History of Stebbing
Stebbing, High Street c1965
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.
History of Stebbing >> White's Directory 1848
White's Directory of Essex 1848
Stebbing
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.
STEBBING, 3 miles North East of Dunmow, is a large straggling village with many good houses, on the eastern acclivity of a valley, though which a rivulet flows southward to the Chelmer, and has here several mills. It has a fair for fat calves and other cattle, on the 10th of July; and its parish contains 1458 inhabitants, and 4301 acres of land, including many scattered houses, and the districts called Bran-End, 1 mile North, and Stebbing Green and Stebbing Ford, more than a mile South West of the church. In old records it is variously called Stabinge, Stobinge, Stibingham, etc. In the Confessor’s reign, it was held by Siward a Saxon thane; and at Domesday Survey, by Ralph Peverel and Henry de Ferrers. In the parish is a conical hill, still surrounded by a moat, and said to have been the site of a castle, but there is no historical evidence of such a building.
The manor of Stebbing was held by the noble family of Ferrers till latter part of the 14th century, when their heiress carried it in marriage to the Greys. In 1545, it was sold in exchange to Henry VIII., who exchanged it with Sir Giles Capel, an ancestor of the Earl of Essex, the present lord of the manor and owner of a great part of the parish. Capt. Bingham, as impropriator of the rectory, is lord of the manor of Prior’s or Friar’s Hall; and here are several smaller proprietors, partly free and partly copyholders. Stebbing Park, a neat modern mansion, is the residence of J. W. Willis, Esq. Porter’s Hall, an ancient farmhouse, occupied by Mr. Joseph Clark, is still nearly encompassed by a moat. William Barnard, sen., Esq., has a neat house in the village; and Thomas Davey, Esq., has a pleasant seat called Prospect Place.
The Church (St. Mary) is a large and lofty building, with a nave, side aisles, and chancel, and a tower containing five bells, and crowned by a small leaded spire. The chancel has aisles, and is separated from three the nave by three handsome arches. The nave was repaired and beautified in 1825, when galleries was erected and 143 additional sittings provided. On the walls are some ancient tablets, belonging to the Jernegan, Batt, Sharp, and other families. There was a chantry here, founded by Sir. John Bultell; and an obit, endowed by John Gunnock. The rectory was given by William de Ferrers to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem; but it is now in the impropriation of Capt. Bingham, who is also patron of the vicarage, valued in K.B. at £12 and in 1831 at £212, and now in the incumbency of the Rev. M. D. Duffield, M.A., who has a good residence, rebuilt in 1832 and 1840, at the cost of about £1060, borrowed from Queen Anne’s Bounty. The glebe of the impropriate rectory is about 128A. The tithes were commuted in 1839 - the rectorial for £850, and the vicarial for £351 per annum.
Stebbing
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.
Here is a neat Independent Chapel, built in 1719, but enlarged and repaired in 1820 and 1842. The congregation date their origin from 1662, when the Rev. Samuel Bantoft, B.D., was ejected from the vicarage for nonconformity. Here are National and British Schools, and also a Friends' Meeting House, built in 1674.
For the relief of two poor people of this parish, Robert Fuller and John Polly, in 1588, gave two cottages and a garden; adjoining the churchyard, now let for £8.4s. a year. The poor parishioners have £3 yearly, as the rent of 4A. of land at Oxen-End, in Little Bardfield, purchased in 1612 for £39, of J. and T. Buttolfe; and also a yearly rent-charge of 20s. out of 5A. of land, left by John Lum, in 1796. A legacy of £150, left to the poor by Frances Batt, in 1736, was laid out in two cottages, now let for £12.6s. a year, which is applied by the minister and churchwardens towards the support of the parish schools. Several other charities formerly belonging to the parish are lost.