MERSEA (EAST), a parish in the hundred of WINSTREE, county of ESSEX, 9 miles (S.S.E.) from Colchester, containing 282 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Colchester, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £21, and in .the patronage of the Crown. The church, which is dedicated to St. Edmund, has a square stone tower, which formerly served as a land-mark, and supported a beacon. This parish is bounded on the north by Pyefleet channel, and on the east and south by the Colne, near its confluence with the Blackwater.