ABSTRACT
The church was for the living and the dead, a place of worship where political and religious protest and conformity occurred. Furthermore, the centrality of the parish church as a meeting place for religious debate has also been overlooked regarding the creation of petitions. Two petitions for the county of Essex, including the sections compiled and signed by Earls Colne villagers survive, dating from January 1641/42. One of the county petitions was presented to the House of Commons and then passed on to the House of Lords for comment, hence its survival in the House of Lords Record Office. The second petition was presented directly to the House of Lords. The Earls Colne petition, like the Ship Money list, is selective in terms of those it includes and those women, children and men it excludes. The Earls Colne petition contains the names of five servants to the manorial family: James Mann, Robert Johnson, Stephen Champney, Edward Clarke and Robert Crow.
