Ingatestone: Annals of England

Annales of England – John Stow

The following are extracts from a book published in 1605, the year of John Stow’s death.  The book is introduced as “A BRIEFE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES AND CORNWALL”, set out in chronological order and running to 1437 pages, abruptly ending in July 1605.

Page 1135

“1572

Sir William Peter deceased.

The thirteenth of January deceased William Peter knight, who for his judgement and pregnant wit, had bene Secretary and of privy counsell to foure kings and queenes of this realme, and seven times lord ambassador abroad in foraine lands: he augmented Exeter colledge in Oxford with lands to the paine of an hundred pound by yeare: and also builded ten almes houses in the parish of Ingerstone for twenty poore people, ten within the house, and ten without the house, having every one two pence the day, a winter gowne, and two loade of wood, and among them feeding for six kine winter and sommer, and a chaplaine to say them service daily.”

Page 1166

“1581

Mice devour the grasse at Danesey.

About Hallowtide last past, in the marshes of the Danesey Hundred in a place called Southminster in the countie of Essex, a strange thing hapned: there sodainlie appeared an infinite multitude of mice, which overwhelmed the whole earth in the said marshes, did sheare and gnaw the grasse by the rootes, spoyling and tainting the same with their verimous teeth, in such sort, that the cattell which grazed thereon were smitten with a murerine, and died thereof, which vermine by policie of man could not be destroyed, till, at the last it came to passe that there flocked together all about the same marshes, such a number of owles as all the shire was not able to yield: whereby the marsh-holders were shortly delivered from the veration of the said mice.” 

Transcribed with acknowledgement to the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.

BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - March 2012

Welcome to this month’s round-up of local history and heritage in and around Blackmore, Essex.

Cardinall’s Musick launch Byrd Tour 2012

William Byrd (see picture), composer and one-time resident of Stondon Massey, is the focus of a nine-month tour by Cardinall’s Musick.  Under the direction of Andrew Carwood the internationally renowned Choir begin their series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London on Monday 5 March.  The tour will include two short concerts at St Peter and St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, on Sunday 2 September.  The Financial Times has carried an interesting article giving information on Byrd and heralding the tour: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/73e967be-597c-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nN4pStYi . For the latest tour information go to http://www.cardinallsmusick.com/news/byrd-tour-2012 and specifically follow the link to the William Byrd Festival blog, http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com/ .

Petre Chapel Refurbishment at Ingatestone

The Petre Chapel in Ingatestone Parish Church, the resting place of John Petre patron to the aforementioned William Byrd, has just been refurbished.  See http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Historic-chapel-time-400-years/story-15214431-detail/story.html

Antique Road Trip


Megarrys Antique Shop on The Green, Blackmore, was featured on the BBC day-time show 'Antique Road Trip' on 21 February.  It was recorded last August.  Since then there has been an influx of visitors to the village.


Dr Livingstone I presume

Ongar United Reformed Church hosted a talk on the explorer and missionary David Livingstone.  Before going to Africa the young man stayed in Ongar for about nine months.  He is famously recalled locally for being lost for words when about to give a sermon one evening at Stanford Rivers Congregational Church.   Ongar URC is one of the oldest non-conformist chapels in the country, having been formed in 1662.  It celebrates its 350^th anniversary in May.

Miscellaneous

Buttsbury churchyard accident: Drivers misjudge sharp bend at Buttsbury Church causing road accident – locals refer the two right-angle turns as ‘dead cyclists’ bend’, warning of extreme care required on this country lane.  http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/smash-danger-road/story-15130659-detail/story.html

Doddinghurst history: http://www.tonicbooks.com/post/2012/02/15/Doddinghurst-History.aspx

Fry family of Blackmore: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=qnco05i3o09jr8lrjaf2mk1jc2&topic=580830.0

Greensted Church theft: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Thief-takes-painting-church-service/story-15130653-detail/story.html

Links

For an extensive list of links to other sites go to: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/externallinks.html  

Area: Dangerous times in Elizabethan England

Following up the theme of recusancy in the 'Sacred Music' programme 'Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors'.

Following the death of Henry VIII, then his son Edward VI, England reverted to Catholicism under Mary, but returned to Protestantism after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. This religious upheaval meant that Tallis, then Byrd, had to adapt to changes or face dire consequences. Quite how Byrd managed to keep out of trouble remains a mystery, Outwardly though he supported his Queen: privately he was a Catholic writing music for an underground movement.

Under Elizabeth, Priests had to swear an “oath of supremacy” acknowledging the Queen as “Supreme Governor” of both church and state. Attendance at church was compulsory. Those who refused to attend – called recusants – were taken to the Ecclesiastical Court.

The Queen made a number of orders including the removal of rood screens, defacing stained glass and breaking up of idolatrous images. Today this would be called vandalism, but then it was considered progress. It seems that Blackmore willingly complied with the dictates. Unlike a number of other churches, the 1565 visitation merely records “Oui bon” [ERO D/AE/V1]. (“Omma bene”, clearly written against other entries, Latin for “everything correct”).

Roman Catholic religious services were illegal in England and Wales between 1559 and 1778. The fear of revolution and invasion from Catholic Spain caused the law to be strengthened, in 1581 and 1585, whereupon the saying of Mass, even in a private home, was illegal; priests so doing faced the death penalty.

Locally, John Payne, priest to the Petre family at Ingatestone Hall was found guilty and hung, drawn and quartered at Chelmsford in 1582. “The manuscripts of the Custos Rotulorum preserved at Chelmsford yield up the information that in April, 1582, one John Gaye, of Blackmore, was examined as to his knowledge of ‘Payne the traytour’, recently executed and of his accomplices. He confessed to having said at Writtle that Payne was reported to have ‘belonged to one Master [William] Shelley [of Stondon Massey]’” [Reeve. p184].

If William Byrd had thought that Stondon Massey in 1593 was a quiet Essex backwater to pursue his religion, he surely must have considered this against the backdrop of Shelley’s indictment for treason and Payne’s martyrdom for being a Catholic priest to his patron, the Petre family, at Ingatestone Hall.

Bibliography
Reeve. History of Stondon. Supplementary Notes (1914)

Area: 'Tallis, Byrd and The Tudors'

Programme three in the series 'Sacred Music' has just had its first broadcast on BBC FOUR. Entitled 'Tallis, Byrd and The Tudors', we learned about these two Elizabethan Catholic composers who lived and worked in Essex.

Tallis worked for the Anglican Church following the dissolution of Waltham Abbey where he was organist between 1538 and 1540. He composed such pieces as 'If Ye Love Me', simply because as a musician this was the art professionally required of him at the time. The Church was the only place for his creativity.

Byrd, the younger of the two men, was quite a different character. He was a closet Catholic writing subversive liturgy for families such as the Petres at Ingatestone Hall. The present Lord Petre was interviewed at his home and viewers were shown paintings of William Petre, the first Baron and canny Tudor Secretary to the monarchs, then John, William's son and patron of Byrd. The Petre family were keen musicians and invited Byrd to Ingatestone Hall at Christmas 1585 for merrymaking and the odd secret Catholic mass. Byrd's settings of the Mass for Three, Four and Five Voices (part of the Mass for Four Voices sung by The Sixteen at Ingatestone Hall) are deliberately written for an intimate, domestic area. This is dangerous music.

The choice of Byrd's home at Stondon Massey, after the London Plague of 1592, seems to have been a deliberate hideaway from prying villagers and a walk across country to what was a hotbed of recusancy in the nearby village of Kelvedon Hatch.

Byrd is portrayed as a 'protest singer' in the composition of 'Why do I with paper, ink and pen' - a reaction to Edmund Campion's execution / martyrdom at Tyburn - and in the writing of 'How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land' (in Latin) to that Psalm 'By the Rivers of Babylon' (no don't mention Boney M please!).

These were indeed turbulent times! Repeated fines for recusancy and maybe anonymous burial at night fall in the churchyard at Stondon Massey.

A really great film. Will watch the repeat!