Old Images of Grays, Essex

Historic Book

Extract from: Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present. Printed for Private Circulation, by William Palin

Published in 1871

Pages 33 – 36

GRAYS THURROCK .
That portion of the Thurrocks now known as Grays Thurrock , is recorded
in ‘ Domesday ‘ as having been two manors , one belonging to Harold , the
other to Almar .
Harold’s was a great lordship , estimated at 13 hides of land , valued at
£ 12 annually , and after the Conquest fell to the possession of Robert , Count
of Eu , cousin to King William . Almar’s manor was measured at 3 hides
and 42 acres , valued at £ 6 . Nine socmen were attached to this manor , who
held between them 2 hides of land ; this estate became the property of
William Peverel , of Nottingham , the natural son of the Conqueror .
These both were very great Barons , whose chief estates lay in distant
counties . They both held their Thurrock manors in demesne , that is , in
their own hands , and the produce would be stored up for their use .
To Harold’s manor were attached 7 houses in London , one of which we
may presume became the town residence of the Count of Eu , and to it
would be easily conveyed by water , the produce of the manor at Thurrock .
It was the only property that the Count of Eu possessed in Essex ; and in
those days , when rents were paid in kind , and money was scarce , such an
accessible country manor would be extremely convenient ; independent of
the power of indulging there , among the Essex forests , in the Norman pas
sion for the chase , this manor contained in King Edward the Confessor’s
time 6 carucates of arable on the demesne , and 10 amongst the tenants
[ hominum ] , 12 villeins , 16 bordars , and 16 slaves . But under the Count of
Eu there were only 5 carucates of arable on the demesne , and 13 amongst
the tenants , 17 villeins , 45 bordars , and only 8 slaves . The diminished
number of slaves amongst the Norman lords is almost universally observ

able . From some cause downright slavery must have been inconsistent with
their habits and modes of tenure . On this lordship of Thurrock there was
woodland for 200 hogs , pasture for 500 sheep , 40 acres of meadow , 2
fisheries , 5 cows , 3 farm – horses , [ runcini ] , 16 hogs , 550 sheep . The value
formerly estimated at £ 12 , but under the Count of Eu at £ 30. * The in
crease of population is worthy of remark . Such facts as these prove that
the change from the Saxon to the Norman rule was not always for the
worse .

Robert , Count of Eu , was one of the Norman Barons summoned by Wil
liam , then only Duke of Normandy , to attend the famous Council at Lille
bonne . He afterwards accompanied him in his invasion of England .
where the Conqueror intrusted to him the enstody of the Castle of Hastings ;
he also bestowed on him and his son William d’Ea great estates in va
rious counties . Through the great obscurity of past ages we have historic
glimpses of Robert , Count of Eu . In 1070 he was one of the Barons sent
to check the Danish invasion of Yorkshire . During King William’s subse
quent absence in Normandy , Count Robert was left in England , in high
authority . After the death of the Conqueror , he espoused the side of
William Rufus , in opposition to that of Robert Court – hose . Four genera
tions passed , and then the last male heir of these ancient Counts of Eu died ,
leaving an only daughter and heiress , Alice , the wife of a Frenchman , Ralph
de Lusignan , or De Ysondun . She lived during the reigns of Richard Cour
de Lion and John ; on the loss of Normandy by that king , she was , like
many others , obliged to decide to which monarch she would give her alle
giance . Her choice was in favour of Philip Augustus , the French king ,
with whom in 1219 she as a widow made a treaty by deed , respecting the
restoration of her Comté of Eu , which he had seized . Her descendants ,
being the Counts of Eu of the second race , became henceforth decidedly
French , and the English estates escheated , as a matter of course , to the
Crown . Morant overlooked these facts when he says , speaking of Thur
rock , ‘ This manor becoming vested in the Crown [ by what means we do
not learn ] , King Richard I. in 1194 granted it to Henry de Gray . ‘
The probability is , that Ralph de Lusignan , the husband of the Countess
Alice , being a Frenchman , not a Norman , had in some way fallen under the
displeasure of King Richard , during the wars of that monarch with Philip
Augustus , King of France .
We must now return to the second and smaller Manor , originally pos
sessed by Almar the Saxon , and afterwards by William Peverel . The entry
respecting it in ‘ Domesday ‘ is translated as follows : – **
Turroc is held by William [ Peverel ] in demesne ; it was held by Almar
in King Edward’s time , as a Manor , and as 3 hides with 42 acres . Then

2 Villeins , now 3. Then 21 Bordars , now 18. Always 2 slaves , and
2 carucates of arable in the demesne . Then 4 carucates of arable among
the tenants , now 5. Pasture for 100 sheep . Always a fishery . Then
2 villeins [ query cattle ] , 58 sheep , 1 – cart – horse : now 5 cows , 4 calves , 85
sheep , 8 hogs . Then it was worth £ 6 , and the same when he took posses
sion , now £ 12 and an ounce of gold . To this Manor belonged 9 socmen
in King Edward’s time holding 3 hides ; now there are 5 , holding a hide
and a half . And Gilbert , one of the Bishop of Bayeux’s vassals , holds a
hide and a half less 10 acres ; and the Hundred does not know by what
means . Twenty acres are also held by Anschetill , one of the Bishop of
London’s vassals , which did belong to this Manor in King Edward’s time ,
as to this also , the Hundred knows not . “

William Peverel , of Nottingham , the capital Lord of this Manor , was son
of the beautiful Ingelrica , daughter of Ingelric the Saxon ; and , although he
bore his name , was only stepson of Ralph Peverel , the Essex baron , the
husband of his mother . William Peverel , of Notts , so called to distinguish
him from his half – brother , William Peverel , of Dover , was greatly trusted
by his lord and father , King William the Conqueror . He made him
Castellan of Nottingham Castle , and endowed him with vast estates in the
midland counties . In Derbyshire , the remains of the castle of Peverel of
the Peak recall his memory . In Essex he held only two manors , this at
Thurrock , and another at Thorington [ Toringdunum ] . William , his son
and heir , was accused of having poisoned Ralph , Earl of Chester , towards
the close of Stephen’s reign . His Honour of Nottingham was consequently
forfeited , and he fled , his disappearance giving rise to romantic stories
respecting him . He left one sole daughter and heiress , Margaret , wife of
William Ferrars , third Earl of Derby . Their marriage took place at Canter
bury in 1163 , Thomas à Becket , the Archbishop , being the officiating priest . *
Margaret Peverel inherited the remainder of her father’s estates , or perhaps
had them settled as her marriage portion before the forfeiture . She is said
to have lived till 1247 ; it is possible that such may have been the case , as
in those ages marriages were contracted in childhood . Earl William Ferrars
gave by charter , sans date , the church of Thurrock [ Turrok ] , with all its
rights and appurtenances , to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem , for the
health of his own soul , that of his wife , of his ancestors , and his heirs . This
charter is given in the Monasticon.’t The manor of Thurrock was long
in the possession of the Ferrars family , and was settled , together with their
other Essex estates , by William de Ferrars , seventh Earl of Derby , in
1252 , upon his younger son , William de Ferrars , of Groby , to hold of him
by the service of five knights ‘ fees . On the death of William , sixth
Earl of Ferrars of Groby , in 1414 , his granddaughter and heiress , Elizabeth ,
carried these Essex estates in franc – marriage to her husband , Sir Edward
Grey ; and what rights the Ferrars family retained in Thurrock , seem to

have gone with them to the Greys . * We thus find , both the manors into
which Thurrock was divided became the property of the members of the
Grey family . It may well bear the name of Grays Thurrock ; and here is a
very suitable place to mention some particulars respecting the origin of that
illustrious family , of which Grays Thurrock , in Essex , certainly appears to
have been the English cradle ; like many other cradles , very humble as
compared with the after fortunes of its occupant and his descendants .
French genealogists assert that the name of this family is derived from
the parish of Gray , in Normandy . They consider that the descent of the
De Greys or Grays from the lords of Croy , in Picardy , as assigned to them
by Edmundson and some other English genealogists , is both fabulous and
ridiculous . + Dugdale , however , is an exception ; he commences his pedi
gree of the Greys with Henry de Gray , to whom Richard Coeur de Lion
gave the manor in Thurrock . We , however , will go further back , to An
schitillus de Grai , who is recorded in Domesday ‘ as holding seven manors
in Oxfordshire , of the barony [ then escheated ] of William Fitz Osborn , Earl
of Hereford . Contemporary with Anschitillus , notices of the Gray family
occur in Normandy , in which duchy Gray is a village on the shore of the
English Channel , in the modern department of Calvados . In 1082 , Gisla ,
daughter of Turstin , gave all her land in Gray and Dounville to the Abbey
of the Holy Trinity at Caen ; ** her nephew , Turstin , to whom the fief belonged ,
[ cujus feodum erat ] consenting to the same . The authors of the ‘ Re
cherches sur le Domesday ‘ do not hesitate to set down Anschitillus de Grai ,
of Oxfordshire , as the younger brother of Turstin , feudal lord of Grai .
Whether in England or in Normany , the links in the family chain seem to
be entangled , if not entirely missing , until the end of the twelfth century .
Then , in 1168 , Henry and William de Gray appear as benefactors to the
Abbey of Longues.tt Also in a charter , sans date , William and Henry de
Gray , son of Serlon de Gray , acknowledged that their elder brother , Richard
De Gray , had given the advowson of Tracy to the Abbey of Cericy . In
1184 William de Gray owed 16s . to the Normandy Exchequer , ‡‡ and soon
after William de Gray confirmed to the Abbey of Cericy the tithes of all
his land at Litry .