In Search of the Lost Will of John Marler of Essex

Mr J F Hackworth sent the Association this wonderful account of his 20 year search for the lost will of John Marler of Essex….

One John Marler of Essex declared land and tenements in his will for the benefit of the poor of Kelvedon. The will was apparently dated June 20, 1419. I say apparently because nobody seems to be able to find the will although there are authoritative accounts of it. Two readily accessible documents written nearly 200 years ago attest to the date. If the date is right, the John Marler Charity, which to this day runs the almshouses in Church Street, was 600 years old in June.

A Charities Commission survey tells us it is the 24th oldest charity in England and one of the oldest almshouse charities still active.

I have been treasurer for 20 years and have tried spasmodically to find the will, more determinedly of late because of the anniversary. I confess I have failed as did some notable antiquarians in previous times. I have had the benefit of the internet and assistance with my searches from the British Library and the Westminster Abbey library whereas my predecessors did not.

I found the first document of interest in the Essex Record Office; what is known as the Brougham Report, published in 1837 as Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities. The report opens with the clear statement:

‘John Marler, by will dated 20th June, 1419 gave two tenements called the Almshouses,……’.

The second ‘document’ of interest is in fact a wooden plaque to be found in the church recording Benefactions to this Parish’. The plaque was installed by the Rev Charles Dalton and his two church wardens in 1827. This is what it says about John Marler:

JOHN MARLER, in the year 1419, gave two Alms-Houses in the London Road for the residence of poor persons. Also two other tenements in Church Street, an acre of meadow in Broad Mead, and some small rent charges out of his estate, to keep the Church Porch and the Common Pump in repair, and the remainder to be given to the poor.

Since the two sources essentially say the same thing we might infer they both have the same source. That source would appear to be a report of an ‘Inquisition’ at Kelvedon. The inquisition was held at The Lion, now the Knights Templars houses, in 1600 and dealt with mal-administration of the charity. The inquiry was led by the Suffragan Bishop of Colchester. The report is that given by W.J.Hardy, in an article entitled Essex Charities, in the Home Counties Magazine of 1899. Here is the opening text:

‘Inquisition taken at Kelvedon, 7 August, 42 Elizabeth. The jury say that John Marler, late of Kelvedon, gentleman, by his will, dated 20 June, 7 Henry V., A.D., 1419, devised that two “rentaryes” wherein “Petronell and one John Owen did then inhabit,” should forever be upheld and repaired ” to harbour and lodge poor people,” and if they should not be so kept, then he willed that two new ” rentaryes ” lately [built] between the tenement late John Gerard’s, and the garden called Brendhouse Garden extending towards Kelvedon church, being then in the hands of his feoffees and executors, should remain and be employed to the upholding and repair of the two “rentaryes.”

The report goes on to tell us about rents of his properties to be used for the support of the almshouses and to support the poor of Kelvedon. The reference in the extract was to a new property referred to later in the report as Starborowes and this seems to be where the almshouses, ‘Marlers Cottages’, are now. The original almshouses were in the London Road, just round the corner, and these were demolished in the late 19th century.

The report and a document in the Harley collection in the British Library, MS4136, give an insight into the nature and status of the man. He left money for masses to be said on his obit day and for his wife and mother to be remembered. He was clearly a man of substance but not of the aristocracy, so exactly how his wealth came about we do not know. However we learn from the rent rolls in MS4136 and from the library in Westminster Abbey that he was the Abbey’s steward in Kelvedon. Westminster Abbey at the time owned lands in the area: in particular Church Hall Manor which lies immediately to the south of the church.
A further insight into the man and the medieval mind comes from the 1474 will of his grandson, Thomas. This is the main content of MS4136 and is evidently a copy, mostly in English, made in the reign of Edward VI. We speculate as to why the copy was made, but Henry VIII abolished chantries, presumably to get his hands on the money! Thomas declared he was ‘in good and whole mind and dreading the hour of our death’. He was also a property owner who left money for masses to be said for himself and his family and he made donations so that he was buried alongside his family before the alter in the chancel. There was a record of gravestones laid in the chancel floor before Victorian tiles were laid over it. One of the stones said here lies John Marler.

‘Hic jacet Johes Marler qui obiit xii die Sept 1430’

So John Marler was a man of wealth, piety and charity. The report of his will in the ‘Inquisition’ text states:

Which lands and rents he willed should never be sold, nor the profits taken to the use of John his son, but “ever more lasting ” remain in the hands of six honest and sufficient men of the parish of Kelvedon.

That is exactly how it is today, 600 years later.

By the way, if you take communion at the altar rail, just remember whose grave you are walking on.

J F Hackworth, 2019

Can you help Mr Hackworth in his search for the lost will ? If so, please contact the Association at karenmorris@almshouses.org.