Epping, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Epping St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Essex.

Other places in the parish include: Epping Upland, Ryehill, and Epping Upland with Ryehill.

The parish church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN consists of nave, chancel, south aisle, and chapel. The timber bell-turret at the west end of the aisle is surmounted by a small copper spire. There is a south porch and a vestry on the north side of the chancel. The walls are of flint rubble covered with cement and have dressings of limestone. The roofs are tiled. In the churchyard, between the south porch and the main road, is a double row of ancient yew trees. In its original form the church dates from the late 12th century, when it would have covered the ground now occupied by the south aisle, which was then the nave, with a chancel somewhat smaller than the present chapel. Of this early church only the south wall now remains. In this wall is a fine Norman doorway with semicircular arch ornamented with double chevrons, panelled tympanum, segmental soffit, and free-shafted jambs. The window immediately to the east of this door also probably dates from the 12th century but has an inserted mullion and is modern externally. On the inside of the south wall on the east of the door is a holy-water stoup from which the basin has long disappeared. In the 15th century a north aisle was added, the original north wall being opened to insert the existing arcade of four bays, of which the two centre arches are moulded, with moulded piers, capitals, and bases. The Scott family of Woolston Hall (see above) claimed the chapel of this aisle as their private property. As they first obtained possession of the manor about 1475 it is not unlikely that they were responsible for this addition to the church. About the same time the chancel was probably lengthened and the western bell-turret added to the end of the former nave. The turret is made of eight stout vertical timber posts with curved braces and the whole frame stands independently of the fabric, being walled round at the time of its erection, with a window of three pointed lights in the west wall. Soon after this the aisle was extended from the old north door (opposite the present south door) to bring its west wall level with the bell-turret. This extension was carried out by Thomas Ilderton, the benefactor of the Trinity Guild (see above), who gave instructions in his will (1527) that he should be buried in the aisle and that an inscription on his grave should record the extension for which he had been responsible and also his gifts to the guild. This brass inscription existed as late as 1810 but has since disappeared. At about the same time as these works were carried out the nave was probably re-roofed. Many of the existing roof timbers in the present south aisle date from this period. Early in the 16th century the church must have been in good repair, but a century later the chancel was said to be ruinous. About 1600 a gallery was built at the west end of the old nave, on the order of Samuel Harsnett (vicar 1597-1605, later Archbishop of York). At the Archdeacon's Visitation in 1638 it was ordered that the chancel floor should be raised by three steps and properly paved, that a new rail should be made round the communion table, the belfry boarded with deal and the spire shingled. In 1704 the church was undergoing repair. In 1722 a second gallery, for the charity girls (see below, Schools), was built at the west end of the north aisle. In 1745 a subscription was raised for 'ornamenting the steeple', when presumably the weather-vane was added. The roof of the old nave was repaired in 1800: this involved repair of some of the old roof timbers and the replacement of the lead covering with tiles. Meanwhile, in 1793, another gallery had been added, and in 1805 a fourth was built. One of the new galleries was probably that at the east end of the north aisle which was the private pew of the Hatch family, lords of Chigwell Hall (see above). The spire was re-shingled in 1835. By this time the accommodation of the church was becoming insufficient for the needs of a growing population. In 1853 there was a proposal to extend the church by the addition of a south aisle. This plan, which would have destroyed the south door and all the remaining Norman fabric, was abandoned, but in 1854 there was considerable restoration. This included alterations to the windows in the south wall. It was carried out under the direction of F. T. Dollman. The church was not actually enlarged until 1886, when Sir Arthur Blomfield prepared plans upon which the present nave and chancel are based. The old nave became the present south aisle and the old north aisle was demolished to make way for the present nave, which is considerably larger. In 1896 the nave and chancel were redecorated and the alabaster reredos and pulpit, both designed by G. F. Bodley, were installed. The oak screen in the south aisle is a War memorial, unveiled in 1920. In 1552 there were three bells, to which three more were added in 1693. The three original bells were replaced in 1737, 1743, and 1771. All five bells were recast in 1910, and at the same time a sixth was added. The church plate is among the finest in Essex. There are two silver cups, one given in 1607 by John Penington of Chigwell Hall, the other inscribed 'a widow's gift A. A. 1633' (she was Alice Andrews, a relative of Roger Andrews, vicar 1605-6, and Thomas Andrews, lessee of the rectory 1635-60). There are four silver patens of 1609, 1632, 1633 and 1832, and a silver flagon inscribed with the arms of William Scott of Woolston Hall and dated 1713. The 1632 paten was also given by Alice Andrews. In the chancel is the well-known brass to Samuel Harsnett (d. 1631), Vicar of Chigwell and later successively Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of Norwich, and Archbishop of York. There is a brass in the nave to Robert Rampston (1585), a benefactor to the poor of this and other neighbouring parishes. In the south chapel is a wall monument to Thomas Colshill (1595), Surveyor of the Customs under Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, and Mary (Crayford) his wife. On the south wall of the nave is a monument to George Scott (1683) and Elizabeth (Cheyne) his wife (1705). Along the roof of the south aisle is a series of painted hatchments of arms relating to families that have been prominent in the parish, including those of Scott of Woolston, and Hatch-Abdy of Chigwell Hall. The brasses of Thomas Ilderton (1527-8) and an unknown man (c. 1510), which were formerly in the church, have now disappeared. Numerous small bequests to the church of Chigwell in the 15th and 16th centuries were recorded in the series of articles on 'Old Chigwell Wills' by W. C. Waller.

From: 'Chigwell: Churches', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 32-35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15540&amp;amp;strquery=chigwell Date accessed: 27 January 2011.

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.

"Epinga", a small community of a few scattered farms and a chapel on the edge of the forest, is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, the settlement referred to is known today as Epping Upland. It is not known for certain when the present day Epping was first settled. By the mid 12th century a settlement known as Epping Heath (later named Epping Street), had developed south of Epping Upland as a result of vigorous clearing of the forest for cultivation. In 1253 King Henry III conveyed the right to hold a weekly market in Epping Street which helped to establish the town as a centre of trade and has continued to the present day (the sale of cattle in the High Street continued until 1961)[4].

The linear village of Epping Heath developed slowly into a small main-road town and by the early 19th century considerable development had taken place along what is now High Street and Hemnall Street. Up to 25 stagecoaches and mailcoaches a day passed through the town from London en route to Norwich, Cambridge and Bury St. Edmunds. In the early 19th century, 26 coaching inns lined the High Street[5]. A couple survive today as public houses, e.g. The George and Dragon and The Black Lion. The advent of the railways put an end to this traffic and the town declined, but it revived after the extension of a branch line from London in 1865 and the coming of the motor car.

A number of listed buildings, most dating from the 18th century, line both sides of the High Street although many were substantially altered internally during the 19th century. Some of the oldest buildings in the town can be found at each end of the Conservation Area, e.g. Beulah Lodge in Lindsey Street (17th century), and the attractive group of 17th and early 18th century cottages numbered 98-110 (even) High Street.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

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

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.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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