Navestock, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Navestock St Thomas the Apostle is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex. Other places in the parish include: Horseman Side, Navestock Side, Navestock Heath, and Cuddlesmere Green.

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 ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE consists of nave, chancel, south aisle, and western belfry with spire. The belfry is one of the notable timber towers of Essex. The rest of the church is of flint rubble and pebbles plastered externally, with dressings of limestone and clunch. The roofs are tiled and the spire shingled. The church dates from the 11th or 12th century but was largely rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1940 it was badly damaged by a German land mine and by 1954 repairs had not been completed. The north wall of the nave is part of the 11th-century church. The north doorway has a plain tympanum under a semicircular arch. Below this a segmental arch is ornamented with rounded billets. The door itself may also be of 11th- or 12th-century date. The church was considerably enlarged in the 13th century. A pointed arch in the north wall of the nave, now blocked, may have led to a chapel of this period. One of the jambs has an attached shaft with 'stiff-leaf' foliage to the capital. The south aisle and the chapel at its east end are also of the mid-13th century. The arcade has four bays but the easternmost arch is of wood and is probably of much later date. The original arches are of two chamfered orders and are supported on circular columns with moulded capitals. There is one lancet window in the south aisle and there are traces of two more. The mid-13th-century doorway has been much restored and the door itself, which may have been equally ancient, has been replaced. The east window in the south chapel was probably of the 13th century but it has suffered later alterations and damage. Beside it is a 13th-century piscina with a trefoiled head. It is possible that this was already in existence by 1251 and served one of the two altars mentioned in a visitation of that year. A new chapel, to which there is a reference in 1297, may have been this chapel or one which has now disappeared on the north side of the nave. In the same visitation of 1297 it was ordered that the chancel 'should be better united' to the nave. It was no doubt as a result of this order that the chancel was rebuilt during the first half of the 14th century. The three-light east window has net tracery and there are other early-14th-century windows in the chancel. There is also one of this date in the north wall of the nave. In the 15th century the south porch and the belfry were added. The belfry is timber-framed. The walls were formerly weather-boarded but have now been plastered. Round the base is a semi-octagonal aisle which once contained vestries. The central framework consists of four heavy oak posts with attached octagonal columns at their internal angles. The bell chamber has a louvred opening in each face and is surmounted by a shingled spire. The timber south porch was destroyed in 1940. The four-centred outer archway had sunk spandrels, each with a shield, the eastern a fesse between two chevrons, the western said to have been Waldegrave. In the gable was an 18th-century clock-face. The sides were modern except for the posts and moulded wall plates. During the 15th century also new windows were added in the south wall of the aisle and the north wall of the nave, and a 'low side' window in the north wall of the chancel is of the same period. A window of 15th-century date in the south wall of the chapel, which was reported as badly decayed in 1919 has now been renewed. In post-medieval times, probably in the early 19th century, alterations were made inside the church and the oak pier and arches put in the south arcade. This pier is roughly cut to a polygonal shape and has a moulded cap and a brick base. The wooden arches springing from it are rough and plain and the whole has been covered with plaster to resemble the rest of the arcade. There are similar wooden arches across the nave and aisle at this point springing from semicircular responds, also of plastered wood with moulded plaster caps. Late in the 19th century the church was restored, the tower and spire being repaired in 1897 at the cost of David Sellar. The west wall of the nave, which is of brick, was probably put in at this time. The roofs of nave and chancel also appear to have been renewed in the 19th century. The 18th-century three-manual organ now in the south chapel was brought from Southwood Court, Highgate (Mdx.), and installed in 1930. In 1931 the south porch and the windows were restored. (fn. 56) On 21 September 1940 a landmine fell in the churchyard near the south-west corner of the church. The south porch was destroyed, the belfry badly damaged, and much of the roof stripped of tiles. There was also considerable damage to the interior. A complete restoration of the church started in 1954. The site of the bomb crater is now occupied by a garden of remembrance. There are five bells, the first being of 1862 but the others older. The third is by John Walgrave and probably dates from about 1420-50. It has the inscription 'Sancta Katerina Ora Pro Nobis'. The fourth is by John Hardyng and of about 1560 and the second and fifth by Miles Graye, 1637. The plate consists of a cup and paten of 1625, a pair of silver flagons of 1626 and 1630 given by Christian Greene in 1638 and 1639, a brass almsdish, and a small silver cup and paten given in 1847 by the Revd. James Ford, then vicar. There is also a pair of electroplated patens, undated. In the south aisle there are two 14th-century coffin lids which were at one time used as door steps. The font, also in the aisle, is modern, but beside it is the base of the 13th century one. The octagonal oak pulpit is of the 18th century but the pews are modern. There are several brasses on the walls of the chancel, the oldest being to Richard Makyn (1603) and his wife Agnes (Colford) (1589), and to James Makyn (1616). On one of the window-jambs is a brass to John, son of Edward Moore (1624), a cursitor of the Chancery. Also in the chancel is a monument to John Greene, serjeant-at-law and Judge of the Sheriffs' Court (1653) and his wife (1641). Other monuments are to the wife and child of Charles Snelling (1625) with effigies and shield of arms, and to Rebecca (Greene) wife of Thomas Thorold (1625). There are a number of other monuments, including some floor slabs of the 17th century. The most impressive are those to members of the Waldegrave family. They include the 1st Earl, 1741: a marble tablet on the north wall of the chancel; Hon. Edward Waldegrave, drowned off Falmouth on his return from Corunna, 1809: a symbolic relief carved by John Bacon the younger; the 7th Earl Waldegrave, 1846, with portrait bust by Behnes; Viscount Chewton, son of the 8th Earl, died of wounds at Scutari, 1854; and Frances, Countess Waldegrave, 1879. There is also a monument to the Revd. James Ford, vicar, 1850. Sir Gilbert de Breauté, in right of his wife Joan, had licence from the Dean of St. Paul's, about 1223-7, with the consent of the vicar, to found a private chapel at his court in Navestock. The founders and their kin were to maintain a chaplain at their own cost, pay all profits to the vicar, exclude the parishioners, swear to preserve the rights of the mother church, and give yearly to it two wax candles. The chaplain was to administer mass only with bread and holy water, saving that at Easter the founders and their kin, their free household and their guests but not their servants were to be admitted to the sacraments at the altar. A chapel is mentioned in 1335 as belonging to the manor house of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The Navestock Mission Room at Horseman Side, originally a nonconformist chapel, is now (1954) used for services in connexion with the parish church.

From: 'Navestock: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 146-147. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15613&amp;amp;strquery=navestock Date accessed: 06 February 2011.

Navestock is a civil parish which for administrative purposes is in the Brentwood borough of Essex, England.

There is no traditional nucleated village in Navestock, but there is a concentration of houses at Navestock Side in the east of the parish and a rather more dispersed one at Navestock Heath in the centre. The medieval church and hall are in an isolated position about a mile further north from Navestock Heath.

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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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Ongar Poor Law Union, Essex

Vestry minute-books for Navestock survive for the period 1806 to 1870. Meetings of the public vestry were held at irregular intervals, averaging about 8 a year until 1810 and subsequently about 5 a year. The number of persons attending the meetings, in addition to the churchwardens and overseers, varied between 1 and 7. Until 1838 the chairman was never named as such in the minutes but the vicar, or in his absence one of the churchwardens, always signed first. From 1806 until 1816 the vicar, J. Filkes, attended the vestry regularly, but after 1816 rarely, and between March 1818 and 1830 he attended only once. Ford, when vicar, always attended regularly and usually signed the minutes as chairman. In 1824 the parish adopted the second Sturges Bourne Act (59 Geo. III c. 12) and set up a select vestry, which held its first meeting on 29 July of that year. In 1826 the select vestry included twelve members in addition to the vicar, churchwardens, and overseers. It apparently ceased to function after 12 April 1832. The work of the open vestry consisted mainly in nominating parish officers, granting rates, and auditing the overseer's accounts. The overseer presented interim accounts at nearly every meeting of the vestry and a final account at the end of his year in office. In 1806 a 1s. rate yielded £173 and between then and 1834 there was no great variation. There was probably a poorhouse in Navestock from 1741. In that year the churchwardens and overseers were negotiating with Elizabeth Merrick of Caversham (Berks.) for the lease of her house, called the White House, and two fields belonging to it, containing 10 acres, for the purpose of making a poorhouse. It was proposed that the premises should be leased for 21 years at a rent of £14 a year. It is not certain that these negotiations were completed, although they reached an advanced stage. It is certain that by 1770 the workhouse was on a site which it continued to occupy until 1836. This was just south of the vicarage and was some way from a house owned in 1770 by Elizabeth Merrick. In 1826 the workhouse was repaired at a cost of £60. In 1834 a cottage belonging to Green's Charity was also being used by the overseers to accommodate paupers. In 1776 £272 was spent on poor relief in Navestock. In the three years 1783-5 the average poor rate amounted to £444, and the average cost of poor relief to £400. In the year 1800-1 the cost of relief was £1,705. It was £1,624 in the following year. From then until 1816-17 it varied between £1,020 and £1,674, being highest in 1812-13 and lowest in 1815-16. In 1816-21 the poor rates varied between £1,012 (1815-16) and £1,433 (1817-18). The total sum collected in 1828-9 was only £511. The income from work done by the paupers in the workhouse was about £40 a year from 1806 to 1810-11. The rates were very high in 1809-10 and 1810-11 and it is probable that a special effort was made to increase paupers' earnings, which rose to £57 in 1811-12 and £111 in 1812-13. That high level was not maintained but for some years the earnings ranged between £52 and £92. From 1821 onwards they were much lower, reaching a minimum of £23 in 1823-4. For some years before 1834 James Lash was governor of the workhouse; it may have been to this post that he was appointed in 1813 at a salary of £17. In 1832 it was agreed that he should farm the poor at 3s. a head for all above one year of age. At that time there were 30 persons in the workhouse, of whom 7 were named Noaks, 5 Burns, and 3 Eldred. In 1834 Samuel Randal was appointed to succeed Lash. It was agreed that he should receive a minimum of 2s. 6d. a head for 17 paupers and 2s. 6d. a head for all above that number. In December 1830 the salary of the parish surgeon was reduced from 40 to 35 guineas. In July 1831 the vestry ordered that the overseer should pay the surgeon the amount of his extra charges, £8 6s., and request him to call at the poorhouse each week. In 1836 Navestock became part of the Ongar Poor Law Union. In the same year the workhouse at Navestock was sold by the union to David Pinchon, at a net profit of £164. In 1840 the building consisted of several tenements. ( About 30 years ago it was demolished. The gardens are immediately south of the 'Plough'.

From: 'Navestock: Parish government and poor relief', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 148-149. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15616&amp;amp;strquery=navestock Date accessed: 06 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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Web sites
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