Mountnessing parish has a small village, or street, on the LOndon road 2 miles SW of Ingatestone and 3½ miles N.E. of Brentwood but it has many scattered houses, and its church is 1½ mile to the east, near the small river Wid, which receives here several tributary brooks inhabitants and .
The parish is crossed by the Eastern Counties Railway, and contains 845 inhabitants and 4131 Acres 3R 38P of land, of which 240 Acres is wood, 2629 Acres Arable, and 1064 Acres pasture lnd, generally fertile and skirting both sides of the river Wid.
Lord Petre is lord of the manors of Cowbridge, Bacons, and Mountneys, the latter of which belonged to the ancient family of Mountney, from whom the parish was called Mountney’s-ing. Part of the soil belongs to other proprietors. The Executors of the late H. P. Blencowe, Esq. , are lords of the manor of Arnolds, and owners of THOBY PRIORY, a pleasant seat 2 miles W.S.W. of Ingatestone, occupied by C. R. Vickerman, Esq. This pleasant seat is the site of a priory, founded about 1150, by Michael de Caprâ, for Augustine canons. It took its name from Tobias, or Thoby, its first prior. Its annual revenues were valued at £75. 6s. 104d. in 1525, when it was suppressed and granted to Cardinal Wolsey. After the fall of Wolsey, the manor of Thoby was granted to Sir Richard Page. It afterwards passed to the Prescot family, whose heirs, about 1750,
carried it in marriage to the Blencowes.
The CHURCH, dedicated to St. Leonard or St. Giles, consists of a nave and aisles, a chancel, and a south aisle or chapel, with a wooden-framed belfry and shaft at the west end containing one bell. It was appropriated to Thoby Priory, and contains many neat mural tablets inscribed to the memory of the Prescots, who were long seated at Thoby. Lord Petre is impropriator of the rectory and patron of the vicarage, valued in K.B. at £11, and in 1831 at £117, and held by the Rev. T. M. Ready, LL.B. The vicarial tithes were commuted, in 1840, for £214 per annum; and the glebe is 32A. 2R. 31P. Alegacy of £50, left for the poor by Endymion Canning, in 1681, after accumulating to £75, was laid out, in 1705, in the purchase of 6A. of land, called Ryer’s Field, now let for about £18 a-year, which is distributed in bread by the churchwardens. This field is in Thoby manor. An unknown donor gave 5R. of land to the poor, and it is now let for 24s. a-year. In 1787, John and Amy English, agreeable to the intentions of Richard Bailey, (father of the latter,) bequeathed, for the support of a Free School for poor children of this parish, a farm of 17A. 3R. 16P. , called Pinchion’s, and now let for £30 a-year.
POST OFFICE at Eliza Spackman’s. Letters via Brentwood.
Agnis Joseph, miller and baker
Alexander Misses, school
Bucke George, parish clerk & smith
Bull John, victualler, George and Dragon
Clarke Jane, dressmaker
Cross John, bricklayer
Day John, gamekeeper
Matson Mrs Mary
Osborne Charles, builder, Melchet place
Ready Rev.Thos. Martin, LL.B. vicar
Spackman Mrs Elizabeth, Post Office
Spackman William, wheelwright & smith
Staines Thomas, brewer & maltster
Vickerman Charles Rankin, Esq. Thoby Priory
Wells Joseph , swine dealer
FARMERS. ( * Are Owners .)
*Baker Barnard, Alma Cottage
Beall William, Grange
Barker Fras. (& horsedealer.) Westlands
Bentall John, Master John’s
Bishop William
Blyth George Hy.
Clark Luke
Cross Richard
Crush Isaac, Hall
Joslin John
Havers William , Esq. Bacons
*Merrington William, Lawness
*Nicholas Thomas, Esq. Arnolds
Read James Henry, Woollards
Staines Thomas, Woodlands
*Staines William, Jourdans
Stock John, Cowbridge
Thorogood Mrs
Turner Nathaniel
BAKERS.
Athow Fras. W.
Hawkins James
BEERHOUSES.
Hawkins James – Pineapple
Kendall Michael – Plough
Staines Thomas
SHOEMAKERS .
Carswell James
Gentry John
SHOPKEEPERS.
Athow Fras. W.
HineHenry
Reeve Js . Gurdon
Spackman William.
CARRIER.
John Drane, to Chelmsford & Ingatestone, Mon Wed. & Friday.