Tudor Lives: Great Dunmow during the Reformation

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This book is a micro-historical study of the impact of the English Reformation on the north-west Essex parish of Great Dunmow between circa 1520 and circa 1560. It assesses the effect of the numerous religious reforms imposed by Henry VIII and his children, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, on the clergy and laity of the parish.

Two key sources from Tudor Great Dunmow are
- Great Dunmow’s Tudor churchwardens’ accounts, and
- the Tudor wills of the townsfolk.

Information from these sources have been used to consider three significant historiographical debates concerning the Reformation.
- Local responses to the Reformation;
- Whether the Reformation was one rapid event or a gradual process; and finally,
- Whether the late Medieval Catholic church was a thriving, vibrant establishment, or a decaying hulk.

This study has produced several findings. First, the parishioners’ obedience to their monarchs’ religious changes were guided by a succession of influential and well-connected Oxbridge-educated vicars. Evangelical and Protestant religious practices were adopted earlier in this parish then has been demonstrated elsewhere because of these vicars.

Second, Great Dunmow’s pre-Reformation Corpus Christi drama plays have been much cited in the secondary literature. This study has provided an alternative interpretation to those plays. It demonstrates that in 1546 the Corpus Christi feast-day was used to re-enact the murder of the Scottish Archbishop of St Andrews, Cardinal David Beaton.

Finally, this study establishes that during Mary’s reign, the majority of parishioners returned to Catholicism with enthusiasm and eagerness. However, the influence of the evangelical Henrician and Edwardian vicars meant that there was at least one parishioner who was prepared to die for his Protestant faith.

There are also several appendices including
- An extensive and useful summary of the Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts from 1525 until the 1560s. The church’s compliance to the monarchs’ increasingly draconian religious edicts can be determined from these accounts.
- A list of all the householders of the parish in 1525
- Listings of local towns and villages that took part in Great Dunmow’s Corpus Christi plays, including Great Bardfield, Barnston, Bocking, Broxted, Great and Little Canfield, Great and Little Dunmow, Great and Little Easton, Good Easter, Hatfield Broadoak, High Easter, The Rodings, Lindsell, Northend, Panfield, Rayne, Little Sailing, Shalford, Stebbing, Thaxted.

The book also includes Tudor history from the 1520s for Maldon and Heybridge. Both towns had a strong connection and association to Great Dunmow by way of Tudor vicar, William Walton.

This is book is a must read for anyone interested in Reformation history at a local level. Or anyone interested in the local history of an Essex town. It is also of interest for anyone with Tudor ancestors who hailed from Great Dunmow as numerous local family names are detailed within the book.

During this period, society and religion were firmly interlinked and this study provides a narrative of one Essex town during the turbulent 16th century.