WITHAM HUNDRED
Is one of the pleasantest and most fertile divisions of Essex, and is of an irregular circular figure, averaging about nine miles in length and breadth. It is watered by the rivers Blackwater, Brain, and Ter, which flow southward through fertile valleys ; and on its southern border, the Chelmer runs eastward to Maldon. Its soil varies from a sound turnip loam, to a loamy or sharp gravel, and a strong loan on a clay bottom, intermixed with some heavy lands. It is in the North- ernDivision of the County, in the Archdeaconry of Colchester, and Deanery of Witham. The latter is divided into the Rural Deaneries of Witham and Hatfield Peverel . Witham Hundred has its name from Witham, its market town, where there is a police station, and where Petty Sessions are held every alternate Tuesday. It is within the jurisdiction of the County Court held at Chelmsford. It was part of the patrimony of Queen Maud, who gave it to the Knights Templars, with whom and the Knights Hospitallers, the bailiwick, or paramount jurisdiction, remained till the dissolution of the religious houses.
The soil belongs to numerous proprietors, and the following enumeration of its sixteen parishes shews their territorial extent, their population in 1841 , and the annual value of their lands and buildings, assessed to the property tax in 1843.
PARISHES. Acres. Population in Value
Bradwell-next-Coggeshall } 1171 293
Braxted (Great) 2631 410
Braxted (Little) 563 126
+Coggeshall (Little) 1002 443
Cressing 2357 560
+Fairsted 1853 306
+Faulkbourn 1555 157
+Hatfield Peverel 4559 1383
Kelvedon 3167 1483
Leighs Great (part) – –
Chatley hamlet 1810 564
+Notley (Black) 1936 520
Notley (White) 2255 470
Rivenhall 3557 722
Terling 3206 921
Ulting 1147 150
Witham 3100 3158
TOTAL 35,369 11,666
Those marked + are in the Liberty of the Duchy of Lancaster. † Great Leighs parish is mostly in Chelmsford Hundred.
† Witham return included 138 persons in the Union Workbouse.
§ UNIONS : Bradwell, Cressing, and Black and White Notley, are in Braintree Union ; Great Leighs and Chatley are in Chelmsford Union ; and all the other 11 parishes are in Witham Union.
CHIEF CONSTABLES, Mr. John Crump, of Witham, and Mr. Thomas Speakman, of Fairsted. J. H. Blood, Esq. , is clerk to the magistrates ; and Mr. Charles Cooke, is the police superintendent, at Witham.
WITHAM UNION comprises the 17parishes of Great and Little Braxted, Great and Little Coggeshall, Fairsted, Faulkbourn, Feering, Hatfield Peverel, Inworth, Kelvedon, Messing, Markshall, Rivenhall, Terling, Ulting, Wickham Bishops, and Witham ; which comprise about 32,000 acres, and in 1841, had 15,407 inhabitants, of whom 7638 were males, and 7769 females. Their number of houses, in 1841, was 3229, of which 130 were unoccupied, and 25 building, when the census was taken. The total average annual expenditure of the 17 parishes, on the poor, for the three years preceding the formation of the Union, was £9537. Their expenditure in 1838, was £5531, and in 1841, £5123 . The Union Workhouse, at Witham, was built in 1839, and has room for about 300 paupers. Mr. James and Mrs. Hicks are master and matron ; and the Rev. S. E. Major is the chaplain. J. H. Blood, Esq. , is the union clerk and superintendent registrar ; and Mr. W. E. Shee is the relieving officer. Messrs. W. Garrett, of Witham, and J. Eley, of Kelvedon, are registrars of marriages ; and Messrs. E. Wilson, of Witham, H. Giles, of Coggeshall, and J. Eley, of Kelvedon, are the registrars of births and deaths. Messrs. Proctor, Nott, and Varenne, are the three surgeons. Lord Rayleigh is chairman of the Board of Guardians.
Three guardians are chosen yearly for Great Coggeshall, two each for Witham and Kelvedon, and one for each of the other parishes.