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THE PARISH OF MONKEN HADLEY.
As the ancient home of the Goodyears in England, from whom the
family in America descends, the parish of
Monken Hadley, County Middlesex,
England, possesses the greatest interest to all of the descendants of
Governor Stephen Goodyear of the New Haven Colony. The following sketch of
the parish is taken from the work, "Monken Hadley. By Frederick Charles
Cass, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, Rector of Monken Hadley,
Middlesex." (1880)
"Men sometimes interest themselves in speculating upon the feelings
with which their progenitors might be animated could they revisit the
scenes which they once inhabited, and muse over the changed aspect of
localities with which they were in lifetime familiar.
Assuredly, in many instances, there would remain little beyond the
more prominent features of the landscape to recall the memory of events in
which they took part, or of places in which they lived and moved and had
their being.
On the other hand, there can be no doubt of the fascination which
past occurrences exercise over the minds of many of the living, nor of the
vivid interest which impels them to repeople, in imagination, the
neighbourhoods in which they dwell with the form and features of those who
have preceded them.
Hume, in well known words, places this sentiment in the very
forefront of his history: "The curiosity entertained by all
civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their
ancestors, commonly excites regret that the history of remote ages should
always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty and contradiction.
Passing occurrences, if not noted at the time they happen, leave so
transient an impression upon most minds, that it is extremely difficult to
gather up in a connected form the short and simple annals that constitute
a village history, and the memory of the conventional 'oldest inhabitant,'
even if well stored with facts, is seldom to be relied upon implicitly,
when the object is to arrange these facts in chronological succession. "
The country lying immediately to the north of London was covered,
we are told, at the earliest known period by extensive forests, through
which the communications must have been mere tracks only suitable for
pedestrians or pack animals.
In describing the state of England in 1685, Lord Macauley writes
that 'at Enfield, hardly out of sight of the capital, was a region of five
and twenty miles in circumference, which contained only three houses, and
scarcely any inclosed fields.' It was known as the Park or Chace of
Enfield, and was only dischased towards the close of the last century
(1777) by Act of Parliament.
The Tudor and first Stuart sovereigns frequently visited it for the
purpose of sport.
Tradition asserts that the ancient manorhouse of Enfield, in the
time of the Mandevilles, was situated near the middle of the Chace, not
far from the west lodge, where there is still a large square quadrangular
area, surrounded by a deep moat, called Camlet moat, overgrown with briars
and bushes.
In Gunton and Rolfe's map (1658) Camlet or Camelot way is distinctly laid
down as the road between Hadley church and the elevated ground known as
the Ridgeway. It ran past Camlet moat, an old hunting lodge immortalized
by Sir Walter Scott in "The Fortunes of Nigel".
Upon the edge or outskirt of this royal hunting ground lay the
little parish of Hadley, otherwise known as Monken Hadley, owing to its
early connection with the Benedictine monastery of Walden in Essex,
dedicated to the honour of God, St. Mary, and St. James, to which the
church of Enfield, together with others in the neighbourhood, likewise
belonged. They were comprised in the lordships with which Geoffrey, first
Earl of Essex, grandson of Geoffrey de Mandeville or Magnaville, a
companion in arms of the Conqueror, endowed the abbey in the year 1136
It is probable that, from a very early date, a line of dwellings
fringed the eastern aide of the road leading to Barnet and of the present
Hadley Green, looking westward over the open heath or moor where the great
battle (of Barnet) was fought.
On the level plain, of which Hadley Green now forms a portion, was fought
on Easter Day, April 14, 1471, the decisive battle which assured the
re-establishment of Edward IV. upon the throne, and which, even without
the subsequent victory of Tewkesbury three weeks later, gave a final blow
to the hopes of the Lancastrian party.
The line occupied by Warwick's men was drawn nearer to Barnet,
extending in the direction of Hadley church eastward, and crossing what is
now Hadley Green in the contrary direction. The moated
manorhouse of Old Fold, belonging to the Frowykes, may have been an
important feature in the conflict.
The great abbey of Walden was surrendered in 1538, and with the
manor of Hadley, which had continued to form a part of its possessions,
was granted, March 14,1538-39, to Sir Thomas Audley knt., then Chancellor.
Lysons states that Lord Audley resurrendered it to the King four years
after the original grant, and it was granted by Queen Mary, in 1557, to
Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford; but, at a
previous date, there is evidence of the GOODERE family having possessed an
interest in it. In his will of December 15, 1546 (P.C.C Book Alen 45),
Francis Goodere, esquire, imposes a condition upon his younger son Thomas
that, quietly and without any molestation or interruption, he permit and
suffer William Stanford, esq., his heirs and assigns, to have, to hold,
and to enjoy the manor of Hadley and the parsonage of South Mimms with
their appurtenances in the County of Middlesex. On December 3, 1538, Joan
or Jane Wroth, widow, his mother, had presented pro hac vice to the
vicarage of South Mimm (Jane Hawte, after the death of her first husband,
Thomas Goodere, in 1518, had married Robert Wroth of Durante, Enfield, who
died 27 Hen. VIII).
From the Gooderes the manor passed to Sir William Staunford, in
whose hold thereof Queen Elizabeth slept in the old manorhouse of the
Gooderes on Nov. 22, 1558,—as Macyn wrote: "The xxiij day of November the
Queen Elisabeth('s) grace toke here gorney from Hadley beyond Barnet
toward London, unto my Lord's plase (the Charterhouse), with a M and mor
of lordes, knyghtes, and gentyllmens, ladies, and gentyllwomen; and ther
lay V days."
The church of Monken Hadley, formerly at the very edge of the
parish and chace, stands at an elevation of 426 ft. 9 in. above sea
level. From the summit of its tower, reached by a turret staircase of 61
steps, a very charming and extensive view, over & country well wooded for
many miles around, rewards an ascent. The spreading branches of trees
intercept a coup d'oeil over the neighboring battlefield, but further away
to the northwest the eye can detect St. Alban's, to the east Waltham Abbey
beyond the Lea, with the low line of Essex hills to the south of it, and,
in clear weather, the river Thames with its shipping, in the vicinity of
Woolwich." A "Tree" of the Goodyear family
in England dating between 1307 and 1670 can be seen by clicking
HERE.
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