Deeds & Walters Church Bells of Essex (1909) and Henry William King

[Brian Meldon]

Hi Bryan

Henry William King of Leigh (b:Vange 1816, d: Leigh 30th Aug 1884)  was a founder member of the Essex Archaeological Society and its Hon. Secretary from 1866 to 1893. 
He was a clerk at the Bank of England.

There are a great many of his transcripts held in the Essex Records office. (Some original hand written.)

His obituary is in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society Volume 4 page 307 (New series), in The Essex Review Volume 3 page 19 and in The Essex Naturalist Volume 7 page 195. He wrote several articles for each of these publications many (if not all) are available on-line.

He was the historian that transcribed and published the 1552 list of church goods in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society that is used extensively by Deeds and Walters in Church Bells of Essex.
Personally I have found his transcriptions to be very good indeed and his interpretation and accompanying notes enlightening and accurate.

Here is the on-line version of Vol 3 and 4 (old series) of Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society that contains several of his articles. (Church Goods is on page 197 in Vol 4):

http://www.archive.org/details/transactionsess03socigoog

There are other volumes on-line containing articles by H. W. King and all volumes are held at the ERO but they do not allow photocopies of books, as laying them flat can damage the spines so only photograph is possible. (At a fixed price for the day.)

However the entire series with index are also held in Chelmsford Library. They are stored in the `stack', a locked rolling racking system in the local history section on the 1st floor, so you have to ask to have access. These can be photocopied at 10p a sheet.

Make no mistake about this, you should be very proud to have such a historian in your family.

Brian Meldon