bordars and two serfs, and pasture for 250 sheep.
It was worth forty shillings. Sweyn was one of the
most powerful landowners in Essex, with manors at
Rayleigh (where he had his castle), Hockley, Eastwood,
Great Wakering, Prittlewell, Shoebury, Rochford.
Canewdon and a dozen other places. He was a
son of Robert FitzWimarc of Clavering, who acted as
hereditary Standard Bearer and served both Edward
the Confessor and William as Sheriff of Essex. Robert
was probably of Norman descent and may have been
related to both kings ; he had attempted to dissuade
William from his projected invasion, but was certainly
on good terms with the Conqueror, who not only
allowed him to retain his lands in Essex, but added to
them. Sweyn died in 1087 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey, to which he had bequeathed
certain lands near Rayleigh. It was his son, Robert
of Essex, who granted land to certain Cluniac monks
for the founding of Prittlewell Priory. Robert's son,
Henry of Essex, did not maintain the family greatness ;
accused of treason for having cast aside the King's
standard during one of Henry II's campaigns against
the Welsh, he met the charge in a judicial combat,
in which he was defeated, so that his lands were
forfeited to the Crown.
THE PEASANTS' REVOLT.
Men from Benfleet took an active part in the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The outbreak occurred in
Essex when men from the neighbouring parishes of
Fobbing, Corringham and Stanford were cited to
appear before Thomas Bampton, one of the King's
Commissioners, who had been sent to Brentwood to
enforce the collection of the poll tax, the payment of
which, greatly resented by the peasants by reason
of the unfairness of its distribution, had been
systematically evaded. The men refused to make
any further contributions, and when Bampton
attempted to arrest them, they fell upon him and his
small following of three clerks and two men-at-arms
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