Edwardston (St. Mary)

EDWARDSTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Cosford, hundred of Babergh, W. division of Suffolk, 1¾ mile (N. W.) from Boxford; containing 495 inhabitants, and consisting of about 1800 acres. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £4. 13. 4.; patron, Charles Dawson, Esq.; appropriator, the Bishop of Ely, who pays the vicar £18. 5. per annum. The great tithes have been commuted for £373, and the vicarial for £263; the glebe comprises 8 acres. The church was given, with the tithes and other appurtenances, to the monastery of Abingdon, by Hubert de Montecheney, lord of the manor in 1114, when a society of Black monks was placed here, as a cell to that house; the site is now called St. Edward's Place. In 1160, the monks were removed to the priory of Colne, to which the parish church became appropriated, and belonged till the Dissolution.