BEES (ST.), a parish in ALLERDALE ward above
Darwent, county of CUMBERLAND, comprising the port
and market-town of Whitehaven, the chapelries of
Ennerdale, Eskdale with Wasdale (including Wasdale-
Head), Hensingham, and Netherwasdale, the townships
of St. Bees, Kinneyside, Lowside-Quarter, Preston-Quarter,
Rottington, Sandwith, and Wheddioar, and containing,
according to the last census, 19,969 inhabitants
(since greatly increased), of which number, 655 are
in 'the township of St. Bees, 2 miles (W. by N.) from
Egremont. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the
archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed
with £600 private benefaction, £1000 royal
bounty, and £1600 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of the Earl of Lonsdale. The church, dedicated
to St. Bega, was formerly the conventual church
of a monastery, founded about 650, by Bega, or Begogh,
an Irish female, who subsequently received the honour
of canonization. This monastery was destroyed by the
Danes, and restored, in the reign of Henry I., by William
de Meschines, Lord of Copeland, as a cell to the
abbey of St. Mary at York: its revenue, at the dissolution,
was estimated at £149. 19. 6. The church is cruciform,
having a strong tower of early Norman architecture,
but the rest of the edifice is in the decorated
English style: the nave is used for the celebration of
divine service; and the chancel, which had long lain
ruinous, was repaired in 1819, and fitted up as a school
for divinity, ha connexion with a clerical institution,
founded by Dr. Law, a late bishop of Chester, for the
benefit of young men intended for holy orders, who do
not mean to complete their studies at Oxford or Cambridge,
and who receive ordination after having studied
for a certain period at this place; but they can only enter
upon their ministry within the province of York. In addition
to this, there is a celebrated free grammar school,
founded by letters patent, dated April 24th, 1583, obtained
by Edmund Grindall, Archbishop of Canterbury,
whereby its management is entrusted to a corporation
of seven governors, of whom the Provost of Queen's
College, Oxford, and the Rector of Egremont, are always
two, the former enjoying the privilege of nominating
the master, who chooses an usher. The annual income,
arising from land, is £125: of this sum, £50 are paid
to the master, and £10 to the usher, but their salaries
receive considerable augmentation from entrance-fees
and donations at Shrovetide, and the former takes
boarders: gratuitous instruction is limited to the classics.
The school enjoys the advantage of a fellowship
and two scholarships at Queen's College, Oxford, with
the privilege of sending a candidate to be examined for
one of five exhibitions, founded at the same college by
Lady Elizabeth Hastings; a fellowship and three scholarships
at Pembroke College, Cambridge; a scholarship
of £4 a year at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and, in
failure of scholars from the school at Carlisle, eligibility
to two exhibitions, founded by Bishop Thomas, at
Queen's College, Oxford. A good library is connected
with the school. The parish extends for about ten
miles along the coast, which in some parts is rocky and
precipitous, and contains coal, limestone, and freestone:
lead-ore is obtained at Kinneyside, where there are
smelting-furnaces, and iron-ore was formerly got in
Eskdale. A lighthouse was erected in 1717, on a promontory
called St. Bees' Head.