In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the village as: HESSETT, a parish in Stow district, Suffolk; 2½ miles S of Thurston r. station.

[6] The dedication is to Æthelberht II of East Anglia (St. Ethelbert), and the building is a described as a typical Suffolk perpendicular church of the 15th century.

[7] The census in 1831 gave a more detailed information about people's occupations in comparison to the 1801 census, for Hessett, the majority of the male population aged 20 and over were involved in some sort of agricultural occupation as "the land is chiefly arable",[8] for example; " Farmers employing labourers and agricultural labourers.

According to figures produced in the 1920s by the Central Statistical Office, the "total British Army casualties were 956,703".

[12] The most recent statistics, produced by the 2011 census, report one of the highest populations with a total of 464 residents.