WIGTON, a parish in the ward of CUMBERLAND, and county of CUMBERLAND, comprising the market-town of Wigton, and the townships of Oulton, High and Low Waverton, and Woodside-Quarter, and containing, according to the last census, 5456 inhabitants (since increased to near 7000), of which number, 4056 are in the town of Wigton, 11 miles (S. W. by W.) from Carlisle, and 305 (N. N. W.) from London. Of the early history of this place little is recorded: the barony was given by William de Meschines to Waldeof, Lord of Allerdale, and by him to Odoard, who lived about the period of the Norman Conquest, and who assumed the name of De Wigton. The town was burnt by the Scots when they plundered the abbey of Holme-Cultram, in 1300; and during the civil war, in 1648, the van of the Duke of Hamilton's army was quartered here. It consists principally of one spacious street, with a narrower extending transversely at one end of it, containing some handsome, well-built houses; it is pitched with pebbles, and supplied with water from wells, the property of individuals, and a public well and pump, erected near the centre of the town. There are a public subscription and a circulating library: races formerly took place annually in the month of August, but they have been discontinued. The principal articles of manufacture are checks, muslins, and ginghams, which are made to a considerable extent; and a large establishment for calico printing and dyeing also affords employment to many of the inhabitants. Coal is obtained within three miles, and copper-ore is found within five miles, of the town. The market days are Tuesday and Friday, the former only for corn, of which a greatquantity is pitched in the market-place. Fairs are held on the 20th of February, a very large horse fair; the 5th of April, for horned cattle; and on the 21st of December, called Wallet fair, for cattle, butchers' meat, apples, and honey; there are also statute fairs at Whitsuntide and Martinmas. The county magistrates hold here a petty session every month; and constables are appointed at the court leet and baron of the lord of the manor, which is held annually in September. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated in the king's books at £17. 19. OT?., endowed with £200 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Carlisle. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is said to have been originally erected by Odoard, with materials brought from the neighbouring Roman station, called Old Carlisle, and it subsequently belonged to the abbey of Holme-Cultram; it was taken down in 1788, and the present edifice, a light and handsome building, erected on its site; attached to it is a library for the use of the clergy, presented by Dr. Bray. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar school, at Market hill, near the entrance of the town, was founded, in 1730, by certain of the inhabitants, who agreed to subscribe towards its erection £1 for every penny for which their houses were assessed to the purvey, on condition of having the privilege of sending their children; this privilege is retained by their successors in the several houses which have thus contributed; the children of such as are not free pay a quarterage of one guinea to the master. In 1787, the sum of £1000 three per cent, stock was bequeathed by John Allison to this school, for the education of four boys belonging to the parish of Wigton, and not living in free tenements; and, in 1703, £355 was bequeathed to it by Thomas Tomlinson, Esq., who also left £100 for the establishment of a public library; the present income is about £71 per annum. The master and usher are elected by those inhabitants whose tenements are entitled to the freedom of the school, and the former has a good dwelling-house: there are at present on the foundation fifteen boys under the head-master who are studying the classics, and twenty under the usher, who are instructed in writing, arithmetic, and the mathematics. The Rev. John Brown, D. D., author of the tragedy of Barbarossa, received his early education in this school. At Brook field, near the town, is a school for sixty boys, founded by the Society of Friends, in 1825. The Sunday school, erected in 1820, is a neat and spacious building of freestone, capable of receiving five hundred children; the general number attending it is about four hundred and fifty: there are also Sunday schools supported by the dissenting congregations. An hospital for six widows of beneficed clergymen, or curates of two years' standing, of the county of Cumberland,'or that part of Westmorland which is in the diocese of Carlisle, or of Rothbury in the county of Northumberland, and above forty-six years of age, was founded, in 1725, by the Rev. John Tomlinson, who endowed it with a rent-charge of £45. 12., to which other benefactions have subsequently been added; it is under the special superintendence of the Bishop of Carlisle, as visitor, and of the chancellor of the diocese, the rectors of Aikton and Caldbeck, and the vicars of Wigton and Bromfield, as governors: the inmates have each three apartments, and an allowance of £9 per annum; the eldest, who officiates as governess, has an extra allowance of ten shillings per annum. About a mile south of Wigton, on an eminence, are the remains of a Roman station, called Old Carlisle, where a great variety of antiquities has been dug up, consisting of coins, altars, statues, and inscriptions, which prove that the Ala Augusta was stationed here, in the reign of the Emperor Gordian. Ewan Clarke, the well-known Cumberland poet; Joseph Rooke, a self-taught genius, who has become a distinguished mathematician, and philosopher, excelling in his knowledge of music, mechanics, optics, and botany; R. Smirke, R.A., the celebrated historical painter; and Mr. George Barnes, professor of mathematics, were natives of this town.