The Essex Record Office holds records about the county, its people and buildings and provides a useful resource for individuals interested in family, house and local history.
We recently shared more information about over 2,000 settlement papers on Essex Archives Online for the parishes of Boreham (D/P 29), Dedham (D/P 26), Coggeshall (D/P 36), and Hatfield Broad Oak (D/P 4). Archive assistant Hannah Crunden-Jones tells us more…
Like all historical research, there is a sense working at ERO that the work is never done. There is always something more to add, or catalogue, or read about, to further enrich the information that we can provide visitors to our Searchroom. The continual work to individually catalogue our settlement papers is one such example, and an ongoing project. In what could be viewed as the third instalment to our settlement series (see the first two, ‘‘The secrets of settlement papers’ and ‘An introduction to settlement papers’ by David Perkins), this post aims to both provide an update as to what has been going on and emphasise the value of this cataloguing and the possibilities it provides.
As a recap, settlement papers were documents relating to one’s right to legal settlement in a certain parish. These are made up of settlement certificates which proved that someone had settlement and so could receive poor relief, removal orders which ordered individuals to be removed from a parish to where they had settlement, and examinations which recorded the lives of those applied for poor relief but did not have legal settlement.
St Mary the Virgin, Hatfield Broad Oak, 1819 (I/Mb 171/1/17)
These documents are hugely valuable in helping us gain at least a partial insight into poor relief from the 17th to the 19th century. However, the volume of these materials is enormous; at the ERO we hold records for hundreds of parishes throughout Essex and subsequently thousands of settlement papers. While the records for some parishes have been catalogued, for others it has been impossible to search specifically for individuals who feature in these documents, with searchers needing to go through multiple documents to find what they are looking for. Now, as part of an ongoing project that aims to improve our pre-existing catalogue, it is becoming increasingly easy to look through our settlement papers and find individuals, who are starting to be catalogued – and named – individually. We have also been working to ensure that wives and children, where possible, are identified and named.
Alongside the papers from Rayleigh and Hadleigh that had previously been added to our catalogue, searchers can now explore those from Boreham (D/P 29), Dedham (D/P 26), Coggeshall (D/P 36), and Hatfield Broad Oak (D/P 4), with more parish settlements due to be added in the coming months. The volume of newly searchable records is great: a total of 2041 settlement papers, making research at the Essex Record Office increasingly streamlined. It also provides further ease for searchers working on family histories to track ancestors over time more precisely rather than looking through a multitude of uncatalogued documents. Used in tandem with our parish registers, it is now possible to uncover a rich history of movements and relationships.
As discussed in previous posts, the settlement papers do not provide historians with a personable or emotional account of one’s life, but they do provide a window into the factual movements and whereabouts of more ordinary folk. This also contributes to a diversification of the archive, and consequently a richer source of information for the past. Already visitors have been utilising our updated catalogue to aid research into family histories and have discovered a great amount of information through the settlement papers, and we are excited to watch this continue.
Exploring these records during the cataloguing process has been an illuminating experience, shedding light on the stories and movements of those living in Essex between the 1600s and 1800s. It is particularly interesting to spot the same names appearing multiple times in removal orders. An example of this can be seen in the removal orders for Hatfield Broad Oak, where Israel Searle, his wife Louisa, and their children had been removed from parishes of Middlesex to Hatfield Broad Oak (D/P 4/13/3B/133, 135, 136).
In both December 1836 and July 1838, the family was removed from Little Stanmore and Staines respectively and returned to Hatfield Broad Oak where Israel was legally settled. As his wife, Louisa obtained settlement status from her husband, and their children inherited their father’s place of settlement from their father, so this example of the whole family moving together is a common one. In 1838, Israel Searle was removed alone from Enfield, where he was residing in the Union Workhouse in Edmonton, back to Hatfield Broad Oak. This individual removal order provides further interesting details, mentioning that eighteen months previously he had been removed from the parish of Edgware. Not only are our settlement papers useful for research into individuals, but also for social or economic research.
Removal order of Israel Searle from Enfield Workhouse to Hatfield Broad Oak (D/P 4/13/3B/135)
One of the largest parishes currently catalogued is Coggeshall, with nearly 1000 settlement documents. Given Coggeshall’s reasonable proximity to the road into London, and its connections to the wool trade, one could suggest that movements in and out of the parish to other areas of London and Kent were more common than that from smaller parishes, and the opportunity to become established and successful elsewhere a more realistic possibility. For instance, in 1825 was the removal of “Caroline wife of Robert Hume… (who has deserted her) with their three children” from Bromley in Middlesex to Coggeshall (D/P 36/13/3/95). Like the situation of Lousia above, Caroline’s settlement status was obtained by her husband, returning her and her children to Essex to receive poor relief despite Robert’s unknown whereabouts. This situation was not uncommon and demonstrates further examples of the benefits of settlement papers in documenting the role and rights of women throughout history.
Removal order of Caroline Hume and children from Bromley, Middlesex to Coggeshall (D/P 36/13/3/95)
New information about settlement papers is being added to Essex Archives Online on a regular basis. Please enquire with staff for updates and further information, or if there is a certain parish you would like us to catalogue next!
“During the Second World War, there must have been more than a hundred community efforts up and down the country, each with their own little group of folk, each building their own Jerusalem. Their histories have not been written, but one day, diaries and journals might be available, and when they are, we can learn much of the effort and idealism poured out by groups of all kinds.”
‘Community Life’, Joe Watson, c.1949
The Essex Record Office is proud to announce the launch of a new archive that sheds light on one of Britain’s largest and longest-running pacifist communities:Frating Hall Farm, active from 1943 to 1954.
Harvest festival in the barn at Frating Hall Farm, 1947, taken by Douglas Went Studios, Brightlingsea (D/DU 3663/5)
About Frating Hall Farm
Featured in Ken Worpole’s acclaimed book No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen (Little Toller Books, 2021), Frating Hall Farm was one of many pacifist communities established in Britain during the Second World War.
The origins of the community lay in the Adelphi Centre at Langham, which became a hub for socialist and pacifist thinkers in the 1930s under the leadership of the writers John Middleton Murry and Max Plowman. After the centre disbanded, a small party led by the charismatic Consett steelworker Joe Watson left to build ‘their own Jerusalem’ at Frating Hall Farm.
Over the next decade, the farm became a home, sanctuary, and gathering place for dozens of people, from those who lived and worked there to the many pacifists, refugees, writers, poets and musicians who visited. As member Leila Ward wrote in 1946, it was a place of ‘comradeship amongst the frozen cabbages’, which drew people together through their shared commitment to cultivating a new way of life on the land.
“From north, south, east and west we come to Frating… The politician is here and the intellectual; the musician and the poet; the worker and the-one-who wants-a-bit-of-a-push-now-and-then; in fact, we are a seemingly haphazard collection of individuals, with all the usual failings of humans and with their capacity for being great at odd times.”
Frating Hall Community (1949)
About the archive
The newly assembled archive gathers together a wide range of material, including:
Frating Hall Farm Society reports, accounts and publications; a yearly record of the joys and challenges of managing the farm and the contributions of individuals involved
Over 750 letters, offering an intimate window into the people and relationships that shaped the community, as well as their connections to the wider world
Dozens of photographs, capturing everyday life at the farm in addition to the busy – and much-loved – calendar of festivals, celebrations, and performances
Biographical writing, including the papers of Joe Watson
Ken Worpole’s interviews with people who grew up in the community at Frating
Together, the archive offers a deeply personal insight into the lives of members of the community and the broader currents of pacifism, co-operative farming, and communal life in the mid-twentieth century.
“We wanted to found a pacifist, socialist and Christian community and demonstrate to the world that cooperation, and sharing could produce greater happiness and blessedness than individual strivings – that all you threw into the melting point would be returned to you sevenfold.”
Letter from Trevor Howard to his daughter Katherine, 1962
The archive includes contributions from the families of:
Joe and Doris Watson, whose papers span their early married life in County Durham in the 1930s to their time at Prested Hall, near Colchester, in the 1950s. Includes a significant collection of correspondence, with letters from John Middleton Murry, Frank Lea, Jack Common, Shirley Williams, and the composer William Wordsworth. Reference: D/DU 3663
Joe and Doris Watson at the harvest festival at Frating Hall Farm in 1947; this photograph was published in an article on Frating in Peace News, titled ‘Community From Within and Without’ (D/DU 3491/2/3/1)
Derek Crosfield and Marian Thomas, who met in the community and took over the management of the farm in the 1950s. Highlights include reports and letters from Frating Hall Farm Society, family photographs, and a detailed map of the farm. Reference: D/DU 3491
Marian’s son, Martyn Thomas, at Frating Hall farm in the late 1940s (D/DU 3491/5/2/4)
Trevor Howard and Enid Whitmore,a young couple who married at Frating in 1943 and raised their family there. Includes family photographs and over 50 letters between Trevor and Enid while Trevor was helping to establish the community. Reference: D/DU 3492.
Trevor and Enid Howard on their wedding day at Frating Hall Farm, 1943 (D/DU 3492/6/2)
Helen Johnson, a Cambridge student who volunteered at Frating during university holidays. Comprises 8 letters about her time at the farm in 1950, sent to her future husband Arthur Fox. Reference: D/DU 3493.
L-R: Shirley Williams, Derek Crosfield, Ray Smith, and Helen Johnson with a potato planter at Frating Hall Farm, 1947. In a letter to his brother, Noel, Ray wrote that the day the photograph was taken was especially cold, with Shirley – down at Frating for Easter with her mother, Vera Brittain – in borrowed clothes, including Ray’s raincoat and Irene Palmer’s boots.
“Jeanne showed me up to my room after supper, a nice one only recently vacated by the marriage of its occupant, with a clean white cloth on the dressing table, a pot of geraniums in the window, a vase of sweet peas on the cloth and a ring bowl of some sort of red blossom with shiny dark green leaves on the other chest of drawers… It’s very pleasant to have a sort of second home to come to, even if one does have to work rather hard.”
Letter from Helen Johnson, 13 June 1950
Accessing the archive
You can search the Frating archive on our online catalogue, Essex Archives Online. The catalogue gives a description of each item in the archive and includes digital images of key reports and publications, as well as some photographs and letters.
Original material can be accessed in the searchroom at the Essex Record Office, on Wharf Road in Chelmsford. It is free to visit the searchroom and there is no need to book an appointment in advance, but you do need an Archives Card to order items to look at.
The archive exists thanks to the generosity of the depositors – Pat Smith, Katherine Weaver, Martyn Thomas, and Andrew Fox – and the dedicated research and ongoing support of Ken Worpole.
It was catalogued by Rielly Kitchener, an MA Placement student funded by the University of Essex and the Friends of Historic Essex, and Essex Record Office volunteers.
Frating archive depositors and Ken Worpole at the Essex Record Office, October 2025
“We have grown in stature and I believe our roots are taking firm hold in this plot of earth we call ours. Joy we have had in full measure, trials and tribulations to keep us humble, but also to bind us together. Children to comfort and plague us, new members to strengthen our bulwarks, old friends to be glad to join us – and good crops to maintain us.”
‘There are old men yet dwelling in the village where I remain which have noted…three things too much increased. One is the multitude of chimneys lately erected, whereas in their young days there were not above two or three…but each one made his fire against a reredos in the hall where he dined and dressed his meat’. So wrote William Harris in ‘The Description of England’ in 1587.
But why were chimneys becoming more common in this period, and how did the design and style of the chimney change over time?
Exterior of Chadwell Farm, Birdbrook (I/Ha 19/1/3)
According to the Oxford England Dictionary, the word ‘chimney’ is thought to derive from the latin word ‘caminus’ meaning furnace or oven. Historically, the word ‘stalk’ was used to describe the part of the chimney visible above the roof, with a group of chimney stalks being known as a ‘stack’.
Fires were an essential element of the home from the earliest dwellings, for providing both heat and light, and for the preparation of food. By the medieval period, most houses in Essex would have had the fire in the centre of the home or hall, where the smoke would leave through an opening in the roof. These were not usually that effective, and one can only imagine the smoky atmosphere in living dwellings at this time.
Exterior of Sparrow’s Farm, Terling (I/Ha 196/1/14)
It was during the medieval period that there was a move from fireplaces in the centre of a room to being at a side wall, which would make it easier to channel the resulting smoke through a funnel or hood. These are likely to have initially been made of wood and plaster. This would have been more effective than the simple hole in the roof previously used. As smoke was more successfully removed from the building, rather than much of it remaining in the upper areas of the building, it meant further rooms could become functional closer to the roof giving an increase to a second floor of rooms. The increase of internal walls meant the fireplace(s) would often still be in the centre of the building during this period. By the chimney being placed here it meant the heat would be carried to the rooms on the upper floor, as well as providing a support for the structure. The Chimney shafts visible above the roof during the late medieval period were octagonal or circular and these stylistic fashions can help date chimneys still visible today.
Exterior of Boynton Hall, Finchingfield (I/Ha 83/1/15)
The chimneys in the Tudor period remained in the centre of the building. Brick chimney shafts were being added to high status dwellings by the mid-fifteenth century. These would have been highly decorated in the interior of the house and during the sixteenth century this appears to have extended to outside of the house, leading to some of the beautiful decorative brick chimneys we can still see. Brick was an expensive material during the Tudor period, so if you could display a large and ornate chimney it was a real display of wealth.
Exterior of house at Tindon End, Great Sampford (I/Ha 176/1/3)
After the hearth tax was introduced in 1662, householders were charged 2 shillings per year for every hearth in their property. This further reinforced the importance of the chimney as a visible status symbol. Some houses had chimney stalks that were never even connected to a fireplace, purely for the illusion of housing multiple hearths. The Hearth Tax was incredibly unpopular, and was repealed in 1689 as promised by William of Orange, at the beginning of his reign. By the end of the 17th century the popular style of chimneys had changed to square chimneys, set ‘diamond-wise’ or concertina style. As the design of larger houses changed to accommodate a central staircase, chimneys began to be placed at the ends of the property.
Exterior of Upper Hall, Matching (I/Ha 133/1/6)
The rise in the prominent use of coal as a fuel for the fire in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the need for more efficient channelling of smoke out of the living areas. Chimney pots, which sit on top of the chimney stalk were found to be effective for this by increasing the height of the chimney stalk which enhances the natural draught.
During the Victorian era, with the increase of large quantities of identical terraced housing, there was a desire to personalise property exteriors, especially chimney pots. There are literally thousands of different chimney pot designs, which range from the simple to the truly elaborate; with a variety of shapes and styles.
With the dawn of alternative heating systems such as electricity and gas, the popularity of the traditional chimney declined during the twentieth century. In some cases chimneys were removed entirely. In recent years there has been a resurgence in the chimney once more.
It’s fascinating how the humble chimney is intrinsically entwined with the design of dwellings and that the chimneys that survive to this day give clues as to the date and history of their buildings.
There are many and varied chimneys shown in the photographs of the Hayllar Collection, a collection of more than 2000 photographs, mostly showing architecture and buildings across more than 250 parishes in Essex taken between 1920 and 1950. Throughout this post are a small selection of these showing some truly beautiful and interesting chimneys.
If you’re interested in finding out more about chimneys:
Ferguson, Catherine, Thornton, C. and Wareham, A. (ed) 2012, Essex Hearth Tax (British Record Society)
Edelen, G. (ed) 1994, William Harrison: The Description of England (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Priestley, H. 1970, The English Home (Frederick Muller Ltd.)
Today happens to be international chess day. Chess is a strategy game with a long and abstract past which is difficult to trace with historical accuracy, though scholars often classify it as a common ancestor of Chaturanga, an Indian strategy game which emerged around the 7th century. The game spread through the Arab world, eventually finding its way to Europe. Chess has long been practiced on the British Isles: the earliest known surviving chess-sets are the 12th century Lewis Chessmen, a set of 78 ivory carved pieces found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in 1831. English Folklore depicts John, King of England (1199-1216), as a prodigious yet highly emotional chess player, and we know from surviving archives that English monarchs, Charles I and Henry VIII chief among them, personally owned boards and pieces.
In this vein, we turn to a will from our own collections. This is a will from 1557, for a Robert Cocke of Dedham (D/ABW 8/265). His profession is not provided, and the main body of the will follows the standard legal formula, but there are several indications that this is a well-educated man of some wealth. Most interestingly, as we proceed down his list of bequests, something unusual appears.
Item I gyve & bequeathe unto Matthew Cock & Robert Cock my Virgynall* & ____ chesse board & chesse men…
Extract from the will of Robert Cocke “chesse board & chesse men” highlighted with yellow star
It is really interesting to see a chess set mentioned in this context. Clearly it is something of great value, financially and psychologically. Perhaps Robert practiced openings and end game strategies with his two sons in their leisure time, instructing on the values of patience and sacrifice. Were the pieces the work of a carpenter or a stonemason? At what point were they lost? or do fragments of their visage persist in dusty garrets and vaulted tombs?
Close-up of “chesse board & chesse men”
*A Virgynall is a kind of early harpsichord, often embellished with finery and gold trimmings, with a sound characteristic of the Baroque period. Essex’s first county archivist, F.G. Emmison, was a champion of this obscure instrument – more on this will follow in future blog posts…
A post by David Perkins, who catalogued the settlement papers for Rayleigh and Hadleigh last year as part of an MA Placement, funded by the University of Essex and the Friends of Historic Essex. Read about his experience in his previous blog post.
The Essex Record Office holds a vast collection of settlement papers covering the majority of parishes from across the county. The settlement papers for these parishes contain documents relating to an individual’s or family group’s right to, or place of, legal settlement. Ranging from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteen century, settlement papers offer unique details and a window into the lived reality of the common person who is otherwise lost to history.
A brief history of settlement papers
Prior to the English Reformation, care for those who were unable to support themselves was, in the main, provided for through the Catholic Church. However, with the closing of many religious houses in the sixteenth century, and with them the manpower, facilities, and above all the finances, the care and relief of those in need fell to the residents of the local parish.
From 1536 the Act For Punishment of Sturdy Vagabonds and Beggars (27 Henry VIII c. 25) stated that the churchwardens of each individual parish were required to collect voluntary alms from the parishioners to then be used to relieve the poor of the same parish, with the giving of casual alms then becoming legally banned, save a few exceptions.
The 1552 Act For the Relief of the Poor (5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 2) required that a collector of alms, rather than the churchwardens specifically, was to be chosen from amongst the parish to be responsible for managing the finances of the parish’s poor relief. Also, that a register of the impotent poor – those who were unable to work through injury, illness, or old age – should be recorded and kept.
Although many people in every parish across the country were willing, as part of their Christian duty of charity, to give alms and support to those in need, there were many who were not as willing to actively give donations. The state did not have the funds to take direct control of poor relief, so to ensure that there was money available at the parish level the 1563 Act For the Relief of the Poor (5 Eliz. I c. 3) ensured that those who did not voluntarily contribute financially were to be examined by the Justices of the Peace on their ability to donate, and then forced to do so if they were found to be able.
Since it was the parishioners who were giving their own money to their fellow parishioners, there was a clear delineation by society on who was deserving and who was not. Once a deserving person had been identified there then came the question of whether that deserving person was from the parish. If so, they were then considered eligible as a recipient of relief from the parish.
A means to act as confirmation of which parish an individual belonged to was created following the 1662 Act For the better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom [Act of Settlement] (13 & 14 Car. II c. 12), whereby an individual was examined by two Justices of the Peace of the parish to assess whether they had legal settlement in that parish. Those found not to have legal settlement could either be removed to their parish of legal settlement, or the hosting parish could collect poor relief from the other parish and distribute it to the guest parishioner.
Legal settlement in a parish could be acquired at birth or gained through actions. Settlement was patriarchal, and so a girl or unmarried woman’s legal settlement would be that of her father, and a married woman’s that of her husband. A child born to a mother away from her home parish, for example, would still have had their place of legal settlement as being where their parents had their place of legal settlement, not the parish being visited. Legal settlement could otherwise be gained by completing an apprenticeship, working in the parish for one continuous year (as is commonly seen in the settlement examination documents as being counted from the hiring at Michaelmas (29 September) through to the Michaelmas following), or by renting a property, or properties, for £10 or more per year.
The settlement papers held at the Essex Record Office are then what remains of each parish’s collection of the legal and official settlement documents created following the aforesaid 1662 Settlement Act.
What types of documents are there?
Settlement certificates were issued to individuals and family groups as proof of that person’s place of legal settlement. That parish was then liable to give that person or group poor relief should they become in need of it. If a holder of a settlement certificate moved to work in another parish, the certificate would give the new parish the legal peace of mind that they would not become liable for that person poor relief. If a person was found seeking poor relief in a parish that was not their place of legal settlement, or if they did not possess a settlement certificate, they could be denied poor relief and returned to their place of legal settlement. Settlement certificates can include: the name(s) of who is being given settlement; their age(s); the place where they are coming from; and in the case of pregnant unmarried woman, a note on the child’s paternity.
Settlement certificate for Martha Dawson and her son, 1730 (D/P 332/13/1A/67)
Settlement examinations were testimonies, sworn on oath, given by an individual to ascertain their place of legal settlement, and therefore which parish was liable for providing them with poor relief. They were conducted by two Justices of the Peace. Settlement examinations can include: the name(s) of who is being examined; their age(s); their place of birth; their parents’ names and place of legal settlement; apprenticeship details (such as how long the apprenticeship was, whether they completed it, if they were indentured, who they were indentured to, and the name and parish of the apprentice master); their employment history (including when, who employed them, their wage, and length of service); the history of any property or land they may have owned, rented, or leased (including when, who from, and the cost); when they were married, where they were married, and who they married (often only the first name of the wife is given in a settlement examination for a man, but the full name of the husband is always given in a settlement examination of a woman); when their spouse died; and the names and ages of any children that would be living with the examined person. The settlement status of any older children that had left home may also be noted.
Settlement examination of William Martin, 1774 (D/P 332/13/4/43)
Removal orders were issued by a parish to remove a person or persons away from the parish to the place of their legal settlement. Removal orders can include: the name(s) of who is being removed; the age(s) of who is being removed (children in particular); and the parish to where they are being removed to. In cases where the person is unable to be removed due to sickness or injury, a removal suspension order can be attached. It is also noted when the person sufficiently recovered, or if the person died during the time of the removal suspension order being in place.
Removal order for Mark Pansey from Beaumont to Rayleigh, 1834 (D/P 332/13/3/90)
What can I use settlement papers for?
Settlement papers are historically important documents that are highly informative and provide windows into the lives of many people. The personal and familial information given in settlement papers is an invaluable source for both historians of family history and genealogists alike. Unlike, say, baptismal or marriage records, settlement papers not only give the empirical information, such as name and date, but provide information about a person’s working life, their wages, their expenditure on rent, or their movements between different parishes – information that is otherwise not recorded anywhere else.
Aside from the information about the people stated in the documents, the documents themselves can also be used by the historian or researcher in a myriad of different ways. As informative as the prima facie information on the documents is, they also reveal information about the mechanism of legal settlement and poor relief. The physical attributes and manufacture of the documents themselves can be of benefit to the historian of material culture, too. The very fabric from which the paper is made, the watermark, who printed and sold the document, or even in some cases clear evidence of the recycling of paper, be that pages cut from a tax ledger or using the reverse side of a lost dog poster, can provide information extrinsic of the document purpose but nevertheless valuable in its own right.
Although the details contained within the settlement papers is information given by the named person, it is important to bear in mind that that information was not written down by the person giving that information, but rather by the parish officials. Settlement papers, although accurate in what they record, do not give a true voice to the person named therein. As they are official, legal documents, they are to some degree formulaic and regular, and seldom allow for a more detailed account of a person’s existential existence. We cannot hear the individual’s voice in settlement papers; we only read the pertinent facts. The only occasion when we can see the physical presence of the named person is with their sign or signature. And although a small detail, the inscribed mark, whether that be an X or a well-formed signature, provides a tangible link to that person in that document at that time.
John Poynter’s signature on his settlement examination, 1806 (D/P 332/13/4/247)
Last summer we were fortunate to have two MA History students from the University of Essex on placement with us, jointly sponsored by the University and the Friends of Historic Essex. In this post, David Perkins tells us about his placement project: cataloguing settlement papers for the parishes of Rayleigh and Hadleigh. Thanks to David, you can now find more information about individual settlement papers on Essex Archives Online. For Rayleigh, search for the reference ‘D/P 332/13′ and for Hadleigh, search ‘D/P 303/13‘.
Removal order of John Smith, labourer, his wife Ann, and Ann’s son George from Chadwell St Mary to Rayleigh in 1739 (D/P 332/13/3/1)
The work I did for my placement forms a small part of a larger project by the Essex Record Office (ERO) to make more information about individual settlement papers available through Essex Archives Online. By making this information digitally available, the ease of accessing and the searching of those documents for details, of say, name, age, location, or date, is then greatly increased.
As a current MA student, the opportunity to not only undertake research for my dissertation in an archive and with the primary sources, but also to be a small part in the process of making those same documents more accessible and available to future researchers has been an absolute pleasure.
As a historian, the physical connection with the material past, both through the handling and reading of the settlement papers, has given me a far better sense of the real lived lives of those people named on the page. And in turn, this has given me a better appreciation for the existential realities of the people noted in those documents.
The settlement papers for Rayleigh and Hadleigh span from the late seventeenth century through to the early nineteenth century, and comprise three main types of documents: settlement certificates, removal orders, and settlement examinations.
Settlement certificates were given by the overseers and churchwardens of a parishto an individual or family as evidence that they had been granted legal settlement in that parish and so were then entitled to poor relief in that parish. Removal orders were issued by the Justices of the Peace against an individual or family, ordering them to be removed to their parish of legal settlement. Settlement examinations recorded an account of the life of an individual or family who had applied for poor relief from that parish but did not have legal settlement there. These three types of documents are individually quite formulaic in how they record the information. The date, name, and location is given in each case. Of the three types of documents, it is the settlement examinations that provide the most detailed information of that individual or family’s history.
The number of settlement papers that the ERO have for the parishes of Rayleigh and Hadleigh are markedly different. For Rayleigh there a total of 824 documents; 147 settlement certificates, 231 removal orders, and 446 settlement examinations. Whereas Hadleigh has a fraction of that, with only 54 documents in total, comprising of 48 settlement certificates, 5 removal orders, and 1 settlement examination. The difference in the volume of the ERO’s holdings for these two parishes is not necessarily a reflection of the contemporaneous quantities of those documents, but rather a reflection of what has survived. The difference between the number of documents that remain from these two parishes is a telling example of the un-uniform survival, even amongst similar items, of materials from the past.
Aside from the most beneficial use that these documents have, in informing genealogists and researchers of family history, by looking at the settlement papers in a different way there also lays a vast wealth of other fascinating information that can be gained.
In the papers we can see a changing world over the course of more than a century. A world that in 1752 changes its observation of the new year from 25 March to 1 January, we can see the transition in the way that the names of settlements are described, from the Norman-French ‘Magna’ and ‘Parva’ (D/P 332/13/1A/70) to the English ‘Great’ and ‘Little’ (D/P 332/13/1A/79). We can even detect glimpses of changes in society’sattitudes and use of language and terminology; in the early documents single pregnant women are noted as ‘with child that is likely to be born a bastard’ (D/P 332/13/1A/96), whereas in the later documents we see the term ‘singlewoman, now pregnant’ (D/P 332/13/2/121). In local administration we can see the regularity of bureaucracy with a move away from handwritten documents (D/P 332/13/3/1) to the increasing use of printed and standardised official forms that are purchased from a state authorised stationer (D/P 332/13/3/4).
John Poynter’s signature on his settlement examination, 1806 (D/P 332/13/4/247). Originally from Asheldham, John had entered into a partnership with William Bellingham of Rochford ‘in the business of malting’ three years earlier, and lived in the house above the maltings in Rayleigh.
It cannot be forgotten that settlement papers are both official and legal documents that represent one part in the machine of poor relief. And although they do contain accurate information, that was sworn on oath, the information that has been written down on the documents, especially in the case of the settlement examinations, is a condensed and edited form of what the examinee said, it is not a verbatim transcription of their voice. The documents only tell us the facts; they do not and cannot convey an accurate account of that person’s emotional and social experience as they were when they came to request poor relief. The only place where we can see the real presence of the person is with their sign or signature. Although ranging from a shaky X (D/P 332/13/4/295) to an experienced hand (D/P 332/13/4/247, see above), the mark made is the only physical act on the document that is attributable to that individual.
Removal order for William Thorrowgood and his wife Mary from Rayleigh to Great Stambridge, 1795 (D/P 332/13/2/17)
Aside from the individual or family, or the churchwarden and the overseers as named on the documents, and indeed the purpose of the document, be that a certificate, removal order, or examination, there is no other indication or comment given on what would happen next, or by whom. Fortunately for us however, there is amongst the documents evidence of how poor relief operated in the real world. On the reverse of William Thorrowgood’s removal order (D/P 332/13/2/17) there is a glimpse into the costs incurred by the parish. The removal of William and his wife Mary from Rayleigh to Great Stambridge, a distance by road of only about seven miles, on or shortly after 12 February 1795 tells us that the total cost of removal was 15s 10d, from which 5s was paid for the horse and cart, and 8d paid for the turnpike. This then gives us evidence of potential local travel costs in late eighteenth century Rayleigh. Further, the cost list on the reverse of the document also notes that 2s 2d, later altered to 2s 8d, was paid to a tailor. From this we can likely conclude that since it was the end of February, therefore late winter, the Thorrowgoods were insufficiently clothed for the journey, and so by reasonable inference had insufficient clothes in general. Although the removing parish were entitled to, and able to, and, in general, did claim the money back from parish that the individual or family was being removed to, the very evidence of the parish of Rayleigh ensuring the well-being of the Thorrowgoods, even on such a short journey, provides evidence of a social contract between the parish and the parishioners that not only works to fulfil a legal obligation, but one that also cares for the individual’s wellbeing.
Since we know that 8d was paid for the turnpike, it is then a confident statement to make that the Thorrowgoods travelled on the horse and cart, in their new warmer clothes, along the turnpike. The turnpike road that they travelled on left Rayleigh and went to Leigh, from where the Thorrowgoods would have travelled north to Great Stambridge. The 1746/47 Act of Parliament (20 Geo. II. c. 7) gave rights to twenty-six miles of turnpike roads around Rayleigh, and as much as the improved roads were to the speed and comfort of travel, there were those who saw the new roads as an opportunity to take poor relief into their own hands. In the November of 1772 the toll gate at Hadleigh, a few miles south of Rayleigh, was robbed of 19s 6d by masked men on horses, who then after rode to the Stroud Green toll gate just east of Rochford, about five miles east of Hadleigh, and repeated their crime (Chelmsford Chronicle, 6 November 1772). Although the story of the Thorrowgoods and the highwaymen are not related – the incidents are after all separated by twenty-three years – the knowledge that highway robbery was a real lived possibility can help with building a better picture of the society and potential concerns that the Thorrowgoods may have had but are not, nor could be, written down on theirs, or anyone else’s settlement papers.
The operation of poor relief relied on more than just the gentlemen overseers, churchwardens, and parish vestry. In the case of the Thorrowgoods, we know not the name of the person who drove the horse and cart, nor the name of the place where the clothes were bought. These additional actors in the mechanism of poor relief are seldom named. However, on the reverse of the removal order of William Maize (D/P 332/13/3/77) we can see a named third party involved in the process.
Removal order of William Maize from Sittingbourne, Kent, to Rayleigh, 1830 (D/P 332/13/3/77)
A note on the reverse of the removal reads that ‘John Pretty is charged to convey William Maize from Sittingbourne to Rayleigh’. This note then raises the question of why the person being removed was to be accompanied. Unfortunately, we do not know the age of William, but it is possible that he was a child, and so was accompanied for his safety. Should William have been an adult, then we can consider, if elderly he may have needed accompaniment, or as in the case of John White and his wife Mary (D/P 332/13/3/81 and D/P 332/13/3/92), that they do not return again after having been removed on two previous occasions.
Since it was the parishioners of the parish who through the levy of the poor rate paid for poor relief in the parish, those same parishioners desired that those administering the system of poor relief were doing so in an economical way.
Reverse of John Rout’s settlement examination, 1826 (D/P 332/13/4/425)
Evidence of this comes first from John Rout’s settlement examination (D/P 332/13/4/425), which is written, although it should be noted as not being signed or dated, on the reverse of two lost dog posters. The posters state that two dogs have strayed from Dunton Hall, about ten miles west of Rayleigh, and a reward of 1 guinea will be given by Mr W. Gale on their return. The poster states that the dogs went missing on 30 July 1826, with the poster being published on the 2 August. This then can help us in giving a date to John Rout’s Examination as no sooner than 2 August 1826.
The frugality of Rayleigh’s administrators is further bolstered by their use of old tax ledgers. Beginning with William Waight (D/P 332/13/4/271) on 21 January 1807 and ending with William Synett (D/P 332/13/4/305) on 2 February 1809, there are in addition five other incidents where the settlement examination has been written on a page cut from what appears to be a ledger for the receipt of tax payments. The rectitude shown in recycling the paper is admirable, and no doubt the contemporary parishioners of the parish would have been pleased to know that the administrators were not needlessly spending their rates. But the length of time over which these ledgers were re-purposed is curious. One or two on the same day, or even concurrent months would show a short-term solution to the lack of other paper. But since this occurred over a period of two full calendar years – and it must be remembered that we only have remaining to us a small fraction of the documents produced – then it has to be concluded that the administrators of Raleigh had a vast excess of unused tax ledgers. Why this was so is of course speculation, but a possible cause is the discontinued use of that form of ledger, so making the pages suitable for another purpose.
In helping to catalogue the settlement papers I have been overwhelmed by the research possibilities that they can offer. Apart from settlement papers being an invaluable source for their names, dates, and places, they do also contain hidden secrets about the lives and world of those past people. I look forward to finding many more.
Erica Donaghy writes about repackaging the photographs and enhancing the catalogue for the collection of Mr J Hayllar and requests your help to identify some mystery buildings!
An important aspect of the work we do here at ERO is ensuring items are housed in a way which protects them, assisting with their long-term preservation, whilst also allowing easier access to researchers where possible. Our first County Archivist, F.G. Emmison, wrote an article, ‘The Sage of the Big Intake’ (Essex journal, 26 (3) 1991, pp.56-58, 71) in which he described the ‘astonishing accumulation of historical documents’ in the first years when ERO was established. We constantly strive to improve the storage of these documents, especially as we now have access to acid free materials and un-dreamt of resources that our predecessors were not so lucky to have.
Tanner’s Farm, Great Dunmow (I/Ha 68/1/13)Middleton Church (I/Ha 135/1/1)Dagenham (I/Ha 63/1/4)
(Click on a picture above to be taken the a gallery for more information)
With this in mind, the Hayllar Collection (catalogue reference: I/Ha), which was deposited with the ERO in June 1950, has recently been re-housed and listed to item level. Not much is known about Mr J. Hayllar, other than that he lived in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. He travelled through various parishes in Essex photographing the parish churches, as well as secular buildings and other parts of the parish between 1920 and 1950. The photographs range from the exterior and interior of parish churches, to local estates, farms and mills as well as other local landmarks. The photographs are mostly focussed on the buildings themselves, but some show fascinating human elements such as vehicles, shop fronts, children playing and people going about their day.
The photographs were arranged by parish and stored in envelopes labelled with the parish name. These had already been catalogued to parish level by ERO staff.
Windmill, South Ockendon (I/Ha 146/1/4)The Old Sun Inn, Saffron Walden (I/Ha 210/1/29)Falcon Inn, Castle Hedingham (I/Ha 99/1/12)
(Click on a picture above to be taken the a gallery for more information)
In 2023 a project began to re-house the photographs into pocketed transparent melinex sheets which would then be kept in acid-free boxes. This would not only contribute to their long-term preservation by protecting them from environmental factors, but would also reduce the risk of them being damaged or affected by being handled.
As this re-housing project was being undertaken, it was also a good opportunity to look more closely at their catalogue and it was decided to list each photograph individually. Mr J. Hayllar labelled his images clearly, often providing the names of buildings and streets or roads. This information has now been included in the catalogue in more detail, enabling researchers to search for photographs that might be of potential interest to them.
Whilst many photographs were labelled with enough information to identify the subject, whilst others were simply labelled ‘view in the village’, ‘street in the village’ or ‘old house in the village’. To try and identify as many of these as possible, staff here at the ERO used other images in the collection, images on the Historic England website as well as Streetview through google maps online. This has helped identify at least some of the subjects of the photographs, and if researchers have any further information to offer about other still-unidentified photographs we would be happy to hear from them!
(Click on a picture above to be taken the a gallery for more information)
The Collection has now been fully re-housed, labelled and stored at a new location in the repositories here at ERO. Fortunately for us, the new packing has not created a lot more volume than the original, as so often happens when items go to conservation! The item listed catalogue will be published online in due course at Essex Archives Online, and hopefully at some point in the future the photographs might be digitised to further protect them and increase access to these fascinating and beautiful images.
In the scheme of things, Industrial Archaeology seems a relatively young discipline. The term first appeared in print in 1955, in an article by Michael Rix in ‘The Amateur Historian’ that explains the previously unexplored influence of the Industrial Revolution on British heritage. Whilst not a widely accepted discipline at the time, Rix does mention a small number of contemporaneous organizations that were pursuing something that resembled it (The Newcomen Society of London, for one, had been promoting the legacy of the Industrial Revolution since its foundation in 1920, particularly the early steam engine).
D/DU 3094/2
Interestingly, Rix fails to mention a 1925 article by Miller Christy in the Essex Review, regarding the need for study and ongoing preservation of early railway stations in the county. Christy’s article seminally begins, “The study of railway stations from the archaeological point of view has not yet become popular… some might even ask whether such a study exists or could exist” (Christy, 1925:146).
Whether this study “exists or could exist”, was an ongoing contention within the school of Industrial Archaeology. The crux of this unease, intimated by Christy, is that “archaeology” is thought to apply to history which precedes the industrial revolution. Archaeology is the study of ancient things, he writes, a classification that apparently excludes industrial relics. But this criticism is based on an arbitrary median between the antique and the modern, separating “the archaeologically approved from the archaeologically disreputable” (Hudson 1976:16). A reluctance to classify industrial monuments as worthy of study, Rix argues, is what has (and still does) lead to the nescient destruction or neglect of significant examples in the country. Importantly, the semantic focus of archaeology (an active noun) signifies the empirical and practical methodology of the school. Industrial Archaeology is not mere industrial history: history suggests a bookish, diligent approach to study, where archaeology suitably describes the investigations of “a researcher collecting evidence in situ” (ibid). An Industrial Archaeologist is as much a fieldworker as an excavator of Roman ruins[1].
Indeed, by the time John Booker’s work was published, Industrial Archaeology was more recognised as a genuine field. Kenneth Hudson had published Industrial Archaeology: An Introduction in 1963 and is said to have introduced the discipline to the United States through his 1967 lecture at The Smithsonian. The North American Society for Industrial Archeology [sic] was subsequently founded in 1971, and the British Association for Industrial Archaeology followed two years later. What is so influential about Booker’s work, however, is the candid representation of industrial history within Essex; a county pigeonholed into its agrarian identity. De-mythologizing the pastoral veneer behind the county’s heritage, Booker systematically wades through individual strands of industrialism, their slow integration and socioeconomic influences. As such his chapters are titled:
The Foundries,
Technology and Agriculture,
Technology and the Traditional Industries
Technology and Communications, I: Roads and Bridges,
Technology and Communications, II: Water and Rail,
Technology and the Public Services
The Perspective of Change
Clearly the work is not the product of a single hand. Much of the work’s subject matter was taken from findings of the Essex Survey of Industrial Archaeology, completed in 1971.
T/Z 193/11
The purpose of this survey was to itemize all known surviving industrial monuments, investigate possible monuments attestedto by historical sources, and to study contemporary industrial sites. The fruits of this survey, many conclusions of which were not implemented in the final work, survive and are kept by Essex Record Office (in addition to the various historical sources footnoted in Booker’s work, which are available for inspection under their original reference numbers).
T/Z 193/3
The Survey’s materials (catalogued as T/Z 193) comprise index cards naming sources, photograph albums, negatives & slides, site ‘survey cards’, and Booker’s own notebooks. It is somewhat uplifting to see the modicum of contributions made towards this survey: record cards written up by history groups, and long reminiscences told by aged locals.
T/Z 193/9 – Photograph Hartford End Brewery
Such was Booker’s pre-eminence in establishing Essex’s industrial heritage that a subsequent survey, the Comparative Survey of Industrial Sites and Monuments, was begun by Essex County Council in 1996. And in 2013, Essex Industrial Archaeology Group (EIAG) was created as a sub-group of Essex Society for Archaeology and History (ESAH)[2]. During this period we have seen the publication of several more works on Essex’s Industrial Past: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Essex (Crosby: 2012), Discovering Essex wind and water mills (EIAG: 2022), and Chelmsford Industrial Trail (Rev. ed., EIAG: 2018), to name a few.
2024 saw the 50th anniversary of Essex and The Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, ERO is hosting an event in April 2025 to celebrate this milestone, full details and booking available here: Discovering the Industrial Revolution in Essex
Booker, J. (1974) Essex and The Industrial Revolution. Chelmsford: Essex County Council.
Christy, M. (1925) ‘Some Early Essex Railway Stations’, Essex Review, 34, pp. 146–155.
Hudson, K. (1976) Industrial Archaeology: a new introduction. 3rd edn. London: J. Baker.
Rix, M. (1955) ‘Industrial Archaeology’, The Amateur Historian, 2(8), pp. 225–230.
[1] It is important to reinforce that Industrial Archaeology does not have to be exclusive to post-revolution history. More traditional industries such as brick making, malting, brewing, may also be suitable branches of study, i.e. pre-1750.
[2] EIAG’s newsletters are available digitally via ESAH’s website, and are also preserved physically by Essex Record Office
We’re excited to announce that our free digital guide on Bloomberg Connects is now live!
The guide has floor plans, images, audio and video content to help you explore our collections, whether you’re visiting in person or browsing from home.
Once you’re in the guide, you’ll find online exhibitions of pictures from the Essex County Council art collection, examples of historic recipes from the archive and a film recreating two quince recipes, some Sounds of Essex from ESVA and information about visiting, future events and how to get involved with the ERO – there’s a lot to explore! We’ll be updating the content regularly so do follow us in the app to be notified.
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