HACKNEY, a parish in the Tower division of the
hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 2 miles
(N. E.) from London, comprising three districts, viz.,
Hackney St. John, South Hackney, and West Hackney,
and containing 22,494 inhabitants. It is almost united to
the metropolis by successive ranges of building, of which
some are of handsome and respectable appearance, and
was among the earliest of the adjacent villages inhabited
by the more opulent merchants of London; and from its
having been the first of those retreats provided with regular
conveyances to that city, it is supposed to have
given name to the numerous coaches which. ply in the
streets of the metropolis, and in the principal towns of
the kingdom. Among the various mansions of distinguished
persons who anciently resided here, are Brook
house, at Clapton, the residence of Lord Brook (now con-,
verted into an asylum for lunatics), and the palace of the
prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in Welk
street, at present let out in tenements to poor families.
To the south of Lea bridge are mills, formerly belonging
to the Knights Templars, and subsequently to the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, having
been since employed for preparing sheet-lead; they are
now unoccupied. The parish is lighted with gas, and
amply supplied with water; the houses are irregularly
built; many of them in detached situations are hand-,
some, and in various parts of the parish there are ranges
of modern houses of neat and respectable appearance.
On the site of an ancient building in the old church-yard,
formerly used as a school-house, a spacious edifice has
been erected, and gradually enlarged, containing sundry
commodious apartments for the meetings of members of
different local trusts, and for other purposes of parochial
business. The environs are in many parts pleasant, and
there are several nursery grounds, of which those belonging
to Messrs. Loddige and Sons are noted for a great
variety of scarce and curious exotic plants. A considerable
quantity of land in the neighbourhood is cultivated
by market-gardeners for the supply of the
London market, and a much larger portion is appropriated
to the pasturage of cattle. The old bridge over
the river Lea was taken down in 1820, and a handsome
iron bridge of one arch was erected, at an expense of
£4500. The silk-manufactory at Hackney Wick, in
which from six to seven hundred persons were formerly
employed, has within the last two years been discontinued,
and the adjoining dwelling-house, which is a handsome
building, has since been commodiously fitted up in
a superior style for the reception of insane persons. The
principal branches of manufacture at present carried on
are the making of opti, al glasses of every description,
the preparation of colours, dyeing, calico - printing, and
calendering: there is an extensive flour-mill, and a watermill
of very great antiquity is now used for supplying
the inhabitants of Clapton with water; a great number
of bricks and tiles is made in the neighbourhood, and
several of the fields in which the clay has been exhausted
have been since advantageously cultivated or built upon.
The Regent's canal passes through the western part of
the parish, and the Lea river navigation through the
eastern. The parish is within the jurisdiction of a court
of requests held at Whitechapel, for the recovery of
debts under 40s., and has been recently included within
the limits of the new police act.
Until recently Hackney constituted one parish,
under the designation of St. John's, consisting of a
vicarage and a sinecure rectory, rated in the king's
books at £20, and for all civil purposes it still continues
so; but by an order of the King in council, dated
March 1825, it has been divided into three districts,
each of which now constitutes a distinct rectory,
called respectively Hackney, South Hackney, and West
Hackney, and with the consents required by the acts,
passed in the 58th of George III., and 3rd of George IV.,
and by means of the liberal sacrifices of income made
both by the patron, as lessee of the rectorial tithes,
and by the incumbent, the rectorial and vicarial
tithes of the whole parish have been consolidated,
and apportioned, with every other source of ecclesiastical
emolument, among the incumbents of the three
newly constituted rectories, each rector having an exclu-.
sive right to such tithes and dues as shall arise within
the limits of his benefice: they are in the jurisdiction
of the Commissary of London, concurrently
with the Consistorial Court of the Bishop. The patronage
is in W. G. D. Tyssen, Esq., as Lord of the
Manor, which is co-extensive with the boundaries of
the whole parish. The church of St. John the Baptist,
which now constitutes the church of the central
district, or Hackney (proper), was erected under an
act of parliament obtained in 1701, at a short distance
northward of a more ancient one, the tower of
which is still standing, the new building not being
considered of sufficient strength to receive the bells.
It is handsomely built of brick, with a cupola and
dome of stone subsequently added to i t; it was consecrated
in 1797, and contains sittings for upwards
of three thousand persons; the roof is a singularly fine
piece of mechanism, and the arches are of a bolder
and wider span than those in almost any other building
of similar design: the fine windows in the chancel,
and one at the font, are handsomely enriched with
painted glass. Among the ancient monuments removed
from the old church into the vestibules of the
present edifice is that of Christopher Urswick, almoner
of Henry VII.,, and incumbent of this parish, who
died in 1521. Dr. Richard Sampson, Bishop of Chichester,
and afterwards of Lichfield and Coventry;
David Daulben, Bishop of Bangor; and Gilbert Sheldon,
Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University of Oxford,
where he built the theatre, were rectors of this
parish. The church-yard is spacious and well planted.
The parsonage-house has been recently rebuilt by
the present incumbent, on a considerably enlarged
scale. The church of West Hackney, containing one
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight sittings; of
which one thousand one hundred and ninety-two are
free, is situated in Kingsland-road, and was erected
by a grant from the parliamentary commissioners in
1823, at an expense of £15,302. 14.: it is a handsome
edifice in the Grecian style of architecture, with
a cupola and a portico of the Doric order, designed
by Mr. Smirke. The site of the church, and an ample
allotment of ground for a cemetery, together with an adjoining
piece of land for the site of a parsonage-house,
and for the purpose of a garden and slip of glebe,
were given by the patron: the house was built by subscription,
at an expense of about £2000. The church
of South Hackney (formerly a chapel of ease), situated
in Well-street, was built in 1810, on a site given
by John Dekewer, Esq.; the erection and subsequent
alterations cost nearly £ 8000, which was defrayed by
subscription; a considerable part of the church is appropriated
as free sittings. In addition to the three
rectories a sub-district has been apportioned fromthe
central district, or Hackney (proper), to the chapel at
Upper Clapton, called Stamford Hill chapel, and formerly
proprietary, but purchased by subscription among the inhabitants,
and subsequently enlarged, in aid of which the
rector of the parish, and the Incorporated Society for the
enlargement of churches, each contributed £200, for extending
the number of free sittings. An endowment of
£ 150 per annum has been assigned to the minister, in addition
to which a transfer has been made by the rector
of all dues for whatever occasional services should be
performed within the chapel. There is also a small
ancient chapel at Kiugsland, situated partly in West
Hackney parish, and partly in the parish of Islington;
it was formerly attached to a lazar-house belonging
to St. Bartholomew's hospital, and in the patronage
of the Governors of that institution: the endowment
is very insignificant, and the only other source of
emolument to the minister is the pew-rents, which, from
the small size of the chapel, are very inconsiderable.
At Homerton, within the district attached to Stamford
Hill chapel, is Ram's chapel, a private proprietary
chapel, at present in disuse. There are places of
worship for Baptists at Homerton and in Mare street;
for Independents, at Homerton, Clapton, Kingsland,
Well-street, and St.Thomas square; for Wesleyan
Methodists, in Pleasant-place; and for Unitarians, in
Paradise fields. Among the ministers of the Independent
congregation in St. Thomas square were Dr.
William Bates, an eminent theological writer, and the
Rev. Matthew Henry, author of a commentary on the
Holy Scriptures; and among those of the Unitarian
congregation were Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, and the Rev.
Thomas Belsham.
Mrs. Margaret Audley, in 1616, left by will £20
per annum, for the maintenance of a schoolmaster in
the parish, which now forms a portion of the salary
paid to the master of the parochial charity school. The
parochial charity schools were established in 1714, for
educating and clothing thirty boys and twenty girls,
being the children of such poor inhabitants as had certified
settlements in the parish; the number in each
school continued to vary, until by the adoption of the
Madras system of instruction, and the erection, in 1811,
of a new and capacious school-house, at an expense of
£4500, containing separate and sufficient accommodations
in the centre of the building for a master and a
mistress, and in the wings, two very large and convenient
school-rooms, the guardians of the charity were
enabled greatly to extend the benefit of this institution,
which now affords instruction to as many children of
the resident poor properly recommended, as the schoolrooms
will admit, one hundred of each sex being clothed
also. The charity is supported by annual subscriptions,
occasional benefactions, and two half yearly collections
;n the parish church. The schools are under the superintendence
of their respective committees of visitors,
and the general concerns of the institution are regulated
and controlled by a committee of managers annually
elected by the subscribers. The other schools in connexion
with the church in the central parish, are, a
school of industry in Dalston-lane, built by subscription
on a piece of waste ground granted by the lord of the
manor for that purpose, in which forty girls are instructed
and clothed, principally by the produce of their own industry.
An infant .school has also been established in
Homerton within the last three years, which is sup.
ported by voluntary subscriptions; it contains about
one hundred children. In the district of Stamford Hill
chapel, a school for boys and another for girls have been
recently erected by subscription, containing at present
ninety-five of the former, and seventy of the latter.
There is also a school for younger children, under the
superintendence of a mistress, originally established by
the present rector; for the numerous population at the
tile-kilns and brick-fields adjoining, but it has been recently
connected with the above schools as preparatory
to them. The members of the Cumberland Benevolent
Institution, have also a small establishment in Churchstreet,
for the maintenance, clothing, and instruction of
seven boys and two girls, who are admitted from the
age of nine to twelve, and continue till they are fourteen.
The only school in connexion with the church of
South Hackney is one belonging to the Rev. H. H.
Norris, which was erected by him in the year 1810, on
land in Grove-street, belonging to himself, and continues
to be his own property: the building contains suitable
accommodations for a master and a mistress, and separate
school-rooms for about sixty boys and thirty girls. In
West Hackney a boys school has been recently erected
by subscription, in which there are at present ninety
children. There is also a considerable girls school, the
children being allowed the temporary use of a schoolhouse
in the central district, until they are enabled by
the liberality of the inhabitants of West Hackney to
erect one in their own. The boys school at Homerton,
in connexion with Ram's chapel, was established by
subscription in 1801, and has realized from legacies
and benefactions a fund of £2000; and a school
for girls in the same connexion, in which twentyfive
are educated and clothed, is supported partly by
the dividends on £950 three per cent, consols., arising
from various benefactions, and by subscription. In
addition to the church schools in the three newly
constituted districts, there are various others in connexion
with, and supported by, the several denominations
of dissenters, in their respective neighbourhoods.
The dissenting school in Well-street is supported partly
by an income of £46 per annum, arising from benefactions
and subscriptions; there are seventy boys instructed
in this school. Spurstowe's almshouses, founded
in 1666 by Dr. William Spurstowe, vicar of Hackney,
who endowed them for six aged widows, were rebuilt
in 1819, at an expense of £1352.11.4., which sum had
accumulated from the savings of the original endowment,
augmented by subsequent benefactions; the inmates
are appointed at a vestry meeting, and receive
a quarterly sum of money, and an annual allowance
of coal. Six almshouses were built in Wells-street,
for six aged men, by Henry Monger, Esq., who endowed
them with an annuity of £12, to which subsequent
benefactions have been added! The almshouses at
Clapton were founded by Thomas Wood, Bishop of
Lichfield and Coventry, who endowed them for ten
aged widows, with a rent-charge of £50, and £5 per
annum to a chaplain to read prayers. There are also
various charitable bequests for distribution among the
poor, which, in consequence of the partitioning of the
parish, have been divided into three distinct portions,
by the direction of the commissioners. The Retreat,
for eight widows of Independent and four widows
of Baptist ministers, near Paradise fields is a handsome
range of buildings, comprising six dwelling-houses,
and a chapel in the centre, in the ancient style of
English architecture, erected at the sole expense of
Samuel Robinson, Esq., who allows each of the inmates
£ 10 per annum, and on his decease £3 per ann.
will be added to each allowance. Near St. Thomas square
are twelve almshouses, erected in 1828 by the Bakers'
Company, for decayed members and their wives, adjoining
which are eight additional tenements, recently erected
by - Thome, Esq., and appropriated to the same use.
The London Orphan Asylum at Clapton, founded in
1813, a spaciousand handsome brick building, ornamented
with columns and cornices of stone, was erected
by subscription, at an expense of nearly £30,000, and
comprises, in addition to a commodious chapel detached
from the main building (for the exclusive benefit of
the children and officers connected with the establishment,
and in which the service of the church is regularly
performed by the master of the school, who must
be a clergyman of the established church), a centre in
which are all the domestic offices, under the superintendence
of a matron; and two wings, in one of which are the
school-room and dormitories for the boys, under the inspection
of the master, and in the other similar arrangements
for the girls, under the care of the mistress: there
are upwards of three hundred children in this institution,
chiefly descended from respectable parents, who are maintained,
clothed, and educated in virtuous and religious
principles, and on their leaving the asylum, if not settled
by the board of management in some permanent situation,
are stimulated to good conduct by annual rewards progressively
increased according to the number of annual
meetings at which they have attend  with certificates
of character. The Metropolitan Female Asylum in Grovestreet
was established in 1829: it is intended to-restrain
poor females from deviating from the path of
virtue, by affording them a temporary abode, until suitable
situations can be provided for them, and to reclaim
the imprudent, with a view to their emigration to the
colonies. The affairs of the establishment are under
the superintendence of a committee of gentlemen, and
-the household concerns are managed by a committee pf
ladies. A physician, three surgeons, and a chaplain,
afford their services gratuitously. There are at present
sixty inmates; but it is contemplated to extend the
benefits of the institution as soon as the patronage of
the public shall enable the managers to carry into effect
an object so desirable. The Hackney Church of
England school is in union with the corporation
of King's College, London, for the purpose of providing
a course of education for youth, comprising
religious instruction in conformity with the principles
of the established church, classical learning, the modern
languages, mathematics, and such other branches of
knowledge as may be advantageously introduced. The
head and second master are always to be clergymen
of the established church, and graduates of one of the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or of Trinity
College, Dublin. The second master may take boarders,
with the consent of the committee of management, being
pupils belonging to the school. The institution is formed
by a proprietary of shareholders limited to one hundred
and fifty shares of £15 each, with a discretional power in
the committee to call for an additional £ 5. Each proĞ
prietor has the right to nominate one pupil for each share,
he may hold, and shall pay for each pupil, if under twelve
years of age, £10.10. per annum, and if twelve years
of age, or upwards, £12. 12. per annum, the same to be
in full of every charge for tuition, books, and stationery:
no child is to be admitted under seven years of age.
The building, situated in the Back-lane, Clapton, is
wholly of brick-work, in the Grecian style of architecture,
with a portico of four fluted Doric columns, which,
together with the entablatures and principal front, are
finished in Roman cement, to imitate stone; it contains
on the basement story a school-room and hat-rooms for
the students, committee and class-room, head master's
room, janitor's room, and apartments for the same. on
the upper story. The site, about an acre in extent, inr
eluding a play-ground and fives-court at the rear of the
building, is enclosed on three sides by a boundary wall,
and in front by an ornamental iron railing and two pair
of gates, through which the principal entrance is approached
by a carriage sweep of ample dimensions: the
school-room is warmed by a hot-water apparatus, upon
a new and improved principle; the expense of the
whole was about £1750. There is another institution,
designated by" the name of the Hackney Grammar
school, founded and supported by a proprietary
of shareholders, which admits pupils of every religious
denomination. The head master is a clergyman of the
church of England: he is not allowed to take boarders:
the number of shares are one hundred and twenty, at
£15 per share: the building, situated near the old
church-yard, is in the English style, and cost upwards
of £1300. The Society for educating young men for the
ministry, instituted in 1730, and entertaining the doctrines
expressed in the catechisms of the Westminster Assembly,
have a college at Homerton, for the instruction,
of twenty pious young men, who are not admissible
under seventeen nor above twenty-two years of age: the
course of studies includes the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
languages, with their application to classical and biblical
literature, English composition, the mathematics,
natural philosophy, the principles of chemistry, .natural
history, logic, and the philosophy of the mind, general
history, ecclesiastical antiquities, and scriptural divinity;
besides which a.professor of elocution delivers a course
of lectures on that subject every session. The. period
of. time allotted is six years: the first two.are occupied
solely in classical pursuits-; the remainder in classical,
theological, and philosophical studies. The present
building of brick, which is plain and neat, and very
commodious, was completed in 1823, on the site of a
former one, at an expense of nearly £ 1.0,000; defrayed
by subscription: it contains a good library of classical
and theological works, and of others in the general
branches of literature. Among the distinguished individuals
interred at Hackney may be mentioned Henry,;
Lord Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who died at his
house in this parish, June 29th, 1537, being the same
earl, who, according to the assertion of Henry VIII.,
was contracted to Anna Boleyn, and under which pretext
the sentence of divorce was pronounced between
that monarch and her -, Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford,
a statesman, poet, and dramatist, who flourished in the
reign of Elizabeth, and died in 1604; Dr. John Worth--
ington, an eminent divine; and Sir Francis D Oliveyra,
a Portuguese emigrant, who wrote against the inquisition,
and died in 1783. Sir Ralph Sadleir, a distinguished
statesman in the reigns of Henry-VIII., Ed-:
ward VI., and Elizabeth, was born here; and Howard,
the great philanthropist, is supposed to have been born
at Clapton, in this parish.