OAKHAM, or OAKHAM-LORDSHOLD, a parish
and market-town, in the soke of OAKHAM, county
of RUTLAND, of which it is the' chief town, 95 miles
(N. N. W.) from London, containing, with Oakham-
Deanshold, which includes the chapelry of Barleythorpe,
2160 inhabitants. This place is situated in
the luxuriant vale of Catmose, so called from the woods
with which it abounded (Coet-maes signifying, in the
British language, a woody plain), and is supposed to
have derived its name from the oaks which formerly
grew in the vicinity. A castle, of which there are still
some remains, was erected here soon after the Norman
Conquest, by Walkelin de Ferrars, in relation to which
a singular custom still prevails; but whether originating
,with the family of Ferrars, whose arms are three horseshoes,
or of later origin, has not been distinctly ascertained.
Every peer of the realm, on first passing
through the town, is compelled to give a shoe from the
foot of one of his horses, which, upon his refusal, the
bailiff of the lordship may take by force, or, in commutation,
a sum of money for the purchase of a horseshoe,
to be nailed upon the castle gate, or placed in
some part of the building. Among many of different
sizes, in proportion to the sum paid for the purchase,
and of which some are gilt and stamped with the
donor's name, with which various parts of the castle
are decorated, are those of Queen Elizabeth, the late
Duke of York, and the late king, George IV., when
Prince Regent. Richard'II. having advanced Edward,
son of the Duke of York, to the earldom of Rutland,
assigned to him the castle, which, in the reign of
Henry VIII., was the baronial seat of Thomas, Lord
Cromwell. Of the ancient  building the hall only is
remaining, in which the assizes are held, and the public
business of the town and county is transacted 5 the
other parts are in ruins. The houses are neatly built,
and the inhabitants are amply supplied with water.
The town formerly enjoyed the staple of wool, and many
French merchants settled in it, of whose descendants
several may still be traced among the present inhabitants.
A silk-manufactory was established here about
three years since, chiefly for weaving silk shag for
covering hats j but the town is hot at present distinguished
for trade, though it possesses the advantage of a
canal to Melton-Mowbray in Leicestershire, by which coal
is brought from Derbyshire, and corn sent to Manchester
and Liverpool. The; market, which is well supplied
with corn, is on Saturday; the fairs are on March 15th,
May 6th, September 9th, under the original charters,
and on February 4th, April 9th, June 2nd, July 16th,
August 13th, October 15th, November 19th, and December
15th, which have been established within the last
thirty years, and are principally for the sale of cattle.
The town is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates;
and courts leet are held annually by the lord of
the manor of Lordshold, and triennially by the Dean of
Westminster, who is lord of the manor of Deanshold, for
the election of parochial and other, officers. The assizes
and quarter sessions for the county, and the election of
knights of the shire, take place in this town. The
common- gaol and house of correction for the county is
a commodious edifice, containing seven wards, seven
work-rooms, and the same- number of day-rooms and
airing-yards, for the classification of prisoners.
The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacies
of Brooke and Langham, in the archdeaconry of
Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough, rated in
the king's books at £28. 3. If., and in the patronage
of George Finch, Esq. The church, dedicated
to All Saints, is a spacious structure, chiefly in the
later style of English architecture, with a fine tower,
surmounted by a lofty spire. There are places of worship
for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents,
andWesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school
was founded, about 1584, by the Rev. Robert Johnson,
Archdeacon of Leicester, who also founded a similar
school at Uppingham; these schools, to each of which
an hospital for the relief and support of poor persons
is annexed, were incorporated by Queen Elizabeth,
who endowed them with certain alienated ecclesiastical
property, producing an income of more than £3000 per
annum, and placed them under the control of twentyfour
governors, including the Bishops of London and
Peterborough, the Deans of Westminster and Peterborough,
the Archdeacon of Northampton, and the
Masters of Trinity and St. John's Colleges, in Cambridge;
these schools, the masters of which receive a
salary of £150, and the ushers one of £120 each, are
open gratuitously to all boys of the towns of Oakham
and Uppingham, whose parents cannot afford to pay,
and, upon moderate terms regulated by the governors, to
others of those towns. There are belonging to them
twenty exhibitions, of £40 per annum each, tenable for
seven years, to any of the colleges of Oxford or Cam-
bridge; four scholarships of £24 per annum each, in
Emanuel College; four of £20 per annum each, in
Sidney Sussex College; four of £ 13 per annum each,
in Clare Hall j and four in St. John's College, Cambridge,
founded by Archdeacon Johnson, in the gift of the master
and senior fellows, with preference to boys from Oakham
and Uppingham schools; and two exhibitions, of £40 per
annum each, founded by W. Lovett, for the sons of graduated
clergymen, who havebeen for three years in the schools
of Oakham or Grantham. In the hospitals annexed to
them were originally twenty-eight aged men, the number
of whom has been augmented to one hundred, who
receive each £10 per annum at their own dwellings,
the buildings of the hospitals being occupied by the
schoolmasters for the accommodation of boarders. The
hospital of St. John and St. Anne, originally founded
about the 22nd of Richard II., by Walter Dalby, for
two chaplains and twelve aged men, and of which at the
dissolution the revenue was £12.12. 11., was refounded
in the reign of Elizabeth, by Archdeacon Johnson, who
enlarged the endowment:" there are at present twenty
aged men on this foundation, who receive each £6 per
annum at their own dwellings, the buildings of the
hospital, with the exception of a house for the warden,
who has a salary of £ 15 per annum, and in which the
sub-warden, whose salary is £ 10 per annum, at present
resides, a chapel, and four separate tenements under one
roof, having fallen to decay. A National school, established
in 1816, is supported by subscription. There are
also several charitable bequests for distribution among
the poor. Geoffrey Hudson, a dwarf only three feet
nine inches in height, was a native of Oakham; he was
of mean parentage, but became page to Henrietta Maria,
consort of Charles I., and during the civil war he was
a captain of cavalry in the king's service; after which
he went to France with his mistress, and there fought a
duel and killed his antagonist; in the reign of Charles
II., he suffered imprisonment as a Roman Catholic, on
account of the pretended Popish plot; and being discharged;
died in poverty about 1682.