George Eland – Historian of the Courts of Great Canfield

The following follows a short article that was written for the Newsletter of the Friends of Historic Essex.

Thousands of local historians enthusiastically and diligently research and document their church, their parish, their town, their industry or a local notable, for example. Singly, their role is significant but collectively their contribution to the community is immense. Unrewarded financially, they will nevertheless take much satisfaction from their work.

Occasionally such a contribution really stands out. Without earnestly looking for examples of good writing in local history, sometimes one is confronted by writing that is as notable for its clarity and elegance as for its history. You may have had the good fortune (as I did in rambling through the Essex Record Office for possible sources of details on the Royal Forest of Hatfield) to stumble upon George Eland’s small book At the Courts of Great Canfield, Essex¹.

The C15 embattled porch of the parish church of St Mary, Great Canfield, enclosing the ornate south doorway.

George Eland lived in Great Canfield. He is still remembered there - as an eccentric. During his lifetime, which exceeded ninety years, he resisted the introduction of running water, gas and mains electricity to his house. He was known locally as ‘Boots’ since even into late age he walked in those boots to Great Dunmow, a round trip of several miles, two or three times each week.

George wrote uncommonly well. His writing, like his house, has a quality that seems to be lodged in a time not far removed from the courts that he wrote about. The Lord of the Manor allowed him access to the court-rolls of Great Canfield no, George has said it much better . . . in the first two paragraphs of his preface to the book.

“PREFACE

Whilst there can never be a real justification of an unwanted book, a few facts may be offered by way of condonation. Destiny cast its compiler almost in the middle of the manor, and between the sites of the two largest common fields. The western boundary of a wide horizon is one of the ancient demesne woods, and a clear sunset lights up the church which lies two miles to the south and stands against the tree-clad mount of the Norman castle. In a very actual sense therefore his theme lies all around him, and, however slender his qualifications to handle court-rolls, he had not sufficient strength of mind to refrain from the attempt when the kindness of the manor’s lord entrusted him with the documents as soon as they were returned from the safe retreat found for them during the war by the Essex Record Office.

On a golden day in autumn the editor could cross the stubbles in any direction to visit one of the tenements or inclosures which have a recorded history of five or six centuries, and he could return with notes to compare with the written words of the rolls:

“Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.”

Whether capable of profiting by them or not, he has had opportunities during the last few years for which he is unfeignedly thankful.”

Within the first paragraph, George has introduced his landscape and his purpose. The final paragraph of the Preface is worth repeating, again in its entirety.

“The editor lays down his pen with some sadness, for this must be his last effort to preserve local records in an easily accessible form. A hobby-horse is for pleasure, not for draught, and his has led him for nearly forty years to beautiful places and amidst many charming people; its consumption of com is moderate, and that suggests the greatest of all hobby-horsical riders. When Mr. Walter Shandy told my Uncle Toby that his fortifications would ‘in the end make a beggar of you,’ he replied, ‘What signifies it if they do, brother, so long as we know ‘tis for the good of the nation?’

GREAT CANFIELD
G.E
September, 1949”

Maybe the prose just brushes with the pedantic. Is the quotation - from Milton’s Il Penseroso - wholly fitting? It matters not. The tone is gentle, modest and apologetic, but has the fascination of exploring local history been stated more gracefully and so concisely?

As a postscript, taken from the body of the book, consider how George Eland paints the numerous courtly problems of Thomas Hawkyn.

The quote comes from a short section in the book dealing with some problems created by animals.

“The 14 July 1507 was a black day for Thomas Hawkyn, and he had several matters to answer for at the court held then. He had assaulted John Dene, and was fined 6d. He had finished his year’s service as ale-taster so badly that he was fined 3d. for that. He had drawn from his well a latten bucket, holding 1 1/2 gallons, which was ranked as a stray, value 3s. 4d. and seized for the lord’s benefit. He lived close by the church-yard, his kitchen had fallen down and he had burned the timbers, for this and other ‘waste’ made in the dwelling, the bailiff was ordered to take it into the lord’s hands. At length we come to the story which brings him within the heading of this section; he had a dog which was noxious, for it bit the king’s lieges. This is not to be wondered at because it was no less than a ‘mastygreyhounde’ – a name which combines all the vices of the mastiff and the greyhound. At all events he was to get rid of it before 25 July, eleven days ahead, or pay 3s. and 4d. So Thomas Hawkyn left the court with a lighter purse, to seek his dilapidated home by the churchyard from which he was to be ejected; as the howls of the mastygreyhounde reached him from the ruined kitchen, he could reflect on the futility

‘Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.’”

Within the Essex Record Office, sadly, only one other booklet is attributed to George Eland - that being a guide to the parish church.

. . . and the final quotation is from Cowper, The Task. Book iii. The Garden.