about 300, for the Certificates of Muster for the year
1539 show that the village had 50 men capable of
bearing arms. On the accession of Edward VI
in many Essex parishes the churchwardens, with the
assent of the parishioners, sold church plate and
ornaments and carried out severe changes in church
worship without waiting for any authority from the
Protectorate Government. At South Benfleet Church
plate to the value of £3 6s. 8d. (much smaller than
sums raised by similar means in many neighbouring
churches) was sold in this way, the money being used
for the repair of the church fabric and the fitting out
of soldiers. Convocation in 1547 had permitted the
marriage of priests ; this permission was sanctioned
by Parliament in 1549, but on Mary's accession the
Act was reversed. In 1551 Bonner, then Bishop of
London, in which diocese Essex was included, deprived
89 Essex clergy of their livings, in most cases because
they were married. Included among the ministers
so deprived was the Vicar of South Benfleet, Thos.
Wilson, whose fate was shared by the Rectors of North
Benfleet, Ashingdon, North Shoebury and Foulness,
and the Vicars of Hockley, Eastwood and Prittlewell.
Many of these clergy, after separating from their wives
and doing penance were reappointed to other livings.
The penance required included standing in a sheet,
holding a taper in the body of the church and
confessing their sin. The accession of Elizabeth
brought a new religious settlement. The clergy
throughout the country were required to subscribe
to the new Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy.
Bonner, who had been most active in the persecution
of Protestants in Essex, was deprived of his bishopric
and imprisoned in the Marshalsea : the Archdeacons
of Essex, Colchester and London were also deprived,
together with some 26 Essex incumbents who.
refused subscription. Among these latter was included
another Vicar of South Benfleet, Thos. Parker ; Thos.
Wilson returned to the vicarage from which he had
been ejected in Mary's reign, but only lived for another
14