Blackmore

“BLACKMORE, a parish in the hundred of CHELMSFORD, county of ESSEX, 3½ miles (N. W. by W.) from Ingatestone, containing 657 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £6. 13. 4., endowed with a rent-charge of £20 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £1400 parliamentary grant. The King presented by lapse in 1808. The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was the conventual church of a priory of Black canons, which was built by Adam and Jordan de Samford, about the commencement of the reign of John: it was dissolved in the 17th of Henry VIII., at which time the revenue, amounting to £85. 9. 7., was applied by Cardinal Wolsey toward the endowment of his two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, and on his attainder, in 1529, was appropriated to the crown. Henry VIII. afterwards occasionally resided in the house, which, having lately undergone a thorough repair, is now an elegant private mansion.” [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]