150
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
rebuilt. I do not think it necessary to go more into detail upon the question of
the Church in this paper, because I have dealt with the subject more extensively in
former papers. I allude to it now as an epoch in the history of the town. That it
was an important epoch cannot be doubted. The massiveness and extent of the
Church would entail an expenditure hitherto unknown in the history of the town ;
and if erected by Chelmsford men we may point with pride to the honest, sound,
and enduring structure we have now in the tower. John Kemp—a well-
known Essex name—was Bishop of London at the time of this re-erection of the
church.
I anticipate being able to fill up many vacant places in our history from the
information which our friend Mr. King will afford us to-night, and which I doubt
not will throw considerable light upon the domestic mediaeval history of our town.
[Alluding to a valuable paper read by Mr. H. W. King at the meeting, entitled
"The Guilds, Charities, and Obits of Chelmsford and neighbouring Parishes."]
We have no record of the visit of any Sovereign after that of Richard II., before
alluded to; but the erection of New Hall by Henry VIII. must surely have
entailed one or more visits from that sovereign during its erection ; at any rate its
immense extent, and the vast number of workmen and skilled artizans employed
upon it, must have made the period of its erection a memorable one in the history
of the town. I have not been able to fix its exact date ; but I shall not probably
be very wide of the mark if I put it at from 1520 to 1530.
In 1545 Edmund Bonner was Bishop of London, and in that year he granted
the town and manors, together with the advowson of the Church, to King
Henry VIII. The premises continued in the Crown till July, 1563, when Queen
Elizabeth granted the Manor of Chelmsford, alias Bishop's Hall, to Thomas
Mildmay, Esq. The Manor of Moulsham remained in the hands of the Abbot
and Convent of St. Peter's, Westminster, until the suppression of monasteries by
Henry VIII. In 1540 Henry VIII. granted this Manor to Thomas Mildmay,
gentleman, one of the Auditors of the Court of Augmentations, for a valuable
consideration of 20 years' purchase; and thus the Manors of Chelmsford and
Moulsham, with many of the surrounding lands, came into possession of the
Mildmay family, which marks a fresh epoch in the history of the town.
We now, for the first time, get a clear and definite description of the town; for
in an old book—still I presume in the possession of the Lord of the Manor—is a
description presented to the courts of the respective manors of Chelmsford and
Moulsham on the 23rd June, 1591. [Mr. Chancellor here read the description of
the manors as given by Morant in the "History of Essex."]
From these descriptions it would seem that the Manor House of Chelmsford, or
Bishop's Hall, was burnt in the reign of Edward III., and probably never rebuilt
except as a farmhouse. This may have been one reason, amongst others, why the
Bishop of London in 1545 surrendered the manor to King Henry VIII. It would
also seem that previous to the grant of the Manor of Moulsham to Thomas
Mildmay there was no proprietory dwelling or mansion house attached to this
manor ; but in 1542 Thomas Mildmay did erect a mansion, and it must have been
of considerable extent and grandeur. It must be remembered that he came into
possession of the Manor of Moulsham twenty-three years before he obtained the
Manor of Chelmsford, and this circumstance would account for his selection of
Moulsham as the site of his new mansion. I have never come across any view of
this old house, but it was no doubt built of timber and brick, with many bay
windows, gables, and huge chimneys—Old English and picturesque. But when the
rage for classic architecture set in it would seem that this Old English house would