SOUTHWELL, a market-town and parish, in the
liberty of SOUTHWELL-and-SCROOBY, county of NOTTINGHAM,
14 miles (N. E.) from Nottingham, and 182
(N. N.W.) from London, containing 3051 inhabitants.
This place, which is of great antiquity, derived its name
from one of many large springs, or wells, that formerly
existed in the neighbourhood, few of which are
now remaining. It was distinguished, at a very early
period, by the foundation of one of the first Christian
churches in this part of the country, by Paulinus, who,
at the request of Ethelburga, wife of Edwin, King of
Northumberland, had been sent over to England by
Pope Gregory VII., to preach the doctrine of Christianity,
which she had herself embraced, and who, having
converted Edwin to the Christian faith, was made
Archbishop of York, in 627. The history of the town
relates chiefly to the progress of its religious establishment,
which flourished, under a succession of prelates, till
the Conquest, at which time the church had become collegiate,
had ample revenues, and contained ten prebends,
the number of which was subsequently increased to sixteen.
From the time of the Conquest till the period of the
Reformation, the revenue of the church continued to
increase, and the establishment to prosper, during the,
reigns of Henry I., Henry II., Henry III., Edward I.,
and other sovereigns, who contributed largely to its
endowment. Popes Alexander III. and Urban III. were
also beneficent patrons; every succeeding archbishop
was anxious to promote its independence, and the zeal,
and liberality of its own members were constantly devoted
to its improvement. Soon after the dissolution
of the monasteries by Henry VIII., the archbishop, and
the prebendaries of Southwell, surrendered the. church
into the possession of that monarch, by whom, at the,
request of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, the chapter
was refounded, in 1541, and Southwell subsequently
erected into a see, of which, in 1543, Dr. Cox, afterwards
translated to Ely, was appointed bishop. Edward
VI., soon after his accession to the throne, dissolved
the chapter, and granted the prebendal estates,
to John, Earl of Warwick, upon whose attainder, in
1553, they reverted to the crown, and were restored
by Queen Mary, who re-established the chapter upon its.
ancient foundation, and the prebendal establishmentv/
as finally confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, in 1585, and
a new code of laws instituted. During the parliamentary
war, Charles I. was frequently at this town,
and held his court generally at the archiepiscopal palace,
and occasionally at the King's Arms Inn, now the
Saracen's Head, at which latter place, on the 6th of May,
1646, he privately surrendered himself to the Scottish;
commissioners. The parliamentary troops, during thenstay
in the town, converted the church into a stable,
broke the monuments, defaced the ornaments, and demolished
the episcopal palace, in which Cardinal Wolsey
resided during the summer previous to his death; the
lands belonging to the see were sold for £4061. They
destroyed all the ancient records, except the Registrum
Album, or white book, which is still in the possession
of the chapter, and contains most of the grants to the.
church, from the year 1109 to 1525.
The town is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence
richly clothed with wood, and surrounded by an amphitheatre
of hills of various elevation, near the small river
Greet, which is celebrated for the red trout abounding in.
it, and comprises the districts of the Burgage, the High
Town, East Thorpe, and West Thorpe, together forming
a considerable, though scattered, town; it is well paved
and abundantly supplied with water; the bouses are in
general well built, and the town has a neat and prepossessing
appearance. Assemblies are held in a commodious
suite of rooms erected in 1806; a harmonic society,
established in 1786, is well supported, and a small
neat theatre was opened in 1816. A pleasant promenade
has been formed on the north side of the churchyard,
and planted with trees, called the Parade; the roads
in the vicinity have been recently improved. The air
is salubrious, and the environs afford some agreeable
walks. There is not much trade carried on, and the
only branch of manufacture is that of silk, for which a
mill has been recently erected on the river Greet by a
firm at Nottingham. The market is on Saturday; the
fairs are on Whit-Monday, which is a pleasure fair, and
October 21st, a statute fair. The town is under two
separate jurisdictions, called the Burgage and the
Prebendage: the former, denominated the Soke of
Southwell cum Scrooby, includes twenty townships, for
which quarterly courts of session are held by a Custos
Rotulorum, and justices of the peace, nominated by the
Archbishop of York and the Chapter of Southwell, and
appointed by a commission under the great seal, for
the trial of all but capital offenders. The prebendage
includes twenty-eight parishes, over which the chapter,
their vicar-general, exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
and all episcopal functions, except confirmation and
ordination; the subdivisions of the townare under the
superintendence of the constable, or bailiff, assisted by
two thirdboroughs for each district. The house of
correction for the county, a spacious and commodious
building, which, after having been several times enlarged,
was completed in 1829, comprises eleven wards,
thirty-four work and day rooms, eleven airing-yards, and
a tread-mill with four wheels, being well adapted to the
classification of prisoners, who are employed in framework
knitting, spinning yarn, shoe-making, &c., and
receive a portion of their earnings on their discharge;
the buildings consist of the governor's house, chapel,
infirmary, baths, and the requisite offices.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the peculiar
jurisdiction of the Chapter, and in the patronage of
the Prebendary of Normanton in the Collegiate Church,
rated in the king's books at £7. 13. 4., endowed with
£200 private benefaction, £600 royal bounty, and
£400 parliamentary grant. The church, dedicated to
St. Mary, (both parochial and collegiate), is a spacious
and magnificent cruciform structure, chiefly of Norman
architecture, with some portions in the early, decorated,
and later styles of English architecture, having a low
central tower, and two others of the same height at
the west end, of seven stages, richly ornamented,
between which is the principal entrance, through a fine
circular arch, with a large window above it, of the later
style, highly enriched with elegant tracery. The nave
and transepts are of Norman character j the former
has a flat roof of panelled oak finely carved> and supported
upon a range of low massive circular columns
and arches, and is lighted by a range of clerestory
windows of small dimensions, above a triforium of
large and undivided arches. The roof of the aisles is
finely groined in stone j the arches and piers supporting
the central tower are strikingly beautiful, from the simplicity
of their style, and the stateliness of their elevation;
the choir and the eastern transepts are beautiful
specimens of the early English style, perhaps unrivalled
for their purity of design, and fidelity of minute detail;
the former is lighted by two tiers of lancet-shaped
windows, and is fitted up as a parochial church, with
galleries; the stalls and the screen are in the later
period of the decorated style. There are few monuments
deserving notice, except that of Archbishop Sandys,
in the south transept, the principal having been
destroyed during the occupation of the church by the
parliamentarian troops. On the eastern side of the
north transept was formerly a chantry, or singing
school/ which has been converted into a library for the
college, containing a valuable and extensive collection
of works, chiefly on divinity. On the north side of the
church is the chapter-house, in the decorated style of
English architecture: the entrance doorway, which is
double, is elegantly enriched with foliage of a character
not very prevalent in England; the tracery in the windows,
and in the stalls under them, is very beautiful. The
prebendal houses, and especially that for the residentiary
prebendary, are handsome buildings. In the churchyard
are some remains of the ancient collegiate buildings
the establishment of which is still retained, consisting of
sixteen prebendaries, six vicars choral, an organist, six
singing men, six choristers, and six boys as probationers,
with a registrar, treasurer, auditor, and other officers;
two annual synods are held, at which all the Nottinghamshire
clergy attend, over whom a certain number of
the prebendaries are appointed by the archbishop to
preside. There are places of worship for Baptists and
Wesleyan Methodists.
The free grammar school, which occupies the site
of the college of the chantry priests, is under the superintendence
of the chapter of the collegiate church,
by which body the master is appointed, subject to the
approval of the Archbishop of York; it has two
scholarships founded in St. John's College, Cambridge,
by the Rev. Dr. John Keyton, Canon of Salisbury in the
reign, of Henry VIII., for boys who have been choristers
in the collegiate church: the school, which has a
small endowment, is open to all boys of the town for
gratuitous instruction in the classics. In 1744, Mr.
Thomas Bailsford bequeathed lands for teaching ten
poor children; Mr. Richard Stenton, in 1771, left £ 150
for building a school-room; and, in 1775, Mr. John Leverock
gave land for clothing and instructing children.
There are Sunday schools in connexion with the established
church and the dissenting congregations. Of the
ancient episcopal palace there are considerable remains,
consisting chiefly of the chapel and great hall, which are
almost entire, and have been fitted up as a modern
residence: in this portion, of the building is a room
lighted by the great west window of the hall, which is
appropriated to the holding of the sessions; the quadrangle,
once surrounded with offices, has been converted
into a garden. Vestiges of a Roman fosse are perceptible
on the Burgage hill. Of the springs which formerly
distinguished this vicinity, a,nd from one of which the
town derived its name, St. Catherine's well, at West
Thorpe, celebrated for the cure of rheumatism, and
South well, about half a mile to the south-east of the
town, are still open. The ruins of the palace, which
are overspread with ivy, form an interesting and romantic
ornament to the town: the northern portion
of the building is nearly entire, and has been fitted up
as a modern residence, and the extensive quadrangle
converted into a garden. Near them were, found, in
1780, a large ring of pure gold, on the inside of which
was inscribed Mien mouri que change mafoi, and, in 1828,
a large brass seal, with the device of a female kneeling,
and holding in her right hand a tilting spear bearing a
breast-plate, out of which rises a unicorn's head, and
in her left hand a shield, with the arms of Cavendish
and Kemp quartered, and on a scroll encircling
the device the legend Gorge Rygmayden, in Saxon
characters; this seal is preserved in the museum at
York.