CHARD, a parish, and one of the four unconnected
portions forming the eastern division of the hundred
of KINGSBURY, county of SOMERSET, comprising the
market-town of Chard, the tythings of Crim-Chard,
Old Chard, South Chard, and Tatworth with Forton,
and containing 3106 inhabitants, of which number, 1330
are in the town of Chard, 13 miles (S. E. byS.) from
Taunton, and 139 (W. S. W.) from London. This place
was of considerable importance during the Octarchy,
and was by the Saxons called Cerdre, a name supposed
to be derived from Cerdic, the founder of the kingdom
of Wessex. In the 28th of Edward I. it was constituted
a borough, and continued to send members to parliament
until the 2nd of Edward III., since which time
its privileges have been discontinued. In the parliamentary
war a battle took place here, in which a
party of royalists, under the command of Col. Penruddock,
was defeated. The town is situated at the southern
extremity of the county, and upon the highest
ground between the North and the South seas, so
that the course of a stream, issuing from a spring in
one of the streets, may easily be diverted either into the
English or the Bristol channel: it consists principally
of two streets, intersecting each other; the houses are
in general well built, and the inhabitants are supplied
with water conveyed by leaden pipes into four conduits,
from a spring at the western extremity of the town. The
market is on Monday, and is noted for the sale of potatoes:
the fairs are on the first Wednesdays in May^
August, and November. The ancient assize-hall is now
used as the market-house, to which is attached an extensive
range of shambles, covered with a tiled roof, and
supported on brick pillars. The town is governed by a
portreeve and two bailiffs, chosen annually at the court
leet of the lord of the manor. The town-hall is a very
ancient edifice, and was formerly used as a chapel.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Taunton, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the
king's books at £36. 18. 9., and in the patronage of the
Bishop of Bath and Wells. The church, dedicated to St.
Mary, is a handsome cruciform structure, with a low
tower at the west end: in the north-east corner of the
south transept is a splendid monument, having the
effigies of William Brewer and his wife, kneeling before
an altar, with their family behind them; in the south
corner of the same transept, and in various parts of
the church, are other handsome and interesting monuments.
There is a place of worship for Particular Bap*
tists. An unendowed school was established by the
portreeve and burgesses, to whom a house, a garden,
and a field containing about one acre, were devised
on certain conditions, by William Symes, in 1671: the
master, who resides on the premises rent-free, receives
from two to three guineas per annum from each pupil,
and has the privilege of taking boarders. An hospital,
or almshouse, for poor people of the parish was founded,
in 1668, by. Richard Harvey, Esq., of Exeter, who endowed
it with two estates in the counties of Cambridge
and Norfolk, formerly producing £ 844. 4. per annum,
but, within the last few years, the income has been
somewhat diminished by the reduction of the rents.
In May 1831, the gardener of Henry Host Henley, Esq.,
of Leigh House, near this town, dug up in the garden
a Roman urn, containing a great number of gold coins
of the Emperor Claudius, very fresh and bright.