DEVIZES, a borough and market-town, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Potterne-and-Cannings, county of WILTS, 22 miles (N.W.by N.) from Salisbury, 19 (E. by S.) from Bath, and 89 (W. by S.) from London, on the road from London to Bath, containing 4208 inhabitants. Amongst the early writers this town has received the several appellations of Devisa, Divis, Devies, and Divisio, because it is said to have been divided between the King and the Bishop of Salisbury, &c. It appears to have had its origin in the erection of a spacious and strong castle, or fortress, by Roger, the celebrated and wealthy bishop of Salisbury, in the reign of Henry I., who, with his two nephews, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, and Nigel, Bishop of Ely, was subsequently sentenced to imprisonment within its walls by King Stephen, on a charge of disaffection. Before the order could be executed, Nigel escaped, and having fled to this fortress, garrisoned it with troops, and prepared to defend it, until the expected arrival of the Empress Matilda; but the king having besieged it and demanded immediate surrender, on the alternative of hanging the son of Bishop Roger on a gallows which had been erected in front of the castle, that prelate, to save the youth from an ignominious death, bound himself by a solemn oath to take no sustenance till the king should be put in possession.. This oath being made known to the Bishop of Ely, effected the surrender of the castle at the end of three days, and that fortress, together with the bishop's treasures, amounting to the value of forty thousand marks, fell into the hands of Stephen. About three years after this event, the castle was seized by Robert Fitz-Hubert,on pretence of holding it for Matilda; on her arrival, however, he refused to give up possession, and was in consequence treated as a rebel by both the contending parties, and eventually hanged as a traitor. In 1233, Hubert de Burgh, formerly prime minister to Henry III., was imprisoned within the castle, but on the appointment of Peter de Rupibus, his avowed enemy, to the government of it, he prevailed on two of his guards to contrive his escape, and took sanctuary behind the high altar of the parish church, whence he was dragged, with the crucifix in his hand, and carried back to prison. This violation of ecclesiastical privileges produced a remonstrance to the king from several prelates, on which the prisoner was re-conveyed to the church, and the sheriff received orders from that monarch to blockade it, and compel Hubert, by famine, to surrender himself; but notwithstanding that precaution, he once more effected his escape, and fled into Wales. About the end of the reign of Edward III., the castle was dismantled, and part of its materials were subsequently used to erect a mansion at Bromeham, about three miles distant. In the reign of Henry VIII., the town, then called by Leland The Vies, (an appellation still retained by the Wiltshire peasantry,) was celebrated for its market, and chiefly inhabited by clothiers. During the parliamentary war, a battle was fought here between the parliamentarian and the royalist forces, under the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice, who were pursued hither by Sir William Waller, on their retreat towards Oxford, after the battle of Lansdown; the townwas intrenched, and the approaches to it barricadoed by Lord Ralph Hopton, and the Earl of Marlborough, and Sir William, having invested the town closely, constructed a battery upon a neighbouring height, fired upon the place, and made several unsuccessful attempts to penetrate into the interior; he likewise intercepted the approach of the Earl of Crawford with a supply of powder for the royalists, and having captured the whole convoy, summoned the besieged to surrender. A treaty for capitulation was begun, but at this juncture Sir William was obliged to withdraw his troops from before the town, in order to oppose Lord Wilmot, who had been despatched by the king from Oxford, with one thousand five hundred horse, and two pieces of artillery, to protect the infantry in their retreat to the main army. The parliamentarian general awaited the approach of Lord Wilmot on Roundaway Hill, where, encouraged by the small number of his antagonist's forces, he commenced the attack, which terminated in the total dispersion of his cavalry, the capture of his artillery, and the destruction of his infantry, who being attacked by the troops from Devizes, were most of them slain or taken prisoners. Sir William fled to Bristol, having sustained a loss of more than two thousand men, together with all his cannon, ammunition, baggage, and stores; the loss of the royalists on this occasion was comparatively inconsiderable. The town, which is nearly in the centre of the county, stands on an elevation, and consists of several streets, which are paved, and lighted with gas; the houses, many of which are handsome, are for the most part irregularly built; the inhabitants are supplied with water from deep wells dug in the sand rock. The woollen manufacture, once the principal branch of business, is now extinct: the manufacture of silk has been recently introduced, and affords employment to upwards of four hundred persons, principally children; there are three manufactories in the town, and one about half a mile distant, for silk-throwing: the weaving of crape and sarsenet is on the increase. The malting business is carried on extensively; and a large snuff manufactory has been established for many years. The Kennet and Avon canal intersects the parish, which abounds with coal and Bath stone. The market is on Thursday, and is the largest in the West of England for corn, of which a great quantity is pitched in the market-place, besides what is sold by sample. There are fairs annually, on February 14th, for horses; Holy Thursday and April 20th, for cattle; and June 13th, July 5th, and October 2nd and 20th, for cattle, hops, cloth, &c.: those on the 20th of April and the 20th of October are held on the green, beyond the boundaries of the borough. A market-cross, erected in 1815, at the sole expense of Lord Sidmouth, many years recorder, and also a representative in parliament for this borough, is said to have cost nearly £2000. The first charter of incorporation, granted by the Empress Matilda, was suspended during the reign of Stephen, renewed by Henry II., and iconfirmed, together with the grant of additional privileges, by John, Henry III., and Edward III., which placed the burgesses upon an equality with the citizens of Winchester. Several immunities were added during subsequent reigns, until, the time of Charles I., under whose charter, the government is vested in a mayor, recorder, and thirty-four common council-men; twelve of whom, including the recorder and justice, are styled capital burgesses, from among whom the mayor is annually chosen by the common council, who also fill up vacancies in their own body, and have the power of electing an unlimited number of free burgesses. The mayor, recorder, and justice, (who is chosen by the corporation), are justices of the peace within the borough, and have power to hold a court of record, for the recovery of sums not exceeding £ 40, every Friday at which either the mayor, recorder, or his deputy must preside, assistedjjy any number of the capital burgesses, in all not. less than four. The petty sessions for the Devizes division of the hundred of Potterne and Cannings are held here, as are also the quarter sessions for the county, in rotation with Salisbury, Warminster, and Marlborough. This borough returned members to all the parliaments of Edward I,, tt> those of the 1st, 8th, and 19th of Edward II., and 4th of Edward III., since which its returns have been constant. The right of election is vested in the corporation, including a few honorary members; the mayor is the returning officer. Meetings for the nomination of county members and coroners are always held in this town. The town-hall is a handsome modern edifice, having a semicircular front, supported by Ionic columns on a rustic basement: it contains appropriate offices for public business, and a large room used for-public meetings and assemblies; on the ground floor a cheese market is held. A new gaol, constructed of brick and stone, was erected in 1810, about a mile north-westward from the town: it consists of the governor's house, which is polygonal in form, and occupies the centre, having an infirmary above it, and from the top commands a fine prospect towards Bath and Gloucester; the cells, which in this part of the building are also polygonal, are separated from the boundary wall by a considerable space of ground, laid out in gardens; the front of the house and the whole boundary wall are very substantially built of hewn stone. Devizes comprises the parishes of St. John and St. Mary the Virgin, the livings of which form a united rectory, not in charge, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury, and in the patronage of the Crown. St. John's church is a spacious structure, partly in the Norman style and partly in the later style of English architecture, with a square embattled tower, and consists of a nave and two aisles, transept, chancel, and two chantry chapels; the oldest portion, which comprises the chancel, transept, and tower, is supposed to have been built by Bishop Roger, about the same period as the castle; the chancel is arched with bold ribs springing from clustered capitals, and the tower is supported by two circular and two pointed arches, enriched with foliage and zigzag mouldings of different periods; it contains several marble monuments of the families of Heathcote and Sutton. St. Mary's, in the northeastern part of the town, has evidently been erected at different periods; the chancel is the oldest portion, being in the early Norman style, and built probably soon after the Conquest; the south porch, having a pointed arch, with zigzag mouldings, is a fine specimen of the prevailing style in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I.; the rest of the edifice was rebuilt by Wil liam Smyth, who died in 1436; the tower and body of the church are embattled and crowned with pinnacles; the nave and aisles are spacious and lofty, and the arches which separate them spring from octagonal columns; the architecture of the chancel resembles that of St. John's. At the eastern extremity of the town, and beyond the limits of the borough, is St. James chapel, belonging to the- vicarage of Bishop's Cannings. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Presbyterians, and Wesleyan Methodists. The Boar Club charity school, in which about forty boys are clothed, and, after three years education, apprenticed, is supported by the donations and annual subscriptions of the members. A National school was erected at the expense of John Pearse, Esq.; there are likewise schools on the Lancasterian system, and infant schools. The site of the ancient castle, of which there are no vestiges, has been converted into pleasure grounds. Richard of Devizes, a Benedictine monk of the twelfth century, who wrote a chronicle of English History, was a native of this place. Mr. Joseph Allein, a non-conformist divine, and polemical writer of some celebrity, was born here in 1633. The late Sir Thomas Lawrence, the eminent portrait painter, and President of the Royal Society, passed much of the earlier part of his life in this town.