HITCHIN, a market-town and parish, in the hundred
of HITCHIN-AND-PIRTON, county of HERTFORD, 15
miles (N.W.) from Hertford, and 34 (N.N.W.) from
London, containing, with the hamlets of Missenden,
Preston, and Temple-Dinsley, 4486 inhabitants. This
place, which, during the Saxon Heptarchy, formed
part of the royal demesne of the King of Mercia, was
given by Edward the Confessor to Harold, after whose
death, at the battle of Hastings, it was retained by William
the Conqueror, and is noticed in Domesday-book
under the name of Hiz, a probable modification of its
Saxon name, Hicce, or Hitche, from which its present appellation
is deduced. It was granted by William Rufus
to Bernard de Balliol, on the accession of whose descendant,
John Balliol, to the throne of Scotland, it reverted
to the crown of England, and was given by Edward III.
to his fifth son, Edmund de Langley. The town is situated
on a level spot of land environed on every side
except the north by rising grounds, and intersected by
the small river Hiz, which has its source at the distance
of about a mile to the south-west: the streets, with the
exception of that which forms the principal thoroughfare
to Bedford, are spacious, and partially paved and
lighted by subscription; the houses are in general neatly
built of brick, but occasionally interspersed with some of
less respectable appearance, and the inhabitants are amply
supplied with water. The environs are pleasant, a considerable
portion of the adjacent grounds being culti
vated by market-gardeners, who supply the neighbouring
towns with fruit and vegetables. A public subscription
library, with a museum in which is a good collection of
antiquities and natural curiosities, has been established:
there are also several book societies"; and assemblies
take place periodically during the winter, in a suite of
rooms at the Sun Inn. Hitchin was celebrated at a very
early period for its manufacture of woollen goods, and
many of the merchants of Calais resided in the town
prior to the removal of that branch of business from
the towns on the continent. The trade at present
is principally in corn and malt, for the latter of which
it had obtained a high reputation in the reign of Elizabeth,
who used to boast of " the juice of the Hitchin
grape." The soil in the vicinity is favourable to the
growth of barley and other grain, of which great quanties
are sold at the market. The manufacture of strawplat
aifords employment to a considerable portion of
the female inhabitants: a silk-mill, in which about
three hundred persons are engaged, has been recently
established, and there are some extensive breweries
in the town and neighbourhood. The market, which
is toll free, is held on Tuesday, and is well supplied
with corn; the fairs are on the Tuesdays in Easter
and Whitsun-weeks, which are pleasure fairs. The
town is divided into Bancroft, Tilehouse, and Bridge
wards, for each of which two constables and two headboroughs
are appointed at the court leet of the lord
of the manor, held at Michaelmas. The county magistrates
hold here a petty session every Tuesday. The
bridewell, situated at the extremity of Bancroft-street,
is a small brick building, comprising two wards for the
classification only of prisoners committed for misdemeanours;
the average number of committals is about
eighty annually.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon,
and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's
books at £25. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Master
and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church,
originally dedicated to St. Andrew, was, on being rebuilt
prior to the reign of Henry VIII., dedicated to the Virgin
Mary; it is a spacious structure, principally in the
later style of English architecture, with a low massive
embattled tower, surmounted by a small spire, and having
a turret at one of the angles; the south porch is a
beautifully enriched specimen of that style; and over
the entrance is a room which is used as a register office
for that part of the archdeaconry of Huntingdon which
is in the county of Herts. The interior of the church
is very richly ornamented, and on each side of the chancel
is a large chapel, separated from it by a handsome
screen of carved oak; over the altar is a fine painting
of the Offering of the Wise Men of the East, by Rubens;
there are numerous interesting monuments, and a font
of singular beauty, with carvings of the twelve Apostles:
underneath the eastern part of the chancel is a crypt,
communicating by a staircase with the chapel on the
north side, which was used by Cromwell as a prison for
the royalists. There are places of worship for Baptists,
the Society of Friends, those in the late Countess of Huntingdon's
connexion, and Independents. The free school
was principally founded by John Mattocke, Esq., of
Coventry, who, in 1639, endowed it with land in Hitchin
for the maintenance of a master; its present endowment,
arising from that and subsequent benefactions, consists
of nearly fifty-seven acres of land in this and other parishes,
a rent-charge of £ 5, and the school-house, which
is a commodious building at the west end of Tylehouse-
street: this school has a contingent right to an
exhibition to Christ Church College, Oxford, on failure
of a candidate from the school at Buntingford. A school
for the clothing and instruction of girls is supported
partly by the dividends on nearly £ 1000, the amount of
several benefactions vested in the funds, and by subscription.
There are also British and foreign schools, in
which two hundred boys and one hundred girls are instructed;
and an infant school is supported by subscription.
Almshouses for eight poor persons were founded
and endowed by Mr. Skinner, in 1668: there are also
almshouses for six poor persons, and others for eighteen
women, in a house called the Biggin, said to have been
formerly a religious establishment. Various benefactions
have also been made for apprenticing poor boys and for
other charitable purposes. Near the church was a small
priory of Gilbertine nuns, the revenue of which, at the
dissolution, was £ 15. 1. 11.; it was subsequently devised
to the free school by the Rev. Joseph Kemp, A.M.: there
are still some remains, which have been converted into
dwelling-houses. Towards the western extremity of the
town was a house of Carmelite friars, founded by Edward
II., and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, the revenue
of which, at the dissolution, was £4. 9. 4.: the cloisters
and a small part of the buildings are still existing, and
a handsome mansion, called the Priory, has been erected
on the site. There was formerly a chapel at Missenden,
now nearly demolished, and another at Temple-Dinsley,
in this parish, the latter belonging to a preceptory of the
Knights Templars, of which there are no vestiges. At
Wildberry hill, over which passes the Iknield-street,
within a mile of the town, was a Roman exploratory
camp, occupying an area of seven acres and a half, and
surrounded by a vallum, in which a fine silver coin
of Faustina, Consort of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
was discovered a few years since. Dr. Mark Hildesley,
Bishop of Sodor and Man, was formerly vicar of this
parish, and a great benefactor to the town.