A HISTORY OF SALT-MAKING IN ESSEX. 199
church, "one hundred marks which William Bounde and Robert
Barlow owe me for one lot of salt."11
In 1501, Henry Boode, of Burnham, left his house to his
wife, except "the berne [barn] in which my salte lyeth" and a
new shop with an inner chamber in which more salt lay, and
he directed that she was not to meddle with these until the salt
was out of them.12
In 1547, John Greke, of Hockley, describing himself as a
"weller" (by which, clearly, he meant a salt-boiler), left to his
son Thomas his "salcotte and iiij ledds belonginge to the said
salt house, with all other implements that a weller ought to have,
but no salte."13 By "ledds," Creke meant, no doubt, leaden
evaporating pans. His salt cote must have been in that small
part of Hockley which extends northwards and abuts upon the
estuary of the River Crouch.
On Whit-Sunday in 1532, when the churchwardens of
Heybridge made a "play" and a feast in their church, they paid
two pence "for a pecke of whyte salte"—made, no doubt, in the
vicinity.14
On 1 June 1567, one Edward Goodding wrote from Ipswich
to Sir William Cecil:15 "I trust to set the [salt-]house in Essex
fullie on worke the nynthe of June at the furthest; and, upon one
wick press made, I will await upon your honour."
The Rev. William Harrison, of Radwinter, writing in 1587,
says16 that "as wel the baie as white [salt] are wrought and
made in England, and more white also upon the west coast,
toward Scotland, in Essex, and elsewhere, but of the salt
water."
Salt-making continued to flourish on our coast until the
beginning of the Nineteenth Century, when it began to decline.
In or about 1710, when some bill relating to the salt trade
was before Parliament, a return was made of the places at which
salt was then made in England.17; and from this it appears that,
in Essex, salt was made or refined at Manningtree, Colchester,
11 Will dated 20 Jan. 1496-7, and proved 18 July 1497 (P.C.C., 10 Horne).
12 Will dated 20 Feb. and proved 20 April 1502 (P.P.C., 12 Moone).
13 Will dated 28 Mar. 1547 (Archd. Essex, 10 Bastwick, 100-101).
14 See Nichols' Illustrations of the Manners and Expenses of Ancient Times (1797),
p. 181.
15 S.P.D., Eliz, xliii., no. 1.
16 See Holinshed's Chronicles, i, p. 241. In the earlier edition (1577) the words "in
Essex and elsewhere" did not appear.
17 See copy in Brit. Mus. (816. m. 13, ft. 108 and 109).