ABINGDON, a borough and market-town, having separate and
exclusive jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Hormer, county
of BERKS, of which it is the chief town, 6 miles (S.) from
Oxford, 26 (N. W. by N.) from Reading, and 56 (W. N. W.) from
London, containing, exclusively of that part of the parish of
St. Helen which is in the hundred of Hormer, 5137 inhabitants,
according to the census of 1821, since which period the
population has considerably increased. This place, according to
a manuscript in the Cottonian library, quoted by Dugdale, was,
in the time of the Britons, a city of considerable importance,
and distinguished as a royal residence, to which the people
resorted to assist at the great councils of the nation. By the
Saxons it was called Scovecieshum, or Sewsham, but acquired the
name of Abbendon, the town of the abbey, on the removal hither,
in 680, of a monastic institution previously founded at Bagley
wood, now a liberty (extra-parochial) in the vicinity, by Cissa,
viceroy of Centwine, ninth king of Wessex, on which Ceadwalla,
his son and successor, bestowed the town and its appendages.
After the establishment of the monastery, Offa, King of Mercia,
on a visit to Abingdon, was so much pleased with the situation.,
that he erected a palace here, in which he and his immediate
successors, Egferth and Cenwulf, occasionally resided. The
monastery continued to flourish till 871, when it was destroyed
by the Danes. In 955, Edred, grandson of Alfred, laid the first
stone of a new monastery, which was completed after his death by
the abbot Ethelwold, and his successor Ordgar. The extent of its
endowments and privileges, subsequently augmented by Edgar and
Canute the Great, raised it to the dignity of a mitred abbey.
William the Conqueror celebrated Easter at Abingdon, in 1084,
where he was sumptuously entertained by Robert D'Oilly, one of
the most powerful barons of the time, under whose inspection he
left his son Henry to be educated in this convent, where the
prince received that education which afterwards procured him the
surname of Beauclerc. At the dissolution the revenue of the
abbey was £1876. 10. 9. A nunnery was also founded here by
Cilia, niece of Cissa, over which she presided till her death,
when it was removed to Witham; the site of it was afterwards
given, by Edward VI., to Christ's hospital in this town. The
Guild of the Holy Cross, established here at a very early
period, was dissolved in 1547, when its revenue amounted to
£85.15. 6. In the early part of the civil war, Charles I.
garrisoned Abingdon, where he established the head-quarters of
his cavalry. On the retreat of the royal forces to Oxford, in
1644, the Earl of Essex took possession of the town, and
garrisoned it for the parliament; and, a few days afterwards,
Waller's army, which had been stationed near Wantage, entered
Abingdon, and, among other excesses, destroyed the cross in the
market-place, at which, in 1641, the accommodation with the
Scots was celebrated by two thousand choristers: this cross is
particularly noticed by Camden for its beauty, and was the model
of one afterwards erected at Coventry. Many unsuccessful
attempts were subsequently made by the royalists, to regain
possession of the town; the garrison, on these occasions, put
every Irish prisoner to death, without trial, whence the
expression " Abingdon Law." The town, which is pleasantly
situated at the influx of the small river Ock into the Thames,
is handsomely built, and consists of several spacious streets
diverging from the market-place; it is well paved and lighted,
and amply supplied with water. Burford and Culham bridges, near
the town, with the causeway between them, were constructed by
the fraternity of the Holy Cross, in the reign and by license of
Henry V. (the ferry being at that time dangerous for passengers
and cattle); the former have been recently widened and improved
by voluntary contributions, and the causeway, which is close to
the town, and between the two bridges, forms a very pleasant
promenade: races take place in September, when assemblies are
held in the councilchamber. The manufacture of woollens,
formerly carried on here to a great extent, has quite declined.
Malting is now the principal business, which, with the dressing
of hemp, and the making of sacking and sail-cloth, constitutes
the chief employment of the labouring classes. Several wharfs
and warehouses have recently been constructed, where the Wilts
and Berks canal joins the Thames, near its confluence with the
Ock. The market days are Monday, chiefly for corn, and Friday,
for provisions only. Fairs for horses and horned cattle are held
on the first Monday in Lent, May 6th, June 20th, August 5th,
September 19th, the Monday before Old Michaelmas day (a
statute fair), Monday after October 12th (a great market), and
December llth. By a charter of incorporation granted by Philip
and Mary, in 1557, the government of the borough is vested in a
mayor, high steward, recorder, twelve principal and sixteen
secondary burgesses, two bailiffs, a town clerk, and
chamberlain. The mayor is chosen, on the 1st of September, from
among the principal burgesses, two of whom are nominated by the
inhabitants being potwallers, and returned to the chamber, which
is composed of principal burgesses only, who elect one of them
to the office; and two of the same body are immediately
afterwards chosen justices of the peace for the ensuing year, by
a common council, comprising the whole corporate body; and on
the 29th of September, when the mayor is sworn into office, his
immediate predecessor is sworn senior magistrate for the
following year. The mayor, recorder, and justices hold a court
of session quarterly, and the mayor and justices a petty session
weekly on Tuesday, on which day the mayor also holds a court of
record for the recovery of debts under £ 10. Courts leet are
held by the mayor within a month after Easter and Michaelmas,
the former having view of Frankpledge. This borough returns one
member to parliament: the elective franchise is vested in the
inhabitants paying scot and lot not receiving alms: the mayor is
the returning officer. The market- house is a spacious and
elegant building of freestone, erected in 1678, having a
commodious hall in which the county court and the nisi prius
court at the assizes are held, and public business connected
with the borough or county is transacted. The county bridewell,
a handsome stone edifice erected in 1811, at an expense of
£26,000, comprises a neat court-house, in which the crown court
at the summer assizes and the July county sessions are held; the
October sessions are held here and at Reading alternately. The
members for the county, who are nominated at Reading, are
elected here; and the county magistrates hold a petty session on
Monday in every fortnight for the Abingdon division. Abingdon
comprises the parishes of St. Helen and St. Nicholas, in the
archdeaconry of Berks, and diocese of Salisbury; the former
includes part of the township of Shippon and Norcott, and the
whole of Sandford Barton and Pumney; and the latter, the
remainder of Shippon and Norcott, also some lands in Sunningwell
and Bayworth, which are all without the limits of the borough.
The living of St. Helen's is a vicarage, rated in the king's
books at £7, and in the patronage of the Crown: the church is a
handsome structure, in the early style of English architecture,
with a square embattled tower, surmounted by a lofty spire. The
living of St. Nicholas' is a sinecure rectory, the vicarage
being annexed to that of St. Helen's, rated in the king's books
at £29.11.3.: the church, built about the close of the
thirteenth, or commencement of the fourteenth, century,
possesses some remains of Norman architecture. Mr. Wrigglesworth
left lands and tenements in Abingdon, for the support of a
lecture in St. Helen's church, to be delivered every Saturday
evening from Michaelmas to Lady-day, and at the church at
Maicham (a village two miles and a half distant) on every Sunday
morning from Lady-day till Michaelmas. There are places of
worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and
Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school, for the education
of " Threescore and thirteen" boys, was founded, in 1563, by
John Royse, and endowed with two messuages in Birchin-lane,
London, then known by the signs of the Bell and the Unicorn,
which were afterwards destroyed by fire: the ground is now
occupied by part of the premises belonging to the London
Assurance Company, out of the rent of which the head master's
salary is paid: according to the directions of the founder, the
master is allowed to receive ten private pupils. In 1608,
William Bennett of " Marleborowe " left lands in " Brodeblunsdon
" for the maintenance of six poor scholars in Royse's free
grammar school; these boys, who are elected by the Master and
Governors of Christ's Hospital in this town, are, from the
increase of the funds, clothed and instructed also in writing
and arithmetic, and a handsome premium is paid with them when
apprenticed. In 1609, Thomas Tesdale gave certain lands in the
county of Warwick, to maintain an usher. The school is entitled
to six scholarships at Pembroke College, Oxford, founded by
Thomas Tesdale, two to be filled by the founder's kin, and the
others from Abingdon school; and to four scholarships at the
same college, founded by Richard Wightwick, two for the
founder's kin. Preference is given to boys on Bennett's
foundation, but, in default, the other free scholars and the
master's private pupils are eligible; though, by a rule of the
present head master, the latter must have been two years in the
school to be qualified as candidates. In 1756, Robert Mayott
bequeathed to the corporation two meadows near Oxford, for the
education of poor children of Abingdon; ten boys and six girls,
who are nominated by the mayor and principal burgesses, are the
present number on this foundation, and they are clothed,
educated, and apprenticed. John Provost, in 1703, bequeathed
property for instructing ten boys in reading and writing, and
for apprenticing poor children; the present number are, from the
increase of the funds, clothed and taught arithmetic,in addition
to the founder's directions. In 1713, Richard Belcher gave £14
per annum, and, in 1753, Joseph Tomkins £100 South Sea stock,
for the instruction of children in the borough. There are also
a National and a British school; to the former, Edward Beasley,
Esq., in 1826, bequeathed £200. Christ's hospital, on the west
side of St. Helen's church, erected in 1446, originally belonged
to the fraternity of the Holy Cross, on the dissolution of which
establishment, in 1547, the inhabitants applied, through Sir
John Mason, to King Edward VI., for the restoration of their
lost estates, and the foundation of an hospital for the relief
of the poor of the town; in compliance with which application
His Majesty, by letters patent, in 1553, founded the hospital
under its present name, and incorporated twelve persons, for its
government by the name of "The Master and Governors of the
Hospital of Christ." It consists of almshouses for six poor men
and six women and a nurse, with cloisters and a handsome hall,
in which the master and governors hold their meetings, and where
prayers are read morning and evening to the inmates. An
almshouse was built, in 1718, for eighteen poor men or women,
and another, near the river Isis, for six poor men or women, to
which Mr. Beasley in 1826, bequeathed £600 stock, the interest
to be paid weekly. Other donations have at different times been
made to the hospital, and are disposed of as directed by the
donors. St. John's hospital, in the Vineyard, was endowed before
the Reformation, for six poor men, and rebuilt by the
corporation in 1801. B. Bedwell Esq. was a liberal contributor
to it; and, in 1826, Mr. Beasley added £600 stock to the
endowment. An almshouse near St. Helen's church was erected, in
1707, by Charles Twitty, for the maintenance of three men and
three women, who are elected by the minister, churchwardens, and
overseers of the parish of St. Helen; bequests of £200 each, by
John Bedwell, in 1799, and by Samuel Cripps, in 1819, and of
£600 three per cent, stock by Mr. Beasley, in 1826, have been
added to the original endowment: there are also almshouses for
four men and four women, endowed, in 1733, by Benjamin Tomkins.
Various charitable bequests have been made to the poor of the
town, the principal of which are, Mr. Frederick Klein's, by
which, in pursuance of a decree of the court of Chancery, made
in 1828, the interest of £1032. 12. 4. three per cent, stock is
annually distributed, in the month of March, in small sums to
the poor of the borough, by the mayor and principal burgesses;
and £700 three per cents., bequeathed by Mr. Beasley, the
dividends on which arc given to the poor on Good Friday by the
corporation. St. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir John
Mason, British Ambassador at the court of France, and Chancellor
of the University of Oxford; and the late Lord Colchester, were
natives of this place. Abingdon confers the title of earl on the
family of Bertie.