The tax-rolls which helped us in the 14th are defective in the 15th
century, and the only detail of interest, such as it is, that one could
glean from them was that, in 1442, one Peter, a Frenchman, kept an inn in
our village, and, being a foreigner and an innkeeper, had to pay a
poll-tax of 8d. every half-year. The trade seems to have been largely in
foreign hands, for other foreigners are reported at Theydon, Stapleford,
Lambourne, and Fyfield. Foreign servants there were, too, here and at
Chigwell, Navestock, and Epping.