MOUNTNESSING, two villages and a parish in Billericay district, Essex. The villages are Mountnessing and Mountnessing-Street; and they stand on a branch of the river Wid; the former 2 miles S by W of Ingatestone r. station, and 3¾ NE of Brentwood; the latter adjacent to the Great Eastern railway, 1½ mile NW of the former. The parish has a post office under Brentwood, and comprises 4,005 acres. Real property, £7,017. Pop., 844. Houses, 176. The property is divided among a few. Thoby priory here was founded, in 1141, for Augustinian canons, by Michael Capra Roisi; had, at the dissolution, an income estimated at £75; and has left some remains. A mansion bearing the name of Thoby Priory, is the seat ofR. Vickerman, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £117. Patron, Lord Petre. The church comprises nave and two aisles, and was recently in disrepair. There are a school with £30 a year from endowment, and charities £23.

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