Some history on the county of Essex

Essex

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Essex is a fertile and highly interesting maritime county, on the eastern side of England, containing about 380,000 inhabitants, and 990,000 acres of land, forming an irregular four-sided territory, averaging about 45 miles in length and breadth, and having in its south-west angle a populous suburb of London, with many handsome villas, and much delightful scenery in and near the forests of Epping and Hainault. It is bounded on the north by Suffolk and part of Cambridgeshire, from the former of which it is separated. by the river Stour; on the west by Hertfordshire and Middlesex, from which it is separated partly by the rivers Stort and Lea; on the south by the river Thames, which divides it from Kent; and on the east by the German Ocean, to which its coast line presents many deep and winding indentations, in and near the estuaries of the Thames, the Crouch, the Blackwater, the Colne, and the Stour, with many small islands. It has many navigable rivers and creeks; and is traversed from London in all directions by the Eastern Counties and other Railways, as afterwards noticed. Though the eastern parts are generally level, with many large tracts of low marshes, the other portions of the county are picturesquely undulated, and present a varied and pleasing succession of fine rural landscapes, though there are but few elevations rising to the height of more than 700 feet above the level of the sea. Judicially, Essex is the Home Circuit, and its assizes are held at Chelmsford. Ecclesiastically, it is in the Province of Canterbury, and in the Diocese of Rochester, except the ten parishes of Barking, Chingford, East and West Ham, Great and Little Ilford, Leyton, Walthamstow, Wanstead, and Woodford, which are in the Diocese of London. Until a few, years ago, the whole county was in the latter diocese. Since the passing of the parliamentary reform act, in 1832, the county has been divided into the Northern and Southern Divisions, each sending two representatives to parliament. Six other members are sent to the House of Commons from this county, by the three Boroughs of Colchester, Maldon, and Harwich. The SOUTHERN DIVISION comprises the Hundreds of Chelmsford, Ongar, Chafford, Barstable, Dengie, Rochford, Harlow, Waltham, Becontree, and the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower; and its polling places are Chelmsford, Billericay, Epping, Maldon, Rochford, Romford, Brentwood, and Stratford; the principal place of election being at Chelmsford. The NORTHERN DIVISION for which Braintree is the chief place of election, comprises the Hundreds of Hinckford, Lexden, Winstree, Tendring, Uttlesford, Thurstable, Witham, Dunmow, Clavering, and Freshwell; and its polling places are at Braintree, Colchester, Dunmow, Castle Hedingham, Thorpe-le-Soken, Saffron-Walden, and Witham. These polling places comprise all the principal market towns in the county. The number of electors registered for the county in 1837 was 11,446; but in 1847 there were only 10,858 on the register, viz.:-5644 in the Northern; and 5214 in the Southern Division. There are in the county about 420 parishes, 20 market towns, and more than 1,000 villages and hamlets. The county was formerly an important seat of the woollen manufacture, and it still enjoys a portion of the silk trade; and has, near London, some extensive chemical works, iron foundries, machine and engineering works, gunpowder mills, etc. Agriculture is the chief support of the inhabitants, but many of them on the sea-coast, and on the banks of the Thames, the Colne, and other rivers and creeks, derive employment from the valuable oyster and other fisheries.
ANCIENT BRITONS :- At the time of the Roman invasion, Essex, with all Middlesex, was peopled by that tribe of the aboriginal inhabitants called the Trinobantes, or Trinovantes, from the situation of their country on the boarders of the broad expanse of waters formed by the Thames. They possessed two considerable cities, or fortified stations, one of which occupied the eminence between the Thames and. the Fleet brook, now the centre of modern London; and the other was at Colchester, which is still the principal town in this county. Some antiquaries have supposed that the Trinobantes were a Belgic tribe, who took forcible possession of this part of the territory of the Cassii, who originally occupied also the counties of Hertford, Bedford, and Buckingham. Until the invasion of Julius Cæsar, 55 years before the birth of Christ, the history of Britain is almost a blank, though the Phœnicians are supposed to have traded with the southern parts of the island some centuries before that period. Historians all agree that the Aborigines of Britain were a tribe of Gallic Celts, who emigrated from the continent and settled here, probably about a thousand years prior to the Christian era. Before the Roman Conquest, those in the southern parts of Britain had made some progress towards civilisation; but those in the north were as wild and uncultivated as their native hills. They subsisted chiefly by hunting and the spontaneous fruits of the earth, wearing for their clothing, [when the inclemency of the season compelled them to such incumbiances,] the skin of animals, and dwelling in habitations formed by the "pillars of the forest rooted in the earth, and enclosed by interwoven branches." Their religion, which formed one part of their monarchial government, was Druidical; but its origin is not certainly known, though some affirm that the Druids accompanied the Celts in early ages from the east; and others, that Druidism was introduced into England by the Phœnicians of Cadiz, who were the first merchants that discovered and traded to this island, and, for a considerable time, monopolized its commerce, by carefully concealing their traffic from other nations;; but the lucrative trade in tin, and other useful metals, with which Britain abounds, was ultimately traced to its source, and soon brought the Roman and other merchants to our shores.
The civil jurisdiction. and religion of the DRUIDS prevailed in every part of the island. They dispensed justice;- not under any written code of laws, but on what they professed to be equitable principles - all their verdicts being determined by such sense as the assembled delegates entertained of impartial justice; and on discordance of opinion in the congress, appeal was made to the Arch-Druid, whose sentence was decisive. Their religious ceremonies were few, and nearly in unison with those of the ancient Hebrews. They worshipped on high places and in deep groves; and were not addicted to idolatry, as some authors have asserted, but adored the God of Nature, and rendered him praise on the yearly succession of the seasons, which they kept as solemn festivals. Though they dealt largely in allegory, and symbolical representations, they practised but little priestcraft, and held not the ignorance of their votaries in the bonds of superstition; for they clearly explained the mysteries and symbols used in their ceremonies to the initiated, but to none else. To remove from the people all, possibility of sophistry and innovation, their maxims of justice were taught orally. They studied medicine, and the virtue of plants, of which the mistletoe was their chief specific. In their civil government, capital offenders were sentenced to death, and publicly sacrificed on the altars of their temples, in the most awful and solemn manner. Julius Cæsar says the Druids inculcated the immortality and transmigration of the soul, and discoursed -with youth much about the heavenly bodies, and their motion; the size of the heaven and earth; the nature of things, and the influence and power of the immortal gods." The British Druids exercised their utmost authority in opposing the usurpation of the Roman invaders, who, fired with equal resentment, determined to secure themselves by exterminating the Druidic Order, which, after many massacres, and the defeat of Queen Boadicea, rapidly disappeared.
The ROMANS, having overrun Gaul, invaded Britain, 55 sears before the birth of Christ, under the command of Julius Cæsar, who, after a sanguinary struggle - renewed in the following year - succeeded in establishing a Roman government, unsettled in its nature, and transient in its duration; for being distracted by domestic war, the conquerors were obliged to return home to preserve their imperial capital, consequently the Britons remained unmolested, except the payment of tribute, till A.D. 43, when the Emperor Claudius sent over an army under Ptautius, but he met with such a formidable resistance from the Britons, on both sides of the Thames, that he was obliged to send to Rome for additional forces, which arrived in the following year, under Claudius and Vespasian. After many battles and reverses of fortune, the Britons were obliged to bend their necks to the yoke of the invaders, and colonies of Roman veterans were established at Colchester, London, and other places, as afterwards noticed. On the subdivision of the island by the Romans, under Constantine the Great, Essex was included in that part named Flavia Cæsariensis. From the Itinerary of Antoninus, five principal stations appear to have been either formed or occupied by the Romans in this county. These were - Durolitum, Cæsaromagus, Canonum, Camulodunum, and Ad-Ansam; all seated on the road which formed the fifth Iter from London to Venta Icenorum, in Norfolk. The sites of most of them are subjects of dispute among antiquaries; but they generally agree that Camulodunum, the principal station, was at Colchester, and that it had previously been the capital of the Trinobantes. It is generally acknowledged that before the invasion of the Romans, the island was intersected in various directions by British trackways, which were afterwards improved by the Romans. The four principal Roman roads, which traversed England, were - Watling street, extending from the Kentish coast to London, York, Carlisle, etc. ; Ermyn street, which extended from London to Lincoln, and the Humber ; the Fosse way, which passed from Bath to Lincoln and Newark ; and Icknield street, which extended from London, through Essex, via Stratford, Romford, Ingatestone, Chelmsford, Witham, and Colchester, to Caistor, in Norfolk. Two Roman roads branched from Colchester; one through Dunmow [the site of Villa Faystini], to St. Alban's and Cambridge; and the other crossing the Stour, to Combretonium. Another Roman road passed from London, through Leyton, Hornsey lane, Bishop Stortford, Chesterford, etc., into Cambridgeshire. Iciana is supposed by Horsley to be Chesterford. Dr Gale says Saffron Walden is seated on two military ways, running north and east. Many Roman antiquities have been found at Chesterford, and the military way at Gogmagog bills, points towards that place. At Ring hill, near Audley-End, is a Roman camp, near a military road, which is traced to Chesterford. The road which passed from Colchester to St. Alban's [Verulamium], may be traced through Stanway, Coggeshall, Braintree, Dunmow, and Stortford. A military way has been traced from Colchester to Colne, Sible-Hedingham, Yeldham, Ridgewell, and Haverhill. The foundations of a Roman villa were found at Ridgewell, in 1794. At Colchester is a profusion of Roman bricks and other antiquities; and many urns, coins, tessellated pavements, etc., have been found near Billericay, and in many other parts of the county.
SAXONS - After the Romans had abandoned Britain, in A.D. 434, to preserve their seat of empire, the country sank into a state of anarchy. Under the Romans, England and Wales contained 30 civitates, governed by their own magistrates; and it is supposed that the Britons, when left to themselves, established the same number of republics. Civil discord terminated in the establishment of military tyrannies, and to aggravate these maladies, those northern marauders - the Picts and Scots, renewed their devastating eruptions into England. The Saxons were at length called to the aid of the Britons, and after expelling the invaders, they claimed the country for themselves; but it was not relinquished without an obstinate resistance from the Britons, who attacked the treacherous auxiliaries in many battles under Vortigern and their renowned king Arthur. After the death of Arthur, the Saxons prevailed, and by a slow progression of conquest, at length obtained possession of all that part of the island, which from them obtained the name of England. They were confederated tribes, consisting of the Angles [hence the term Anglo-Saxons], the Jutes, and the genuine Saxons, who had long been settled.on the shores of the German Ocean, extending from the Eyder, to the Rhine. The pure Saxons were in three tribes, called East, West, and South Saxons. The first settled in Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire, which, during the Heptarchy, formed the KINGDOM OF EAST SEAXA, OR ESSEX, of which London was the capital, and Colchester the next place of importance. The other heptarchial kingdoms were Kent, Sussex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. ERKENWIN, the first king of Essex, commenced his reign in 527, and died in 587. He boasted of being the ninth in descent from Woden. He was succeeded by his son Sledda. The annals of the Kingdom of the East Saxons are barren of incidents. Their territory was smaller than the other Saxon kingdoms, but their dependence on Kent was a defence against the ambition of their other neighbours. They were among the first to embrace Christianity, and to abolish the barbarous superstition and idolatry of their mother country.
The fifteen KINGS OF ESSEX were - Sledda I., Sledda II, Saberct, Sexred, Seward, Sigebert I, Sigbert II., Swythelyn, Sighere, Sebba, Sigehard, Swefred, Offa, Selred, and Suthred, - the latter of whom was conquered in 823, by Egbert, King of Wessex, who also subjected to his dominion Kent, Surrey, Sussex, etc. Saberct, as were probably his two predecessors, was placed on the throne of the East Saxons by his uncle, Ethelbert, King of Kent, who was the first of the English kings who received Christian baptism, and his influence and example made converts of his kinsmen, Sledda II. and Saberct. The monk Mellitus, whom St. Augustine had raised to the See of London, was received as the bishop of the East Saxons; but, like other first heralds of gospel truth, among a heathen people, he met with much opposition and persecution. The several kingdoms of the Heptarchy, or Octarchy, were reduced by intestine broils, and foreign inroads, to a state of confusion, when Egbert ascended the throne of Wessex. He had been brought up in the court of Charlemagne; and from that wise and powerful monarch he had learned to aspire to universal dominion. On his return to his country A.D. 800, having taken the reins of government, he first directed his attention to the refractory Britons in Wales and Cornwall, whom he so far subdued as to render them tributary to the crown. He then proceeded to chastise the insolence and usurpations of the contagious kingdoms, and to execute his plan of a general incorporation of them into one government. Some of the States, too weak for resistance, had previously met the wishes of Egbert; and he soon reduced to compliance the remaining States. In this manner the separate kingdoms of the Heptarchy were united into one great nation, about four hundred years after the first landing of the Saxons on the shores of Britain.
During the latter part of this dynasty, the DANES, who had become a powerful people in the north, turned their attention southward, and at various times infested the coasts with a view of finally getting possession of the country. Essex, ultimately, situated largely in the general calamity resulting from these hostile plunderers. After plundering and devastating many other parts of England, the Danes under Inguar and Hubba, penetrated into Norfolk. and Essex, in 870, and from that period this part of the island became their chief settlement.
NORMAN CONQUEST. After the death of Edward the Confessor, in 1066, Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, ascended the throne, but was opposed by his brother Tosti, at whose instance, Harfrager, King of Norway, entered the Humber with a mighty armament, embarked on board a kind of Norwegian armada, and landed his forces in Yorkshire, where they were completely overthrown by Harold, who left his brother and his royal confederate, dead on the field. Harold's triumph was, however, of short duration, for, whilst rejoicing over his victory at York, he received information that William, Duke of Normandy [whom it was said Edward with his dying breath nominated as his successor,] had landed at Pavensey, in Sussex, with a numerous and well-disciplined army. To meet this foe, Harold marched his forces to Hastings, where, in a sanguinary battle, he lost his life and his kingdom. No sooner was William the Conqueror seated on the English throne, in the year 1066, than he showed that his policy was to root out the ancient nobility, and to degrade the native inhabitants of the humbler classes to the rank of miserable slaves; though in this work he was obstinately, but unsuccessfully, opposed in the north of England, where he burnt York and many other places to the ground, and swore, "by the splendour of God" [his favourite oath] that he would not leave a soul of his enemies alive. Conscious of the detestation in which he was held, he entertained a perpetual jealousy of the English. He built and garrisoned strong castles to keep them in awe; and in the wantonness of his power, he obliged them to extinguish their fires and candles every evening at the ring of a bell called "the Curfew." He also caused a survey to be made of all the lands in the kingdom, the register of which is called the DOMESDAY BOOK and was finished in 1081, after a labour of six years, on the model of the Book of Winchester, compiled by order of Alfred the Great. Through all time, this "Book of Judicial Verdict," will be held in estimation, not merely for its antiquity, but also for its intrinsic value. It afforded the Conqueror an exact knowledge of his own land and revenue, while the rights of his subjects, in disputed cases, were settled by it; and to this day it serves to show what manor is, and what is not, ancient demesne. It specifies the extent of the land in each district; the state it was in, whether meadow, pasture, wood, or arable; the name of the proprietor; the tenure by which it was held; and the value at which it was estimated. That nothing might be wanted to render this document complete, and its authority perpetual, commissioners were appointed to superintend the survey, and the returns were made under the sanction of juries of all orders of freemen in each district, empanelled for the purpose. This best monument to the memory of the Conqueror, written in Roman, with a mixture of Saxon, is still preserved in the chapter-house, at Westminster, amongst the national archives. This valuable manuscript, which had for so many centuries remained unpublished, was printed in the 40th of George III., for the use of the members of both Houses of Parliament, and the public libraries of the kingdom.
By Domesday Book, it appears that ninety landowners of this county were deprived of their lands by the Conqueror, during whose reign the whole civil and ecclesiastical government of the kingdom, and of each county, underwent very considerable changes. That of Essex was now governed and tyrannized over by Norman Barons, who constructed CASTLES on their estates, for personal security, and to awe their dependant vassals. Formerly, there were twelve baronial castles in this county, four of which have been nominated Royal Castles, as built for national security. These were - Colchester, Hadleigh, Languard Fort, and Tilbury Fort. The other eight were - Candfield and Hedingham, belonging to the De Veres, Earls of Oxford; Clavering and Rayleigh, belonging to Suene of Essex, who possessed, besides these, 53 other lordship in this county; Ongar, belonging to Richard de Lucy; Pleshy, which was first held by the Duke of Gloucester, High Constable of England; Stansted Montfichet, belonging to De Montfichet; and Walden, built by Geoffrey de Mandeville. These formidable fortresses, once the pride of the Norman nobility, and the terror of the peasantry, are mostly razed to the ground, the parts now remaining being chiefly their high keeps and wide fosses. The following are among the principal Normans to whom the Conqueror gave the largest estates in Essex. To his brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, he gave 216 lordships, 39 of which were in Essex. Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, received nearly as many lordships; and William, Earl of Warren, had more than 200 in this and other counties. Suene of Essex is supposed to have been a Dane, who settled here before the Conquest, but joining the Conqueror on his arrival, he had his large estates restored or confirmed to him. Eudo Dapifer, son of the king's steward, had 25 lordships in Essex, and 39 in other counties. Geoffrey de Magnaville, or, Mandeville, a Norman chief, received 118 lordships, of which 40 were in Essex. Robert Gernon, or Grenon, a great warrior, had the large barony of Stansted; but his successor took the name of Montfichet. Ralph Baynard, one of the king's attendants, had 25 lordships in Essex, and many in other counties, and his capital mansion was Baynard Castle, in London. Ralph Peverell, a noble Norman, who married the Conqueror's Saxon concubine, had many lordships here, but the seat of his chief barony was at Nottingham.

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"The Essex Cycling Club has elected no fewer than eighty members within about a month. These include a number of record breakers and champions in various branches of sport. On Thursday, August 11th, at an evening meeting, one of their vice-presidents, Jemmy Walters, will ride a paced mile. There will also be a One Mile Open Handicap in addition to two members' events. In the Sealed Handicap for the 10-guinea Ferres Cup [which can be won by a first-claim member only] the handicap prize, open to all members, will be of the value of 5 guineas, and, to give the crowd a good race for their money, a 5-guinea lap prize will be offered."
"Essex Cycling Club"
Sporting Life : July 23rd 1898 Page 8