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Tour through the Eastern Counties of England in 1722 Daniel Defoe undertook a tour of the Eastern Counties of England in 1722 visiting Essex, Suffolk and Nolfolk from his London home. He wrote an acount of his travels that peovides us with a picture of life in the early 1700's The extract that relates to Essex is reproduced in full below
From hence there is nothing for many miles together remarkable but a
continued level of unhealthy marshes, called the Three Hundreds, till we come
before Leigh, and to the mouth of the River Chelmer, and Blackwater.
These rivers united make a large firth, or inlet of the sea, which by Mr.
Camden is called Idumanum Fluvium; but by our fishermen and
seamen, who use it as a port, it is called Malden Water. In this inlet of the sea is Osey, or Osyth Island, commonly called Oosy
Island, so well known by our London men of pleasure for the infinite number of
wild fowl, that is to say, duck, mallard, teal, and widgeon, of which there are
such vast flights, that they tell us the island, namely the creek, seems
covered with them at certain times of the year, and they go from London on
purpose for the pleasure of shooting; and, indeed, often come home very well
laden with game. But it must be remembered too that those gentlemen who
are such lovers of the sport, and go so far for it, often return with an Essex
ague on their backs, which they find a heavier load than the fowls they have
shot. It is on this shore, and near this creek, that the greatest quantity of
fresh fish is caught which supplies not this country only, but London markets
also. On the shore, beginning a little below Candy Island, or rather
below Leigh Road, there lies a great shoal or sand called the Black Tail, which
runs out near three leagues into the sea due east; at the end of it stands a
pole or mast, set up by the Trinity House men of London, whose business is to
lay buoys and set up sea marks for the direction of the sailors; this is called
Shoe Beacon, from the point of land where this sand begins, which is called
Shoeburyness, and that from the town of Shoebury, which stands by it.
From this sand, and on the edge of Shoebury, before it, or south west of it,
all along, to the mouth of Colchester water, the shore is full of shoals and
sands, with some deep channels between; all which are so full of fish, that not
only the Barking fishing-smacks come hither to fish, but the whole shore is
full of small fisher-boats in very great numbers, belonging to the villages and
towns on the coast, who come in every tide with what they take; and selling the
smaller fish in the country, send the best and largest away upon horses, which
go night and day to London market. N.B.—I am the more particular in my remarks on this place, because in
the course of my travels the reader will meet with the like in almost every
place of note through the whole island, where it will be seen how this whole
kingdom, as well the people as the land, and even the sea, in every part of it,
are employed to furnish something, and I may add, the best of everything, to
supply the City of London with provisions; I mean by provisions, corn, flesh,
fish, butter, cheese, salt, fuel, timber, etc., and clothes also; with
everything necessary for building, and furniture for their own use or for
trade; of all which in their order. On this shore also are taken the best and nicest, though not the largest,
oysters in England; the spot from whence they have their common appellation is
a little bank called Woelfleet, scarce to be called an island, in the mouth of
the River Crouch, now called Crooksea Water; but the chief place where the said
oysters are now had is from Wyvenhoe and the shores adjacent, whither they are
brought by the fishermen, who take them at the mouth of that they call
Colchester water and about the sand they call the Spits, and carry them up to Wyvenhoe,
where they are laid in beds or pits on the shore to feed, as they call it; and
then being barrelled up and carried to Colchester, which is but three miles
off, they are sent to London by land, and are from thence called Colchester
oysters. The chief sort of other fish which they carry from this part of the shore to
London are soles, which they take sometimes exceeding large, and yield a very
good price at London market. Also sometimes middling turbot, with
whiting, codling and large flounders; the small fish, as above, they sell in
the country. In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shore there are also
other islands, but of no particular note, except Mersey, which lies in the
middle of the two openings between Malden Water and Colchester Water; being of
the most difficult access, so that it is thought a thousand men well provided
might keep possession of it against a great force, whether by land or
sea. On this account, and because if possessed by an enemy it would shut
up all the navigation and fishery on that side, the Government formerly built a
fort on the south-east point of it; and generally in case of Dutch war, there
is a strong body of troops kept there to defend it. At this place may be said to end what we call the Hundreds of Essex—that is
to say, the three Hundreds or divisions which include the marshy country, viz.,
Barnstable Hundred, Rochford Hundred, and Dengy Hundred. I have one remark more before I leave this damp part of the world, and which
I cannot omit on the women’s account, namely, that I took notice of a strange
decay of the sex here; insomuch that all along this country it was very
frequent to meet with men that had had from five or six to fourteen or fifteen
wives; nay, and some more. And I was informed that in the marshes on the
other side of the river over against Candy Island there was a farmer who was
then living with the five-and-twentieth wife, and that his son, who was but
about thirty-five years old, had already had about fourteen. Indeed, this
part of the story I only had by report, though from good hands too; but the
other is well known and easy to be inquired into about Fobbing, Curringham,
Thundersly, Benfleet, Prittlewell, Wakering, Great Stambridge, Cricksea,
Burnham, Dengy, and other towns of the like situation. The reason, as a
merry fellow told me, who said he had had about a dozen and a half of wives
(though I found afterwards he fibbed a little) was this: That they being bred
in the marshes themselves and seasoned to the place, did pretty well with it;
but that they always went up into the hilly country, or, to speak their own
language, into the uplands for a wife. That when they took the young
lasses out of the wholesome and fresh air they were healthy, fresh, and clear,
and well; but when they came out of their native air into the marshes among the
fogs and damps, there they presently changed their complexion, got an ague or
two, and seldom held it above half a year, or a year at most; “And then,” said
he, “we go to the uplands again and fetch another;” so that marrying of wives
was reckoned a kind of good farm to them. It is true the fellow told this
in a kind of drollery and mirth; but the fact, for all that, is certainly true;
and that they have abundance of wives by that very means. Nor is it less
true that the inhabitants in these places do not hold it out, as in other
countries, and as first you seldom meet with very ancient people among the
poor, as in other places we do, so, take it one with another, not one-half of
the inhabitants are natives of the place; but such as from other countries or
in other parts of this country settle here for the advantage of good farms; for
which I appeal to any impartial inquiry, having myself examined into it
critically in several places. The whole of this fascinting book is available at several sites on the internet - Perhaps the easiest download as an E Book is at Project Gutenberg
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Daniel Defoe
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