BARKING, (Essex) 8 cm. and 10 mm. from London, on a creek that leads to the Thames, from whence goods are brought up in vessels to its quay. It bel. formerly to its nunnery, which was the richest and oldest in England, being founded by a son of Offa, K. of the E. Saxons, An. 630. The Danes destroyed it in 870, but it was rebuilt, when the Conqueror retired hither, soon after his coronation, 'till he had erected forts in London to awe the citizens. K. Ja. I. sold the manor to Sir Thomas Fanshaw, but the late Sir William Humphreys, Bart, was the last Ld. of that manor. As the abbess was lady paramount of all the manors in the H. of Becontree, the Lds. of this manor have been so ever since, and have enjoyed great priviledges and profits in it. The T. is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, whose smacks lie at the mouth of the creek in the Thames, from whence their fish is sent up in boats to Billingsgate. The p. is large, and so much improved, by lands got out of the Thames, and Barking r. Rothing, on the W. side of it, that the great and small tithes are computed at above 600 l. a year. It has 2 chapels of ease, one at Ilford, and another on the side of Epping-Forest, called new-chapel. The Fair here is Ocl. 9. Mt. on S. A little beyond the T. towards Dagenham, slood a great old house, where the gunpowder treason is said to have been contrived.