Volume I - Little Baddow History Centre

Among his sub-tenants were Widow Hompsted in 1677 and James Wyatt in 1688. It
passed on his death with his other tenements to Sarah and Elizabeth Harwood, his
great-granddaughters. The Pledger family later obtained it. In the nineteenth century
it was given the name of the demolished house called Pilcherines, usually shortened
to Pilgrims.
The court of 1650 ordered William Saffold of Wickhays to restore land he had
enclosed “adjoining a close belonging to the house of Rebecca Stanes wherein he now
dwelleth part of Robgents hill”. Four acres called Robjons hill were leased for 1000
years in 1699. They were transferred in 1784 from Thomas Hinde to Elizabeth Buttle
and held by William Buttle in the early nineteenth century at an annual rent of 2s.
In 1480 John Oughan left his “tenement called Robert Myllers” to his son, Thomas.
Perhaps it was this Thomas who brought to the 1497 court documents to prove that
John Oughan had obtained from Thomas Bastwick the tenement with three houses
built on it called Millers, in ancient time Hambleyn. Thomas Oughan was judged to
be in possession without clear authority and the tenement was taken into the hands of
the lord. No doubt he regained possession on payment of a fine. Its history is then
lost until at the 1607 court John Fuller and his wife, who was daughter and heir of
William Gunby (the Gunbys had been in the parish from at least 1536), surrendered
her inheritance, the copyhold tenement called Millers, to Richard Hunwick at a rent of
8d. a year. In 1620 John Ingham was holding two cottages with gardens called
Millers at the annual rent of 8d.; in 1636 his son surrendered one tenement, together
with a barn lately built on a piece of the garden and the southern part of the garden to
Robert Catcher at the annual rent of 5d., and the northern part of the garden, with a
cottage and a “leane to” lately built on the north side of the barn, to Thomas Turnedge
at the annual rent of 3d. The latter portion was called Gunbies and was often referred
to as “Great Gunbys alias Millers”, although when Robert Catcher died he left his
portion (Millers) to his wife and son, naming it “gonbies”. His son in 1651
surrendered Millers to John Pake and in 1677 Joan Cubett (previously Pake) was
living there. William Pake inherited it in 1702 and surrendered it to John Spillman
who died in 1738. He left Millers, the tenement “wherein I now live”, to his
daughter, Elizabeth, wife of James Nicholas, a London jeweller. She paid £3 entry
fine and a few years later transferred it to John Spillman, her nephew, who paid
£3.3.0. In 1752/3 Isaac Pledger took it over and probably rebuilt it. It was
enfranchised in 1755 and remained in the possession of the Pledger family.
Meanwhile in 1658 Thomas Turnedge, the elder, surrendered “Great Gunbyes”, in the
occupation of Thomas Turnedge, the younger, to Adam Catcher of Southminster. He
transferred it (still occupied by Thomas Turnedge) to Richard Bridge in 1662. The
1677 map shows two cottages on the site. Richard Bridge’s son was admitted in
1699, dying in 1726 without heirs. In 1731 Eleanor Raven became tenant and four
years later Mary Orton, widow. When her son, Samuel Orton, paid £3.10.0 for his
admission in 1746, Ann Perry, widow, and Thomas Wiltshire were living in the
cottages. On Orton’s death his daughters were admitted but surrendered the tenement
to Hannah Foster (of the Cock). She mortgaged it to Elias Pledger, but failed to repay
her debt so that in 1773 it was taken over by Pledger, paying a fine of £1.10.0. Ann
Perry and Thomas Wiltshire were still in occupation. It may have been rebuilt soon
after this as one cottage. When Elias Pledger died in 1800 he left Gunbies to his two
daughters who transferred it to his grandson, Jeremiah Pledger, the younger, of
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