MESSING, a parish in the Witham division of the
hundred of LEXDEN, county of ESSEX, 5 miles (S; E.)
from Great Coggeshall, containing 705 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Colchester,
and diocese of London, rated in the kings
books at £ 8, and in the patronage of the Earl of Verulam.
The church is dedicated to All Saints; the east
window is decorated with paintings of the six Christian
graces, supposed to have been the gift of the Chibbornes,
in the reign of James I. Sir William de Messing, the
founder, is represented in the north wall by a recumbent
wooden figure of a Knight Templar. A school for the
education of poor children has a small endowment.