FOULNESS, an island and parish in the hundred
of ROCHFORD, county of ESSEX, 9 miles (E.byN.) from
Rochford, containing 565 inhabitants. The living is a
discharged rectory, within the jurisdiction of the court of
the Commissary of Essex and Herts, concurrently with the
Consistorial court of the Bishop of London, rated in the
king's books at £ 15, and in the patronage of the Earl of
Winchelsea. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is nearly
in the centre of the island, the floods having frequently
prevented the inhabitants from attending their respective
places of worship on the main land. There is a small
endowment for the education of children. The circumference
of Foulness is about twenty miles, exclusively
of a tract called the Saltings, which is not yet em
banked from the sea. Courts leet and baron are occasionally
held by the lord of the manor. There is a fair
for toys on the 10th of July.