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Ampthill in Bedford County England History and GeographyAMPTHILL, a market town and parish in the hundred of REDBORNESTOKE, county of BEDFORD, 7 miles (S. by W.) from Bedford, and 45 (N.W. by N.) from London, containing 1527 inhabitants. The name of this place is of uncertain derivation. In the reign of Henry VI., Sir John Cornwall, created Lord Fanhope, built a castle on the manor of Ampthill, which, about the year 1530, came into the possession of the Crown, and was made an honour by act of parliament. Catherine of Arragon resided here while the business of the divorce was pending, where she received the summons to attend the commissioners at Dunstable, which she refused to obey. In memory of which, the Earl of Ossory, in 1770, erected on the site of the castle a gothic column, with an appropriate inscription from the pen of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. The modern seat is chiefly remarkable for the number of very ancient oaks which ornament the park. The town, pleasantly situated between two hills, is irregularly built, paved with pebbles, and amply supplied with water; it has been of late years considerably improved by the removal of old buildings, and the erection of a handsome market-house. The market is on Thursday, principally for corn; the fairs are on the 4th of May, and 30th of November, for cattle. Ampthill is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, who hold here a petty session for the hundred; and a court for the honour of Ampthill is held in the moot-house, an ancient building, under the lord high steward, at which constables and officers are appointed. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £10. 6. 8., and endowed with £300 private benefaction and £200 royal bounty. Lord Holland was patron in 1820. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a handsome cruciform structure, partaking of the decorated and later styles of English architecture, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The charity school, for twenty boys and twenty-four girls, was endowed in 1691 with lands producing £30 per annum, by Mrs. Sarah Emery; and a rent charge of £5 per annum, given in 1740 by Mr. George Watson, is appropriated to the instruction of sixteen poor children. About a mile from the town is an hospital, founded in 1690, by John Cross, for twelve poor men, a reader, and four poor women: the reader has £15 per annum, the others £10; they must be unmarried. The Vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, and the bishop of that diocese, are visitors. The interest arising from a legacy of £700 left by Mr. Arthur Whitchelner in 1687, for the apprenticing of poor children, is shared by this parish conjointly with the parishes of Maulden, Millbrook, and Ridgemont. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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