PADDINGTON, a parish in the Holborn division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, a suburb of the metropolis, containing 6476 inhabitants. The manor was given by King Edgar to the abbey of Westminster, and at the dissolution it was appropriated to the endowment of the then newlyfounded bishoprick of Westminster, since the abolition of which, in the reign of Edward VI., it has belonged to the see of London. The hamlet consists principally of several modern streets and handsome detached houses; it is partially paved, and lighted with gas, under a local act; and the inhabitants are supplied with water from the West Middlesex water-works; the reservoir, originally constructed for the supply of Kensington palace, and now belonging to the Grand Junction water-works, is situated in this parish. It is within the jurisdiction of the magistrates acting for the metropolis, and under the superintendence of the New Police, established under Sir Robert Peel's act: debts under 40s. are recoverable at the county court held in Kingsgatestreet, Holborn. A customary market is held on Friday, for poultry, butter, eggs, &c. The living is a perpetual curacy, or donative, in the jurisdiction of the Commissary of London, concurrently with the Consistonal Court of the Bishop, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church, which is dedicated to St. James, and was anciently a chapel of ease to St. Margaret's Westminster, was originally founded by Sir Joseph Sheldon, lessee of the manor, about the year 1700. The present edifice was begun in 1788, and consecrated April 27th, 1791; it stands on a piece of ground adjoining the old churchyard, and is a neat building, with a Doric portico on the south side, and a handsome cupola. In the church and adjacent cemetery lie the remains of John Bushnell, an eminent statuary, who died in 1701; Sir John Elliot, M.D., a popular writer, who became deranged in consequence of a disappointed attachment to a lady, whose life he attempted, by shooting at her in the public street, and shortly after destroyed himself, while in confinement, in 1787; Dr. Alexander Geddes, a very learned but eccentric Roman Catholic divine, interred in 1802; Thomas Banks, an ingenious sculptor; Lewis Schiavonetti, engraver; and John Henry Petty, late Marquis of Lansdowne. A handsome chapel of ease is now being erected, partly by means of a grant from the parliamentary commissioners, and partly by subscription. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesley an Methodists. The Paddington canal, which communicates with all the principal canals in the kingdom, and on the banks of which are extensive wharfs and warehouses, was constructed in consequence of an act of parliament passed in 1795: it is joined by the Regent's canal, which unites it with the Thames at Limehouse. A National school, in which upwards of three hundred children are instructed, and fifty of them clothed, is supported by voluntary contributions; the school premises were built by subscriptio'n in 1822. There are some unendowed almshouses, built by Peps Cockerill, Esq., and others by the inhabitants, for the use of the aged poor, for whose relief funds amounting to about £250 per annum, arising from lands and tenements assigned for that purpose, are appropriated.