BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, a parish and port and borough, 58 miles (E. by S.)
from Edinburgh, and 370 (N. by W.) from London; containing
8484 inhabitants. The name of this town is supposed by Leland to have
been originally Aberwik, from the British terms, Aber, the mouth of a river, and
Wic, a town. By Camden and other antiquaries the name is considered as expressive
merely of a hamlet, or granary, annexed to a place
of greater importance; such appendages are usually in
ancient records styled berewics, and the town is thought
to have obtained its name from having been the grange
or berewic of the priory of Coldingham, ten miles distant.
The earliest autheutic notice of Berwick occurs in the
reign of Alexander I. In 11*6 it was given up to
Henry II. of England, with four other towns, by William
the Lion, as a pledge for the performance of the
treaty of Falaise, by which, in order to obtain his release
from captivity after the battle of Alnwick in 1174, he
engaged to do homage to the English monarch as lord
paramount for all his Scottish dominions. Richard I.,
to obtain a supply of money for his expedition to the
Holy Land, sold the vassalage of Scotland for 10,000
marks, and restored this and the other towns to William,
content with receiving homage for the territories only
which that prince held in England. King John, on retiring
from an unsuccessful invasion of Scotland, burnt
the town, which the Scots almost immediately rebuilt.
In 1'291, in the reign of Edward I. of England, the
Commissioners appointed to examine and report on the
validity of the title of the respective claimants to the
crown of Scotland, met at Berwick, and pursued the investigation
which led to the decision in favour of John
Baliol. Edward having compelled Baliol to resign his
crown, took the town by storm in 1296, when a dreadful
carnage ensued; and here he received the homage of
the Scottish nobility, in the presence of a council of the
whole nation, and established a court of exchequer for
the receipt of the revenue of the kingdom of Scotland.
In the following year, Wallace, laying siege to the town,
took it, and for a short time retained possession, but
was unsuccessful in his attempt upon the castle, which
was relieved by the arrival of a numerous army. Edward
II., in prosecuting the war against Scotland, assembled
his army here repeatedly, and hence made
inroads into the enemy's territory. Robert Bruce took
Berwick in 1318, and having raised the walls, and
strengthened them with towers, kept it, notwithstanding
several attacks from Edward II. and Edward HI., until
it surrendered to the latter after the celebrated battle of
Hallidown Hill, within the borough, which took place
on the 19th of July, 1333. From Edward IV. and his
successors, as well as from preceding kings of Scotland,
including Bruce, it received several charters and privileges,
in confirmation and enlargement of the charter
granted by Edward I., in which the enjoyment of the
Scottish laws as they existed in the time of Alexander
III. had been confirmed. After having been exposed,
during the subsequent reigns, to the continued
aggressions of the Scots and the English, Elizabeth repaired
and strengthened the fortifications, and new
walled part of the town: the garrison which had for
some time been placed in it was continued till the accession
of James to the English throne, when its importance
as a frontier town ceased. During the civil
war in the reign of Charles I., it was garrisoned by the
parliament.
The TOWN is pleasantly situated on the northern
bank, and near the mouth, of the river Tweed. The
approach to it, from the English side, is over a handsome
stone bridge of fifteen arches, built in the reigns
of James I. and Charles I., and connecting it with
Tweedmouth on the south. The streets, with the exception
of St. Marygate (usually called the High-street),
Castlegate, Ravensdowne, the Parade, and Hide-hill,
are narrow; they are neatly paved, and the houses are
in general well built. The town is lighted with gas, and
an abundant supply of water is obtained by pipes laid
down to the houses from the public reservoirs, which
are the property of the corporation. Fuel is also plentiful,
there being several collieries on the south, and one
on the north, side of the river, within from two to four
miles of the town. A public library was established in
ISI'2, and a reading-room in 184'2; the theatre, a small
neat building, is opened at intervals, and there are assembly-
rooms that are used on public occasions.
The new fortifications, which are exceedingly strong,
have displaced those of more ancient date, of which only
a few ruins now remain; the present works consist of
a rampart of earth, faced with stone, and affording au
agreeable promenade, much frequented by the inhabitants.
There are no outworks, with the exception of the
old castle, which overlooks the Tweed, and is now completely
in ruins, and an earthen battery at the landingplace
below the Magdalen fields. The line of works
towards the river is almost straight, but to the north
and east are five bastions, to two of which there are
powder magazines: the harbour is defended by a four
and a six gun battery near the governor's house; and a
saluting battery of twenty-two guns commands the
English side of the Tweed. There are five gates belonging
to the circumvallation, by which entrance is
obtained. The barracks, which were built in 1719,
form a small quadrangle, neatly built of stone, and
afford good accommodation for 600 or 700 infantry.
To these was not long since attached the governor's
house, for officers' barracks; but that building and the
ground adjoining, formerly the site of a palace of the
kings of Scotland, have been sold by the crown to a
timber-merchant, and are now occupied for the purposes
of his trade.
The PORT was celebrated in the time of Alexander III.
for the extent of its traffic in wool, hides, salmon, &c.,
which was carried on both by native merchants and
by a company of Flemings settled here, the latter
of whom, however, perished in the conflagration of
their principal establishment, called the Red Hall, which
was set on fire at the capture of the town and castle
by Edward I. There is at present a considerable
coasting-trade, though it has somewhat declined since
the termination of the continental war: the exports
are corn, wool, salmon, cod, haddock, herrings, and
coal; and the imports, timber-deals, staves, iron, hemp,
tallow, and bones for manure. About 800 men are
employed in the fisher}': the salmon and trout, of which
large quantities are caught, are packed in boxes with ice,
and sent chiefly to the London market; great quantities
of lobsters, crabs, cod, haddock, and herrings are also
taken, and a large portion forwarded, similarly packed,
to the metropolis. The principal articles of manufacture,
exclusively of such as are connected with the shipping,
are damask, diaper, sacking, cotton-hosiery, carpets, hats,
boots, and shoes. About 200 hands are employed in
three iron-foundries, established within the present century:
steam-engines, and almost every other article,
are made; the gas-light apparatus for Berwick, Perth,
and several other places, was manufactured here, and
iron-works have lately been erected at Galashiels and at
Jedburgh by the same proprietors.
The HARBOUR is naturally inconvenient, the greater
part of it being left dry at ebb- tide; it has, however,
been lately deepened several feet, and vessels of large
tonnage come up to the quay. The river is navigable
only to the bridge, though the tide flows for seven miles
beyond it: on account of the entrance being narrowed
by sandbanks, great impediments were occasioned to
the navigation till the erection, in 180S, of a stone pier on
the projecting rocks at the north entrance of the Tweed;
it is about half a mile in length, and has a lighthouse at
the extremity. This, together with the clearing and
deepening of the harbour, has materially improved the
facilities of navigation, and been of great importance to
the shipping interest of the place. On the Tweedmouth
shore, for a short space, near the Carr Rock, ships of
400 or 500 tons' burthen may ride in safety. The smacks
and small brigs, formerly carrying on the whole traffic
of the place, are now superseded by large and well-fitted
steam-vessels, schooners, and clipper-ships. There are
numerous and extensive quays and warehouses, with a
patent-slip for the repair of vessels. Great facility of
intercourse is afforded by the York, Newcastle, and Berwick
railway, the North-British railway, and the Berwick
and Kelso branch of the former line. The market, which
is well supplied with grain, is on Saturday; and there is
an annual fair on the last Friday in May, for black-cattle
and horses: statute fairs are held on the first Saturday
in March, May, August, and November.
By charter of incorporation granted in the thirtyeighth
year of the reign of James VI., the government
was vested in a mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses; and
there were, besides, an alderman for the year, a recorder,
town-clerk, town-treasurer, four serjeants-atmace,
and other officers. The control now resides in a
mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors, together
composing the council, by whom a sheriff and other
officers are appointed. Berwick is distributed into three
wards, and its municipal and parliamentary boundaries
are the same. The mayor and late mayor are justices
of the peace, and tw^elve other gentlemen have been appointed
to act under a separate commission. Berwick
was one of the royal burghs which, in ancient times,
sent representatives to the court of the four royal
burghs in Scotland; and on being annexed to the kingdom
of England, its prescriptive usages were confirmed
by royal charter. It sent representatives to parliament
in the reign of Henry VIII., since which time it has
continued to return two members. The right of election
was formerly vested in the freemen at large, in
number about 1140; now, the resident freemen and
certain householders are the electors: the sheriff is
returning officer. The limits of the borough include the
townships of Tweedmouth and Spittal,on the south side
of the river. The corporation hold courts of quartersession
for the borough, and a court of pleas every alternate
Tuesday for the recovery of debts to any amount;
a court-leet, also, is held under the charter, at which six
petty constables are appointed. The powers of the
county debt-court of Berwick, established in 1847, extend
over the registration-district of Berwick. The
town-hall is a spacious and handsome building, with a
portico of four massive columns of the Tuscan order.
A portion of the lower part, called the Exchange, is appropriated
to the use of the poultry and butter market;
the first story of the building contains two spacious halls
and other apartments, in which the courts are held and
the public business of the corporation transacted, and the
upper part is used as a gaol. The whole forms a stately
pile of fine hewn stone, and is surmounted with a lofty
spire, containing a peal of eight bells, which on Sunday
summon the inhabitants to the parish church.
The LIVING is a vicarage, valued in the king's books
at £20; net income, £289; patrons and appropriators,
the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church is a
handsome structure in the decorated English style, built
during the usurpation of Cromwell, and is without a
steeple. One of the Fishbourn lectureships is established
here, the service being performed in the church. There
are places of worship for members of the Scottish Kirk,
the United Presbyterian Synod, Particular Baptists,
Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics. A school for the
instruction of the sons of burgesses in English and the
mathematics, was founded and endowed by the corporation
in 1798; to each department there is a separate
master, paid by the corporation, and the average number
of pupils is about 300. The burgesses have also the
patronage of a free grammar school, endowed in the
middle of the seventeenth century by Sir William Selby,
of the Moat, and other charitable persons. The Bluecoat
charity-school was founded in 1758, by Captain
Bolton, and endowed with £800, since augmented with
several benefactions, especially with one of £1000 by
Richard Cowle, who died at Dantzic, in 1819; the whole
income is £155, which is applied to educating about 150
boys, of whom forty are also clothed. A pauper lunatic
house was erected in 1813, and a dispensary was established
in 1814. A considerable part of the corporation
land is allotted into " meadows" and " stints", and
given rent-free to the resident freemen and freemen's
widows, according to seniority, for their respective lives.
Among the most important bequests for tiie benefit of
the poor are, £1000 by Richard Cowle, £1000 by John
Browne in 1758, and £28 per annum by Sarah Foreman
in 1803. Some remains are still visible of the ancient
castle of Berwick, and of a pentagonal tower near it;
also of a square fort in Magdalen fields, and some entrenchments
on Ilallidown Hill. All vestiges of the
ancient churches and chapels of the town, of the Benedictine
nunnery said to have been founded by David,
King of Scotland, of the monasteries of Black, Grey,
White, and Trinitarian friars, and of three or four
hospitals, have entirely disappeared. During tlie reigns
of William the Lion, and of Edward I., II., and III., and
other Scottish and English monarchs, Berwick was a
place of mintage; and several of its coins are still preserved.
There is a mineral spring close to the town,
which is occasionally resorted to by invalids.