BLANDFORD-FORUM, a market-town and parish in the hundred
of PIMPERNE, Blandford (North) division of the county of
DORSET, 16 miles (N. E.) from Dorchester, and 104
(S. W.) from London, on the road to Exeter, containing
2643 inhabitants. This place derived its name
from being situated near an ancient ford on the
river Stour, called by the Romans Trajectus Belaniensis.
It was nearly destroyed by an accidental fire, in the year
1579, but was soon afterwards rebuilt. During the civil
war in the reign of Charles I., it suffered severely for
its loyalty to that monarch. In 1644, it was plundered
by the parliamentarian forces under Major Sydenham,
and not being fortified, became an easy prey to the
contending parties, having been frequently assailed and
alternately possessed by each of them. In 1677, and
in 1713, it again suffered greatly from fire, and, in 1731,
was, with the exception of forty houses only, consumed
by a conflagration, which destroyed also the hamlets of
Blandford St. Mary and Bryanston, in which only three
dwellings were left. After this calamity, which is recorded
on a marble tablet over a pump near the church,
it was rebuilt by act of parliament, in 1732. The town
is pleasantly situated within a curve of the river Stour,
over which is a bridge of six arches; there are also two
other bridges,, erected to facilitate the entrance into it
during occasional overflowings of the river: the streets
are regularly formed and well paved, the houses modern
and uniformly huilt of brick, and the inhabitants
amply supplied with water. The theatre, a neat
and commodious building, is opened occasionally; and
the races, which have been established for more than a
century, are annually held, in August, on a fine down
near the town, the course being one of the best in the
kingdom. The manufacture of lace of a very fine
quality, equal, if not superior, to that made in Flanders,
and valued at £ 30 per yard, formerly flourished here: the
making of shirt buttons, for which Blandford has long
been noted, affords employment to a very considerable
number of females in the town and the adjacent villages.
The market is on Saturday: the fairs, chiefly for horses,
horned cattle, and cheese, are held on March 7th, July
10th, and November 8th, to each of which a court of
pie-powder is attached. The government, by charter
of incorporation granted in the 3rd of James I., who
made the town a free borough, and confirmed and
extended the privileges which it had previously enjoyed
by prescription, is vested in a bailiff, seneschal, and
ten capital burgesses. The bailiff, who, with the inferior
officers of the town, is chosen annually at the
court leet of the lord of the manor; the seneschal, who
holds his office for life, and the two senior capital burgesses,
hold a court of record, for the determining of
suits, and the recovery of debts under £10, but they
do not exercise magisterial authority. The county magistrates
hold petty sessions here for the North Blandford
division of the county. The bishop's and archdeacon's
courts are held monthly. The town-hall is a neat
edifice of Portland stone, on pillars of the Doric order,
with an entablature. The burgesses exercised the elective
franchise from the 23rd of Edward I. till the 22nd
of Edward III., when it was discontinued.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Dorset,
and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at
£12. 8. 1., and in the patronage of the Dean and
Chapter of Winchester. The church, dedicated to St.
Peter and St. Paul, is a handsome modern edifice, in
the Grecian style of architecture, with a tower and
spire, and ornamented with a balustrade and urns.
There is a place of worship for Independents. The
free school, to the north-west of the church, is of uncertain
foundation; it has a small endowment. Archbishop
Wake is said to have received the rudiments
of his education here. The Blue-coat school, for the
clothing and instruction of twelve boys, was founded
in 1729, by Archbishop Wake, who endowed it with
£1616, producing an annual income of £48. 9. 8.
Almshouses for ten aged persons were founded and
endowed by George Byves, Esq., who, in 16&5, bequeathed
the residue of his estate for apprenticing poor
boys: the entire annual income is about £120. In
the churchyard are others for six aged persons, which
were rebuilt by the corporation in 1736. William.
Williams, in 1621, gave £3000, since laid out in land
producing £300 annually, for teaching four poor children,
and other charitable purposes. On a hill to the
north of the town was formerly an intrenchment, enclosing
an area of three hundred paces in length, and
two hundred in breadth, which has long been under
cultivation, and the only relic now visible is an adjoining
barrow. Sir Thomas Ryves, L.L.D., a learned
antiquary and civilian; the Rev. Bruno Ryves, D.D.
publisher of the Mercurius Rusticus, an early newspaper
in the time of the parliamentary war, and one of
the writers of the Polyglott Bible, born in 15Q6; the
Rev. Thomas Creech, M.A,, translator of Lucretius
born in 1659; William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury,
born in 1657 5 Edward Wake, uncle to that prelate,
and founder of the institution for the sons of the
clergy; Dr. Lindsey, Archbishop of Armagh; Dr.
Samuel Lisle, Bishop of Norwich; and the Rev. Christopher
Pitt, translator of Virgil's ^Eneid, born in 1700,
and who, dying in 1748, was buried in the church $
were natives of this parish. Blandford gives the inferior
title of marquis to the Duke of Marlborough.