BOSTON, a borough, port, market-town, and parish,
having separate jurisdiction, locally in the wapentake of
Skirbeck, parts of HOLLAND, county of LINCOLN,
34 miles (S. E.) from Lincoln, and 113 (N.) from London,
containing 10,330 inhabitants, and, including a
small extra-parochial district, 10,373. This place
derived its name from St. Botolph, a Saxon
who founded a monastery here, about
the year 650, from which circumstance it was called
Botolph's town, of which its present name is a contraction.
The monastery, which was destroyed by the
Danes in 870, was erected on the northern side of the
present church, and its remains have been converted
into a dwelling-house, called Botolph's Priory. From
the discovery of the foundations of several ancient
buildings, urns and other relics of antiquity, in 1716,
this place is supposed to have been of Roman origin \
and according to Dr. Stukeley, the Romans built a fort
at the entrance of the river Witham, over which they
had a ferry, at a short distance to the south of the town.
In the reign of Edward I., Robert Chamberlayne,
having assembled some associates disguised as ecclesiastics,
secretly set fire to the town, and, while the inhabitants
were endeavouring to extinguish the flames, plundered
the booths of the rich merchandise exposed for
sale at the fair, and burnt such goods as they were not
able to carry away: so rich is the town represented to
have been at the time of this fire, that veins of melted
gold and silver are said to have run, in one common
current, down the streets: Chamberlayne was afterwards
taken and hanged, but his confederates escaped. In 1285
Boston suffered greatly from an inundation of the river'
and the mercantile ardour of the inhabitants being
checked by the plunder of the fair and the conflagration
of the town, its prosperity began to decline. In the early
part of the reign of Edward II., it was made a staple
port for wool, leather, tin, lead, and other commodities,
which soon gave a new impulse to the spirit of commercial
enterprise; and the settlement in England of the
Hanseatic merchants,who established aguild here, tended
so powerfully to revive the former prosperity of the town,
that, in the reign of Edward III., Boston sent deputies
to three grand councils held at Westminster, and contributed
seventeen ships, and two hundred and sixty-one
men, toward the armament for the invasion of Brittany.
The town is situated on the banks of the river Witham,
which divides it into two wards, east and west, connected
by a handsome iron bridge of one arch, erected
by the corporation in 1807, at an expense of £22,000,
under the superintendence of Mr. Rennie. The streets
are well paved, and lighted with gas, under an act passed
in the 16th of George III., for the general improvement
of the town, and many handsome buildings have been
erected; but the inhabitants are scantily supplied with
water, which the more opulent collect from rain, in
cisterns attached to their houses, and the poorer bring
from the river, or from pits in the neighbourhood.
Frequent attempts to procure a better supply by boring
have failed j and in February 1829, after expending
£1800, the last undertaking was relinquished.
There are two subscription libraries; a handsome
suite of assembly-rooms, built by the corporation in
1820 j a commodious theatre, erected in 1806 5 and a
theatre of arts, exhibiting views of various cities, with
appropriate moving figures, which is open every Wednesday
evening: about half a mile from the town are
Vauxhall Gardens, which, during the season, are brilliantly
illuminated and very numerously attended.
The trade of the port, from an accumulation of silt
in the river, which impeded its navigation, had begun
to decline about the middle of the last century,
but was revived by forming a canal, deepening the river,
and enlarging the harbour. The exports consist chiefly
of the agricultural produce of the county; the imports
are timber, hemp, tar, ana A considerable coasting trade is
also carried on, which has rapidly increased of late
years. Since the fens adjoining the town have been
drained and cultivated, a tract of rich land, of nearly
seventy thousand acres, has been thus obtained, which,
besides producing grain, feeds a great number of sheep
and oxen, remarkable for their size and fatness: oats
in great quantity are shipped to various parts of the
coast, and wool to the manufacturing districts in Yorkshire,
whence coal and other articles are brought in
return. The quay, which is conveniently adapted to the
loading of vessels, is accessible to ships of one hundred
tons' burden: the custom-house, a commodious building,
was erected at the public expense, and the pilotoffice
was built in 1811; the establishment of the latter
consists of a master, twelve pilots, and a few supernumeraries.
The river Witham is navigable to Lincoln,
from which place, by means of canals communicating
with the Trent, there is an inland navigation to almost
every part of the kingdom. The number of vessels
belonging to the port, according to the return made in
1828, was one hundred and fifty, averaging fifty-four
tons' burden. About forty boats are also employed in the
fishery: shrimps of superior quality, soles, and herrings,
are taken in profusion; and in 1772, the corporation
erected a large fish market. The market is on Wednesday,
and is abundantly supplied 'with poultry, a great
quantity of which is sent to London every week. The
fairs are on May 4th for sheep, and the day following
for cattle; August llth, which is called the Town fair;
November 30th, and the three following days, for horses
and horned cattle; and December 11th, for horned
cattle only. The government, according to a charter granted by
Henry VIII., and enlarged by Elizabeth, who gave the corporation
a court of admiralty, is vested in a mayor, recorder,
deputy recorder, twelve aldermen, and eighteen common
council-men, assisted by a town-clerk, judge advocate,
and marshal of the admiralty court, two Serjeants at mace,
and other officers. The mayor is appointed from among
the aldermen, who succeed to that officie by rotation:
the aldermen are chosen out of the common council-men,
by a majority of their own body, and the common
council-men are selected by the mayor and aldermen.
The mayor is clerk of the market, and admiral of the
port, in which latter capacity, conjointly with the common
council, he holds a court of admiralty, the jurisdiction
of which extends over the whole adjacent coast.
The mayor, recorder, and four senior aldermen, are justices
of the peace within the borough and parish. The
freedom is acquired by birth, servitude, and purchase.
The corporation hold a court of session quarterly for the
borough, and a court of record for the recovery of debts
to any amount, at which the mayor, recorder, and townclerk
preside. The petty sessions for the wapentake of
Skirbeck and Kirton are held every Wednesday at the
Cross chamber; and a court of requests for the recovery
of debts under £ 5 is held once a fortnight, under an
act obtained in the 47th of George III. The elective franchise
was conferred in the reign of Edward VI., since
which time the borough has returned two representatives
to parliament: the right of election is vested in the
members of the corporation, the sons of aldermen, and
eldest sons of common council-men, residing as householders
within the borough, and in the resident freemen
generally, in number four hundred; the mayor is the
returning officer. The guildhall is an ancient building,
in the council-chamber of which is a fine portrait of
Sir Joseph Bankes, presented by him when recorder of
this borough: the borough gaol is a handsome building
at the south end of the town, erected in 1811: the
house of correction for the parts of Holland was built
in 1809.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £33. 6.8.,
and in the patronage of the Mayor and Corporation.
The church, dedicated to St.Botolph, is a spacious and
magnificent structure in the decorated style of English
architecture, -with a lofty square tower surmounted by
an octagonal lantern turret, in the later English style:
it was erected in 1309, and is in an excellent state of
repair: the tower, which is three hundred feet high,
and was formerly illuminated during the night, forms
a conspicuous land-mark for mariners traversing the
North sea. Within the church, among other interesting
monuments, are the effigies of Sir John Tilney and
his lady, by whom the church is said to have been
founded. A chapel has lately been erected by subscription.
The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with
£100 per annum by the corporation, to whom the patronage,
which is now vested in the subscribers, will
revert after the expiration of fifteen years. There are
places of worship for General and Particular Baptists,
the Society of Friends, Independents, Methodists, Unitarians,
and Roman Catholics; and a piece of ground
has been taken, on which it is intended to build a synagogue.
The free grammar school, founded and endowed
in 1554, by Queen Mary, is under the control of the
corporation, who appoint the master and usher, the
former having a salary of A100, and the latter one of
£60, per annum: the school-room was built in 1567,
and a convenient house for the master in 1826. A
school was founded, in 1707, by Mr. Laughton, who endowed
it with lands in Skirbeck, producing about £50
per annum, which has since been augmented by other
benefactors: there are at present twenty-five boys, each
of whom, at the age of fourteen, is entitled to an apprentice
fee of £15, provided he be put out to a free
burgess. A Blue-coat school, founded in 1713, for
clothing and instructing thirty-three boys and the
same number of girls; and two National schools, established
in 1815, in which five hundred children are
instructed, are supported by subscription. A general
dispensary was instituted in 1795. Of the numerous
monastic establishments which formerly existed in this
town and its vicinity, there remain only some slight
vestiges of the Black, or Dominican friary, established
in the year 1288. The ancient.church of St. John, formerly
the parish church, has been totally removed, but
the cemetery is still used as a burying-ground. John
Fox, the celebrated martyrologist, was a native of this
town. Boston confers the title of viscount on the Irby
family.