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Whitchurch in Southampton County England History and GeographyWHITCHURCH, a borough, decayed market town, and parish, in thehundred of EVINGAR, Kingsclere division of the county of SOUTHAMPTON, 12 miles (N. by E.) from Winchester, and 57 (W. S. W.) from London, containing, with the tythings of Charlcott, Cold Hurley, and Freefolk, with Freefolk Prior, 1434 inhabitants. The town, which is small and irregularly built, is situated on the river Teste, on very low ground, under a range of chalk hills: a few of the inhabitants are employed in silk-weaving, and two silk-mills also furnish work to about seventy persons, but both these branches of manufacture are on the decline: there are some cornmills on the river. The market was on Friday, but it is now disused: a pleasure fair is held on the third Thursday in June, and there is one on the 19th and 20th of October, for cattle, pigs, &c. Whitchurch is a borough by prescription, and is governed by a corporation consisting of a titular mayor and bailiff, who do not now exercise any authority within the borough: they are chosen, with a constable, at the court leet of the lord of the manor, held annually in October at the town hall, a neat building, erected about fifty years since, and another court is held at the manor farm, in May, under the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, as lords of the manor. Whitchurch first sent members to parliament liament in the 27th of Queen Elizabeth: the right of election is vested in the freeholders (in their own right, or that of their wives), of lands and tenements, not divided since the act of the 7th and 8th of William III. The number of voters is about eighty-four: the mayor is the returning officer, and the prevailing influence is possessed by Viscount Sydney, and Samuel Scott, Esq., M.P. This place is within the jurisdiction of the Cheyney Court held at Winchester every Thursday, for the recovery of debts to any amount. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £13. 12. 8½., endowed with £800 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Winchester. The church, which is a low and plain structure, is dedicated to All Saints, and contains a library, chiefly of theological works, bequeathed by the Rev. William Wood, to which access is obtained by permission of the vicar. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. A quantity of clothing and bedding, of the value of about £80, is annually distributed amongst the poor of this parish, from the produce of a bequest by Richard Woollaston, Esq., in 1688. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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