WHITEHAVEN, a sea-port and market-town, in
the parish of ST-BEES, ALLERDALE ward above Parwent,
county of CUMBERLAND, 40 miles (S. W.) from
Carlisle, and 320 (N. W.) from London, containing
12,438 inhabitants, exclusively of about 800 seamen
belonging to registered vessels, or, including these and
the suburb of Preston Quarter, nearly 18,000 inhabitants.
The derivation of the name is very uncertain:
in the record of a trial between the abbot and monks
of St. Mary's at York and the crown, relative to a
claim to the wreck of the sea in the manor of St. Bees,
the place is called Whitothaven: by some it is supposed
to owe its name to the light-coloured rocks which surmount
the bay, though others derive it from the circumstance
of a fisherman, named White, having been the
£rst who frequented the bay, and built a cottage here;
but the last account is generally discredited. In the reign
of Henry I. the manor formed part of the possessions
of the monastery of St. Mary near the Walls at York,
to which the priory of St. Bees belonged; and, so late
as that of Elizabeth, the town consisted of only a few
smallhuts inhabited by fishermen. In 1599, the manor
of St. Bees was purchased from Sir Thomas Ghaloner,
Knt., by Gerard Lowther and Thomas Wybergh,
Esqrs.; and the whole having come into the possession
of Sir John Lowther, Bart., in 1644, Whitehaven, under
his auspices, advanced rapidly in prosperity. He obtained
from Charles II. a grant of land, estimated at
one hundred and fifty acres, between high and low
Water mark, to the extent of two miles northward; he
materially improved the harbour, extended the collieries,
and erected a mansion near the town, which,
aided and improved by the patronage of his family,
created Earls of Lonsdale, continued to increase until
it has become one of the most populous and flourishing
places in Cumberland.
The town is situated on a creek of the Irish sea,
and consists of several spacious and well-built streets,
intersecting each other at right angles, which are paved
with pebbles; it is lighted with gas; supplied with
water partly from wells, and partly by means of carts,
in which it is brought into the town 5 and is watched
under the superintendence of police. The ground, on
three approaches to it, rises abruptly and precipitously,
and the entrance from the north is under a fine
arch of red sand-stone, with a rich entablature bearing
the arms of the Lowther family. On the south-east
is the castle of the Earl of Lonsdale, a quadrangular
building, with square projections at the angles, and a
circular bastion in the centre, having fine meadow land
to the south, and commanding an extensive prospect of
the harbour. The theatre, erected in 1769, in Roperstreet,
is a handsome and commodious structure. Races
are occasionally held in the neighbourhood. The subscription
library, established in 1797, occupies a neat
building, erected by the Earl of Lonsdale, in Catherinestreet,
and contains about three thousand volumes; the
subscription news-room, also fitted up by his lordship;
is well supplied with newspapers. The mechanics' institute
and library, in Lowther-street,was established
in 1825. Cold, warm, and shower salt water baths have
been fitted up in a building erected near the old platform.
The harbour has always been' an object of importa.
nce with those interested in the trade of the town,
and many important improvements have been effected
in it. Several stone piers extend, some in a diverging
and some in a parallel direction, into the harbour;
and another bends in an angular manner towards the
north-west, on which is a battery. A watchhouse and
a lighthouse have been built on the pier called the Old
Quay, which was constructed in the time of Charles II.,
or previously, affording protection to the shipping in
the harbour, which is capable of sheltering several hundred
sail of vessels. At high water, in spring tides,
there were about twenty feet, and in neap tides about
twelve feet, of water; but at low water the harbour was
dry: to remedy this, a new west pier, twenty yards in
thickness, is being constructed to the north-west; it
was commenced in 1824, on a plan by Mr. John Rennie,
and sufficient has been done to admit of nine feet at low
water within it. The estimated expense was £80,000,
but this sum has been found insufficient, and the trustees
are empowered to borrow £ 180,000, to complete
the undertaking, which has already extended nearly three
hundred yards. The harbour was defended by four
batteries, mounting together nearly one hundred guns;
but, since the termination of the late war, many of the
guns have been removed. At the entrance of the harbour
are two lighthouses, that already mentioned, and
another on the New Quay, which has a revolving light;;
and a life-boat, stationed here since 1803, has frequently
been instrumental in saving life.
Whitehaven is a place of very considerable trade,
of which coal forms the chief article; in addition to
this, it exports lime, freestone, alabaster, and grain:
the imports consist chiefly of American, Baltic, and
West Indian produce, linen and flax from Ireland, fruit
from the Levant, and wine from Spain and Portugal.
The principal manufactures are linen, linen yarn, sailcloth,
checks, ginghams, cordage, earthenware, copperas,
colours, anchors, and nails; soap and candles
are also made for the West India market and for home
consumption. The coal mines, which are of a magnitude
only inferior to those of Newcastle and Sunderland,
furnish the principal employment of the inhabitants
some have been sunk to a depth of upwards of
one hundred and fifty fathoms, and extend to a considerable
distance under the sea. They are worked by
means "of shafts formed at great expense, and to some,
are entrances, called Bear Mouths, which, opening at the
bottom of a hill, lead through passages, by a steep descent,
to the bottom of the pit, by which horses arc
taken into the mines: the coal, after being raised, is
carried to the harbour in wagons on railways, the progress
of which is aided by the declivity of the ground,
and shipped by means of an inclined plane and wooden
spouts, called hurries, placed sloping over the quays.
These mines have suffered occasionally from firedamp,
but the safety lamp has removed much of this
danger, and the water is emptied by pumps worked
with;powerful steam-engines. The coal lies in seams
varying in thickness from two to eleven feet, in proportion
to the depth. A quantity of a very rich iron-ore
is sent from the mines here to the iron-works in South
Wales. The herring fishery was formerly carried on
to a great extent, but now very few of the inhabitants
are employed in it. There are several ship-builders'
yards, the ships being distinguished for their durability,
and for drawing little water. A patent slip was erected,
in 1821, by the Earl of Lonsdale, which will admit vessels
of seven hundred tons' burden, and, with great convenience,
four vessels of one hundred and fifty tons' burden
each, and by which a few men- can draw a large vessel
into the yard to be repaired. A communication withLiverpool,
Dublin, Carlisle, the Isle of Man, Dumfries, Annan,
and Garliestown, is maintained by steam-boats, which
sail regularly for those places. The jurisdiction of the
port extends from Maryport, northward, to midstream
in the river Duddon, southward, and to the intermediate
coast and ports of Workington, Harrington, Ravenglass,
and Millom, and as far into the sea as ten fathoms
of water. The number of ships belonging to it,
in 1828, was one hundred and ninety-seven, the aggregate
tonnage of which amounted to thirty thousand
nine hundred and sixty. The custom-house, erected
in 1811, is a commodious structure; the establishment
consists of a collector and comptroller, with the usual
subordinate officers. There are three weekly markets,
on. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, that on Thursday
being the principal, and they are all well supplied with
provisions: the fair, held on the 12th of August, has
nearly fallen into disuse. The market-place is a handsome
area, containing a neat market-house, designed by
Smirke, in 1813, for the sale of poultry, eggs, and dairy
produce; and there is another, erected in 1809, at the
expense of the Earl of Lonsdale, for fish, of which there
is a good supply: there are also shambles, called the
Low and George's markets, for butchers. The regulation
of the affairs of the town and harbour was,
by acts of parliament passed in the 7th and llth of
Queen Anne, confirmed by subsequent acts, vested in
twenty-one trustees, of whom, seven are appointed by
the lord of the manor (himself being one), and the remaining
fourteen are elected triennially by ballot; such
of the inhabitants as pay harbour dues, or possess onesixteenth
share of a vessel belonging to the port, and
the masters of vessels, being the electors. The constables
of the town are nominated by the trustees, and
appointed by the justices of the peace, who meet at the
public office, in Lowther-street, on Thursday and Saturday,
for the despatch of business. A court leet is held
annually, and a court baron monthly; the latter is for
the recovery of debts under 40s.
Whitehaven contains three chapels, the livings of
which are perpetual curacies, in the archdeaconry of
Richmond, and diocese of Chester, and in the patronage
of the Earl of Lonsdale. St. James' stands on an
eminence at the eastern extremity of the town, and was
rebuilt in 1753; it is a neat structure with a square
tower, surmounted with pinnacles. St. Nicholas' was
erected in 1693, and is a plain building of good proportion
and workmanship, with a square tower; the
interior is decorated with paintings of the Last Supper,
and of Moses and Aaron, by Matthias Reed, an artist
of some merit, who came from Holland in the fleet with
the Prince of Orange, and settled in this town; the
ecclesiastical courts are held in it. That of the Holy
Trinity stands near the southern extremity of the town,
at the head of Roper-street; it is a plain building with a
lofty tower. There are two places of worship for Presbyterians,
and one each for Particular Baptists, the Society
of Friends, Independents, Primitive, and Wesleyan Methodists,
and Roman Catholics. The Marine school,
near St. James' church, or chapel, in which sixty boys
are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, was
endowed by Matthew Piper, Esq., with the interest of
£2000; the site was given, and the building erected,
by the Earl of Lonsdale. The National school, a large
and commodious stone building, was erected in 1824 a
an expense of upwards of £700, raised by donations
about five hundred children of both sexes receive instruction
in it. A Sunday school, erected at Gins in
Preston Quarter, in 1817, for five hundred children of
both sexes and all denominations, is used during the
week as an infant school. The interest of £ 1000 was
bequeathed by Matthew Piper, Esq., for the purchase
of soup, to be distributed, during winter, among the
poor; for whose benefit there are also some minor bequests
and donations, besides several charitable institutions
for providing them with clothing, &c. A dispensary
was established in 1783, and a house of recovery
in 1819: about the commencement of the year
1830, a spacious mansion in Howgill-street was purchased,
and fitted up for the purpose of an infirmary,
which establishment includes the dispensary and house
of recovery. A savings bank was instituted in 1818,
and, from the accumulation of interest beyond what
was paid to the depositors, a new and elegant edifice
is about to be erected in Lowther-street, which will
be highly ornamental to the town, and displace several
old dilapidated houses, a portion of the first built structures,
in that part of it. Dean Swift when a child,
resided with his attendant in a house in Roper-streefc,
during the disturbance in Ireland about the time of the
Revolution; and Dr. Brownrigs, who by his publications
first attracted the notice of strangers to the beauties
of Keswick and the surrounding scenery, for many
years practised as a physician in this town.