HANWELL, a parish in the hundred of ELTHORNE,
county of MIDDLESEX, 8 miles (W.) from London, containing
977  inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in
the archdeaconry of Middlesex, and diocese of London,
rated in the king's books at £20, and in the patronage
of the Bishop of London. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, is a small brick edifice, rebuilt in 1781, at
an expense of about £1675, principally raised by subscription.
There is a place of worship for Independents.
The river Brent runs through the parish, and the Grand
Junction canal bounds it on the west. William Hobbayne,
in 1484, gave for charitable uses lands then
valued at £6 a year, now producing upwards of £105,
of which sum £35 per annum is applied to the support
of a charity school. A lunatic asylum for the county
of Middlesex is now being erected here. Dr. George
Henry Glasse, rector of Hanwell, who died in 1809, was
an eminent classical scholar, and distinguished himself
by writing Greek poetry, and by his Greek translation
of Milton's Sampson Agonistes. James Hanway, a
noted traveller and philanthropist, who died in 1786,
was buried at Hanwell.