ENSHAM, a parish in the hundred of WOOTTON, county of OXFORD, 5 miles (E.by S.) from Witney, containing 1705 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford, rated in the king's books at £15. 34., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty. The church, a handsome edifice, is dedicated to St. Leonard. There is a place of worship for Independents. In 1700, John Bartholomew gave £350, to be applied to the education and apprenticing of ten poor boys; in the year following the school was built by subscription, and fourteen boys are now instructed. This place derives its name from the Saxon Egonesham, and was formerly a Saxon frontier town. King Ethelred held a council at Ensham, on the advice of Alphege and Wulstan, Archbishops of York and Canterbury, at which many ecclesiastical and civil decrees were enacted. At one period it was famous for its abbey, founded by Ethelware, Earl of Cornwall, in the reign of Ethelred, who confirmed the charter in 1005; its revenue, at the dissolution, was valued at £441; there are no remains. Here is a paper-mill of high repute. The river Thames and the Oxford canal pass in the vicinity. There are some Roman, Saxon, and Danish encampments.