from the Essex Place-names Project, curated by Andrew Clarke

Here is a list of the Householders of Pentlow, Liston, Borley and Foxearth in 1839, when the great Tithe survey was done. This was a consequence of the passing of The Tithe Commutation Act in 1836 because it abolished a rent payable in kind and substituted rent-charges apportioned on the income of each plot or parcel.

To work out this rent-charge, a valuer was tasked with having to assess the rent of each parcel of land, and tenants could then deduct that rent-charge from their rent paid to the landlord. To do this, the Tithe Commissioners undertook a large-scale survey in the following 9 years, and the Essex parishes got what was, in effect the first and only detailed map of farms, fields, land, ownership and tenancy. This provides a host of detail that would otherwise have been lost.

Only 237 householders were recorded. The population was much larger, but only the head of each household was recorded. This is because the purpose of the Tithe survey was to establish who was renting from whom, and who was responsible for paying tithes, and how much. The censuses were a more reliable source for the names and the size of the population.