BRADWELL-near-the-SEA, a parish in the hundred
of DENGIE, county of ESSEX, 12 miles (E.) from Maldon,
containing 904 inhabitants. The living is a rectory,
in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London,
rated in the king's books at £48, and in the patronage
of the Rev. T. Schreiber. The church, dedicated to St.
Thomas the Apostle, has a tower surmounted by a lofty
spire. The parish lies at the mouth of the Blackwater
river, which forms its northern boundary; the North
sea is on the east, near which stand the remains of an
ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Peter, now converted
into a barn. Camden considers the Saxon city Ithancestre
to have stood at or near this place, and identifies
it also with the Roman station Othona, where the
Numerus Fortendum, under a commander styled Count
of the Saxon shore, was stationed, in the decline of the
Roman empire. Upwards of £ 100, half of it arising
from land given by Dr. Buckeridge, is applied annually
toward the support of schools in this parish.