THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LXXV. — CENTRAL ENGLAND :
— NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AND WARWICKSHIRE :—THE TOWNS.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE at present has one city, Peter- borough ; the county town—Northampton ; two other borough and market towns—Brackley and Higham-Ferrers ; and. six market towns—Daventry, Kettering, Wadi°, Threpston, Towcester, and Wellingborough. Warwickshire, besides the city. of Coventry, has the boroughs of Warwick, Birmingham, Stratford-on-Avon, and Sutton-Colefield ; and. the market towns of Alcester, Atherstone, Coleshill, Henley-in-Arden, Kenilworth, Kineton, Learniegton-Priors, Nuneaton, Rugby, Solihull, and Southern. We can refer more particularly of course only to a few of the more celebrated or important of these towns. Towcester (pronounced 'Toseter), as the probable site of the Roman LACTO.-• DORUM, may claim our first attention. Numerous Roman coins- have been found here, particularly about Berrymount Hill, "an artificial mound, composed of earth and gravel, on the north-east side of the town. It is flat on the top, about 24 feet in height, with a diameter of 102 feet. This hill was surrounded by a moat, capable of being filled with water from the adjoining brook, and has every appearance of having been a Roman muniment. On the north-west side of the town are also vestiges of a fosse, and. the ruins of a castle or tower, perhaps a Saxon work." The present town is situated in a plain, on or near the banks of the small river Tore, which perhaps was called in Roman times the Lacto. The Saxon town appears to have been of considerable importance and strength. In Domesday Book it is called Tove- cestre, the castra on the Tore. The Northmen, who laid siege to it, were once, at any rate, unable to take it. At other times, however, it suffered greatly from them, and being on the line of Watling Street, the demarcation between the two races, must have been subject to constant attacks. In 021 Edward the Elder gave orders for its rebuilding and fortifying, and encamped at Passenham, as we have seen, till he effected this purpose by enclosing it with a stone wall. In the reign of Henry VI., a patriotic townsman, William Sponne, gave the house, afterwards the Talbot Inn, and certain lands towards the payment of any .filteenths levied by Parliament, or in default of these, for repairing and paving the streets of the town. There was once a considerable manufacture of silk, but the manufacture of pillow lace and boots and shoes for exportation is now the chief employment of the inhabitants. The population, which in 1801 was 2,030, and in 1851 2,478, had declined in 1861 to 2,417. Daven try (pronounced sane-tree), a short distance west of the probable site (on Borough Hill) of the Roman BENNAVENNA, stands on the side and top of a hill, encircled by two streams or arms of a stream which supplies the neighbouring reservoir. The name has been derived by some antiquaries from Dwy-avon-trei. i.e., the town of the two aeons or rivers, which derivation seems very probable, and may also give us a clue to the origin of the name of the Roman station. Near the eastern slope of Borough Hill three streams, or feeders of streams, have their sources, and the name may have been derived from this circumstance—Ben-avon-a, i.e., the head or hill-top of rivers. The Saxon town is called in Domesday Survey Daventrei, and then formed part of the extensive possessions of the Countess Judith, Earl Waltheof's widow. In 1090 Hugh de Leycester founded a priory here for monks of the Cluniac order, moving the monks hither from Preston-Capes, by permission of Simon de St. Liz, who (as we have seen) had succeeded to Judith's possessions, and was feudal Lord of Daventry. It was one of the monasteries dissolved by Cardinal Wolsey (by authority from the Pope), and its revenues appropriated to the foundation of Colleges at Ipswich, and Christ
Church, Oxford. Daventry was incorporated under a charter of King John, renewed and confirmed in the reign of Elizabeth. The town now consists of two principal streets, and some smaller ones. A rather celebrated Dissenting academy was removed to Daventry from Northampton on the death of Dr. Doddridge, in 1752, and continued there till 1789. Daventry's chief manufac- tures are of shoes for exportation, and whips. Its population, which in 1851 was 4,130, was in 1861 4,124.
Peterborough, in old Saxon times Medeshanstede, is situated on the left bank of the river Nene. It sprang up in Saxon times, around a Benedictine Abbey said to have been founded by Penda, son of rends, King of the Mercians. The Northmen, as we have seen, destroyed it about the year 870. Edgar restored it, and about his time the place began to be called the "Golden Barb," or Peter Burh, from the saint to whom the monastery was dedicated. The term burh here probably referred to the Abbey, and not to the village which grew up around it, and only meant that it was fortified. On two occasions the greater part of both village and abbey was destroyed by fire. "The monastic buildings were gradually restored and augmented, and at the Dissolution of the Religious Houses Peterborough was one of the most magnificent abbeys then existing. The old lines we have once before quoted designate it as "the proud," and do not speak very favourably of its almsgiving, any more than of that of its wealthy neighbours Croyland and Ramsey, &c. The selection of Peter- borough as the seat of one of the new Bishoprics led to the preservation of the monastic buildings entire. In the Civil War of Charles I.'s reign they suffered greatly, the Cathedral being much injured, and several of the other conventual buildings destroyed and the materials sold. The present Cathedral is a uniform cruciform structure of Norman and Early English cha- racter, remarkable for its solidity and massiveness. Its erection was commenced in 1117. The total length is 476 feet 5 inches ; breadth of the nave and arches, 78 feet ; height of the ceiling of the church, 78 feet; breadth at the great transepts, 203 feet ; breadth of the transepts, 69 feet ; height of the lantern, 135 feet ; length of the western front, 156 feet ; height of the turrets at the extre- mities of the west front, 156 feet ; height of the central tower from the ground, 150 feet. Peterborough is not a corporate town, but is managed by town commissioners. "The Dean and Chapter exer- cise a certain jurisdiction, and their steward holds a court for bringing all actions personal or mixed arising within the City." It
has sent two members to Parliament from the first of Edward VI. Its trade is chiefly in corn, coal, timber, bricks, and stone, and
there is a very extensive steam flour mill. It is a flourishing town. The population in 1861 was 11,735, an increase of 3,063 in the previous ten years.
Northampton, originally Hamtun, the Northamtone of Domesday Book, is pleasantly situated on a slope rising from the left
bank of the river Nene. We have already alludei to its position in Saxon times. It became a stronghold of the Northmen, and for some time continued one of the centres from which they Is:aged war with their Saxon neighbours. In the rising of the Northum- brians against Earl Tostig in 1065, Morcar, the son of 2Elfgar, of the great Mercian house, being chosen Earl in his stead by the Thanes assembled at York, proceeded with the men of that shire, and of Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby, to Northampton, where he was joined by his brother Edwin and many Welsh. Marching thence, they were met at Oxford by Harold, who came to terms with them. But meanwhile the" Rythrenas " cruelly ravaged the country about Northampton, burning many of the houses and killing many of the inhabitants of Northampton, and driving off vast numbers of cattle, so as to leave lasting effects for
many years to come. In the time of Edward the Con- fessor, the King had in demesne 60 burgesses in Northampton, who had as many mansions. At the Survey King William had but 47 in demesne, with 40 " in Novo Burgo," which seems to mean a fresh extension of the place. In this new town 221 houses are enumerated as belonging at the time of the Survey to the Bishop of Constance, the Abbots of St. Edmundsbury, Peterborough, Ramsey, Coventry, Evesham, and Selby, the Earl of Moretaine, Earl Hugh (d'Avranches), the Countess Judith, and others—of which twenty-one lay waste; so that there were at least 287 houses inhabited in Northampton when Domesday was formed. The burgesses at this time paid 30/. 10s. as part of the Sheriff's farm of the county. The Conqueror gave the town, with the whole hundred of Falkely (Fawsley), to Simon de St. Liz, who is believed to have built the castle there. In the 23rd year of his reign Henry I. and his Court kept the festival of Easter at Northampton ; in the 31st year of the same reign, at a Parliament held in the town, the Barons swore fealty to the Empress Maud.
In 1138 Stephen summoned an ecclesiastical council to North- ampton, and held his Court there in 1141. In the 10th year of Henry II. a council was convened at Northampton to declare Becket contumacious on his opposition to the Statutes of Clarendon.
In the 20th year of this reign Prince Henry's partizan Anketil Mallore plundered Northampton, carrying away 200 prisoners to Leicester. Another council of barons and prelates was summoned to this town in the 26th year of this reign, to enforce the Con- stitutions of Clarendon. In the 10th year of his reign King John, being offended with the citizens of London, ordered the Exchequer to be removed to Northampton. The castle, during the Civil War of this reign, was held for the King, and besieged in vain by the Barons in 1215. King John confirmed the charter of incorporation which had been granted by Henry II., and exempted the townsmen from all tolls, and from being impleaded out of the town, and investel them with other privileges in as ample a manner as the citizens of
London. For these privileges they were bound to pay into the King's Exchequer annually 1201. In 1265 Northampton was taken by the Barons, but was recovered by the party of Henry III., who frequently resided here. About this time a kind of University was established at Northampton, consisting of students who had seceded from Oxford, under the circumstances we have already mentioned in speaking of that university. At first the King countenanced the new University, but the students taking part with the Barons, he ordered them to return to Oxford. A similar secession to Northampton took place from Cambridge, but a Royal mandate ordered the students to return to their former seminaries, and provided that no university should ever be esta- blished at Northampton. These facts, however, indicate the importance of the town at this time. The Jews of Northampton in the reign of Edward I. fell under various serious charges. Three hundred were hanged for alleged clipping of the coin, and the year following 50 were drawn at horses' tails and then hanged for an alleged crucifying of a Christian boy. In the twelfth of Edward I. the privilege was granted the town of sending two representatives to Parliament. In 1317, at a Parliament assembled here, John Poydras was tried and executed for saying he was the real son of Edward I., and that Edward II. was a carter's son substituted at nurse. Several Parliaments were held at Northampton in the reign of Edward lIE. The last held here was in the fourth of Richard H., when the Poll Tax was levied which caused \Vat Tyler's insurrection. In the War of the Roses a battle was fought near the town on the 10th of July, 1460, in which the Lancastrians were defeated by the Earl of March (afterwards Edward IV.) and the Earl of War- wick. IIenry VI. was taken, and the Queen and young Prince escaped with difficulty. In the ninth of Henry VII. the mayor, bailiffs, &c., obtained the liberty of choosing a Recorder, and of appointing two burgesses, who with the mayor were invested with the powers of justices of the peace within the town. In the Civil War of Charles I. Northampton was taken by Lord Brooke, and fortified for the Parliament. In 1675 the town was nearly consumed by fire, and in 1720 was greatly damaged by floods. The town was formerly not only defended by a fortress; but surrounded by embattled walls, with fourgate-houses. These walls formed a walk which would bold six persons abreast, and were standing in Leland's time (Henry VIII). In 1593 the castle was much decayed and the walls defenceless. In 1662, by order of the King in Council, the walls and gates and part of the castle were demolished, and the work of demolition has since that time been completed. Dr. Doddridge exercised his ministry and conducted a Dissenting academy here for more than twenty years. The town is a most flourishing one, the prin- cipal branch of trade now carried on being boot and shoe- making, which employs large numbers of persons. There are also iron and brass foundries, corn-mills, breweries, and coach works. The population in 1861 was 32,813, a considerable increase in ten years from the 26,657 of 1851.
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