HAMPSTEAD, a parish in the Holborn division of
the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX,
4 miles (N. by W.) from London, containing 7263 inhabitants.
This place was granted by King Ethelred to
the monks of St. Peter at Westminster, and the grant
having been confirmed by William the Conquerorj it
continued in their possession till the dissolution of the
convent in the reign of Henry VIII. The ancient Grange
house, of which scarcely a memorial remains, was the
residence of the monastic superintendent of the manor,
and the prior resided at Belsize house, which was
subsequently converted into a place of public entertainment.
Hampstead was anciently an inconsiderable
hamlet in the parish of Hendon, from which it
was separated, and made a distinct parish, in the
year 1598, when its churchwardens for the first time
attended the bishop's annual visitation. The election
for the county members took place on the heath in 1681,
and continued to be held till 1701, when it was removed
to Brentford. Its pleasant situation, the salubrity of
the air, and its proximity to the metropolis, had made
it the residence of some of the more wealthy citizens,
and from the discovery of its chalybeate springs and
mineral waters; in the early part of the eighteenth century,
it became the resort of numerous invalids, for whose
accommodation and amusement a pump-room, tavern,
and coffee and assembly-rooms, were successively erected.
The water of the chalybeate spring contains -bxyde
of iron, muriates of soda and magnesia, sulphate of lime,
and a small portion of silex, and its mean temperature
at the wells is from 46 to 47° of Fahrenheit. Other
saline springs were "afterwards .discovered at the southeastern
extremity of the heath, near Pond-street, in
their properties generally resembling the Cheltenham
and Harrogate waters: the water continued for some
time to be sent in flasks from the wells by accredited
agents of the principal houses, called the Upper and
Lower Flask Houses.
Hampstead is at present more regarded as a healthy
and pleasant place of residence than on account of
its waters, which have within the last few years fallen
almost into disuse. The village is situated on the
southern acclivity of a hillj on the summit of which is
an extensive heath, commanding, at different elevations,
"varied and beautiful views of the metropolis and the
adjacent country, abounding in picturesque scenery, and
agreeably diversified with richly-wooded hills, extensive
meadows, and sequestered vales, interspersed with
elegant villas, splendid mansions, and rural cottages.
The heath is divided into the Upper and Lower Heath,
the Vale of Health, and other subdivisions, possessing
a temperature of climate proportioned to their se-
veral elevations, or to their different degrees of shelter
from the colder winds, and consequently adapted to the
various constitutions of the permanent residents, or of
the invalids who occasionally reside there for the recovery
of their health. Numerous respectable lodginghouses
have been erected for the accommodation of the
latter; and to afford them opportunities of exercise and
excursion through the pleasing environs of this beautiful
spot, pony carriages and donkeys are in constant
attendance. A telegraph has been erected on the Upper
Heath, forming the first in the line of communication
between Chelsea Hospital and Yarmouth. The approach
from the metropolis is by an excellent road, from many
points of which the view of Hampstead and Higbgate is
strikingly beautiful; and on ascending the hill which
leads into the village, handsome ranges of modern
buildings, detached mansions, and elegant villas, rise in
continued succession. The village is lighted with oil,
and supplied with water from a large reservoir in Shepherd's
fields, and from pumps attached to the houses;
the Hampstead Water Company have a reservoir on the
heath, which supplies the inhabitants of Kentish Town,
Camden Town, and Tottenham-Court road. Petty
sessions are held here occasionally, and courts leet and
baron on the Monday before Whitsuntide; a general
court baron and customary court are also held annually
within a month or six weeks after Christmas: the
parish is within the jurisdiction of a court of requests
held at Kingsgate-street, Holborn, for the recovery of
debts undet 40s., and is also within the limits of the
new police establishment.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
of Middlesex, and diocese of London, and in the patronage
of Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, Bart. The church,
dedicated to St. John, a neat brick edifice, was erected in
1747, on the site of the ancient church, which was taken
down; the steeple is at the east end, and among the
monuments is one to the memory of Lady Erskine, beautifully
executed by Bacon the younger. In 1771, William
Pierce bequeathed £ 1700 three per cent, consols., directing
the dividends to be applied in paying stipends of
£24 per annum to the curate of Hampstead, and £5 per
annum to the clerk, for performing divine service every
Friday, £10 per annum to the Independent minister,
and for other purposes. Hampstead chapel, in Well
Walk, originally the pump-room of the Wells tavern,
and St. John's chapel on Downshire Hill, erected in
1823, a plain neat building, are proprietary episcopal
chapels. There are places of worship for Baptists,
Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians, and a Roman
Catholic chapel. National schools for children of both
sexes are supported by subscription, and for apprenticing
them there is a fund of £2100 three per cent,
consols., arising from a bequest of £ 1000 by John Stock,
Esq., in 17SO, and subsequent benefactions. Dowager
Viscountess Campden, in 1643, bequeathed £200 to be
invested in land, a moiety of which was appropriated to
the poor, and the remainder for apprenticing one poor
child, with which sum, together with £40 given by an unknown
benefactress, lands in the parish of Hendon were
purchased, producing at present £83. 11. per annum.
The Hon. Susannah Noel, in 1698, gave six acres of the
heath land, directing the produce to be applied to placing
out poor children of this parish, and other charitable uses:
on this land the chapel and several houses inWellWalk
have been built: the present revenue arising from the
estate, which is under the management of fourteen trustees,
is £95, and on the expiration of the leases the rents
will probably be greatly increased. There are also several
other charitable bequests for the relief of the poor.
In that part of Kilburn which is in this parish was
a convent of Benedictine nuns, the revenue of which,
at the dissolution, was £121. 16: near the site of
thjs convent is a place of public entertainment, called
Kilburn Wells, where is an aperient saline .spring, still
resorted to. In 1774 sepulchral urns, vases, earthen
lamps, and other Roman antiquities were dug up in Well
Walk. On the left hand of the entrance into Hampstead
from London is the mansion of Sir Henry Vane,
one of the judges of Charles I., where, after the Restoration
of Charles II., he was arrested, and shortly after
tried and executed. Here also resided Dr. Joseph
Butler, Bishop of Durham, author of the "Analogy of
Religion, natural and revealed, to the constitution and
course of Nature." On Haverstock Hill, a mile nearer
London, is the cottage in which Sir Charles Sedley resided
afterwards occupied by Sir Richard Steele. At a hous
formerly a place of public entertainment, called the
Upper Flask, noticed by Richardson in his Clarissa
George Stevens, the celebrated commentator on Shak«
speare, lived and died; prior to which it was the place
of meeting of the Kit Cat Club. Among many distinguished
persons who were interred at Hampstead were
Dr. Anthony Askew, a learned critic and physician;
James Mc Ardell, an engraver in mezzotinto; John Harrison,,
who obtained a premium from parliament for his
improvements on the chronometer; Archdecon Travis
James Pettit Andrews, author of a history of Great Britain;
and John Carter, an eminent antiquary.