166
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
There were also two other sons of old Thomas Willingale,
viz., John Willingale, born 1848, died 1910 ; and Joe Willingale,
who died at age 17 ; but these do not come into the. story.
At a later date to the events with which we are here con-
cerned, in December 1872, the Corporation of London took pro-
ceedings against one Willingale at the petty sessions for felling
a tree in the parish of Loughton in contravention of the Order
of the Epping Forest Commissioners, dated 30th October of that
year : the offender was bound over to appear when called upon,
and cautioned. (Rept. of Coal, Corn and Finance Committee,
July 1, 1875.) I do not know which (if any) of the brothers
was the culprit on this occasion ; the Willingales were, and still
are, a well represented family locally.
Mr. Shaw Lefevre, in one of the extracts quoted, speaks
of the persecution which old Willingale suffered in Loughton
on account of his determination to press his claim.
The lord of the manor purchased, through his agent, the
cottage on Baldwyn's Hill in which Willingale had lived for 27
years, and, on the 12th October 1866, he applied to the County
Court for an Order to recover possession of it. The original
Order is preserved by the descendants of the old man.
It has been openly asserted that this was a vindictive step
on the part of the lord of the manor, the intention of which was,
by forcing Willingale to leave the parish, to disqualify him as
plaintiff in the just instituted Chancery suit of Willingale versus
Maitland and others,10 the Bill of Complaint in which suit had
only been filed ten days before, on 2nd October 1866.
But is this certain ? Mr. Maitland had actually purchased
Willingale's dilapidated cottage, together with others, in May
1866, five months before ; and in the following July he gave each
occupier notice to quit, with the intention (which he duly carried
out) of building other and healthier cottages on the site : and
he offered Willingale, with the others, alternative accommodation,
naturally at an increased rental, in one of these new cottages.11
On July 16th Willingale actually accepted this offer in writing,
but subject to conditions, one of which was that the lord of the
10 The co-defendants in the suit were George Washington Abbott who was the grantee of
some 171/2 acres of Forest land at Black Bushes, to the north of Earl's Path, and adjoining the
"Robin Hood" inn, and John Low, another grantee, who was a farmer in Loughton.
11 Those of us who remember the Rev. John Whitaker Maitland in his later days, as a Member
of our Club, will have difficulty in believing that so gracious and friendly a personality can ever,
at any period of his life, have been guilty of so moan an action as that with which he is charged.