Chipping Ongar, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
ONGAR, or Chipping-Ongar (St. Martin), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Ongar, S. division of Essex, 12 miles (W. by S.) from Chelmsford, and 21 (N. E.) from London; containing 870 inhabitants. There is a place of worship for Independents.

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51193 Date accessed: 14 October 2011.Chipping Ongar St Martin of Tours is an Ancient Parish and market town in Essex.

As is shown below there has been a church at Chipping Ongar since about 1100 if not earlier. In about 1254 the advowson belonged to the lord of the manor. The institutions of rectors have been recorded from 1363 and show that the advowson continued to be appurtenant to the manor. William Bourchier presented pro hac vice in 1409, the bishop by lapse in 1441, 1487, and 1557 and the Crown on several occasions during a minority. When the parish was temporarily united with that of Greenstead in 1548 (see below) the advowson of the new combined parish was vested in Richard, 1st Baron Rich, but after the revocation of the Act of union in 1554 the lord of the manor of Chipping Ongar again became patron of the living. In 1635 Maurice Barrow and his wife presented to the living. (Barrow presented in 1658 and 1664. Elizabeth Goldsborough presented in 1670, 1673, and 1680. After this the advowson descended with the manor estate until the death of Lady Swinburne. In 1905 the Guild of All Souls acquired the advowson. In the account of Robert Peverel for the farm of Ongar in 1210 10s. was allowed 'to the mother church of Ongar in annual rent for the cemetery'. In 1254 the rectory was valued at 4 marks. Chipping Ongar was not included in the list of churches of Ongar deanery in the Taxatio of 1291, presumably because the rectory was worth less than 6 marks. It was not even included in the list of smaller livings of the archdeaconries of Essex and Colchester. John de Welde of Ongar, by his will proved in 1337, directed that his body should be buried in the church of St. Martin, Ongar. He bequeathed £5 to cover the expenses of his funeral, at which a brown 'turthel' cow with its calf was to be led before the body as a mortuary, and he also left a cow and 3 lb. of wax to maintain a candle burning daily at Mass in the church before the altar of St. Mary and St. Margaret. In 1340 the taxable value of the living was stated to be £10, but this can hardly have been correct. (fn. 58) In 1428 it was reported that the church was assessed for subsidy on a tax de novo of 48s. The taxable value was thus rather less than it had been in 1254. In 1535 the rectory was valued at £6. In 1548 it was united by Act of Parliament with that of Greenstead (q.v.) but the union was ended in 1554 by another Act which asserted that the Statute of 1548 had been brought about by the 'sinister labour and procurement of William Morris'. According to the Act of Union the church of Ongar was 'dissolved' and that of Greenstead became the parish church of the joint parish. The site of the church and the churchyard of Ongar became the property of William Morris, previously the patron of Ongar. This last provision was no doubt responsible for the charge against Morris. It is indeed difficult to believe that any worthy motives lay behind the Act of 1548: had it not been revoked the inhabitants of Ongar would have been deprived of their own church and compelled to journey a mile or more to the tiny church at Greenstead. The Act of 1554 was opposed by some of the inhabitants of Ongar, evidently those with a vested interest in the site of the church and churchyard. In that year the Privy Council ordered Sir Henry Tirell, Anthony Browne, and William Barneys 'to call before them the inhabitants of Ongar and the widow of William Morris and examining the parties that without authority of their own heads attempted lately to pluck down the church walls there, to set such order among them for their good quiet and stay of their friends doing therein'. During the Protectorate the minister of Chipping Ongar received an augmentation of income from the Trustees for the Maintenance of Ministers. The church formed part of the Sixth Presbyterian Classis, called the Ongar Classis, formed in 1648. In 1661 the rectory was valued at £40. Previous estimates in the 17th century had been £18 in 1604 and £50 in 1650. In 1723 the living was augmented by the addition of the present rectory house, with about 5 acres of glebe adjoining. This was bought for £409, of which £109 was contributed by the Revd. Jacob Houblon, Rector of Bobbingworth, £100 by Edward Colston, and £200 by Queen Anne's Bounty. Before its purchase the rectory house had been the home of William Atwood and had been named 'Lovings'. The north wing (now the kitchen, scullery, and pantry) had been built in the 17th century. The main wing was added early in the 18th century. It is a lath and plaster building of two stories with attics. The façade is symmetrical. The front door has pilasters and a pediment and there are two windows each side of it. The former rectory house had stood near the church on the north side. In 1784, by a faculty dated 2 August, the rector was empowered to take down the old house, with the stable adjoining it, which had for many years been let as two 'poor ruinous cottages' at 50s. a year. A terrier of 1810 describes the land upon which the house had stood. It was 105 ft. long and measured 35 ft. across at the western end, 25 ft. at the eastern end and 12 ft. in the centre. There was another piece of glebe at the east side of the church, running down to the pond. By 1841 both these pieces of land had become part of the estate of Brook Hurlock, owner of the White House. The Revd. R. I. Porter, who wrote his Notes on Chipping Ongar in 1877, could find no record of a quid pro quo. The tithes of the parish were commuted in 1841 for £146. Richard Vaughan (1550?-1607) successively Bishop of Bangor, Chester, and London, was Rector of Chipping Ongar 1578-80. John Lorkin, appointed minister of Chipping Ongar in 1659 or 1660, was ejected in 1662. George Alsop, rector from 1670 to 1673, seems to have been vigorously orthodox, for in 1670 he was appointed by the bishop to read divine service at the Quaker meeting house in Gracechurch Street, London. The parish church of ST. MARTIN consists of a nave, chancel, south aisle, north vestry, and west porch, with a western bell-turret surmounted by a shingled spire, and a gallery at the west end of the nave. In 1908 a stained glass window was placed in the west end of the aisle in memory of Lilla Tanner. Miss L. W. Tanner (d. 1920) left her residuary estate in trust, the income to be paid to her aunt for life, and thereafter towards the beautifying of the parish church. In 1284-5 John the clerk of Ongar was killed by the clapper of the church bell, which fell upon him while he was ringing.

From: 'Chipping Ongar: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 162-164. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15630&amp;amp;strquery=chipping Ongar Date accessed: 05 February 2011.

Ongar was an important market town in the Mediaeval era, at the centre of a hundred and has the remains of a Norman castle (see below). The Church of England parish church of Saint Martin dates from the 11th century and shows signs of Norman work. A small window in the chancel is believed to indicate the existence of an anchorite's cell in mediaeval times.The Gothic Revival architect C.C. Rolfe added the south aisle in 1884.

The civil parish of Ongar, which has a town council, includes from north-to-south Shelley, Chipping Ongar and Marden Ash, with Greensted to the southwest.

Ongar's role in local government was downgraded in 1974 with the abolition of Epping and Ongar Rural District Council. By 1990 the area's baby boom generation had grown beyond secondary education and the town's secondary school (opened in 1936 with elegant neo-Georgian buildings fronting Fyfield Road, expanded greatly when it became a comprehensive in the 1960s) was closed despite vigorous local protest. Its buildings were demolished to make way for a new residential development. Secondary school age children from the area are bussed to school in surrounding towns, notably Brentwood and Shenfield. A sports centre and swimming pool, built in the 1970s to serve the comprehensive school, continue to serve the locality. Chipping Ongar Primary School, located on the Greensted Road at the southern edge of the town, and Shelley Primary School at the northern end of town remain. St. Andrew's Parish Church in Greensted is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Ongar. It is believed to be the oldest wooden church in the world.

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 St Martin of Tours See also Chipping Ongar Congregational Church.

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
Ongar Poor Law Union, Essex

Vestry books for Chipping Ongar survive for the periods 1743-75 and 1780-1863. The business of the parish seems on the whole to have been conducted efficiently and honestly. From 1743 to 1759 meetings took place at Easter, for the approval of the accounts of the overseers, churchwardens, and constables, at Christmas for the approval of the surveyors' accounts and occasionally for other purposes. New officials were nominated when the accounts were passed. From 1759 monthly meetings were the rule, mainly for matters relating to poor relief. Attendance at the Easter meetings was sometimes 15-20 but was usually about 12. At the other meetings it was rarely more than 8. Thomas Velley, rector 1733-50, usually attended meetings and signed the minutes first. After his death the clergy rarely attended until 1792, when W. Herringham became curate. He soon took his place as chairman of the vestry and when he left the town in 1806 he was given a silver cup worth 25 guineas. From 1806 to 1828 the clergy again played little apparent part in the vestry. For some years after 1828 Joseph Stanfield, the curate, acted as chairman. In the absence of the clergy the churchwardens presided. The vestry clerk, who also acted as caretaker and cleaner of the church, was voted an annual stipend of 40s. in 1770. This was increased in 1805 to 5 guineas. In 1819 the office of clerk was amalgamated with that of permanent overseer, at a salary of £15 for both duties. In 1823 the public vestry set up a select vestry under the second Sturges Bourne Act (59 Geo. III, c. 12). The select vestry contained the minister, churchwardens and overseers and fifteen other members. It functioned only for about three years. In 1836 the public vestry adopted the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833 (3 &amp; 4 William IV, c. 90). All types of parish business were transacted at the same meetings of the public vestry. A distinction was usually maintained between rates for different purposes, but there were frequent adjustments between the accounts of different officers. In 1743 a rate of 1s. 6d. in the pound produced about £60. By 1783 a similar rate produced £83. A new rating assessment was made in 1832, when it was recommended that the rateable value of the parish should be fixed at £1,460 10s. This was not the final assessment at this time, for in 1837 the rateable value was fixed at over £2,960. A rate of 4d. then produced £39 4s. 2d. The rateable value rose steadily to £3,043 in 1842 (fn. 5) and in 1849 was £3,856. It then remained steady until 1858, when evidence from the ratebooks ceases. There can be no doubt that these increases in rateable value had as their main cause the growth of the built-up area of the parish. The general policy of the parish vestry was to ensure that burdens were fairly shared. Thus in May 1800 it was resolved that 'every householder of sufficient ability shall in his turn either take an apprentice or yearly servant a boy or girl from the parish or shall provide a reputable master for such child'. In the following June it was decided to hold a ballot to decide the first allotment of pauper apprentices. In 1803 the vestry introduced an insurance scheme to assist those who had been selected in the ballot for the Army of Reserve. All the normal parish officers were appointed until 1819, when, as noticed above, a salaried overseer was appointed. This arrangement, however, only lasted for about six years. The offices of parish constable and beadle were sometimes held by the same individual, but in April 1805 William Ainsworth was dismissed from the two posts and it was resolved that George Archer be appointed constable and John Burrell beadle. Burrell was to receive an annual salary of 2 guineas arid he was to be allowed a laced blue coat and hat once every four years. In 1813 the parish constable was allowed 5 guineas. In 1842 it was decided that a paid constable was no longer necessary. An entry of 1756 shows that the 'hamlet' of Greenstead was being assessed along with Chipping Ongar to the constables' rate. If this refers to Greenstead parish (q.v.) it means that the Ongar constables were also acting at Greenstead; but it may refer to the houses south of Chipping Ongar Bridge, on the Greenstead boundary. In the vestry minutes for 1792 there is a reference to the town crier. The ancient pound, pillory, and cage apparently stood on the east side of High Street, opposite the postoffice. They were removed in 1786, when the Assembly Rooms were built, to a piece of waste ground 100 yds. north-west of the bridge. The cottage behind this piece of ground was subsequently bought by Edward Rayner, who persuaded the vestry to move pound, pillory, and cage to a place farther down the road, near the south-east end of the bridge. There was a poorhouse in Chipping Ongar in 1748, if not earlier. It then adjoined the rectory. In 1752-4 and perhaps later the duty of looking after the poor (i.e. presumably those in the poorhouse) was farmed out for £4 a year. It was provided in 1752 that three men should take turns at this work, each doing it for a year. A parish doctor was appointed in 1761 at an annual salary of 5 guineas. This was reduced in 1770 to £4. Before 1761 medical treatment appears to have been paid for as each case arose. In 1795 it was resolved that the parish poorhouses should be demolished and that one large building should be erected instead. In the same year it was decided 'that the site of the old building being inconvenient to the rector, the parishioners do agree to exchange the present site for a portion of the glebe of equal extent now offered by the rector'; the rector was to enclose and fence the new site. It is possible that the new poorhouse was built on the glebe immediately to the north of the church. But this is difficult to reconcile with the glebe terrier of 1810. It was estimated that the new poorhouse would cost £153 and the vestry agreed that £100 of this should be borrowed on a ten-year term. The building was apparently carried out in 1797. John Crabb of Shelley Hall lent £100 but in the same year required repayment. The vestry decided to meet half the debt immediately out of the rates and to borrow £50 from someone else. By this time poor relief was becoming an urgent problem. The poor rates had risen from £119 in 1744 to £175 in 1778 and about £350 in 1798. In 1800 they were £454. In July of that year the vestry resolved to enlarge the workhouse. Whether this was done is not clear, but before April 1802 there was a fire at the workhouse and rebuilding was necessitated on that account. The house had been insured. In May 1807 the vestry approved an estimate of £4 15s. for finishing 'the back chamber at the work house'. A year later it also approved an estimate for a new parish cage. In April 1809 a Mr. Peake was appointed parish surgeon at a stipend of £7 17s. 6d. for medicine with additional fees of 10s. 6d. for midwifery and 7s. for inoculation. It was laid down that in future the office of parish surgeon should be held in rotation by Peake and two other doctors. Meanwhile the poor rates were still rising: in 1806 they were £674. (fn. 17) In 1815 a committee was appointed to investigate recent extravagance in the conduct of the workhouse. Its report revealed that in 1813 and 1814 the average cost of maintaining one person in the workhouse was 7s. 2d. a week. In all £407 had been spent, of which £63 was reckoned as the cost of maintaining the 'governess' and her two children. The vestry thereupon advertised for a governor who should contract to look after the poor in the workhouse at a fixed sum. A Mr. Jessup of Epping was given the contract in June 1815. John Heard, who was granted the contract in July 1819, was apparently Jessup's successor. He was paid 4s. 3d. per person per week. Farming out of the poor was discontinued in June 1820. In 1821 the vestry adopted a long and detailed code of regulations for the relief of the poor, with special reference to the keeping of the overseers' accounts. An audit of the overseers' accounts revealed a debt of £196. It is probable that there was no separate master of the workhouse for some years at this period, but in 1828 it was resolved that one should be appointed, and a month later the vestry drew up a code of regulations for the conduct of the workhouse, and appointed William Wood senior as master at a salary of £10 a year for himself and his wife. Improvements were made in the workhouse during the same year. In June 1832 the vestry formally adopted the rules laid down in Gilbert's Act (22 Geo. III, c. 83) for the conduct of the workhouse. In May 1835 it was further resolved to join with the neighbouring parishes in a poor law union. The first meeting of poor law guardians for the Ongar Union took place in April 1836. In June 1837 the Chipping Ongar vestry resolved to sell the 'timber built messuage used as a workhouse'.

From: 'Chipping Ongar: Parish government and poor relief', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 167-169. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15635&amp;amp;strquery=chipping Ongar Date accessed: 05 February 2011.

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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