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Romsey in Southampton County England History and GeographyROMSEY, a market town and parish having separate jurisdiction, though locally in the hundred of King's Sombourn, Andover division of the county of SOUTHAMPTON, 8 miles (N.W. by N.) from Southampton, and 75 (S.W. by S.) from London, containing 5128 inhabitants. This town is of great antiquity, and its name is of Saxon origin. An abbey for nuns of the Benedictine order was founded by Edward the Elder, whose daughter Elfleda was the first abbess: the foundation was augmented by Edgar in 967, and his son Edmund was interred in the abbey church. All the first abbesses were of royal birth, and eminent for their sanctity. About the year 992 it was plundered by the Danes, but the nuns, with the relics, and other articles of the greatest value, had been previously removed to Winchester, through the precaution of Elwina the abbess. An enumeration of some of the possessions of this monastery appears in Domesday-book, in which it is called the abbey de Romesyg. In 1085, Christina, cousin to Edward the Confessor, took the veil here, and to her was entrusted the education of Matilda, daughter of Malcolm, King of Scotland, and subsequently wife of Henry I. In the next reign, Mary, daughter of King Stephen, became abbess, and was induced to quit her charge by Matthew, younger son of Theodore, Earl of Flanders, to whom she was married, which step so excited the indignation of the Papal see, that she was compelled to return to her conventual duties after having borne two children. The benefactors to the abbey were numerous, and its revenue, at the dissolution, was valued at £529. 8. 10¼.: in the 35th of Henry VIII., the site was granted to the inhabitants of the town, and three years afterwards to John Bellew and R. Bigot. The town is situated on the river Test, which falls into the Southampton water, in a flat country, on the road from Southampton to Bath, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills and fertile and pleasant meadows, which are rendered more productive by the occasional overflowing of the river: it consists of several good streets, which are lighted and paved under the provisions of an act of parliament: the inhabitants are well supplied with water: there are a news-room and some book clubs: concerts are held annually, and musical festivals occasionally. The clothing trade was formerly carried on to a considerable extent, but has long declined; employment is given to nearly three hundred persons in three paper-mills, one flax-mill, and three sacking manufactories; there are also some tanneries, malting establishments, and eeveral corn-mills upon the river Test. The town is supplied with coal and other commodities by means of the canal from Redbridge to Andover, which passes through it. The market, which was formerly on Saturday, has been recently changed to Thursday, by letters patent granted to the lord of the manor; it is chiefly for corn, and on alternate Thursdays is also supplied with cattle: the fairs are on Easter-Monday and Tuesday, August 26th, and November 8th, for horses, cattle, cheese, cloth, and other articles of merchandise. The inhabitants were first incorporated by charter of James I., which was confirmed by William III.: the government is vested in a mayor, lord high ateward, recorder, six aldermen, and twelve burgesses, assisted by a town-clerk, two serjeants at mace, and two ale-tasters. The mayor, late mayor, the recorder, and three senior aldermen, are justices of the peace, and are empowered to hold quarter sessions for the trial of felons and misdemeanants: the mayor, recorder, and aldermen, hold a court of record every Thursday, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £40, the jurisdiction of which is confined to the borough: the county magistrates cannot preside at either of these courts. Romsey Extra is within the jurisdiction of the Cheyney Court held at Winchester every Thursday, for the recovery of debts to any amount. The new court-house, or town hall, in which the quarter sessions and assemblies are held, is situated in the abbey precinct, and was built by the corporation in 1820: near it is a gaol. The living, which comprises the two parishes of Romsey Infra and Romsey Extra, is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £20. 18. 1½., and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, and formerly belonging to the abbey, is a very magnificent cruciform structure, with a low tower rising from the intersection: the principal portion was erected in the middle of the tenth century, and exhibits some fine specimens of the Norman style of architecture; within are various admixtures of round and pointed arches, with zigzag and other ornaments; the more modern parts of the edifice are in the early English style. The interior contains several ancient mernorials of the abbesses who were interred here; an elegant sepulchral inscription to Frances, Viscountess Palmerston, who died in childbed, in 1769; and a neat tablet to the memory of Sir William Petty, a native of this town, and ancestor to the present Marquis of Lansdowne: there is also a remarkable monument, with effigies and a curious inscription, to the family of John St. Barbe, Esq., a representative of this county in parliament in 1654. An apple-tree, supposed to be at least two hundred years old, grew on the roof until lately, but it is now dead. This venerable edifice has lately received an addition of eight hundred sittings, of which seven hundred and twenty-seven are free, the Incorporated Society for enlarging and building churches and chapels having contributed £450. At the east end of the building several stone coffins were discovered some years ago; at the angle of the southern transept are the remains of a fine Norman doorway, and in its western wall is a very ancient image of Christ on the Cross, in hasso relievo: the west end is separated from that part of the building appropriated to divine service by a curious and ancient oak screen: about fourteen years since, some curious old paintings were found behind the altar-piece. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Sandemanians. A free school, in which thirty boys are educated and annually clothed, and some apprenticed every year, having been founded, probably, by subscription, was, in 1718, endowed from the estate of John Nowes, Esq., with an income of £30 per annum, for the instruction of twenty poor boys, and £60 per annum to clothe them: this endowment was augmented, in 1723, by a rent-charge of £25, for clothing and teaching ten boys, under the will of Sir John St. Barbe. The National school for three hundred boys is a neat building, erected in 1827, the site, and £150 towards the erection, having been given by Lord Palmerston: it is supported by voluntary contributions. The Union school for eighty boys, on the Lancasterian system, is supported by subscription. Almshouses for six widows were founded, in 1692, by John Hunt, Esq.; and six others for single women, in 1809, by John Bartlett, Esq. The only vestiges of the ancient abbey, exclusively of the church, are a few fragments of the old walls. Mr. Giles Jacob, author of the Law Dictionary, was born here, in 1686. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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