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- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
The village of Pleshey (formerly Pleshy) is located in Essex, England, just to the northwest of Chelmsford. The parish was part of the Chelmsford Rural District from 1894 until 1974, and since 1974 it has been located in the Chelmsford District or Borough. The parish was originally in the Dunmow Hundred. Traditionally an agricultural community, most householders today are commuters. The UK census of 2011 gave a population of 373. This included the small (under 100) population of the neighbouring parish of Mashbury. (Wikipedia)
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).
- PLESHEY, a parish, with an ancient village, in Chelmsford [registration] district, Essex; on a small affluent of the river Chelmer, 5½ miles N N W of Chelmsford [railway] station. Post-town: Chelmsford. Acres: 726. Real property: £1, 365. Population: 342. Houses: 80. The property is divided among a few.
- The manor belongs to the duchy of Lancaster. The castle of the High Constables stood here; was built by William de Magnaville; was the residence of the Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Edward III.; and the place of his arrest, in 1397, by Richard II.; was the scene, in 1400, of the beheading of the Duke of Exeter by the populace; went into decay soon after that event; was used as a quarry, about 1600, for building a lodge, which stood till 1767; and is now represented by a mound, great earthworks, two moats, and a curious bridge. A Roman camp previously occupied the same ground; was about a mile in circuit; and has yielded some relics, and left some remains.
- The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £125. Patron: J. Tufnell, Esq. The church comprises a nave of 1708, a chancel of 1748, and the transepts and tower of a quondam fine cruciform double-aisled church of late decorated date, which belonged to a college for 9 priests, founded in 1393, by the Duke of Gloucester; and it contains mural monuments of the Tufnells, and fragments of several ancient marble tombs. Charities, £9.
Pleshey's historical significance
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
For a long time Pleshey Castle was an important place in English history. Through inheritance, Pleshey Castle became the main castle of Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford, and his wife, Maud, sister and heiress of William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. From this marriage de Bohun's son Humphrey became Earl of Essex (27 Aug 1236) as well as Earl of Hereford and Hereditary Constable of England. Generations of de Bohuns resided here, with Pleshey as their caput manor. Humphrey de Bohun VIII (4th Earl of Hereford and 3rd of Essex (1275?-1322) on 14 Nov. 1302 married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward I, King of England. Some of their children were born at Pleshey. Humphrey VIII was killed at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, rebelling against King Edward II.
In 1327, Pleshey Castle became the primary residence of Humphrey VIII's eldest surviving son, John de Bohun, created Earl of Hereford and Essex. He died in 1336 without an heir and the castle passed to his brother, Humphrey IX, Earl of Hereford and Essex (d. 1361). The youngest of the brothers, William de Bohun (d. 1360), became the leading commander of the early part of the Hundred Years War]], devising the tactics that won English victories at the Battle of Morlaix (1342), the Battle of Crecy (1346), and the Siege of Calais (1347), and was created Earl of Northampton.
Humphrey IX never married and Pleshey was inherited in 1361 by William's son and heir, Humphrey de Bohun X (b. 1342), last male heir of the direct line. This Humphrey inherited both his uncle's and his father's titles and became Earl of Hereford, Essex and Northampton. His only heirs at his death on 13 January 1373 were two young daughters, Eleanor and Mary.
Between 1361 and 1384 a group of Augustinian friars created the de Bohun manuscripts at Pleshey Castle; eleven books, one of them a Psalter, celebrating Mary de Bohun's marriage to Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, King of England. The Mary de Bohun Psalter is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Mary, who died before her husband became king, was the mother of Henry V, of Agincourt fame.
The castle then passed (through the marriage of Eleanor) to Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Edward III. His nephew, Richard II, outraged by his uncle's opposition, had him arrested at Pleshey and taken to France. Two years later the Duke of Exeter was taken to Pleshey Castle and executed for plotting against the king.
Pleshey Castle's claim to fame includes Shakespeare's play Richard II in which Thomas of Woodstock's widow asks for a visit from Edmund of York:
Bid him - O, what?
With all good speed at Plashy [sic] visit me.
Alack, and what shall good old York there see,
But empty lodgings and unfurnished walls,
Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?
- end of Wikipedia contribution
Many of the people mentioned in the Wikipedia quote are to be found in WeRelate. However, the references to Wikipedia have been retained because the articles there tell a more complete story.
Research Tips
- Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
- The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
- GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
- Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
- For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
- FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
- The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
- A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
- British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
- Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
- Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
- Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
- Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
- Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
- Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
- Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
- As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
- Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records
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