HUNDRED OF WITHAM.

Witham half-hundred. This hundred, or , as it is called in some charters , half-hundred , lies east - north - east from Chelmsford hundred , and extends northward to those of Hinckford and Lexden ; is bounded eastward by Lexden and that of Thurstable ; by Chelmsford hundred on the west , and by that of Dengey southward . Its situation is in the most pleasant part of the county , and the lands in general are very fertile , the soil varying from a sound turnip loam , to a loamy , or sharp gravel , and a strong loam on a clay bottom, intermixed with some heavy lands . Witham hundred was part of the patrimony of Queen Maud , and , with her consent , was given by King Stephen to the knights templars , with whom , and the knights hospitallers , it continued till the fall of religious houses , and was afterwards , either by grant or purchase , conveyed from the crown to the Smyth family, of whom Thomas had possession at the time of his death , in 1563 , and his successors retained the fee , and had the green wax , to farm it under the king . In the foreign apposers ' book of claims , kept in the Court of Exchequer , in 1749 , William Prittleman, and Edward Evelin , are entered as the last that claimed this possession.

This hundred contains the following fourteen parishes :- Witham, Ulting , Hatfield Peverell, Terling, Little Braxted, Great Braxted, Kelvedon, Bradwell, Cressing, Rivenhall, Faulkbourn, Fairsted, White Notley, Black Notley.

This is a handsome and well-built town, pleasantly situated; it is thirty-seven miles from London, eight from Chelmsford, six from Maldon, six from Coggeshall, and fourteen from Colchester, the high road to and from those places lying through it; and being a thoroughfare to the principal parts of Suffolk and Norfolk, there are several good inns and many capital houses : there are also chapels belonging to dissenters of various denominations. The town is of larger extent than is indicated by its appearance toward the road, from which a considerable part of it is somewhat distant, surrounding the church, which is on an eminence called Cheping Hill, * formerly the place where the market was kept, and the chief business of the town transacted. The market is now in that part of the town through which the public road passes, and is held on Tuesday, but when kept on Cheping Hill, it was on Sunday. ‡ The fairs are on the Monday before Whitsunday ; and on the 14th of September, and 8th of November. The learned Dr. Stukely derives the name of this place from the British, Guith-avon, the separating river; § but Mr. Morant, and others, believe it to be from the Saxon pit, and ham. In old writings it is sometimes called the burgh of Witham; and the assizes were held here July 19, 1568. The population of this town , in 1821 , amounted to 1224 males and 1354 females; total 2578.

By the following passage, translated from the Saxon chronicle , we learn that a town was built here in the year 913 , by King Edward the Elder , the son of King Alfred . " After this , in the summer , betwixt gang - days and midsummer , went King Edward , with some of his force , into Essex , to Maldon , and encamped there while that men built and fortified the town of Witham . And many of the people submitted to him , who were before under the power of the Danes . " * A similar account is given by other ancient writers , yet some have expressed a belief , that it was rather the re - building , than the first foundation of a town , and that the old Roman station , called Ad Ansam , mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus , Iter . IX . , was situated here . Those who are of this opinion , probably refer to the circumstance of there being found here considerable remains of an old encampment on Cheping Hill , on the south side of the church . The remains were formerly con- siderable , consisting of a circular camp , defended by a double vallum almost levelled within on the south side , but very visible on the south - west , where the road hence to Braintree runs along the outer bank ; the works are lower on the west side , as it is Roman an- there defended by the river ; and a road runs through it from north to south . In tiquities . levelling a part of which , Mr. Barwell found a coin of the Emperor Valens , with this reverse , Securitas Republicæ , and one of Gratian , with this legend on the reverse , Gloria Nova Saeculi . There appears also a considerable quantity of Roman bricks , wrought up in the tower , and other parts of the church . Mineral spring . Manor of Newland . Knights A mineral spring , about a quarter of a mile from Witham , was formerly much cele- brated , and Dr. Tavernier , a learned physician residing here , published an essay on its virtues ; but it has long since ceased to be noticed . The manor or lordship of Great Witham was anciently in the possession of Earl Harold , and was afterwards given to Eustace , earl of Boulogne , who married Goda , the sister of William the Conqueror . The manor - house is in the middle of the town , on the left - hand side going toward Colchester . About this time it was made an honour , and received the name of the honour of Bononia , being one of the four ancient honours in this kingdom . Afterwards it came to the crown , and Stephen gave it to the knights templars , to whom it was confirmed by Richard the First , John , and Henry the Third . † The three others were Dover Castle , in Kent , Hawley , or Hagoneth Castle , in Suffolk , and Peverell , in Nottinghamshire ; all of these were held by knight's service , and also of the king in capite . Queen Mary the First re - founded the house of the knights hospitallers , which had hospitalers . been suppressed , with other religious houses , in the preceding reigns , and granted them the manors of Witham , Purfleet , Temple - Roding , and Chingford ; these , at her death , again reverted to the crown , and Witham was afterwards sold to Henry Smyth , Esq . , of Cressing , of which family it was purchased by Jeremy Blackman , an CHAP . II . eminent East India merchant , who is said to have brought one hundred thousand pounds from India . In 1668 the manors of Witham Magna and Newland were again sold to John Bennet , Esq . , of Westminster , a descendant of the Bennets of Wiltshire , ( of which family were Henry Bennet , earl of Arlington , and John Bennet , Lord Ossulston ) ; John Bennet , Esq . , his son and heir , was of Grays - inn , and in 1699 , was made judge of the Marshalsea Court , created serjeant at law in 1705 , and knighted in 1706. He married Anne , sister of Joseph Brand , of Edwardston , in Suffolk , and had four sons and one daughter , of whom , John was a barrister at law , and master in chancery : Thomas also attained the same degrees in 1723 ; Joseph was a drysalter , in London ; Alexander lived in the East Indies nine years , and brought home a considerable fortune ; and Anne , the daughter , was married to the honourable John Vaughan , Esq . , eldest son of John Lord Viscount Lisburne , in Ireland , by Mallet , one of the daughters and co - heiresses of John , late earl of Rochester . * On the death of Sir John , John his heir sold this estate to the Rev. George Sayer , D. D. , vicar of Witham , who kept his first court here in 1736 , and died in 1761. He married Martha , eldest daughter of Dr. John Potter , lord arch- bishop of Canterbury , and left one daughter , Elizabeth . The courts for the manors of Great Witham and Newland are held at the same time and place , but the court - rolls are distinct , and the customs remarkable ; the owners of all the freehold lands in them being obliged to pay one whole year's value of those lands upon every death and alienation for a fine certain , unless he shall have been born within the manor ; in which case , he pays a double quit - rent only , and is excused paying any further fine . There are also copyholders , and leaseholders , who hold by copy of court - roll , for a longer or shorter term of years , as the lord may choose , paying what fines he pleases . There were formerly , besides Great Witham , five other manors . The manor - house of Little Witham , or Powers Hall , is about three quarters of a mile from the church , on the left - hand side of the road from Witham to Braintree , It is called Powers , from an ancient owner of that name . In the time of the Saxons , Burcard and Lestan , two freemen , held this manor ; and when the survey was made , it was held under Robert Gernon , by Hugh and Anchetill . The lords paramount of it were the barons of Stansted Mountfitchet ; and Robert de Powers , and others , held under them in 1302 ; Elizabeth , the daughter of Robert's grandson , married to John Rikedon , had by him , Thomas , father of Robert de Rikedon , who held part of a knight's fee here , under Sir John Howard , in right of Margaret , his wife , daughter of John Plaiz ; Sir John Howard died in 1437. The second husband of Elizabeth