Little Waltham

Visited 1 August 2023. On a trip including Felsted, Little Leighs, Great Leighs, Pleshey and Rayne.

Along with the Leighs, Pleshey and Felsted, connections to Belchamp Walter can be found. The parishes of Felsted and the Leighs are associated with Leez Priory (Sir John Gernon - 1220-1224) and Pleshey and the Walthams, Geofrey de Mendeville.

This page should really be entitled "Waltham" but the church of Little Waltham was first to be visited and the research for the early history comes from the Thomas Wright's History and Topography of Essex.

Great Waltham church was not visited on this trip but the historical information on this page will be repeated on a seperate page when it is. The historical information relating to Little Waltham by Thomas Wright will be found on this page.

What Wikipedia describes Little Waltham:

" Little Waltham is a village and civil parish just north of Chelmsford, in Essex, England. It is adjacent to the village of Great Waltham.
The Domesday Book refers to the two villages as Waltham, consisting of several manors. "

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Thomas Wright

" The name of Waltham has been given to four parishes in this county, of which two are distinguished by the epithets, great, or magna, and little, or parva. The name is Saxon, Wealtham — a village in a wood, this district and also a great part of the county having been formerly covered with woods. Great Waltham is in a central part of the county, and well watered by the river Chelmer, which passes through it, and by numerous springs, which have their origin here. Next to Writtle, it is the largest parish in the county, being seven miles in length, and bordering upon eleven other parishes. * Soil and produce. Population. Waltham- bury . The soil is considerably varied, but its general character is a wet loam , on a clay bottom , and much of it has been classed with the worst in the county , yet , with draining and judicious management , it is made to produce as good wheat as any other part: the annual average produce per acre is stated to be, of wheat, twenty-four bushels, and of barley and oats, thirty-two. "

" The population of this extensive parish is nine hundred and eighty-seven males , eight hundred and ninety-six females; total, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three. There are eight hamlets in Great Waltham , Church-end , South-end, Rophey-green, Chatham-end, How-street, Littley-green , Fourth-end, and North-end.
In the Saxon times these lands were in the possession of Asgar and Ulwin; and at the time of the general survey were held by Geofrey de Magnaville, and under him by Hubert, Walter, Turchill, and Roger. The whole was afterwards divided into seven manors. "

Geofrey de Magnaville may have been the predesessor of the de Mandevilles????

William de Mandeville - Geofrey de Mandeville's father

Geofrey de Mandeville features quite a lot in the history of the area. Holding the castle at Pleshey and marrying Rohse de Vere.

" Walthambury is an extensive manor, containing eight hundred acres. house is nearly a mile west-north-west of the church. As the Saxon word buný imports , this was originally the capital family seat where the lord's court was kept . After the ancestor of the Mandeville family, the next possessor was William de Mandeville, whose successor was the second Geofrey, the founder of Walden Abbey, to whom succeeded the third of that name, who marrying Eustachia, a kinswoman of King Henry the Second, and leaving her soon after, that monarch caused her to be divorced from him, and seizing two of his best lordships , Walden and Waltham, gave them to the lady. "

Walden Abbey, founded by the second Geofrey de Mandeville and where he was buried is close to Saffron Walden and the abbey is now the site of Audley End

" From Mandeville, it afterwards went to Geofrey Fitzpiers, who was justice of England and earl of Essex; he died in 1212, and his son, Geofrey, succeeded him, taking the surname of Mandeville. From this family it passed, in 1227, with the earldom of Essex, to Henry de Bohun, on his marriage with Maud, the heiress of the Mandeville family. This nobleman was earl of Hereford and high constable of England. His successors, for several generations, continued to hold these estates . "

" The last male heir was Humphrey , the sixth of that name , who dying in 1372, left only two daughters, Eleanor and Mary , co-heiresses. Eleanor, the elder , was married to Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, the sixth son of Edward the Third; and Mary, to Henry earl of Derby, who was afterwards King Henry the Fourth. Eleanor had this manor, and many others, in purparty with the earldom of Essex and constableship of England. Her husband was treacherously taken away from his seat at Pleshy, and barbarously murdered; and she died in 1399, leaving a son, Humphrey , who died unmarried , and four daughters, Anne, Joan , Isabel , and Philippa . Isabel was a nun , and Philippa died young. Joan had this estate for her part , and was married to Gilbert Lord Talbot , of Goderic Castle and Blackmore ; on her death, without a surviving heir , this inheritance descended to Anne , the eldest daughter, who was successively married to Thomas, and to Edmund, earls of Stafford, and to William Bourchier, earl of Eu . It continued in this noble family till it was exchanged with King Henry the Fifth, from whom it descended to Henry the Sixth, Edward the Fourth and Edward the Fifth, and to Richard the Third, who granted this manor to Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, he having assisted in placing him upon the throne but afterwards projecting, with others, to depose that usurper, he was betrayed by his steward, Ralph Banister, and , without arraignment or trial, beheaded at Salisbury. The manor coming to the crown on this occurrence, was granted by the succeeding monarch, Henry the Seventh, to Queen Elizabeth, the widow of King Edward the Fourth, during her life, and after her death, in the year 1509 , King Henry the Eighth gave it in dower to his first queen, Katharine of Arragon; upon whose death Sir Richard Rich obtained the grant of it, and it continued in his posterity till 1678 , when it became the property of Robert Montague, earl of Manchester, from whom it was conveyed, by purchase, to the family of Lord Waltham . Hall . Chatham Hall is about a mile east - north - east from the church , at some distance Chatham from the road to Chelmsford. There is a green near the hall , called Chatham Green . This manor has been in the possession of the families of Mandeville , Legat , Spice , Rich , and passed , in the same manner as Walthambury did, to the Lord Waltham. Warners derives its name from a family who were the first recorded proprietors Warners. of the manor. The house is about two miles from the church, on the left-hand side of the road to Dunmow. Edmund Warner * held this estate, under Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, in 1360 , and it continued in this family till it was purchased by Lord Rich, in 1536 , who had previously obtained a grant of the priory of Little Lees , with the lands and demesnes belonging to that house, between which there was no other partition than the road ; of these demesnes he formed a park about four miles in circumference , which extended from this parish into those of Lees and Felsted. It was called Little Lee Park , and along the south side of it , a Little Lee pleasant green is called Little Lee Green, which name, ancient and modern authors have corrupted into Littley Green. This manor, with Lees Priory, were enjoyed by Lees Priory. the posterity of Lord Rich, till, upon the partition of the noble inheritance of that peer, they were, with other estates, allotted to Charles Montague, earl of Manchester, whose son and successor sold them to the guardians of Edmund Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, of whom this manor was purchased by Herman Olmius, Esq., a descendant of whom conveyed it to Guy's Hospital, London. "

" Hide Hall is about half a mile north - east from the church. James de la Hyde had possessions here in 1324. His daughter, Elizabeth, is called, in the Inquisition, Lady de Hemenhale. " It is uncertain whether the family gave its surname to, or derived it from this manor . Peter at Hyde was living in 1363 , and Thomas at Hyde was witness to a deed in 1416 , but this family is not afterwards mentioned . In 1623 this estate was in the possession of John Hawkins ; and his successor , of the same name , sold it , about the year 1650 , to John Sorell , Gent . , * who married the daughter of Thomas Aylett , of Coggeshall ; she died in 1642. Their son and heir , John , of Hide Hall and Waltham Parsonage , married the daughter of Richard Hale , of Beckenham , in Kent . Richard , his second and only surviving son , married the daughter of John Wise , Gent . , of Berkshire , and died in 1738 , without issue , and was the last of the male line of the family . Sarah , his sister , had a grandson , named John Sorell Hay , who was his heir , but he left this estate to Dr. Tyson , a physician of London . The Sorell family had another estate in this parish , not far from How - street , called Hill House ; they were likewise lessees of the parsonages of Hide Hall and Stebbing. South House manor is called , in old writings, the hamlet of South House , and , in the court rolls of Waltham , Le Southend , also Bybbesworth - fee , from an ancient owner of that name . The mansion is about three quarters of a mile south - west from the church . The Bibbesworth † family held this manor from the time of King Henry the Third , in the commencement of the thirteenth century , to the year 1336 ; and afterwards persons of this name are mentioned in writings , as holding the estate to the time of Henry the Sixth , in the year 1448. Thomas Barley held this manor in right of his wife , Joan , the aunt and heiress of the last of the Bybbesworths ; and it continued in the possession of this family till the thirteenth of King Charles the First . It has since been in the possession of Mrs. Westland , and afterwards belonged to West Andrew Blackaller, of Abingdon , in Berkshire . Langleys is a manor , also called Marshalls, or Mariskalls ; the house is a quarter of a mile from the church , pleasantly situated on an eminence , below which a brook flows on the north , and on the south the river Chelmer . The family named Mareskull or Marshall , flourished here , from the time of King John to that of Edward the Third ; William le Mareskull was living in 1336. About this time it came to the family of Langley. A moiety of the estate afterwards went to the "

Slixtons , of Horndon , and another moiety to the Cornish family, * of this parish; but these portions of the estate were afterwards conveyed to the Everard family , the former by purchase , and the other by the marriage of Thomas Everard with the daughter and heiress of John Cornish . The whole manor having become the property of the Everard family , they were afterwards settled here for many years , and rose to considerable eminence in the county . Ralph Everard lived in the reigns of Henry the Third and Edward the First ; Everard family . Walter , William and John were successively the heads of the family till the time of King Henry the Seventh and King Henry the Eighth , when Thomas , the son and heir of the last mentioned John , became possessed of this manor . He had by his first wife six sons and three daughters , and was succeeded in the estate by Richard , his fourth son , whose son , of the same name , was the next proprietor , and died in 1561 , holding Langleys , and various other extensive possessions in the county . Richard , his grandson , succeeded , who married the daughter of John Wiseman , Esq . , of Great Canfield , by whom he had Anthony , Matthew , Hugh , and John , and a daughter , named Mary , who was married to John Wiseman , Esq . , of Systed . Anthony , his eldest son , received the honour of knighthood in 1603 , but died before his father . He had two wives ; first , Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Barnardiston , Knt . , of Kedington , in Suffolk , by whom he had Anthony , Richard , and Elizabeth , and also Anne , who survived him , and became his heiress , and who was married to Sir William Maynard , Knt . and Bart . , of Great Easton . Richard Everard mar- ried , secondly , Anne , daughter of Sir Anthony Felton , of Playford , in Suffolk , knight of the bath , by whom he had no children : he died in 1614. Hugh , the son of Richard Everard , succeeded to the estate . He was high sheriff of Essex in 1626 , and married Mary , daughter of Thomas Brande , Esq . , of Hormead , in Hertfordshire . His son and heir , Sir Richard Everard , was created a baronet in 1629 ; by his wife Joan , daughter of Sir Francis Barrington , of Hatfield Broad Oak , he had Richard , his eldest son and heir , Barrington , Everard , and Robert , who had no children ; Hugh , Fellow of Emanuel College Cambridge ; Winifred , wife of Sir William Luckyn , Bart . , of Little Waltham Hall ; and Joan and Frances , one of whom was married to John Cutts , Esq . , of Arkden . Sir Richard's second wife was the mother of Sir Gervase Elways , of Stoke , in Suffolk , but by her he had no children . His eldest son , Sir Richard , Knt . and Bart . , succeeded him , and was sheriff of Essex in 1644. He married Elizabeth , daughter of Sir Henry Gibbs , of Falkland , in Scotland , gentleman of the bed - chamber to King James the First ; by this wife he had Richard , Hugh , and Jane . His second wife was Jane , daughter of Sir William Finnet , master of the ceremonies to King James , and King Charles the First ; by this wife he had no children . He died in 1694 , in the 70th year of his age . His second son, Sir Hugh Everard, Bart., was bred to arms . He married Mary , the daughter of John Brown , M. D. , of Salisbury , by whom he had Richard ; Hugh , who was drowned in the great storm in November, 1703 , being lieutenant of the Restoration ; Morton , killed on board the Hampshire , commanded by Lord Maynard ; and two daughters , Elizabeth , married to Henry Osborne , A. M. , vicar of Great Waltham , rector of West Hanningfield , and afterwards vicar of Thaxstead , and Frances , who died unmarried . Sir Hugh died in 1705 , aged 61. He was for some time receiver general for the county , but left his estate much encumbered with debts , so that Sir Richard , his successor , was obliged to sell it , and bought himself a small estate at Broomfield . About the year 1724 , he left England , having been appointed governor of North Carolina , under the lords proprietors ; but , being displeased when the crown purchased that province , he returned to London , where he died in 1732 . His lady , who survived him , and died in 1739 , was Susanna , the daughter and co - heiress of Richard Kidder , D. D. , bishop of Bath and Wells , who was killed in the before - mentioned storm of 1703 , by the fall of a chimney . By this lady Sir Richard had two sons , Sir Richard , who succeeded him , but died unmarried in 1742 , and Sir Hugh , who came to an empty title , with a very small inheritance , and went to Georgia . There were also two daughters , Susanna , married to David Mead , a Virginia planter , and Anne , married to George Lathbury , Gent . * Rectory manor . The manor of Langleys was purchased of the Everard family by Samuel Tufnell , Esq . , who pulled down a great part of the old house , and erected a handsome and spacious new one , and made an extensive park around it . This house has been considerably improved by later proprietors of the same family . The rectory is a manor , which was given to Walden Abbey by Geofrey de Mandeville , + grandson of the founder of that house ; on the dissolution of monasteries it became the property of Sir Richard Rich , of whom it was purchased by Sir Thomas Pope , Knt . , the founder of Trinity College , Oxford , who settled it upon the president and fellows of that foundation , under whom the Sorell family held it for Rotherham many generations . About the year 1684 the lease was purchased by John Rotheram , family . Esq . , the son of the Rev. John Rotherham , vicar of Boreham , and rector of Springfield , of the ancient family of the Rotherhams of Luton , in Bedfordshire , related to Thomas Rotherham , archbishop of York , and founder of Lincoln College Oxford. John Rotherham , Esq . , was an eminent counsellor at law , and took the degree of sergeant in 1688, and was soon afterwards made one of the barons of the exchequer, and knighted. He was succeeded by his son, John Rotherham, Esq . , barrister at law , and recorder of Maldon, who married Mary, the daughter of Giles Alleyn , D. D. , by whom he had five daughters ; Mary , who died unmarried ; Anne , married to John Wyat , A. M. , master of Felsted school , and rector of Woodham Mortimer , of Peldon , and Little Waltham ; the third daughter was Elizabeth, married to Sir Theophilus Napier , Bart . , afterwards to Thomas Howard , baron of Effingham , and lastly to Sir Conyers Darcy ; Penelope , the fourth daughter , was married to a tobacconist in London ; and the fifth daughter , Frances , was married to Peter Curgenven , a merchant in the East Indies , and afterwards to Lord Somerville . Mary , the eldest , to whom her father had bequeathed the lease , left it to her sister Anne , and on her death , to the two daughters of Lord Effingham by his first lady ; of these , Anne was married to Sir William Young , Bart . , and Mary was the wife of George Venables Vernon , Esq . The house is about a mile north - east from the church , near the river Chelmer , and was much enlarged and improved after it came to the Rotherham family . Bullocks . An estate in North - end , called Bullocks , was formerly the seat of John Wiseman , North - end . Esq . , who settled here in the time of Henry the Sixth . He was the first of this name who lived in Essex , and from him the several branches of the family originated , respectively seated at Stisted , Great Canfield , Little Mapplestead , Bradocks in Wimbish , Rivenhall , Willingdale Dow , Great Baddow , Laingdon , Elsenham , Wigborough , and Mayland . Formerly , this family had possessions in Essex to the annual amount of seven thousand pounds . Three of them were honoured with the dignity of baronet ; William of Canfield , in 1628 , Richard of Thundersley , in the same year , and Sir William Wiseman , Knt . , of Rivenhall in 1660. * Wiseman family . Besides the manors already mentioned , Mr. Morant notices several other capital Balls . estates , of which Balls , about a mile from the church , was formerly in the proprietor- ship of a family named Goodeves , afterwards of the Tufnell family . Wisemans , near the church . Wisemans . Fitz - Johns is a mile south - west of the church : this and the two last - mentioned , Fitz - Johns . were held by the same proprietors as Balls . Israels is near Fitz - Johns , and some time ago belonged to a merchant of Israels . Colchester , named Whaley . Blessed Baileys is in Chatham - end , and belonged to a family of the name Blessed of Lane. Hill House is a large farm belonging , some time ago , to Mr. Tyson ; and a large Hill House , house , not far from the church, called Wallops , belonged to the Tufnell family . Wallops . The church is of brick , large and spacious , covered with lead ; about a dozen pews Church . and a considerable number of movable benches occupy the body of the building , and a south aisle and a chancel are separated from it , on the north side of which there is a small vestry . An octagon tower at the west end contains six very good tuneable bells , and a set of chimes ; and above the tower a clumsy spire rises , covered with lead . The whole of the inside of the church is well finished and very neat . In the chancel there is a neat altar - piece , of wainscot , erected about the year 1720 ; and in the vestry , a large parish chest , seven feet in length , three feet high , and three feet across , made of one piece of wood . Vicarage . Guildhall . Monu- ments . The vicarage is a very good building , west from the church. It has This church , with the rectory and the vicarage , belong to Trinity College . been remarked as a singularity , that the vicar is endowed with the tithes of hay and other things besides the small tithes ; notwithstanding which , this extensive and burdensome cure remained a poor vicarage of about eighty pounds a year ; but , in 1751 , the patrons made a handsome addition to it of fifty pounds a year for ever , payable half - yearly from the lessee of the rectory to the vicar , and further additions have been since made . In North - end , near the road leading to Dunmow , there is a little timber building , with a wooden turret , called Black Chapel , being a chapel of ease for this distant part of the parish ; but the inhabitants bury their dead in Waltham church - yard . A lady of the Wiseman family , seated at Bullocks , left a farm near this chapel for the endowment of it , but part of the money goes to the poor . Several other chapels are mentioned in ancient records , as the property of the Mandevilles and the Bybbesworths, but these have been destroyed . Partly over the western gate of the church - yard there is an old building , called the Guild Hall , on account ( as is believed ) of the court meetings being held here . It is not known how it came into the possession of Queen Elizabeth , but she granted it to Hugh Counsell , in the year 1569. It has since been converted into a workhouse . In the king's books the vicarage of Great Waltham is valued at 187. 13s . 4d . , and is in the patronage of Trinity College , Oxford. Within the church , on the north side , is a neat grey marble monument , bearing the following melancholy recital : : - " Near this place lyeth the body of Peter Curvengen , merchant . He was sent in his youth to the East Indies , where , attaining a thorough knowledge of the India trade in all its branches , he acquired a plentiful fortune , and with all , what is more valuable , the universal character of a man of great honour and honesty , of inviolable faith and integrity, which virtue he adorned with uncommon affability and politeness. Preparing , after a twenty-five years ' absence , to return to his native country , he unfortunately fell into the hands of Can- najee Angria , admiral to the Sou Raja , then at war with the English, at Bombay , and remained in a miserable captivity five years ; during which time , with an unparalleled patience , generosity , and greatness of mind , he continued not only comforting , assisting , and supporting his fellow - sufferers , but even refusing his own deliverance , without that of his companions in misery . At last , having freed himself and the rest by his own industry and management , he embarked for England , in hopes of sitting down in quiet , and enjoying the fruits of his labours . But see the uncertainty of all things below ! Just before his landing , a violent fit of the cramp seizing his thigh , and bursting the vein , though the effects were hardly discernible , yet was he forced , soon after his arrival in London , to have his thigh first laid open , and then cut off almost close to his body . Scarcely ever was the like operation performed ! Never any undergone with more resolution and firmness , without so much as a groan , or the least motion to express his anguish . He outlived this operation twelve days , when the wound , bleeding afresh , he resigned his last breath , with a surprising sedateness and unconcern at leaving this world , being fully persuaded he was going to exchange his perishable , for everlasting riches . He died June 26 , 1729 , in the 47th year of his age . He was son of William Curvengen , a gentleman of good family in Cornwall , and married Frances , daughter of John Rotherham , of this parish , Esq . , whom he left his sole executrix , having no issue , and who erected this monument over his grave , as a token of affection and gratitude . " In the window on the north side of the church there is a very costly monument , to the memory of Sir Antony Everard , Knt . , and his lady . It is within an arch of various kinds of marble , about fourteen feet high , and six and a half wide ; the effigies of these dignified personages recline on two tombs , of which Sir Everard's is about two feet higher than that of his lady . Behind these figures , skulls and emblems of mortality appear , above which is an elegant latin inscription , of which , the following is a translation : - " Sacred to the memory of Lady Ann Everard , daughter of Thomas Barnardiston , Knt . , descended from the ancient family of the Barnardistons , of Kedington , in the county of Suffolk , ( who formerly bore the most ancient surname of Newmarche , or New Market , ) and of the Lady Elizabeth Hanchet, his wife . Six weeks after her lying - in , she was snatched away by a severe fever , and died a truly good foster - mother , the 19th of December , in the year of our salvation 1609. She left behind her only one daughter , Anne . " The following is on the left - hand side of this monument : - " Here resteth in assured hope to rise in Christ , the body of Sir Anthony Everard , Knt . , whoe departed this life in the yeere of our Lord 1614 , 3 yeeres after that he had erected this monument of his deerly beloved wyfe . He left behinde him one onely daughter , and heire , since married unto Sir William Maynard , of this county , Knt . and Bart." On a tablet , on the opposite side , is inscribed ; -

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Little Waltham

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