Parsonage Downs is an area in the north of the town of Great Dunmow. Â As these pictures shows, it is one of the prettiest areas of Great Dunmow.
In medieval times, the area was dominated by the manor of Newton Hall (owned then by Mr Kynwelmarshe).  In more recent times, in the first part of the twentieth century, Newton Hall was owned by Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy.  Lord Byng unveiled Great Dunmow’s War Memorial in July 1921.  Today, many younger Great Dunmowians will know this  area very well as the site of their school – the Helena Romanes Secondary School.
Edwardian Parsonage Downs, Great Dunmow. Â All postcards below are in the personal collection of The Narrator. Â Newton Hall postcard was posted in 1905. Â The second postcard below is a similar view to the second photo above.
My post today is about trusting your own judgement when you researching â whether your research is for a local history topic or is a genealogical project. Just because you have read something by someone else â even if it is in a published book by an academic â if you donât agree with othersâ interpretations and theories, then have the courage to follow your own line of thorough and comprehensive research.  Because, unfortunately, sometimes the suppositions of one historian (or genealogist) can, overtime, become the established âtruthâ.
Secondary literature interest in Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts When I was researching my dissertation, I spent a great deal of time tracking down, reading and researching all the secondary sources that had cited Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts. Because the accounts are such a rich and fruitful source, there are countless academic books and journal articles whose authors have used them. The secondary source interest had started in the 1870s when the then vicar of Great Dunmow, W. T. Scott, wrote a small book on the history of the church of St Mary the Virgin. At that time, the accounts were still in the parish chest in the church at Great Dunmow. I have in my mindsâ eye a vivid picture of our Victorian vicar, Scott, night-by-night sitting in front of the blazing vicarage fire, reading and scrutinizing each folio by candle-light and puzzling over the writings of his predecessors from 350 years earlier. During my research, I found his book, Antiquities of an Essex Parish: Or pages from the history of Great Dunmow(1), to be one of the most accurate in terms of using the churchwardensâ accounts in building a reasonably correct history of both Great Dunmowâs church and the parish. However, unfortunately there are some incorrect suppositions in his book that, over time, have been picked up and reused by other researchers.
My own, much-loved and much-read, copy of
W T Scott’s 1873 history of Great Dunmow
Whilst Scottâs book was a local history book, other commentators and historians have also used the churchwardensâ accounts for their own research too. In particular, because of the accountsâ extensive entries for Corpus Christi plays, historians of medieval drama have much cited and quoted the accounts for hypothesises on early English drama and pre-Shakespearean plays.
During my own research phase, I daily read folios from the churchwardensâ accounts alongside reading the secondary literature. To my surprise, I found that I very rarely agreed with any modern-day interpretations of the accounts. I read section after section of the accounts directly from the originals written 500 hundred years ago. Then I read the secondary literature. The originals simply did not tie up with secondary sources. I was puzzled and baffled by this. It took me some time to realise that I should trust my own reading of the primary sources. Just because the secondary sources were in published books and academic journals, it didnât necessary mean that these historians interpretations were correct â particularly as only a few of the historians had gone back to the original primary source. Unfortunately, the suppositions of Scott had, over time, become the hard-facts of others.
The church steepleâs scaffolding For instance, in Clifford Davidsonâs 2007 book Festivals and plays in late medieval Britain, Davidson cites the entries in the churchwardensâ accounts regarding Great Dunmowâs Corpus Christi Plays and quotes the earlier research of both W. A. Mepham, (a 1930s/1940s historian of Essex drama) and the 1972 research of John C Coldeway. Davidson comments:
âAlready in 1526-1527 there is a mention of a scaffold that may have been used for playing [ie Corpus Christi plays](2), perhaps in a single location in the village since, as W.A. Mepham notes, Great Dunmow âwas not sufficiently extensive to warrant the use of moveable pageants.(3)ââ(4)
Leaving aside that the date is slightly incorrect â the entries for the scaffolding was in 1525-6 (folio 4r and folio 5v) â by only examining the drama elements within the churchwardensâ accounts, the entries for scaffolding have been taken out of context.  As we have seen on folio 4r, there was an entry for money received in by the church for scaffolding, not paid out by the church â which it would have been if it was scaffolding used for the churchâs regular Corpus Christi plays.  On folio 5v (still in the same year) we have also seen that there were several items for the making of scaffolding and the building of a windlass.  Putting the entries for scaffolding back into context, we know that a great deal of scaffolding was used to help the construction of the new church steeple. The same steeple which had been paid for by the entire parish in the 1525-6 parish collection (fos. 2r–4r Thus, any entries in the churchwardensâ accounts for scaffolding cannot be used to support a hypothesis that the Corpus Christi plays were played in one fixed place in the town.
This doesnât mean to say that there wasnât a fixed âplaying areaâ (or stage) of sorts assembled in the town. Indeed, my own hypothesis (to be explored in later posts), is that there was most certainly one central area in the town where the plays were performed â and this could quite possibly have been on a fixed scaffold/stage. Moreover, my hypothesis is that villagers from the surrounding villages from miles around came into Great Dunmow to watch the Corpus Christi plays in this one central area (which directly conflicts with both Scottâs and Mephamâs interpretations).  However, putting the entries for the scaffolding properly back into their original context means that any entries for scaffolding in the 1520s churchwardensâ accounts must not be used to support a hypothesis of a fixed playing area or stage for Corpus Christi plays within Great Dunmow. The scaffolding documented in the churchwardensâ accounts was, quite simply, just for the construction of the new church steeple.
Corpus Christi Moveable Pageants In the extract above, 1930s historian Mepham (whose work, as can be seen above, is still quoted today) said that Great Dunmow was not big enough to have a moveable pageant. I donât know where Mepham lived in the 1930s but he almost certainly could not have paid a visit to Great Dunmow! If he had, he would have known that Great Dunow was (and always has been) large enough to have had moving pageants passing through the town. As we have seen from the 1525-6 parish collection for the church steeple, several areas of the parish are identified. Then, as it is now, the parish church in Church End was nearly one mile distant from the townâs High Street. Ample room for a moving pageant, if there was one, to pass through from the starting point of the townâs small pre-Reformation chapel (located in the High Street), moving through the ancient Causeway (the road is still there today) and down through Church End via Lime Tree Hill (again, this road is still there) and onto the church. When my son was a baby, I walked this precise route (from the town to the church) many many times trying to get him to go to sleep.  I can assure you there was/is certainly room enough for any size of  moving pageant whether a walking pageant or one on horseback and horse-drawn wagon!
Indeed, in modern times, every year the same route is used by the September Dunmow Carnival with movable (and very large) lorries and floats. Moreover, every four years there is a very large moving walking procession around the entire town area of Great Dunmow when the ancient custom of the Dunmow Flitch is performed. Again, all the roads used by the modern-day September Carnival and Dunmow Flitch procession existed during the Tudor period â as demonstrated by the entries in Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts for the 1520s parish collections.
Conclusion So the moral to my post is that sometimes peoplesâ suppositions and theories unfortunately end up becoming the historical truth.  Trust your own instincts when you are conducting your own research. Always research othersâ theories, but if they donât âadd-upâ, then, provided you have performed your own high-quality, thorough and diligent research, believe in your own work.
The other morals to this story is,
If possible, always always always go back to any original primary sources; and
If your research is connected to local history (or the genealogy of a family based in a certain location), always physically walk the area you researching â particular if the geography of the area has been used in any secondary literature or someone elseâs research. If you canât physically walk it, then use Google maps and/or a contemporary map to help research your area . Or, better still, make contact with someone that does live in the area and ask them to walk the high-ways and by-ways for you!
Bibliography and Further reading 1) Scott. W.T., Antiquities of an Essex Parish: Or pages from the history of Great Dunmow (London, 1873).
2) Coldewey, J. C., âEarly English Drama: A History of its rise and fall, and a Theory regarding the Digby Playsâ Unpublished PhD dissertation (University of Colorado, 1972).
3) Mepham, W.A., âVillages Plays at Dunmow, Essex, in the sixteenth centuryâ, Notes and Queries, 166 (May 1934), 345-348 and 362-366.
4) Davidson, C., Festivals and plays in late medieval Britain (Aldershot, 2007), p.55.
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Line 5: Michaelmas Day is 29th September. Originally a medieval Catholic Saintâs day for St Michael, the Archangel, over time Michaelmas become one of the English legal systemâs quarter days for paying landlords their rent.
Line 16: Wax for the rood light. The 14 pounds of wax detailed here is probably for the entire year. This is quite a substantial weight so the rood-light (i.e. the candle in front of the rood) must have been quite large. The rood was the cross at the entry to the chancel and often had images of the Virgin Mary on one side and St John on the other side. No evidence survives as to what Great Dunmowâs pre-Reformation rood looked like. As the church was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, it is likely that the pre-Reformation rood also contained the images of St Mary and St John. Sadly, very few English medieval roods survived the Reformation.
Line 21: corpraxis a cloth on which the host and the chalice was placed on during Mass.
Line 26: ob [in the money column] Latin abbreviation – short for obolus. One-half old penny.
Easter week in late medieval Great Dunmow Line 22: The sepulchre represented the tomb of Christ and was used (or created) in many medieval/pre-Reformation English Catholic churches during Easter week. From Good Friday until Easter Sunday, the churchâs consecrated religious items were hidden in their sepulchre and a man was set to watch over the sepulchre night and day until Easter morning. During the reign of Henry VIII, in Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts, there are numerous references to pins, nails, lights and canopies for the sepulchre, along with payments to the sepulchreâs watcher. Watching over the sepulchre was a serious duty for the men of the parish as there are also references for charcoal for the fires burnt by these watchers.
Notes about Great Dunmowâs churchwarden accounts
Great Dunmow’s original churchwardens’ accounts (1526-1621) are kept in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1. All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced. Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIIIâs subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom. Â If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
Transcription of Tudor Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts (1525-6)
1. Item payde to John Smethe ffor ye scaffalde tymber [Item paid to John Smith for the scaffold timber]
iis vd
2. Ite[m] for iiij day warke of Thomas Ventu[n] & won[e] off lad [Item for 4 days work off Thomas Ventun & one off lad]
ijs iiid
3. Ite to John harvuy & Wylyem barcar for a br\a/yde [Item to John Harvey & William Barker for a braid (rope)]
iijd
4. to helpe to make ye wynlas [to help make the windlass]
5. Item to John Marryou for won day werke [Item to John Mayor for one dayâs work]
vid
6. to help make shorye ffor yt vyce [to make shore(??) for its vice)
7. Ite[m] payde ffor a toob & ij bells to fett watte[r] [Item paid for a tube & 2 bells to fetch water]
viid
8. Item payde for xij c [quart] of bykke [Item paid for 12 quarts of bricks]
iiijs viiid
9. Item payde to john smethe ffo carryyng of xiiij fote sto[n] from dytt[o]n [Item paid to 10. John Smith for carrying 14 foot of stone from Duton (Duton Hill â a nearby village)]
iiijs viijd
11. Item payd to More off chemysfford when he have ye bell [Item paid to More from Chelmsford when he have the bell]
viijs iiijd
12. Item payd to Wylla[m] & Arnolde ffor makyng inquer ffor ye ston att dytto[n] [Item paid to Wiliam & Arnold for making enquires for the stone at Duton (Hill)]
iiijd
13. Item payde to john skytto[n] ffor caryyng off sande & scaffald tymber [Item paid to John Skylton for carrying the sand and scaffold timber]
iijs iiid
14. Item payde to ye maso[n] ffor makying off ye steple
vii li vijs vjd [ie ÂŁ7 7s 6d]
15. Item payde to M kynwelmerche for xij okys & for hardell rodds [Item paid to Mister Kynwelmarshe for 12 oaks & for hardell(??) rods]
xviijs
16. Laydeowte for ye belframe & ffor ye bell [HEADING – Laid out for the bell-frame & for the bell]
17. In primis ffor fellynge of xvj okys pryce [First, for felling of 16 oaks (trees) price]
ijs iiijd
18. Ite[m] ffor fellyng of viij okys in ye downe croft prce [Item for felling of 8 oaks in the Down Croft price]
xd
19. Item to Thomas Weytt ffor takyng down of ye olde belframe [Item to Thomas White for taking down of the old bell-frame]
vs
20. Item payde to harry longe ffor caryynge p[ar]te of ye tymber [Item paid to Harry Long for carrying part of the timber]
xxd
21. Item ffor ye borde ye same day [Item for the board (ie maybe accommodation?) the same day]
iid
22. Item ffor ij t[o]n of ston[e] yt lyis styll att Dyttin [Item for 2 tonnes of stone, it (or âwhichâ) lies still at Duton (Hill) (ie it was still at Duton Hill at the time of this entry)]
xvs
23. Ite[m] ffor xiiij fote of ston yt John Smethe browte [Item for 14 feet of stone which John Smith brought]
 vs
24. Ite payd to john skylto[n] for a dayes caryynge & a halfe [Item paid to John Skylton for a day and a half of carrying]
iijs
25. to carry tymber for the clotchall to say ye pesyd bell in [to carry timber for the ?? to say the ?? bell in]
26. Item payde to Robard kelynge & john marryou ffor [Item paid to Robert Kelynge & John Mayor for]
viijs
27. viij dayes wark abowte ye ffayde clochall ye su[m] [8 days work about the said clochall(??) the sum]
28. Item to Thom[a]s Savege ffor ix dayes wark [Item to Thomas Savage for 9 days work]
iijd
29. to helpe to cary ye tymber ffor ye bell fframe [to help to carry the timber for the bell frame]
30. & ffor ye clahall & to se ye warkemen have fyche thyngs as was nedfull [& for the clochall?? & to ?? the workman have fetched things as was needful]
31. Item ffor Sawynge to Wellem george [Item for sewing to William George]
viijd
32. Item ffor makynge clene of ye stepell [Item for making clean of the steeple]
vjd
33. Thys Sum xviij li xvii s [This sum ÂŁ18 8s]
34. S[um]ma  All?? xviij li xvs ixd [Summa of £18 15s 9d]
Commentary Line 4 â Windlass â a device used for moving heavy weights. This link shows a reconstruction of a Medieval Builders’ Windlass.
Line 6 â Vyce (or vice). According to A Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages(1), this was a winding or spiral staircase. Was it a spiral staircase up the outside of the church, which, along with the windlass, was used in the construction of the building the spire?
Line 14, 33 & 34 â the text âliâ is the abbreviation for the Latin word libra i.e. âpoundâ ÂŁ.
Line 25, 27 & 30 â can anyone help me with this? Iâm totally stuck on the word âclotchallâ or âclochallâ?
Line 34 â summa Latin word which today is abbreviated to âsumâ i.e. total.
Great Dunmowâs church steeple Once again, we return to the fact that Great Dunmow doesnât appear to have a church steeple in the modern era but the churchwardensâ accounts consistently refers to one. As can be seen on this folio, there was a lot of building work to make this steeple, which was constructed with a large amount of stone, timber and manual labour. Great Dunmowâs church does not have a steeple in the conventional sense of a steeple (i.e. there isnât a spire).  Could our Tudor scribe actually be describing the construction of the tower that is still there today? The Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages describes a steeple as being âa lofty erection attached to a church and intended chiefly to contain its bellsâ. As can be seen on this folio, there are many entries regarding the bell frame, so this definition would fit Great Dunmowâs church. The dictionary continues:
âSteeple is a general term and applies to every appendage of this nature, whether its form classes it as a tower, or as a spire; or if it exhibits the ordinary arrangement of a tower surmounted by a spireâ.(2)
The Victorian vicar of Great Dunmow, W T Scott, writing in the 1870s certainly puzzled over the steeple-less/spire-less tower at the church and supposed that a wooden spire had been constructed which had subsequently been destroyed. This implies that in his living memory (and the living memory of people purchasing his book), there wasnât a steeple or spire. If the 1525-6 parish collection for the church steeple resulted in the construction of a wooden spire, if that original wooden spire was destroyed by, for example, fire, then surely that spire would have been rebuilt. Thus, there would be a record somewhere of the rebuilding of that Tudor spire and Victorian Scott most certainly would have known about it. But there isnât. Nearby Thaxtedâs and Saffron Waldenâs churches both had their spires rebuilt after damage. Evidence of the rebuilding of both of these church spires  survive. However, nothing has been documented about a spire in Great Dunmow. I am beginning to think that there was never a spire and that the building work paid for by the 1525-6 parish collection resulted in the âtowerâ that can now be seen in the church.
(above) St John the Baptist church, Thaxted.(3): The tower was built in the late fifteenth century.(4) This 1776 engraving shows Thaxtedâs original spire. The spire was rebuilt after it was hit by lightning in 1814, and remodelled on the original.(5)
Footnotes 1) John Britton, George Godwin, and John Le Keux, A Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages (2010),p239.
2) Ibid, p221.
3) Robert Goadby, Cooper Engraving of Thaxted Church (1776).
4) James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner, Essex, The Buildings Of England (2007), p764.
5) Nikolaus Pevsner, Essex, (2nd edn.,1965), 380.
Notes about Great Dunmowâs churchwarden accounts
Great Dunmow’s original churchwardens’ accounts (1526-1621) are kept in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1. All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced. Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIIIâs subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
Anyone reading my blog will understand that I have a great love, appreciation, and passion for Tudor England. I can date the start of this passion back exactly to a time in the 1970s when the BBC did a lavish custom drama production of Mark Twainâs âThe Prince & the Pauperâ. I was never quite sure if it caught my imagination so much because Nicholas Lydhurst (later to go onto fame as the much loved Rodney Trotter) was in the starring role, or if it was because of the story of a prince and a pauper swapping places had me hooked.
To Mark Twain (and Nicholas Lyndhurst!), I offer my thanks for starting me on my life-long passion for Tudor England with its plots, intrigues and scheming that no other period in English history has had since.
Iâve just discovered that the BBC production has been uploaded to YouTube. Iâm going to spend the rest of my Thankful Thursday watching it! In YouTube, search for âPrince and the Pauperâ and âNicholas Lyndhurstâ to find it.
(My other great love of a particular period in history is for the Great War and the trenches of Flanders-field â but my tales of the Great War will have to wait for another day and another blog.)
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom. Â If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
Watching Helen Castorâs recent excellent BBC programme on the She-Wolves of England prompted me to write this post on âreading between the linesâ of primary source analysis. In my post, I will be considering âreading-between-the-linesâ in both the literal and also the metaphorical sense.
My last post on Palaeography and Old handwriting gave some tips on how to tackle the transcription of primary sources. Todayâs post is about the benefits of transcribing your source word-for-word, which, coupled with some of the principles of unwitting testimony, can give you (perhaps) unexpected and surprising results.
For this, we will be looking at two âfeaturesâ of palaeography and primary sources
– Understanding why text has been inserted in your source
– Understanding why text has been deleted or strikethrough
Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey Consider king Edward VIâs Devise for the Succession(1). This is the document that the boy-king, Edward VI, wrote on his sick-bed shortly before he died on 6 July 1553. The Devise is a crucial document in the history of England because in it, Edward attempted to overturn his fatherâs will (Henry VIII) by making his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, his heir. Thus, Edward was attempting to bypass the royal rights of his two half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and by doing so, was ignoring no less than an act of parliament. In this document, (which we know was written by the dying king himself) if we include the struck-through text (ie the original text before it was deleted) but we ignore the inserted text, Edward wrote
âTo the L[ady] Frau[n]ceses heires masles, for lakke [lack] of such issu[e] to the L[ady] Janes heires masles. To the L[ady] Katerins [Katherine] heires masles. To the L[ady] Maries heires maslesâ.
In other words, the crown of England should first go to any male children of Lady Frances. If Lady Frances did not have any male children, then the crown would pass to any male children of Lady Jane [Grey]. If Jane did not have any male children, then onto Lady Katherineâs male children. Finally, if Katherine didnât have any male children, then onto Lady Maryâs male children. Lady Frances Grey (Duchess of Suffolk),  was the mother of Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, Katherine and Mary. Henry VIIIâs sister, Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France, was Francesâ mother.
However, Edward was dying and time was running out for him and a fledgling Protestant England. Neither Frances nor her children had any male children so Edward wanted to ensure that the crown would go straight to Protestant Jane â so he altered his âDeviseâ.  If we now ignore the original (but subsequently deleted) text and include the new inserted text, we have:
âTo the L[ady] Fra[n]ceses heires masles, if she have any such issu[e] before my death to the L[ady] Jane and her heirs maslesâ.
Edward was specifying that if Frances produced any male children before he died, then the crown would go to them, but without male heirs from Lady Frances, the crown would go directly to the Lady Jane Grey and then to her male children.
If, as historians, we had not transcribed the document properly and not correctly highlighted all the deletions and insertions as such, then our interpretation regarding the position of women in the early-modern period (and Helen Castorâs entire hypothesis on the She-wolves Queens of England!) would be blown out of the water. Edward VI had left his throne and the crown of England to a mere woman!
However, if we transcribe this manuscript correctly, showing all the deletions and insertions, then we get a truer picture as to what had really happened. Thus Edwardâs Devise for the Succession should be transcribed as follows (the \ / indicates inserted text):-
â….To the L[ady] Frau[n](ces ) \thissu [the issue] femal, as I have after declared/ ceses [ie Frances] heires masles , for lakke of \if she have any/ such issu[e] \befor[e] my death/ to the Lady Janes \and her/ heires masles…â
The dying king had no other option but without male heirs, on his death-bed, he had left England to Lady Jane Grey. Transcribing this document properly (by acknowledging the deleted and inserted text) shows just how remarkable  the events that had unfolded during the final days of the boy-king’s life had been.  And, the benefit of hindsight in history is a wonderful thing, by altering his Devise for the Succession, Edward VI had unknowingly passed the death sentence on poor tragic Lady Jane Grey.
Another example of Edward VI’s handwriting can be seen in this, his diary. Here Edward VI describes how he and Elizabeth learnt of their father’s death from his uncle Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, at Elizabethâs Enfield residence on 30 January 1547.
Click this link, The Streatham Portrait of Lady Jane Grey, for a recently discovered portrait of Lady Jane Dudley (nee Grey) now in the possession of the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Copyright reasons restrict me from publishing it on my blog. It is a fascinating portrait, do look at it).
The tale of two early Tudor wills The example of Edward VIâs Devise for the Succession  is an extreme example of ensuring that primary sources are correctly transcribed. In our own family history or local history research, it is unlikely that you would have to transcribe such as crucial document to history as this! However, when transcribing our own primary sources, we have to use judgement and other evidence to assess why text has been deleted or inserted and thus we have to âread-between-the-linesâ.
During the research for my Cambridge Universityâs mastersâ degree in local history, I studied a large number of Tudor wills written by the townsfolk of Great Dunmow. Two of these wills, when compared together, showed that the same text (a religious bequest) was included in both wills but had been struck out and therefore deleted from one.
The historian, Margaret Spufford, was one of the first historians to discuss the possibility that early-modern wills had been written by a scribe and that a dying testator could be influenced by such scribes.(2) Two wills from Great Dunmow written in the 1520s have evidence that there was a Henrician scribe active in the parish, and he had used a book containing standard formulaic clauses to create the wills of his clients. This type of âprecedent bookâ was not unusual during the Tudor period. The will of widow Clemens Bowyer, dated February 1526, almost exactly mimics the earlier will of John Wakrell (October 1525) and is in the same handwriting.(3) Both wills have the same soul bequests (Catholic, as would be expected from this period); along with bequests to the high altar, to Saint Johnâs gild, to the church torches, and to the âmoder [mother] holy chyrch of polye [St Paulâs] in Londonâ. Both wills also have a bequest for an âhonest prest to synge a tryntall [trental] for my sol & all crysten solls yn ye p[ar]rsche churcheâ. However, in Bowyerâs will , the bequest for her trental was entirely crossed through.
Did our scribe copy the wording from his precedent book, and widow Bowyer (or someone else present at her death-bed) make him cross it out after it had been written into the will? Trentals were a series of 30 Masses performed within one year of the personâs death, with three Masses on each of the ten major feast-days of Christ and the virgin Mary. The priest also had to perform other liturgical duties throughout the year.(4) This was a substantial undertaking, as demonstrated by Wakrellâs bequest of 10s to pay for his trental. Maybe widow Bowyer did not have sufficient funds, and so either she or one of her children made the scribe delete the bequest before her death.
So, the various crossings-out in widow Bowyerâs will can be used as evidence that
the scribe in the parish was using a precedent book; and/or
the widow Bowyers (or the people present at her death) did not want the trental said after her death. This could be for either religious or monetary reasons. Because this will was written in the 1520s (when England was still very much a Catholic country), it is unlikely that the crossing-out was for religious reasons (and the other bequests in her will show a very Catholic will). Therefore a more likely reason for the striking through of the text was for monetary reasons.
Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts have a great deal of crossings-out and inserted text – as could be expected in an account-book that was written up maybe once a year when the accounts were tallied up. This post on the Tudor dialect of Great Dunmow has details about a crossing out of the word âmyâ on one of the folios (folio 5r, line 20). Was the scribe (who wrote up Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts) copying word-for-word various peopleâs loose receipts into his account book? Were those loose receipts in front of him as he copied them into his book?
Conclusion When you are analysing your primary sources, donât forget to work out why text has been deleted or inserted into your document. It could be for a very simple reason, but, as in the case of Edward VIâs Devise for the Succession, sometimes the reasons for altered text could be much more complex. As historians transcribing primary sources, we must ALWAYS include any text that has been struck-through or inserted. Our transcriptions MUST show which text has been inserted or deleted.
Donât forget to read-between-the-lines of your primary source!
Footnotes 1) Edward VI My devise for the succession (July 1553), held  at The Inner Template Libraryâs Manuscript Collection, London.
2) Margaret Spufford, âThe Scribes of Villagersâ Wills in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and their influenceâ, in Local Population Studies (1972), 28-43 at 29.
3) Will of Clemens Boywer [Bowyer] of Great Dunmow (26 February 1526), Essex Record Office, D/ABW 3/8; Will of John Wakrell of Great Dunmow (19 October 1525), Essex Record Office, D/ABW 39/7. Both wills available online via subscription to Essex Record Officeâs Essex Ancestors.
4) Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England,1400-1580 (2nd Edition, 2005) p370-371.
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London 1) Map of early modern London (1560-1640) Fully zoomable (using an experimental google-style layered map) and searchable: Map of Early Modern London.
2) Tallisâs London Street views (1838-1840) The nineteenth centuryâs equivalent of a modern-day street directory. This website doesnât contain zoomable images but because Tallisâs maps are incredible resources for genealogists and local historians, Iâve included it: Tallis’s Street Views of London (and this link shows some of Tallisâs drawings for Bishopsgate). The Street View of Bishopsgate (below) is in my own personal collection. To my great delight, it contains the drawing of my ancestorsâ factory (Robert and William Parnall) at 100 Bishopsgate.
Tallisâs Street View of Bishopsgate Without.Â
3) Richard Horwoodâs Map of London (1792-1799)  Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster,the Borough of Southwark, and Parts Adjoining (includes âevery Houseâ):  Horwood’s Map of LondonUpdate June 2012: sadly this is now a broken link as the website no longer exists. If anyone finds another online map of Horwoodâs London, please can you email me.
4) Locating Londonâs Past (using John Rocquesâ 1746 map) The map uses a GIS interface to enable researchers to plot and chart data relating to London in the 17th and 18th century: Locating London’s Past.
5) William Newtonâs London and Westminster in the time of Henry VIII (pre 1530) This map was made in 1855 and was compiled from documents and sources by Newton. The map is pre-Reformation and the 1530âs dissolution of the monasteries: London and Westminster in Henry VIIIâs time. Update June 2012: sadly this is now a broken link as the website no longer exists. If anyone finds another online map of William Newton’s London, please can you email me.
Great Britain 6) The Gough Map of Great Britain (medieval c1360) Fully zoomable and searchable map of medieval England, Scotland and Wales. Searchable by using either the modern-day names or the medieval names of towns: Gough’s Map
Great Dunmow (Donemowe)
according to Goughâs Map of Great Britain.
7) John Speedâs Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain & counties (1611-12) John Speedâs Map of Great Britain and Ireland. The site is Cambridge Universityâs online zoomable website containing all John Speed proof maps including one of Great Britain and Ireland , and also images every 1600s county of England, Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, and Ireland: John Speed’s proof maps.
There are plenty more websites out there which use modern-day technology on old maps. If you know of any others, please let me know.
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Transcription of Tudor Great Dunmowâs churchwardensâ accounts (1525-6)
1
Item to Rychard scoryar for pavynge in ye cherche[Item to Richard Scoryar for paving in the church]
xd
2
&ffor mendyng of a hole on ye fuvll(??)[& for mending a hole on the ??]
3
Item payde ffor ye reste of ye gyldyng of owr ladye[Item paid for the rest of the gilding of Our Lady’s]
xijs iijd
4
tabarnakyll & all ye yrynwark yt longye ye to[tabernacle & all the ironwork it belongs to]
5
Item for curtan ryngs for ye same tabernakyll[Item for curtain rings for the same tabernacle]
iijd
6
Item \payde/ ffor parte off ye dore yt is sett on ye owte syde off ye new warke[Item paid for part of the door which is on the outside of the new work]
xijd
7
Layd owte ffor ye stepyll [heading][Laid out for the steeple]
8
In primis â ffor ij tun off ston wt ye carryynge[Firstly, for 2 tons of stone with the carrying (ie carriage)]
xxvis viijd
9
& Amd(??) all other costs & charge ye sum[& along?? all other costs & charges the sum]
10
Item payde to John Atkynson ffor viij dayes warke & halfe[Item paid to John Atkinson for 8 and a half days work]
ijs xd
11
to fett ye scaffalde tymber & to gay(??) roddye[to fetch the scaffold timber & to ????]
12
ffor to make ye hardylls wt dyvers oyr besynes[for to make the hardalls (handles?) with divers (ie sundry other) our business]
13
Item ffor ij dayes warke off henry longe & hys cart[Item for 2 dayes work from Henry Long & his cart]
iijs iiijd
14
to fett home tymber for ye scaffawde & ye bryke from ayston[to fetch home timber for the scaffold & the brick from Easton (ie either Great or Little Easton ânearby Essex villages)]
15
Item ffor ye borde thee(??) ij dayes[Item for the bord(er?) 2 days]
viijd
16
Item to Thomas Savage ffor xv dayes wark to[Item to Thomas Savage for 15 days work to]
vs
17
purvey pyce(??) stufe As ye workmen showelde need[?? ?? stuff as the workman should need]
18
Item& to sett them a werke & helpe to stage wt oyr[& to set them to work & help to stage with our]
19
Item ye same tyThomas for ij dayes jornay to camrege[Item the same Thomas for 2 dayes journay to Cambridge]
ijs
20
& to dyttun to seke for ye ston my hys costs for myhys horse & hyme\selfe/[& to Duton (Duton Hill, nearby Essex village) to seek for the stone his costs for his horse & himself]
21
Item ffor goynge to haddam to speke for ye lyme[Item for going to Haddam (a village in Hertfordshire â probably Much Haddam) to speek for the lime]
iijd
22
Item ffor goynge ij tymye to thaxsted for buttoll[Item for going 2 times to Thaxted (a nearby Essex town) for ??]
iiijd
23
to a made ye stagynge becawce he was expert in ye making[to make the staging because he was expert in the making (of this)]
24
Item ffor a load of lyme from haddam pryce[Item for a load of lime from Haddam (a village in Hertfordshire â probably Much Haddam), price
viijs
25
Item ffor a fewe of lyme fett att haddam wt ye cost[Item for a few(??) of lime fetched at Haddam with the cost]
xixd
26
Item ffor xij bosshall off shalnerd lyme[Item for 12 bushalls of ?? lime]
xviijd
27
Item ffor qrt naylle \and/ to john brewer of tayclay[Item for quart of nails and to John Brewer of Takeley (nearby Essex/Hertfordshire village)]
ijs ixd
28
Item payde to Thomas Averell fo nayle[Item paid to Thomas Averell for nails]
jd
29
Item ffor iij ston off scaffalde lyne <illegible> a half[Item for 3 stone(??) of scaffold line a half]
iiijd xd
30
Item for ij ropys to wynd up ye tymber & ston pryce[Item for 2 ropes to wind up the timber & stone, price]
iijs vd
31
Item to robarde kelynge ffo xxij dayes warke & half[Item to Robert Kelynge for 22 dayes work]
xis
32
for to make ye stagynge wt oyr besynes wt mete & drynk[for to make the staging with our business with meat & drink]
33
Item to Thomas dygby for iiij dayes warke &[Item to Thomas Digby for 3 days work &]
xixd
34
for to make hardell for ye stagynge[for to make the hardall(??) for the staging]
35
Item for mete & drynke \when we/ wente to choce ye okye[Item for meat & drink when we went to choose the oak
iiijd
36
Item ffor wex & for Rofyn for to mak syme(??) for ye stayer[Item for wax & for Ruffin(??) to make ?? for the stairs.
xiid
The Voice of Great Dunmow’s scribe This blog has many readers from the North Essex and Suffolk area. To them (and, of course, to my other readers too) I say⊠can’t you just hear the Suffolk accent shining through this folio! Say the names of the following villages and towns out loud and you will hear that scribe from five-hundred years ago! Remember, the scribe was writing phonetically, so pronounce each word out-loud phonetically and you will hear our long-dead, invisible, but always present, scribe.
Ayston (ie Great Easton or Little Easton)
Camrege (ie Cambridge â I love saying this one out loud… to start with, a nice hard ‘cAM’ and then growl out that ‘r’ to get the soft Suffolk burr to the ‘rege’! Wonderful!)
Dyttun (ie Duton Hill)
Tayclay (ie Takeley. This town is now pronounced ‘Take-Leigh’. So try out you best Tudor accent: try the ‘Tay’ and then sound out that ‘clay’!)
Thaxsted (ie Thaxted, everyone I know still pronounces this town’s name as Thaxsted, despite its modern day spelling! Thaxted is one of Essex’s jewels-in-the-crown of beautiful villages. The town has many medieval buildings still standing including the beautiful medieval church (pictured below) which is more like a cathedral in its dramatic size and dimensions and the town’s medieval guildhall. This town is well worth a visit to tourists visiting Great Britain. If anyone is visiting this area during June or July, then I strongly recommend the Thaxted Festival for an evening of beautiful music in a remarkable location.
Being able to ‘hear’ the sound of our Tudor scribe is the very reason why this blog is called Essex Voices Past and also why my pseudonym is ‘The Narrator’. I can only merely narrate the stories from Great Dunmow’s past, the Tudor scribe can speak perfectly well for himself.
Unwitting Testimony There are several items on this folio that we can use unwitting testimony to interpret the entry. For example:
Line 3: ‘paid for the rest of the gilding of Our Lady’s Tabernacle’. Although we are now five folios into the leather-bound churchwardens’ book, we are still on in the first year of the accounts recorded within it. Therefore, this entry implies a couple of things, firstly the initial gilding was done (or paid for) prior to the start of the account-book (so perhaps in the years 1524-5), and secondly that the tabernacle must have been large because the payment was in (at least) two parts and this instalment was for 12s 4d (a significant sum).
Line 6: ‘New work’. What new work? It’s not itemised in the accounts and so must have occurred prior to the start of the churchwardens’ accounts in 1525-6. The very way it’s described implies that this was an area of the church that everyone knew as the ‘new work’.
Line 20: the crossed out ‘my’. This is intriguing. Was Thomas Savage the unknown scribe? Unlikely, as he was the churchwarden. Also, the entries on this folio imply that he was the builder commissioned to build the steeple (and the person who contributed the largest amount towards the same steeple!) Maybe the scribe was copying entries into the leather-bound account-book from various people’s loose receipts and he was busy word-for-word copying Thomas Savage’s receipt and accidently wrote ‘my’.
Church Steeple Finally we are into the expenses for the building of the new church steeple. Anyone who has seen Great Dunmow’s beautiful church will know that there is certainly not a steeple in existence now (and the church hasn’t had one in living memory). However, here we have costs for the timber, the scaffolding, stones and limes. Perhaps the Victorian vicar of Great Dunmow, W. T. Scott, was correct in his assessment that this merely for repairs, new windows and a wooden spire.
Notes about Great Dunmowâs churchwarden accounts
Great Dunmow’s original churchwardens’ accounts (1526-1621) are kept in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1. All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced. Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIIIâs subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom. Â If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
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Edward VI’s diary
 Frontispiece with the arms of Edward VI, Shelfmark: Royal 16 E XXXII f.1v,
Tallisâs Street View of Bishopsgate Without. 
Great Dunmow (Donemowe)
The beautiful Thaxted church, home of the yearly 
