PLESHY, (Essex) to the S. E. of High-Easter, a place so adorned with buildings, fortifications and parks, that some have
derived the name from plaisir, i.e. pleasure. It is said to have been the seat of the Constables of England, at the end of
the Saxon Gt. Here are the traces of a fortification, built at the time of the Norman conquest. The lands here bel.
formerly to the Ch. of Ely; but William the Conq, seized them. This manor was taken out of High-Easter and Waltham, which
were heretofore hamlets to it, and, like the former, is in the Duchy of Lancaster. The p. chuse an officer, called the
mayor. In the R. of Rich. II. Thomas Duke of Woodstock erected a college here, which Henry VIII. granted to John Gate. In
the R. of Edw. VI. this manor was held by Sir Roger Cholmley, Sir John Gate having forfeited it in the R. of Q. Mary, by
setting up the Lady Jane Grey. Pleshey-House and Coll. was held by Will. Pool and Edm. Downing, in the 6th of Eliz. who
afterwards granted the Coll. to Will. Tipper and Rob. Dawe. Sir Robert Clark, a baron of the exchequer, had it in the R.
of Ja. I. but Robert, his descendant, sold it to Sir Will. Jolliffe, who has the site of the castle and its lands, and
those of the college too, but not the site of it. He has also the great and small tithes of the p. The manor of Pleshey-
Bury was purchased by Sir Josiah Child; from whom it descended to E. Tilney. The Ch. being almost fallen down by the
neglect, or rather poverty of the T. was rebuilt chiefly at the expence of Henry Compton, not long since Bp. of London.