BIRDBROOK, a parish in the district of Risbridge and county of Essex; on the Halstead railway, 2½ miles SE of Haverhill. It has a station on the railway. Post Town, Bumpstead-Steeple, under Halstead. Acres, 2,386. Real property, £4,047. Pop., 643. Houses, 143. Birdbrook Hall was formerly a seat of Sir W. B. Rush. Baythorn House was built in 1668. A Roman camp occurs at Watson Bridge; and a large tumulus at Ford Meadow; and a number of Roman urns, coins, and other relics have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £600.* Patron, Clare Hall, Cambridge. The church is a neat substantial edifice; and contains the remains of Martha Blewitt, who was the wife of successively nine husbands, and died in 1681.

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