THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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1687 by John Pound, then Mayor ; two constables' staves, with silver heads; the
Common Seal of the borough, dating from 1682 ; a plaster impression of the old
seal (now lost), used when the borough had Admiralty jurisdiction (exhibited by
the kindness of Mr. George Crick); an old watchman's lanthorn of wood, and
a curious cylindrical alms-box, with chains attached, of unknown age, but
which is supposed was hung outside the debtors' prison in the Moot Hall for
receipt of subscriptions from passers-by. The portraits usually hung round the
Council Chamber were packed away in consequence of the repairs, but the
fine portrait of Queen Elizabeth in her younger days (ret. 30-35), probably, as
Mr. Crouch surmised, by Zucchero, and the portrait of Dr. Plume, the founder
of the library, were shown.
In taking the chair, the Mayor most heartily welcomed the Club, and by way
of introduction to the proceedings of the meeting, he delivered an address on the
history of the town, of which the following is an abstract1 : —
Short Notes on the History of Maldon.
The early history of Maldon may be summed up, like that of so many other
East Anglian towns, somewhat as follows :—Maldon was founded nearly 1,000
years ago (913-920 a.d.) by Edward the Elder, who chose for the site of his
castrum (burgh) a place formerly occupied by the Romans, but desolated succes-
sively by the Saxons and the Danes. Of Roman Maldon we know but little, and
it probably was not a place of military importance; its claim to having been the
flourishing Colonia Camulodunum, and previously the "royal town" of Cunobelin,
the capital of the southern part of the island, advanced by that father of English
antiquaries, William Camden, cannot be substantiated, but must be conceded to
Colchester. We have at Maldon no known remains of a Roman building, although
Roman bricks are found in the walls of St. Giles' Hospital and St. Mary's Church,
the former specimens being noteworthy for their fine colour and texture and
large size. Roman pottery and Roman coins have been found in various
localities, more especially north of the river at Heybridge. The only two amphorae
in the Colchester Museum are from that locality ; one is 18 inches in diameter and
19 inches high (broken), presented by Mr. I. Belsham ; the other is 381/2 inches
high, and was presented by Mr. E. H. Bentall. There is a similar one in the
Chelmsford Museum from the same source. Several stone coffins of the Roman
period were also found at Heybridge during the building of the "Towers" (Mr.
Bentall's mansion). Several Roman terra-cotta lamps have been dug up at
Maldon ; there is a very good one in the Colchester Museum, with the figure of a
wild boar upon it. Fragments of Roman pottery were lately found six feet deep
under the floor of St. Mary's Church during the restoration, and within the last
two months hundreds of Roman coins, and barrow loads—I might almost say
truck loads—of pottery (few pieces perfect) have been turned up during the works
for the new railway between the river and the existing lines. The pottery was
of all descriptions, from the figured brittle, but valuable, red glazed Samian ware
and the blue-black Upchurch ware, to the white and yellow Romano-Salopian
ware, which occurred but rarely. The common unglazed earthenware utensils were
abundant, and many contained coins. A valued gold coin was found at Maldon,
which (at any rate, previous to the time of Morant) "was regarded with so much
veneration that it was always consigned to the care of one of the bailiffs for the
time being." White in his "Gazetteer of Essex" (1848) tells us that "since
Morant wrote, this ancient and valuable coin has been lost." Whether this was
a correct statement at that time I cannot say, but at any rate the coin is safely in
the keeping of the present Mayor, who hopes to deliver it over with the other
insignia of office to his successor. I now exhibit the relic. It is a gold coin, in
1 The full text of Mr. Fitch's address has been reprinted from the "Essex Standard" report
of the meeting in the form of a pamphlet—Colchester, Benham and Co. ; Maldon, R.
Poole, High Street.