Greensted: Appointment to Essex Benefices of Commissioners to the Great Seal,1649-1654

ADD. MS. 36792 at the British Museum contains a list of appointments to benefices and
ecclesiastical preferments throughout the country by the Lords Commissioners of the Great
Seal of England (Bulstrode Whitelocke, esquire, Serjeant-at-Law; Richard Keeble, esquire,
Serjeant-at-Law; and John Lisle, esquire) from October, 1649, to March, 1653-4. This is
especially important, as other records fail just for this period. Bishops' Certificates and
entries in the Lords' Journals break off at the end of January, 1649; the certificates of the
Triers do not begin till April, 1654.
It is regularly stated how the benefice is void, by whom the minister is recommended (by
parishioners, or by members of Parliament, sometimes named, e.g. Sir Henry Mildmay or Sir
William Masham; or by various divines, sometimes named), and by what right the
Commissioners appoint. …
In a number of cases the minister appointed had been already for some years in the
sequestration, but was now legally appointed to the benefice on the death (or cession) of the
sequestered minister. This was the case at Aldham, Little Burstead, Danbury, Hadstock,
Purleigh; also Debden. … The entry suggests a similar case at Chadwell, where, however,
there seems no other evidence for a sequestration. There was clearly some mistake about
Witham, as the sequestered vicar, Francis Wright, survived the Restoration. I have noted a
few cases of past or future Essex incumbents:
ST. ALPHAGE, LONDON. 15 December, 1650. Andrew Harward, B.D. Formerly of
Greensted by Ongar. The records of the Plundered Ministers Committee show that he also
held Tring, in Hertfordshire; was turned out from there by the Earl of Manchester, but
allowed to keep Greensted; articles against him there were finally dismissed on the ground
they were only the old charges. He, however, resigned Greensted in 1646 ; in 1647,
parishioners of Tring petitioned for his restoration there, alleging that the Earl of Manchester
bad allowed him his choice of the two parishes, and he had now resigned the other. (Add.
MS. 15,669, 161, etc ; 15,670, 15, 89, 143 ; 15,671, 168, 7 July, 1647)