cruel provisions of the forest laws, and the arbitrary injustice with which all, except Norman offenders, were treated. But this under-current of compressed indignation at last came to the surface, and with the suggestions of a few more educated leaders, the Commons of Essex went to London to demand redress of their wrongs, at the hands of the youthful sovereign, King Richard, who had just succeeded to the throne. Many places in Essex between London and Colchester-Fobbing, Corringham, Billericay (described as close to Hatfield Peverel!!) Stanford-are mentioned in the account of Wat Tyler's rebellion, as the homes of the disaffected; one chief leader was the St. Mary's priest of Colchester, Sir John Ball, who began his well known sermon,

When Adam delved and Eve span

Who was then the gentleman ?

Dark and mysterious messages were at this time handed about, either by letter, or more probably from mouth to mouth: which were doubtless intended to stir up the oppressed peasantry, and yet to implicate no one; some records of these messages have been preserved:

"John Shepe sometime St. Mary Priest of York and now of Colchester greeteth well John Nameless and John Miller and John Carter, and biddeth them that they beware of Gillingborough alias Gitenbrough, and standeth together in God's name, and biddeth Pierce Ploughman go to his work aud chastice well Hob the robber, and take him with John Trueman and all his fellows, and no more."

"Jacke Miller asketh helpe to turn his mill aright, he hath ground small, small. The king's sonne of heaven shall pay for all. Look thy mill go right with foure sailes, and the post stand in stedfastness with right and might; with skill and will; let might help right, and skill before will, and right before might, then goeth our mill aright; and if might go before right, and will before skill, then is our mill misdight."

We can hardly suppose that the people about Witham were unaffected by the general rising; nay we are told that the Lordly Prior of St. John, who sided with the court, was an especial object of their resentment, and the chronicle of that day informs us of a visit which the people paid to the knights at Cressing Temple.

"At that same time the great prior of St. John of Jerusalem by London having a goodly and delectable mannor in Essex, wherein was ordained victuals and other necessaries for the use of a chapiter general, and great abundance of fair stuffe, of wines, arras, clothes, and other provision for the Knights brethren, the

commons entered this mannor, eat up the victuals and provision of wine, three tunne, and spoiled the mannor and the ground with great damage.'

The same history tells us of these troublous times"The fame of these doings spread into Sussex, Hertford, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., and when such assemblings of the people daily took increase, and that their number was now almost made infinite, so that they feared no man to resist them, they began to show some such acts as they had considered in their minds, and took in hand to behead all men of law, as well apprentices as utter barristers and old justices, with all the jurers of the country whom they might get into their hands; they spared none whom they thought to be learned, especially if they found any to have pen and ink-they pulled off his hoode, and all, with one voice of crying, hale him out and cut off his head." "

To this may be added that the clergy were hardly more popular with the parliament than they were with the lower classes. In the year 1386, and again, in the year 1410, bills were formally introduced to confiscate the revenues of the church: and, in both cases, the measures were only stopped by the peremptory refusal of the sovereigns, Richard II. and Henry V., to entertain them.

Now, I cannot but connect the first alteration in the church after it was built with the tumultuous proceedings of the time. At this period the altar in the church was generally adorned with the rich offerings of christian devotion. Gold and silver and precious stones glittered in the cross and holy vessels, and rich embroidery clothed the officiating priest; it must, therefore, have been necessary to have a safe place of deposit for such valuables: and it would be at least a politic measure to keep an unruly congregation out of reach, so that they might not have the temptation to purloin what was on the altar. For this purpose they could hardly have devised a better protection than a strong room which they called the sacristy, and an ornamented screen which should separate the clergy from the people. No one, I think, can observe the very solid and substantial beams of oak of which the ornamental screen at St. Nicolas is composed, without being convinced that it was something more than the embodiment of the theoretical sanctity of the priesthood, something more than a mere mark of division between clergy and laity; no one can examine the thick walls, and unadorned windows, the ponderous hinges, and sockets for massive bolts, by which the doorway into the staircase and upper chamber of the sacristy was guarded, without

thinking of the treasures that were there deposited and the necessity of a place of safety in the midst of lawlessness. The form of the windows must not be gathered from the present large opening in the vestry, which has been filled up with a portion of the dilapidated masonry from the body of the church: for the outline of the original windows above and below can still be seen, though filled up, on the north side of the vestry: and there was a window on the east side exactly similar to that on the north side.

This, then, was the first addition to the church; that it was an addition is clear by the remains of a window which may be seen still inside the church on the north side of the chancel, and which must have looked out to the heavens before the sacristy was built: a window which is now filled up by a mass of unchristian marble and self-complacent praise. That the sacristy was built previously to the chauntry which now contains the organ, is also clear from the fact that the plinth of the once outward wall may even now be seen within the church on the west side of the vestry.

A.D. 1386.-It may not be uninteresting to glean something of the character of Newland-street at this period. It had so far increased that it bid fair to eclipse the parent town of Witham. It is uncertain whether the market at Chipping-hill had been discontinued, but it is most likely that, even if the market continued for a short time at both places, yet that the grant to the Knights of Cressing Temple, to hold their market in the hamlet of Newland, must soon have attracted both buyers and sellers to the more convenient spot.

By this time probably several huts were built at intervals on both sides of the road at Duck-end; here and there also, on the east side of the river, was a fair and goodly mansion, occupied by John Page, my Lord Henry de Hadham, Richard de Hadham, and Wm. Quenterill; and small allotments of ground, called the Half-acres, joined the road, where there were no houses: and there were several gardens likewise. It is probable that the whole of the space now occupied by houses, between Mr. Green's and Mr. Gardner's, was open ground; a market cross of stone, built doubtless by the Knights of St. John on obtaining their market, stood in the middle of the road; at that point, at least one principal road branched off, where its commencement still remains, between Mr. Elmy's and Mr. Green's houses, leading through Milne-field to Witham. Milne-field then bore the same name as now; in extent, how

ever,

it was larger, consisting of 38 acres, and included the field where the avenue has been since planted. On the south side of the road stood a place of some importance, opposite the market cross, called Wrenneshierne, and just beyond was the turning to go to Maldon, probably very near the spot where there is now a passage through the Eagle yard. There is an uncertain tradition that the White Hart was the first house built on the Newlands of Witham; it is likely that both that and the Eagle were the earliest houses of public entertainment, for travellers and frequenters of the forest. The names of both would indicate an early existence, the one hanging up the skin of a white hart which had been killed, and the other a black eagle, which had been shot in the forest, as the respective signs by which their good cheer might be remembered and recommended. At this time Thomas de Ysham resided in the parish, probably at the farm, which still bears his name; there was also in that part of the parish, a manor house belonging to the rich abbey of St. John's Colchester, apparently the same which was afterwards the residence of one Benyngton, from whom it has retained its name of Benton Hall. The ford at the bottom of the town across the river had long been called Wolnesford, but having been accommodated with a bridge, probably a wooden bridge for foot passengers, was then dignified by the name of the Bridge of Wolnesford. At that period, as we should expect, the new town was invariably called Le Newlond, and the old town retained exclusively the name of Witham.

A. D., 1397.-And now I pass on to another exact date respecting the church, when the next addition was made, viz., the north chauntry: filling up the space which had remained unenclosed between the east end of the north aisle and west end of the sacristy. This was easily done; one arch was made into the chancel and another into the aisle, this small space was covered with a roof, and the chauntry was completed. The altar of St. John Baptist was moved just so much towards the east: a screen of oak was erected, both on the south and west sides, to show that it was private property (part of which still protects the organist from the gaze of the congregation), and a chauntry priest was appointed to officiate. founders of this chauntry were Robert Rykedon and Thomas Byrcheleygh, who gave an ample endowment, some portion of which is still identified by its name of Chauntry Wood, beyond Bluemills. The object of the foundation was to have a priest who should continually say prayers at the altar of St. John Baptist

The

for the good estate of the Lady Joanna de Bohun, Countess of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, and of the said Robert and Thomas, and several others.

How these three names became classed together I have not been able to ascertain: there may probably have been some connexion between the families of the Barons of Stansted Mountfitchet and the Earls of Essex: this Joanna Countess of Essex had lost her husband in early life, and living at Saffron Walden was well known for her piety and deeds of devotion during her widowhood; being a special benefactress to the Abbey of Walden, by adorning the nave of the church with divers curious sculptures in stone, covering the roof thereof with lead, and building the steeple anew. Besides this she gave divers costly vestments thereto, and enriched all the altar with goodly ornaments. She gave likewise to that abbey a fair cross of gold, whereon were placed several pieces of the wood of that cross whereon our Saviour was crucified. Moreover, continuing a widow, she spent a great part of her time there in the church, exercising herself in devout prayers and meditations, and, departing this life 7th April, 1419, was buried near her husband in the same abbey of Walden.

Both Robert Rykedon and Thomas Berkeley held their estate under the Lord of Stansted; the latter at Wenden the former living at Powers Hall: and enjoying that property through his grandmother, who had been Elizabeth de Power, and from whose family the Manor of Witham Parva had acquired the name of Powers Hall. All three, however, had property in the Manor of Witham; and it is not unworthy of notice that this chauntry was founded, not only in behalf of the dead, but of the living, for Joanna, Countess of Essex, did not die for more than twenty years after the priest had been appointed to say his prayers for her good estate.

The other chauntry was probably built more than 50 years later, on the south side of the chancel: the wall of which was then taken down, and the two arches which now remain, built to support the chancel roof; a screen being here placed also to separate our lady's chapel from the chancel; it probably had been originally founded or endowed by one Jennett Childes, as her name is connected with it. As the lands became more valuable, and the chauntry priests more independent, this chauntry was built for the altar of our lady which had stood at the east end of the south aisle, and a more spacious area was provided, in which the well endowed chauntry priest might perform his ministrations.