COLNE (EARL'S), a parish in the Witham division
of the hundred of LEXDEN, county of ESSEX, 3
miles (E. S. B.) from Halstead, containing 1229 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Colchester, and diocese of London, rated in the king's
books at £8.10.10., and in the patronage of W. Reeve,
and Arthur Clarence, 'Esqrs. The church, dedicated to
St. Andrew, contains several monuments of the de Veres,
Earls of Oxford, which were removed from the church
of a Benedictine priory, founded here in .the eleventh
century by Aubrey de Vere, who himself becameone of the
monks: it was dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the
Evangelist, and was made a cell to the abbey of Abingdon
in Berkshire; at the dissolution, it had a prior and
ten monks, with a revenue of £ 175. 14. 8. There is
a place of worship for Particular Baptists. Here is an
ancient free school, endowed by the Earls of Oxford, the
annual income of which is £ 12.17. A fair for cattle
and toys is held on the 25th of March. The river
Colne, which is here crossed by a bridge on the line
of the Roman road from Colchester, runs through this
parish.