Place:High Easter, Essex, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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High Easter is a village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford District, in the English county of Essex. It is near the large town of Chelmsford and includes the hamlet of Stagden Cross. It is near the chief source of the River Can.

The parish was part of the Dunmow Rural District from 1894 until 1974. The parish was originally in the Dunmow Hundred. The population of the parish, according to the UK census of 2011, was 754.

High Easter is part of an area of Essex villages and parishes known as 'The Easters', which is adjacent to the east of another area of villages called The Rodings.

History

The name 'High Easter' refers not to the Christian festival 'Easter', but to the 11th-century "Estre" (in the Domesday Book as "Estra"), from the Old English eowestre meaning a sheep fold, or 'a place at the sheep fold'. The 'High' part refers to the Old English "heah" (meaning geographically high), the place name being "Heyestre" in 1254. The sister village of Good Easter to the south, has the same origin. By 1200 that place was called "Godithestre", the 'Good' part of today's place name derived from the Anglo-Saxon woman's name of "Godgyth" or "Godgifu", who probably held possession of the place. High Easter developed as a linear settlement in an elevated postion to the west of the parish church. The village was also latterly known as "High Easton".

Before the Norman Conquest, High Estra belonged to Ely Abbey, but at the time of the Conquest it was seized by Algor, the constable of the army. He was dispossessed by William the Conqueror who gave the manor to Geoffrey de Mandeville. The manor house was today's Grade II* listed 'High Easterbury', dating to the 13th century, which is situated to the southwest of the parish church of St Mary. This house and manor was formerly held by the Earls of Essex and the Fitz-Piers, Bohun and Stafford families.

According to Kelly's Directory, High Easter in 1895 was in the Dunmow Hundred, one of The Hundred Parishes, and the rural deanery of Roding. Parish land of 4,826 acres was of clay soil and grew chiefly wheat, beans and barley, and supported a population of 690 in 1891. The lady of the manor was Queen Victoria, with major landowners being Lord Rayleigh, Sir Brydges Powell Henniker, 4th Baronet of the Henniker baronets, and the trustees of the late Lord Dacre. The Church of St Mary had been "thoroughly restored in 1865 at a cost of £2,200". The church vicarage and glebe (land used for the support of a parish priest), was in the gift of the Bishop of London. High Easter's vicar since 1849 had been the Rev. Edward Francis Gepp M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford, who was also rural dean of Roding and a Justice of the Peace for Essex.

Parish occupations in 1895 included a tailor & draper, a blacksmith, two wheelwrights, one of whom was also a carrier, two grocers, one of whom was also a draper and an agent for W. A. Gilbey wine and spirit merchants, a saddler & harness maker, a beer retailer, a shoe maker, a miller using wind and steam, eight farmers, two of whom were landowners and one a carrier, two wikipedia:licensed victuallers:licensed victuallers of public houses, and two farm bailiffs.

Quoting the archeologist Miller Christy, J. Charles Cox wrote in his 1909 guide book Essex (The Little Guides): "In and around the Easters are many old farmhouses of timber and plaster, formerly residences of greater consequence than at present; many are moated and have large or ornamented brick chimneys".

Research Tips

• A map of Dunmow Rural District where it is marked as D13.
• The Recorders of Ucclesford History provides a series of webpages on most of the parishes in Ucclesford District. They also host transcriptions from various parishes provided by local family history societies.
• Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
• The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
• GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
• Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
• For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
• FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
• The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
• A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
• British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:

Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).

Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.

Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.

Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.

Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.

Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.

Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.

• As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:

• Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
• Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
• Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records