Marsworth / Maesanwyrth / Maessanworth / Mæssanwyrth / Massewrth / Masworth / Messeworthe / Missevorde

There is an entry for Marsworth [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP9214/marsworth/] [accessed 20 November 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Sheahan (1862) reports a font in this church: "plain, small, and cup-shaped" [NB: this font must be the one referred to in the VCH in 1925 [cf. infra]]. A font is noted in the Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 3, 1925) [NB: but it is a font originally from Shenfield St. Mary, and it was later returned to it]: "The font [...] has an octagonal bowl of Purbeck marble with sunk quatrefoil panels variously carved with faces and conventional flowers. It is of late 14th-century workmanship. The stem and base are modern." The VCH (ibid.) footnotes: "This font, which was brought from the garden of Shenfield Rectory (Essex), replaced one acquired in 1860" [VCH source: 'Country Life', 30 October 1909: 596] -- The font was actually returned to Shenfield in 1949; cf. Bettley & Pevsner (2007)] [NB: the church dates at least to 1218, and the VCH (ibid.) suggests "There was a church here probably at the end of the 12th century" but we have no information on its medieval font]