1799 Survey Map of Wivenhoe (2)

An expanded version with accompanying lists of parcel deeds and references

Pat Marsden

1799 Survey Map of Wivenhoe (A13644, Box1)
Reproduced by courtesy of Essex Record Office

The 1799 Survey Map

In 2014 myself, and Clive Dykes and John Foster (from the Wivenhoe History Group), with some additional palaeographic assistance from Patrick Denny transcribed the 1799 Survey Map of Wivenhoe  – ‘A Survey of the Manor of Wivenhoe in the parishes of Wivenhoe and Greensted with parts of the manors of Cockaynes and Kelars als Rebandishyde in the parish of Elmsted’.

This map has a particular significance because it provides a snapshot in time – a complete picture of the manor in 1799. It shows 113 numbered parcels of land in the parishes of Wivenhoe, Elmstead, and Greenstead, complete with acreage details and a descriptive key listing the names of the properties, names of the owners, occupiers and tenants and whether the land was ‘in the Lord’s hands’, copyhold or freehold.

Forty years later, by the time the Wivenhoe Tithe Award Map had been published in 1838, almost all these historic parcel names (some of which had remained unchanged since Elizabethan times) had been lost as the land became divided and subdivided following enclosure.

You can view the completely transcribed map and read more about the process of establishing it here

The Expanded Version

Transcribing the map with colleagues and presenting the material in a digital format was an achievement but I felt that more could be done to enhance the basic transcription. While working on the map and carrying out online archival searches to try and track down and clarify many of the difficult to read place names I began to realise just exactly how many deeds referring to these were available. Therefore, once the basic transcription had been added both to the Wivenhoe History Archive and the Essex Place Names Project, I returned to working on an expanded version of the map by systematically searching out all the references and deeds relating to the individual named parcels of land that I could find and adding these to an expanded chart which you can see by clicking on the link below.

Although various types of information such as owners, tenants and acreages were included on the original map I concentrated on the place names. This was sometimes complicated by several parcels bearing the same name but in these cases I simply repeated the references because it was too complicated at this stage to work out which of the duplicate names the references referred to. For the same reason I ignored the parcel acreages as these were not always clear in the references and over time parcel boundaries might change.

In a similar way the place names themselves were often challenging to follow. For instance what appeared as Hoberdameons as transcribed on the 1799 map had previously been known as Damyians in 1558, Hubbard’s in 1561/2, Hubbard Damion in 1595 and then later morphed into Habberdemains by 1846. Reddles als Reddens on the Map was known as Rydelles in 1583, then Ryddles or Riddeltes by the mid eighteenth century.

Once deciphered the bare bones of the map began to come alive. In many cases the parcel names themselves were self explanatory and revealed that property’s place or role in the rural landscape. 

There was the land belonging to ‘The Lord’s Demesne’ (i.e. the Lord of the Manor) in both Wivenhoe and Elmsted, e.g. Hall Land, Marshes, Wivenhoe Wood, Broad Marshes, the Mill Garden and Hangings, Vine House, Cockaynes, Elmsted Lodge, Cockayne Marshes, Frithy Wood, the Quay and the Wall. Then there was the Glebe or land providing income to the clergy consisting of the Parsonage Land and Anchor Meadow and over 80 acres of land including Swaynes and Sayer’s Grove, owned by Slater Rebow.

There were 48 copyhold properties of various sizes (some quite small) held by The Lord’s Tenants, including Spendalls, (the Potash House), Cocks (now the Horse and Groom), and 14 freehold  properties including the Workhouse, the Blue Boar, the Mansion and Pumpfields owned by Edward Sage. There were additional freehold and copyright parcels in Elmsted and new inclosures in Greensted on Whitmore and Reddon’s Hatch.

There were many large farms: Hill House Farm, Noer’s (New Years) Farm, Mill Farm, Villa Farm, Vine House. There were specifically named woods and groves – Wivenhoe Wood, Frithy Grove, Sayers Grove, Tamplin’s Grove. 

And then there were properties ranging from tiny parcels of land to larger estates, all with intriguing names. Some of them almost certainly referred to the owner or an earlier owner such as Christopher’s, Rogers, Pickard’s, etc whereas others were more enigmatic e.g. Leggs and Queroms, Guns and Mans. Other place names offered an indication of the nature or purpose of the property itself or its place in rural industry e.g. Trappes and Eles (surely relating to the trapping of eels), Sheepcote or Shipcote Field/Ground (for the folding of sheep), Hawksgrove. Bramble Field and heath land. 

One of the most intriguing and well referenced properties was Traps & Tofts & Sheepcote which had sixteen listed deeds from 1457 – 1782 including a deed of feoffment to the use of the poor in 1573/4.

This is Wivenhoe so of course there were also the hostelries: The Blue Boar, Cocks (later the Horse and Groom), and Cross Keys noted as a tavern.

 As the references and deed details accumulated a deeper picture of the rural scene put flesh on the bare bones of the map.

There were more details about the farms. We can see that in 1638-9 the tops of trees were sold from New Years (Noer’s), the park and the farm of Edward Dauber, who in 1646 held the site of the manor and other property; and rye, oats, buckwheat, barley and a small quantity of peas were grown at Wivenhoe park and New Years Farm next to Broadmarsh in 1833. Late eighteenth century maps refer to the Marshes and river related industries, including the saltings, ferries, packing houses, oyster pits, and granaries, and Wivenhoe Heath is referred to as common land. 

Whereas the 1799 Map provided a snapshot in time the addition of the deeds and references revealed not only information relating to the time of the map but also centuries beforehand.  Searching through other material such as F G Emmison’s Elizabethan Wills for instance brought up references to property with the same names as those listed on the 1799 map, showing how ancient some of these properties were. A lucky find of an exhibition held at Harvard Law Library revealed further gems of information from the mediaeval era, as early as the twelfth century. For instance a Harvard Law Library Deed 198 HOLLIS BHJ9015 refers to land held by Matilde de Noers in Wyvenho dated 22 November 1293 which may have been a reference to what was subsequently known as Noer’s Farm. The Special Collection Item 3: Grant by Robert de Spereburn relating to his marsh held of Geoffrey de Cokama saving for an eight foot wide route coming from his house, used for riding, carting and driving his beasts to the great road leading from “Cokama” (in Elmstead) to Wivenhoe provided an early reference to Cockaynes from 1180.

The majority of references were acquired by scouring through the online records of the Essex Record Office (ERO) and the National Archives (NA); HOLLIS (Harvard Law Library Online):  F G Emmison’s Elizabethan Wills; the Victoria County History of Essex Volume X; and Philip Morant’s ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, Vol I and II, 1763-1768’.

It required a lot of hard work, checking and cross checking that all the listed document numbers and source descriptions were correct.  

I’m hoping that this project will provide the ground work for more in depth research at a later stage. I mainly worked from the immediately visible deed summaries but there still may be a wealth of material about the history of Wivenhoe hidden in the actual deeds themselves. 

To view both the original and the expanded charts click on the downloads below.

To obtain a high resolution digital scanned copy of the map itself contact Essex Record Office (quoting the Accession No A13644, Box 1) at:

ero.enquiry@essex.gov.uk

Pat Marsden

Downloads
This page was added on 21/04/2018.

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