Volume I - Little Baddow History Centre

THE MANORS
At the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066 the portion of the parish called Badwen
had been divided into two parts, one being the manor that became Little Baddow Hall
manor, and the other probably later forming the lesser manor called Graces. There
were two Saxon lords: Lewin, who held the whole of Badwen, and Alwin who held
Mildemet. Twenty years later it was recorded in the Domesday Book that Badwen
manor was held by Germund from Ralph Baynard, Lord of Dunmow, for three
knight’s fees. A knight’s fee involved military service and in this case the holder was
expected to contribute towards the manning of Baynard’s Castle in London. It may
have been Germund who started building the present church beside his manor house,
using various materials that included some Roman brick, perhaps found locally. The
other part of Badwen was held by Lambert from Earl Eustace of Boulogne, while
Mildemet manor was held by Ralph FitzBrien from the Bishop of London.
Ralph Baynard’s grandson rebelled unsuccessfully against Henry I, his lands were
forfeited and those in Little Baddow given to the Fitzwalter family. In Henry II’s
reign Richard de Badew was holding the Hall manor from the Fitzwalters, as was
Richard Filiol in the mid-thirteenth century, but a little later the Burnell family were
chief tenants. They administered their manors of Little Baddow, Graces and Little
Waltham from their Boreham manor. At least by the time of the Filiols the military
service had been commuted to a money payment of 18s 4d every 24 weeks towards
the ward of Baynard’s Castle. The last of the Filiols, Cecily, married Sir John de
Bohun, a Sussex knight, but on the death of her mother in 1346, the manor seems to
have been taken into the King’s hands and committed first to John Fermer and, on his
death, to Roger de Poleye, before it was finally granted to Cecily in 1368. It was
during the de Bohun’s tenure that the manor house was rebuilt, no doubt not for the
first time, and the church partially rebuilt. The De Bohuns remained in possession
until the last of them died in the 1490s, leaving two daughters of whom Ursula had
married Robert Southwell and took the Hall manor with her part of the inheritance.
Her nephew and heir alienated the manor to the Crown in Henry VIII’s reign, and in
1572 Queen Elizabeth granted it to John Smythe, on whose death in 1607 Anthony
Penninge, from Ipswich, obtained it. During the late sixteenth century the manor
house had been enlarged, though part was later to be demolished. The land farmed by
the occupants of the Hall, who since at least 1346 must have been tenants, seems
always to have been about 200 acres.
Meanwhile, sometime in the 13th century, Middlemead manor had come into the
hands of the Videluy or Videler and then Toft families and was divided between them
and the Bassett family, the main portion becoming known as Middlemead alias
Videluys alias Tofts. An Edmund Videler from Middlemead was killed at Great Tey
in 1381 after the suppression of the peasants’ revolt. William Toft died in 1470 (and
is commemorated by a brass plaque in the church), leaving Tofts manor to his
daughter, Isabella, who married Thomas Smyth of Rivenhall. Their son, Sir Clement,
married Dorothy, the sister of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife. He lived at
Tofts manor house (perhaps indeed rebuilding or enlarging it), which was surrounded,
by its park and warren, and he died there in 1552. His son, John, inherited the manor
but spent much time abroad, serving with distinction in foreign armies and being sent
by the English government on diplomatic missions. He was knighted in 1576. He
acquired the manors of Little Baddow Hall, Graces, Riffhams and Mowden Hall (in
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