ASHFORD, a market-town and parish in the
hundred of CHART-and-LONGBRIDGE, lathe of SCRAY,
county of KENT, 20 miles (S. E. by E.) from Maidstone,
and 54 (E. S. E.) from London, containing 2773 inhabitants.
This place, originally Ass-cheford, rose from the
ruins of Great Chart, an ancient market-town, which
gave name to the hundred, and was destroyed during
the Danish wars. The town, which is a liberty of itself,
is situated on an eminence rising from the northern
bank of the small river Stour, over which there is a
bridge of one arch; the houses are modern and well
built, and the principal street, which is nearly half a
mile long, is lighted. A suite of assembly-rooms has
recently been erected on the site of the ancient manor
and market house, in which assemblies occasionally
take place: there are two. subscription libraries,
and races are held annually for one day. The only
branch of manufacture is that of linen, which is carried
on to a small extent. The market is on Tuesday and
Saturday, and'there is a cattle market on the first and
third Tuesday in every month: fairs are held on May
17th, September 9th, and October 24th, for general merchandise,
and in the first week in August for wool. A
court leet is held annually, at which a constable, borough-
holder, and other officers are appointed.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Canterbury, rated in the king's books at
£18.4. 2., and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter
of Rochester. The church, dedicated to St. Mary,
and formerly collegiate, is a spacious and handsome
cruciform structure, in the later style of English architecture,
with a lofty and elegant tower rising from the
centre, and having at the southern entrance a fine Norman
arch: it was rebuilt, in the reign of Edward IV.,
by Sir John Fogge, Knt., who erected the beautiful
tower, and founded the college for a master, two chaplains,
and two secular clerks. In a small chape] adjoining
the south-western transept are three sumptuous
monuments of variegated marble, to the memory of the
Smyths of Westenhanger, and one to the Duchess of
Athol. There are places of worship for Particular Baptists,
the Society of Friends, those in the Connexion of
the late Countess of Huntingdon, and Wesleyan Methodists.
The free grammar school was founded, in 1636,
by Sir Norton Knatchbull, who endowed it with £30
per annum, and vested the appointment of a master
in his own family. A National school for ninety boys,:
and another for sixty girls, are supported by subscription,
and by a bequest in land, producing £35 per an-'
num, from Dr. Turner, in 1702. A mineral spring was
discovered, a few years ago, in a field called Sparrows
Gardens, Robert Glover, an industrious antiquary of
the sixteenth century; his nephew, Thomas Miller, eminent
as a herald and genealogist; and Dr. John Wallis,
the celebrated mathematician, were natives of this place.-
Ashford confers the inferior title of baron on the family
of Keppel, Earls of Albemarle.