DOVER-COURT, a parish in Tendring district, Essex; at the mouth of the estuary of the river Stour, and on the Harwich branch of the Eastern Union railway, 2 miles WSW of Harwich. It has a station on the railway, and two post offices, of the names of Lower Dover-Court and Upper Dover-Court, under Harwich. Acres, 2, 966; of which 1, 220 are water. Real property, £6, 270. Pop., 1, 231. Houses, 232. The property is subdivided. Lower Dover-Court is a suburb to Harwich; and Upper Dover-Court includes fine terrace-lines of houses, a great number of villas and other fine residences, a first-class hotel, a spa and assembly-rooms, sea-walls and marine drives, all of recent construction, and is becoming a favourite watering resort. The land is noted for fine hard elm. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Harwich-St. Nicholas, in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £221. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is of brick; was built in 1821, at a cost of £20, 000; and occupies the site of a previous church, which dated from the 13th century, had a guild and a famous crucifix, and contained a tomb to Secretary Clarke, killed in 1666 in action against De Ruyter. The crucifix was reputed to be miraculous, and attracted many pilgrims; and three men were executed in 1532 for carrying it off and burning it. See Harwich.

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