Loughton, Essex: A Brief Account of the Manor and Parish

Waller, William Chapman, 1850-1917Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.0

Word count: 35K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Loughton, Essex: A brief account of the Manor and Parish by William Chapman WallerAuthor: Waller, William Chapman, 1850-1917,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jan 1, 2017

Editor's review

This is a brief historical account of the manor and parish of Loughton in Essex. William Chapman Waller, writing in the manner of local history, traces the evolution of the manor, the establishment of the parish, and the related figures. Its value lies not in grand narrative but in local detail: scattered records of place names, property rights, the church, and community life together sketch a microcosm of rural English local society. As a public-domain e-book, the text preserves the conventions and tone of early local-history writing, and is suited to readers interested in English local history, genealogy, or rural social structure, who can follow its leads. There is no need to read it straight through; it can be used as a reference work, dipped into by person, place name, or date. Those verifying family history should distinguish between the book's accounts and later scholarship. For the general reader it is more a window than a general history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Enthusiasts of English local history who want to learn about the evolution of Loughton in Essex
Readers tracing family history or genealogy who need local background material
Students of history and culture interested in the English manor and parish system
University history students, who can use it as a sample of local-history writing

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a general-history narrative or vivid stories
Researchers needing contemporary scholarly annotations and the latest archaeological findings
Readers impatient with English place names and genealogies who want only a quick browse

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface, mark the chapters on the manor, parish, and people, and read selectively according to interest.
Keep a sheet for place names and personal names that recur, and afterward draw a simple relationship chart or timeline.
When verifying family history, cross-check the book's information against external sources such as parish registers and maps.
No need to read page by page; use it as a local-history reference work and consult specific chapters as needed.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this book cover the full history of Loughton?

No, it is not a general history. It is a brief account focused on the evolution of the manor and parish and related people and institutions; it is limited in length and clearly selective. For a fuller local history, use it as an entry point and expand with parish archives, maps, and later scholarship.

Is it useful for genealogical research?

It may be useful, but with caution. The book contains local figures and property clues that can suggest lines of inquiry; early local-history accounts, however, are not necessarily complete or accurate, so cross-check with primary sources such as parish registers, wills, and maps rather than drawing conclusions from this book alone.

Do I need prior knowledge of English local history to read it?

Not strictly, but some grounding helps. The book refers to concepts such as manor, parish, and tithes; if these are entirely unfamiliar, look up their basic meanings first. General readers can also skip the institutional details and start with the passages on people and place names.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Waller, William Chapman, 1850-1917 Author

William Chapman Waller (1850–1917) was an author whose subject was English local history. Public information about him is limited: details of his life, his occupation and his education are not clearly recorded, and the main verifiable clue is his representative work, Loughton, Essex: A brief account of the Manor and Parish. The book focuses on the historical development of the manor and parish of Loughton in Essex, England, and belongs to the typical genre of English local and parish history, which usually draws on manorial records, parish registers and local documents to trace place names, land ownership and changes in the community. Works of this kind do not aim at grand scale but value clear organization and well-documented use of sources, serving local researchers and readers with an interest in their own district. Waller's style is consistent with this tradition: plain, factual and restrained. Though its influence was limited, his writing preserves a useful text for the local memory of Loughton.