THE VILLAGE OF STOCK, ESSEX, 1550-1610: A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SURVEY. ANN CATHERINE ROBEY Ph. D. THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 1991. UMI Number: U042918 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U042918 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 s F 6 8 3 o >s OF 1 POLITICAL uj! W'O a n d ^U /i *flc, ^ = 5 11 Ofj)o L Abstract. ^ This thesis is an examination of as many aspects of the economic and social history of the sixteenth century Essex village of Stock, as surviving records permit. A survey of landholding and the complex manorial structure in the village is followed by an analysis of agrarian activity (arable and animal husbandry, market gardening and the marketing of produce). Those engaged in non-agriculturall occupations are studied, with special reference Lo those pursuing du^i economic roles. Central to th« economy of the village, was the important brick, tile arid pottery industry. Very little research has hitherto been undertaken to show clay-based workers in their economic and social setting in the sixteenth century. Methods of production, marketing and distribution, as well as the status of this important group of men are examined. Over fifty clay-based craftsmen are studied biographically. Religious life and belief within the village are set against a general background of heretical belief in Essex and interpreted in terms of the influence of the resident clergy and the resident noble landlords, the Catholic Petre family. The malnt e nance of law and order are studied, firstly through internal manorial agencies (the Court Leet and the Court of Civil Pleas) and secondly through the external or state agencies of law and order. An attempt is made to measure the importance of an efficient Court Leet and to appraise the role of the Quarter Sessions and other courts in the affairs of the village. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Maps and Plates. List of Tables. List of Appendices. Acknowl edgemen t s. Chapter One: Village England. Introduction. The Village of Stock; The setting. Footnotes to Chapter One. Chapter Two: Village Topography and the Park of Crondon. The Historical Topography of the Village. Crondon Park. Chapter Three: Landholding in Stock and Buttsbury. Introduction. The Extension of the Cultivated Area. Multi-Manorial Landholding and the Variety of Tenure. The Tenants and the Estate Policy of The Petres. The Large Farms of Stock and Buttsbury. The Smaller Landholders. The Village Centre: The Semi-Urban Manor of Imphey. Inheritance Practices in Sixteenth Century Stock. Footnotes to Chapter Three. Chapter Four: Agricultural Activity. Introduction. Marketing of Produce. Agricultural Production. Arable Production. Dairying and Stock Rearing. Market Gardening. Footnotes to Chapter Five. Chapter Five: The Village at Work Introduction. Footnotes to Chapter Five. Chapter Six: Pottery. Brick and Tile making in Elizabethan Stock. Introduction. Raw Materials. a The Development of the clay-processing crafts. The Bricklayers of Stock. The Potters of Stock. The Vealth and Status of the Clay Craftsmen of Stock. Footnotes to Chapter Six. Chapter Seven: Religious Life in Stock. The General background. Stock and Buttsbury: Influences on Religion 1510-1558. The Clergy of Stock and Buttsbury c. 1550-1610. The Beliefs of the Villagers, c. 1558-1620. Footnotes to Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight: Law and Order: The Role of the Leet Court. Footnotes to Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine: Law and Order: Non Manorial. Footnotes to Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten: Conclusion. Appendices Bibliography 5 LIST OF MAPS 1. The county of Essex, showing Stock and other towns. 2. Geological Map of Essex, reproduced from The Victoria County History of Essex. 3. Map of Stock and Buttsbury showing principal features. 4. The Fields of Ramseys, Whites and Imphey today. 5. Stock in 1777. 6. Main pottery producing towns and villages in sixteenth century Essex. *' 7. Sites connected with the brick, tile and pottery industry of Stock.’ 8. Land and sea route used for the transportation of pots made in Stock during the 1530s. LIST OF PLATES 1. Map of Ramsey and Whites Tyrells, 1616. (ERO D/DMa PI) 2. Map of Crondon and Stock, c. 1570. (ERO D/DP 2) 3. Section of Map of 1616, showing Stock Green. 4. The Almshouses. 5. The Church of All Saints, Stock. 6. The Bear Inn. 7. Map of roadside waste near Crondon, showing gravel pits. (ERO D/DP P7) 8. Map showing the Quarters of Crondon Park. 6 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. 1. Copyholders of the Manors of Ramsey and Whites Tyrells in 1616. 2. Occupational analysis of Wills, 1540-1616. 3. Occupational analysis from all sources, 1540-1620. 4. Multiple occupations of husbandmen. 5. Dominant scribes in Stock and Buttsbury c. 1551-1620. 6-8.. Numbers of jurors and the frequency of appearance at the Leet Court of Stock (6), Crodon Court Baron <7), and Imphey Hall Court Baron (8). 9. Occupatloal status of Constables in the village of Stock, 1556-1602. 10. Numbers of inmates and numbers of prosecutions of those harbouring Inmates at the Stock Leet, 1550-1604. 11. Number of inhabitants of.Stock and Buttsbury presented in the i. Quarter Sessions Court from 1571-1613. 12. Number of inhabitants of Stock and Buttsbury presented in the Assize Court between 1569-1603. 13. Number of inhabitants, of Stock and Buttsbury presented in the Court of Queens Bench between 1570-1604. 7 LIST OF APPENDICES. 1. Survey of Fristling Hall. 2. Rental of Imphey Hall, c.1529. 3. Land holding at Imphey Hall, c. 1605. 4. List of different crafts and skills found in Stock and Buttsbury during the years 1550-1610. 5. Biographical details of the Clay Workers of Stock and Buttsbury, c. 1515-1620. 6. Religious Preambles to Wills written by Christopher Dale. 7. E£treat Roll for the Leet Court of Stock for the year 1561. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I wish to thank all who have helped and encouraged me during the preparation of this thesis. Principally I should like to thank my supervisor Dr A. R. Bridbury for his great patience, constructive critisism of early drafts and his belief that I could finish. I should like to thank all the staff at the Essex Record Office, whose knowledge of source material helped in the early stages. For comments on the pottery and brickmaking industry I should like to thank Mrs Elizabeth Sellers and my colleague at The Survey of London, Alan Cox. I thank another colleague, Dr. Stephen Porter, for advice on footnotes. For help with computer software, photographic matters and general encouragement I thank Deb and Jeff Saward, Donna Cooper, Mike Clemants and especially my mother, Mrs Winifred Robey. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the S. S. R. C. (now the E. S. R. C. ) between 1981 and 1984. I should also like to thank my employers The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, for special leave during late 1988 which enabled me to finish writing. Most of all I should like to thank Tim Horsey for his patience and advice throughout the * research and writing of this dissertation. Lastly, I should like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my father, William Allan Robey, who always encouraged me in this venture, but who unfortunately did not live to see the finished thesis. 10 Chapter One Village England. Introduction A sixteenth-century village was small by modern standards. It is often difficult to estimate its size with any degree of accuracy, simply because the records needed for demographic reconstruction have failed to survive into the twentieth century. Of course, numbers living within villages and hamlets varied from time to time and region to region, but it seems a fair assumption that the majority of sixteenth century Englishmen lived for at least some of their lives, in communities of between 100 and 300 people. In 1688, Gregory King estimated that seventy-four percent of England's population lived in 'the villages and hamlets'.1 A century earlier the percentage was undoubtedly even higher. Even in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the English village was never an isolated entity; a fine road network, consisting of both Roman highways and rougher, muddy tracks, facilitated communications and joined tiny settlements to larger marketing centres and county towns, and ultimately to the great cities of England; Bristol, Norwich, York, and most importantly, London. Elizabethan villages were independent and self-sufficient for many of their daily needs, but all were reliant on larger centres which performed more specialized processing and marketing activities for the villagers. A large village was distinguished from a smaller one, not only by population size, but also by the number and variety of processing functions it possessed. Often, especially in Eastern England, the village did not correspond to a parish; parishes were rarely settlements or 11 communities as such. Often several separate villages or hamlets were to be found within one parish, each with its own identity. Sometimes, as is the case here, a village community embraced two parishes: half of the inhabitants worshipping in one church and the rest attending a church lying outside the main area of settlement.