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Newport-Pagnell in Buckingham County England History and GeographyNEWPORT-PAGNELL, a market-town and parish in the hundred of NEWPORT, county of BUCKINGHAM, 15 miles (N.E. by E.) from Buckingham, and 51 (N.W.) from London, containing 3103 inhabitants. The distinguishing addition to its name is derivable from the family of Paganell, or Pagnell, to whom the manor descended from William Fitzansculf, a powerful baron, who held it at the time of the Conquest. Their castle had fallen to decay previously to the time when Camden wrote: it was a place of great strength, but probably suffered in the great civil war, in the early part of which Newport was garrisoned by Prince Rupert: this garrison was withdrawn after the first battle of Newbury, in 1643, when the parliamentary troops, under the Earl of Essex, entered the town. Sir Samuel Luke, supposed to have been the Hudibras of Butler, was the governor in 1645. The town, one of the largest in the county, is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence; it is well built, particularly the principal street, but badly paved, and not lighted. Water is supplied from wells, and, by means of an hydraulic machine, from the small river Levet, which runs through the town, and falls into the Ouse. Coal is brought from Staffordshire by a branch of the Grand Junction canal. Over the Levet, at its junction with the Ouse, in 1810, an elegant bridge of cast-iron, having one arch fifty-eight feet in the span, was constructed; and, about the same time, a very hand-some stone bridge was erected over the Ouse; the expense of both was about £12,000. The races, which had been discontinued for forty years, were revived in 1827, and are held regularly in the month of August. The assizes for the county were occasionally held here, from the reign of Henry III. to that of Henry VI.: the petty sessions for the three hundreds of Newport are still held here; and a manorial court is held once in two years, at which constables are appointed. The manufacture of bone-lace here and in the neighbourhood was formerly carried on to a very considerable extent, the market for its sale being on Wednesday; but of late years the trade has very much declined. There are a few wool-sorters; and a paper manufactory affords employment to a considerable number of individuals. A grant of a market and a fair was made, or confirmed, to Roger de Somery, in 1270, and a renewal of the charter for the market, which is held on Saturday, was obtained by John de Botetort, in 1333. Six fairs are now held, viz., February 22nd, April 22nd, June 22nd, August 29th, October 22nd, and December 22nd. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeacoury of Buckingham, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £10, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Crown. The church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is an ancient and spacious edifice, with a square tower, standing on an eminence which affords a fine view of the surrounding country. The sum of £6000 has been recently expended in repairing it; and two hundred new sittings have been added, one hundred of which are free, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels having contributed £40 towards defraying the expense. In 1619, in the north aisle of this church, the body of a man was disinterred, whose scull and other hollow bones had been filled with lead: that taken from the scull is preserved in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge. In the churchyard is a fine epitaph, written by Cowper, on Thomas Abbott Hamilton, who died in 1788. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. Here is a school for twenty girls, founded and endowed with £10 per annum, from a bequest by Dr. Lewis Atterbury, brother of the celebrated Bishop of Rochester. A Lancasterian school, supported by voluntary contributions, was built in 1824; and a National school, supported in a similar manner, was erected two years afterwards. In 1280, John de Somery founded an hospital, dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, which was refounded by Anne of Denmark, queen of James I., and, in consequence, called Queen's hospital; the vicar of the parish is always the master: its revenue is about £70 a year, which is divided amongst three poor men and three poor women, for whose maintenance it was endowed. Two other hospitals, called St. Margaret's and the New hospital, were founded so early as 1240, but they have fallen to decay. Dr. Lewis Atterbury, brother of the Bishop of Rochester, gave £10 a year for a schoolmistress to instruct twenty girls. Mr. John Revis, citizen and draper of London, founded and endowed an almshouse, in 1763, for four poor men and three women, each of whom now receives six shillings a week. A close in North Crawley was given, by a person unknown, to the widow of any vicar of this parish; when there is no widow, the rental is applied to the apprenticing of poor children. Fulk Paganell, in the reign of William Rufus, founded a convent of Cluniac monks at Teckford, adjoining this town, which was a cell to the abbey of Marmontier in Normandy, and the monastery and lands, valued at £126. 17., were given, in the 17th of Henry VIII., to Cardinal Wolsey. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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