CHESHAM, a market-town and parish in the hundred of BURNHAM, county of BUCKINGHAM, 30 miles (S.E.) from Buckingham, and 29 (N. W". by W.) from London, comprising the chapelry of Lattimers, with its hamlets of Waterside and Botley, and the hamlets of Ashley-Green, Billington, Chartridge,and Hundridge with Ashridge, and containing 5032 inhabitants. The town is situated in a pleasant and fertile valley, watered by a brook .flowing through it into the river Colne, which rises in the neighbourhood: it consists of three streets, and was formerly noted for its extensive manufacture of wooden ware and turnery, which has of late much declined: the prevailing branch of employment for the labouring class is the making of shoes for the London market; and many females are occupied in making lace and straw-plat: there are several mills worked by the brook for the manufacture of paper, and a small silkmill worked by machinery. The market days are Wednesday, for corn, which is pitched in the market-place, and Saturday, for straw-plat and provisions: fairs are held on April 21st and July 22nd, for cattle; and September 28th, a statute fair. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Buckingham, and diocese of Lincoln, formerly consisting of the medieties of Chesham-Leicester and Chesham-Woburn, each rated in the king's books at £13. 1. 5., but consolidated in 1767, 'and in the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient cruciform structure, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a low spire; in the chancel is a monument, from an elegant design by Bacon, to the memory of Nicholas Skottowe, Esq. There are four places of worship for dissenters, two of which are for Baptists. A National school for an unlimited number .of boys has been established,, and is supported by subscription. Almshouses for four aged persons were founded by Mr. Thomas Weedon, citizen and draper of London, and endowed with £ 35 per annum. A mineral spring, has been lately discovered. At Ashridge, in this parish, a college for a rector and twenty brethren was founded, in 1283, by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £447. 18.