Chapter VII · —And Bachelors

The Dunmow Bacon ceremony is discussed in the Spectator of October 15, 1714, and in the succeeding number, the writer concluding—

I hope your readers are satisfied of this truth, that as love generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony produces love.

Thirty-seven years later there is a record of the giving of the Bacon by the Lord of the Manor, the recipients being Thomas Shakeshaft, of the parish of Weathersfield, Essex, weaver, and Ann his wife. They figure in the Everyday Book illustration. The "Hommage" on this occasion consisted of Bachelors as well as Spinsters—

HOMMAGE.

William Townsend, Gent. Mary Cater, Spinster. John Strutt, the younger, Gent. Martha Wickford, Spinster James Raymond, the younger, Gent. Elizabeth Smith, Spinster. Daniel Heckford, Gent. Catherine Brett, Spinster. Robert Mapletoft, Gent. Eliza Hazlefoot, Spinster. Richard Birch, Gent. Sarah Mapletoft, Spinster.

At this ceremony—it is reported in the Gentleman's Magazine and the London Magazine of the year—some five thousand persons were present. The weaver Shakeshaft and his wife are said to have made a good deal of money by selling slices of their gammon.

Photographs of prints of scenes at the Shakeshaft presentation—one from a painting by David Ogbourne, a local artist*—are now reproduced.

It is as well the pictorial records were made, for this ceremony of 1751 is regarded as "the last legitimate instance" of the presentation of the Bacon.

An old copperplate from Ogbourne's painting has recently been acquired by Mr. Hastings Worrin.

By the kindness of Mr. de Vins Wade we are able to furnish photographs of the receipts given by the Reynoldses and the Shakeshafts for their Bacon.

The names of the witnesses who "doe certify the proceedings" at the Shakeshaft ceremony are—Susannah Smith, Susannah Calvert, Thomas Pocklington, James Turner (? Turvin), W. Wicksted, and Mark Gretton, Curate, who is no doubt the clerical figure shown in the Ogbourne picture.

Mr. Wade's father and grandfather were stewards of the Manor, of which he is now the Lord, from 1796 to 1837, and from 1837 to 1871 respectively. Mr. de Vins Wade became steward in 1891 and Lord of the Manor by purchase in 1903. The records in Mr. Wade's possession go back to 1640.

REMAINS OF THE OLDEST PART OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.

REMAINS OF THE OLDEST PART OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.—Similar work is found in Glastonbury Abbey.

INTERIOR OF PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE "RESTORATION."

INTERIOR OF PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE "RESTORATION."—A lithograph from a drawing by A. Barfield of Great Dunmow, published in 1837. The square pews, in which some of the people sat with their backs to the parson, remained till 1872-3.