{{Short description|Village and civil parish in Essex, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox UK place |country = England |coordinates = {{coord|51.89172|0.61731|display=inline,title}} |official_name= Stisted |population = 662 | population_ref = (Parish, 2021)<ref name=2021census>{{cite web |title=2021 Census Parish Profiles |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_pp |website=NOMIS |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=31 March 2025}} (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)</ref> |shire_district= Braintree |shire_county = Essex |region= East of England |constituency_westminster= Braintree |post_town= BRAINTREE |postcode_district= CM77 |postcode_area=CM |dial_code= 01376 |os_grid_reference= TL802247 |static_image_name = All Saints Church, The Street, Stisted, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 57762.jpg |static_image_width = |static_image_caption= All Saints' Church, Stisted }}
'''Stisted''' is a village and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. It lies {{convert|3|miles|km|0}} east of the centre of the town of Braintree. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 662.
==History== 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=Marion |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70257 |title=Essex witches (act. 1566–1589) |date=2004-09-23 |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/70257}}</ref>
Samuel Stone, founder of Hartford, Connecticut was curate of Stisted from 1627.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hertford.net/history/samstone.asp |title=Discover Hertford Online | History | Samuel Stone |access-date=2007-06-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927023405/http://www.hertford.net/history/samstone.asp |archive-date=2007-09-27 }}</ref> Charles Forster,<ref>He seems to have been a specialist of Semitic languages. Cf. [http://catalogue.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?ct=facet&fctN=facet_creator&fctV=FORSTER%2c+Charles%2c+Rector+of+Stisted.&rfnGrp=1&rfnGrpCounter=1&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A(BLCONTENT)&frbg=&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1389942743353&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&vl(488279563UI0)=any&dum=true&tb=t&indx=1&vl(freeText0)=Charles%20Forster&fn=search&vid=BLVU1 British Library Catalogue]</ref> grandfather of E. M. Forster, held the benefice 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".<ref>[http://www.stisted.info/church_xtra.htm inscription] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070528062008/http://www.stisted.info/church_xtra.htm |date=2007-05-28 }}</ref>
The manor of Stisted also belonged to the monks of Canterbury Cathedral 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, until 1845, when it fell under the jurisdiction of Middlesex. In 1895 it became part of the 'see' of Chelmsford.
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''.<ref>[http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030404/debtext/30404-19.htm selling land] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040926034951/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030404/debtext/30404-19.htm |date=2004-09-26 }}</ref>
Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate, was raised there.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article640267.ece | title=The joy of Essex | work=The Sunday Times | publisher=Times Newspapers | date=2006-09-24 | accessdate=2008-11-06 }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==Listed buildings== {{main|Listed buildings in Stisted}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Stisted}} *[https://www.stisted-pc.co.uk/ Stisted Parish Council website]
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Category:Villages in Essex Category:Braintree District