The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

Rcinold and Matthetv Marvin 103
It is evidently of considerable antiquity. Another curious
relic of the sixteenth century is the " Poor-box," of oak, in-
scribed
Hx the $oor, 1589.
The communion plate is comparatively modern, most of it
not older than 1773.*
From early times the Church had a vicarage and endow-
ment, of which the Prior and Convent of Colne were patrons.
This Priory was founded by Roger Bigod " for the good of
his soul and that of his mother, the Countess Juliana (who
was the daughter of Alberic de Vere), and his brother Count
Hugh," and the Clerks of All Saints were for a long period
supplied from among its brothers. To this Priory historians
ascribe the erection in All Saints' of the famous rood or
crucifix alluded to above, "whose supposed sanctity drew
from far unto it many votaries and devoted pilgrims, with
their offerings." It was currently believed that none might
without great danger, even of sudden death, attempt to shut
the Church doors upon it, day or night; but in 1532, three
men from Dedham and a fourth from East Bergholt, " in a
frosty night, together entering the secure (yet always open)
Church, took it down, and carrying it about a quarter of a
mile upon the Green, with its own tapers fir'd it to ashes,
for which three being apprehended, were hang'd at several
places ; one of them, (Nicolas Marsh,) suffered death at
Suckling, "Antiquities of Essex," published in 1845, has engravings of two of the
Church windows, and Dale, " History and Antiquities of Harwich and Dovercourt,"
gives a picture of the Church at p. 73.