THE NAME’S de BADDOW,

Next door to where the deer park would have been, in today’s Little and Great Sir Hughs farms, there lived Henry and his son Hugh. If you asked Hugh his name, he’d say, “The Names De Baddow, Hugh De Baddow!” The houses you see above are not the ones they would have lived in but are on the land that would have housed theirs. And theirs might have looked a bit more like the Tudor variant below which was demolished, or fell apart, making way for the newer ones.

As far as the De Baddow’s were concerned that Deer Park must have been a damned nuisance, and appears to have blended in the minds of some local historians with the Baddow’s own Deer Park. Which, if true, is just asking for even more trouble. If we look closely at the Forests of Essex, we find disputes over who can do what in them and to them that lasted for centuries. Nothing was resolved until Queen Victoria opened up Epping Forest for the pleasure of the general public, shipped in for picnics by the new railways.

I understand that one of the present-day barns on the Sir Hugh’s estates goes back to the 14th century, as seen below. If you walk these lands you will, if you ignore the motorway racing through them, get a sense of the isolation of these settlements, though perhaps no sense of the forests and deer parks that used to fill most of the area.

Now, there are some that say that Great Baddow was named after the De Baddow family. However, the name attached to the region was around long before people started taking on surnames. And when they did, just to copy the Normans, they took on names based upon their trades or places of significance to them. Which does mean that the De Baddow family had been around for quite some time and considered themselves sons of the soil, thus possibly they had connections to the area long before the Norman conquest with De Baddow being a bit of fancy normanisation. Those of Norman origins like De Brus or De Bohun, tended to bring their names from France. Which might explain some of the chips on the De Baddow’s shoulders regarding those descended from the Norman interlopers.

The De Baddows then, over many years, had slowly accumulated considerable lands in the area, and are often considered to be The Lords of the Manor, though probably it was The Great and Little Sir Hughs area that they were Lords of with other Lords above them.  The area of today’s Great Baddow in the 13th century had the Bruce family as Lords of The Manor with them losing it in 1322 when they were on the Lancastrian side fighting Edward the Second at the Battle of Boroughbridge. Their lands in Essex were taken by the king and then handed to the Bohuns. The Great Baddow area was in effect split between several Manors, with the Church and the King owning most of it. One even finds the powerful and rather belligerent Fitzwalter family owning a manor that appears in some documents as the Manor of Baddow Hall! This is possibly the area we know as `The Vines’. The Fitzwalters were a branch of the De Clare family so they had a rather possessive attitude to practically all of Essex and at the time of Hugh De Baddow liked to shake down other landowners forcing them to pay tribute or hand over land they wanted.
 
Just to show how complicated the whole feudal landscape was, the choice of priests for St Mary’s was granted in 1172 to the Augustinian monastery of Repton Priory. The advowson, as it was called, was part of a marriage gift from Robert Earl of Gloucester to his daughter Maud. She married the Earl of Chester who had founded the Priory of Repton in Derbyshire.  Robert, Earl of Gloucester was the illegitimate son of Henry the First and supported Empress Matilda in The Anarchy of 1135-1153 and if you recall, captured King Stephen in the battle of Lincoln 1141. Whether there were any De Baddows around then is debatable but this event was the first specific mention of St Mary’s church though it probably existed before at the time of Roger God Save The Ladies. Somewhere in that time period the de Baddows and de Mascalls emerged.
 
The De Baddows, despite the name, as you can see were not all powerful and owed feudal allegiances to the Bruces, the De Clares, and the the de Mandevilles, and from 1322 onwards, the Bohuns. Who, it seems, they had an edgy relationship with. That Deer Park encroaching on their lands would have given them much cause for arguments. This land next to Hugh’s was wood pasture planted with oak, beech and maple and customary tenants were allowed to let their pigs forage there until it was turned into a deer park raising deer and rabbits. It is also possible that parts of this land were arable and thus part of the food source for the local economy. By turning it into a deer park its produce would be for the Bohuns in Pleshey and not for the people of Baddow. 
 
Consequently, the De Baddow’s had a good source of conflict with the Bohuns, and perhaps with Hugh’s later association with John Fitzwalter, who was not on good terms with anyone much! Though it is likely that Hugh was on good terms with his neighbours, the Mascalls, who they seem to have been mutually exchanging land over the years for convenient farming practice. Local families did tend to be in each other’s pockets, as well as each other’s beds and consequently circulated land among themselves as required by marriages and the needs of changing family compositions.
 
The Mascalls, or De Mascals, lent their name to Great and Little Mascall in Haningfield and are one of the oldest family in the area that we have land holding records for. They might even be older than the De Baddows! And they too have a name that suggests less a Norman origin and more a local origin, it being a derivative of the occupation of a Marshal. Given that a medieval marshal had responsibilities for horses for the king and his military, it rather fits in with the De Baddow’s similar feudal obligation of supplying horses for the king. If you go snooping around these lands nowadays you will find they still have lots of horses!

He claimed he was scammed by the builders, but even so, for his efforts he was “outlawed” by the courts in York. Which meant anyone could kill and or rob him without consequence.  Lady Elizabeth de Clare, granddaughter of King Edward the first stumped up the money to refinance the college and renamed it Clare Hall instead of Richard’s intended name of “Baddow Hall.”

By the way, 15% of English men were called William! No doubt after the Conqueror, who was so well loved that nobody could be bothered to bury him, until someone got sick of the smell and offered to get rid of the corpse for a fee. It apparently exploded as they tried to jump up and down on the lid of the coffin to fit it in. No De Baddows were named after William. They were just not into the conqueror thing.

William De Bohun, who was definitely into the conqueror thing, had just been with king Edward III trouncing the French at the Battle of Crecy, and so joining him for the siege of Calais was probably not seen as a great hardship. The war was all but won and there was much easy plunder to grab. Soldiers on the Crecy campaign were shipping back boat loads of French loot, so being promised the run of Calais must have excited Hugh. Men who slaughtered animals for food and pleasure without much consideration of their feelings, considered slaughtering humans for wealth and, especially if they were French, pleasure, only marginally more morally troublesome - though certainly more dangerous, but that just reduced the amount of explanation you might have to come up with in the confessional. “It was a fair fight guv, and well, my Lord who is appointed by God to his lofty position has ordered me to go do it and I am nothing if not loyal to my masters.”
 
Before he went, he became a Knight, thus, by taking the honour, he also agreed to pay for his own horses, armour, weapons etc. Or at least his father did! And even that honour was probably paid for at the price of a hundred quid slipped into the right pockets. It was seen as an investment. Unfortunately, Edward the third banned the looting of Calais, on account of the people of Calais, as he claimed, were his subjects and not his enemy. He had tried to convince his army that that was the case for all French and the army should be inaugurating a hearts and minds campaign rather than a pillage and rape one. The plan did not quite work but regarding Calais, he managed to enforce his rules of engagement.
 
On returning to Great Sir Hughs, Hugh and his entourage, a bunch of fellow ex-servicemen, some of whom had parents in very high places, decided to take what was owed them in kind. They raided his neighbouring owned by Humphrey de Bohun Deer Park, threw a big party, took the deer and the well-stocked warren, and thought there was more fun to be had.
 
These deer parks had long been a bone of contention for the locals and their often-absentee Lords had little regard for the practicalities that local peasants and farmers faced making a living from the land. Subsequently, Hugh and the boys raided all of the Bohun’s deer parks… that’s right, ALL of them! But that was just for the deer and beer. For the big prizes they raided the various big houses on aristocrat Essex estates, terrorising the servants. One of Sir Hugh’s associates, if that’s the right word, went even bigger, putting Colchester under siege.
 
John Fitzwalter, a Baron no less, was the guy who besieged Colchester. In fact, he had a habit of doing so in order to extort money from the townspeople who he considered to be plundering his own deer park and land holdings. The Fitzwalters had a long-standing feud with just about everyone, and anyone who was not for them, was treated as against them. John Fitzwalter had lands near to Hugh De Badewe and was his superior when they fought together in William De Bohuns regiment. Thus, Hugh was obliged to go along with Fitzwalter’s feud against nearly everyone. Fitzwalter did end up in The Tower and had all his lands confiscated for breaking the King’s Peace, but as he also did a lot of military service in France and elsewhere, his criminal ways in Essex, were pardoned. He was however forced to buy back all his lands which left him in debt for the rest of his life. He could of course have been hanged like one of his gang, so he probably counted himself lucky. The Fitzwalters seem to have actually gained the Manor Hall of Great Baddow either in the 12th Century, or during their revival after John Fitzwalter's disgrace. Either way they were the Lords of the Manor who sold it to the Pascals in the 16th century. No doubt someone will point me to some land records to confirm all this and some time, now I know they were definitely Great Baddowites, I will add more of their rather swash buckling story into this account.

But all good fun must come to an end. Sir Hugh found love in the shape of what must have been a teenage Margaret of Great Mascalls.  There had probably been a long-standing relationship between these families and I would not be surprised that Hugh and Margaret had been earmarked for each other since her birth. And as he was relatively small fry in comparison to Fitzwalter, he avoided legal retribution and instead thrived.

Hugh’s wife gave him a stake in Great and Little Mascals and he went from marauding thug to Lord of the Manor, a local Magistrate and an MP. He died in 1380 almost respectable just before the Peasants Revolt kicked off. 

In such a dangerous time, what was a poor little widow to do? Well… hunt for another husband of course and one that was at least handy with the sword. But she went one better. She found one handy with the sword, who was also a good lawyer! Her choice of partner was a very shrewd one. Thomas Coggeshall was very much the coming man. He was a new breed forged by a classical education. Such an education usually gave you two options, the church, which was no fun, or the law, which was highly lucrative. Which was a good job because his elder brother inherited the Coggeshall estate, the next level brother got another slice of the family lands, leaving him, the third son with little more than his wits. So his father pushing him into the law was some excellent parenting for in those days the feudal obligations had become so complicated that they restricted sales of land and its inheritance. Consequently, lawyers were making a fortune drawing up documents to by-pass such obligations. Satisfying the needs of all one’s sons and daughters was quite an art. For that matter, his father, John De Coggeshall was Sherriff of Essex among many other things, so there was quite a lot of land, cash, and contacts to pass around.

The Manor of Coggeshall

Thomas Coggeshall -  that’s De Coggeshall to you - best friend of the Bohuns, acquired control over all of Margaret and Sir Hugh’s property and probably added a bit more to her holdings given the interesting times they were living through. He had other lands and financial interests of course. He owned Little Baddow for a start! He had land in Broomfield, Norfolk, Hatfield Peverel, Little Waltham. And after marrying Margaret he had the manor of Great Baddow, lands in Writtle, Sandon, Hanningfield.  But his biggest earner was probably as one of the trustees of Leadenhall Market, among other London properties, thus starting a trend of locals earning money in The City!
 
In 1372, like Sir Hugh in 1346 which indicates the age difference, Thomas joined the retinue of Humphrey de Bohun for service in France. After which he stayed as a legal and economic advisor to Joan de Bohun, widow of Humphrey.
 
Don’t think that poor Margaret was just swept away by a land hungry man of ambition. There would have been a contract and I’m sure some of her ex-husbands old pals would happily supply her with a bit of negotiating muscle for old times’ sake. Don’t underestimate medieval women or the workings of friendship in that period! People could genuinely be pleasant and caring for each other, as well as exhibit all the cynical ambition that the average costume drama trades in.
 
Thomas was a very heavy hitter. He had worked out how to bundle a rag bag of feudal obligations into financial vehicles: the derivatives of the time. So he “enfeoffed” the inheritance of Sir Hugh’s two daughters and became trustees of their estates, thus allowing them to marry and still keep their own wealth. Various feudal obligations attached to the properties would be handled by the trustees and the girls’ husbands would not become burdened by them while at the same time having use of the land. The use of these trusteeships made it easier to transfer lands and spread the wealth among families - plus easier for lawyers to get a nice rake off! We’re seeing capitalism emerging here.

Later on, in 1440 one of Henry Vths butlers, Thomas Killie (Or Hillie, depending on which document you look at) set up another Chantry at St Mary’s and became a teacher there. He and his wife are buried in the churchyard.

Some Chantries were very grand, but most were no more than a brick hut or a dedicated part of a church. What was more important was the finance that would support a few educated monks to perform a regular service and for monks and laymen to set up grammar schools teaching local boys, well, grammar! They also became a sort of BitCoin craze of the time with some sharp operators going around buying up the rights to the Chantries and pocketing the endowments without supplying the service, thus stripping out anything of value. All was well until Henry VIII got wind of the profits to be made and assigned them all to himself.

Thomas Coggeshall also dealt with Eleanor Bohun’s financial arrangements. When she married Edward III’s younger son, Thomas of Woodstock, she needed a tough lawyer to protect her. Thomas of Woodstock rather resented his cousin, Richard II, for depriving him of the throne.

But in the end Thomas of Woodstock’s intrigues ended up with him being arrested by non-other than Dick Whittingham, who may or may not have actually had him assassinated, suffocated with a duvet.

At that point the Bohuns were dispossessed of Pleshey Castle and needed a lawyer with the wits to keep theirs and his head! Thomas managed this by purchasing a pardon, probably claiming he was forced to comply with his Lord’s wishes. Forgetting to mention how Thomas of Woodstock had sponsored him in parliament, granted him trusteeship over further lands in Sussex, and generally allowed him to run the whole of Thomas of Woodstock’s estates at various times. Being somewhat rich, he had to keep purchasing pardons and making loans to Richard II. And then was forced to renounce all claim to repayment of these loans!

Pleshey Castle

In short, Thomas Coggeshall operated on a big scale and played a very dangerous game. He was a knight, an MP, and a magistrate and during the Peasant’s Revolt, demonstrated loyalty to the Crown, happily aiding in the confiscations of the lands of those caught on the wrong side of the argument. Thomas became the High Sherriff of Essex which was some sort of compensation, or punishment as he had to use it to raise £2000 for the king, consequently Thomas must have been relieved to find that in 1399 Henry Bolingbroke deposed the king and made himself Henry IV. Then Henry married Mary De Bohun, another close friend of Thomas, which restored at least the use of Pleshey to the Bohuns. And as reward for his service, or perhaps recognition that he was a very useful fund raiser, Thomas was appointed to the King’s Council. Whereupon in 1402, Thomas died at the top of his game! And I would not be surprised if it was the stress that killed him.
 
Mrs De Coggeshall, was no doubt distraught, or at least very rich. Medieval widows were often far better off with this status than they had been before. The use of “jointures” as part of the marriage contract often ensured that whoever died first, had control of all the land for the rest of her life, which ended in 1419. There are many medieval buildings and monuments that owe their existence to the endowments of widows, though given the fact than Sir Hugh’s Chantry has disappeared, it does look like she kept all the money to herself rather than donate money for the upkeep.
 
Sir Hugh’s daughter, Catherine, in 1411, made a good marriage with Thomas de Naylinghurst, who owned estates all around the country, but he preferred to make his home in Great Baddow. No doubt because Great Baddow was seen as something of a coming place. The de Baddow family stuck around for all of the fifteenth century, not losing control of their land until 1558 when a Mr Robert King bought the estates and did nothing of interest as far as I can discover. But we find an Edward Naylinghust, related to the De Baddows, who was prosecuted in 1561 for having papist literature. His vulnerability to prosecution may have had something to do with the loss of De Baddow lands or at least the families waning powers. It also shows that the printing press was now making its mark, and just everyone could read the latest conspiracy theories. Consequently, not just the nobility could hate each other but everyone else could as well.
 
This account of the manors of Baddow is something of a simplification of course. One can get an eyewatering account of landholdings in this region from Philip Morant’s 1768 opus “The history and antiquities of the county of Essex” which has all the narrative force of a telephone directory, not that anyone knows what one of those is nowadays! He is, let us say, not definitive for there are other sources with other details which may or may not be as, or more, accurate. And one should be aware that the “manor” of Baddow is really, “Manors” of Baddow and that The Lord of The Manor, is a term randomly applied to whoever is inhabiting a particular house, and whoever they pay their feudal dues to, who for the most part live in Pleshey Castle, or not! Monasteries and reigning monarchs confuse the whole landscape which perhaps indicates some significance attached to this backwater. Luckily for me, things get a little less confusing from now on. Hurrah!