Colchester

“ In the 13th century Colchester was sufficiently important as a port to pay a fee-farm of £46, its ships plying to Winchelsea and France. Elizabeth and James I. encouraged Flemish settlers in the manufacture of baize (“bays and says”) , which attained great importance, so that a charter of Charles I. speaks of burgesses industriously exercising the manufacture of cloth. ”

“ Science owes not a little to natives of Colchester. One of the most distinguished of them was Dr. William Gilbert, born in 1540. The house in Colchester where he received Queen Elizabeth as a guest remains to this day, and a very attractive old house it is. ”

“ Armitage Robinson approached the question from another point of view, in an appendix to his Gilbert Crispin on 'the early charters of St. John's Abbey, Colchester'. [172] His sweeping exposure of 'the Colchester forgery' and 'the Colchester fabricator', 'the compiler or compilers of these forgeries', suggests a probable origin for the Colchester legend, of which he only says that 'it is difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction in Eudo's story'. ”

“ North Bridge is also an iron structure, and East Bridge, with its five arches, is of brick. The public buildings of Colchester are handsome and mostly modern, and the business of the place has been much increased since the extension of Colchester Camp as the headquarters of the Eastern Military District. The picturesque portion of the town must be looked for on the high ground where stand the remains of the Castle, supposed to have been built by the Romans. The monastic ruins in the town are also of more than common interest. ”

“ So the prisoners were marched away on the road to Colchester. They went in at Bothal’s Gate, up Bothal Street, and past the Black Friars’ monastery to the Castle.
Colchester Castle is one of the oldest castles in England, for it was built by King Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred the Great. It is a low square mass, with the largest Norman keep, or centre tower, in the country. The walls are twelve feet thick, and the whole ground floor, and two of the four towers, are built up perfectly solid from the bottom, that it might be made as strong as possible. ”

“ Colchester is the centre of an agricultural district, and has extensive corn and cattle markets. Industries include founding, engineering, malting, flour-milling, rose-growing and the making of clothing and boots and shoes. ”

“ Colchester, in Essex, was the chief city of Britain when the first serious Roman invasion came, and under Claudius the legions crossed the Thames, took Colchester and mastered all the south-east of Britain. Wherever the Romans came, it was their custom to make military roads if they had any intention of settling in the country. Julius Cæsar's expedition we have to regard as little more than one of discovery—to see what the island was like, and whether its products would pay the Empire for the cost of conquest. ”

“ At first this was probably (like its sister keep at Colchester) only enclosed by a shallow ditch and a high earthen bank, crowned by a stout timber palisade, the city wall forming two sides of its perimeter, and probably broken through where the ditch infringed upon it at either end. With the sole exception of Colchester keep, which, as will be seen from the following table of dimensions, is considerably larger, the tower or keep of the castle of London exceeds in size the great rectangular keep of every other castle in the British Isles. ”

“ In 1222 the sheriff of Essex, then in charge, was to transport certain timber, cut by the Constable of Dover Castle, to the port of Colchester. In January, 1223, the bailiffs of the town had credit from the Exchequer for 100s. advanced by them to the Constable of the castle. The Exchequer seems to have guarded the revenue closely, for in 1224 the Bishop of London is called upon to refund £20 paid to William, late Bishop of London, for the repairs of the king’s castle of Colchester. ”

“ I give some prominence to this hotly-contested election at Colchester, as it proved to be somewhat of a turning-point in the history of our crusade. A public meeting had been arranged for in the theatre. I was with our friends previous to this meeting in a room in a hotel. Already we heard signs of the mob gathering to oppose us. The dangerous portion of this mob was headed and led on by a band of keepers of houses of prostitution in Colchester, who had sworn that we should be defeated and driven from the town. ”

“ In a few days we left the rustic vicinity of Portsmouth, and reached the red-bricked town of Colchester, where our time passed in such amusements as are usually practised at a provincial quarter and are so well known to most of the British army, who have had the honor of promenading up and down its pavé. ”

“ The Colchester p. 7people have a fine appreciation of their ancient and prosperous town, the streets of which are alive with military. There is a large camp here, the gallant men of which seem to have a due appreciation of the fine complexion and healthy figures of the Essex servant girls. ”

“ Francis Vere, cousin of the Earl of Oxford, lord of Hedingham and of all the surrounding country, was to start that morning to ride to Colchester, there to join the Earl of Leicester and his following as a volunteer. As soon as breakfast was over young Geoffrey and Lionel Vickars, boys of fourteen and thirteen years old, proceeded to the castle close by, and there mounted the horses provided for them, and rode with Francis Vere to Colchester. ”

“ But Abbot Colchester did indulge one luxury, whether out of a taste for it or because it was the fashion of the time, I cannot say. He was fond of being entertained, particularly by musicians; [68] and his Seneschal's accounts during these six or seven years are full of small payments to such persons, from a boy who danced before my lord at Walsingham for 6d. to Henry the piper—fistulator—who was retained at Pyrford all Christmas time for 14s. He could provide some of this enjoyment from the resources of the Abbey, as when he made two clerks bring a pair of organs from Westminster to Pyrford. ”

“ Cloth-weaving was introduced in the 14th century, and in the 16th century Colchester was noted for its “bays and says.” Colchester also possessed a valuable leather industry in the 16th century, at which period Essex was considered an exceptionally wealthy and prosperous county; Norden, writing in 1594, describes it as “moste fatt, frutefull, and full of all profitable things.” The decline of the cloth industry in the 17th century caused great distress, but a number of smaller industries began to take its place. ”

“ Colburn, Zerah, an American youth, with an astonishing power of calculation, born in Vermont, and exhibited as such, a faculty which he lost when he grew up to manhood (1804-1840) .
Colchester (35) , the largest town in Essex, 51 m. from London, on the right bank of the Colne, of great antiquity, and with Roman remains; has been long famous for its oyster fishery; has silk manufactures; is the port of outlet of a large corn-growing district.
Colchester, Charles Abbot, Lord, English statesman; sometime Chief Secretary of Ireland, and Speaker of the House of Commons ”

“ He, having had there several large meetings, went from thence to Colchester, where, with difficulty he visited James Parnel in prison. From Colchester he went to Ipswich, and so on to Norwich and Yarmouth, finding service every where.
Travelling further, in company with R. Hubberthorn, towards Lynn, and by the way being in bed at an inn, a constable and officers came thither, being sent with an hue and cry from a justice of peace, to search for two horsemen that rid upon grey horses and in grey clothes; a house being broken up at night, as was reported. ”

“ Then, very soon after this, much people drew together during harvest, as well from Kent as from Surrey and from Essex, and from each of the nearest towns, and went to Colchester, and beset the town, and fought against it until they mastered it, and slew all the people there within, and took all that was there, except the men who fled away over the wall. ”

“ Until about forty years ago there stood beside the main road to Colchester, just outside the parish of Kelvedon, an inn known as the Sun. It is still a curious old house, worthy of notice from the passer-by, but up to the date named it, and even the furniture it contained, exhibited all the characteristics of a sixteenth century house. Its carved woodwork, however, was sold and afterwards accidentally burned and its furniture scattered. The pictorial sign-board of the Rising Sun at Castle Hedingham is very grotesque. ”

“ In basing a case for the continuous existence of a school on the continuing authority exercised by the Bishopric of London it has not been overlooked that until recent times education was always
under the control of the Church, and Colchester always in the Diocese of London, so that at any date its Bishop might be expected to be the patron of any school which happened to exist in the town. ”

“ As a specimen of a provincial town we may take Colchester. A detailed description of this town in the reign of Edward III. shows that it contained only 359 houses, some built of mud, others of timber. None of the houses had any but latticed windows. The town-hall was of stone, with handsome Norman doorway. It had also a royal castle, three or more religious houses—one a great and wealthy abbey—several churches, and was surrounded by the old Roman wall. The number of inhabitants was about three thousand. ”

“ Be this as it may, the sacking of Colchester was a terrible business. A number of citizens had joined the shockingly small body of regulars in a gallant attempt at defence. The attempt was quite hopeless; the German superiority in numbers, discipline, metal, and material being quite overwhelming. But the German commander was greatly angered by the resistance offered, and, as soon as he ascertained that civilians had taken part in this, the town was first shelled and then stormed. ”

“ In 1748 Morant published his 'History and Antiquities of Colchester,' fol. (2nd edit. 1768) , of which only two hundred copies were printed, at the joint expense of William Bowyer [q. v.] and himself. It is painstaking and accurate, but was burlesqued as diffuse by John Clubbe [q.v.] in 'The History and Antiquities of the ancient Village of Wheatfield' (1758) . His great work, 'The History and the Antiquities of the County of Essex,' 2 vols. fol. 1760-8, with which the 'History of Colchester 'was incorporated, is based chiefly on the collections of Thomas Jekyll [q. v.] ”

“ Colchester, as parcell of his iurisdiction. Foulenesse is an Ile void of [Page 78] wood, and yet well replenished with verie good grasse for neat and sheepe, whereof the inhabitants haue great plentie: there is also a parish church, and albeit that it stand somewhat distant from the shore, yet at a dead low water a man may (as they saie) ride thereto if he be skilfull of the causie; it is vnder the iurisdiction of London. ”

“ But now there resteth a great doubt among writers, where this citie or towne called Camelodunum did stand, of some (and not without good ground of probable coniectures gathered vpon the aduised consideration of the circumstances of that which in old authors is found written of Camelodunum, Colchester. this place) it is thought to be Colchester. But verelie by this place of Tacitus it maie rather seeme to be some other towne, situat more westward than Colchester, sith a colonie of Romane souldiers were Silures where they inhabited. ”

“ The passage, when they obtained one, cost 3s. 4d. each for the men, and double for the horses. At that cost they reached Calais, and within three days were at Bruges, where again there was a long halt. For the royal letters had not come. Edward III. was on his death-bed, and passed away eleven days after our travellers left London. But Colchester is convinced that an enemy had done this, and when he insists that the issue of the letters has been frustrated "per aduersarios," we must remember that the Dean and College of St. Stephen's were closer to the royal ear than our Abbot and Convent. ”

“ When the Earl of Norwich and the Kentish insurgents entered Essex, Lucas by his persuasions induced the Essex royalists to join them, instead of accepting the indemnity offered by parliament (July 1648; Rushworth; Hist. MSS. Comm. Beaufort MSS. 12th Rep. p. 21) . In the seizure and defence of Colchester he played the foremost part, on account of his local influence and his military skill, which was far superior to that of his nominal commander the Earl of Norwich (ib. pp. 23-8; Matthew Carter, True Relation of the Expedition of Kent, Essex, and Colchester in 1648, pp. 121, 130) . ”

“ In Colchester Castle.
The whole population of Much Bentley seemed to have turned out to witness the arrest at the Blue Bell. Some were kindly and sympathising, some bitter and full of taunts; but the greater number were simply inquisitive, neither friendly nor hostile, but gossipping. It was now four o’clock, a time at which half the people were up in the village, and many a woman rose an hour earlier than her wont, in order to see the strange sight. There were the carpenters with baskets of tools slung over their shoulders; the gardeners with rake or hoe; the labourers with their spades ”

“ That which cost more, and was probably more interesting to Colchester himself, was the coming and going of personages or their servants—the squire of the Earl of Cambridge (Edmund Langley, fifth son of Edward III.) , who receives 20s. for bringing a letter to the Abbot from his lord; the Earl of Warwick's steward, who comes to sell a black palfrey; a monk of his own year, Richard Excestr', who is just starting on his career at Oxford, and to whom the Abbot gives a fatherly present of 20s. ”