrived with an army in May 1216, and this is when de Neville finally abandoned John and joined the rebel barons. When John died and his son became Henry III, de Neville pledged his loyalty to him.

De Neville died in 1234, and was buried in Waltham Abbey.

The interior of Waltham Abbey, 1860 (I/Mb 385/1/86)

There is more to come in our Magna Carta series, but in the meantime get in touch on 033301 32500 to book your ticket for Magna Carta: Essex Connections.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500

Magna Carta: Essex Connections – the de Mandevilles

Posted on May 14, 2015 by admin

In the run up to Magna Carta: Essex Connections we take a more detailed look at the Essex connections of Geoffrey de Mandeville, one of the rebel barons.

One of the most radical things about Magna Carta was that the rebel barons chose 25 representatives to ‘observe, hold and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties which we have granted and confirmed’. King John was not trusted and the barons were to ensure that the promises made were kept by distraint if necessary. Distraint is the process by which property can be seized to pay money owed, but can also be used to ensure that an obligation is carried out. It was a well-established practice in the Middle Ages, but Magna Carta extended its use against the king by his subjects.

Among the 25 Magna Carta barons there were six with strong Essex connections – Robert FitzWalter, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Robert de Mountfitchet, John FitzRobert and William de Lanvallei. In addition another four – Richard de Clare, Earl of Clare and his son Gilbert de Clare and Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and his son Hugh Bigod, also held lands in the north of the county, although they were more usually associated with Suffolk and Norfolk.

Here we look at Geoffrey de Mandeville and his father, Geoffrey FitzPeter, who we mentioned in our recent post on our two documents from the reign of King John.

Both of the 1203 documents we have mention Geoffrey FitzPeter, who served as justiciar under both Richard the Lionheart and King John. The justiciar was the chief political and judicial officer of the king, roughly equivalent to today’s prime minister.

The justiciar was accustomed to govern the country in the king’s absence. The Essex historian Revd. Philip Morant in 1768 described FitzPeter as the ‘firmest Pillar of the realm, generous, skilful in the laws, and in money and everything else and allied to all the great men of England either in blood or friendship’.

Extract from D/DB T1437/1, where Geoffrey FitzPeter is named (‘Gauf[r]i[d]o filo Pet’[ri] Com[itato] Essex’)

Geoffrey FitzPeter had married Beatrice de Say who was the great-niece of Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1^st Earl of Essex. When Geoffrey de Mandeville’s youngest son William, 3^rd Earl of Essex died without an heir, his extensive lands in Essex and elsewhere were disputed between two branches of the de Say family. Geoffrey FitzPeter, with his royal influence, won out, and King John appointed him Earl of Essex on his coronation day in 1213.

His sons Geoffrey and William both assumed the name de Mandeville and both succeeded him as Earl of Essex. His eldest son Geoffrey de Mandeville was one of the 25 barons appointed to ensure that King John kept to the promises made in Magna Carta.

It is not surprising to find Geoffrey de Mandeville on the rebel side in 1215. His first wife Maud was the daughter of Robert FitzWalter, another important Essex landowner and effectively the rebel leader (more on him and his daughter coming soon).

After Maud’s death, Geoffrey married Isabella, the divorced ex-wife of King John. The marriage was probably forced upon him, and John charged him a ruinous fine for the privilege.

In December 1215 the de Mandeville castle at Pleshey was besieged by the royal forces. Geoffrey was killed at a tournament in February 1216 and was succeeded by his brother William, another opponent of King John, who fought royal forces in Essex in 1216.

Aerial photograph of earthworks at Pleshey Castle, 1951 (I/Mb 275/1/11)

There are more posts to come exploring the Essex connections with the Magna Carta, but in the meantime give us a ring on 033301 32500 to book for Magna Carta: Essex Connections on Saturday 23 May.

Magna Carta: Essex Connections

To explore the significance and legacy of this famous document, both nationally and for Essex, join us for talks from:

Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, who has been leading a major project researching the background to Magna Carta
Katharine Schofield, ERO Archivist, on Essex connections with Magna Carta and the impact it had on the medieval county

Saturday 23 May, 1.15pm for 1.30am-4.15pm

Tickets: £8, including tea, coffee and cake

Please book in advance on 033301 32500