DAVENTRY, a parish and market-town, having separate
jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Fawsley,
county of NORTHAMPTON, 1 miles (W. by N.) from
Northampton, and 72 (N.W.) from London, on the road
to Holyhead, containing, with the hamlet of Drayton, 3326
inhabitants. This place derives its name from the British
Dwy-avon-tre, town of the two Avons, denoting
its situation between two rivers of that name. About
half a mile to the south-east is Borough hill, a "lofty
eminence, on which is an elliptical intrenchment, including
an area of nearly two hundred acres, defended
on the south and west by a double trench and rampart,
and on the north and east sides by four deep trenches
and five ramparts, the entrances to which are on the
south and south-east sides. The origin of this camp,
which Mr. Pennant considers to have been a post of the
Britons when opposed to Ostorius, and after its reduction
to have toeen occupied by that general, as the
castra cestiva of his forces, has been by some antiquaries
referred to the Danes, by whom it may probably have
been occupied during their irruption in 1006, and to
whom the building of the town has been ascribed.
From this erroneous supposition, strengthened by the
contraction of the name to Dantrey, and Daintree,
has probably resulted the device of the common seal.
At the distance of nearly three hundred yards below this
intrenchment is a smaller quadrilateral camp, including
an acre of ground, defended by a single intrenchment;
below which is another, including six acres, called Burnt
Walls, where John of Gaunt is said to have had a palace.
This station, which is one of the largest of the kind in
the kingdom, was the Bennavenna of the Britons, and the
Isanta Varia of Antonine. At the time of the Conquest
Daventry was a place of considerable importance. In
1090 a priory was founded here by Hugh de Leycester, for
monks of the Cluniac order; it was richly endowed, its
revenue amounting to £236. 7 6, and it was one of
those which, by permission of pope Clement VII., were
dissolved in the 17th of Henry VIII., and granted to
Cardinal Wolsey, for endowing his intended colleges at
Ipswich and Oxford: the last remains of the buildings
were taken down in 1826. During the parliamentary
war, Daventry was the scene of frequent conflicts,
in one of which, in the beginning of 1645, Sir William
and Sir Charles Compton, brothers of the Earl of
Northampton, with three hundred horse, routed four
hundred of the parliamentarian cavalry near the town.
In the same year, the king having taken Leicester, by
storm, on his march to relieve Oxford, which was closely
besieged, fixed his head-quarters at this town, where he
remained for six days, prior to his departure for Market-
Harborough where the vanguard of his army was stationed,
in the neighbourhood of which place the battle
of Naseby was fought on the following day.
The town is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of
a gentle eminence, sheltered by other hills to the south
and south-east, and consists of two principal streets,
intersected by several smaller, lighted and paved by an
act passed in the 46th of George III., forthat purpose,
and also for the rebuilding of the moot-hall. The houses,
though irregularly, are neatly and well, built, and the inhabitants
are supplied with water from a spring on the
Borough hill, at the distance of half a mile to the southeast
of the town. The only branch of manufacture is that
of whips; the support of the town arises chiefly from its
situation as a public thoroughfare, and from its numerous
fairs. The Grand Junction canal, at the north angle of-the
parish, passes through a tunnel two thousand yards in
length, to the south of which is the reservoir. The market.
is on Wednesday; the fairs are on the first Monday
in January, the last Monday in February, Tuesday in
Easter week, June 6th and 7th, August 3rd, the first
Monday in September, October 2nd and 3rd, October
27th, and the last Wednesday in November. The first
October fair is on the first day of that month, for cheese;
and the second for live stock; the others are generally for
horses and cattle. On the two next Wednesdays after
Michaelmas are statute fairs for hiring servants. St.
Augustine's fair, now held on the 6th and 7th of June",
is coeval with the grant of the market, and with it appended
to the manor; and the inhabitants, notwithstanding
several attempts to emancipate themselves, are
still compelled to grind their corn at the lord's mill, and
to bake their bread at his oven. The town is supposed
to have had a guild-merchant at a Very early period:.
it received a charter of incorporation from King John,
which was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth in the eighteenth
year of her reign, and subsequently by James I. Under
the present charter of the 27th of Charles II. the" government
is vested in a bailiff, a recorder, (who must be
a barrister, and whose appointment is subject to approval
bythe crown), and a chamberlain, twelve burgesses,
twenty common council-men, assisted by a town clerk"
(who must be a barrister), two Wardens, two (Serjeants at
mace, and other officers. The bailiff, who is also clerk
of the market, is elected on Michaelmas-day, by the
common council-men, from two burgesses nominated by
the bailiff and two of the burgesses; the chamberlain and
wardens are chosen at the same time by the commonalty,
or, on their declining to elect, by the bailiff and burgesses.
The bailiff, the late bailiff, who acts as coroner
the following year, and the recorder, are justices of the
peace for the borough. The corporation hold a general
court of session annually , and under the charter of
Elizabeth., confirmed and extended by Charles II., a
weekly court of record, for the recovery of debts not exceeding
£ 100. 1. is held, in which the bailiff and recorder
preside, either in person or by deputy; but from this
court no writs have been issued since 1823. The town-
Iiall having become greatly dilapidated, a large house
has been purchased and commodiously fitted up for the
borough sessions and courts of record; and within the
last three years, a new gaol and house of correction for
the borough has been erected.
The living is a perpetual cxiracy, in the archdeaconry
of Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough, endowed
with £20 per annum private benefaction, and in the patronage
of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church,
Oxford. The ancient churc-h, dedicated to the Holy
Cross, formerly the conventual church of the priory,
was taken down in 1752, and the present structure
erected on its site, at the expense of £3486. There are
places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists.
The free grammar school was founded in 1576,
by Mr. William Parker, of London, who endowed it with a
rent-charge of £20 per annum, of which £ 15 per annum
was to be paid to the master, and £ 5 to an usher, for the
instruction of fifty poor children of the town; the endowment
was farther augmented, in 1729, by Mr. John
Farrer, of Daventry, who bequeathed £400 to five
trustees, for the purchase of lands, now producing
£ 43 per annum, as a stipend to the master, who must
be in holy orders, on condition of his reading evening
prayers on Sundays, and morning prayers on Mondays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at the parish
church. John Sawbridge, Esq., of Daventry, in 1740,
bequeathed £ 150, to which £ 100 was added by his brother,
Edward Sawbridge, Esq., to purchase or build a
house for the master; these sums, which are at present
invested in the funds, produce £16 per annum. An
English charity school was founded in 1736, by Dr. Edward
Maynard, who gave £200 to the corporation, in
trust for that purpose; it is supported partly by subscription,
and is also endowed with £6 per annum, the
bequest of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham;
£4 per annum, the gift of Edward Sawbridge; £89 per
annum, part of the rental of an estate at Cosford, in
Northamptonshire, purchased with money arising from
several benefactions; and the interest of £700 three
per cent, consols., bought with money procured from the
sale of timber on the Cosford estate, and occasional
savings of income. The master has £67 per annum,
besides an allowance of £4. 16. per annum for providing
books and stationery: twenty-four boys, who are all
supplied with clothing, and some placed apprentices, are
educated in this school; the boys school is now combined
with a National school supported by subscription.
An academy for dissenters was maintained here by the
trustees of William Coward, Esq., of London, till the
year 17S9, when it was removed. Mr. John Welch gave
the interest of £700, now vested in the South Sea annuities,
producing £21 per annum, of which, £9 per annum
is paid to the minister of the congregation of Independents,
and the remaining £ 12 towards the support of a
charity school for children of both sexes. There are
various charitable bequests for distribution among the
poor, among which may be noticed £10per aiinum by
Mr. Parker, the founder of the grammar school, to be
distributed quarterly to six beadsmen appointed by tfc&
lord of the manor of Ipswich, to which several others
have been subsequently added for the same purpose.
John Smith, a celebrated engraver in mezzotinto, was
born here in 1740. Daventry gives the title of baron to
the Earl of Winchelsea.