FELSTED or FELSTEAD, a village in the Saffron Walden parliamentary division of Essex, England, io m. N. from Chelms ford; with a station on the Dunmow and Braintree branch of the L.N.E. railway. Pop. (1931), 1,845. Holy Cross church contains a chapel of the Rich family, including an imposing monument to Richard, ist Baron Rich of Leeze, lord high chancellor (d. 1658), who in 1564 founded the grammar school from which the present Felsted school descends. It became a notable educational centre for Puritan families in the 57th century under Martin Holbeach and his successors, C. Glasscock (1650-9o), and Simon Lydiatt (169o-1702). John Wallis the mathematician and Isaac Barrow the scholar were educated here, and also four sons of Oliver Cromwell, Robert (d. 1639 and buried in Holy Cross church), Oliver, Richard (the Protector), and Henry. Under the Rev. W. S. Grignon (1823-1907), the headmaster from 1856 to 1875, the school rapidly took a place among the public schools of the modern English type. New buildings were erected in 1864, to which considerable modern additions have since been made.
See John Sargeaunt, History of Felsted School (1889) ; and Alumni Felstedienses, by R. J. Beevor, E. T. Roberts and others (19o3).