STRAY NOTES, PREHISTORIC, SAXON, AND NORMAN. 227
again, lay it in order, and use it in every degree as the Lord of Ruckwood Hall
hath done &c. . . . [Here I omit the various other Watches.]
This is called Navestock Watch.
Wednesday following the same is yearly presented to the Lord of the Manner
of Loft Hall in Navestock &c. The Watch is kept in Three Wants Lane.
Morant goes on to say :
" This procession seems to have been a yearly muster of fencible men who
were appointed to guard the Hundred against murders and robberies for both of
which it was liable to pay a fine. If by preventing these the King receives no
harm as in the loss of a subject or the felonious breach of his peace the subject
escapes a fine otherwise due for suffering a murderer or thief to escape."
The ceremony began at Abbasse Roothing, as we have seen, as
at the extremity of the Hundred, went on to Chigwell, the other
extreme, and returned to High Laver, which is in the neighbourhood
of Ruckwood Hall. At one of these two Manor Houses we may
suppose it deposited, with due regard to Royal authority. What we
learn from the records concerning the design of this ceremony of the
Wardstaffe is—that it was to represent the King's person and to keep
the King's peace, as is illustrated by the following records:
Inquisition 15 Henry 8. Margaret Nynge held 4 acres of pasture 2 of meadow
& 3 of wood in Bobbingworthe of our Lord the King by the service of keeping
the Rod of our Lord the King called the Wardstaffe at Bobbingworth annually
when it shall come there by which particular the person of the King is
represented.
Some lands were held by the service of finding two men to watch with the
Wardstaffe : others of keeping the Wardstaffe and of paying Wardsilver and
doing white service at the Wardstaffe. Thus John Wright. 6 Jas. 1st held the
manor of Kelvedon Hatch of Robert Lord Riche as of the Wardstaffe and by the
the service of finding 2 men to watch with the aforesaid Staffe for all services.
Reginald Rysmere 22nd Henry 7th held the manor of Daweshall in Lam-
bourne of the Duke of Buckingham as of the Castle of Ongar by fealty and the
payment of 2s. per annum called Wardsilver and to make white service for the
Lord Duke at the Wardstaffe.
Cecelia Walis 23rd Henry 7th held the Manor of Madale in Epping of the same
Duke by the service of keeping the Wardstaffe and this in lieu of all other
services.
Lastly, Morant, quoting from the Rolls of Assize 36 Henry 3rd, tells us that
the wardstaffe was to be carried through the Towns and Hundreds of Essex as
far as to a place called Attewode near the sea, and be thrown there into the sea.
The only light thrown upon this account of the ceremony that I
have been able to meet with is that furnished by Sir Francis
Palgrave in his "Rise of the English Commonwealth," from which
work I have gathered the following information.