176 MONK WOOD, IN LOUGHTON.
William de Bosco, Richard Alcher and Gregory de Thayden. The
last is probably identical with the man of that name who was a
Verderer in a.d. 1250.
Nor was this the conclusion of the whole matter. Following on
the three charters just recited we have two others, from which we learn
that both Roger and Geoffrey still had seventeen acres of wood and
waste left to them, of which Roger's share was three acres and three-
parts of a rood (rode), and this they also made over to the canons.
The grant made by Geoffrey was subsequently confirmed by Edward,
his son. A pleasing unanimity has marked the proceedings up to
this point; but the new joint-possessors do not seem to have
succeeded in maintaining it. For, on the Thursday next after the
Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, in the twenty-fourth year of the
reign of King Henry, the son of King John (June 14, a.d. 1240)
Henry, Abbot of Waltham, and Hugo, Abbot of Stratford, found it
desirable to meet in the mother church of Chelmsford and there to
compose certain differences which had arisen over their common wood
in Loughton Snarrynge. The result of their meeting is recorded in a
charter, by which it is solemnly provided that, when either Abbot
wishes to fell any timber, the bailiff of the one shall send for the
bailiff of the other, and the two shall, by common consent, fix upon
four trees of equal value, of which the Abbot of Stratford shall have
first choice as to two, and the Abbot of Waltham take whichever he
prefers of the two remaining. Into the other provisions we heed not
enter here.
So far so good, says a logical reader: we have a wood and we
have monks ; but there is nothing to show that the wood was called
"Monk Wood" ; nor even if it were so called, that it was the
particular wood which now goes by that name. To meet these
objections, which are reasonable enough, we must carry the reader
from the thirteenth to the second half of the sixteenth century, when
Elizabeth, by the grace of God, was Queen, and, withal, lady of the
manor of Loughton, alias Lucton.
From a Commission to survey, dated May 20, 1582, we learn that
"greate spoyle and waste" was alleged to have been committed in
the felling of a parcel called "Moncke Wood," parcel of the Manor
of Loughton, lately sold to Robert Wroth, Esq. by Thobie Hough-
ton, surveyor of woods to the Duchy of Lancaster. The three
commissioners named were directed to repair to Mouncke Wood,
then and there calling before them Robert Wrothe and others. Their