From the last described parish, this of Little Yeldham, which is bounded on the north by Tilbury and Walter Belchamp, and on the south by Castle Hedingham, extends eastward to Gestingthorp; the village is fifty-three miles from London, in a retired situation: it is imperfectly supplied with water, being at a considerable distance from the river, or from any running stream .

Some historians are of opinion that this parish was separated from Great Yeldham soon after the Conquest; but, as it is mentioned in the survey of Domesday, as a berewick or hamlet to Clare, and held under the Earl of Boulogne, it may reasonably be doubted whether it ever did form a part of the larger parish of the same name.

In 1090, a church in Gelham is stated to have been granted, by Gilbert de Clare, to the collegiate church of St. John the Baptist, of that parish; * but the first instance, in records, of the appellation of Parva Gelham, (Little Yeldham,) is in 1371, the forty-fifth of Edward the Third. In the thirty-fourth of the same king, we find only the general name of Geldham.

Overhall, the capital manor of this parish, appears to have been in possession of the Vere family from the time of Henry the Second, and is mentioned as two knights' fees and a quarter, which Alberic de Vere, the second earl of Oxford, held of the honour of Boulogne, in that king's reign. In King John's reign, Robert, the third earl, paid £10 into the exchequer, for the farm of Geldham; and for this manor, Hugh, his son, the fourth earl, paid the same fee.

In 1336, it is stated in the record that King Edward the Third released the fee farm to John, the seventh earl , in lieu of twenty marks yearly rent , which he was accustomed to receive out of the exchequer, for the third penny of the county of Oxford ; and it was then holden in capite, as parcel of the earldom.

In 1584, this manor , with the advowson of the church, was sold, by Edward the seventeenth earl, ‡ to John Mabbe, or Webbe, from whom it passed, in 1592, to Lewis Prowde and Edward Smith; and, in 1594, to William Drywood.

Elizabeth Bedwell,widow, held this estate, in 1596, till her death in 1608; Anne was her daughter and heiress.

The next possessors of this manor were William Dod, and Elizabeth, his wife , in 1608; and Richard Dod, of London, in right of Anne, his wife, kept a court-baron here in 1609 , and was here in 1647. He had the estate for life , which , on his death , went to William Bedwell , and his heirs ; in 1647 , it had descended to his three daughters ; Catharine , the wife of Vesey ; Anne , wife of Lushington ; and Margaret , wife of John Clark , minister of St. Botolph's , Bishopsgate , in London ; the issue of these last were John Clark , bred a merchant , who died unmarried ; and Sarah , married to Waldegrave Siday , Esq . of Alphamstone , who had by her Waldegrave , and John , fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he died in 1712. The father died young; for Sarah, his widow , her son Waldegrave, and John Clarke , her father, kept a court here in 1664 ; and the widow continued to hold the estate till her son came of age , in 1683. * He died in 1696, leaving , by his wife Anne, daughter of John Morden, of Bradley, in Suffolk, Anne, Sarah; and a posthumous son, named Waldegrave, who died in infancy. The two daughters, co-heiresses, in 1749, sold the estate to Peter Muilman, Esq.

Aberton manor, and Michaelstow, in Ramsey, were anciently holden of this manor. An estate, bearing the name of Goddings, was formerly reckoned a manor; in old writings, it is sometimes stated to be a knight's fee, and, at other times, said to be only a quarter of a fee. The house has been destroyed, but a wood in this parish yet bears the name of Goddings. The ancient family of Goodinge were in possession of this estate in the reign of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth; in the sixteenth century, it had become the property of a person named Fryer, or Frere, of Clare, from whom it passed to Richard Eden, of Great Cornard, who, in 1578, conveyed it to Richard Unwin, of Steeple Bumpstead; who, in 1621, sold it to Roger Harlakenden; from whose family it passed to Thomas Crackrode, of the ancient family of that name, in Toppesfield; and afterwards became the property of the Ruggles family.

† An estate in this parish, called Sewales, was placed in the custody of Robert Sewale, of Coggeshall, by John, earl of Oxford, in 1534, during the minority of William , son and heir of John Reyner; and the name given on this occasion has been retained to the present time. The church is a small plain building, with no separation from the chancel. It is indebted, for a handsome set of plate, to the munificence of Peter Muilman, Esq. The same gentleman planted the fir trees which surround the churchyard .

This church, which originally belonged to Richard Fitz-Gislebert, was given, by his son Gilbert de Clare, to the priory of that place, § which was afterwards converted into a college at Stoke; and the advowson remained in the gift of that house till the general dissolution of monasteries, when it passed to the crown, where it has remained to the present time .

In 1555, Mr. John Cook, of Belchamp Otten, left an annuity of 2s. to the poor of this parish, 1s. to be paid fourteen days before Michaelmas, the other at Lady Day.

This parish, in 1821, contained two hundred and eighty-seven, and, in 1831, three hundred and seventy-four inhabitants.