I would like to tell you a story around a court case. This is based on the report of an inquisition held at Saffron Walden in 1401 and was a writ for proof of age. Chrishall is at the centre of this story as the case hinges on a baptism held at Chrishall Church and mentions several people who were living in the village at the time.

The case involved a chap called John Helion who needed to prove that he was of age to inherit after the death of his father. John was a ward of John Clerk who was vicar of Chrishall. Several people were called as witnesses. There was a Mr Basset who said he knew that Master Helion was of age because he was present at his baptism on 14 February. Also in attendance were Master John Dunwich, the rector of Borley, and Avice Kersen, the prioress of Ickleton. Mr Basset was able to recall the day exactly as it was the day before his own daughter, Isabel, was baptised.

Also in the church on this day were Thomas Heynes, John Elis and Robert Lawney, who were there for a funeral, the burial of Margaret, wife of John de Wawton, who was a knight. 

So already we have quite a picture of Chrishall Church nearly 650 years ago. Imagine the group around the font, baptising the baby. And it seems that it was an important occasion as the Prioress of Ickleton was in attendance as well as the rector of Borley. Borley is near Sudbury and over an hour’s drive by car so it must have been a day’s carriage drive for the rector at least to arrive at Chrishall.

And then there were another group who were there for a funeral. The whole of human life in one day!

However there were further witnesses called. Mr Parker, Mr Serle, Mr Pite, and Mr Lavenham, were all working in the field of Henry Helion by the church. The field was called Pirifeld, and I wonder if ‘Piri’ has some connection with pears and perhaps there were pear trees growing nearby. I have no proof of that of course. However we are definitely told in the report that they were measuring and, the reason they are witnesses, they saw the godparents coming from the church on that day.

So we know who was attending services in the church and who was working in the fields. 14th February 1379 was a Sunday, incidentally – thanks ‘Day of the week‘!

But we also know what people were doing socially. William Selonge and Richard Serle, two other witnesses, dined with the rector on that day, and he told them of the baptism over dinner. And John Morice and William Serle, were at the house of Constable John Birle, talking about the building of Mr Birle’s new barn and what was happening at the church.

So, we have all these people, including the prioress of Ickleton. We know who was in the church on that day, 14th February, and we know why they were there. We even know who was working in the fields just outside, who had dinner with the rector and the fact that Mr Birle was building a new barn. That’s a lot of village information. And when was this? 1900s? No. Victorian times? No. It was in 1379. 1379. That’s nearly 650 years ago.

As I have mentioned, it seems likely that the visit of the prioress of Ickleton might have caused a stir – enough for the subject of the baptism to be discussed over dinner anyway. Or maybe it was that this baby was made a ward of John Clerk the rector of the time.

According to Wikipedia the earliest record of Ickleton Priory’s existence is a commission issued between 1174 and 1181 by Pope Alexander III.^[2] This was in response to the priory’s claim that in about 1163 Thomas Becket, then Archbishop of Canterbury, had granted the nuns in income of 40 shillings from the parish church of nearby Fowlmere. Although the priory lasted in Ickleton for 350 years it was never very large, although it did have lands in several surrounding villages. According to British History Online, the poor nuns of Ickleton were exempted from taxes in 1256.

Avice Kersen, who visited Chrishall that Valentine’s Day in 1379, was prioress for some considerable time. She had been prioress at Thomas de Wormenhale’s visitation in 1373, and was still prioress in 1402.

Sadly, at present, I can’t bring this case to a conclusion. Did John Helion get his inheritance? I don’t know. There are no further details on this case that I know of currently. But I am very grateful that we still have even this much information, enabling us to imagine a day in the village all those years ago.

References:

King’s College London, 2014. | Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available at http://www.inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/18-666/ [Accessed: 29/5/2024]King’s College London, 2014. | Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available at http://www.inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/18-666/index.html [Accessed: 16/10/2025]

Read more about Ickleton Priory here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109884426&seq=476&q1=ickleton