Epping, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Epping All Saints is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Essex.

Other places in the parish include: Epping Upland, Ryehill, and Epping Upland with Ryehill.

The church of ALL SAINTS, Epping Upland, consists of flint rubble nave and chancel in one unit, red-brick west tower, north vestry, and timber south porch. It was much restored in 1878 and few ancient features survive. The nave probably dates from the early 13th century. Near its east end there is an aumbry on the north side, and an arched recess, which may once have contained a piscina, on the south; here probably was the chancel of the original church. The present chancel may have been added later in the 13th century; before the restoration of 1878 it contained lancet windows on the south side (see below), but both north and south walls have been rebuilt. A double piscina bowl of the 13th century has been re-set. The south porch was built in the 15th century and retains some of the original roof timbers and a door of that period. The brick tower of three stages was probably erected late in the 16th century; the tower arch in the nave is of moulded brickwork. In 1722 the church was restored at a cost of about £260, raised from Baker's charity. Morant (1768) notes that the communion table was then still 'at a distance from the east wall of the chancel, with a rail quite round it; which is supposed to have been done by Jer. Dyke, vicar of this church'. This puritan arrangement evidently came to and end before 1835, since Wright mentions it in the past tense. Ogborne (1814) states that the church had 'lately been repaired at considerable expense'. She wrote during the incumbency of Edward Conyers, and listed several recent monuments of his family then in the chancel. It is not unlikely that Conyers, whose extensive reconstruction of the vicarage has already been mentioned, also restored the church. Two engravings of the exterior, from drawings by a schoolboy, H. P. Griggs, were published in 1806. The north view shows that there were then no windows in that side of the church. The south view shows two threelight windows and one single-light window in the nave wall, and also a dormer at the east end of the nave. There were two lancets in the chancel. Another view of the south side is given in Ogborne's History. This depicts three three-light windows in the nave, one lancet in the chancel, and the dormer. If these drawings of c. 1806 and c. 1814 were accurate the east end of the church must have been altered between those dates.

In 1878 all the windows on the south wall of the church were replaced by single lancets, and a matching series pierced in the north wall; the dormer was removed and the vestry built. The interior was completely reconstructed. The west gallery, mentioned in 1814, was probably removed at this time. Some of the old fittings have survived. These include a 17th-century chair and table. The communion rails are probably of the late 18th or early 19th century. In the nave are five oak benches of the early 16th century, and a small early-14thcentury font bowl. Hanging in the tower are some strips of oak bearing inscriptions, partly defaced, asking prayers for benefactors. These are said to have been formerly in the nave; they may have been fixed to the west gallery. The church also has a wooden collecting-box dated 1626. There are six bells, of which one is dated 1611, four 1707, and one 1793. Those of 1707 were made partly from three older bells. The church has retained its old plate. A silver-gilt cup and paten were given under the will of Katherine Lady Wentworth (d. 1639), daughter of Sir Moyle Finch. A silver-gilt paten, a flagon and an almsdish, made in 1739 for the chapel of Copped Hall, were given to the church in 1768 by Lady Henrietta Conyers. On the south wall of the chancel is a brass to Thomas Palmer of Gills (d. 1621). In the tower are slabs to Edward Conyers, vicar (d. 1822), Helena Conyers (1795) and Matilda Conyers (1800). The last two were formerly in the chancel, together with other monuments to their family which have not survived. In the nave, near the font, is the indent of a 15th-century brass of a man and wife with the symbol of the Trinity. North of the church, on the opposite side of the road, is an 18th-century red-brick building, formerly the church house, By 1830 it had been converted into a public house, the 'Chequers'. It is now a private residence.

From: 'Epping: Churches, schools and charities', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5 (1966), pp. 132-140. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42716&amp;amp;strquery=epping Date accessed: 27 January 2011.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

"Epinga", a small community of a few scattered farms and a chapel on the edge of the forest, is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, the settlement referred to is known today as Epping Upland. It is not known for certain when the present day Epping was first settled. By the mid 12th century a settlement known as Epping Heath (later named Epping Street), had developed south of Epping Upland as a result of vigorous clearing of the forest for cultivation. In 1253 King Henry III conveyed the right to hold a weekly market in Epping Street which helped to establish the town as a centre of trade and has continued to the present day (the sale of cattle in the High Street continued until 1961).

The linear village of Epping Heath developed slowly into a small main-road town and by the early 19th century considerable development had taken place along what is now High Street and Hemnall Street. Up to 25 stagecoaches and mailcoaches a day passed through the town from London en route to Norwich, Cambridge and Bury St. Edmunds. In the early 19th century, 26 coaching inns lined the High Street. A couple survive today as public houses, e.g. The George and Dragon and The Black Lion. The advent of the railways put an end to this traffic and the town declined, but it revived after the extension of a branch line from London in 1865 and the coming of the motor car.

A number of listed buildings, most dating from the 18th century, line both sides of the High Street although many were substantially altered internally during the 19th century. Some of the oldest buildings in the town can be found at each end of the Conservation Area, e.g. Beulah Lodge in Lindsey Street (17th century), and the attractive group of 17th and early 18th century cottages numbered 98-110 (even) High Street.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

Census records
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Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Epping Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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