High Country History Group

The talk on Heraldry on the 14th November was not well attended (22), but those present enjoyed an excellent talk by Myra Wilkins, who was obviously enthusiastic about the subject and she proved a great hit with her audience. During her talk she spoke about the Coat of Arms for Epping and I have included a description here which links into her talk and that on the 2nd December on the Verderers of Epping Forest, given by Dr Peter Adams, himself a Verderer.

This talk was attended by some 40 members.

The Coat of Arms of Epping Forest District Council was granted by the College of Heralds in 1974 at the same time as the Council itself was formed. It takes representative items from the four authorities that merged to form EFDC - Chigwell Urban Council, Epping UDC, Epping and Ongar Rural Council, and Waltham Holy Cross UC. The shield at the centre of the Arms represents these institutions. The black cross on white background represents Waltham Holy Cross. The horn represents Chigwell Urban Council and is the symbol of the Master Keepers of the Forest who held their court at the King's Head in Chigwell. The four axe heads represent the four Verderers and also the lopping rights enjoyed by Loughton. The crown points to Epping Forest's position as a former Royal Forest.

Above the shield the castle and grazing ground in front of it stand for Ongar. Ongar takes its name from 'aunger', the medieval word for grazing ground. The castle represents the castle built in Ongar by Richard de Lucy during the reign of Henry II. The leaping stag in front of the castle was the emblem of Epping Urban District Council.

The supporting royal stags come from the arms of Waltham Holy Cross. They hold in their mouths Saxon swords or 'seaxes', from the arms of Essex County Council. The motto 'PER CRUCEM PER CORONAM' (Through the cross, through the Crown) summarises the history of the area - from religious holding, to royal forest, to common land.

Blazon

The arms can be technically described as:

Argent a cross engrailed sable, over all a bugle horn ensigned with an ancient crown of fleurs-de-lys or on a chief vert four axe-heads bendwise argent.

The Court of Quarter Sessions sat four times per year (Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer, and Michaelmas), when the county Justices of the Peace came together in Chelmsford. Justices were men of stature in Essex, but they needed no legal training. This was left to the administrative official of the court, the clerk of the peace, who was legally trained.

Quarter sessions courts began in the reign of Edward III and continued to function until their abolition in 1971.

The importance of these courts grew significantly during the 15th and 16th centuries. They assumed much that had been under the jurisdiction of sheriffs' courts and manor courts in the Medieval period. Over time, responsibilities assigned to the magistrates and the courts grew so much that in the early part of the 18th century something known as 'petty sessions' was created to reduce the load. These were hearings, for minor offences, before one or two magistrates where justice could be handed down without a jury present.

Quarter sessions heard a broad range of cases. Their jurisdiction was set in 1590 as being just about anything except treason, but this gradually acquired some limitations particularly where murder and serious felonies were involved. Many of the more serious criminal cases were first heard here and then referred to the County Assizes. Some examples of cases before quarter sessions are burglary, assault, drunkenness, poaching, vagrancy, profanity, rioting, unlawful cutting of timber, and encroachment (i.e., making use of land that one was not entitled to).

Punishment that could be handed down included fines, flogging, imprisonment and transportation. Many matters that might be thought the responsibility of the church ended up at quarter sessions: refusing to attend church, publicly defaming the church and state, bastardy, and enforcement of the poor laws. The court also heard matters which were disputes between individuals such as non-payment of debts.

There were numerous administrative matters overseen by the courts. They issued licenses to pub owners and itinerant traders. Many people, places and things were registered at these courts: barges, charities (from 1786), nonconformist meeting houses, gamekeepers, to name a few. The court was given responsibility for overseeing the upkeep of bridges, jails and houses of correction, and it received the returns for various taxes, such as the hearth tax (late 1600s), the hair powder tax (1790s), and the land tax (after 1745). This is not a complete list, but it is enough to provide a sense of the broad range of local matters that were either resolved or recorded in some way under the jurisdiction of the courts of quarter sessions.

Records of the Essex Quarter Sessions are held in the Essex Record Office.

A schoolhouse seems to have been built in 1725 or 1726 by direction of the parish vestry so that elementary subjects, the catechism, and Church of England doctrine should be taught to poor children. In 1725 Sir Edward Smyth, lord of the capital manor, lent £20 towards the cost of building, to be repaid from the rent of the Church lands. In the same year, however, Mrs. Jane Luther, lady of Suttons, repaid this debt. It would seem, moreover, that Mrs. Luther undertook the entire cost of building for she stated in her will, dated 1745, that she had built the schoolhouse at her expense and had afterwards received a rent of 30s. a year for it. She then stipulated that after her death this rent was to be used primarily to keep the schoolhouse and its premises in repair, the residue being used to purchase bibles and prayer-books for distribution amongst the poor.

Meanwhile in 1726 the vestry had decided to employ a schoolteacher at a salary of £5 a year. It is not clear, however, for how long the parish employed a salaried schoolteacher or who occupied the schoolhouse before Mrs. Luther's death in 1745. Soon after her death the schoolhouse was being rented by Thomas King, who also rented the Church house. In April 1748 it was reported that King owed £3 for two years' rent of the schoolhouse.

From 1750-1, if not before, the schoolhouse or at least the schoolroom was occupied by a master to whom the parish sent children on a per capita basis. In 1750-1 £5 18s. was paid to the schoolmaster out of rents from the Church house and lands. In 1751-2, £5 13s. 10d. was paid from the same source for 'alterations in the schoolroom', it being stated that 'the shelves and partitions was put up by the parish to be left when the tenant goes out'. In the same year Mr. Lewthwaite was paid £2 17s. for 'schooling' and from then until 1783, if not later, children's schooling was usually the main item of expenditure in the churchwarden's annual account of parish income. This item varied in amount from year to year. In 1752-3 three children were sent to school at a total cost of 12s. 6d. Usually, however, the annual cost was between £2 and £5. It is not clear what arrangements were made for educating the poor children of Stapleford Tawney after 1783.

In 1818 it was stated that there was no school of any kind in the parish. In 1831 a meeting of the vestry recommended that the rector should 'allow £4 per annum to Samuel Parish schoolmaster being the rent for the house which he now lives in on condition that he continues to educate the poor children on the Sundays'. In 1835 it was stated that the schoolhouse built at Mrs. Luther's expense was occupied rent-free by a schoolmaster who had been placed there by the rector and who had 30 fee-paying pupils. At this date the master probably still taught the poor children of the parish on Sundays in return for his rent-free house. The schoolhouse was still occupied rent-free by a master in 1848 and possibly in 1861 but probably not as late as 1863 and almost certainly not as late as 1871.

By 1839 the poor children of the parish were attending a day school in Theydon Mount. In 1871 an inspector proposed that 30 Stapleford Tawney children should be accommodated at Theydon Mount and that the remaining 16 in need of elementary schooling should be found places at Stapleford Abbots. Churchmen in Stapleford Tawney, however, decided to found their own school on land given by the lord of the manor of Stapleford Tawney.

A deed of 1873 appointed the rector and churchwardens as trustees of the school and declared that the religious teaching should be according to Anglican principles. The new school, with accommodation for 60, was built in 1873-4, next to the church. A teacher's house was attached. The school was opened in 1874 under a certificated mistress but, despite the receipt of annual grants from 1875 and an average attendance of 32 in that year, the falling population of the parish caused average attendance to fall to 15 in 1893.

In 1904 there were 30 pupils on the roll under two mistresses, one of them certificated, and the average attendance was 25. By the Education Act of 1902 the school passed under the administration of the Essex Education Committee as a non-provided Church school. Average attendance continued to be low; in 1910 it was 19 and in 1911 the possibility of closure was discussed. Average attendance rose, however, to 23 in 1920 and to 32 in 1936. After the reorganization of the school for mixed juniors and infants in 1936 the average attendance again fell, reaching 15 in 1938. In 1939, in view of the low number of pupils, the school was closed. The building is now used for village activities. It is a gabled building of red brick with bands of blue. The gables have pierced bargeboards.

Four charities existed for the benefit of those living in the parish. They are:

1. Thomas Petit who died before 1602, left 5 shillings a year each for the poor and 'poor folk's marriages' to the parishes of Stanford Rivers and Greenstead. It issued from lands in Stanford Rivers. In 1834 the money had not been paid for at least twenty-three years. The owner of the land was apparently willing to pay the charge in future but there is no later record of the charity.

2. William Green, by his will dated 1554, devised a rent charge of £2 to twelve poor inhabitants of Stanford Rivers and £1 to six poor of Chipping Ongar. In 1786 it had not been paid since 1739.

3. Mary Rayner of Greenstead, by her will proved in 1873, left £400 for the upkeep of her family tomb and for the provision of clothing for the most deserving poor of Stanford Rivers. Although the primary trust was void by the rule against perpetuities, small sums were spent on the tombstone at various times. In 1950 the income was £10 1s. 2d., which together with the last year's balance was enough to give 27 parishioners 10s. each for clothing.

4. Jessie Matilda Berkeley of Mere (Wilts.), by her will proved in 1930, left £500 in trust for the upkeep of the graveyard of the parish church and for the benefit of the poor provided that her family vault was maintained in good repair. The income in 1950 was £20 8s. 4d. and all of this was spent on the upkeep of the churchyard.

From the Essex Constabulary General Orders dated the 30th January 1891

The Chief Constable has to signify his appreciation of the conduct of Sergeant H. Laver and Pc 147 W. Chinery in the prosecution of the 'Holly Tree Working Men's Club' at Stanford Rivers. After convicting in every case, the Chairman of the Ongar Bench remarked, 'I may say, on behalf of myself and my brother magistrates that the evidence given by the police officers is worthy of great praise. They gave their evidence in a very straightforward and clear manner. Indeed, we think they are particularly worthy of commendation in that respect.'

Does any reader know where the Holly Tree Working Men's Club was situated?

Population census records were first taken in 1801, and have since been taken every ten years. The only exception was in 1941, when we were at war. Prior to this only Parish Records recorded the number of people, together with a crude description or classification of occupations.

The early census returns, from 1801 to 1831, show the number of people and houses – but no names. These do however, give the first reliable indication of the population. On the 1831 census, additional information begins to appear, with a breakdown of the numbers of men working in the main occupations of the day. These were put into classifications, which were determined by the local census enumerator, and so the results have to be treated with care. Some of the classifications were factories, farming, trade, and domestic service. These records are in printed form, and can be viewed at most local libraries, or archives.

From 1841, the census is handwritten. This can prove to be somewhat difficult to read as some were written in pencil, and often the handwriting was so appalling as to be almost unintelligible. The record of the census is one of the most useful sources for anyone starting to research family history. If you find your ancestors listed there you can discover a great deal of information about everyone in the household at that time.

The Essex Record Office at Chelmsford holds copies of the census returns for the whole county of Essex for the census years 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901.

1801 March 10th

1811 May 27th

1821 May 28th

1831 May 30th

1841 June 6th

1851 March 30th

1861 April 7th

1871 April 2nd

1881 April 3rd

1891 April 5th

1901 March 31st

1911 April 2nd

1801–1831 Census contained no genealogical information. Very few returns for this period survive.

1841 Census gives name, age (rounded up to the nearest 5 years for those over 18), occupation, and states whether born within the county of residence.

1851 Census & succeeding years also show the relationship to the head of the household and the parish and county of birth.

1891 census shows whether person is employed or unemployed.

William Wallis, 21, Daniel Harding, 21, and Daniel Hammond, 20, labourers, were indicted for burglariously entering a store house adjoining the dwelling house of John Shuttleworth at Stapleford Tawney and stealing divers articles, his property, on the 9th June. Stolen some tin ware, two reams of paper and other goods. Sentence: All Guilty – transported for life.