CHERTSEY, a market-town and parish in the second
division of the hundred of GODLEY, county of
SURREY, 13 miles (N. N. E.) from Guildford, and 20
(W.S.W.) from London/containing 4279 inhabitants.
At this place Caesar is supposed, on landing in Britain,
to have crossed the Thames to attack Cassibelaunus,
King of the Trinobantes, whose army had encamped on
the opposite shore: the stakes driven into the bed of the
river to obstruct the passage of the Roman legions were,
according to Bede, remaining in the eighth century, and
vestiges of them may still be traced about a quarter of a
mile below the bridge. During the Octarchy, the South
Saxon kings had their residence in this town; and it
became noted for a Benedictine monastery, founded in
666, by Erkenwald, afterwards Bishop of London, which,
having been burnt to the ground in the war with the
Danes, was refounded by King Edgar, and dedicated to
St. Peter. In this abbey Henry VI. was privately inter-
red; but his remains were subsequently removed, and
deposited, with appropriate solemnities, in the royal
chapel at Windsor. At the dissolution, its revenue was
£774. 13. 6.: some portions of the outer walls remain,
and on the site, and with part of the materials, of the
abbey a private mansion, called the Abbey House, has
been erected. The town is pleasantly situated upon the
"Thames, over which is a handsome stone bridge of
seven arches, built in 1785, at an expense of £13,000,
defrayed jointly by the counties of Surrey and Middlesex:
the houses are in general neatly built of brick;
the streets are partially paved, but not lighted; and the
inhabitants are plentifully supplied with water from
springs. The trade is principally in malt and flour; the
manufacture of coarse thread, and the making of iron
hoops and brooms, are carried on to a considerable ex-
tentj a great quantity of bricks is also made in the
neighbourhood. The Guildford and Petworth canal
passes within two miles of the town, and joins the river
Wey at Weybridge, affording a facility of conveyance for
the several articles of manufacture, and for a great quantity
of vegetables, which are cultivated in the environs
for the London market. The market, chartered by Queen
Elizabeth in 1559, is on Wednesday: the fairs are on
the first Monday and Tuesday in Lent, for cattle $ May
14th, for sheep; and August 6th and September 25th, for
toys and pedlary: a court of pie-powder is attached
to the fair in Lent. The town is governed by a bailiff,
appointed for life by letters patent from the Exchequer,
and, together with the hundred, is exempt from the
jurisdiction of the high sheriff for the county, but is
within that of the county magistrates, who hold a meeting
for the division on the first and third Wednesdays in
every month. Headboroughs and other officers are appointed
at the court leet of the lord of the manor, held
on Tuesday, in Whitsun-week, who also holds a court
baron on the following day at Hardwick Court, now a
farm-house, but once the manorial mansion, in which
Henry VI. resided when a child.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Surrey,
and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books
at £ 13. 12. 4., and in the patronage of the Master and
Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company, as trustees to
certain orphans. The church, dedicated to All Saints, a
handsome structure in the later style of English architecture,
with a square embattled tower, was rebuilt by subscription
in 1808: it contains a tablet to the memory
of the celebrated statesman, Charles James Fox, and
several monuments to the Mawbey family. There are
places of worship for Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians.
A charity school, originally for the instruction
and clothing of twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls
of this and the adjoining parishes of Thorpe, Egham,
and Cobham, was founded, in 1725, by Sir William Perkins,
who, during his lifetime, appropriated two houses
for school-rooms, and, at his decease, endowed them
with £3000 Bank Stock; this sum, augmented by an
accumulating annual surplus, being vested in the same
and other species of stock, produces at present nearly
£400 per annum: the school, by permission of the court
of Chancery, has been extended, upon the National plan,
for the instruction of two hundred and thirty boys and
one hundred and thirty girls, of whom thirty of each
sex belonging to this parish are clothed. There are
some almshouses, which are at present chiefly under the
management of the overseers. The tolls and profits
arising from stallage in the market and fairs were
granted by Queen Elizabeth to the poor, for whose benefit
there are also various other charitable benefactions.
Near the town is St. Anne's hill, commanding an extensive
prospect, formerly the residence of the late Rt.
Hon. Charles James Fox, and now occupied by his widow,
in which are some tesselated pavements collected from
the ruins of the abbey: the water of St. Anne's well was
formerly in repute for its efficacy in curing diseases of
the eye. The poet Cowley lived for some time in an ancient
house in the town, called the Porch House, in which
he died: Mr. Day, author of " Sandford and Merton,"
also resided in the vicinity.