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History of Good Easter
Good Easter
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History of Good Easter >> White's Directory 1848
White's Directory of Essex 1848
EASTER, (GOOD) a pleasant village and parish, in the vale of a rivulet, 7 miles West North West of Chelmsford, has 504 inhabitants, and 2042 acres of land, It was called Estra at Domesday Survey, and belonged to Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, who gave it to the collegiate church of St. Martin-le-Grand,London. From this appropriation, it obtained the name of God's Estra, or Godicestre, now corrupted to Good Easter. This manor, with that of Mashbury and other possessions of the above-named collegiate church, was given by Henry VII., in 1492, to Westminster Abbey. Henry VIII. gave it to his newly formed bishopric of Westminster, in 1540, but that see being dissolved in 1542, the King granted the manor to Sir Richard Rich, from whose family it passed to the Mildmays, Watersons, and Bonnels. J. R. S. Phillips, Esq., is now lord of the manor, and owner of the estate called Newarks, or Newland's Fee. Lord Rayleigh, F. J. Matthews, and several residents have estates here.
The Church (St. Andrew,)has a nave, south aisle, and chancel, with a stone tower, containing five bells, and crowned by a tall and handsome wooden spire. From stone arches in the walls of the chancel, there seems to have been several cells or chapels. When appropriated to the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, four of the prebendaries had prebendal houses here, called Fawkeners, Imbers, Bowers, and Paslows. Mrs. E. Rust is impropriator of the rectory; and the vicarage, valued in K.B. at £8, and in 1831 at £171, with that of High Easter annexed to it, is in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London, incumbency of the Rev. Geo. Leapingwell, LL.B., who has two acres of glebe. After the consolidation of the two livings, in 1771, the vicarage house in this parish was pulled down. The tithes here were commuted in 1842, the rectorial for £240, and the vicarial for £120. A chalybeate spring, at Wares Farm, was formerly in repute for medicinal virtues. The Church Lands comprise 2½A. in this parish, let for £1.17s.6d., and 6A. in Writtle and Roxwell, let for £4. The church has also a yearly rent of 1s.4d., out of Wares Farm, and another of 10d. out of Gate House Farm. A yearly rent of 10s., left by one Monk, is carried to the account of the Infant School, which is supported chiefly by subscription, and was built in 1844, at the cost of £128. Until 1805, the poor had yearly two bushels of wheat, and two bushels of malt, and a reserved rent of 3s.10d., out of Bailey's Farm.
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