Steeple (St. Lawrence and All Saints)

STEEPLE (St. Lawrence and All Saints), a parish, in the union of Maldon, hundred of Dengte, S. division of Essex, 10 miles (E. S. E.) from Maldon; containing 584 inhabitants. This parish comprises 2748a. lr. 9p., and includes the island of Ramsey. It is bounded on the north by the river Blackwater, on which is a quay, the property of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where barges of 70 tons deliver cargoes of chalk, and take in corn. Fairs are held on the Wednesday in Whitsun-week, and the Wednesday after Michaelmas-day. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £15. 18.; net income, £195; patrons, alternately, Sir Brook W. Bridges, Bart., and the Hunt family; impropriators, the Hunt family. The church is an ancient edifice. At Stanesgate, in the parish, a priory of Cluniac monks, subordinate to that of Lewes, existed before 1176; it was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and at the Dissolution had a revenue of £38. 18. 3.: the few remains now form part of the walls of a barn.