316
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
years before our Club was founded.
Henry's father, Benjamin, took part in local affairs at Epping,
and was Treasurer of the Epping and Ongar Highway Trust, with
which some member of the Doubleday family was associated since
its inauguration in the year 1769. It was in 1825 that Benjamin
was appointed to this office, and upon his death in 1848 Henry
was elected Treasurer in his place. The controlling power of the
Trust was transferred from local worthies to officials in Whitehall
in 1870, having been in existence for 101 years.
This Highway Trust first met on the first Tuesday in May
1769 at Epping Place, an inn, the house of Grace Stokes, the Act
providing for subsequent meetings at any house upon the highway
at most convenient dates. There was a very good attendance at
the inaugural meeting, but enthusiasm waned somewhat later on,
and subsequent meetings were much smaller: nevertheless, the
Trust was progressive, and generally speaking they appear to
have carried out their duties efficiently and energetically. By
virtue of this Act, the tolls were vested in the Trustees; there
was a John Doubleday who was a trustee, and it is recorded in
the Minutes of February 17th, 1785, that he was included among
certain Trustees to investigate and report on the evasion of tolls
by people going down Gaylins Lane. In the first year of the
Trust, it is recorded that a Joseph Doubleday compounded with
the Trustees for liberty to pass through the turnpikes of the
Epping Trust without paying tolls, for one year, for a payment
of 10s. 6d., and the later Minutes of the Trust reveal that this
Joseph Doubleday took quite an important part in its function.
The powers of the Trustees included that of supervision over
the size of the wheels of vehicles, and also had authority to put a
stop to nuisances of the road, an example being their instruction
to the Surveyor to the Trust to give notice of prosecution to
persons who permitted hogs to run loose on the turnpike roads
and damage them.
Another local activity of Henry's was Treasurer of the Epping
Poor Law Union, a position he also inherited upon his father's
death.
The family grocery and hardware business had flourished
under the guidance of his parents, Benjamin and Mary, and whilst
they were in charge Henry had many opportunities of pursuing
his studies in the Forest, and making excursions to collecting
places in East Anglia. His chief interest in his early life was the
study of birds, and by the age of twenty-six he had already
reached a high degree of skill in bird stuffing and mounting, and
it is with characteristic modesty that he wrote to a friend, Dr. T.
C. Heysham of Carlisle, in a letter dated 31st August 1834: —
"I am sure you praise my efforts at setting up birds far
too highly .... I have done the best I could, but often it
happens that business interrupts me when I am about a
bird and I have to leave it for an hour or two .... You
must recollect that I am perfectly self-taught".