CLERKENWELL, a parish (extensive), in the Finsbury division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, adjoining the city of London, containing 39,105 inhabitants. Its name originated from an ancient well, round which the parish clerks of London were in the habit of assembling, at certain periods, for the performance of sacred dramas, noticed in the reign of Henry II. by Fitz-Stephen, under the appellation of Fans Clericorum. The parish is not mentioned in Domesday-book, being probably at the time of the survey an undistinguished portion of the great forest of Middlesex, or included in the parish of Islington, which, under the name Isendone, is noticed in that record. The site appears to have been well adapted to the celebration of those sacred festivals for which it was selected, from being in the centre of gently rising grounds, which formed an extensive and natural amphitheatre, for the accommodation of the numerous spectators who attended on su£h occasions. The most celebrated of these festivals took place in 1391, in the reign of Richard II., and continued for three days, during which several sacred dramas were performed by the clerks, in presence of the king and queen, attended by the whole court. About the year 1100, Lord Jordan Briset and his wife founded a priory here for nuns of the Benedictine order, dedicated to St. Mary, the site being now occupied by the parish church of St. James: the revenue, at the dissolution, was £282.16.5. The same Jordan founded also an hospital for Knights Hospitallers of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, which was liberally endowed with lands, and invested with many privileges by several successive monarchs; the lord prior had precedence of all lay barons in parliament, and power over all preceptories and smaller establishments of that order in the kingdom; the revenue, at the dissolution, was £2385.12.8.: this institution was partly restored in the reign of Philip and Mary, but was suppressed in that of Elizabeth: the remains are, the gate, in the later style of English architecture, now a private residence, and the vaults of the old church, in the Norman character, upon the site of which St. John's church was subsequently restored. The establishment of these monasteries naturally drew around them a number of dependent dwellings, but the parish, made little progress in the number of its inhabitants prior to the time of Elizabeth, in -whose reign, with the exception of some " banquetting houses and summer houses," it contained only a few straggling cottages, and some good houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the religious houses; its increase was afterwards more rapid, and in 1619 several noblemen and gentlemen were numbered among its inhabitants. Since then, the formation of numerous streets, and the more recent laying out of Spa-fields and the New River Company's estate, in a variety of new streets and squares, have rendered this one of the most populous parishes in the vicinity of the metropolis. Among the more recent improvements may be noticed Claremont-square, in the centre of which is the reservoir of the New River water-works, surrounded by a high embankment, planted with shrubs; Myddelton and Wilmington squares, and numerous spacious streets and ranges of modern and respectable buildings. St. John's street and Goswell roads, the former leading from Smithfield, and the latter from Aldersgate, and the New Road, leading to Paddington, are the principal thoroughfares. The parish is lighted with gas, and the pathways are well flagged; it is within the limits of the new police -establishment: the inhabitants are supplied with water by the New River Company, whose works are situated in this parish, where the river terminates. This stupendous undertaking was -projected in the reign of Elizabeth, and, in the following reign, James I. granted an act of parliament, enabling the mayor and commonalty of London to carry it into effect; but the commissioners, dreading the difficulty and expense, made no advances for some years. In 1609, Mr. Hugh Myddelton, citizen and goldsmith of London, made proposals to the common council of the city to undertake the work at his own risk, and to complete it in four years, for which purpose the commissioners transferred to him the powers with which they had been invested by the act. After having persevered ğin the enterprise till the water was brought to Enfield, the city refusing to grant him any pecuniary assistance, Mr. Myddelton applied to the king, who agreed to pay him one-half of the expense, on condition of having a moiety of the concern transferred to him, and at various times, from Easter 1612, to Michaelmas 1614, advanced sums of money, amounting in the whole to £6347. 4. ll^., with which assistance the work was completed on the 2Qth of September, 1613, on the afternoon of which day, the lord mayor and corporation went in state to the "great cistern," called the New River Head, in this parish, when, after an oration delivered by a person especially selected, the flood-gates were thrown open, and the water rushed from the river into the cistern, amidst the joyous acclamations of an assembled multitude. The river, from its source at Amwell in Hertfordshire to Spa-fields, is thirty-eight miles, three qxiarters, and sixteen poles in length: there are nearly three hundred bridges erected over it, and -its course is continued through the varying levels of the districts through which it passes, by means of forty sluices. The property of the company was divided into seventy-two shares, of which one-half was vested in Mr. Myddelton and twenty-eight other persons incorporated by charter of James I,, in 1619, proprietors of the thirty-six shares constituting what is called the adventurers' moiety; the other moiety, vested in the crown, was re-granted by Charles I. to Sir Hugh Myddelton, who had been created a baronet on the 22nd of October, 1622: an adventurer's share in this company has been sold for £14,000. The Regent's canal passes on the north side of the parish, and enters a tunnel near White Conduit House; after proceeding in a direct line for nearly one thousand yards, in the course of which it passes under the New River, it terminates about twenty yards eastward from that part of it which flows between Colebrook-row and the City-road, in the parish of Islington. Of the numerous wells with which this parish abounded, several were in great repute for their medicinal properties, and houses of public entertainment were erected near their site: of these, which were generally tea-gardens, and rendered more attractive by musical performances, the chief were Bagnigge Wells, White Conduit House, and New Tunbridge Wells, or Islington Spa, all still remaining: of those which have for many years been discontinued were, the Pantheon in Spa-fields, now a chapel belonging to a congregation in the late Countess of Huntingdon's connexion; the Cold Bath, in Cold Bath fields, of which the bath alone is still frequented; the Mulberry and Vineyard gardens; the celebrated Bear garden at Hockley in the Hole; and Sadler's Wells, near the New River Head, which has for many years been converted into a theatre for dramatic representations. Fons Clericorum, or the Clerks' well, is still in existence, being situated in Ray-street, where the spot is marked by a pump, with an inscription. The manufacture of clocks and watches, of which the several parts form distinct and separate departments of the trade, has for more than a century been carried on here to a considerable extent: when the duty on clocks and watches was imposed, in 1791, not less than seven thousand of the inhabitants were deprived of employment, and obliged to have recourse to parochial aid. There is a large manufactory for tin goods, which during the late war supplied the chief of the government contracts, also some extensive distilleries and soap-manufactories. The sessions for the county, and the meetings of the county magistrates, for the assessment of the county rates, and for other affairs, are held at the sessionshouse, Clerkenwell Green, which was erected at an expense of £13,000, and has lately been repaired and beautified: it is a spacious and handsome edifice fronted with stone, having in the centre four pillars of the Ionic order, rising from a rustic basement and supporting a pediment: in the tympanum and on each side are emblematical figures in basso relievo.' The entrance, by a flight of steps, opens into a hall thirty-four feet square, lighted by a dome which surmounts the building; from this hall, contiguous to which are the offices of the county treasurer and clerk of the peace, a double flight of steps leads into the court-room, which is of a semicircular form, commodiously arranged for the business of the sessions, and furnished with galleries for the accommodation of auditors: there are, on this story, rooms for the grand jury, for the commissioners of the land and assessed taxes, for the meetings of the magistrates, and for other purposes. The newprison, for the confinement of prisoners awaiting their trial at the sessions, was erected on the site of the old bridewell, in 1780, at an expense of £2500: it was partly rebuilt and greatly enlarged in 1818, and again enlarged in 1830, and comprises a house for the governor, a chapel, twenty wards, ten day-rooms, and twelve airing-yards, for the classification of prisoners, and two infirmaries, one for males and the other for females. The house of correction for the county, in Cold Bath Fields, was erected in 1794, at an expense of £70,000: it is a spacious hrick building, enclosed with high walls, including an area divided into eighteen airing-yards, in one of which is a tread-mill upon an improved principle: this prison has also been considerably enlarged recently. Clerkenwell manor, formerly denominated the manor of St. John of Jerusalem, includes several out-portions of the parishes of St. Sepulchre, St. Luke (Old-street), and Hornsey, with those parts of the parish of Clerkenwell called the liberties of Cold Bath Fields, St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell Close, Wood's Close, and Pentonville: Constables and headboroughs for these liberties are chosen by the inhabitants of each, and presented at the manorial court for the approbation of the proprietor. The custom of Borough English, whereby the youngest son inherits, prevails in this manor. The church of St. James was formerly the only church within the parish, which is now divided into three districts, namely St. James', St. John's, and St. Mark's, all in the archdeaconry and diocese of London. The living of St. James' is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the inhabitants generally, paying church and poor rates: the church is a modern structure of brick, with a handsome stone steeple, erected on the site of the ancient church of the priory of St. Mary, which had been previously modernised, but which, prior to its being taken down, for the erection of the present edifice, retained many vestiges of its Norman character, and contained the ashes of the last prioress of the nunnery; the last prior of S,t. John's; Weever, the antiquary; Bishop Burnet, and many other distinguished characters. The living of St. John's is a rectory not in charge, endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £ 1800 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Crown: the church, with large curtailments and alterations, is that anciently belonging to the priory of the Knights Hospitallers, of which the choir only remained, being restored by the commissioners appointed under the act for building fifty new churches, passed in the tenth of Queen Anne's reign, by virtue of which a district was annexed to it, and the benefice constituted a rectory, in 1723. Notwithstanding it enjoys the privilege of religious rites, the incumbent of St. James' is entitled to the surplice fees: there are separate churchwardens for St.John's church, but the inhabitants of both districts contribute to the repairs of the two churches, and the same overseers of the poor act for the whole. St. Mark's, a district church, in Myddelton-square, containing one thousand six hundred and twenty-two sittings, of which eight hundred and forty-seven are free,jwas erected in 1826, by a grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an expense of £16,000: it is a neat edifice in the later style of English architecture, with a handsome western front and a square tower with pierced parapet and pinnacles: the expense of furnishing it, which amounted to £2000, was defrayed by the parishioners. The living is a district incumbency, in the patronage of the Rev. Thomas Sheppard, the present incumbent of St. James', after whose decease the right of presentation becomes vested in the Bishop of London. A chapel of ease to St. Mark's is now in progress of erection, under the auspices of the Commissioners. The chapel at Pentonville, a neat modern edifice of brick, ornamented with stone, and having a small cupola, was erected in 1791, for a chapel of ease to St. James'. Spa-Fields chapel, formerly the Pantheon, as before noticed, was appropriated for a place of worship by the late Countess of Huntingdon, who for many years resided at the chapel house adjoining; and at her decease it was vested in trustees, -with other chapels in various parts of the kingdom, agreeably to her will: there are likewise places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyan and other Methodists, besides a Scotch church and a Welch chapel. The parish has the right of sending six scholars to the free grammar school, founded by Lady Alice Owen, for natives of this parish and of that of Islington, and of having three boys in Christ's hospital, the latter under the will of Giles Russell, Esq., who, in 1664, devised property to that establishment, for nine boys of the town of Sherborne, in the county of Dorset, and of the parishes of St. Anne, Blackfriars, and St. James, Clerkenwell. The parochial school, founded about the year 1700, has recently been removed from the school-house in Aylesbury-street, to a more convenient premises in Amwell-street, erected in 1829, forming a spacious and handsome range of building in the Elizabethan style of architecture, and capable of accommodating upwards of one thousand children: there are at present three hundred and forty-five boys and two hundred and twenty-six girls, of whom ninety boys and sixty girls are clothed. A charity school at Pentonville was instituted in 1788: the number of children amounts to one hundred and sixty, of whom sixty are clothed. The London Female Penitentiary at Pentonville, established in 1807, is a large range of building, comprising an infirmary, and apartments for one hundred females, who are chiefly employed in needlework and domestic occupations, to qualify them for service: since the establishment of this institution, one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine females have been received into it, of whom the greater number has been placed out in respectable situations, or restored to their friends. The Finsbury Dispensary was established in 1780, since which time it has extended relief to more than one hundred and fifty thousand of the labouring and necessitous poor; the number of patients annually relieved is, on an average, four thousand. A portion of the Roman Watling-street, and the river of Wells (the Flela of the Romans), form part ^of the boundaries of the parish. Among the distinguished natives and residents of Clerkenwell the following may be enumerated:- Sir Thomas Chaloner, Bishop Burnet, Sir John Oldcastle, Baron Cobham, and Cave, who established the Gentleman's Magazine, and whose printing-office was in St. John's gate.