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Daventry in Northampton County England History and GeographyDAVENTRY, a market town and parish having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Fawsley, county of NORTHAMPTON, 12¼ miles (W. by N.) from Northampton, and 72 (N.W.) from London, on the road to Holyhead, containing, with the hamlet of Drayton, 3326 inhabitants. This place derives its name from the British Dwy-avon-ire, town of the two Avons, denoting its situation between two rivers of that name. About half a mile to the south-east is Borough hill, a lofty eminence, on which is an elliptical intrenchment, including an area of nearly two hundred acres, defended on the south and west by a double trench and rampart, and on the north and east sides by four deep trenches and five ramparts, the entrances to which are on the south and south-east sides. The origin of this camp, which Mr. Pennant considers to have been a post of the Britons when opposed to Ostorius, and after its reduction to have been occupied by that general, as the castra 'stiva of his forces, has been by some antiquaries referred to the Danes, by whom it may probably have been occupied during their irruption in 1006, and to whom the building of the town has been ascribed. From this erroneous supposition, strengthened by the contraction of the name to Dantrey, and Daintree, has probably resulted the device of the common seal. At the distance of nearly three hundred yards below this intrenchment is a smaller quadrilateral camp, including an acre of ground, defended by a single intrenchment; below which is another, including six acres, called Burnt Walls, where John of Gaunt is said to have had a palace. This station, which is one of the largest of the kind in the kingdom, was the Bennavenna of the Britons, and the Isanta Varia of Antonine. At the time of the Conquest Daventry was a place of considerable importance. In 1090 a priory was founded here by Hugh de Leycester, for monks of the Cluniac order; it was richly endowed, its revenue amounting to £236. 7. 6., and it was one of those which, by permission of pope Clement VII., were dissolved in the 17th of Henry VIII., and granted to Cardinal Wolsey, for endowing his intended colleges at Ipswich and Oxford: the last remains of the buildings were taken down in 1826. During the parliamentary war, Daventry was the scene of frequent conflicts, in one of which, in the beginning of 1645, Sir William and Sir Charles Compton, brothers of the Earl of Northampton, with three hundred horse, routed four hundred of the parliamentarian cavalry near the town. In the same year, the king having taken Leicester by storm, on his march to relieve Oxford, which was closely besieged, fixed his head-quarters at this town, where he remained for six days, prior to his departure for Market-IIarborough where the vanguard of his army was stationed, in the neighbourhood of which place the battle of Naseby was fought on the following day. The town is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of a gentle eminence, sheltered by other hills to the south and south-east, and consists of two principal streets, intersected by several smaller, lighted and paved by an act passed in the 46th of George III., for that purpose, and also for the rebuilding of the moot-hall. The houses, though irregularly, are neatly and well, built, and the inhabitants are supplied with water from a spring on the Borough hill, at the distance of half a mile to the south-east of the town. The only branch of manufacture is that of whips: the support of the town arises chiefly from its situation as a public thoroughfare, and from its numerous fairs. The Grand Junction canal, at the north angle of the parish, passes through a tunnel two thousand yards in length, to the south of which is the reservoir. The market is on Wednesday: the fairs are on the first Monday in January, the last Monday in February, Tuesday in Easter week, June 6th and 7th, August 3rd, the first Monday in September, October 2nd and 3rd, October 27th, and the last Wednesday in November. The first October fair is on the first day of that month, for cheese; and the second for live stock; the others are generally for horses and cattle. On the two next Wednesdays after, Michaelmas are statute fairs for hiring servants. St. Augustine's fair, now held on the 6th and 7th of June, is coeval with the grant of the market, and with it appended to the manor; and the inhabitants, notwithstanding several attempts to emancipate themselves, are still compelled to grind their corn at the lord's mill, and to bake their bread at his oven. The town is supposed to have had a guild-merchant at a very early period: it received a charter of incorporation from King John, which was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth in the eighteenth year of her reign, and subsequently by James I. Under the present charter of the 27th of Charles II. the government is vested in a bailiff, a recorder, (who must be a barrister, and whose appointment is subject to approval by the crown), and a chamberlain, twelve burgesses, twenty common council-men, assisted by a town clerk (who must be a barrister), two wardens, two serjeants at mace, and other officers. The bailiff, who is also clerk of the market, is elected on Michaelmas-day, by the common council-men, from two burgesses nominated by the bailiff and two of the burgesses; the chamberlain and wardens are chosen at the same time by the commonalty, or, on their declining to elect, by the bailiff and burgesses. The bailiff, the late bailiff, who acts as coroner the following year, and the recorder, are justices of the peace for the borough. The corporation hold a general court of session annually; and under the charter of Elizabeth, confirmed and extended by Charles II., a weekly court of record, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £100. 1. is held, in which the bailiff and recorder preside, either in person or by deputy; but from this court no writs have been issued since 1823. The town-hall having become greatly dilapidated, a large house has been purchased and commodiously fitted up for the borough sessions and courts of record; and within the last three years, a new gaol and house of correction for the borough has been erected. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough, endowed with £20 per annum private benefaction, and in the patronage of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church, Oxford. The ancient church, dedicated to the Holy Cross, formerly the conventual church of the priory, was taken down in 1752, and the present structure erected on its site, at the expense of £3486. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school was founded in 1576, by Mr. William Parker, of London, who endowed it with a rent-charge of £20 per annum, of which £15 per annum was to be paid to the master, and £5 to an usher, for the instruction of fifty poor children of the town; the endowment was farther augmented, in 1729, by Mr. John Farrer, of Daventry, who bequeathed £400 to five trustees, for the purchase of lands, now producing £43 per annum, as a stipend to the master, who must be in holy orders, on condition of his reading evening prayers on Sundays, and morning prayers on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at the parish church. John Sawbridge, Esq., of Daventry, in 1740, bequeathed £150, to which £100 was added by his brother, Edward Sawbridge, Esq., to purchase or build a house for the master; these sums, which are at present invested in the funds, produce £16 per annum. An English charity school was founded in 1736, by Dr. Edward Maynard, who gave £200 to the corporation, in trust for that purpose; it is supported partly by subscription, and is also endowed with £6 per annum, the bequest of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham; £4 per annum, the gift of Edward Sawbridge; £89 per annum, part of the rental of an estate at Cosford, in Northamptonshire, purchased with money arising from several benefactions; and the interest of £700 three per cent. consols., bought with money procured from the sale of timber on the Cosford estate, and occasional savings of income. The master has £67 per annum, besides an allowance of £4. 16. per annum for providing books and stationery: twenty-four boys, who are all supplied with clothing, and some placed apprentices, are educated in this school; the boys' school is now combined with a National school supported by subscription. An academy for dissenters was maintained here by the trustees of William Coward, Esq., of London, till the year 1789, when it was removed. Mr. John Welch gave the interest of £700, now vested in the South Sea annuities, producing £21 per annum, of which, £9 per annum is paid to the minister of the congregation of Independents, and the remaining £12 towards the support of a charity school for children of both sexes. There are various charitable bequests for distribution among the poor, among which may be noticed £10 per annum by Mr. Parker, the founder of the grammar school, to be distributed quarterly to six beadsmen appointed by the lord of the manor of Ipswich, to which several others have been subsequently added for the same purpose. John Smith, a celebrated engraver in mezzotinto, was born here in 1740. Daventry gives the title of baron to the Earl of Winchelsea. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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