Stisted is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, and former manor near

Braintree, Essex Braintree is a town in Essex, England, and is the principal settlement of Braintree District. It is located north-east of Chelmsford, west of Colchester and north-west of Southend-on-Sea. According to the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Cens ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

, a former Poet Laureate, was raised there.

History of Stisted

In 1589 the village came to notice when a local woman, Joan Cunny, who was about 80, was accused of witchcraft. She admitted that she had made a circle and made prayers to the devil. Spirits had materialised and she had allowed them home with her and she confessed to feeding them. She had two daughters and the three of them were accused by one of her grandsons. One of her daughters was spared, the other was imprisoned and Cunny was hanged in Chelmsford on 5 July 1589 in line with a 1563 law.

Samuel Stone Samuel Stone (July 18, 1602 – 20 July 1663) was an English Puritan minister and co-founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Biography Stone was born in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. The name of the town is pronounced "Ha ...

, founder of

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, Conn. was curate of Stisted from 1627. Charles Forster, grandfather of

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

, held the

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of Stisted, and there is an inscription recording that "The tower was rebuilt from the foundations by Onley Savill-Onley and at the same time the chancel was new roofed and restored by the Rev Charles Forster AD 1844". The manor of Stisted also belonged to the monks of

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is one of the oldest Christianity, Ch ...

before the reformation. It was sold to Thomas Wiseman in 1549, whose heirs sold it to William Lingwood in 1685, whose widow (his third wife) bequeathed it to John Savill in 1719. It was inherited by Savill's brother, and then his niece, who married the Rev. Charles Onley, from whom Onley Savill-Onley was descended. Stisted parish was a peculiar, held by the Dean of Bocking under the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, until 1845, when it fell under the jurisdiction of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. In 1895 it became part of the ' see' of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

. In 2003, Alan Hurst, the local Member of Parliament denounced an Internet land scheme for selling land in Stisted as if for development, comparing it to a ''Champagne auction''.selling land

References

External links

Stisted Parish Council website
{{authority control Villages in Essex Braintree District