“In 1424 [when Chelmsford Church was largely built] John De Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, was at the head of that family, having succeeded to the title in 1415. From his known adherence to the House of Lancaster, he may be presumed to have been a person of some importance, and as a consequence in constant communication with the Court. Undoubtedly, therefore, he would journey to and from Hedingham Castle, his baronial seat, to London, many times in the course of the year; and as it would appear that the old hostelry, known as the Black Boy, in this town, belonged to the De Vere family, it is a very fair presumption that Chelmsford was not only a halting-place for the Earl and his retainers upon the occasion of their journeys, but probably used as an occasional residence; and as he lived in almost royal state, his comings to and fro would be a matter of as much importance to the then townsfolk as a visit of the sovereign in the present day.... We can readily believe that so powerful and wealthy a man would be the first applied to for aid. That he did assist, is proved by the fact of his shield, charged with the mullet, being carved in the spandrel of the west door of the tower; and his crest, the boar, being introduced in the apex of the arch of the same door; this latter corresponds with the carved boar which formed part of the ceiling of an apartment in the old Black Boy [see p. 71]. For five centuries did this mighty family rule it most royally over many parts of the country, their riches being immense, and their power and influence being second only to the sovereign; and yet now a cubic foot of stone in our parish church, and a cubic foot of oak deposited in our museum, are all that remain in this town to remind us of the De Veres.”
A good view of this famous old inn is given in Ryland’s view of Chelmsford High Street, engraved in 1762, and reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume. From it, in all probability, our six other Essex Black Boys have taken their name, as the sign is unusually common in the county. It stood at the corner of Springfield Lane and the High Street. The Ipswich Express, in speaking of the closing of this ancient house, which, as it remarked, had been “for centuries one of the oldest inns on the road,” remarked as follows:—
“There are not only pleasant recollections of ‘slippered ease,’ but historical associations, connected with the old Inn. Here royal heads have rested, and warriors have halted as they hurried off to draw the sword on fields of military renown. Within its rooms, martyrs have passed the last night of life, in the fiery days of religious persecution, on their way to the fatal stake. In the old war, its roof often resounded with the mad jollity of prizemen and privateers, who had just brought their rich booty into Harwich, and, as they posted off to London, had halted at the well-known hostelry to make merry with their gains. A quarter of a century ago, between forty and fifty stage-coaches passed its door daily, most of which pulled up, if they did not pause, to allow the travellers to partake of the provision made for them; while numberless pairs of post-horses stood saddled in its capacious stables.”
Dickens mentions this house in Pickwick Papers (1st Edition, p. 161), when Mr. Weller, Senior, relates how he transported Messrs. Job Trotter and Charles Fitz-Marshall from “the Black Boy at Chelmsford ... right through to Ipswich.” Mr. Chancellor has ascertained that, in a deed dated 1642, this inn is described as “heretofore known by the name or sign of the Crown or New Inn, or the King’s Arms, and later as the Black Boy.” That it was the Black Boy in 1636 is certain, for Taylor, “the Water Poet,” in his Catalogue of Tavernes, mentions it as one of the chief inns in the town at that time. In 1660, the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds it recorded in the Chelmsford registers that “Andrew Speller, a dumb man, who lived at the Black Boy in Chelmsford, was buried the 2 day of August.” It has probably retained the same sign ever since. This frequent change at so early a date is very interesting. It seems to indicate (as Mr. Chancellor suggests) that, on the house passing out of the hands of the De Veres, it became an inn, and that, although it may have displayed the sign of the Crown (see p. 166), it was commonly known as the New Inn. Afterwards, for some reason, it came to be styled the King’s Arms, and still later the Black Boy, though why, it is not apparent. At the time of his demise, this “Old Boy” (as he may be familiarly styled) was, therefore, at least 250 years old. It might be thought strange that having existed so long, and having begat the seven sons already mentioned, he never grew into a “Black Man,” but died as he had so long lived, a “Black Boy”! A Black Boy formerly existed in Saffron Walden, as shown by the following entries in the Corporation records:—“March 27th, 1682, ‘Spent at the Black Boy 12 pence,’ ” and a little later 4s. 6d. was “spent at the Black Boy with the Chamberlains when we assessed the fines on the Quakers.” In the Waltham Abbey parish register is the following entry:—“Judith Sutton, from ye Blacks, Bur. May 26, 1740.” This was probably the Black Boy Inn that formerly stood in Town-mead Lane. The Black Boy is a sign of venerable antiquity. From the first it has been largely used as a tobacconist’s sign. The crest of the Tobacco-pipe Makers’ Company, incorporated in 1663, was a demi-Moor, while the supporters were two young Moors proper, wreathed about the loins with tobacco leaves vert. A black Saracen’s head, too, was the badge of Lord Cobham in the time of Edward IV., and also of Sir John Harlwyn.
Essex contains at the present time no less than twenty-seven houses showing the sign of the Green Man. The Green Man at Leyton is mentioned in the Trials of Swan and Jeffries in 1752, while the Green Man at Leytonstone is mentioned by Daniel Defoe in his Tour through Great Britain, first published in 1724, and is also marked on Roque’s Map of Ten Miles round London, published in 1741. It is recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine (vol. xxiii. p. 148) that Charles, Earl of Tankerville, died of an apoplectic fit at the Green Man on Epping Forest on the 14th of March, 1753, as he was travelling to London. Old maps of the latter half of last century show quite a number of Green Men round Epping and Hainault Forests, showing the connection even then existing in the minds of men between the sign-board Green Men and foresters. In Mr. Creed’s list of signs round Epping in 1789, Green Men are named at the following places: Epping, Waltham Abbey, Moreton, Stanford Rivers, Magdalen Laver, Harlow, and Roydon. Evidently this sign was very common a century ago. Although this device has a two-fold origin, it is rather difficult to account for its great prevalence in the present day. Originally, no doubt, the sign represented the green-clad morris-dancers that played an important part in the shows and pageants of mediæval times; but, when these went out of date and were forgotten by the common people, the sign was made to represent a forester in his coat of green. As early as the seventeenth century the sign had come to be connected with that celebrated forester, Robin Hood, as is shown by the designs on many of the tokens, which represent the outlaw accompanied by his friend Little John. At Elsenham and at High Beech the sign now takes the name of the Robin Hood, while Robin Hood and Little John occur in combination at Brentwood, although in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 20, 1786, the house is spoken of simply as the Robin Hood. At High Beech, as is often the case, the following couplet is appended to the sign:—
“If Robin Hood be not at home,
Step in and ask for Little John.”
Mrs. F. B. Palliser says,[89] “Queen Anne bore, as one of the supporters of her arms, one of the savage men, wreathed with ivy and bearing clubs, of Denmark, since designated and adopted for an inn-sign as the Green Man.” This, however, is probably not the only origin of the sign. At the present day the sign is generally represented on Essex signboards by a gamekeeper in a green velveteen coat. At Grays there is a Green Man and Bell (beer-house), which is doubtless an impaled sign.
A beer-shop at Great Chesterford displays a pictorial sign—evidently of some age—representing, apparently, the Man and Plough. A rustic in a green smock-frock stands at the handle of his plough, politely touching his hat to passers-by.
At Chelmsford and Dunmow the principal inn in each of the two towns has for its sign the Saracen’s Head. The former is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 6, 1786. It is also many times named in the Trials of Swan and Jeffries in 1752, on account of a robbery having been committed there. It also finds mention in Mr. Joseph Strutt’s Essex and Herts romance, entitled Queenhoo Hall, published in 1808. The hero of the tale says (ii. p. 179) that “on my arrival at Chelmsford, I went to one of the principal inns, distinguished by the sign of the Saracen, or Man Quintain, where I took some small refreshment.” Other examples, making five in all, occur at Danbury, Braintree, and Thaxted. Though not described by Boyne, tokens, bearing a representation of a Saracen’s head, and issued by John Havers at the house of that name in Thaxted, are still extant, showing the house and its sign to be of considerable antiquity. Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., of Saffron Walden can recollect that, many years ago, the sign-board bore the representation of a man’s head with a very ferocious countenance, but the sign-board is not now pictorial. The sign owes its origin (largely, at least) to the Crusades. It was formerly much more common than now.
The Maid’s Head at Thorpe-le-Soken is, in all probability, not a sign put up by some enamoured publican. As a general rule the sign, wherever it appears, has been derived from the arms of the Mercers’ Company, already given (p. 33). Sir William Parr, K.G., and also his grand-daughter, Queen Catherine Parr, both bore the same device as a badge. But in the case of the example at Thorpe there can be little doubt that the sign is a really ancient one, and that it represents the crest of the D’Arcy family, Barons of Chiche,[90] to whom, in 1551, Edward VI. granted the manor of Thorpe and neighbouring lands, which long afterwards remained in the family. The same sign often occurs elsewhere as the Maiden Head. There was apparently a house of this name (not necessarily an inn) at Chelmsford in the seventeenth century, as the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds the following entry in the parish registers:—“1620, Matthew Prentys of Chelmsford, husbandman and householder at the Maidenhead in Chelmsford, was buried the xiiii. of May, being Sunday.” The Village Maid, which occurs at Bradfield, is a very modern sign, and is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten. Probably the landlord set it up in honour of some damsel of his acquaintance.