TAKELEY, a parish in the hundred of UTTLESFORD, county of ESSEX, 2 miles (S. E. by E.) from Stansted-Mountfitchet, containing 1134 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the jurisdiction of the Commissary of Essex and Herts, concurrently with the Consistorial Court of the Bishop of London, rated in the king's books at £11, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. There is a place, of worship for Independents. A small priory was founded here, in the reign of Henry I., as a cell to the abbey of St.Valery in Picardy.