Northampton County England History and Geograhy

NORTHAMPTON, a borough and market town, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Spelhoe, county of NORTHAMPTON, of which it is the chief town, 66 miles (N.W. by N.) from London, on the road to Leicester, containing 10,793 inhabitants. This place, from its situation to the north of the river Nine, or Nene, (called by Camden the Avon) formerly the Aufona, is by some antiquaries supposed to have been called North Aufonton, of which its present name is probably a contraction; by others it is said to have been called, by the Saxons, Hamtune, and to have had the word North prefixed by way of distinguishing it from other towns of the same name. It is unquestionably a place of antiquity, and must have attained a considerable degree of importance prior to the division of the kingdom into shires, from its having given name to that in which it is situated. In the reign of Edward the Elder it was in the possession of the Danes, who, in 921, made it the principal station of their forces, who marched thence to the siege of Towcester. In 1010, it was again attacked by the Danes, who burnt the town and laid waste the adjacent country. During the insurrection of the Northumbrians, in 1064, against Tosti, son of Earl Godwin, the insurgents, under Earl Morcar, whom they had chosen for their leader, marched to this place, where they committed excessive outrages, burning the houses of the inhabitants, whom they massacred, and carrying off great quantities of cattle, and several hundred prisoners. Harold, afterwards king, being sent against the insurgents, encountered them near the town, but listening to their just representations of the tyranny and oppression of Tosti, he entered into an accommodation with them, and procured for Morcar a confirmation of his assumed authority. The town, which had scarcely recovered from the depredation it suffered upon this occasion, was, at the time of the Conquest, given to Earl Waltheof, who had married the Countess Judith, niece of the Conqueror; but the earl having entered into a conspiracy against the king, was executed as a traitor, and his confiscated possessions were bestowed on Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, who repaired and beautified the town, erected a strong castle for its defence, and surrounded it with massive walls, in which were four gates. From this period it rapidly improved, and from its central situation and the security of its fortifications, became the occasional residence of several of the kings, of whom Henry I., in the twenty-third year of his reign, celebrated the festival of Easter here with great pomp, and, in 1131, assembled a parliament, in which the English barons swore homage to his daughter, the Empress Matilda, whom he appointed his successor. In the 11th of Henry II., a council was convened here, at which Archbishop Becket was summoned to appear for his refusal to submit to the constitutions of Clarendon; and on the rebellion of Prince Henry, Anketil Mallore, one of his partizans, advancing to Northampton with a body of forces, defeated the king's troops, aided by a party of the inhabitants, and took two hundred of the latter prisoners. William, King of Scotland, being taken prisoner at the battle of Alnwick, was brought to Northampton, where Henry was then residing, and the Bishop of Durham, Roger de Mowbray, Earl Ferrers, with Anketil Mallore, and William de Dive, constables of the Earl of Leicester, waited upon him, to surrender the several castles which they had held against him. In 1180 a convention of barons and prelates was held here, to take into consideration the laws of the realm, and to amend and enforce the constitutions of Clarendon, by which the kingdom was first divided into six circuits, and three itinerant justices were assigned to each, for the administration of the laws and the punishment of ofenders; and in the following year the king held a council previously to his visiting his dominions on the continent.

Richard L., soon after his return from captivity, kept the festival of Easter in this town, where he entertained William of Scotland, who came to solicit a grant of the county of Northumberland. During this reign a mint existed here, and on the death of Richard, the barons assembled in council at this place, and took the oath of allegiance to his brother John, at that time in Normandy. John, in the tenth year of his reign, being displeased with the citizens of London, removed his court of Exchequer to Northampton, and three years afterwards assembled a council of temporal lords, at which Pandulph and Durand, legates from the pope, attended on behalf of the exiled clergy, whom the king allowed to return to their country; but refusing to restore their confiscated property, he was excommunicated by the legates. Previous to the commencement of the war between the king and the barons, the latter transmitted to him their memorial of grievances, which the king having indignantly refused to redress, they laid siege to the castle of Northampton, but, being unable to reduce it, they withdrew their forces, after remaining before it fourteen days: it was, however, on the signing of Magna Charta, among other castles, placed in their custody, as security for the fulfilment of the conditions; but, on the renewal of the war, it was entrusted to Fulke de Brente, a determined loyalist. In 1216, the townsmen attacked and killed many of the garrison under the command of that officer, in retaliation for which the soldiers burnt a considerable portion of the town. Henry III., attended by his court, celebrated the festival of Christmas at the castle, where he was splendidly entertained by the governor; and in the thirtieth year of his reign, the king gave the inhabitants ten marks to purchase books for a public library, a sacramental chalice for the church of All Saints, and smaller vessels of silver for the other churches. The castle was, in 1264, occupied by the insurgent barons under the Earl of Leicester, from whose son, Simon de Montfort, it was taken by stratagem, after many fruitless attempts to reduce it; but the following year it was retaken by the Montforts, who celebrated a tournament there, which was numerously and brilliantly attended; soon after which the elder Montfort was defeated and slain at the battle of Evesham. In 1268, a parliament was held here, in which the rebellious barons were deprived of their estates, and Simon de Montfort was banished the realm; and a council of prelates was assembled at the same time, at which the pope's legate excommunicated those bishops who had joined their party. During this reign, repeated attempts were made to establish a university in the town, in consequence of dissensions between the students and the citizens of Oxford; in 1258, a large party of students removed to this place, and a royal license was obtained for erecting public schools for teaching the arts and sciences: subsequent disputes between the students and the townsmen, both of Oxford and Cambridge, occasioned fresh accessions to Northampton, but, in 1265, the establishments were dissolved by order of the king, and the professors returned with their pupils to their ancient seats. In the reign of Edward II., John Poydras, the son of a tanner of Exeter, who pretended to be the son and heir of Edward I., was convicted and executed as an impostor in the town; and in the second year of the reign of Edward III., a treaty was concluded with the Scots by which the king resigned his pretensions to the sovereignty of Scotland, in consideration of thirty thousand marks paid by Robert Bruce, whose infant son David was affianced to Jane, the king's sister, also an infant: in the same parliament was enacted the statute of Northampton, specifying in what cases pardon should be granted for felony, and regulating the appointment of judges of assize. The last parliament held here, was summoned in the fourth year of the reign of Richard II., to grant supplies for the troops destined to serve in a war against France, when a poll-tax was ordered, the levying of which excited the rebellion headed by Wat Tyler: this parliament, together with the convocation of Canterbury, sat in the chancel of All Hallows' church, now All Saints', the castle having fallen into a ruinous state.

During the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, a sanguinary and decisive battle took place on the 9th of July, 1460, in which Henry VI. was defeated and taken prisoner. The treacherous desertion of Lord Grey of Ruthin, who commanded the vanguard of the king's army, contributed to the defeat of the royal forces, on whose side fell the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Viscount Beaumont, Lord Egremont, and other nobles, who were buried in the town; the duke was interred in the church of the Grey friars, and several of the others in St. John's hospital, where their bones have been recently discovered. In the 9th of Edward IV., Earl Rivers and his son, who had been taken by the rebels under Sir Henry Nevil and Sir John Coniers, who headed the insurrection in Yorkshire, were beheaded in this town. Queen Elizabeth, in her progress through the country, visited Northampton, where she was hospitably received, and presented by the magistrates with a valuable purse containing £20: a similar mark of respect was also paid to Charles I. and his consort, who, on passing through the town, were presented by the mayor and corporation with two bowls of silver gilt, containing one hundred marks.

The town is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of an eminence rising gradually from the north bank of the river Nene, over which are two bridges of stone, of which that to the south is a handsome structure of three coptic arches: it consists principally of two spacious and regular streets, nearly a mile in length, which, intersecting each other at right angles, divide it into four nearly equal parts; the houses are handsomely built of stone, and the town, which is well paved, and lighted, has a clean, respectable, and cheerful appearance. The market days are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; the last, a very large cattle market: the fairs are on the second Tuesday in January, February 20th, the third Monday in March, April 5th, May 4th, June 19th, August 5th and 26th, September 19th (for cheese), the first Thursday in November, the 28th of the same month, and December 19th, principally for horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs: the fairs for horses and cattle are numerously attended by dealers. The market-place is a spacious and commodious area, in the centre of which is a column with a powerful gas-light, and on the south side the conduit from which the town is supplied with water.

The borough received a charter of incorporation in the 31st of Henry II., which was confirmed in several succeeding reigns, and modified and enlarged in the 36th of George III., by which the government is vested in a mayor, an indefinite number of bailiffs who have served that office, a recorder, deputy recorder, an indefinite number of aldermen, and forty-eight common councilmen, assisted by a town clerk, chamberlain, two coroners, four serjeants at mace, and subordinate officers. The mayor, who is annually chosen, becomes an alderman on the expiration of his office; the bailiffs are chosen from the common council, in which vacancies are filled up by the mayor and aldermen from the general body of freemen. The mayor, the late mayor, the recorder, deputy recorder, and three aldermen annually appointed, are justices of the peace within the borough. The freedom of the borough is inherited by birth, acquired by servitude, or obtained by marriage with a freeman's widow or daughter, or by purchase. The corporation hold quarterly courts of session, and have power to try for capital offences, which, however, they transfer to the assizes for the county: they also hold a court of record, at which the mayor and bailiffs preside, every third week, for the recovery of debts and determining pleas to any amount. The town hall is an ancient edifice commodiously arranged, and decorated with portraits of Sir Thomas White, the founder of St. John's College, Oxford, and a munificent benefactor to Northampton and other towns, and of the late Rt. Hon. Spencer Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and first lord of the Treasury. The borough gaol and house of correction is a small modern building adapted to the classification of prisoners. The borough has returned two members to parliament from the early part of the reign of Edward I.; the right of election is vested in the inhabitant householders not receiving alms, of whom the number is about two thousand: the mayor and bailiffs are the returning officers. The assizes for the county and the election of knights of the shire are held here. The county hall is a spacious and elegant structure, in the Grecian style of architecture, and contains courts for the assizes and quarter sessions, and a suite of rooms well adapted to the transaction of the general business of the county; in the hall, the ceiling of which is splendidly decorated, are portraits of King William III. and Queen Mary, Queen Anne, George I., and George II.: this edifice is deservedly admired as a handsome specimen of the Corinthian order. Adjoining the shire-hall is the common gaol and house of correction for the county, erected in 1794, at an expense of £16,000: it is a spacious building, and contains eleven wards, four work-rooms, twelve day-rooms, and eleven airing-yards, for the classification of prisoners; an additional piece of ground has been enclosed within the area of the prison, for the erection of a tread-mill; the prisoners are employed in grinding and dressing corn, splitting beans, and drawing wire, and receive one-half of their earnings: the old county gaol has been converted into a lodge for the turnkey, and a prison for debtors.

The town comprises the parishes of All Saints, St. Giles, St. Peter, and St. Sepulchre, all in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough, and formerly had seven parochial churches within the walls, and two without, of which only four are remaining. The living of All Saints' is a vicarage, rated in the king's books at £22, and in the patronage of such members of the Corporation as are Parishioners: the church, rebuilt soon after the fire in 1675, is a spacious edifice, in the Grecian style of architecture, having in the centre a cupola supported on columns of the Ionic order, and at the west end the original square embattled tower, which escaped the conflagration, and in which is a dial illuminated with gas, and a portico of twelve lofty Ionic columns supporting a cornice and balustrade, in the centre of which is a statue of Charles II.; on the pedestal is recorded his donation of one thousand tons of timber for the rebuilding of the church; the interior is appropriately ornamented; the altar-piece is decorated with paintings of Moses and Aaron, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; the chancel is separated by a richly-carved oak screen, and among the monuments are, one to the memory of the learned Dr. Conant, Prebendary of Worcester, and vicar of this parish, and a handsome marble monument, by Chantrey, to the Rt. Hon. Spencer Perceval, many years member for the borough, who was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons; his statue, elevated on a pedestal, is admirably sculptured, and exhibits gracefulness of form and dignity of expression: the old stone wall which enclosed the churchyard has been taken down, and a handsome iron palisade substituted in its place. The living of St. Giles' is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £7. 19., endowed with £200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Rev. Edward Watkins; the church is a large cruciform structure, with a lofty square embattled tower rising from the intersection; it displays good portions in various styles of English architecture, with a fine western Norman entrance; the chancel is in the early English, with an east window of the decorated, style, and in the nave and transepts the windows and other portions are of the later English; in a chapel in the south aisle is a beautiful altartomb of alabaster, with a recumbent figure of a female, supposed to represent some individual of the family of Gobion, and an octagonal font, richly panelled in the later English style. The living of St. Peter's is a rectory, with the perpetual curacies of Kingsthorpe and Upton, rated in the king's books at £34.2. 11., and in the patronage of the Governors of St. Katherine's hospital, London: the church, supposed to have been erected about the same time as the castle, is a beautiful and perfect specimen of the enriched Norman style of architecture, with a highly-ornamented tower, communicating with the church by a richly-moulded arch; the details are exquisitely wrought, and, having been cleared from the plaster and whitewash which concealed their beauty, exhibit some of the finest models in that style of architecture; to the east of the chancel is a vaulted crypt; the roof of the church is supported on circular arches, and a series of alternately clustered and single-shafted columns; the font is richly ornamented in the later English style: there are various ancient and some modern monuments, among which latter is one to the memory of John Smith, an eminent mezzotinto engraver, who died in 1742. The living of St. Sepulchre's is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £6. 1., endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of Thomas Butcher, Esq: the church is supposed to have been built by the Knights Templars, after the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and is one of four buildings of that kind remaining in the kingdom; it is of a circular form, and has a cupola in the centre of the roof, which is supported on eight round Norman columns, and plain pointed arches, with a western tower surmounted by a spire, and a chancel, in which are many curious figures and ancient inscriptions. There are two places of worship for Baptists, one for the Society of Friends, one for Huntingtonians, three for Independents, one for Wesleyan Methodists, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

The free grammar school was founded, in 1542, by Mr. Thomas Chipsey, who endowed it with lands, which, together with subsequent benefactions, produce an income of about £120 per annum; in 1557, Cardinal Pole granted for its use the remains of the dilapidated church of St. Gregory: the master is appointed by the mayor and corporation, and the usher by the master, the mayor, deputy recorder, the vicar of all Saints, and the lord of the manor of Lillingston-Lovell. The corporation charity school was founded by the corporation, who appropriated to that purpose an unrestricted gift of £1000 by the Earl of Northampton, with which sum and other benefactions an estate was purchased, producing an income of £310 per annum, of which a part is appropriated to the clothing of twenty aged freemen, to each of whom ten shillings per annum is also paid. The Blue-coat school was founded, in 1710, by Mr. John Dryden of Chesterton, who endowed it with a house, to which Mr. Zachariah Herbert added a farm, the rents of which are applied to clothing, instructing, and apprenticing twenty boys, who, on the expiration of their indentures, receive each a gratuity of £10. The Green school was founded, in 1761, by Mr. Gabriel Newton of Leicester, who endowed it with a rent-charge of £26 per annum. In 1738, Mrs. Dorothy Becket, and her sister, Mrs. Ann Sargeant, established a school for the clothing and education of thirty poor girls; the number has been increased, and a more convenient school-room and house for the mistress were erected in 1813. A National and a British and Foreign school are supported by subscription. St. John's hospital, said to have been founded, in 1090, by William, Archdeacon of Northampton, for the reception of aged and infirm persons, is governed by a master, appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and two brothers, nominated by the master, who must be in holy orders, and officiate as chaplains: there are also eight aged women, who receive a small weekly allowance in money, and a supply of coal. To the south of St. John's is the hospital of St. Thomas ? Becket, founded by the burgesses, about the year 1450, and endowed for the support of twelve aged widows: the endowment was augmented, in 1654, by Sir John Langham, for six additional widows, and has been increased by subsequent benefactions: the present income is about £780 per annum; the inmates receive each 4s. per week, besides clothes, fuel, &c., and fifty out-pensioners £8 per annum each: the establishment is governed by a warden, who is one of the aldermen; the vicar of All Saints' is chaplain. The general infirmary, to the east of the town, erected and fitted up by subscription in 1793, at an expense of near £25,000, is a handsome building of white stone, three stories high, and well adapted to its various uses: it is under the management of a committee, and is gratuitously attended by the physicians and surgeons resident in the town: it is supported by the income arising from benefactions, and by annual subscription: there are numerous and extensive bequests for benevolent purposes, among which may be noticed Sir Thomas White's fund, amounting to upwards of £13,000, for loans, in sums of £100 each, for nine years without interest, to young tradesmen on their commencing business, and various charitable donations for distribution among the indigent and necessitous poor.

Among the monastic institutions formerly established here, were the priory of St. Andrew, founded about 1076, for Cluniac monks, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £344. 13. 7.; an abbey of Black canons, founded about 1112, by William Peverill, natural son of William the Conqueror, and dedicated to St. James, the revenue of which was £213. 17. 2.; a house of Friars minors, built about the year 1217, on ground to the north of the market-place, given to them by the inhabitants, who were consequently regarded as the founders, of which the revenue was £6. 13. 4.; an hospital, on the south side of the town, for a master and leprous bretheren, founded in 1240, by Henry III., and dedicated St. Leonard, of which the revenue was £12. 4. 8., now consolidated with the hospital of St. Thomas ? Becket; a Carmelite priory, founded in 1271, by Simon de Montfort, the revenue of which was £10. 10.; a priory and chapel for Augustine friars, founded in 1422, by John Longville, near the South gate; and the college of All Saints, founded in 1459, for a master and two fellows, of which the revenue was £2. 13. 4. Of the ancient castle only a few vestiges, consisting of mounds of earth, are to be traced; and of the embattled walls and the four gates, which were demolished order of the king, in 1662, there are no remains. Dr. Philip Doddridge, author of the 'Family positor,' was tutor in a dissenting academy at Northpton, until a short time previous to his death in 1749. Northampton gives the titles of earl and marquis to the family of Compton.

From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale