A monument in Maldon's All Saints Church recalls the long-forgotten story of a pair of runaway lovers, a frightened horse and a lost river crossing.

High up on the wall of the north chapel is the monument to Thomas Cammock (1540-1602) and his family.

Cammock's most substantial achievement was securing the piping in of Maldon's first reliable water supply. But his elopement with the daughter of a powerful Tudor magnate gives us a much more colourful tale.

By the time this happened, Cammock had already fathered nine children by his first wife Ursula. Sadly she died while Cammock was still relatively young.

He found comfort in Frances, the daughter of his employer Robert Rich. Rich was a member of a powerful dynasty that lasted three centuries. His father Richard Rich is infamous for his role in securing the executions of Thomas More and the saintly Bishop Fisher during the reign of Henry VIII. He also personally conducted the torture in the Tower of London of Anne Askew, accused of heresy.

Not a family to mess about with you might think, and Thomas soon discovered that Lord Rich strongly disapproved of his proposed marriage to his daughter.

His decision to elope on horseback with Frances was a risky one in an age when summary justice could be exercised by the rich and powerful.

Nevertheless, they set off from one of Rich's properties in Rochford with the intention of marrying in Maldon.

Lord Rich instructed his son to pursue the couple, with a band of soldiers. The couple reached South Fambridge, which was connected with North Fambridge by a ferry.

These days, the nearest bridge across the Crouch from Fambridge is at Battlesbridge. The 1922 Ordnance Survey map shows a ford at Hullbridge, and still refers to a ferry at Fambridge. Curiously, we are worse provided with crossing places than the communities were in Roman times, when a bridge crossed at Fambridge (from 'Fanbruge' or 'fen-bridge').

The bridge was lost in medieval times, as was another bridge at Hullbridge in the 17th Century. But the roads at North and South Fambridge still line up, as do the field boundaries either side of the Crouch, showing that once the Dengie and Rochford Peninsulas were closely connected.

Thomas and Frances were dependent on the ferry – but the boat was on the wrong side of the river. Thomas was going to swim across to fetch it, but Frances begged him not to leave her, but to ford the river on their horse.

Spooked by the strong current, the horse gave up part-way across, and turned back.

We are told that the couple were initially apprehended by Frances's brother and his men, but somehow escaped and married.

Whatever happened, Lord Rich was clearly not as merciless as his father, because he took pity on the couple, forgave them and sanctioned their union. They lived in Maldon many years and had thirteen children to add to Thomas's nine. Cammock died in 1602.

With so many children, it's not surprising that the family name lives on, and various genealogies list Thomas and his wives as ancestors.

The monument shows Thomas, his two wives, and all twenty-two of his children! The inscription records that he had four sons and five daughters by his first wife, and two sons and eleven daughters by his second.

A fuller account of this charming story written by local historian Stephen Nunn can be found on the church's website. For most of its history the monument was very difficult to see, placed high as it is on the north chapel wall, but if (as I did) you find a kind guide you can see it up close, because a mezzanine floor now places a viewer right next to it, albeit with a glass panel intervening.