DAGENHAM, a parish in the hundred of BECONTREE,
county of ESSEX, 3 miles (S. by W.) from Romford,
containing 1864 inhabitants. The living is a
vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of
London, rated in the king's books at £19. 10.
Mrs. Bonyinge was patroness in 1816. The church
is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The parish
is bounded on the south by the Thames. There is a
small endowment for the instruction of children. A
very destructive irruption of the Thames occurred here in
1707, the waters, rushing in by an opening made by
the blowing up of a small sluice for draining the
land, overflowed one thousand acres of rich land,
and washed nearly one hundred and twenty acres
into the river, where a sand-bank was formed almost
half-way across its bed; in this state it remained
nearly fifteen years, when the breach was stopped,
and the land recovered by Captain Perry, at an expense
of £40,000.