Theydon Mount Church Quatercentenary

Extract from the Theydon Mount Register in 1611
(Photographed at the Celebration Day when the Essex Record Office kindly lent the original documents)

St Michael’s Church, Theydon Mount commemorated the 400^th anniversary of its rebuilding in 2014.  A search through old documents held at the Essex Record Office reveals some interesting facts.

Theydon Mount was, and still is, a very small parish.  The Parish Register[1] shows that during the period 1603 to 1625 there were 7 marriages and 38 burials, with none at all in some years and particularly between 1611 and 1613.  (Baptisms were more frequent.)  This is a short extract from the baptisms pages of Register:

	1611
	Jonne [th]e[2] daughter of Richard Smith was baptized [th]e 21 of Aprill A[nn]o sup[ra]dicto[3]
	for Two yeeres we had none Christened in o[u]r Church because it
	was so long in building after it was burnt
	1614
	Margaret daughter of Tho Juby Clarke was baptized [th]e first day
	of May A[nn]o sup[ra]dicto

The note in the Register suggests that the old building may have been of wooden construction, but fire can damage stonework and mortar too.  The new church, as we know, is built of brick and must have reopened either on or before 1 May 1614 when Thomas Juby’s daughter was baptised.  Thomas Juby was the clerk or rector of the parish.

Ten Wills survive in the Essex Record Office for Theydon Mount during the reign of King James I.[4]

Did any of them mention anything about the church rebuilding between 1611 and 1614?

The answer is ‘yes’.

Thomas Bredge devised the following Will[5]:

1	Bredge.  Anno domini[6] one Thousand six hundred
2	and twelve dated the Seaven and twentith[7]
3	of Aprill.
4	In the name of god Amen. I Thomas Bredge of Theydon-
5	Mounte in the Countie of Essex.  First I bequeath my soule
6	to Almyghtie God my creator and to Jesus Christ my
7	redeemer and to the holieghos my santifier  As for my
8	bodie I bequeath to the Earth from whence it came. And
9	to be buried in the churchyard of Theydon Garnone[8]
10	aforesaid[9].  I give to the poore of Theydon Mounte
11	ten shillings to be disposed accordinge to the discrecon[10] of
12	my Executors.  Item I give to the rep[ar]acon of Theydon
13	mounte Church ten shillings.  Item I give and bequeath to
14	my sonne James twentie pounde to be paid when he
15	shall come to the full age of one and twentie yeares
16	Item I give and bequeath unto my eldest daughter
17	Margaret Bredge thirteene pounde six shillings and
18	eight pence[11] To be paid when she shall come to the
19	full age of eighteene yeares.  Item I giue to my
20	daughter Anne Bridge[12] thirteen pound six shillings
21	eight pence to be paid when shee shall come to the
22	full age of Eighteene yeares. Item I giue to my
23	daughter Elizabeth xiiiLi[bor] vis viiid[13] to be paid when
24	she shall come to the full age of eighteene yeares
25	If it happen that any of theis my children should
26	die before theie come to age Then my will is that
27	theire porcion should be devided amonge the rest
28	of my children.  Item if it happen that my wife to be w[i]th
29	childe at the time of my decease my mynd and will
30	is that it should have xiiiLi[bor] vis viijd at the end of
31	eighteene yeares.  Item I give and bequeath to Agnes
32	my wif all the rest of my moveable goodes w[hi]ch is unbequeathed
33	whom I make my full and whole Executor of this
34	my last will and Testament. The marke  Item I make
35	my brother Robert and my brother Richard my
36	overseers of this my last will and Testament.  The
37	marke of Thomas Bredge, Richard Maynard, William
38	Kobinet, Edward Aylett. The marke of Thomas
39	Stevens
40	Probatum …[14]

“Thomas Bridge of Thoidon Mount” was buried at Theydon Garnon on 30 April 1612, the register for that parish reveals[15]. 

We can estimate Thomas’ age at the time of death as being at most in his mid-30s.  This was quite common.

This will is typical of most.  First the testator leaves his soul to Almighty God then directs where his body is to be buried.  The text is pretty standard.

When this will was written the word ‘aforesaid’ was included in error.  Two parishes are mentioned: Theydon Mount and Theydon Garnon.

So was Theydon Mount an error?  Where did Thomas Bredge live? 

Here the Parish Register for Theydon Mount comes to our rescue because all his four children were baptised there: “Margaret [th]e daughter of Thomas Bridge baptized the first of August 1602”; “James Breages the sonne of Thomas Breages was baptized the 8 of July 1604”; “Ann daughter of Tho Bridge was baptized [th]e 9 of December [1607]”; and, “Elizabeth daughter of Tho Bridges was baptized [th]e 29 of Aprill [1610]”[16].

We can deduce that Thomas Bredge was a Theydon Mount man.  Also, that the writer probably used a template copy to complete the will.  Would we want to commit to memory all those standard words?

Legacies to the poor and to the church follow the instructions for disposal of the body.  In the case of Thomas Bredge he leaves 10 shillings for the repair of Theydon Mount church.  Then the inheritance is divided, often to his children first then his spouse who is often appointed executor to the Will. At the end are the witnesses to the Will.  Many, including Thomas Bredge, are illiterate so sign the document with a squiggle or mark.

One of the most interesting marks I have seen is that of Richard Gladwin of Theydon Mount, a bricklayer, who signs documents with an oblong brick shaped symbol. There are two such documents: his own Will dated 14 December 1624[17] and as a witness to a terrier of glebelands, written by the rector, Thomas Juby, in the parish register on 1 December 1621[18].  Richard Gladwine was a sideman at the church. I wonder whether this bricklayer had some responsibility for rebuilding the church?

Three further testators are not buried at Theydon Mount.  Robert Knoppe, a yeoman, who writes his Will on 1 May 1614, requests “my bodye to be buryed where it shall please my executrix”[19].  We can be confident that the church had reopened by then since the will was written on the very day of the baptism of Thomas Juby’s daughter.  Robert Hill’s undated will of 1612/13 merely bequeaths his body “to the ground”[20].  William Winter’s will of 23 October 1613 requested his body “to be buryed in [th]e church yard of Theydon mount”[21] but this was not carried out.  His widow, Susan Winter, who writes her will on 1 March 1624 (now 1625)[22] bequeathing her body “to [th]e earth from whence it came”[23] neither specifies a place of burial.  I looked at other registers in the locality – Stapleford Abbots does not survive – but could not find their resting places.

On the basis of evidence we can deduce that the church and churchyard reopened sometime between October 1613 and May 1614.

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[1] ERO D/P 142/1/1: also available online through ‘Essex Ancestors’ by subscription – with free access at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.

[2] Throughout the document a symbol known as the thorn, which looks like a letter ‘y’ is used. It is a contraction for ‘th’. Nowadays we see quaint names such as ‘Ye Olde Royal Oak’.  The word ‘ye’ does not exist. It is ‘the’. In palaeography the thorn is converted to [th].

[3] Anno supradicto is Latin for “the year written above”

[4] These have all now become available to view online through Essex Ancestors.

[5] ERO D/AEW 14/218

[6] Anno domini is Latin for ‘year of our Lord’

[7] It was quite common to write dates in this way. We know the nursery rhyme “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” – this number is 24.  Thomas Bredge wrote his will on 27 April 1612. Standardised spelling did not exist.

[8] Immediately recognisable as the neighbouring parish of Theydon Garnon.

[9] ‘aforesaid’ implies a repetition of place name, which is not the case here.

[10] Discretion – very often ‘c’ was substituted for ‘t’ and the letter ‘i’ omitted.

[11] £13.6.8d seems a strange sum of money to leave.  However 13s.4d. was equivalent to one mark.  So, for people who don’t remember old money, £2 is 3 marks. £12 is 18 marks, and because there were 20 shillings to £1, this meant £1.6s.8d. is 26s.8d or 2 marks.  So, the bequest was for 20 marks.

[12] Note a different spelling of the surname.

[13] This is also £13.6s.8d. Pre-decimal money was divided into pounds (libor in Latin), shillings and pence (denari in Latin). In sixteenth and seventeenth century handwriting a horizontal bar in the script represents a contraction of a word, which palaeographers “fill in” by putting letters in square brackets.  The symbol £, with which we are familiar is a capital letter L crossed through.

[14] Probate of the will is written in Latin.

[15] ERO D/P 152/1/1

[16] ERO D/P 142/1/1

[17] ERO D/AEW 17/248

[18] ERO D/P 142/1/1

[19] ERO D/ABW 22/240

[20] ERO D/AEW 14/292

[21] ERO D/AEW 15/22

[22] England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.  Until then the Julian calendar placed New Years’ Day on 25 March.  A will written on 1 March 1624 is occasionally referred to nowadays as 1624/25.

[23] ERO D/AEW 17/296