TOTHAM (Great), a parish, with a village, in Maldon district, Essex; 2½ miles N by E of Maldon r. station. Post town, Witham. Acres, 5,363; of which 1,042 are water. Real property, £4,980. Pop., 812. Houses, 185. The property is much subdivided. Beacon hill has an altitude of about 700 feet; was crowned by a signal beacon, during the great war with France; and is still crowned by a large elm, which serves as a landmark to mariners. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £178.* Patron, W. P. Honeywood, Esq. The church is good. There are an Independent chapel, a Wesleyan chapel of 1867, a national school, six alms houses, and church charities £12.

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