BURFORD, a market-town and parish in the hundred
of BUMPTON, county of OXFORD, 18  miles (W. N. W.)
from Oxford, and 73 (W. N. W.) from London, on
the road from Oxford to Cheltenham, containing with
the hamlet of Upton with Signet, 1686 inhabitants.
This place is of considerable antiquity, and was by the
Saxons called Beorford, of
which its present name is a variation. In 685, an
ecclesiastical synod was held here by the kings'Ethelred
and Berthwald, at which Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne,
was ordered to write against the error of the
British church respecting Easter. In 752, a battle
was fought at Battle-edge, a little westward from the
town, between Ethelbald, King of Mercia, and Cuthred,
King of the West Saxons, who had revolted against
his authority, in which Ethelbald was defeated, and
the royal standard, bearing the device of a golden
dragon, captured. This event was commemorated by
an annual festival on Midsummer-eve, 'for several
ages, when, the inhabitants paraded the streets, bearing
the figures of a dragon and a giant. Soon after the
Conquest, the town was bestowed on Robert, Earl of
Gloucester, natural son of Henry I. In 1649, an encounter
took place between Fairfax and the royalists,
when the former was victorious. The town is pleasantly
situated on the banks of the small river
Windrush; the houses are indifferently built, but the
inhabitants are well supplied with water; Races were
formerly held here, but they have been long discontinued.
The making of saddles, and a considerable
trade in malt and wool, that formerly flourished, have
much declined; this, added to the diversion of the line
of road, which now avoids the town, instead of passing
through it as before, has reduced it from a nourishing
condition to a state of comparative poverty.' The market
is on Saturday: fairs are held on the last Saturday
in April, for cattle, sheep, and cheese j July 5th, for
horses; and September 25th, for horses, sheep, and
cheese. A charter was granted by Henry II., conferring
on the inhabitants " all customs enjoyed by the free
burgesses of Oxford," of many of which they were deprived
by Lord Chief Justice Tanfield, in the reign of
Elizabeth. They are entitled to elect an alderman, a
steward, .two bailiffs, and twelve burgesses, at Easter, but
of late years these officers have not been regularly appointed;
they do not possess magisterial authority, the
town being wholly within the jurisdiction of the county
magistrates, who hold here petty sessions for the'division:
a court leet and a court baron are also held.
The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual
curacy of Fulbrook annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Oxford, rated in the king's books at£3L 13., and
in the'patronage of the Bishop of Oxford. The churchydedicated
to St. John the Baptist, is a spacious structure^
exhibiting a mixture of the Norman and the later style
of English architecture, with a tower surmounted by a
beautiful spire. At the west entrance is a very fine
Norman arch; and the south porch, which is in the
later English style, is exquisitely rich. There are places
of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and
Wesleyan Methodists. The free school was founded by
Simon Wisdom, alderman of this town, in 1571, who
assigned property for its endowment, which, with subsequent
benefactions, produces £84 per annum: it
affords instruction in English grammar, writing, and
arithmetic, to all boys resident within the parish. An
apartment over the school-room is used as the townhall,
where the assizes for the county were held in 1636.
Two school-wardens are annually appointed by the corporation.
John Wilmot, the celebrated earl of Rochester,
received the. rudiments of his education in this
school. The Great Almshouse was founded, in 1457, by
the-Earl and Countess of Warwick, for eight poor
widows; and Wisdom's almshouse was founded before
1628, for four widows: the inmates of both receive";
in addition, certain allowances derived from lands
and tenements devised for their benefit, under the
direction of feoffees. Four messuages were assigned
for almshouses, in 1?26, by the will of Dr. John Castle,
for four aged widows, with-a small endowment. There
are also various charitable endowments, the principal
of which are, the Church estate, which yields £56 per
annum, applicable to the repairs of the church; arid
Pool's estate, producing £62 annually, which is distributed
in- various ways: some of the charities have
been curtailed by the decreased value of property, and
others injured by mal-administration. A small priory,
or hospital, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, was
valued at the dissolution at £13. 6. 6. Lenthal, the
celebrated Speaker of the Long Parliament, resided
here; and his descendants occupied a mansion.called
the priory, near the town, erected on the site of "a
religious house that belonged to the abbey of Keynsham
in Somersetshire.- The eminent cosmographer,
Dr. Peter Heylin, was born here, in 1600. Burford
gives the inferior title of earl to the Duke of St.
Albans.