DARTFORD, a market-town and parish, in the hundred
of AXTON-DARTFORD-AND-WILMINGTON, lathe of
SUTTON at HONE, county of KENT, 15 miles (S. E.)
from London, and 22 (N. W.) from Maidstone, on the
great road from London to Canterbury and Dover, containing
3593 inhabitants. The name is a contraction of
Darent-ford, or the ford on the Darent, on the banks of
which river the town is situated. Dartford is mentioned
in history as the place where Isabella, sister of
Henry III., was married by proxy in 1235, to the German
Emperor, Frederick II. Edward III. held a tournament
here, on his return from France in 1331; and in
1355 he founded, and afterwards richly endowed, a
monastery at Dartford, for nuns of the order of St. Autine,
the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was
£408. At this town commenced the insurrection under
Wat Tyler, in the 5th of Richard II. j and on the
neighbouring heath, called Dartford-Brent, the army of
Richard, Duke of York, encamped in 1451, while he
waited to obtain a conference with King Henry VI., who
then lay with his army at Blackheath. Dartford-Brent
also was the rendezvous of the parliamentary forces
under General Fairfax, in 1648. The town is pleasantly
situated in a narrow valley, between two hills, in one of
W hich, towards Crayford, is a number of pits, sunk in
the chalky strata of which the hill is composed, from
ten to twenty fathoms in depth, and of considerable
extent, supposed to have been used by the Saxons as
granaries, or store-rooms. The principal street is in the
line of the London road, and two smaller streets branch
off from it at right angles. There is a bridge over the
Darent, built since the commencement of the reign of
Edward III., and repaired and improved at the expense
of the county about fifty years ago, at which time a
new market-house was erected, and the streets were
newly paved. The river is navigable up to the town for
boats, which sail regularly to London. The numerous
mills on the Darent contribute greatly to the trading
prosperity of Dartford. Here is an extensive gunpowder
manufactory, which occupies the site of the first papermill
erected in this country, by Sir John Spielman,
a German, who died in 1607; and at a short distance
is a paper-mill, where formerly stood a mill for
rolling and slitting iron, also the first of the kind in
England, constructed by Godfrey Box, of Liege, in
1590. Here are also mills for grinding corn, and for
extracting oil from seeds; besides a very extensive establishment
for the construction of steam-engines, to which
is attached a foundry, on a scale of considerable magnitude,
where nearly two hundred workmen are constantly
employed. The market is on Saturday, which is plentifully
supplied with provisions; and a fair is held on the
2nd of August. Here are held the petty sessions for
the upper division of the lathe of Sutton at Hone; and
a court of requests, for the recovery of debts not exceeding
£5, is held, under an act of parliament passed
in the 47th of George III., "for the town of Gravesend,
and the several hundreds of Toltingtrough, Dartford,
Wilmington, and Axtane, in the county of Kent."
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Rochester, rated in the king's books
at £18. 11. 3., endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop
of Rochester. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity,
is a spacious structure, consisting of a nave, aisles, and
chancel, with an embattled tower at the north-west side;
it contains many ancient monuments, among which is
one in commemoration of the above-mentioned Sir John
Spielman. The ancient burying-ground is situated on a
high hill, at some distance from the church; and a new
one was consecrated a few years since in a more convenient
situation. There are places of worship for various denominations
of dissenters. A free grammar school was
founded here in 15J6, for the education of eight boys,
and endowed with property producing £48. 15. per
annum, which is vested in trustees, by a decree of the
commissioners of charitable uses, dated July 5th, 1678.
There is also a charity school for boys in connexion with
the church, conducted on the National system, and
supported chiefly by the income arising from various
benefactions, the master of which has a salary of £ 100
per annum. At Lowfield, in this parish, are four almshouses,
founded in 1572, in pursuance of a bequest by
John Byer, who also founded and endowed nine more
almshouses in the parish. Traces of the Roman
Watling-street appear on the south side of the high
road, between Dartford and Dartford-Brent. The
Augustine nunnery, after the dissolution, was made a
royal residence by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth) and
its remains, consisting of an embattled gateway and
some other buildings of brick, have been converted
into a farm-house. An hospital, dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, was founded in the reign of Henry VI.;
and an hospital for lepers existed here in the fourteenth
century. In the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, the
county assizes are said to have been frequently held at
Dartford; and a spot at the entrance to Dartford-
Brent from the town was the place of execution for
malefactors. The Earl of Jersey enjoys the inferior
title of Viscount Villiers, of Dartford.