FAVERSHAM, or PETERSHAM, a parish and sea-port and market-town,
having separate jurisdiction, locally
in the hundred of Faversham,
lathe of SCRAY, county
of KENT, containing 4208
inhabitants, of which number,
3919 are in the town of Faversham,
9 miles (W.) from
Canterbury, 18 (E.N.E.) from
Maidstone, and 47 (E.) from Arms.
London, on the road to Dovor. This town is of great
antiquity, having been inhabited by the Britons prior to
the Roman invasion. It was held in royal demesne in
811, and is called, in a charter granted by Kenulf, King,
of Mercia, "The king's little town of Febresham." In 930,;
King Athelstan held a council here, " to enact laws, and
devise methods for their future observance." It is returned
in Domesday-book as being held by William the
Conqueror, by the name of Favreshant; and he is said to
have given the advowson to the abbey of St. Augustine,
in Canterbury, and the manor to one of his favourite
Normans, as a reward for his services. In 1147, a celebrated
abbey for twelve Cluniac monks was founded
here by Stephen, who, with Matilda, his consort, and
his eldest son, Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, were interred
within its walls, as were also several other persons
of renown. The town has obtained peculiar privileges,
and numerous charters from various kings. Selden
states that the endowments and privileges granted by
Stephen were confirmed by successive sovereigns, and
that the abbots sat in thirteen several parliaments, in
the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., but that, on
account of their reduced state and poverty, they ceased
to do so after the eighteenth year of the latter monarch's
reign. It appears that an acrimonious feeling had ex-
isted for a considerable length of time between the
monks and the people of Faversham, who endured with
reluctance the imposts and exactions of the former.
Among these grievances were claims, by way of composition,
for allowing the inhabitants to send their swine
to pannage, for exposing their wares to sale in the
market, for the liberty of brewing, &c.; in which state
matters continued till the time of Henry VIII., when this
monastery shared the fate of the other religious houses.
At that period its clear revenue was estimated at
£286. 12. 6., but the full annual value, according to a
record published by Jacob, was £355. 15. 2. In 1539,
the year after its surrender, the chief parts of  the
monastery were destroyed, and the ground on which
it stood was granted to Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord
Warden of the cinque-ports, together with some adjoining
lands. The two entrance gates were remaining
within the last fifty years, but being in a ruinous
state they were taken down, and there is nothing now
but some portions of the outer walls. James II. having
been seized at Shellness point, on his first attempt to
quit the kingdom, after the landing of the Prince of
Orange, in 1688, was detained at Faversham, and subsequently
escaped from Rochester.
The town is situated on a branch of the river
Swale, called East Swale, and consists of four principal
streets. During the last fifty years it has undergone
very material improvement, part of which consists in the
opening of a spacious avenue from the London road
into Preston-street, and the erection of a bridge over
the stream at the bottom of West-street, which took
place in 1773. In 1789, an act was passed for paving,
watching, and lighting the town, which is also well
supplied with spring water. Many of the houses are
large and handsome, and there are an assembly-room,
a theatre, and a public subscription library. Faversham
has long been distinguished for its manufacture of
gunpowder, which is said to have been established
here prior to the reign of Elizabeth, but restricted to
private individuals till 1760, when government constructed
buildings with due regard to additional security.
Nevertheless, in 1767, a store containing twentyfive
barrels of gunpowder blew up, and considerably
damaged the town: a much more disastrous occurrence
took place on the 17th of April, 1781, through
the explosion of seven thousand pounds of gunpowder,
by which the coming-mill and dusting-house were blown
to atoms, the workmen killed, and the buildings in
Faversham and Davington either wholly or partially
unroofed, and otherwise greatly damaged; so tremendous
was the report that it was heard at the distance of
twenty miles. Government granted pecuniary aid for
the relief of the suffering inhabitants, and an act was
passed for the greater safety of gunpowder-works, one of
the provisions of which was the removal of the stores
into the marsh, a considerable distance below the town.
During the late war, the quantity of powder annually
manufactured here was twelve or thirteen thousand
barrels, affording employment to nearly four hundred
persons. Since the peace of 1815, the Crown has disposed
of the works near the town, but retained the more
distant works; the former have become the property
of a private manufacturer, who conducts the business
on a reduced scale, Faversham, is nevertheless a
place of considerable traffic, as more than forty thousand
quarters of corn, besides a considerable quantity
of hops, fruit, wool, and other articles of merchandise,
are shipped every year for London: there is also a
manufactory for Roman cement, and ship-building is
carried on to a small extent.
The port in the reign of Elizabeth had eighteen vessels,
from five to forty-five tons burden. The quay
mentioned by Leland, under the appellation of Thorn, has
long been in disuse, and in its stead three new quays,
or wharfs, have been constructed close.to the town. The
navigation of the river has been much improved of late;
vessels of one hundred tons burden can generally
come up to the wharf with the tides, and the channel
will now admit of ships drawing eight feet water to
sail up at spring tides. About thirty coasting vessels,
of from forty to one hundred and fifty tons each, belong
to the port: there are a custom-house and an exciseofRce.
The number of vessels which entered inwards
from foreign parts, in 1826, was eighty-five British, and
four foreign; and the number that cleared outwards,
eleven British and one foreign. The management
and support of the navigation are vested in the
corporation, and the expenses are defrayed by town
droits of twopence per quarter on grain, and fourpence
per ton, or load, on all other goods exported or
imported, which have been levied from time immemorial.
The oyster fishery is very considerable, and
constitutes a prominent article of trade. The company
of free fishermen and free dredgermen of the
hundred of Faversham, as tenants under the lord of the
manor, are under his jurisdiction and protection, and
he appoints a steward, who holds two courts annually,
called Admiralty Courts, or Water Courts, at which all
regulations for the benefit of the fishery are made. To
be a free dredger, it is necessary to have served a
seven year's apprenticeship to a freeman, and also to be a
married man. The right of this fishery was originally an
appurtenance to the manor of Milton but was detached
from it by King John, who conferred it upon Faversham
abbey, together with the property in the grounds.
The markets are on Wednesday and Saturday, besides
which there is a cattle market monthly, and an annual
fair on Michaelmas-day.
From an early period this town has been a member
of the port of Dovor, as one of the cinque-ports,
and this connexion may probably account for many
of the privileges it has obtained. The oldest charter
now extant is that of the 36th of Henry III., in which
its freemen are styled " Barons; " other charters of
confirmation, with extended privileges, have been given
by subsequent monarchs, and that under which it is now
governed was granted in the 37th of Henry VIII., by
which the government is vested in twelve jurats, of whom
one is annually chosen mayor, twenty-four common council-
men, assisted by a town clerk, two chamberlains,
two Serjeants at mace, and other officers. The mayor
is chosen annually on the 30th of September; the
jurats are chosen by the mayor and the greater part
of their own body; and one half of the common
council-men are elected by the mayor and jurats, the
other half by the common council; the twelve jurats
are justices of the peace. A company of mercers was
established by a by-law of the corporation in 1616, consisting
of a master, two wardens, and eight assistants,
who have the power of admitting persons to the free
dom of the company, of which the mayor is always
master, and two of the, jurats are chosen wardens;
the town clerk is the clerk of the company. The
freedom of the town is obtained by servitude and by
purchase, the fee of .which is £10; and every son of a
freeman inherits the privilege on coming of age; the
freedom of the port is obtained by servitude and marriage;
it comprises the freedom of the town, but the
converse does not hold. The mayor holds a court of
session twice a year, at which all offenders, except
for high treason, are tried, and this court has adjournments
monthly. He also holds a court of record for
the recovery of debts to any amount, but no process
has been issued for thirty years. There is a
court of requests for the recovery of debts above
2s. and under 40s., by an act passed in the 25th of
George III.; and a similar one for the hundred, by the
same act, the jurisdiction of which extends to Whitstable,
Doddington, and Boughton. The guildhall was
erected in 1574, and enlarged in 1814; the upper part
is appropriated to the holding of the courts, tand the
lower part to the use of the market: the gaol was built
in 1813.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Canterbury, rated in the king's
books at £26. 17. 6., and in the patronage of the Dean
and Chapter of Canterbury. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, was founded prior to the Conquest, and
given by William the Conqueror to the abbey of St.
Augustine, at Canterbury. The present edifice is a
spacious cruciform structure of flint, partly in the decorated.,
and partly in the later style of English architecture,
with a light tower at the west end, crowned
with pinnacles, and surmounted by an octagonal spire,
seventy-three feet high. The interior of the west end
was rebuilt in 1755, from a design by the late George
Dance, Esq., at an expense of about £2500, raised
partly by assessments on the inhabitants, and partly by
a donation from the corporation j but the tower and
spire are of more recenterection. At the west end
of the south aisle is a large room, now used as a
school-room, and beneath this is a crypt, or chapel,
divided in the centre by three round pillars sustaining
pointed arches. The monuments are numerous,
but not particularly interesting. There are
places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan
Methodists. The grammar school, situated on the
north side of the church-yard, was founded by Dr. Cole,
a native of Kent, and Warden of All Souls College,
Oxford, in the ISth of Henry VIII., who bequeathed to
the abbot and convent of Faversham divers lands in the
neighbourhood, for a school, in which " the novices of
the abbey were to be instructed in grammar$" but at
the dissolution the lands became vested in the crown,
and continued so until the 18th of Elizabeth, when a
charter was obtained for re-founding it; the mayor,
jurats, and commonalty of Faversham, with their successors,
being constituted governors, with a common seal.
The master is appointed by the warden, or sub-warden,
and six senior fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, and
in default of their nomination, the Archbishop of Canterbury
appoints. The annual produce of the endowment
is £200, the whole of which, after deducting the
expense of repairs, with other incidental charges, averaging
about £30 a year, is paid to the master. The
school is open for classical instruction to all boys of
the town and neighbourhood. Here are also two
small charity schools, established in the year 1716, and
supported principally by subscriptions, for instructing
and clothing youth of both sexes. A National school
was established in 1814, which is endowed with various
benefactions, producing about £60 a year, and further
supported by subscription, in which one hundred and
seventy boys, and two hundred girls, receive instruction,
Almshouses for six poor widows were founded in 1614,
and endowed by Thomas Menfield with £24 per annum.
Henry Wreight has erected six more, and allows the inmates
a weekly sum; he has also built six for decayed
dredgers. Thomas Napleton, in 1721, founded and endowed
almshouses for six poor men, who receive £25
per annum each; and there are also some almshouses
unendowed, and tenements for poor persons. Dr. John
Wilson, an eminent musician, and gentleman of the
chapel royal in the reigns of Charles I. and Charles II.,
and musical professor in the University of Oxford, was
born here in 1595; this is also the birthplace of Dr.
Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough. Faversham gives the
title of baron to the family of Dxmcombe.