INDUSTRIES OF ANCIENT DAYS.
The parsons perhaps hunted and fished or watched the fishermen at the landing place, for curiously
enough! we have evidence of boats full of ling and codfish, and loads of salt being disembarked there for inland distribution. Some
of the fish, caught chiefly by weirs, may, indeed, have been salted on the spot. In the History of the Abbey of Chertsey we
read of many 'Weirs across the Thames for intercepting the fish,' Traces of the method can still be observed at West Thurrock,
where the method appears to have been to place stakes across a stretch of projecting marsh land at intervals, so that fish, coming
in with the tide, might be trapped by nets placed along the line of stakes, to prevent their return as the tide receded. Mr. Christopher
Shiner, the well-known Grays architect, points out to the writer, that the Thames was at all times - and even up to the 19th
century - a salmon river. Pepys mentions it several times (in 1665). Porpoises have been seen frequently at the present day off
Canvey Island. Then there was whitebait fishing, as well as fishing for trout, gudgeon,dabs, eels, etc. The pollution of the water
about 70 or 80 years ago, by the Barking drainage outfall, put an end to much of the fishing in the lower reaches of the
Thames. Moreover, the City of London now claims all the fishing rights.
Vange never enjoyed any ancient parochial charities by bequest, with the exception of the Zuleika
Walters Charity, under which the Rector, as sole Trustee, distributes £1 yearly, in coals, to the oldest widow in the parish; also
Stewart gift of 10s. to old persons of honest name and fame, in clothes, fuel or food, selected by the Rector, and with the exception
of the church has few features of antiquarian interest. For instance, no burial mounds, from prehistoric times, are to be found
there; no Roman villa remains, no valuable pottery or hoards of ancient coins, no peculiar customs. There is no trace either of a
'cage' (for prisoners) nor of 'stocks,' nor even a 'ducking stool.' Some people imagine the waters of Vange to have medicinal or
healing power, but the writer considers that such an idea originated in a 'newspaper stunt' which afterwards spread amongst
credulous people. The Editor of the Essex Review points out that there is no mention of Vange 'medicinal' waters in the
exhaustive study of such waters by the late Mr. Miller Christy and Miss Thresh forming The Essex Field Club Special Memoir, Vol.
IV. If records of such kind existed they certainly could not have escaped the vigilant eye of that distinguished antiquary. The
geological strata of the vicinity do not support the claim of special virtue from its waters, and there is no mention of such an idea
in the earlier records. Of course many parishes all over the country claim to have mineral wells, but - as in the case of Tunbridge
Wells, or of bath - geology supports these claims. True, Gough on p. 130 of his revised Camden says of West Tilbury:-
'Within the Manor, was discovered in 1727 a medicinal water, the only alternative water of its kind in this part of England,' but this
was not written of Vange (see Dr. Andre's treatise on it, 1740).
Continuing our manorial narrative we find that after the death of Christina Tooker (in 1669) Vange
manor was divided up thus, viz.: Two-thirds of the manor and advowson (or right of presentation to the rectory) fell to Godfrey
Thacker. This man sold it to James Marreners who, by his will, left it to his wife during her life, and at her decease to his two
daughters, Ann and Rebecca. The former married John Wingfield, while Rebecca married Charles Smith, who afterwards
purchased Ann's part to add to his own lot. Now, the other one-third of this estate went to one William Aylett of Stifford. Two other
people, viz., Belton Neville and Richard Barnard, likewise owned land in the parish.
From odd notes in some MSS, it seems as if one, Cokain, had the manor in 1422, and Fitzrobert and
Wettenhall in 1426, 1432 and 1433. Then, without doubt, the Wettenhalls held it from 1435 to 1456. One of them was a minor, for we
find that Sir Henry Ferrys and Dame Margaret his wife, 'being guardians of young Wettenhall,' presented to the living on his behalf
from 1496 to 1529. Afterwards it fell as before mentioned to Thomas Newman (in 1578) by purchase. The patronage seems to have
passed, about the year 1849, from Sir Charles Smith, Bart., to Thomas J. Spitty, Esq. One of this family presented a rector in 1864,
and in 1930 the trustees of Major T. J. Spitty, deceased, sold the advowson for £400 to Sir C. King-Harmon on behalf of the
'Martyrs Memorial Trust,' a distinctly Protestant Evangelical organisation.
In 1768 the rating of the parish for land tax was £392. The full rating of Vange to-day is calculated at
£10,010, a penny rate producing £41 14s. 2d. In the course of the next twenty years it may reach £15,000, for houses are springing
up in all directions. Excellent new, wide roads are being made and Vange is wakening up from its long sleep. The springless ox
cart and heavy shire-horse waggon, have given way to the luxurious saloon coach and rapid motor. Everybody is moving
quickly nowadays.
Continuing the manorial history. From an exhaustive search at the Record Office amongst the Close
Rolls and Patent Rolls, the writer finds that in 1325 the Crown commanded John de Blomvill to deliver the advowson of the church
of Vange to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, its value being then ten marks annually. The mark would amount to about 13s. 4d. in our
present coinage. The Earls of Pembroke must have been exceedingly wealthy, for the Countess stood possessed of about 160
Manors and advowsons all over the country, besides Abbeys and lands in many shires. One entry in a certain abbey of which she was
patron reads: 'Such lay brothers of this house shall say 150 Lord's prayers with as many salutations of the virgin, and they shall
distribute to the poor daily for 30 days, a loaf, a gallon of Convent ale and a dish of meat or fish such as a Canon is wont to receive
daily, for the Patron's soul.' The Ecclesiastics of those days could very well afford to do this, as an enormous portion of the lands
of England became church property, being left by will from time to time, nominally 'for the good of the souls of the donors.' In the
same way 'chantry priests' were specially appointed to say thousands of masses for the same purpose in side chapels or
'lady chapels,' usually built to join on to the main chancel; there, too, the effigies of the deceased founders and patrons lay right
over the vaults containing their bodies. In 1375 the wife of John de Hastyngges, Earl of Pembroke (viz., Mary) held land in Vange
which the king had assigned to her 'having taken of her an oath that she will not marry without his licence.' She seems to have
been a prime favourite with His Majesty. FEUDAL CUSTOMS.
Miss Katherine Buck, the authoress of many volumes upon medieval sages, in a letter to the writer,
gives an account of the kind of life noble ladies lived in feudal times, and how it was necessary for the king sometimes to interfere
in their marriage affairs and land sales. She says: 'In the Middle Ages women were completely under the power of their senior male
relatives, who, if heads of households, might lawfully beat (and sometimes kill) wives and kinswomen who refused to look at life
from their point of view. Women, outside a cloister, had no independence, no detached life. Lands and castles were held from an
overlord [or from the king] on a rental paid in military service (not usually commutable for money in the early Middle Ages). This
meant that, if a baron or knight died, leaving a widow with young children or a daughter as sole heir, the overlord had the right
(modified in Southern France) in order to ensure his rent, to find a master or guardian for the fief who could guarantee to furnish
the proper quota of fighting men, due for every acre possessed by the widow or minor. The lady, like the serfs, went with the
land. Not that she objected to this as a rule, but she had no choice. Even in Southern France, where a lady who inherited ruled in
her own right, she had to marry. The 'Lady of the Castle' was a very busy woman, having little privacy, though much respected in
her own sphere. She could, at a pinch, take her lord's place, acting as his Seneschal, holding the castle against a foe, or
entertaining his guests; doing his share as well as her own in the absence (often of several years' duration, as during the
Crusades). She was oftimes his counsellor, having more book learning than her male relations, unless they were clerics. Her
pictures - tapestries worked by herself or her women - furnished and adorned the walls and canopies. She, with her strictly
disciplined daughters and maids had also all the household linen and perhaps clothes to weave and keep in order. Moreover,
she superintended and helped both in dairy and kitchen, and might even have to act as head farm bailiff, but she found time on and
off to go hunting, hawking and fishing, with or without her lord. She might have to be chief carver, server or butler, her lord's
pages and squires being under her supervision.'
In 1327 the Crown gave several manors in various places and certain lands in Fanges to one Thos. de
Blount and Julianna his wife, formerly the wife of John de Hastingges, kinsman and co-heir of Almer de Valencia, Earl of
Pembroke. About the same time one Richard de Perers - who evidently seized the manor of Faynge-atte-Noke - was ordered to
deliver it up to the same Blount.
In 1387 one Richard Tournour [perhaps Roger Turner] is registered as 'Parson of Vange,' and in 1397
Earl Pembroke was certainly patron of the church advowson. This is but the second time the church is mentioned in those rolls,
the first being in the year 1325 as stated previously; hence John de Bampton, instituted in 1328, may have entered his ministry in a
comparatively new church, erected by the Earl of Pembroke a short time beforehand.
On 23rd September, 1407, one John Salle, Chaplain, was presented to the church of Fanges, then in the
diocese of London, but he evidently was not accepted by the Bishop, for John Whitley was instituted the same year.
In April, 1431, some attempted land grabbing took place in Vange district, for a royal pardon had to be
obtained for 'John Rede, son of Richard Rede of Ireland [the Irish seem at all times prone to this vice] for acquiring land and entering
without licence from the king, the manors of Wallsbery, Hassynbroke and Fange with the advowsons of the churches of
Stanford-le-Hope and Fange, Co. Essex, which are held of the king in chief.' The fine for such a misdemeanour as this might run to
£500 or more, and in any case John Rede was fortunate in escaping imprisonment added to confiscation of the property.
In July, 1489, 'Licence was granted - for 4 marks - to William Wetenhale to transfer 'the manors of
Walbury, Hassyngbroke at Fanges, the advowsons of the churches of Stanford-le-Hope and Fanges, Co. Essex, * * to James
Crowemer, Knt., and others to hold for the life of Ann, wife of the said William Wetenhale.' This was exactly the same property
possessed formerly by Rede. Click here to read on |
