LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
John Engaine held
view of frankpledge and the assizes of bread and
of ale in 1274, (fn. 83) and his successor a three-weekly
court in 1347. (fn. 84) In 1429 two men were summoned for marrying villeins without licence, and
a third made fine for a similar marriage. In 1556
the court dealt with assault and affray. A constable and a taster of ale were elected at the
Whitsun leet by 1503. (fn. 85) Courts leet ceased after
1700, and in the 18th century courts baron were
held irregularly, their only business being to
record the transfer of copyholds. (fn. 86) Courts were
held at Christ's Hospital's farmhouse or
occasionally, in the 19th century, at the Five
Bells. The last court was held in 1895, but conveyances and enfranchisements of copyholds
were entered in the court books until 1927. (fn. 87)
By 1400 the lords of Wakes Colne were holding courts leet and baron, with the assize of ale,
for Little Colne, including Goldingtons manor.
The courts were separate from those of Wakes
Colne by 1653. (fn. 88) From 1462 or earlier a separate
constable was elected for Little Colne. (fn. 89)
By 1467 the lords of Goldingtons manor were
holding courts baron for their Essex estates,
including Colne Engaine. (fn. 90) The lord's pound
was broken in 1603. (fn. 91) The courts, held at the
south-west corner of Goldingtons green, continued until 1861, and conveyances and enfranchisements of copyholds were entered in court
books until 1899. (fn. 92)
At all three courts from the 15th to the 17th
centuries tenants were presented for failing to
scour ditches, for felling trees, for encroaching
on greens and roads, and for digging clay
illegally.
A court for Sherives manor was held in 1766, (fn. 93)
but no court records have survived.
Robert Prentice, parish constable in 1693, was
accused of fraud and false accounting. (fn. 94) Two
constables' sticks were painted in 1765. (fn. 95)
In the earlier 18th century weekly allowances
were paid to up to 18 paupers; occasional relief
in kind, usually clothes or shoes, was also
given. (fn. 96) The numbers receiving regular relief
rose to 26 in 1769 and to 31 in 1798; clothes and
shoes continued to be bought, and a surgeon
or apothecary was paid in the 1760s and 1770s.
In 1761, 1762, and 1766 spinning wheels was
bought for pauper women. (fn. 97) The same system
continued into the 19th century, and in addition
some men were paid for work on the roads. (fn. 98) A
workhouse, whose inmates were employed in
spinning and hop-picking, operated between
c. 1750 and 1761 and again from c. 1777 to
c. 1790 or perhaps to 1795 when the overseers
settled affairs there. At other times the building
seems to have been used as pauper housing. It
was sold in 1839. (fn. 99)
The three unendowed almshouses reported in
1768 were probably also used for pauper housing. That on Buntings green may have been the
house built there by the parish in the late 16th
century for 'a most wicked and ungodly man'.
The houses were presumbly those sold by the
parish in 1836. (fn. 1)
Expenditure on the poor more than doubled
between 1776 and 1783-5, rising from £125 to
an average of £266 a year, an increase comparable to that at Earls Colne and one of the largest
in the hundred. (fn. 2) By 1803 expenditure had risen
to £422, and by 1813 to £607 or £1 4s. 2d. per
head of population, one of the lower rates in the
hundred. It fell to £427 in 1816 before rising to
£734 in 1818. Expenditure per head remained
slightly below average for the hundred until
1830 when total expenditure rose to £900, £1
9s. 2d. a head. Although expenditure fell to £601
in 1834, expenditure per head remained above
average for the hundred. (fn. 3)
Eighteenth-century and early 19th-century
vestry meetings were attended by the parish
officers, the rector or curate, and 6-7 parishioners. Although in 1821 there was reported
to be no select vestry, there seems to have been
a distinction in the mid 18th century between
the annual 'town' meeting and others. (fn. 4) In the
1830s meetings were sometimes adjourned from
the church to the Five Bells. In 1839 the vestry
agreed to pay to vaccinate poor families; in 1845
money raised for poor relief paid for a soup
kitchen. (fn. 5)