150 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
known. He was elected Common Serjeant of London, 1453, Recorder in 1454,
and is then styled "a discreet and circumspect man," and elected "for his
prudence and affability." In 1461 he represented London in parliament. He
took the side of the House of York, and in 1471 he, with some of the aldermen
"that hade reule of the cyte," let King Edward in at "dynertyme," and then took
King Henry VI. and Archbishop Nevill, and put them "in warde" the next day.
On the 22nd of May, 1472, Sir Thomas was appointed Chief Baron of the
Exchequer, and held this until his death, seven years later. Amongst his estates
we find "the Manor of Marks with two messuages, a windmill, 360 acres of
land, and 110/- rent." He also held the Manor of Uphavering or Gobions, in
Romford (Marks Gate), of Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV., consisting of a
messuage, 222 acres of land, and a rent of 8/1.
There are also memorial tablets to members of the Fanshawe family, and on
the south wall to Jacob Uphill, 1662, the father of Richard, previously mentioned.
On the north wall of the nave are tablets to Thomas Waters, 1756, John
Tyler of Mawney's, 1807, and one recording the munificent gift of £10,000 by
Wm Ford, a farmer, in 1825, for the building and endowment of a free school
at Dagenham. He also left £900 for clothing the poor. On the south side are
memorials to Nathaniel and James Rogers, Alex. Millner, Jonathan Arnold, of
Whalebone Cottage, 1857, John Guillemard, F.R.S., 1844, and William Stone,
1839. On either side of the tower are two small vestries.
The church and manor formerly belonged to the Abbey of Barking; and are
therefore not mentioned in Domesday Book. They took the great tithes, which
now form part of the endowment of the Free School at Brentwood, founded by
Sir Antony Browne, and endowed a vicarage here. The present patron is Mr. T.
C: Moore. The Rev. John Langhorne, D.D. (1735-1779), poet and joint author
with his brother William of a Translation of "Plutarch's Lives," by which
he is now best known, came here as curate in 1761, after his unrequited attach-
ment to Miss Anne Cracraft, and here penned his "Hymn to Hope."
Mr. Crouch concluded his remarks by calling attention to a gravestone close
by the door of the vicar's chancel, in memory of James Palmer, for twenty-four
years clerk and sexton of this church, who met his death by the falling in of a
grave in 1878. Beneath is a stanza from "Miss Kilmansegg," by Tom Hood,
beginning "'Tis a stern and startling thing to think." The vicar then said that
he had suggested the epitaph, and asked if it was not an appropriate one.
On leaving the church, the walk lay across the fields to Rippleside, where in
olden times stood the Manor House of "Cockermouth." This, and even the
name, has entirely disappeared, the modern residence of Mr. W. Varco Williams,
named "Merrie-lands," being built on the site. John de Cockermouth held this
of the Abbess of Barking, temp. Edward III. At the Dissolution it was sold to
Sir Antony Browne.
Thence by way of Chequer's Lane the party arrived at Dagenham Level, and
the margin of the Thames, overlooking the great Breach which occurred here on
the 17th December, 1707. Permission to visit here had been accorded by Mr.
Williams, the owner, and one of his sons kindly received the members and gave
some details of the machinery, and the work on which they are engaged. Standing
on the new wooden jetty, with the four lofty hydraulic cranes towering above, a
paper was read by Mr. Crouch on the course of the river, the characteristics of the
locality, and the incidents and repair of the great Breach (this paper will be
printed in extenso in the next number).