STORTFORD (BISHOP), a market-town and parish
(formerly a borough) in the hundred of BRAUGHIN,
county of HERTFORD, 14 miles (E. N. E.) from Hertford,
and 30 (N. N. E.) from London, containing, according
to the last census, 3358 inhabitants; now about
4500. This place derives its name from its situation on
each side of a ford on the river Stort, now crossed by
two bridges.) and its prefix from having been bestowed by
William, soon after the Conquest, upon Maurice, Bishop
of London, and his successors. In the reign of Stephen,
the Empress Matilda negotiated to obtain, by exchange,
from the Bishop of London, the castle erected
here by William the Conqueror, and not succeeding,
threatened its demolition; it, however, remained till the
eighth year of King John's reign, who, exasperated at
the bishop's promulgation of the pope's menace of laying
the kingdom under an edict, razed it to the ground,
seized the town into his own hands, incorporated the
inhabitants, and granted them the elective franchise,
which they continued to exercise only from the fourth
of Edward II. till the reign of Edward III, when their
privileges ceased. In the reign of Mary, this town became
the scene of religious persecution, and Bishop
Bonner made use of a prison formerly attached to the
castle, for the confinement of convicted Protestants, of
whom one was burnt on Goose Green adjoining. The
town is situated on two gentle acclivities, that on the
east being called Hockerhill, in a fertile valley on the
banks of the river Stort, and consists principally of
four streets, in the form of a cross, of which Wmdhill is
the western, and Hockerill the eastern, extremity. The
inhabitants are well supplied with water from springs.
There are a public library, instituted in 1827, and
several book societies. The trade consists chiefly in malt
and other grain, of which considerable quantities are
sent by the river, which is navigable, and a canal, on the
banks of which are commodioxis wharfs and quays; a
silk-mill affords employment to many of the, inhabitants.
The market, for which a very handsome and
spacious market-house, or corn-exchange, was erected
in 1828, is on Thursday: this building is of the Ionic
order, and the area of a semicircular form, with a
colonnade supported by iron pillars: the other parts
contain an assembly and coffee rooms, and magistrates'
chamber, on the first floor, and underneath a spacious
hall where the corn-exchange is kept: at the southern
extremity are the fish, flesh, poultry, and vegetable
markets. It was constructed by means of £ 100 shares,
which promise amply to repay the subscribers. Fairs
are held annually on Holy Thursday, the Thursday after
Trinity-Sunday, and on the llth of October, for horses
and cattle. Bishop-Stortford is within the jurisdiction
of the county magistrates, who hold a petty session every
fortnight, in a room at the corn-exchange, where the
public business of the town is transacted.
The living is a vicarage, in the jurisdiction of the
Commissary of Essex and Herts, concurrently with the
Consistorial Court of the Bishop of London, rated in
the king's books at £ 12, and in the patronage of the
Precentor of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. The church,
dedicated to St. Michael, is an elegant and spacious
structure, standing at the south-west angle of the town,
with a fine tower surmounted by a lofty spire; it was
built in the reign of Henry VI., and partly rebuilt in
1820, and contains many ancient and curious monuments,
among which is that of Chas. Denny, grandson to
Sir AnthonyDenny, Knt., Privy Counsellor to Henry VIII.
There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of
Friends, Independents, and Methodists, with which are
connected Sunday schools, affording instruction to several
hundred children. -The free grammar school, in Highstreet,
facing the church, was founded and endowed, in
1579., by Mrs. Margaret Dean, of London; an excellent
library was presented to it by Thomas Leigh, Esq., and
increased by the Rev. Thomas Leigh, vicar, and other benefactors,
of which some part still remains preserved in
the tower of the church: this school, in which Sir Henry
Chauncey, a native of this town, and author of the History
and Antiquities of Hertfordshire, was educated, has
declined, nothing remaining of its former celebrity but
the libraries of Leigh, the founder, and Tooke, the reviver
of it on its former failure, together with the
books presented by the boys on their leaving school.
The National school, established in 1818, in which two
hundred boys and one hundred girls are instructed,
is supported by voluntary subscription. There are
five newly-erected almshouses for poor people, which
have been established with the proceeds of the sale of
two almshouses in Potter-street, endowed by Mr. R.
Pilston, in 1572; and several estates, producing about
£200 per annum, are intended for the apprenticing of
poor children, the relief of the poor, and the repair of
the church; to which latter purpose about £60 per annum,
arising from the revenue of a dissolved chantry,
and some ancient guilds, formerly established here, is
applied. There are some small remains of the castle, in
the garden of which Roman coins have been found, and
among them one of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; and
near the castle an ancient well, dedicated to St. Osyth,
the water of which is esteemed beneficial in diseases of
the eye. Bishop-Stortford was the birthplace of Hoole,
the translator of Tasso.