BAMPTON, a parish in WEST ward, county of
WESTMORLAND, 9 miles (N. W.) from Orton, containing
614 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated in the
king's books at £7. 5., endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of the Crown. The church, dedicated to St. Patrick,
was rebuilt on the site of the former, in 1726: the
vicarage-house was rebuilt also, about the same period,
by Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. The river Lowther
runs through the parish, in which is a beautiful lake,
three miles in length, called Haweswater. This lake
is about three miles long, and half a mile broad, its
summit being environed by an assemblage of lofty
mountains, its eastern side sheltered by well-planted
rocky eminences, and its western bordered by cultivated
fields. A lead mine has been discovered, but it
is not yet fully explored , and limestone is obtained in
the parish. The free grammar school was founded, in
1627, by Thomas Sutton, D.D., who vested in trustees
the sum of £500, collected in the parish of St. Saviour,
Southwark, and other places, with which certain tithes
were purchased, now let by the master, and producing
about £ 60 annually: the school is free for all the
children of the parish: other benefactions for the purchase
of books have been added. A school at Roughill,
in this parish, was founded by Edmund Noble, and endowed
with £9. 15. 10. per annum. At Measand there
is a school, founded in 1723, by Richard Wright, and
endowed with property producing £50 per annum.
Here are also three parochial libraries, established respectively
in 1710, 1750, and 1757, and comprising in
the aggregate upwards of eight hundred volumes; and
there are some minor bequests for the benefit of the
poor. Thomas Gibson, M,D., who married the daughter
of Richard Cromwell, son of the Protector, physiciangeneral
to the army, and author of a " System of
Anatomy," was a native of High Knipe, in this parish,
where also was born, in 1669, his nephew, Edmund
Gibson, D.D., Bishop of London, and author of two
improved editions of Camden's Britannia, and various
other learned works.