HATFIELD-PEVERELL, a parish in the hundred
of WITHAM, county of ESSEX, 3 miles (S. w, by s.)
from Witham, containing 1101 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Colchester,
and diocese of London, rated in the king's
books at A3, endowed with £1000 private benefaction,
£200 royal bounty, and £2500 parliamentary grant.
J. Wright, Esq. was patron in 1823. The church, dedicated
to St. Andrew, has received an addition of two
hundred sittings, of which one hundred and twentyone
are free, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement
of churches and chapels having granted £150
towards defraying the expense. A school was endowed
in 1638, by Sir Edward AUeyne, with £5.10. per annum.
Miss Loveman, in 1820, erected four tenements for two
aged married couples and two single persons, endowing
them with eighteen shillings a week for the former, and
twelve shillings for the latter. Here was a college for
Secular canons in the time of William Rufus, founded
by Ingebrica, wife of Ranulph Peverill, and dedicated
to St. Mary Magdalene; it was converted by her son
into a Benedictine monastery. The only remains of the
buildings consist of the priory church, now parochial,
which has a Norman door. The Chelmar and Blackwater
navigation passes along the southern boundary of
this parish, where it receives the river Ter.