Two Essex Village Churches #MondayBlogs

Last week I visited seven of the churches in rural Essex where members of my family were baptised or buried.  These are the first two which we saw.  Sadly only one was unlocked.  Moreton is one of the many villages which are reached by small winding lanes, but the church includes architecture from pre-Norman times with changes and additions over the years.  Originally built of flint and clunch, a soft, chalky limestone, the walls have been strengthened by replacing the clunch with more durable stone.  The tower is built in red brick with a lower shingled spire and there is a typical Essex wooden weather-boarded porch.  The windows date from the 15th, 18th and 19th centuries.

St Mary's Church, Moreton

There was a tradition of Dissenting Ministers in Essex so it was a pleasure to find this memorial to Rev. S. Gaffee.

St Mary the Virgin, Matching is reached by driving along a single track road past a beautiful pond.  The village has changed very little since the 18th century.

St Mary the Virgin, Matching

This was the smartest church we visited, mainly due to the owners of nearby Down Hall who gave £3000 for its improvement in 1875.  Probably a Norman church, on the site of a former Saxon church, it has a 13th century doorway and a 15th century tower.

The signature of William Dearling MA vicar from 1761-1784 is written in the Prayer Book given to my ancestor Bartholomew Glasscock who was churchwarden in Matching.

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This window is dedicated to Sir Henry and Lady Selwin-Ibbetson of Down Hall, who supported the church so well.

The little book belonging to Bartholomew Glasscock

One of the most exciting finds connected to my family history was a tiny book wrapped in brown paper.  It was hidden in a bookcase which I was going through after my mother died.

When first researching my grandmother’s ancestry I had hit a brick wall with her grandmother Elizabeth Palmer.  In 1842 Elizabeth Palmer married William Hopkins, part of a well-established family of Thames Lightermen in Lambeth and Southwark, but Elizabeth came from the small village of Sheering in Essex and I had problems discovering more about her family.

Gradually over many years I traced her father Thomas Palmer son of George Palmer and Mary Glascock also from Sheering and I was intrigued by Mary’s father Bartholomew Glasscock who although also born and married in Sheering appeared as a witness to many marriages at St Mary’s church in the nearby village of Matching.

Opening the little brown book revealed that all my research had been correct.  There were four handwritten names, three of which followed the family tree I had researched. The second name was Bartholomew Glasscock my 5^th great grandfather, the third name was Elizabeth Palmer, my 3^rd great grandmother and the last name Constance Talbot was my grandmother.

So what is this little book?  It is “The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper explained to the Meanest Capacity in a Familiar Dialogue between a Minister and one of his Parishioners” printed in 1766.  On the next page was written William Hopkins, husband of Elizabeth Palmer and the Granddad who had passed the book on to Constance Talbot.

I was able to discover William Dearing by Googling.  He was Vicar of St Mary the Virgin in the village of Matching in Essex from 1761 until 1785.  This was the time when Bartholomew Glasscock was witnessing marriage ceremonies in that church.

St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex

I have now visited the charming church in Matching down a narrow country lane and continue to explore the Glasscock family in Essex. I do like it when all the pieces of a jigsaw fit together especially with a primary source!

In December 2015 I was contacted by a Glascocke descendent in Virginia.  We are now investigating the unlikely possibility that our shared ancestor was one of the first 17th century residents of Jamestown, Virginia.