ALBANS (ST.), a borough and market-town, having
separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of
Cashio, or liberty of St-Albans, county of HERTFORD,
12 miles (W. by S.) from Hertford, and 20 (N. W. by
N.) from London, containing 447 2 inhabitants. This place,
separated from the site of the Roman Pentlamium by
the small river Ver, derived its name and origin from
the magnificent monastery
founded here by Offa, King of Mercia, in commemoration
of St. Albanus, the proto-martyr of Britain. Verulam,
according to the Roman historians, was founded
by the Britons, at an earlier period than London. It
was the chief station of Cassivellaunus at the time of
the invasion of Caesar, who describes it as a place of
great military strength, well defended by woods and
marshes. It appears to have consisted of rude dwellings
constructed of wood, and to have been surrounded
by a rampart and fosse. In the reign of Nero, it was
accounted a municipium, or free city; and in that of
Claudius, it was surprised by Boadicea, Queen of the
Iceni, who slaughtered the chief part of the Roman and
British inhabitants. After its subsequent restoration,
it continued to be a primary station of the Romans until
their final departure from Britain. During their occupation
of it, Albanus, an eminent citizen, converted to
Christianity by Amphibahis, in 293, boldly refusing to
abjure his new religion, was beheaded on the hill called
Holmhurst, on which spot the monastery was subsequently
erected, and continued to flourish under a succession
of forty abbots. About the middle of the fifth
century, Verulam was occupied by the Saxons, and received
the name of Watlingceaster, from the Roman
highway, called Watling-street, on which it stood. According
to Matthew Paris, the present town owes its
origin to Ulsinus, or Ulsig, the sixth abbot, who, about
the year 950, built a church on each of the three principal
roads leading from the monastery, dedicated respectively
to St. Stephen, St. Michael, and St. Peter, and encouraged
the neighbouring inhabitants to erect houses,
by supplying them with money and materials. Fritheric,
or Frederic, the thirteenth abbot, opposed the march
of the Norman conqueror, by causing the trees on the
roadside, near Berkhampstead, to be cut down and laid
across the way; he was also principally instrumental
in exacting from him an oath to observe the ancient
laws of the realm. William subsequently deprived this
church of a great portion of its lands, and would have
destroyed the monastery, but for the interposition of
Archbishop Lanfranc. The monks and the inhabitants
had frequent quarrels: and, in the reign of Richard II.,
the insurgents in Wat Tyler's rebellion were aided by
the latter in besieging the monastery. On their dispersion,
the king repaired hither, attended by Judge Tresilian
and one thousand soldiers, to try the delinquents,
and many of the townsmen were executed. The king
remained eight days, on one of which the commons of
the county assembled by his command, and, in the
great court of the abbey, swore to be thenceforward
faithful subjects. A sanguinary battle was fought here
on the 22d of May, 1455, between Henry VI. and the
Duke of York, in which the Lancastrians were defeated,
their leader, the Duke of Somerset, killed, and the king
himself made prisoner. On the 17th of February, 1461,
another engagement took place on Bernard heath,
north of the town, when Queen Margaret compelled the
Earl of Wai-wick to retreat with considerable loss;
after this action, the town was plundered and much damaged.
On the introduction of printing into England,
about 1471, a press was put up in the abbey, from which
issued some of those early specimens which are now so
eagerly sought for by collectors: the first translation of
the Bible was made here. During the civil war between
Charles I. and the parliament, a party of soldiers,
under the Earl of Essex, garrisoned the town, and destroyed
the beautiful cross, which was one of those
erected by Edward I. in memory of his queen.
The town is situated chiefly on the summit and northern
declivity of a considerable eminence, and consists
principally of three streets, the abbey church standing
on the hill near the point where they meet. That part
of it which forms the old line of the great north road
is narrow, and contains many ancient houses; but the
other parts are spacious and well built. It is well
paved and lighted under a local act, and, from the salubrity
of the air, its short distance from the metropolis,
and the excellence of its municipal regulations, is a
desirable place of residence. By a recent diversion of
the main road, extending for two miles, about three
hundred yards southward from the town, the former
circuitous and dangerous route through it is avoided;
on this new line of road some handsome villas, and one
of the most commodious inns in the county, called the
Verulam Arms, have been lately erected. The manufacture
of straw-plat, in which about eight hundred
persons are employed, is the chief occupation of the
lower class of inhabitants. A silk-mill, occupying the
site of the abbey mill, affords employment to three hundred
young persons of both sexes; and in a mill for
spinning cotton wicks for candles, formerly applied to
the cutting and polishing of diamonds, about sixty persons
are engaged. The market is on Saturday, for corn,
straw-plat, and provisions: there is a fair on March 25th
and 26th, for cattle and horses; and a statute fair is
held on Oct. llth, and the two following days.
St. Albans is styled a borough in the record of
Domesday, and is stated to have contained forty-six
burgesses, who were the demesne men of the abbot,
and under his jurisdiction (with the exception of a brief
interval in the reigns of Edward II. and HI.), until the
dissolution, when the possessions of the monastery were
surrendered to the crown. The inhabitants were incorporated
in the 7th of Edward VI., by whose charter,
modified in subsequent reigns, and confirmed in that of
Charles II., the government is vested in a mayor, high
steward, recorder, twelve aldermen, and twenty-four
assistants, with a town clerk, who generally, acts as
chamberlain and coroner, two Serjeants at mace, and
subordinate officers. The mayor is chosen from among
the aldermen, annually on the 21st of September;
the high steward, recorder, and town clerk, are appointed
by the mayor and aldermen, subject to approval
by the crown; the aldermen are elected by a majority
of their own body, as vacancies occur; and the
assistants are chosen by the mayor and aldermen. The.
freedom of the borough is inherited by the eldest sons
of freemen, acquired by servitude, and obtained by
purchase, or gift. The mayor, the late mayor, the high
steward, and the recorder, are justices of the peace, and
hold courts of quarter session; the mayor presides at
a court of aldermen, on the first Wednesday in every
month, for the transaction of public business; and a
court of requests, for the recovery of debts under 40s.,
is held, under an act passed in the 25th of George II.,
every Saturday, the jurisdiction of which extends over
the borough and liberty, including twenty-two parishes.
The magistrates for the liberty hold quarter sessions
here for that division, at which the recorder generally
presides. The former town-hall was originally the
charnel-house of the monastery; but a handsome and
commodious edifice was erected in 1830, at an expense
of £ 1200. The ancient prison of the monastery is now
appropriated to the confinement of criminals committed
for the borough and liberties. The borough first received
the elective franchise in the 35th of Edward I.,
which was suspended from the 5th of Edward III. till
the 1st of Edward VI., since which time it has continued
to return two members to parliament. The right
of election is vested in the freemen, whether resident
or not, and in those householders who have been six
months resident in the borough, paying scot and lot j
the number of voters is about six hundred; the mayor
is the returning officer, and the Earl of Verulam possesses
considerable parliamentary influence.
The venerable abbey, rich in lordships and immunities,
was valued at the dissolution at £2510: its
abbots enjoyed both spiritual and temporal authority,
having a palatine jurisdiction, similar to that possessed
by the Bishops of Durham and Ely; they had also a
grant of precedence from Pope Adrian IV. over all
other abbots, with an exclusive exemption from the
payment of Peter's pence, which, according to Camden,
they possessed the power of collecting throughout the
county, and applying to their own use. Henry VIII.
granted the abbey to Sir Richard Lee> but retained the
church, since made parochial, which Edward VI., in
1553, granted to the mayor and burgesses, for £400
and a fee-farm rent of £10, which latter, in 1684, was
redeemed by the inhabitants for £200. This ancient
cruciform structure is six hundred feet in length, and
consists of a nave, two aisles, choir, presbytery, ladychapel,
and two transepts, with a large square tower
rising from the intersection. The choir is separated
from the nave by St. Cuthbert's screen, which, with the
elaborately carved screen over the altar, the ceiling
partly groined, and partly enriched with Mosaic paintings,
and the tombs of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
and Abbot Ramryge, presents a rich and imposing appearance.
The tower, supported on four arches, the
two transepts, and a great part of the choir, were built
of Roman tiles from the ancient city of Verulam, about
the year 1077, and exhibit the Norman style of architecture:
the remainder, erected about the reign of
Henry III., is in the early English style, with sharply
pointed arches. Many fine brasses, in memory of the
abbots, were taken by Cromwell's soldiers, and the
church was much damaged by the prisoners who were
confined in it during the parliamentary war.
The town comprises the parish of St. Alban, or the
abbey parish, and part of the parishes of St. Michael
and St. Peter, in the archdeaconry of St. Albans, and
diocese of London. The living of St. Alban's is a rectory,
rated in the king's books at £10, endowed with
£200 private benefaction, and £"200 royal bounty, and in
the patronage of the Mayor and Corporation. The living
of St. Peter's is a vicarage, rated in the king's books at
£9. 0. 10., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Ely:
the church, erected by Abbot Ulsinus, in 948, has been
rebuilt within the last thirty years. The living of St.
Michael's is a vicarage, rated in the king's books at
£10. 1. 8., and in the patronage of the Earl of Verulam:
the church is a small edifice, erected by the same
abbot. There are places of worship for Particular Baptists,
the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyan
Methodists, and Unitarians. The free grammar school
was founded by Edward VI., in 1553, and further endowed,
in 1570, by Queen Elizabeth, with £20 per annum,
payable by the dealers in wine in the borough
and within two miles of it, in consideration of certain
privileges conferred on them by letters patent. The
school-room, adjoining the abbey church, was- formerly
the beautiful chapel of the Virgin. The Blue-coat school,
in which about thirty-five boys are clothed, and educated
in the principles of the' established church, is
supported by the dividends on some funded property,
and by subscription. A girls' school is supported by
the Verulam family. The almshouses, called Marlbo-
rough buildings, containing apartments for thirty-six
persons of both sexes, were built and endowed by Sarah,
Duchess of Marlborough: they occupy three sides of a
quadrangle, on the site of the old manor-house of Newland-
Squillers; each inmate receives £12 per annum.
There are twenty-one other almshouses, founded by different
individuals.
In the town is a high square brick tower, called the
Clock-house, built by one of the abbots in the reign of
Henry VIII.; and, at the distance of half a mile to the
south-east, are some fine remains of the nunnery of
Sop well, founded, in 1140, by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham,
of which the Lady Juliana Berners was at one
time prioress; like the monastery, it was built of Roman
tiles and bricks, and partly of flints. Of two hospitals,
founded by the abbots, and dedicated respectively
to St. Julian and St. Mary de Pratis, there is not a single
vestige. On the left of the road leading to Dunstable,
a few fragments of the ancient walls of Verulam are
still discernible. In a field adjoining the town, called
New England field, are some hills, supposed to have,
been the site of the camp of Ostorius, and thence vulgarly
called Oyster hills. There" is a mineral spring in
a garden, near St. Michael's bridge. Matthew Paris, one
of the most eminent of the .old English historians, was
a monk in the abbey. Among the most distinguished
natives may be enumerated Alexander Necham, a poet
and scholastic divine; Sir John Mandeville, the celebrated
traveller; and Sir John King, and Sir Francis
Pemberton, two eminent lawyers. Breakspear's farmhouse,
near the town, was the birthplace of Nicholas
Breakspear, the only Englishman that ever sat in tinpapal
chair j on his elevation he assumed the name of
Adrian IV.; he was a great benefactor to the abbey.
Francis, the great Lord Bacon, was buried in St. Michael's
church; a finely sculptured alabaster statue has
been erected to his memory, in a niche on the northern
side of the chancel. St. Albans gives the title of duke
to the family of Beauclerc; and the representative of
the family of Grimstone enjoys the title of Earl of
Verulam.