Can any of your antiquarian correspondents furnish further elucidation of
the strange ceremony of the gathering of the Wardstaff (which was in old
time one of the customs of the hundred of Ongar, in Essex) than are to be
found in Morant's _History of Essex_, vol. i. p. 126.? from whence it was
incorrectly copied in Blount's _Jocular Tenures_ by Beckwith, 4to. ed. It
has been also more correctly given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his _Rise
and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, Part II. p. clvii., who justly
styles it--
"a strange and uncouth fragment of the earliest customs of the Teutons;
in which we can still recognise {58} the tone and the phraseology of
the Courts of the Eresburg. The _Irminsule_ itself having been
described as a trunk of a tree, Thor was worshipped under the same rude
symbol; and it may be suspected that the singular respect and reverence
shown to the ward-staff of the East Saxons is not without its relation
to the rites and ceremonies of the heathen time, though innocently and
unconsciously retained."
At the time of publication of his learned and interesting work, Sir Francis
did me the honour to adopt some conjectural corrections of Morant's very
corrupt transcript of the rhyme, which I furnished at his request, in
common with others suggested by the late Mr. Price. Since that time, a more
mature examination of it has enabled me, I think, to put it into a form
much more nearly resembling what it must have originally been; many of the
corrections being obviously required by the prose details which accompany
it in the MS. from which Morant gave it. It may not, therefore, be
unacceptable to some of your readers, to subjoin this corrected copy. It
may be proper to premise, that "The _Tale_ of the Wardstaff" is the
_tallying_ or _cutting_ of it, and that it was evidently originally spoken
in parts, assigned as under; although it should seem that there is no
indication of this arrangement in the MS.
"THE TALE OF THE WARDSTAFF.
_The Bailiffe of the Liberty._
"Iche athied[6] the staffe byleve,
Thanne staffe iche toke byleve,
Byleve iche will tellen[7]
Now the staffe have iche got.
_Lord of Ruckwood Hall._
"Tho the staffe to me com
Als he hoveon for to don,
Faire and well iche him underfing
Als iche hoveon for to don.
_The Bailiffe._
"All iche theron challenged,
That theron was for to challenge,
Nameliche,--this:--and--this:
And all that ther was for to challenge.
_Lord of Ruckwood._
"Fayer iche him uppdede
Als iche hoveon for to don.
_The Bailiffe._
"All iche warnyd to the Ward to cum,
That therto hoveon for to cum,
By SUNNE SHINING.
_Lord of Ruckwood._
"We our roope theder brouhton,
A roope beltan[8],
Als we hoveon for don;
And there waren and wakeden,
And the Ward soe kept,
That the King was harmless,
And the Country scatheless.
_The Bailiffe._
"And a morn, when itt day was,
And the sun arisen was,
Faier honour weren to us toke,
Als us hoveon for to don.
_The Lords, and the Tenants_
Fayre on the staffe we scorden,
Als we hoveon for to don,
Fayre we him senden,
Theder we hoveon for to sende.
_The Bailiffe._
And zif ther is any man
That this wittsiggen can
Iche am here ready for to dôn
Azens himself, iche ône,
Other mid him on,
Other mid twyn feren,
Als we ther weren.
----
"Sir, byleve take this staffe,
This is the Tale of the Wardstaffe."
It will be at once apparent that this is a corrupt transcript of a
semi-Saxon original of much earlier date; and by comparing it with Morant's
very blundering copy, the conjectural corrections I have essayed will be
perceived to be numerous. Many of then will, however, be found not only
warranted, but absolutely necessary, from the accompanying prose account of
the ceremony. The MS. from which it was taken by Morant, was an account of
the Rents of the hundred of Ongar, in the time of John Stonar of Loughton,
who had a grant of it for his life in the 34th year of King Henry VIII. He
seems to have died 12th June, 1566, holding of the Queen, by the twentieth
part of a knight's fee, and the yearly rent of 13l. 16s. 4d., the manor,
park, chase, &c., of Hatfield Broad Oak, with the hundreds of Ongar and
Harlow; and the _Wardstaff_ of the same hundreds, then valued at 101l. 15s.
10d. As the _Wardstaff_ is said by Morant to make a considerable figure in
old records, it is reasonable to hope that a more satisfactory account of
it may still lie amongst unsunned ancient muniments. All the old Teutonic
judicial assemblies were, as Sir F. Palgrave remarks, held in the open air,
beneath the sky and _by the light of the sun_. The following is a part of
the ancient rhyme by which the proceedings of the famous Vehm-Gerichte were
opened, which were first printed by Schottelius, and the whole of which may
be found in Beck's _Geschichte der Westphalischen Fehm-Gerichte_, and in
Sir F. Palgrave's work. The similarity of expression is remarkable.
{59}
"All dewile an düssem Dage,
Mit yuwer allen behage,
Under den HELLEN HIMMEL klar,
Ein fry Feld-gericht openbar;
Geheget BYM LECHTEN SONNENSHIN
Mit nöchterm Mund kommen herin,
De toel ock is gesettet recht,
Dat maht befunden uprecht,
So sprecket Recht ane With und Wonne
Up Klage und Antwort, WEIL SCHIENT DIE SONNE."
I must refer to Morant, to Beckwith or Sir F. Palgrave, for the details of
the ceremony of the Wardstaff, which it should appear was observed at least
as late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in Morant's time it had long
been neglected. In the hope that some of your antiquarian correspondents
may be enabled to throw more light on this very curious custom, I will
merely add, that Morant suggests that it is possible some elucidation of it
might be found "in the Evidence House in Hatfield Church, where (he says)
are a great number of writings relating to the priory and lordship."