Pleshey (Holy Trinity)
PLESHEY (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Chelmsford, hundred of Dunmow, N. division of Essex, 6½ miles (N. N. W.) from Chelmsford; containing 337 inhabitants. This place was the seat of the high constables of England, from the institution of their office till nearly four centuries after the Norman Conquest; and from discoveries made, it seems to have been previously the site either of a Roman station or a villa. The village consists principally of one long street, and is surrounded by an intrenchment, inclosing also the keep mount of the Norman fortress, of which only a stone bridge remains, of singular construction, across the moat that separated the castle and its keep. The treacherous arrest of the Duke of Gloucester by Richard II. was planned while the former lay at this castle, from which the king himself decoyed him under the pretence of a friendly invitation to London. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £50; patron and impropriator, J. Tufnell, Esq. The body of the church was rebuilt of brick in 1708, chiefly by the munificence of Bishop Compton; but the tower which rose from the intersection of the ancient cruciform structure, remained in decay until renovated by the late Samuel Tufnell, Esq., who also added a handsome chancel. To the south of the church a college was founded about 1394, in honour of the Holy Trinity, by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, sixth son of Edward III., for a master, warden, eight chaplains, two clerks, and two choristers, whose revenue at the Dissolution was estimated at £143. 12. 7.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.