A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2001.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
'Easthorpe: Local government', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe, (London, 2001) pp. 203. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/p203 [accessed 23 April 2024]
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
In 1205 the lessee of Easthorpe manor was exempted from suit to the shire and hundred courts. (fn. 1) In 1303 the lord of Easthorpe manor was granted free warren. (fn. 2) The few surviving court rolls show that manor courts met infrequently between 1727 and 1794 to deal with routine manorial business such as transfers of holdings, but that none at all met between 1728 and 1737; there were usually two jurors. (fn. 3)
Easthorpe's rate of poor relief expenditure per head of population was about average for Lexden hundred. Costs were £54 in 1776, aver- aged £95 in 1783-5, and in 1802 were £285. They fluctuated between £87 and £265 between 1803 and 1818, rose to £311 in 1819, equivalent to 35s. 7d. a head, and then fell to £182 in 1824. (fn. 4) Between 1825 and 1830 they ranged between £261 and £173, and then fell to £137, equivalent to 16s. 4d. a head, in 1836. (fn. 5)