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Appleby in Westmorland County England History and GeographyAPPLEBY, a borough and market town in EAST ward, county of WESTMORLAND, of which it is the chief town, 24 miles (N.E.) from Kendal, and 274 (N.N.W.) from London, containing 824 inhabitants. The name of this place is of uncertain derivation. A Roman road passes through it from Langton on the east, to Redlands Bank on the north-west; and many Roman antiquities have been discovered in the vicinity. It was anciently a place of much greater magnitude than it is at present, as is evident from the situation of a township, called the Burrals (Borough Walls), a mile distant, and from the discovery of old foundations at the distance of more than two miles, to which the town and its suburbs extended. An ancient record, about the period of the reign of Edward I., makes mention of a sheriff of Applebyshire; from which it appears that the town gave name to one of those districts into which Edward the Confessor divided the earldom of Northumberland. It retained its importance from the time of the Romans until the 22d of Henry II., 1176, when William, King of Scotland, surprised the castle and destroyed the town: from which calamity it had so far recovered in the reign of Henry III., that a court of exchequer was established. A Carmelite monastery was founded here, in 1281, by the Lords Vescy, Clifford, and Percy. In the year 1388, the town was again totally devastated by the Scots, from the effects of which calamity it never afterwards recovered: so that, in the reign of Philip and Mary, it was found necessary to reduce the ancient fee-farm rent, due to the Crown, from twenty marks to two. In 1598, it was nearly depopulated by the plague, and its market was, in consequence, removed to Gilshaughlin, a village five miles distant. At the commencement of the parlaimentarian war, the castle was garrisoned for the king, by the Countess of Pembroke, and continued in his interest until after the battle of Marston-Moor, when all the northern fortresses fell into the possession of the parliament. The town is pleasantly situated on the river Eden, by which it is almost surrounded, and consists of one spacious street, intersected at right angles by three smaller, and terminated at one extremity by the castle, and at the other by the church of St. Lawrence: at each end also there is a handsome stone obelisk or cross. An ancient stone bridge of two arches connects the suburb of Bongate with the borough, from which it is otherwise separated by the river. The town is indifferently paved, but well lighted, and amply supplied with water. The castle stands on a steep and richly wooded eminence rising from the river; of the original structure, said to be of Roman foundation, only a detached portion, called C?sar's Tower, remains: this fortress suffered much in the wars with Scotland, especially in the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.; the greater part of it was rebuilt by Lord Clifford, in the reign of Henry VI.; it is now occupied by the steward of the Earl of Thanet, the present proprietor, who is hereditary sheriff of the county; and has been, time immemorial, the temporary residence of the judges travelling the northern circuit, who are entertained here at his expense. The market is on Saturday; and the fairs are held on the Saturday before Whitsunday (for cattle), on Whitmonday (for linen cloth and the hiring of servants), the second Wednesday in June, and the 21st of August (for woollen cloth, horses and cattle). The market-house is a handsome building near the church, erected in the early style of English architecture, after a design by Mr. Smirke. This is a town corporate by prescription; the borough was granted to the burgesses by charter of the lst John: the corporation consists of a mayor, a recorder, twelve aldermen, and sixteen common council men, assisted by a town clerk, two chamberlains, a sword-bearer and a serjeant-at-mace: the mayor, who is elected annually by the common council men, is a justice of the peace. The borough sent burgesses to parliament in the 23d of Edward I., since which time Appleby has continued to return two members: the right of election is vested in the holders of burgage tenements, in number about two hundred; the mayor is the returning officer. The town hall is a large, ancient edifice in the principal street. The assizes and the sessions for the east and west wards of the county are held in the shire hall adjoining the gaol; erected in 1771: the gaol has been recently adapted to the radiating plan, in conformity with the provisions of the late gaol act. Appleby comprises part of the parishes of St. Lawrence and St. Michael, that portion of it which stands within the latter being named Bongate; they are both vicarages, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle; that of St. Lawrence is rated in the king's books at £9. 5. 2½., and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle; that of St. Michae''l is rated in the king's books at £20. 13. 9., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Carlisle. The church of St. Lawrence is an ancient structure, partly in the decorated and partly in the later style of English architecture; it contains the remains of Anne, the celebrated Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery, who died in 1675, and of her mother, the countess of Cumberland, to the memory of each of whom there is a splendid marble monument. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school, founded by the burghers, existed long before the dissolution of religious houses, but was established on its present foundation in the 16th of Elizabeth, when the management was vested in ten governors, who are a corporate body. The endowment, from different sources, is about £200 per annum: it has five exhibitions of £8 per annum to Queen's College, Oxford, founded by Thomas, Earl of Thanet, in 1720, and is entitled to send candidates for one of Lady Elizabeth Hastings' exhibitions to the same college. Dr. Bedel, Bishop of Kilmore; Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln; Drs. Smith and Waugh, Bishops of Carlisle; and Dr. Langhorne, the translator of Plutarch; were educated in this school. St. Anne's Hospital, for thirteen aged widows, was founded and endowed in 1653, by Annc, Countess of Pembroke; the revenue arising from lands is £490, and it has a considerable funded property: the building, which is quadrangular, comprises thirteen distinct habitations and a neat chapel: the chaplain and sisters are appointed by the Earl of Thanet, as heir of the Countess, who left also various lands at Temple Sowerby, in this parish, for repairing the church, school room, town-hall, and bridge. In the neighbourhood were two ancient hospitals for lepers, dedicated respectively to St. Leonard and St. Nicholas; the estate of the latter was applied by the countess towards the endowment of her alms house; there was also a chapel at the western end of the stone bridge of St. Lawrence. Thomas de Appleby, Bishop of Carlisle; Roger de Appleby, Bishop of Ossory; Dr. Bambridge, Archbishop of York; and Dr. Christopher Potter, successively Dean of Worcester and of Durham, and Provost of Queen's College, Oxford; were natives of Appleby. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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