PANFIELD, a parish in the hundred of HINCKFORD,
county of ESSEX, 2 miles (N. W. by N.) from
Braintree, containing 263 inhabitants. The living is a
rectory, in the archdeaconry of Middlesex, and diocese
of London, rated in the king's books at £ 10. 10. The
Rev. R. L. Page was patron in 1809 The church is
dedicated to St. Mary and St. Christopher. Panfield
hall, built in 1546, is a curious specimen of the domestic
architecture of that period. An Alien priory of Benedictine
monks, subordinate to the abbey of St. Stephen,
fit Caen in Normandy, was founded here in the reign of
William the Conqueror; but in that of Henry V. it became
parcel of the possessions of the prior and convent
of Canterbury, and at the dissolution was granted
to Sir Giles Capel.