NEWENT, a parish in the hundred of BOTLOE,
county of GLOUCESTER, comprising the liberty of Newent, and
market-town of Newent, and the tythings of Boulsdon
with Killcot, Compton, Cugley, and Malswick, and containing
2660 inhabitants, of which number, 1287 are in
the town of Newent, 8 miles (N, W.) from Gloucester,
and 112 (W. N. W.) from London. The name of .this place
is supposed to have been derived from a new inn erected
for the accommodation of travellers, on the site of a dilapidated
mansion, now called the Boothall. A Benedictine
priory, a cell to the abbey of Cormeile in Normandy,
was founded here soon after the Conquest; and
on the suppression of Alien priories it was given to the
college of Fotheringhay. The town, which is situated
westward of the river Severn, in the Forest of Dean, is
small and irregularly built, and owes its present importance
to some springs near it, which possess the same
qualities as the Cheltenham water. Some coal mines
were opened in the parish, but the working, of them
has been discontinued: the Hereford and Gloucester
canal passes through the parish, and communicates by
a short branch with the town. The market is on
Friday; and fairs are held on the Wednesday before
Easter, the Wednesday before Whitsuntide, and August
12th, and a statute fair on the igth of September. The
town, which was formerly more extensive than it is at
present, was governed by a bailiff, whose office became"
obsolete about the end of the seventeenth century.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at
£23, and in the patronage of the Rev. William Andre.w
-Foley. The church, which is dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, is a spacious fabric, the work of different periods;
:over the porch is a tower with a lofty spire, built in 1679,
as was also the roof of the nave, which is supported
without pillars. There are two places of worship for
Dissenters. Here are two free schools, and' an unendowed
almshouse for twenty poor persons of either
sex; and other purposes.