HENDON, a parish in the hundred of GORE,
county of MIDDLESEX, 7 miles (N.W.) from London,
containing 3100 inhabitants. This place was in the
tenth century given by Dunstan, Archbishop of Can-
terbury, to Westminster abbey, the abbots having had
a palace here, the remains of which have been converted
into a private mansion. The village is pleasantly situated
on an eminence, in a small vale watered by the river
Brent, over which is an ancient bridge of stone; the
houses are irregularly built: in the neighbourhood are
many handsome villas, and the environs are pleasant,
abounding with rural walks and agreeable scenery. A
court leet for the manor is held on the -Tuesday before
Whitsuntide, and a court baron occasionally. Hendon
is within the jurisdiction of a court of requests for
the recovery of debts under 40s., held during the summer
half-year at Brentford, and during the winter at Uxbridge.
The living is a vicarage, in the jurisdiction of the Commissary
of London, concurrently with the Consistorial Court
of the Bishop, rated in the king's books at £15. The
Rev. C. L. Edridge was patron in 1812. The church,
dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious structure in the decorated
style of English architecture, with some small
remains in the Norman style, and a square embattled
tower; the nave is separated from the aisles by octangular
pillars and sharply-pointed arches; the altarpiece
is finely sculptured, and the east window is embellished
with a well-executed painting of the last
Supper, and other sxibjects; the interior contains several
ancient monuments and a Norman font. A new church
is now being erected on Mill Hill, in the later style of
English architecture, at the expense of William Wilberforce,
Esq. There are places of worship for Independents
and Wesleyan Methodists. A school-room for
boys was erected by John Bennet, Esq., on a piece of
land given by Mr. David Garrick, the celebrated actor,
then lord of the manor; there are fifty-three boys in
this school, which is conducted on the National planj
and supported by subscription. A National school is
also supported by subscription, in which fifty-one girls
are instructed, forty-one of them being also clothed.
John Cross, Esq. bequeathed £250 Bank annuities,
for clothing four boys and four girls. Robert Daniels,
Esq., of London, in 1681, bequeathed £2000 for the
erection and endowment of an almshouse for six
aged men and four aged women; with this sum, which
had been left in the hands of his executors to accumulate
for ten years, one hundred and thirty-two
acres of land have been purchased; six almshouses were
also erected in 1696, by Thomas Nichol, who endowed
them for aged persons, each receiving four shillings per
week. At Mill Hill is the Protestant Dissenters grammar
school: it was founded in 180?, and is under the
direction of a chaplain, a head master, two assistant
classical masters, and masters in the various departments
of a liberal education, superintended by a com
mittee; the buildings were erected on the site of the residence
of Peter Collinson, Esq., an eminent naturalist, and
completed at an expense of £25,000. On Highwood hill is
a mansion in which the celebrated Lord William Russel
resided previously to his arrest, now inhabited by Lady
Raffles; and near it is a mineral spring impregnated
with cathartic salt. Hendon Place, the seat of Lord
Tcnterden, was a banqueting-house belonging to Queen
Elizabeth. At a place called the Hyde, in this parish,
a gold coin of one of the Caesars was found a few years
since. William Rawlinson, Esq., one of the masters in
Chancery, and keeper of the seals; Dr. Edward Fowler,
Bishop of. Gloucester; Charles Johnson, a dramatic author;
Dr. James Parsons, anatomist and antiquary.}
Sir Joseph AylofFe, Vice-President of the Antiquarian So-
ciety; and other eminent persons, have been interred here.