ULVERSTONE, a parish in the hundred of LONSDALE,
north of the sands, county palatine of LANCASTER,
comprising the market-town of Ulverstone, the
chapelries of Blawith, Church-Conistone, Egton cum
Torver, Lowick, and Satterthwaite, the townships of
Newland and Osmotherley, and the extra-parochial district
of Mansriggs, and containing 7102 inhabitants, of
which number, 4315 are in the town of Ulverstone, 22
miles (N. W.) from Lancaster, and 271 (N.W. by N.)
from London. This place derives its name (written in
old records Olvestonam) from Ulpha, a Saxon lord 5 and
was conferred, in 1127, on the abbey of THtrness, by
Stephen, afterwards King of England: it was afterwards
granted to Gilbert, who had succeeded to the barony of
Kendal, and who released the inhabitants from their
state of feudalism, granting them a charter, which was
augmented and confirmed by his  successors. Subsequently
it reverted to the crown; and being,- in 1609,
divided into moieties, it was eventually purchased, in
1736, by the Duke of Montague, for £490, and is at
present vested in the Duke of Buccleuch. A charter
was granted, by Edward I., for a market and an annual
fair j but it continued to be merely nominal until the
dissolution of the abbey of Furness, near Dalton, the
capital of that district, from which event the prosperity
of Ulverstone may be dated. The town is situated near
the asstuary of the rivers Crake and Leven, and consists
principally of four spacious streets; the houses are
chiefly of stone. The inhabitants enjoy the advantages
of a news-room and two subscription libraries; one of
which is general, founded, in 1797, under the auspices of
Thomas Sunderland, Esq., and contains three thousand
volumes; the other clerical, instituted by the associates
of Dr. Bray, and greatly augmented by the donations
and exertions of the Rev. Dr. Stonard, the learned
commentator on the Prophecies, and by the contributions
of other members. The theatre and public rooms,
erected by subscription in 1796, were considerably improved
in 1828, and, during the hunt week in. November1,
are genteelly attended. The peninsular situation
of the town led to the appointment of mounted guides
to direct travellers across the sands, who are paid by
government, and directed to be there from sunrise to
sunset, when the channel is fordable; but this arrangement
has been partially superseded by the construction
of a new road from Carnforth to Ulverstone, under an
act of parliament.
The prevailing branches of manufacture are those'
of cotton, linen, check, canvas for sails, sacking, candlewicks,
hats, axes, adzes, spades, hoes, and sickles.
The chief articles of export, in addition to some of the
above, are, iron-ore, of which twenty thousand tons
were shipped in 1828; copper-ore; pig and bar iron,
of the finest quality; the best blue and green slates,
about ten thousand tons annually; and limestone,
wool, grain, malt, butter, gunpowder, pyrolignous acid,
leather, hoops, basket-rods, brush-sticks, baskets called
swills, brooms, crate and wheel spoke wood, laths,
and oak and larch poles; these are principally sent
coastwise, the intercourse with foreign countries being
limited. There is a yard for ship-building, and the
aggregate registry of ships belonging to the place is
nearly three thousand tons: two or three vessels are
employed in the American timber trade; and from other
ports a few belonging to this town are engaged in the
West India trade. Ulverstone is a creek within the
limits of the port of Lancaster, and, owing to this circumstance,
it has, with the liberty of Furness, lately been
released from the heavy duty on coal carried coastwise.
In 1793, an act of parliament was obtained for making
a canal, by means of which, ships of four hundred
tons' burden are safely moored in a capacious basin
with extensive wharfs, and discharge their cargoes close
to the town. The tonnage of vessels that entered inwards,
for the year ending January 1829, was twenty
thousand three hundred and eighty-six; and the tonnage
of those cleared outwards, thirty-seven thousand four
hundred and thirty-one. The market, granted to Roger
de Lancaster, in the 8th of Edward I., is on Thursday:
fairs are held on the Tuesday before Easter-Sunday,
April 29th, Holy Thursday, October 7th, and the first
Thursday after the 23rd of October. Manorial courts
leet and baron are held on the Monday next after the
24th of October. The court baron for the liberty, of
Furness, for the recovery of debts under 40s., is held
here every Saturday three weeks; and the baronial court
for the manor of Boltonwith Adgarley, annually: the
petty sessions for the hundred of Lonsdale, north of the
sands, are also held here.  >
Ulverstone anciently formed part of the parish of
Daltbn. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed
with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty>
and in the patronage of T. R. G. Braddyll, Esq. The
church, on the south side of a hill, about a quarter of a
mile from the town, is dedicated to St. Mary, and is of
very ancient and obscure foundation; it was rebuilt in
the time of Henry VIII., and again, with the exception
of the tower and a Norman doorway, at the commence?
ment of the present century. In the east window is
some fine stained glass, the designs from Rubens; the
altar-piece, representing the Descent from' the Cross,
with the three Cardinal graces, was designed by T. R. G.
Braddyll, Esq., after the manner of Sir Joshua Reynolds;
in the interior are several elegant and sumptuous
monuments. The erection of a new church has been
approved of by his Majesty's commissioners, to be dedicated
to the Holy Trinity, andintended to contain
six hundred free sittings. There are places of worship
for Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics
and about a mile to the south-west is another
for the Society of Friends (the first possessed by that
community in England), built under the superintendence
of George Fox, founder of the sect, who resided
at Swartmoor Hall, in this neighbourhood. Tpwnbank
school was erected by subscription, and, having been
endowed with various bequests, has an income of £35
per annum, for which eighty boys and twenty girls, who
pay a small quarterage, are educated. A rent-charge of
£1.10., paid out of Swarthmoor Hall estate, was given by
Thomas Fell, for which six boys are instructed. The
school-rooms, of which the upper is appropriated to
the classics, and the lower to instruction in English,
writing, and arithmetic, were rebuilt about 1781. 4
Sunday school, containing about three hundred children,
is supported by voluntary contributions. Conishead
priory, in this parish, was founded by Gamel de Pennington,
for Black canons, and at the dissolution its revenue
was valued at £124. 2. 1.: the buildings were then dismantled,
and the materials were sold for £333. 6. 35.,
but some remains of the cemetery, pillars of the transept,
and foundation walls of the church, with severa
skeletons, were discovered in 1823; the site-is occupied
by a modern edifice in the English style of architecture.