A dump of text from The History and Topology of Essex
Page formerly titled: Conquest to "the Post Civil war years"
This page is now superceeded by my storyboard "Conquest to Wentworth" and my page on Aubrey de Vere.
The information on this page was taken from "The history and topography of ... Essex" – Thomas Wright 1831/36. I have not transcribed Thomas Wright's text in my normal "quoted" style as I have changed it for readabilty and as a source for links.
I don't find the statement on the Historic England website (not Thomas Wright) with regard to
Belchamp Hall
particularly helpful:
Under the de Veres it was held by a number of families
until in 1539 it came to Sir Roger Wentworth.
The estate may well have been "(stiil officially held by the de Veres)" but I think that this is a little bit of an over simplification. There is still much to be researched about the Wentworth inheritance.
The "number of families" include many families that were relevant to both the national and local history, from the political standpoint and who was on the English throne at the time.
Essex, in this case North Essex, was an important strategical holding due to its location. Its proximity to London and the Thames, its coast, along with Kent, facing mainland Europe.
What follows on this page is rather "rambling" and is pretty much a reproduction of Thomas Wright's account. I really need to re-write it (again!). The part that I am tackling here is the second dissemination of what I started with the Hinkford Hundreds, the page for a fuller version of Wright's rext uses expandable sections. In hindsight I don't think that the formatting on the Hinkford page helps. (Note: I am in the process of re-writing it anyway)
A re-write of Thomas Wrights account:
Not a direct quote.
He left a son named John, and Isabel, his widow, was married to Walter de Tey
(born between circa 1250 and circa 1270).
In 1286, William de Montchensy died, holding this manor and other estates, of the inheritance of his wife Beatrix,
deceased, formerly wife of Thomas Fitz-Otho.
His son William was his heir.
But this estate descended to Maud (Fitz-Otho), the last surviving daughter of Fitz-Otho, by the before-mentioned Beatrix; and this Maud conveyed it to her husband, Sir John de Botetourt, of Mendlesham, in Suffolk, to whom she was married in 1302.
They had four sons, Thomas, John, Otho, and Robert, and a daughter.
Sir John died in 1325, holding jointly with his wife this and other estates, which were entailed on the second son John, who,
on his death, in 1339, to left his only son,
Sir John, his successor.
He married Joan, daughter and co-heiress of John Gernon, of the family of Stansted Montfitchet, whose only daughter was named after her mother; she was a very rich heiress, conveying the large possessions of the Botetourts and Gernons to her husband, Sir Robert Swynborne, of Little Horksley.
According to her epitaph in this church (Little Horksley), she died in 1400, but this is supposed to be an erroneous statement, as the year 1433 is mentioned in the inquisitions as the time of her decease.
She bore to Sir Robert five sons, who all died without issue, and two daughters, Alice and Margery; the latter married to Nicholas Berners, of Aberden Hall, in Debden, and Codham Hall, in Wethersfield, whose daughter Catharine was wife of Sir William Fynderne; but this estate was the inheritance of Alice, the eldest daughter, married to John Helion, Esq. of Bumsted Helion.
John Helion, Esq. was their son and heir, who, dying in 1450, left, by his wife Editha, daughter and co heiress of Thomas Rolfe, Esq. of Gosfield, Philippa, married to Sir Thomas Montgomery, Esq. of Faulkbourne Hall; and Isabel, the wife of Humphrey Tyrell, Esq. of Little Warley, to whom she bore an only daughter, named Anne, who, by marriage, conveyed this and other great estates to Sir Roger Wentworth, of Codham Hall, in Wethersfield.
The name of the village
The village of Belchamp Walter was known as Walter Belchamp up until the late 19th century. Accounts attribute this to Walter de Tey, of Marks Tey, Essex. However, I cannot find information that He "held" or resided in the manor.
from the Marks Tey website:
The Merk and Tey families were no strangers to each other because on 14th November 1302, at Westminster the signatures of Walter de Teye and John de Merk appear next to each other as witnesses to a Royal letters patent for a grant in recognition of good service to the King and his predecessors.
I have also seen Water Belchamp in court records dated 1730-1770.
Timeline - for just BW
As there are so many names mentioned in this account it is difficult to get a sense of a timeline. We know that the overall span is from the 1060's until the early 1600's and the control and ownership of the manor changed hands many times. This is in contrast to the "R______ Years". In all this time there have been significant periods of English history.
- 1068 Aubrey (Abrech) de Vere was "given" the manor appropriated from Wulfwine
- 1110 Geofrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex and Roese, Geoffrey married Rohese de Vere (c. 1110–1167 or after), daughter of Aubrey de Vere II.
- Payne de Beauchamp, baron of Bedford - b. 1118
- Simon de Beauchamp, was steward of the household to King Stephen
- 1264 William de Beauchamp died - herein lay a mystery to who this actually was.
- 1265 Battle of Evesham
- William Montchensy, of Edwardstown
Magna Carta
It didn't take long from Conquest until "the Raymond Years" (1611) for unrest to show its face. In fact Magna Carter and the "Rebels Revolt" in 1215 was pretty early on.
The Lists of participants in 1215 de Vere, Bigod, de Mowbray ......... de Clare - the Wikipedia link needs to be added to ?????
Background to this page
This page was the first attempt at recoding the "dump" of the text from Thomas Wright.
The text on this page also forms the basis of other pages based on the names mentioned by Thomas Wright.