Volume I - Little Baddow History Centre

had been admitted at the court held in 1552 to the tenancy of the garden at a rent of
2d. per annum. He had died leaving as heir his son, Thomas, aged 12, and his
custody, as well as that of the garden, was committed to his uncle, George Tanner. At
the age of 23 Thomas attended the court and performed his fealty. Three years later
the court was told that, between meetings of the court, Thomas Tanner had
surrendered the garden in to the hands of the lord, by the hands of Leonard Jaques,
acting in place of the Bailiff, and witnessed by two of the customary tenants, to the
“use and behoof” of Henry Evered and his heirs. Henry Evered duly appeared at the
court to be delivered seisin of the garden and perform his fealty. Later tenants were
Thomas Erle in 1620, by which time a cottage had been erected, Samuel Jeggons and
Thomas Driver.
At the 1575 court Margaret Luckyn was granted the tenancy of the land called Lees
“upon which a new Cottage is now built”, at a rent of two pulletts yearly at Christmas.
By 1580 she had died, her son Thomas was admitted and immediately surrendered it
to Anthony Pope and Alice, his wife. Next Thomas Trott became the tenant and by
1659 it was held by Thomas and Hellen Croft.
Later in the seventeenth century both cottages with the garden and the land were in
the possession of the Ram family, and in 1722, on the death of their heiress, her
husband, Thomas Gilder, was admitted. At his death they passed to his sister,
Rebecca Nightingale, and after she died the court of 1763 was told that one cottage
“is greatly fallen into decay and become very ruinous and is thereby forfeited.”
Apparently this was the cottage on the garden portion, which is never again
mentioned. Jeremiah Nightingale, Rebecca’s son, was admitted however on payment
of an entry fine of £2.2.0., and immediately he surrendered the tenements to Sarah
Perry, who paid a fine of £1.11.6. Twenty years later she died and her son, William
Perry took over the tenancy, for £3.3.0., still paying annually 2 pulletts for the cottage
and land and 2d. for the garden. In 1790 he transferred them to Joseph Pledger, who
paid an admission fine also of £3.3.0., and in 1796 passed them on to John Ambrose.
At this time Lees was described as a “customary Messuage or Tenement with a smiths
shop and Forge”. It may have been a forge for many years for both the Ram and
Perry families were blacksmiths. General Strutt acquired the tenements in 1817
(when they were in the occupation of Samuel Maddocks, Blacksmith), having
ascertained that they were not “herriotable”, in spite of being customary holdings.
In addition to the named and documented houses and cottages, there were other
cottages, in all the manors, usually built by the farmers to house their workers, which
are rarely mentioned in the records and which probably, being poorly built, had short
lives. From 1589, by Statute every cottage was supposed to have 4 acres of land
attached to it, but many were built without this, giving rise to convictions at the
Quarter Sessions and Assizes. Among Little Baddow men committing this offence
were Arthur Draper in 1648 (perhaps at Gibbs); Thomas Stevens, bricklayer; Joseph
Mosse and John Mabbs (perhaps at Loves or Sareland) in 1658 and Francis Beadle in
1699.
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