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Bethnal-Green in Middlesex County England History and GeographyBETHNAL-GREEN, a parish in the Tower division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 2½ miles (N.E. by E.) from St. Paul's, containing 45,676 inhabitants. This very extensive parish, which was severed by act of parliament, in 1743, from the parish of Stepney, to which it was formerly a hamlet, is divided into four districts, called Church division, Green division, Hackney-road division, and Town division. It is supposed to have derived its name from Bathon Hall, the residence of a family of that name, who had considerable possessions here in the reign of Edward I., and from an extensive green, to the east of which is the site of an episcopal palace called Bishop's Hall, which is said to have been the residence of Bonner, Bishop of London. The popular legendary ballad of the blind beggar of Bethnal-Green, the hero of which is said to have been Henry de Montfort, a son of the Earl of Leicester, has reference to an ancient castellated mansion in this parish, built in the reign of Elizabeth, by John Kirby, a citizen of London, and now converted into a private lunatic asylum. The houses, in general, are meanly built of brick, and consist of large ranges of dwellings, inhabited chiefly by journeymen silk-weavers, who work at home for the master weavers in Spitalfields, in each of which two or three families live, and exercise their sedentary occupation. The parish is watched, and lighted with gas; the streets are partially paved, and the inhabitants supplied with water by the East London Company's works. There is a yery extensive cotton factory, besides a large manufactory for water-proof hose, made of flax, without seam, and of any length and diameter, chicfly for the use of brewers and for fire-men. A grcat quantity of land in the parish is in the occupation of market gardeners, who raise fruit and vegetables for the London markets; and there are extensive beds of clay, which is much used for the making of bricks. The fair formerly held here, has been suppressed in consequence of the riotous proceedings inseparable from holding it. The Regent's canal passes through the parish. The police is under the direction of the magistrates acting for that division, and the district is within the jurisdiction of a court of requests for the Tower-hamlets, for the recovery of debts under 40s. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of London, and in the patronage of the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Matthew, and crected in 1746, is a neat brick building, ornamented with stone. St. John's church was built in 1828, by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an cxpense of £17,638. 18.; it is a handsome edifice of stone, in the Grecian style of architecture, with a tower; it is capable of accommodating two thousand persons, one thousand three hundred of the sittings are frce. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents and Methodists. An episcopal chapel was crccted in 1814, by the Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, attached to which are two schools wherein fifty boys, and nearly sixty girls are maintained and instructed. St. Matthew's school, founded in 1771, by the inhabitants, for the clothing and instruction of forty-five boys and forty-five girls, and a National school for one thousand children, are supported by subscription. In 1722, Mr. Thomas Parmiter left an estate in Suffolk, now producing £25 per annum, for the erection and endowment of a free school and almshouse in this parish; for the promotion of which purpose, Mrs. Elizabeth Carter gave the ground, rent free for six hundred years, and £10 per annum: Mr. William Lee also gave £10 per annum towards the maintenance of the school; and Mr. Edward Mayhcw £5 towards the clothing of the children. The income, under the management of trustecs, has greatly improved; there are fifty boys in the school; the master has a salary of £50, and the alms-people an allowance of £5 per annum and a supply of coal. The almshouses founded, in 1711, by Captain Fisher, and those belonging to the companies of Drapers and Dyers, are situated in this parish. Trinity Hospital, at Mile-End, was erected in 1695, on land in this parish given by Captain Henry Mudd, an elder brother of the Trinity-house, and endowed in 1701, by Captain Robert Sandes, for twenty-eight masters of ships or their widows, who have each a pecuniary allowance, apartments, and other advantages. The Roman road from the western counties of England to the ferry over the river Lea at Old Ford, passes through the northern part of the parish. Sir Richard Gresham, father of Sir Thomas Gresham who built the Royal Exchange; Sir Thomas Grey, Knight; and Sir Balthazer Gerbier, a celebrated painter and architect, who designed the triumphal arch for the entrance of Charles II. into London on his restoration; were residents at this place: Ainsworth, the celebrated compiler of the Latin Dictionary, kept an academy here for some years, and Caslon the noted letter-founder, lived here in retirement till his decease in 1766. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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