CHAPTER XIX.

THE MOTHER-TOWN OF BILLERICAY IN ENGLAND.

[The author is happy to give place in this chapter to Rev. Edward G. Porter, of Lexington, who, at his special request, paid a visit, in 1879, to Billericay, the mother-town, in England, and gives pleasant record of facts and impressions there gathered and likely to be of interest.]

It must always be an occasion of regret that so little is known of the origin of our New England towns. If the early settlers had imagined what interest would, in after years, gather around the humble beginnings of their enterprise, they would, no doubt, have left us a much fuller account of themselves and their movements. But they were unconsciously making history; and it is usually true that the men who make history are not the ones to write it. Many of our early town records have preserved the names of the original proprietors, but we look in vain for any extended account of their lives, the places they came from, the ships they sailed in, and the ports they arrived at. We know that Jonathan Danforth, Ralph Hill, John Parker, and William French, the early settlers of Billerica, came from the eastern counties of England; and there is reason to believe that Hill and French were from Billericay in Essex. But what the circumstances were which led them to join the colonists, what sacrifices they made in coming, what relatives they left behind, what incidents attended the long journey, can only be conjectured. We know, however, that, although the colonists of New England voluntarily left the land of their birth, they did not cease to love it. They brought with them as much of it as they could-its laws, its religion, its home-life. They were still British subjects, loyal to the crown. In proof of their affection for the mother-country, witness their almost universal practice of naming their new settlements after the places from which they had come. Thus we have Plymouth,

Dorchester, Weymouth, Ipswich, Braintree, Sudbury, Billerica, and scores of other well-known English names reproduced on our soil. This fact alone will ever preserve to us the memory of our origin. As we are not ashamed of our forefathers, neither are we ashamed of the country from which they came. No better material for the founders of towns and states could be had than that which the Anglo-Saxon race furnished in the seventeenth century, and no truer men ever crossed the sea than those who came from the sturdy yeomanry of Old Essex.

It was just at the beginning of June- the loveliest season of all the year when I paid a promised visit to Billericay. From London the journey is accomplished by rail on the Great Eastern line as far as Brentwood, (nineteen miles,) and then by the carriage road, a pleasant drive of five miles. Accustomed as we are in America to see nature in her ruder and less cultivated aspects, there is a great charm in the soft and finished landscape of England. No rough ledges assert their supremacy over the soil; no broken-down stone walls or worn-out fences mar the symmetry of the picture. The roads are well made and well kept. Heaps of hammered stone may be seen at intervals, piled up in regular order, for use upon the road as occasion may require. On either side, the hedge-rows, usually of hawthorn, furnish an agreeable border, shaded often by the overhanging oak, elm, and poplar. Daisies and primroses, sweet-scented lilacs and lilies of the valley, abound in great profusion in the spring and early summer. Wheat, clover, and beans are cultivated in large quantities in this section. Here and there a small stream is crossed by a stone bridge, with its graceful arch reflected in the water, where the cattle are often seen quietly standing in groups, and near by the sheep feeding in the rich, green pastures. Many of the houses, even of the humbler people, have plants tastefully arranged in boxes suspended from the window-sills. Ferneries and rockeries, both indoors and out, are very common. The ivy is everywhere seen twining over brick walls and stone porches, covering with its leafy mantle much that would otherwise be excessively plain. The road which we are following is the old highway from London to Chelmsford, Colchester, and the eastern counties. As Billericay is situated on an elevated plateau or ridge to the eastward, we leave the main road at a small hamlet called Shenfield, where there is a church, a shop, and two old taverns still bearing their ancient names of Green Dragon and The Eagle and Child.

From Shenfield the road passes through a rich, open, agricultural country, ascending gradually the almost imperceptible slope, on the crest of which Billericay is built. The situation is in many respects like that of its namesake in Massachusetts. Entering the town from the southwest, we pass along the main street, a broad, winding, macadamized thoroughfare, lined for the most part with neat, twostory, brick houses, standing close together, as is usually the case in European villages. The houses have evidently been built at very different periods. Some have the quaint gables and projecting upper stories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while others are

more modern, a few being of quite recent construction. The village is well lighted with gas. Fifty years ago the population was about two thousand. The number has fallen off since then, owing to the loss of the silk-weaving and coaching interests, which for a long period contributed much to the prosperity of the place. The weekly market, instituted by Edward IV, 1476, is held on Tuesdays, when the village assumes a lively appearance, as it then becomes the centre of trade for the entire neighborhood. Great fairs are also held, by an ancient privilege, in August and October, chiefly for cattle. The principal business now is in "corn," as the English call it, i. e. grain, of which a large quantity is raised in this part of Essex. The manorial rights of Billericay are vested in the present Lord

Petre, who holds a court-lect and baron annually in the spring, at the former of which the constables and other officers for the internal regulation of the town are appointed. Petty sessions are held at the town hall, over the market-house, on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.

The history of this large property, which includes not only the village of Billericay but a large section of country in its vicinity, is a curious illustration of the way in which great estates have been accumulated and entailed in England. The first Lord Petre, Sir William, lived three hundred years ago, and was wise enough in his generation to accommodate his loyalty, and his religion as well, to the rapid and contradictory changes that occurred under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, in consequence of which many rich abbey lands and manors fell into his hands. This time-serving policy was so apparent, that Sir William was generally spoken of as the man who was made of the willow and not of the oak." He was, however, a generous benefactor to Exeter College, Oxford; and his daughter, who married the famous Nicholas Wadham, became, with her husband, co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford. The old seat of the family was Ingatestone Hall, a few miles west of Billericay, near the line of the old Roman road. This hall is still standing, a venerable, irregular Elizabethan pile, covered with ivy, and surrounded by old gardens and fish-ponds. One of the rooms still contains some fine sixteenth century tapestry.' The modern residence of the family is at Thorndon Hall, a magnificent seat on a gentle eminence overlooking an extensive park, which can be seen from Billericay.'

The introduction of railroads was a blow to the ancient prosperity of Billericay. Being on high land, the town was left at a distance of several miles from the Great Eastern line. The brisk and profitable traffic which formerly passed directly through the town was thus diverted. The oldtime inns, such as the Crown, the White Hart, the Horse-Shoe, the Red Lion, the Bull, the Sun, the Checkers, and the White Lion, at which the coaches and teams stopped daily, may still be seen, though most of them are shorn of their glory, and the traveller looks in vain for the post-lads who used to be always ready dressed and spurred up for duty. From its situation at the

The place is described by Miss Braddon in her Lady Audley's Secret.

The Great Eastern Railway runs for seven miles through Lord l'etre's property; the company paid for the strip of land thus occupied over £120,000.

crossing of several old roads, Billericay became a thoroughfare especially for the travel between Chelmsford and Horndon-on-the-hill, Tilbury and Gravesend. One of the most conspicuous buildings in the place is the work-house, or Billericay Union," as it is called, a large modern structure, pleasantly located in the outskirts of the town, on the Chelmsford Road. The poor of several parishes in the vicinity are well cared for in this establishment, which is admirably managed under the direction of a board of guardians. On the ridge just outside the village, two venerable wind-mills form a prominent object in the landscape — remnants of the many that formerly lined the hills in the eastern counties. Some of the people still remember the old beacon of fagots that flashed the signal lights from this spot, on important occasions, over a good part of Essex. The view from here on a clear day is very extensive in all directions, particularly over the broad Thames valley and the Kentish hills beyond.

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The origin of the name of Billericay is obscure. Morant, the old historian of Essex, states that, in 1343, it was called Beleuca, probably, he says, from the old word “balenga” or “banleuga,” a precinct around a borough or manor; in French, ** banlieue." Some learned antiquaries contend that the name is more likely to be derived from the two Latin words “ Belleri-castra,” the camp of Bellerus. Others think it may have come from certain Welsh words signifying the fort on the hill. The interpretation suggested by some one in this country, "villa rica," does not meet with favor in England, though it is not easy to see why not, since it is well known that "y" and "b" have often been used interchangeably. But whatever may have been the origin of the name, it is an indisputable fact that the town has been known by its present name, with slight variations, for many centuries. In 1395, allusion is made in the Pipe Roll to one Thomas Ledere, traitor to the King, beheaded at Billerica." In a grant of Edward VI, a. D. 1551, the name is spelt both Billerica and Billerykay. In 1563, among the ecclesiastical accounts of Chelmsford are two entries of sums received from Belyreca men for the hire of our garments," i. e. costumes for a miracle play. Among some tradesmen's tokens of the seventeenth century is one inscribed, “Abraham Thresher in Billericay, Essex, his half-penny,,1666."

The immediate neighborhood of Billericay exhibits memorials of nearly every important epoch in English history. In Norsey Wood, beyond the northern end of the village, are several large earthworks which are believed to be the defences of an ancient British village.