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Essex Tales and Snippets
 The Boreham Witch: Mother Haven
An entry in the Boreham church registers tells us that in July 1593 “Mother Haven suffered at Boreham for witchcraft”.
In fact, the old lady was hanged and was buried outside the churchyard which was a punishment in those days. 350
years later when Boreham airfield was being made flat, a bulldozer accidentally broke open the grave of the ‘witch’.
After this many farmers in the are suffered poor harvests and damaged crops and local people said it was because of the curse
of the witch.
Dick Turpin
In 1705 a baby boy was born to the innkeeper of the Bell Inn at Hempstead. The innkeeper, John Turpin
and his wife Maria decided to call the baby Richard. Young Richard probably found he was kept busy helping his father at he
inn, serving the poor who came in to spend their last few pennies, and the rich who stopped to quench their thirst at the
inn before travelling on to their destination, coins jingling in their pockets. And young Richard had no doubt about which
of sort of people he wanted to be. When still a young man he bought himself a jet black horse called Black Bess, a gun, a
cloak and a mask, and became a highwayman stopping coaches on the roads of Essex and demanding their money. He became known
as Dick Turpin, one of the most wanted men in the country.
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Accused of Witchcraft Joanna of Navarre was the first widow to marry an English king - Henry IV. When the monarch died she was arrested
at her palace of Havering-atte-Bower by order of the Duke of Bedford, regent of England in 1419.
Accused of witchcraft
and condemned without trial, she suffered solitary confinement and was forced to wear the coarse garb of penance.
Henry V died five days after ordering her release and that she should have four or five new gowns of any colour or material
she liked. "Sorry we locked you up; have a new dress!"
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was Member of Parliament for Maldon in 1545. He once found himself in court where he was
acquitted of high treason.
So shocked by the verdict was the judge of the case that he promptly imprisoned the
jury and also fined them for their temerity!
Sir Nicholas was also the father-in-law of Sir Walter Raleigh and
his brother-in-law, Arthur, was MP for Colchester in 1588.
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Straw plaiting, 19th century
"In the district around Castle Hedingham, and including Halstead, Sudbury, Clare, and Haverhill an enormous
amount of straw-plaiting is carried on. For the best kinds of work the makers get 3s. 6d a score, and one of the best hands
can make a score and a half in the week. For the inferior kind of work the rate of pay varies from 3d to 10d. and 1s. per
score. The earnings of children and girls may be taken to be from 3d. to 4d. per day. These, as well as boys, are principally
employed upon the coarser kind.
The straw is usually purchased of the farmers in the neighbourhood at 6d. a bundle,
being, in quantity about as much as a person can conveniently carry. The rate of wages paid to the agricultural labourer in
this district is wretchedly low, not more than 6s. or 7s. per week, and were it not for the straw plait, the people would
generally be in a far worse condition than they are at present. When the plaiting is depressed, a considerable quantity of
work is done by the women for the cheap tailors of London, Colchester."
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Humpty Dumpty
The nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty relates
to an incident in Colchester during the Civil War. St Mary's Church came under siege in 1648 and a giant cannon perched
on the top of the spire was shot to the ground shattering into several pieces. The Royalists (the King's men), couldn’t
put it together again!
The oldest rabbits in EnglandRabbits were brought to the British Isles with the Normans. Such was their rarity in the early days that a rabbit
cost some three shillings - a days wage for a skilled craftsman or two days wages for a labourer. When Rayleigh Mount was
excavated rabbit bones were found and dated to 1070, making them some of the oldest known rabbit bones in the country.
Hatfield Peverel Priory
The history of Hatfield Peverel Priory began in 1087 when a college for secular canons was founded by Ingelrica,
wife of Ranulf Peverel and a former mistress of William the Conqueror. The church was originally part of the priory.
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