On the Wednesday after Michaelmas, tenants of the manors around Rochford had to attend a court held on King’s Hill at first cock-crow, in the dark. The steward called the names in as low a voice as he could and wrote only with a coal, and anyone who failed to answer was heavily fined. Hone gives the old story that the service was a punishment for tenants who had once plotted a rising there at that hour.
The Lawless Court
1 October · King's Hill, Rochford, Essex
No longer kept
They whisper and have no Candle, nor any Pen and Ink but a Coal; and he that ows Suit or Service, and appears not, forfeits double his rent every hour he is missing.
From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 2, cols. 1286-1287. Read the original
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