BLACKHEATH, a village situated within the parishes
of GREENWICH, LEWISHAM, and LEE, in the hundred
of BLACKHEATH, lathe of SUTTON at HONE, county of
KENT, 5 miles (S.E.) from London, on the road to Dovor.
The population is returned with the respective parishes.
This place, which takes its name either from the colour
of the soil, or from the bleakness of its situation,
prior to -the erection of the numerous villas with which
it abounds, was the scene of many important political
transactions. In 1011, the Danes having landed at
Greenwich, encamped on the heath, and, among other
barbarities, put to death Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had refused to sanction their extortions,
and who was afterwards canonized. In the reign of
Richard II., the insurgents under Wat Tyler, amounting
to one hundred thousand men, took up their
station here, whence they marched to London. In
1400, Henry IV. held an interview at this place with
the Emperor of Constantinople, who came to solicit aid
against Bajazet, Emperor of the Turks; and in 1415,
the lord mayor and aldermen of London, in their robes
of state, attended by four hundred of the principal
citizens, clothed in scarlet, came hither in procession
to meet Henry V., on his triumphant return after the
battle of Agincourt. In 1451, Henry VI. met many of
the followers of Jack Cade, who submitted to his authority,
and on their knees implored and obtained his
pardon; and here, the following year, that monarch
assembled his forces to oppose Richard, Duke of York,
who aspired to the throne. In 1497, the Cornish
rebels, headed by Lord Audley, who had advanced into
Kent, encamped near Eltham, and awaited the approach
of Henry VII., on whose arrival a battle ensued,
the 22nd of July, in which the insurgents were defeated,
and their leader, together with two of his associates
who had excited the rebellion, taken and executed.
In 1519, Campejo, the pope's legate, was received here
in great state by the Duke of Norfolk, with a numerous
retinue of bishops, knights, and gentlemen, who
conducted him to a magnificent tent of cloth of gold,
whence, after having arrayed himself in his cardinal's
robes, he proceeded to London; and at this place, in
1540, Henry VIII. appointed an interview with Anne
of Cleves, previously to their marriage, which was celebrated
with great pomp in the chapel at Greenwich.
Blackheath is pleasantly situated on elevated ground,
commanding diversified and extensive views of the surrounding
country, which is richly cultivated, and
abounds with fine scenery, in which Greenwich Hospital,
the park, and the river Thames, are prominent
objects. There are many elegant villas, among which
the Paragon, a beautiful range of building, is eminently
conspicuous: on the west, and within the park,
is the residence of the Princess Sophia of Gloucester,
formerly occupied by the Duchess of Brunswick: the
mansion in which the Princess of Wales resided has been
lately taken down. Wricklemarsh House, once the
noblest ornament of the heath, erected early in the
last century, by Sir Gregory Page, was rased to the
ground in 1787, by the different purchasers to whom,
it had been sold in lots by public auction; its site,,
now called Park-road, is occupied by handsome cottages.
There are twb episcopal chapels, one on that
part of the heath which is in the parish of Lewisham,
and the other at Kidbrook, a district (extra-parochial)
on the north side of the heath, built by Dr. Greenlaw.
The free grammar school, for thirty-one boys of Lewisham
and the adjoining parishes, and for the sons
of all the clergy in the hundred of Blackheath, was
founded by the Rev. Abraham Colfe, vicar of Lewisham,
who erected the premises in 1652, and at his
death, in 1656, bequeathed the greater part of his
estate in land, and £1100 in money, in trust to the
Leather-sellers' Company, for its endowment, and for
other charitable uses. The income is £342. 15. 6. per
annum: the master, who is allowed to take twenty-six
boarders, receives about £40 per annum, and residesin
the house free of rent; the instruction of the free
scholars is now confined to English and writing.
There were seven exhibitions, of £10 each per annum,
to either of the Universities; but from a failure in
the funds appropriated to that use, they -have been
for some years discontinued. A British school for
boys, and several small schools, are also supported by
the liberal benevolence of the resident gentry. Morden
College, a noble institution for the support of decayed
merchants in the decline of life, was founded by Sir
John Morden, Bart., an opulent Turkey merchant, in
1695, who endowed it with the manor of Old Court,
producing £1600 per annum: the establishment consists
of thirty brethren, a chaplain, and a treasurer}
and the management is vested in seven trustees, who
must be either Turkey merchants, or Directors of the
East India Company. The premises, which occupy a
spacious quadrangle, are handsomely built of brick,
with quoins and cornices of stone, and are surrounded
with a piazza: over the entrance are statues of the
founder and his lady, whose portraits are in the hall 5
and in the chapel are the arms of Sir John,' who was
interred there in 1708.
At the distance of two or three hundred yards
north of Blackheath hill, a cavern, containing several
apartments, was discovered in 1780: it is supposed
to have been formed as a place of security during
the Saxon and Danish contests) but every attempt to
explore it has been frustrated, from the falling in of
the earth, and nothing has yet been found to illustrate
its history. The Watling-street, or Roman road from
London to Dovor, which passed over the heath, may
still be traced; and in 1710, several Roman urns were
dug up, two of which were of fine red clay, one of a
spherical, and the other of a cylindrical, form: the
former, about two feet in diameter, contained ashes,
and was rudely inscribed, near the mouth, with the
words "Marcus Aurelius IIII j" the latter, eighteen
inches in height, contained ashes and some coins, oil
which, though much obliterated, the names of the emperors
Claudius and Gallienus were legible. In 1803,
several urns were also discovered in the gardens of the
Earl of Dartmouth, about a foot below the surface of
the ground, which were presented by his lordship to
the British Museum.