DUNMOW (Little), a parish in Dunmow district, Essex; on the left side of the river Chelmer, adjacent to the line of the Bishop-Stortford and Braintree railway, 2 miles ESE of Great Dunmow r. station, and 6½ W by S of Braintree. It has a post office under Chelmsford. Acres, 1, 715. Real property, £2, 738. Pop., 379. Houses, 79. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged anciently to the Baynards; passed to the Fitzwalters and others; and was then held by the tenure of giving a gammon of bacon to any married pair who chose to take oath that they had been true to each other, had not quarrelled, and had not wished themselves unmarried for a year and a day. This curious custom took root also at Wichnor in Staffordshire; was observed at Little Dunmow first in 1444; went into desuetude here in 1751 or 1763; and was commemorated at Great Dunmow, under the presidency of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, in 1855. An Augustinian priory was founded at Little Dunmow, by Lady Ingar Baynard, in 1104; and some portions of it, with late Norman and decorated English features, and comprising a monument of the - foundress, monuments of the Fitzwalters, and an alabaster effigies of the time of Henry IV., are still standing. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £72. Patron, the Rev. W. Toke. The church is good.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))