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The Manor of Great Waltham is the largest and most important of the seven manors included in that Essex parish, and comprises some 7,450 acres. During the time of Richard the Second and after, the Manor House was the large farmhouse, Walthambury, which stands in the fork of the roads from Howe Street to Pleshey and Good Easter. This manor-house was not occupied by the lord who had his chief seat at Pleshey Castle about two miles away.

The medieval manor-house and encircling farm-buildings must have been an imposing cluster of buildings constructed of timber or timber framework and wattle which were roofed with thatch. A list of the names of the tenants at Great Waltham drawn up in 1422 shows a total of 160 men and women who hold their homes and lands under agreements subject to the performance of what were termed "precarious burdens."

These duties included, in some instances, working so many days as "loveboons" every year with or without meat and drink-the usual bread, garlick and beer provided by the Steward of the Manor. In May, 1401, the Court Leet asked for the restoration of a perquisite suppressed by the lord, when "the Whole homage of Waltham" complained that for several years they had been deprived of the custom called medram (=meadram), viz, "concerning the lord's best hurtard and his best cheese with salt to the same."

With other residents the number of men in the district would be about 300 to 350 of adult age plus their families. Most of the necessary village trades appear in the population lists compiled for the Court Leet. The leet had to see that every new male resident or sons of residents when the lads reached the age of twelve years took the oath of fealty to the King and was duly enrolled as a member of a "tithing.'

The parish of Great Waltham was divided into eight hamlets of which only three districts were supervised by the Court Leet and Court Baron as entered in the rolls. These were:

• i. North-End including Roughey (now Rophey) End and Forth (now Ford) End.
• ii. the South End including Church-End and
• iii. Littley-End including Howe, Street known as Hoo Street in medieval times.

Each of these districts was in charge of one constable and two ale-tasters. The Leet Court appointed these constables and ale-tasters to carry out the provisions of the Statute: for the Assize of Bread, Meat and Ale. The constables had supervision of all those trades which were not by the assise "statute" subjected to the ale-tasters.

Each district had its five "common brewers," i.e., persons who brewed regularly, with occasional brewers who brewed at irregular intervals. In 1395 in addition to the 15 regular common brewers there were two occasional brewers.

It is plain from the way in which the brewers are mentioned in the earlier rolls, that they were all married women or widows and that they carried on their trade, for many years. Isabel Rede traded from at least 1394 to 1414, and Audrey, wife of William Byckener, from before 1401 until after 1422. Each half-year most of the brewesses are mentioned by name as mulcted for breach of assise from one penny to eightpence at the discretion of the officers. The trades of baker and brewer were often combined at Great Waltham: Christian Gernon was a. baker-brewer who was fined in 1394.

The large number of brewers - 15 - for a comparatively small population suggests that there was a certain, possibly steady, retail trade through the road traffic passing north and south through the manor between Chelmsford and Dunmow.

Most of the brewers retailed their own brewings which would be made about every three days. However, there was one retailer, Margaret Burre, who bought from the brewer and sold at a profit, an economic process which the medieval common law detested. Although her ordinary legal title should have been "tippler" she was always stigmatised as a "regrater," i.e., enhancer of prices. In 1401 and frequently afterwards Margaret, "wife of John Burre, tailor," was fined or muleted fourpence as "regatrix" of beer who had broken the assise. In 1413 her place was taken by the wife of John Pyryman who was fined twopence for her first offence of this nature.

Assise-business in Walthambury was transacted twice a year: in summe - May or June, by the Court Leet; in the auturtm - October or November - by the Court Baron. It seems that the Court Baron restricted itself only to the trades connected with food, leaving the leather-assise to be dealt with only once a year.

The Court Leet was held on the Thursday of Whitsun week at Pleshey Castle under the presidency of the Steward of the Manor. The chief officers of the Court Leet were the constables, elected by itself, who bold office at its pleasure: the court was attended by thirty headsmen of the pledge or Manor.

The assise-officers - the constables and ale-tasters - were elected as a rule by the Court Leet and held office until they could obtain release in some way. Only certain tenants or copyholders could be appointed for such duties and the duties were part of the rental paid for their holdings., Elections by the Court Baron are also to be found entered in the manorial rolls, but these appointments were probably only made as a result of accidental vacancies. In August, 1408, the Court Baron elected John Smyth as constable in place of John Gyn atte Wode, and appointed John Drake and Richard Warrenger as aletasters in place of William Drake and John Wrighte, deceased.

The ale-tasters' oath bound them to ensure that:

• i. ale and beer were wholesome and sold at the assise price.
• ii. bread was baked of the proper hind of flour, weighed by just weights, and that the penny-loaf was of the weight fixed by the assise.

The ale-tasters were fined if they did not fulfil their obligations; in every successive court all six of them are fined fourpence or sixpence each for the neglect of their duties, from which we may infer that they accepted the office as an un-avoidable and unpleasant burden of' their copyhold tenure, and discharged it badly, in the hope of speedy dismissal from the honorary position. Eventually a copyholder paid to be excused from the duties of being an ale-taster. William Longe, in December, 1402, paid sixpence to be removed from the ale-tastership and John Soneman was elected and sworn to take the place of Longe.

The entries in the manorial rolls tend to show that by the commencement of the fifteenth century the assise system was obsolete for practical purposes in this community; the Waltham men did not make conscientious food inspectors and their duties were deliberately and persistently neglected. The tradesmen were mulcted so invariably, making it plain that the fines were accepted as a natural incidence on their trades. At every Court Leet presentments were made for breaches of the peace, apparently for the whole year since the last Leet. Very lenient was the punishment in a case of tavernbreaking in 1307 when John Sutton was fined one penny for "breaking Agnes Drake's window at night and consuming meat and beer without leave asked or payment tendered."

In 1328 return was made of' sixpence as the annual value of the custom which was one of' the minor perquisites of the lord that "every copyholder that doeth brew here or ale to sell shall pay yerely in the moneth of' harvest one penye called Cestre-Penye." In October, 1421, the jury of the Court Baron presented that seven copyholders or tenants had brewed and themselves retailed their beer on the 1st August so that they owed the King, as lord of the manor, one penny each by the custom called "Syster-Peny."

The original manorial rolls were written with a wide margin on sheets of parchment about ten inches wide, usually from 28 to 22 inches long, but occasionally cut down to 16 and even 7 inches. At the end of the account of each court a sum-total is given of the fines and fees collected that day. The largest amount is 37s. 6. October. 1396; the smallest 1s. 5d. in June 1399, in the rolls from 1379-1413.

One final extract from the rolls: on his death-bed in 1420, John Fortheman of Great Waltham surrendered his croft, called Smeth-legh to his wife for her lifetime,, with the remainder to his rightful heirs, conditionally, states the court roll, that the holder of the said croft should supply beer to be given to everyone who came to the house of his half-virgate on the Conception of Mary (8th December) "in the name of God," according to the custom of' the said John and his forebears. Evidently this was some old family custom of the Forthemans!

This article was first published in The Brewing Trade Review, October 1946.