Stifford and its neighbourhood, past and present. (More about Stifford, etc.)

Front matter

£ttffort an& ft* &ti$boutf)Oito9 anti present. &Tnww«Q»mm> AjSD iXS AL£iGKBOUBiiOOJ9a Satf and <$xmn\> BY WM, FA&OL M.A.., OXF. AND CAMB RECTOR OF STIFFORD "Œijat nothing be lost." BULPHAN RECTORY $rtntfD for Prtbatc Circulation RICHARD AS A , D.I TO BAKER WINGFIELD-BAKER, ESQUIRE, M.P AS PATRON AND LORD OF THE MANOR OF STIFFORD, SQUIRE OF THE DISTRICT, AND BENEFACTOR TO MANY OF THE PARISHES HERE DESCRIBED, Æijt'a Uolume is Dedicate*! (by permission) SLIGHT MEMORIAL OF OVER THIRTY YEARS* FRIENDSHIP preface. " Burn 'em ! What good ?" said two official persons connected with Little Thurrock some years ago (neither there now), as they leaned over the well stored parish chest. And they did " burn 'em." This is possible elsewhere, and suggested the present volume, the Author wishing to be beforehand in looking over parish chests, as he has been kindly permitted to do, for which he thanks the Incumbents and Church wardens.

The book represents in the merest outline only the Author's conception of what such a book should and in better hands would be. In his case, to say nothing of his insufficiency for so difficult a task, parish and other duties left him insufficient time. For what it is, he must throw himself on the reader's indulgence. To exhaust sources of information in twenty parishes (a number, he found out when it was too late, altogether overweighting him) would be the work of half a life. As indicated in his Prospectus, he has not attempted it, though he has done much more than then contemplated. He has given more than his whole leisure of two years. There it must end. If it suggest the publication of other and better books of the kind elsewhere, this must be accepted as some extenuation of the short-comings of his own.

Besides short-comings, there may be errors. He has had recourse to the best authorities within his reach. But these often differ, and he could not always command the time to verify them, except so far as his own local knowledge after nearly forty years' residence, and parish documents might enable him to do so. The annotated lists of incumbents, however imperfect, will be found very far less so than any hitherto published. They are mainly from Newcourt's Repertorium, Bacon's Liber Regis, and largely from parish registers, and personal acquaintance. VI

Preface

. The miscellaneous annotated extracts from registers and other parish muniments are altogether unique. In these and other matters of fact he has endeavoured to be a safe guide. But it was over untrodden ground, so he may have sometimes misled. Where none before him had left a track, he has been in danger of being misled sometimes himself. Some things he has written more for the next generation than this. The list of prices, e. g., will be read with real interest (if in parish chests or elsewhere the book should live so long) in 1971. So far as it is a book of opinions (and he confesses to have aimed at something more than a mere Guide Book, though it is that too), they will be taken for what they are worth. The author is himself of no party, or rather of all parties, sympathizing heartily with whatsoever things are true and honest, and of good report in all.

They are, therefore, at least, honest, and expressed with a full desire to do full justice to those who differ. He is but too well aware that such independent thought will lose to him the sympathy of mere partisans, whose zeal is always much more effectual help than the mere approval by lovers of truth. But he has counted the cost of this, and is content to abide by the result, whatever it be. And he desires the measure he metes to be measured to him again. With a view to this he desires his opinions to be judged as a whole, instead of drawing inferences, possibly erroneous, from an isolated passage. He is in the greater danger from this cause, as his opinions are not limited to the more formal statement of them in the " General View," but are scattered up and down (too unmethodically, perhaps, for some) through the whole book, which may be characterized altogether as a book of annotated facts, simply as suggested by the incident of the moment, without stopping to think whether such an unstudied and desultory style of writing was usual or not.

As before said, they will, at all events, be found no party opinions, unless the Constitution in Church and State in which they centre, — a Constitution the result of so much struggle and suffering, and under which our country has grown into the world's envy, — is to be set up, in order to be knocked down as a party. Thus, to mention one instance only, in reference to that awful, but on neither side unprovoked, explosion of passion known as the Rebellion the Author has endeavoured to weigh both sides fairly in the balance ; not with the view of conciliating both, as now represented by churchmen and non conformists, but because he honestly believes there were, at the bottom truth and justice, religion and piety in both at the beginning of the quarrel. In describing its growth from small if not frivolous quarrels under Elizabeth

PREFACE.

. VII into the investment and siege (but too successful) of the church as by law established, and then by an easy step to civil war, under the first Charles, the Author would cease to be impartial, if he failed to point out that the Established Church was at least as much a part of the Constitution as the House of Commons was, or is, and that the attempt, therefore, to raise non conformity on her ruins by unscrupulous violence, in the name of the Con stitution, was doing violence to the Constitution, as even then settled, as well as to truth and order and charity. He has expressed, because feeling, sincerely and warmly, a sympathy with the religious though not with the political portion of the Puritans (the same divided feeling, on the same grounds, as he entertains towards their successors, the nonconformists of our own time), whatever their mistakes.

But, to be impartial, he is bound to give equal expression to the fact, because it is a fact, that there were good men and true among churchmen also, who, whatever their mistakes, fairly claim the same sympathy, in consideration of the common difficulties of the time, — as dragged into a war of self-defence, entitled, some may think, to more sympathy. The Author, so far as space permitted, has given prominence to this part of the history of the neighbourhood, because he believes union to be desirable on both sides, and that it can only be attained by, among other things, a generous and manly confession of mistakes on one side, as well as the other, at that awful moment of transition from Romish error. Amidst the storm of passion raised by that event, when on the one side liberty of thought was supposed to mean licence, and it was attempted fiercely on the other to retain by Royal Declarations and penal Statutes an unbending and unrelenting uniformity which the spiritual arm had lost the power to enforce by excommunication no longer feared, men staggered as drunken men and were at their wit's end.

The sayings and doings of both must be bygones, except as beacons to warn us against like dangers. He gladly hails every concession that can be legitimately and safely made, showing that churchmen at least have read history, and desire to be at one with them. But upon the same principle, and with a view to the same impartiality, he has not hesitated to put in a claim for the con cession on their side of all that they fail to prove scripturally vital, actually forbidden by God's word written. So far as union can be obtained by such means, honourably and honestly on both sides, he has a firm conviction tha^ it would be found alike advantageous and precious to both. Political dissenters will, of course, throw dust in the lir and refuse to listen to all this. If these should turn out to be the majority, and offer no terms which the Church can conscientiously accept (for, however they may

PREFACE.

. doubt the fact, she has a conscience as well as themselves) ; and if the threatened disestablishment is to be carried out to its bitter end ; and if the Church, as a tender moderator (for that happily is, as the last three centuries of our history have shown plainly enough, the only practicable position for an Established Church without persecution), is to be lowered from her vantage ground of establishment conceded for the common peace and edification ; one consequence will be this, orthodox dissenters will also be lowered from nonconformists in ritual and discipline only, into creedless and mutually hostile bodies wandering and jostling through space without a centre, into mutually intolerant sects, having, without a creed of their own, no visible cohesion with Bible truth. Finally (we confess little pity), political dissenters will themselves be lowered.

They will be hoist with their own petard. Restless and quarrel some and impracticable, they must go on fighting, but the best part of their occupation will be gone. Fighting a grand old Church of eighteen centuries (our Established or State Church nearly as long) with the countenance of such religious nonconformists as they can delude into viewing her as a common enemy, is one thing. But that grand old Church gone, as an establishment, they will have to vent their ill-temper against mere mush room sects of yesterday. Such men as Mr. Miall and Mr. Hadfield will never get carried into Parliament by the great tidal wave of concentrated sectarian hostility as now. They will assuredly be left out in the cold. To avert this retrogressive and suicidal catastrophe, as religious nonconformists confess it would be to themselves as well as to the Church and to the best interests of society, the author would earnestly suggest to both sides an honest and intelligent study of both sides of the Rebellion, and it might be found to result in some such spirit as he humbly conceives to characterize his book.

He is but too conscious of its imperfections and shortcomings, but it will not have been written in vain if it set his readers thinking ; agreeably, if possible ; at all events, thinking. There is no longer any reason why churchmen and rehgious nonconformists should "fall out by the way." Let the time past be sufficient to have lived to State Church isolation and ministerial exclusiveness in church work, on the one hand; or misconceptions acknowledged by themselves on the other. With genial and generous religious influences at work on both sides, there cannot but be the will, and time, God's time, will show the way. Not that the Author is to be understood as implying the Church disesta blished would be wanting in capacity or vitality or stability. On the contrary, apart from the State, the partnership dissolved, she would be freed from a colleague fond of indulging in ancient and exploded suspicions of

PREFACE.

. IX rivalry no longer applicable to the case, and obstructing legitimate work by statutory and privy council difficulties aud contradictions and triflings, alike injurious to both. She would be mistress of her own discipline, engrafting on it much that has been proved to be sound and to edification, and reasonably adapted to the spirit of the age, in the discipline of other religious bodies ; and, last not least, with a view to this, and to enlarged usefulness, the laity would occupy fully, and at once, that legitimate position of influence and control in her counsels, the loss of which is her standing difficulty and present weakness. Still, as before said, the Author deprecates a dissolution of the partnership as a heavy blow and discouragement to the highest interests of the nation. To mention only one probable result, half of the country villages or more would relapse into heathenism and become a terror to their neighbours.

Religious nonconformists cannot desire this, cannot fail in the name of our common Christianity to resist it with all their hear, and soul.* At the same time, if the union is to go on, the Church must be relieved in turn of her disabilities, as other religious bodies have been. The writer gives this syllabus of his opinions scattered up and down the work, in order to prevent misconception of his meaning in isolated passages. It has been well said, " Every one of us has a history and a drama con nected with us if it were but known and told." Our neighbourhood is mixed up with the drama or history of the early Reformation quarrel and Rebellion in common only with most other neighbourhoods. But it applies specially to our neighbourhood in reference to certain other events in which it has * Mr. Eitchie, himself probably a dissenter, anyhow no mean authority upon such a point, bears remarkable testimony to a yearning for reconcilement on the part of the " higher class of dissenters."

He says, " There is a natural yearning in all minds after national union in religious as well as political matters. The higher class of dissenters display this seeling in an extraordinary degree. Their chapels are built like churches — they cling to the steeple which the stern old Puritans considered an abomination— the meeting-house has ceased to exist. Day by day dissent gets rid of all its characteristics— its ministers assume a clerical appearance— they adopt the Prayer Book as their model. They now listen to read sermons and read prayers. Of late years their leaders have grown rich and respectable, and anxiously disclaim all connection with the loud and exciting form of worship that has attractions for the ignorant. You may safely assume that the teaching of modern dissent is indirectly in favour of the establishment.

Dis senters tell us they have modified their customs in order to retain their hold upon the young of the wealthy classes. But they cannot be retained by means like these. It has almost become a proverb that in the third generation they will pass through the chupel to the church. Half the great mercantile houses of London and the Empire were founded by dissenters, whose sons, as they have grown rich and cultivated, feel more and more the awkward isolation of dissent. Increasingly this feeling is spreading among dissenters, and tlie Church, if it were wise,— its history is a career of blunder upon blundei — would have laid its plans to recover such. All the levers of society have been at its disposal."—' Religious Life in London,' p. 81. X

PREFACE.

. been mixed up, from its locality. With regard to these events also he has found the soil rich enough, amounting to an over-production, compelling him to throw much aside. This archæological and general part of the work, collected as it is from a hundred sources, is a sort of parqueting or mosaic. If, as far as his own share of it goes, a piece be found defective or misplaced here and there, it will not, it is hoped, be found materially to mar the general design and effect. Some apology is due for delay, but the truth is, the labour, like the expense, has very largely exceeded the estimate. The additional time he could ill spare, and he might say the same of the increased outlay. But he will regret neither if it has enabled him to be in any greater measure useful in his generation. Every subscriber can lighten the pecuniary loss by inducing friends to take up the few remaining surplus copies.

His warmest thanks are due to those friends who have given its chief value to the book by their ready contributions. Among these he must specially name — G. H. R. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A., Windsor Herald. G. E. Adams, Esq., F.S.A., Lancaster Herald. H. W. King, Esq., Secretary of the Essex Archæological Society. J. Jackson Howard, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A Alfred Heales, Esq., F.S.A. E. J. Sage, Esq. Henry Barrett Lennard, Esq Colonel Chester, F.S.A. Rev. H. Palin Gurney, B.A. Miss Katherine Fry, etc. etc. Besides these, acknowledgment is due, 1st, to the skilled sketchers, Mr. Joshua Taylor, Mr. William Long Palin, Miss F. E. Palin, Miss Fry, etc. ; 2nd, to the engravers, Mr. Utting, of London; Messrs. Stoneman and Bass, London; Mr. Cowell, Ipswich ; Messrs. Bond and Chandler, Chicago, U.S. ; 3rd, to the photographers, Messrs. Atkinson and Son, Gravesend.

The result is a copious set of accurate illustrations, an ornament to the book and of themselves giving it a permanent interest and value, to each coming generation a growing interest and value. Nor can he refrain thanking the few friends who considerately presented or contributed towards certain of them in which they were more directly interested. SUBSCRIBERS. G. E. Adams, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Lancaster Rev. W. Bond, M.A., Beauchamp, Ongar. Eev. G. P. Bennett, M.A., Kelvedon. J. Boyd, Esq., Belvedere. Herald. Bev. S. Aruott, M.A., Vicarage, Turnham Green. Thos. C. Archer, Esq., Lawrence Pountney Lane. Captain Atkinson, Broxbourne. Mr. Bidell, Manor Office, Orsett. Eev. Chas. E. Bowlby, M.A., Stanford-le-hope Mr. Beeson, London. Robt. Atkinson, Esq., Brixton. Mr. Aylen, Orsett. Mrs. Bowlby, London.

Mr. Ash (late), Chadwell S. Mary. C. Asplin, Esq., East Tilbury. Sam. Asser, Esq., Belvedere, Kent. Rev. W. Lees Bell, M.A., Brixton. Captain Bowlby, 94th Light Infantry. Wm. Bowlby, Esq., London. Hen. Attwell, Esq., K.R.O.C., F.R.G.S., Barnes. Miss Attwell, Upminster. Mr. Bright, Orsett. Mr. Bartlett, Grays. Mrs. Allen, East Thurrock. J. G. Barclay, Esq., Lombard Street. W. Beech, Esq., Abbey Wood. Hon. Mrs. H. Arundell, Belmont Castle, Grays. Mrs. Stackhouse Acton, Acton Scott. Right Rev. Bishop Chapman, D.D., Wootton Courtney. R. B. Wingfiell-Baker, Esq., M.P., D.L., Orsett Hall. Croslegh Dampicr-Orossley, Esq., Scaitcliffe Todmorden. W. P. Beech, Esq., Stifford Lodge. A. H. Brown, Esq., Brentwood. F. Chancellor, Esq., Chelmsford. A. Corsellis, Esq., Wandsworth. Jlr. T. Culleton, Cranbourne Street.

J. E. Curtis, Esq., West Thurrock. Mrs. Curtis, West Thurrock. Captain A. Burton, B.N., Bayswater. Eev. Frederick Brown, M.A., Beckenham. F. C. Brooke, Esq., Ufford. E. M. Boyle, Esq., Eockwood, Torquay. C. Glen Bott, Esq., M.R.C.S., Aveley. Mr. Challis, South Ockendon. A. Glen Bott, Esq., St. John's Coll. Camb. R. Leabon Curtis, Esq., Union Court, Old Broad Street. Mr. P. Benton, Wakering Hall. Mr. A. Benton, Aveley. Rev. C. Beauchamp Cooper, M.A., Morley. Rrv. W. L. Coxhead, M.A., Kirby-le-Sokcn. Col. Chester, Bermondsey. Rev. H. Bradshaw, M.A., University Library, Cambridge. P. J. Budworth, E-q., M.A., D.L., Ongar. Walter Crouch, jun., Esq., Tredegar Square. — Cripps, Esq., Orsett House. Cardinal Brewster, Esq., J.P., Greenstead Hall. Eev. H. R. Bailey, M.A., Great Warley. Mr. Cook, Horndon-on-hill.

Sir Antonio Brady, Knt., J.P., F.G.S., Stratford. I Rev. G. BurmeMer, M.A., J. P., Little Oakley. Rev. R. Crawley, M.A., North Ockendon. Rev. E. L. Cutts, M.A., Whitehall. Rev. H. Calthorpe, M.A., Great Braxted. Rev. Tullie Cornthwaite, M.A. .Walthamstow. Corporation Library, Guildhall, per W. H. Miss Benton, Gravesend. Mr. Bell, Orsett. W. W. Boreham, Esq., J.P., Ilaverhill. C. Bridger, Esq., Great Coram Street. Rev. J. Blomfield, B.D., J.P., Orsett. Overall, Esq., Librarian. Corporation Free Library, Liverpool, per Geo Hudson, Esq., Librarian. The Worshipful Company of Broderers. Rev. J. C. Berkeley, M.A., Southminster. F. M. Dodd, Esq., Bayswater. Mr. J. E. Davies, Stifford Hill. Mrs. Davies, Upminster. Mr. J. Bennett, Grays. Rev. W. R. Bay ley, M.A., Caseington. Geo. Bettson, Esq., Bread Street. b SUBSCRIBERS, XII Rev. E. Lutwyche Davies, M.A., Knighton.

Eev. F. Davis, Northfleet. Mr. Howard, Orsett. Mrs. Hayman, Rugby School. Mr. Horncastle, Grays. Edgar Disney, Esq., D.L., Hyde, Ingatestone. Eev. W. Dampier, M.A., Coggeshall. Benj. Harman, Esq., Purfleet. R. P. Drew, Esq., J.P., Plaistow. Major Ind, Iffley. Eev. Ed. Edison, M.A., Stock. J. W. K. Eyton, Esq., F.S.A. Lond. and Scot., Portsdown Road, Maida Hill. Geo. Jackson, Esq., Ramsden Bellhouse. Dan. Jackson, Esq., Chadwell 3. Mary. Mr. James, West Tilbury. Mr. Eveling, Grays. Jos. Esdaile, Esq., Belmont Castle, Grays. Kennedy Esdaile, Esq. Eev. H. Jenkins, B.D., Stanway. Clement Joslin, Esq., Wennington. Rev. H. Eve, M.A., South Ockendon. A. Johnstone, Esq., M.P., Onslow Square. E. B. Jordisson, Esq., M.E.C.S., South Ocken- G. H. Errington, Esq., J.P., Lexden Park, Colchester. don. Walter Jones, Esq., M.D., Finsbury Square.

Joseph Fry, Esq., Fairkytes, Hornchurch. Miss Fry, Plashet, Stratford. Hen. W. King, Esq., Tredegar Square. Rev. J. C. Knott, M.A., Monkton Combe. Rev. R. H. Killick, M.A., Chadwell S. Mary. Mr. Kettle, Aveley. Eev. Geo. Fielding, M.A., Raglan. Henry Fielding, Esq., M.A., London. J. H. Ford, Esq., Grays. J. Gaspard Fanshawe, Esq., Halkin Street. C. E. Freeman, Esq., Gutter Lane. Hen. S. King, Esq., J.P., Chigwell. Mr. French, Grays. The Right Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London. Eev. J. Finley, M.A., Aveley. Rev. W. G. Littlehales, M.A., Bulphan. Rev. E. H. Landon, M.A. Edward Glover, Esq., London. Rev. S. S. Greatheed, M.A., Corringham. Chas. Golding, Esq., Bayswater. Rev. Barton Lodge, M.A., Colchester. J. W. Ledger, Esq., Erith. ' Mrs. Gilbert, Grays. Rev. Henry Palin Gurney, B.A., Clare College, H. C. Long, Esq., Corringham.

Hen. Barrett Lennard, Esq., Gt. Cumberland Place. Cambridge. Jas. Greig, Esq., Durrington. Rev. G. P. Gorringe, M.A., Orsett. Francis Barrett Lennard, Esq., Gt. Cumberland Place. Ven. Archdeacon Hale, M.A. (late), Charter- Mr. Lanfield, Grays. house. — Lyons, Esq., Romford. D. Hodge, Esq., The Elms, Grays. Thos. Hamber, Esq., New Wandsworth. Mr. Holt, Stifford. The London Library (per Robert Harrison, Esq., Secretary). Mr. Heigho, Grays. Ven. Archdeacon Mildmay, M.A., Chelmsford. Rev. C. Marriott, M.A., New Wandsworth. Mr. Martin, Aveley. Chas. Heigham, Esq., Wetherden. Rev. Jas. Hargreave, M.A., West Tilbury. Rev. Geo. Hele, M.A., Brentwood. Chas. Moss, Esq., Stifford. Mrs. Hele, St. Briavels. Thos. Elias Mills, Esq., Lincoln's Inn. Rev. Canon Marsden, M.A., Great Oakley. Thos. Milburn, Esq., Poultry.

Joseph Jackson Howard, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A. George R. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A., Windsor P. Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P. G. W. Marshall, Esq., LL.M., Bicknoller. Rev. R. Price Morell, M.A., Woodham Mor- Herald. Rev. W. E. Heygate, M.A., Brighstone, I.W. Alfred Heales, Esq., F.S.A., Doctors' Commons. Eev. Geo. Harrison, M.A., Sutcombe. timer. Eev. R. W. B. Marsh, M.A., Plaistow. Rev. Felix Marsh, M.A., Gravesend. Ed. Morton, Esq., F.S.A., Malton. Lewis Majendie, Esq., J.P., Hedingham Castle. Rich. Meeson, Esq., F.S.A,, F.G.S., Duvals, Grays. A. H. Hunt, Esq., Romford. Mr. Howell, Grays. J. R. Hogarth, Esq., J.P., Heston. Eev. Erskine Holland, M.A., Dunsfold. Peter Howard, Esq., Stifford Lodge. SUBSCRIBERS XIII W. F. Noble, Esq., Southwark. N. Surridge, Esq., Romford. Mrs. Snowden, N. Ockendon. Mr. Stevens, Stanford-lo-hopo.

J. Gough Niohols, Esq., F.S.A., Dorking. — Nichols, Esq., Manningtree. Mr. Newman, Bookseller, 235, High Holborn. Rd. Nicholson, Esq., London . Rev. J. H. Sporling, M.A., Westbourne. Joshua Taylor, Esq., Woolwich. — Tolmarsh, Esq., Orsett. W. Thorpe, jun., Esq., Kingsland. Mr. S. Tymms, F.S.A., (late) Lowestoft. J. R. D. Tyssen, Esq., F.S.A., Brighton. Rev. W. C. Thomson, M.A., Fobbing. Rev. W. W. Tireman, M.A., Bowers Gifford. J. Theobald, Esq. (late) J. P., Winchester. B. Brogden Orridge, Esq., (late) F.G.S., S. John's Wood. John Page, Esq., Southend. Bev. Ed. Palin, B.D., Linton. Rev. W. Pridden, M.A., West Stow. C. J. Pridden, Esq., Sutton. Rev. E. Pridham, B.C.L., East Tilbury. Miss Parrott, Aveley. Rev. W. Vallance, M.A., Southchurch. F. T. Veley, Esq., Chelmsford. Rev. F. Downes Panter, B.A., Rushford College.

John Piggot, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.G.S., Ulting. Ed. Pinkett, Esq., M.A., Barnstaple. Sir T. B. Western, Bart., Kelvedon. Mr. T. Wagstaff, Stifford. Mr. Poston, South Ockendon. W. Long Palin, Esq., New York. Rev. J. Papillon, M.A., Lexden. Mr. F. Wagstaff, Stifford. Miss Wagstaff, South Ockendon. Mr. Robert Wagstaff, South Ockendon. Messrs. Whiteman and Bass, High Holborn. — Windle, Esq., London. Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Rochester. Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, Terling. Jas. Round, Esq., M.P., Colchester. J. E. Eogers, Esq., Bishopsgate Street. Major Bussell, North Ockendon. F. G. West, Esq., D.L., Thaxted. Mr. T. L. Wilson, Upminster. J. Wiseman, Esq., Paglesham. Holt White, Esq., J.P., Rochford. S. C. Whitbread, Esq., Purfleet. Mrs. Woodthorp, Aveley. Amyott Eay, Esq., Doctors' Commons. Mr. Eowley, Orsett.

Eev. C. J. Robinson, M.A., Norton Canon, Weobley. Granville Wright, Esq., Addiscombe. Rev. R. Marsh White, M.A., Fairsted. Wm. Wilson, Esq., Stanford-le-hope. J. W. Perry Watlington, Esq., Harlow. El. Williams, Esq., East Tilbury. Rev. J. Rumsey, Rolvenden. Mr. J. S. Smallfield, University Street, London. G. Shaw, Esq., Torquay. Eev. E. E. B. Salisbury, M.A., Thundersley. Lieut. W. J. St. Aubyn, 68th Light Infantry. S. W. Squier, Esq., Horndon-on-Hill. Lloyd Williams, Esq., Grays. Mis9 Warner, Penge. Miss Wakeham, Braintree. Mr. Wingrove, Purfleet. Jas. Seabrook, Esq., Graye. Eev. C. Smalley, M.A., East Thurrock. Cha9. Sturgeon, Esq., South Ockendon. Ed. Sturgeon, Esq., South Ockendon. Alfred Sturgeon, Esq., Grays. S. Westwood, Esq., Laindon-Hill. Mr. Wheeler, East Thurrock. Hen. Wenden, Esq., C.E., Bombay.

MisB Watson, Linton. Jas. Sowell, Esq., West Tilbury. Gerard de Witte, Esq., Ketton Hall, Line. H. Stock, Esq., Duke Street, London Bridge. E. J. Sage, Esq., Stoke Newington. Eev. G. Yeats, M.A., East Barnet. CONTENTS. PAGE Dedication ........... iii Preface ............ v-x List op Subsceibees ......... xi-xiii Paet I. — Stiffoed and its Neighbourhood, General View : — Religious History 1 Military Reminiscences 9 Roads 9 Chueches , . 9 Education 12 Climate ........... 12 Scenery 12 Social Condition 16 Statistics of Population, Paupeeism, and Crime . . . .21 Secular Historical Associations . . . . . 26 Teade and Commeece ......... 27 Markets ■ . . .28 Manoes and Divisions of Manoes .29 Feudal Notes of Stiffoed and the Thueeocks .... 30 The Thueeocks 32 Explanation of Teems 39 Antiquities . . . . . . . . . . .40 Sea-Walls .41 Homes 43 Names 45 Commission of Sewers 46 Prices 47 Paet II. — Paeishes: — Stiffoed ............ 49 Grays Thueeock contents.

XV Paet II. — Parishes {continued). paqb Chadwell, S. Maey 89 West Tilbury 95 East Tilbury ,.-110 Mucking 113 Stanfoed-le-hope 117 Coreingham 124 Fobbing 130 Hoendon-on-hill 134 Laindon Hill 143 Bulphan 146 Orsett 151 Aveley 166 Part III. — Appendix : — Rectors of Stiffoed, and Pateons, from a.d. 1300 to a.d. 1871, with Biographical Notices 175 ERRATA. P. 2, for Norman read Plantagenet. P. 51, line 4 from bottom, for 1770 read 1740. Pp. 56, 57, for Lathom read Lathvm. P. 68, bottom line, for still thinks read till the other day thought. P. 80, for Appendix read "More about Stifibrd." P. 112, Cancel repetition. Illustrations, Stiffoed : — Ford Place and Bridge (Pilgrim Way). Rectory. Old Style of Cottage. Church from N.E. „ from S.E. and Lodge. „ Interior, 1860. „ 1871. „ Screen and Font. „ Lathum Brasses, etc. „ Brass of earliest known Rector.

GtBAYS : — Church Interior. „ Exterior. Chad well S. Maet : — Church. Tilbury Fort (1521). West Tilbuet : — Church. Rectory. East Tilbuet : — Church. Rectory. Mucking : — Church. New Jenkins. Stanpobd-le-hope : — Church. Adams Monument. Coeeingham Church. Fobbing Church. HOENDON-ON-HILL Church. Laindon Hill Church. Bulphan : — Church. Rectory. Oesett : — Church Exterior (1840). (1871). „ Interior (1871). The Rectory. The Hall. AVELEY : — Church. Belhus. General Œfieto OF an* ltd |Mflpmiri)o<to. RELIGIOUS history. A.D. 654. — Darkness is now upon the face of Stifford and its neighbourhood, darkness that may be felt. Mellitus sounded here the gospel trumpet, but the sound has died away, our forefathers here have relapsed. A large district, since broken into three parishes, is dedicated to Thor, one of the heathen deities, now worshipped as the god of thunder.

It is proud to name itself after this supposed being, in connection with the great historical forest stretching, with only occasional breaks of cleared land, from Waltham Abbey and Epping to the river-side, — forest, made awful, beyond its stillness and solitude, by human sacrifices to them which are no gods, minding us how small the sacrifices demanded by ours, the one true God. But a light is about once more to lighten these gentiles. A gotlly mis sioner, the saintly Chad, is even now on his way from Lindisfarne, and this darkness is to disappear. The word has gone forth, " Let there be light I" " The thunderer's altar once, and fane of Thor, But now the shrine of Him whose voice is peace."* See Thurrock (Thor-ohe) and West Tilbury. A.D. 1193. — Some five centuries have passed away. Tlie holy Bishop of Tilbury, the apostolic Chad, has come and gone, — gone to his rest, gone to his reward.

East Anglia is once more Christian. And, iu Essex, a British bishop has been the honoured instrument. It is a matter of honest pride th.it Essex, unlike Suffolk and Norfolk, of East Anglia, owes its Christianity to Chad, a member of the ancient British Church, " cast down but not de stroyed " by Augustine and his Italian followers. f * 'Laindon Hill,' a poem, by the Rev. W. E. Heygate, M.A. t " Equal zeal was manifested by the National Church, and with equal success, in the kingdom of Essex. It had been 9unk in unheeded heathenism since the failure of Mellitus. One of its princes, however, named Sigibert, had become a frequent guest at the Northumbrian Court, and he was there li general view op stifford and neighbourhood. So did Chad in 654. He sowed good seed. But we are supposing ourselves in 1193.

By this time corruptions of the faith once, and once for all, delivered to the saints, have gradually stolen in. An enemy has sown tares among the wheat. Rome has been tampering with Chad's simple preaching of the Cross. She built her church upon a rock indeed, but holds the citadel she built, not for Christ, but for herself. The salt had been good, but the salt has all this while been more and more losing its savour. She has been all these five centuries turning the gospel kingdom into a kingdom of this world. She has learned to speak evil of dignities, and her teaching has been that princes bear the sword in vain. And Norman tyranny has given her just the vantage ground she desired. The old possessors of the soil have been slow to yield to Roman tyranny, but they have been galled even more by the tyranny of their new masters.