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Lewisham in Kent County England History and GeographyLEWISHAM, a parish in the hundred of BLACKHEATH, lathe of SUTTON at HONE, county of KENT, 6½ miles (S.E.) from London, on the road to Tunbridge and Hastings, containing 8185 inhabitants. The name is a slight corruption of the Saxon Lewesham, or, 'the dwelling among the meadows,' and anciently written Levesham. The village, which is situated on the river Ravensbourn, extends about a mile along the Tunbridge road, and consists principally of one street, which is neither paved nor lighted; the inhabitants are supplied with water from a stream rising at the upper end of the village, and flowing through it. The Surrey canal passes through the parish. The county magistrates hold a weekly session here on Mondays; and the parish is within the jurisdiction of the court of requests at Greenwich, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £5, to which the vestry here sends twelve commissioners. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Rochester, rated in the king's books at £23. 19. 2., and in the patronage of the Earl of Dartmouth. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was rebuilt in 1774, and is a handsome edifice with a square tower at the west end: a portico on the south side is supported on four Corinthian columns, and the altar is placed in a circular recess. There are episcopal chapels at Blackheath, Southend, and Sydenham; the last was formerly a meeting-house for Presbyterians, of which, Dr. John Williams, author of the Greek Concordance, was many years minister. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. The Rev. Abraham Colfe, in 1656, devised in trust to the Leathersellers' Company certain estates for the foundation of two schools, one for the classical instruction of thirty-one sons of the laity in the several parishes in the hundred, and one son of each incumbent in this and the hundred of Chiselhurst; the other for the education of thirty-one boys of Lewisham, in reading, writing, and arithmetic. A classical master is appointed by the Company, who superintends the tuition of the thirty-one boys in English, under his usher: the master receives about £40 per annum, and resides in the school-house (which is situated on Blackheath) rent-free, having also the privilege of taking boarders. According to the commissioners' report in 1818, the total income of the estates was £342. 15. 6., out of which the Company pay £50 per annum to six almswomen, agreeably to the will of the donor. A school for girls was instituted in 1699, to which Dr. George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury, bequeathed £150, and Mrs. Stanhope £50, which sums, with subsequent benefactions, produce a salary for the mistress of £20 per annum. Here was formerly a Benedictine priory, a cell to the abbey of St. Peter at Ghent: it was suppressed in the time of Henry V., and the site granted to the prior and convent of Shene. Dr. Stanhope, who distinguished himself as a theological writer, was presented to this vicarage in 1689, and was buried here in 1728. Lewisham confers the inferior title of viscount on the Earl of Dartmouth. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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