Stebbing is mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086: "
Henry de Ferrers holds Stebbing in
demesne which Siward held as a manor and as two hides and 30 acres. Then and later two ploughs in demesne; now 3. Among the men then 4 ploughs now six and a half. There were six
villans now eight. Then 16
bordars now 33." Half a mile north-west of the church is The Mount, the
moated
earthwork identified as the remains of the
medieval castle. In the late 13th century the manor of Stebbing passed briefly to the Scottish noble house of
Douglas by virtue of the marriage of
William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas to Eleanor de Lovaine, the widow of William de Ferrers of Groby. Eleanor was a ward of Edward I, and had her late husband's manors of Stebbing and
Woodham Ferrers made into a dowry for a future remarriage. Douglas absconded with Eleanor, when she was attending to her late husband's estates in Scotland, and married her c.1288. Douglas, a significant figure on the Scottish side during the
First Scottish War of Independence, had his English manors finally forfeited by 1298 when he died of mistreatment in the
Tower of London. His son
Hugh Douglas had been captured previously at Stebbing in 1296, by the
Sheriff of Essex. ==The church==