102
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Graffiti in Essex:
Some Further Examples
BY REV. MONTAGU BENTON, M.A., F.S.A.
M
Mr. l. s. Harley's article on "Graffiti in Essex" (Vol. 29, pp. 1-8)

has no doubt stimulated interest in an attractive by-way of archaeology.
Those who feel inclined to pursue the subject further may be glad to have
their attention drawn to some notable examples of these informal scratched
inscriptions and devices which seem to have escaped his notice.
Steeple Bumpstead church contains the most extensive series of graffiti
to be found in any church in Essex. They include the collect for St.
Erkenwald, a marriage record of the fourteenth century, an early specimen
of church music, and drawings of a duck, fish, dogs, etc. Some of the most
interesting of these are illustrated in an article on "Medieval Graffiti in
Steeple Bumpstead and other Essex churches" which I contributed in
1945 to Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, XVII (N.S.),
pp. 257-264. Among the other mediaeval instances in various Essex churches
there recorded, a few of the most outstanding may be mentioned.
Around the chancel doorway of Rickling church is the love-token of
Colin and Isabel Walden, namely, three flowers springing from a heart,
with the motto tout dys, old French for toujours.
On the south doorway of Hatfield Broad Oak church, originally part of
a monastic building, these lines occur: fit animae jus cum vita finit
(Justice is done to the soul when life ends). Marye O helpe us. Possibly
they were cut by some disconsolate soul at the dissolution of the priory.
At Little Dunmow is this motto: Dum sumus in mundo, vivamus corde
jocundo, or. in other words, "A short life and a merry one"—strange
sentiments to find on the walls of a monastic church! There are also to
be seen here a well-executed drawing of a monk's head and a Latin
inscription to John de Monte-Caniso (or Montchensy), who was, no doubt,
a member of the baronial family of that name.
Heraldic devices are not uncommon; a Bourchier-Vere badge cut on one
of the piers in Stebbing church is noteworthy. It shows the Bourchier
knot with the Vere motet in the centre, and possibly commemorates the
marriage of William Bourchier, son and heir of Henry, Earl of Essex,
to Elizabeth, one of the daughters of John de Vere, twelfth Earl of Oxford.
Sir John Bourchier bequeathed books, etc., to Stebbing church m 1195.
The following late inscription, incised by the rector of the time, may be
seen on the south wall of the chancel of Alphamstone church: This
chiancell was repared wyth New tymber worke By me nycholas le Gryce
p'son A° 1578.
Although countless graffiti must have been obliterated during the last
century, when our churches were restored and the stonework ruthlessly
scraped, examples still remain to be recorded. For instance, some years
ago I noticed on the Boutetort canopy in Walter Belchamp church a shield
scratched with the arms apparently of the Poynings family, and an
inscription, BIGUN ANO 1574, which possibly records the date when the
tomb-recess or chantry chapel at the back of the canopy was removed and
the existing wall and window substituted. Various inscriptions were also
found on the responds of the tower-arch, including Johannes Coo sub
preceptore Willimo Broughtono, and immediately below it, John Gyllot.
According to Newcourt, John Gilliot was appointed vicar of Belchamp
Walter, 4 Sept., 1529.