Theydon Garnon, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex  Essex Parishes



Parish History
Theydon Garnon All Saints is an Ancient parish in Essex.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

The church of ALL SAINTS consists of nave and chancel, north aisle, north porch, south porch, north vestry, and west tower. The walls of nave and chancel are of flint rubble and those of the tower, aisle, and north porch are of brick. The chancel probably dates from the 13th century. The nave appears to have been rebuilt in the 15th century. The tower was built about 1520. In 1644 the north aisle and north porch were added and a north arcade of timber built. The south porch was built in the 18th century, and in the 19th century there were numerous alterations including the addition of a north vestry and organ chamber. The church is of special interest from its dated tower of 1520 and dated north aisle of 1644. The chancel, which was probably built in the 13th century, has in its south wall a 13th century lancet window, and on the north side a niche of uncertain date. There is no structural division between chancel and nave. In the 15th century the nave was probably rebuilt. In the south wall there is a 15th-century window of three cinquefoiled lights in a segmental-pointed head, with moulded label and the arms of Gernon. Also in the south wall is a 15th-century doorway with moulded jambs and a two-centred arch under a square moulded label with traceried spandrels. The east window in the chancel is also of the 15th century. It has four cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head. About 1520 the west tower was added. It is of red brick, with some blue brick, of three stages with an embattled parapet. The date is recorded on a stone panel on the outside of the south wall, where it is stated that Sir John Crosbe, late alderman and grocer of London, and his wives Anne and Annes gave £50 towards the building of the tower. The north aisle and porch were built in 1644. They are of red brick which it is interesting to compare with the earlier brick of the tower. The date is picked out in dark brick on a panel on the outside of the east wall of the aisle. A corresponding panel on the outside of the west wall has the letters i. h. The timber arcade which divides the nave from the aisle also dates from 1644. It consists of five bays with octagonal oak columns and semi-octagonal oak responds. The oak arches are roughly three-centred to the east bays and semicircular to the west bays and have a horizontal moulded fascia above them mitred down in the middle of each arch to form a key block. The nave roof was probably reconstructed at this time but retains several rebated king-posts of the 15th century. Along the south side of the nave are two gabled dormer windows. These were largely remodelled in the 19th century but the frames probably date from 1644. During the 17th century several other new windows were added. In the chancel are two windows, one on the north wall and one on the south, both having two pointed lights, and the west window of the tower is also probably of the same century. In 1762 repairs were carried out on the church costing over £100. The largest part of this sum, £67, was for carpenter's work, including roof repairs. In 1770 there is said to have been a gallery in the north aisle. It is not clear what form this then took. In 1774 the parish vestry released to John Deakins and the future occupiers of his dwelling the seat where the psalm singers used to sit on the north side of the church, in return for 15 guineas towards the building of a singers' gallery. The balance of the carpenter's bill towards the building of the gallery was paid in December 1774. . The restoration of the north porch and the insertion of the west doorway in the tower also took place in the 18th century. The Revd. Sir Cavendish Foster, Bt., rector from 1843 to 1887, substantially altered the church. In 1863 the gallery was removed and five new windows inserted in the aisle, three in the north, one in the east, and one in the west wall. The previous north wall windows are said to have been wide and square with wooden frames and the previous east window small and square. The east window has now been blocked. Further restorations appear to have been carried out during Foster's incumbency. The vestry and organ chamber were added in 1892 at the expense of the Revd. C. G. B. Hotham, Foster's successor as rector, and W. S. Chisenhale-Marsh of Gaynes Park. A new heating apparatus was installed in 1899 at the expense of the Kemsley family. A glazed screen between the west end of the nave and the tower was erected by the Chisenhale-Marsh family as a memorial to those who fell in the First World War. In 1934 general repairs to the church were carried out and the lancet window in the south wall of the chancel, which had been blocked for several centuries, was opened at the expense of Mr. Hugh Kemsley. Further repairs have been done during the past ten years. The communion rails were set up in 1683-4 at a cost of £4, in obedience to the orders of the archdeacon at his visitation of 1683. The pulpit is a 'two-decker' and has a large sounding-board of the early 18th century. There are three chairs of the same period in the chancel. Some 16th-century seats formerly in the nave were removed about 1920. There is 16thcentury panelling on the south wall of the nave and some of about 1700 in the tower. In the vestry is a large oak chest with iron bands given in 1668 by Sir John Archer. (fn. 8) In it are some manorial records. (fn. 9) At the west end of the nave is an oak door-frame taken from the Priest's House (see below). There are five bells. The first four were cast by Miles Graye in 1628 and the fifth by Robert Phelps in 1732. In 1733 the parish vestry agreed to borrow £22 at 5 per cent. interest to pay for the casting and hanging of this last bell. The church plate consists of a cup and paten cover of 1562; two flagons of 1650, given in 1671 by the rector James Meggs; a paten of 1702 given by John Baker and an undated almsdish also bearing Baker's name and probably of 1702; and an almsdish of 1895. All the pieces are silver. In 1816 all the then existing plate was repaired at a cost of £3. On the north wall of the chancel is a brass to William Kirkeby, rector, 1458 with a figure of a priest in cope with shield of arms. This was formerly in the nave and was set up in its present position with a modern inscription between 1812 and 1835. Also in the chancel are a brass to Ellen (Hampden), wife of John Branch, 1567, and monuments to Lady Anne (Sidney), wife of Sir William Fitzwilliam, 1602; Sir Daniel Dun, 1617 and his wife Joan, 1640; James Meggs, rector, 1672; Sir John Archer, 1681; and Sir William Eyre Archer, 1739. The last is a large standing wall monument with grey sarcophagus and obelisk and medallion of the deceased flanked by three cherubs. Set into the north wall of the chancel is a grey marble altar-tomb with a flat-arched canopy resting on small side-shafts and having a frieze of quatrefoil panels. At the back of the recess is a brass of a kneeling man in armour, his wife, two sons, and three daughters, with indents of two inscription plates, two shields, a Trinity and another group, of about 1520. Opposite is another similar altar-tomb of slightly later date with the canopy set on twisted shafts, also with indents for brasses at the back of the recess. There are floor slabs in the chancel to Henry and Thomas Meggs, 1670, Margaret wife of James Meggs, 1681, and Richard Butler, 1688. In the nave is a wall monument to Denton Nicholas, M.D., 1714, moved there from the chancel in 1934. There is a floor slab in the nave to Jane, widow of John Wormlayton, 1725, and their daughters Jane, 1705, and Anne, 1712. Other later monuments include plaques to Charles B. Abdy, 1843, Joseph Kemsley, churchwarden, 1897, and William S. ChisenhaleMarsh, 1929. There is a stained-glass window in memory of the Revd. Sir Cavendish Foster, Bt. (see above). A few yards west of the church there stood until recently a cottage called the Priests' House. It was of two stories, the upper projecting on the east front with exposed joists and curved brackets. It was apparently built in the late 15th century. It may have been identical with the Gatehouse (see above) of 1507 and 1610. If so it consisted in 1507 of a parlour, with a chimney and larder at one end and two chambers; above were a study and 'wyddraughte', i.e. a sink or drain. In 1624 there was an alehouse in the churchyard; this may well have been the same house since a map of 1648 shows no other buildings in the churchyard. The Priests' House has now been destroyed except for a door-frame (see above). An engraving of the church published in 1810 shows in the distance a small part of the house. Another of 1818 by the same hand shows the whole house. The small brick building outside the churchyard has been used as a Sunday school. It probably dates from the late 19th or early 20th century. An avenue of limes and chestnuts leading from the south side of the churchyard to the former rectory is now known as the Monks' Walk. The church of ST. ALBAN, Coopersale, was built at the expense of Miss Archer-Houblon in 1852. It was consecrated in the same year and a particular district assigned to it. The advowson was vested in Miss Archer-Houblon and it remained in her family until 1914 when it was transferred to the Bishop of Chelmsford. The building is of flint and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and north vestry with bellcote at the west end of the nave. The vicarage was also built at Miss Archer-Houblon's expense. It stands to the north of the church and is a gabled house of variegated brickwork. Opposite the church is the Parish Room, a single-story building dating from about 1865, of brown brick with dressings of red and black.

From: 'Theydon Garnon: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 269-271. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15705&amp;amp;strquery=theydon garnon Date accessed: 27 January 2011.

Theydon Garnon is a village and a civil parish in the Epping Forest District, in the county of Essex, England.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office All Saints See also St Alban Coopersale and Theydon Garnon meeting (Society of Friends) Bishop's Transcripts burials in the parish.

Census records
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Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Epping Poor Law Union, Essex

Most of the parish business naturally concerned poor relief. When the parish accounts begin it appears that the policy was one of out relief only. In 1715 there was a payment of £3 for badges for paupers. There were similar payments for badges in 1729 and in 1746 it was ordered that badges should be worn by all those receiving weekly doles. In 1728 there were 19 people receiving doles; in 1732 16 people, and in 1733 13 people, were receiving doles totalling respectively £1 13s. 7d. and £1 6s. 4d. a week. There were also frequent payments for the provision of clothing, for nursing at home, and for rents. Occasionally, at least, paupers' children were bound out as apprentices. In June 1785 it was decided to advertise in the Chelmsford papers in order to get 3 or 4 boys placed as apprentices; in the following month one was apprenticed to a baker at Henham. There is a reference to a parish house in 1714, but this may have been only a pest house, which is mentioned in August 1766. In August 1729, however, the vestry resolved that the churchwardens and overseers should look for a convenient place and house for a workhouse, and in September of that year it was resolved to provide a workhouse. In March 1730 it was again resolved that the parish officers should look for a workhouse with all speed, but there does not appear to be any evidence of one until 1742 when it was agreed to take Mr. Rogers's house for three years at £8 a year. In 1746 the vestry agreed to take the house on a yearly tenancy at a rent of £7. Subsequent entries for the payment of the rent make it clear that this was being used as a workhouse, and sometimes describe it as in 'The Street', presumably Coopersale Street. The parish appears to have let an orchard attached to this building to John Palmer at an annual rent of 10s. By April 1774 the parish had leased another house, Mr. Bishop's, at a rent of £9. Rogers's house, which in June 1775 was described as 'the old workhouse', was still in use until June 1776, when the parish accounts record a payment for beer when the people were carried out of 'the old workhouse.' In 1782 the vestry agreed that a house called Newmans, belonging to John Palmer, (should be leased for 21 years and converted into a workhouse. In 1805 the parish was given notice to quit both Palmer's and Bishop's houses. By June 1793 the parish had leased a cottage on the common from the lord of the manor at a rent of £1 10s.; the parish was given notice to quit this house in 1807. In 1829 the parish held a house at Coopersale Common; it was then occupied by William Brown, a 'poor person', who in November of that year was given notice to quit. In February 1774 Edward Robinson was appointed master of the workhouse, in succession to the 'late Mr. Jepp', at a salary of 13 guineas. He was also allowed one pint of ale a day, but was not permitted to charge for tea and sugar brought in. In June 1775 Giles Ashby of Halstead was appointed 'to be the master and mistress of the workhouse' at a salary of 12 guineas, with an allowance of 1 guinea for tea. In 1803 the parish made an agreement with Thomas Finch for the farm of the poor. He was to be allowed 3s. a head weekly whilst flour should remain under 3s. a peck, and to be allowed a surplus according to the exact consumption in the house to be proved by the bills of parcels. He was to provide three meals daily, to include 'hot meat dinner' on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. He was also to be allowed the benefit of all the work ( produced by the poor in the house, an extra guinea for every lying in with 3s. a week for the child at one month old, 4s. for every pauper dying in the house (the parish, however, paying the cost of burial), 1 guinea for loss of time and trouble for every pauper laid up with a broken or fractured limb, and 2½ guineas for shaving the paupers once a week and for sweeping the chimneys. In 1816 the parish contracted with William Nutt for the maintenance of the poor in the workhouse for one year; the contract was renewed in 1817, Nutt being allowed 5s. a head weekly.  There is in the records one undated proposal, from John Stubbs of Orsett workhouse, for undertaking to maintain the poor at 5s. a head, with an allowance of 1½ chaldron of coal.  In 1828 the parish seems to have found some difficulty in arranging a price per head for the workhouse, and two letters survive from people willing to enter into a contract. At first it seems that the parish tried to get all its poor into the workhouse, and the weekly doles ceased in 1762. It was, however, found necessary to reintroduce them during the worst period of the depression at the end of the century, and in November 1799 it was resolved that every family should be allowed 1s. a week for every child above the number of two under the age of 10. There were 37 people in the workhouse in 1793 and 30 in 1805. In 1811 the house was enlarged. In 1796 the lord of the manor granted the parish 2½ acres of waste upon condition that 2 acres be planted with potatoes for eventual sale to the poor inhabitants. Payment for digging potatoes on the common piece is recorded in the account books in October 1797 and in March 1798 there were two entries of money received for 'taters'. The parish always seems to have given much attention to the relief of the sick poor. The first mention of a parish doctor occurs in 1721 when Dr. Dimsdale's bill for £5 for treating a pauper was settled, and there are other references to the settling of apparently casual bills, but this method seems to have caused some alarm, for in 1729 the vestry, after approving Dimsdale's bill, ordered that for the future no bill was to be allowed, unless those afflicted had procured an order in writing from a churchwarden or overseer, except in an emergency. This order was repeated in 1737. The last payment to Dimsdale was in January 1742. In April 1743 the parish settled a bill of Dr. Davies for £10 and there is at least one other similar payment, in March 1744, but these may have been casual payments and need not imply a definite contract. The first definite reference to a salaried doctor occurs in 1749 when Thomas Fletcher agreed to take care of the poor of the parish in pharmacy and surgery at an annual salary of 8 guineas; in 1756 Francis Mitten agreed to take the poor under his care and to supply them with physic and attend in all cases of surgery at a salary of 8 guineas, and also to attend every maternity case at ½ guinea a case. On one occasion, in June 1764, the parish resolved to pay Mitten 6 guineas for curing a broken leg; he was then described as surgeon at Epping. In 1777, however, Richard Boodle was appointed to attend the poor when necessary and all cases of surgery, midwifery, and inoculation at a salary of 10 guineas. The vestry ordered that one of the overseers should wait on Mitten, who was on this occasion merely described as an apothecary, to pay his salary, to return the thanks of the parish for what he had done for the poor, and to inform him that his future attendance was no longer required, as Mr. Boodle was chosen in his place, the parish not thinking 'the parish business an object worth his notice'. Boodle's appointment was to date from Easter 1777, but these arrangements were apparently abortive, since Mitten received salary to Easter 1778, and Boodle was appointed as surgeon, apothecary, and man midwife at a salary of 10 guineas at the Easter vestry meeting of that year. In 1788 William Stewart was appointed apothecary and man midwife at a salary of 12 guineas; his duties were to include inoculation, and he was to attend accidents to parishioners even if they occurred outside the parish. He was succeeded in 1790 by C. C. Stuart who held the position, on the same terms as his predecessor, at least until April 1806. In 1613-14 the cost of poor relief was £8. In 1776 it was £355. (fn. 42) In 1783-5 expenditure averaged £295 a year. In 1800-1 it reached £1,152. (fn. 44) In 1801-2 the cost was £941 and in 1802-3 £762. Between 1803 and 1809 it was much lower, being always between £550 and £600 a year. In 1809-10 the cost rose to £725 and from then until 1817 it ranged between £650 and £850 a year, being highest in 1812-13. In 1836 Theydon Garnon became part of the Epping Poor Law Union.

From: 'Theydon Garnon: Parish government and poor relief', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 271-273. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15706&amp;amp;strquery=theydon garnon Date accessed: 27 January 2011.

Epping Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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Web sites
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