COVENTRY, a city (ancient) and county (of itself), locally in the
county of Warwick, 10 miles (N. E.) from Warwick, 18 (S. E.) from
Birmingham, and 91 (N. N. W.) from London, on the road to Holyhead,
containing, exclusively of those portions of the parishes of the Holy
Trinity, St. John the Baptist, and St. Michael, which are without the
city, In ancient records this place is called Coventre and also
Coriventrey, from the foundation of a convent by Canute, of which St.
Osburg was abbess, in 1016, when it was burnt by Edric, the traitor,
who having invaded Mercia, destroyed many towns in Warwickshire. On
the site of this convent, Leofrin, Earl of Mercia, and his countess
Godiva, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, erected a monastery,
which they munificently endowed, and decorated with such a profusion
of costly ornaments, that, according to William of Malmesbury, the
walls were covered with gold and silver. About this time Leofric, at
the intercession of his countess, granted the citizens a charter
conferring various privileges and immunities, the same being
commemorated, in the south window of Trinity church, by portraits of
the Earl and Countess, with a poetical legend. Leofric died in 1057,
and was interred in the monastery which he had founded. Shortly after
the Norman Conquest, the lordship of Coventry became vested in the
earls of Chester, by marriage with the grand-daughter of Leofric. In
the contest between Stephen and the Empress Matilda, the Earl of
Chester taking part with the latter, his castle of Coventry was
occupied by the king's forces; the earl besieged it, but the king came
in person to its relief, and repulsed the earl after an obstinate
conflict. In 1141, Robert Marmion, the inveterate enemy of the Earl of
Chester, took possession of this monastery, from which he expelled the
monks, fortified the church, and cut deep trenches in the adjoining
fields, concealing them only with a slight covering; on the earl's
approach to dislodge him, Marmion drew out his forces, but, forgetting
the exact situation of the trenches, his horse fell with him to the
ground, and in this situation his head was severed from his body by a
private soldier. In 1355, the city was surrounded with walls three
miles in circuit, three yards in thickness, and six yards in height,
strengthened with thirty-two towers, and containing twelve principal
gates, each defended by a portcullis. In 1397, Richard II. appointed
this town for the decision, by single combat, of the quarrel between
the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk; and magnificent preparations were
made on Gosford Green for this encounter, which, however, was
prevented by the banishment of the combatants, a measure which
ultimately caused the deposition of the king. In 1404, the Duke of
Hereford, who had become Duke of Lancaster, by the death of his
father, John of Gaunt, on his return from exile, having succeeded to
the crown by the title of Henry IV., held a parliament here in the
great chamber of the priory, which, from the exclusion of all lawyers,
was called Parliamentum Indoctorum. In 1411, the Prince of Wales,
afterwards Henry V., was arrested at the priory by John Horneby, mayor
of the city, probably for some tumul- tuous excess, the particulars of
which are not recorded. The city, with, a district of four miles
around it, was severed from Warwickshire, and erected into a county of
itself, under the designation of the " City and County of the City of
Coventry," by charter of Henry VI., in 1451; and in 1459 the same
monarch held a parliament in the chapter-house of the priory, which,
from the number of attainders passed against the Duke of York and
others, was, by the Yorkists, called Parliamentum Diabolicum. In 1465,
Edward IV. and his queen kept the festival of Christmas at Coventry;
and three years after, the Earl of Rivers and his son, who had been
seized by a party of the northern rebels at Grafton, were beheaded on
Gosford Green. In the war between the houses of York and Lancaster,
Richard, Earl of Warwick, marched with all his ordnance and warlike
stores into this city, where he remained for a short time, during
which Edward IV., on his route from Leicester, attempted to force an
entrance; but being repulsed, he passed on to Warwick, and thence to
London, where having gained a battle in which the Earl of Warwick was
slain, he returned to Coventry, and deprived the citizens of their
charter, for the restoration of which they were compelled to pay a
fine of five hundred marks. In 1472, severe enactments were passed by
the magistrates against women of immoral character, who were publicly
exhibited in carts on the market days. Henry VII., on his route from
Bosworth Field in 1475, was received here with every demonstration of
congratulation and respect. In the early part of the sixteenth
century, Coventry became the theatre of religious persecution; the
Bishop of Chester, coming to examine persons accused of heresy,
condemned seven to the stake, which sentence was executed in the
little park; in 1554, Mr. Hopkins, sheriff for the city, was confined
in the Fleet prison, on a charge of heresy, but was liberated after
great intercession, and fled the kingdom; and in the following year
Mr. Lawrence Saunders, Robert Glover, A.M., and Cornelius Bongey, were
burnt for their religious tenets. In 1565, Queen Elizabeth visited the
city; and in 1566, Mary, Queen of Scots, was conducted to this place,
where she was detained a prisoner; and in 1569, on her removal from
Tutbury castle, she was for some time at the Bull Inn, in the custody
of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Huntingdon. In 1607, the city suffered
considerable damage from an inundation, which entered two hundred and
fifty-seven houses, washing away furniture and utensils of various
kinds; the flood rose to the height of three yards, and, after
remaining for three or four hours, suddenly subsided; clusters of
white snails were afterwards found in the houses and in the trees,
supposed to have collected prior to the influx of the water, which,
though observed at the distance of nearly a mile from the town, was so
instantaneous in its approach, as to preclude all means of precaution.
King James3 attended by a large retinue of the nobility, visited the
city in 1617, on which occasion a cup of pure gold, weighing forty-
five ounces, and containing £ 100, was presented to him by the
corporation, which his Majesty ordered to be preserved with the royal
plate for the heirs of the crown. During .the parliamentary war,
Charles I., having erected his standard at Nottingham in 1641, sent
orders to the mayor and sheriffs of Coventry to attend him at that
place; but the majority of the citizens embraced the cause of the
parliament, and a party having obtained possession of the magazine in
Spon tower, which the Earl of Northampton had directed the aldermen to
secure for the royalists, kept it for Lord Brooke, who removed it to
Warwick castle. The parliamentarian party in the city, having been
reinforced with four hundred men from Birmingham, held it against the
king, who sent a herald to demand entrance, which being refused, some
cannon were planted in the great park and on Stivichall hill, which
played upon the town, but without effect. Finding the citizens
resolved to defend their gates, and learning that Lord Brooke was
approaching with his army from London, the king drew off his forces,
and the city was now regularly garrisoned by the parliament, and
further preparations made for its defence. The women were employed to
fill up the quarries in the park, that they might not afford any
shelter to the royal troops; and for this purpose they assembled in
companies, by beat of drum, and marched in military array, with
mattocks and spades, headed by an amazon who carried an Herculean club
on her shoulder, and conducted from their work by another, who
discharged a pistol as a signal of dismissal. On the Restoration of
Charles II., that monarch was proclaimed by the mayor and aldermen,
attended by a vast concourse of the inhabitants, with the most
triumphant acclamation; the greatest rejoicings took place, and the
public conduits of the city were made to flow with wine; a deputation
was sent to present to him a basin and ewer, and fifty pieces of gold,
and to surrender all the king's lands. In 1662, the Earl of
Northampton, with a large retinue of the neighbouring gentry, and a
detachment, of the county troops, was sent with a commission from the
king to make a breach in the walls, as a punishment to the inhabitants
for shutting their gates against his father; but the earl so far
exceeded the limits of his com- mission, as to leave only a few
fragments of them remaining; of the gates, which were only dismantled,
there are some yet standing; the Bastille, Swanswell, and Cook-street
gates, are the most entire. The city is pleasantly situated on a
gentle eminence, bounded on the north-east by the river Shirburn and
the Radford brook, which, running from north to south, unite within
the town. In the more ancient part, the streets, with the exception of
that part of the High-street called the Cross-cheaping, or the
marketplace, are generally narrow, partially paved, and lighted partly
with oil and partly.with gas; many of the houses are in the style of
the sixteenth century, built of timber frame-work and brick, with the
upper stories projecting, and present a dark and sombre appearance,
occasionally enlivened by an intermixture of others of more modern
structure, of which several are spacious and handsome; the suburbs
have within the last few years been greatly extended, several new
streets have been formed and ranges of handsome houses erected; the
inhabitants are amply supplied with water from conduits made by the
corporation, and by water-works under the superintendence of two
public companies. The public library, established in 1791, has a
proprietary of about two hundred members, and is well regulated, by a
committee; the theatre, a neat and conveniently arranged building, is
opened occasionally; and assemblies and concerts take place
periodically at St. Mary's and Drapers' Halls; the environs are
pleasant, abounding with interesting scenery, and with some agreeable
promenades. The barracks, erected in 1792, on the site of the old Bull
Inn, are a handsome range of building, fronted with stone, and
ornamented with the king's arms over a window above the principal
gate-way; the establishment is for a field officer and fifteen
subalterns, and comprises a riding-house, an hospital, and stabling
for one hundred and eighty-eight horses. The making of caps was the
principal trade of the town pr,ior to the year 1436, when the
manufacture of woollen and broad cloth was introduced, and continued
to flourish till the end of the sixteenth century; at this time
Coventry was celebrated for a peculiar kind of blue thread, which,
from the permanence of its colour, ob- tained the appellation of "
Coventry true blue." About the beginning of the eighteenth century,
striped and mixed tammies, camlets, shalloons, and calimancoes, were
manufactured to a considerable extent, to which succeeded the throwing
of silk, the weaving of gauzes, broad silks, and ribands, and the
manufacture of watches. The weaving of ribands forms at present the
staple trade; a great quantity is exported; an immense number of
pieces are sent off weekly for the supply of the wholesale dealers in
London, and a considerable, quantity is, by means of travelling
agents, distributed to every town in the kingdom. In 1808 there were
two thousand eight hundred .and nineteen silk .and riband looms in the
city alone, exclusively of those in the adjacent villages; but since
that time the number has considerably increased. The trade, though at
present greatly depressed, affords employment to nearly sixteen
thousand persons in the city and suburbs; and, from the introduction
of the French looms and machinery, an infinite variety in the pattern,
and an elegance inthe texture, have been attained, which give a
distinguished superiority to the ribands manufactured here. The
manufacture of watches, for which Coventry was for many years so
celebrated, has of late been rapidly declining. The situation of the
town is peculiarly advantageous for trade, being central to the ports
of London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull, and having, by means of the
Oxford and Coventry canals, which form a junction at a short distance
to the north, a direct communication with the manufacturing districts
of Lancashire and Yorkshire; the canal oiBce is a small but handsome
building, with a portico of the Grecian Ionic order. The market, which
is on Friday, is held in various parts of the town for corn, in the
Crosscheaping, now a spacious area enlarged by the removal of a middle
range of old houses, by which it was divided, and in which was the
ancient cross, one of the most beautiful in the kingdom, taken down in
1771 for cattle, in Bishop-street; for pigs, in Cook-street and for
butter, eggs, and poultry, in an area behind the mayor's parlour,
where a market-house has been erected. Fairs for three days each are
held on April 21st, August 16th, and October 21st, for cattle and
merchandise to these fairs are attached courts of pie-powder, and the
corporation are entitled to the same tolls as are taken at Smithfield
market, in London. The great shew-fair takes place on the Friday after
Corpus Christi day, and continues for eight days, on the first of
which the commemoration of Lady Godiva's procession is occasionally
revived, by a representative obtained for that purpose; this ceremony
has its origin in a tradition that the citizens being greatly
oppressed by the severe exactions imposed on them, by Leofric, his
countess undertook to intercede for their relief, but was apparently
frustrated in her suit by a promise of exemption only upon the
condition of her riding naked through the city on horseback; it is
further recorded in the traditionary legends of the city, that, having
obtained her husband's permission, and trusting for concealment to the
length of her hair, and to the discretion of the inhabitants, who were
ordered, upon pain of death, to shut themselves up in their houses,
she performed the task, and obtained for the city a charter of "
freedom from servitude, evil customs, and exactions." The tradition
also records that a tailor, who disobeyed the injunction, was
instantly struck blind; and a figure, called Peeping Tom, carved in
wood, and placed in a niche at the corner of a house in High-street,
is still preserved in memory of this event, which, whether real or
fictitious, is closely interwoven with the history of the place. The
city received its first charter of incorporation from Edward III., in
1344; in 1384, Richard II. ordered the sword of state to be borne
behind the mayor in civic processions, as a mark of disgrace, for his
not having duly administered justice in the execution of his office,
which order that monarch revoked in 1392. Under the charter of Edward
III., confirmed in succeeding reigns, and extended in that of James
I., the government is vested in a mayor, recorder, two sheriffs, a
steward (who must be a barrister), a coroner, two chamberlains, two
wardens, ten aldermen, a superior council of thirty-one, and a second
council, or grand inquest, of twenty-five members, assisted by a town-
clerk, sword-bearer, mace-bearer, and subordinate officers. The mayor,
sheriffs, steward, and coroner, are chosen annually by the council of
thirty-one, in the council-chamber in St. Mary's Hall, and sworn into
office on All Saints' day; the aldermen are elected by the same body,
from the grand inquest, as vacancies occur; the mayor, recorder, and
aldermen, are justices of the peace, and have exclusive jurisdiction
within the city and county of the city. The city is divided into ten
wards, each under its respective aldermen, and. comprises thirteen
fraternities, or trading companies, the numbers of which, with the
exception of the Drapers' company, who still retain their hall, have
been greatly reduced. The freedom is obtained only by a servitude of
seven years to one trade within the city and liberties. Among the
privileges enjoyed by the freemen is that of depasturing cattle upon
the " Lammas Grounds," a tract of three thousand acres, appropriated
to that use from Lammas to Candlemas by especial grant. The
corporation hold quarterly courts of session, at which the mayor,
assisted by the steward, presides; these courts are held by
adjournment in the mayor's parlour, on the last Friday in every month;
they have power to try capital offenders, but this they generally
delegate to the judge travelling the midland circuit. A court of
record has been held by prescription from a very remote period, the
date of which is certainly anterior to the reign of Henry VI., for the
recovery of debts to any amount, at which the mayor and sheriffs
preside; and a county court is held monthly by adjournment, in the
mayor's parlour, where also either the mayor, or some of the city
magistrates attend daily, to decide on aflairs of police. The city
first exercised the elective franchise in the 26th of Edward I., but
there were partial intermissions until the 31st of Henry VI., since
which time it has regularly returned two members to parliament; the
right of election is vested in the freemen not receiving alms, of whom
the number is about three thousand; the sheriffs are the returning
officers. The county-hall, in which the sessions and other courts are
held, is a neat modern building faced with stone, and ornamented with
pillars of the Tuscan order, rising from a rustic basement, and
supporting a handsome cornice in the centre of the front; adjoining is
the gaoler's house, a neat brick edifice; and behind. it the prison,
which has been recently rebuilt. St. Mary's Hall, appropriated to the
larger meetings and civic entertainments of the corporation, is a
beautiful and magnificent structure in the later style of English
architecture; it was originally built by the master and wardens of St.
Mary's Guild, in the fourteenth century, and subsequently enlarged and
beautified for the use of the corporation; the exterior, with its
richly decorated windows, and elaborately groined archway, has an
imposing grandeur of effect; the interior, which is replete with the
richest ornaments of the decorated style, comprises a splendid
banquethall, adorned with well painted portraits of several of the
sovereigns, who have been entertained within its walls; the windows,
of which the tracery is gracefully elegant, are ornamented with
painted glass; at the upper end is a fine piece of tapestry, elegantly
worked in compartments; and on the north side is a small recess, with
a beautiful oriel window, above which the original carved roof is
still entire; the council-chamber is fitted up ia the ancient style,
and retains, among its ornaments, many relics of feudal grandeur. The
Drapers' Hall, nearly adjoining, is a neat building, with a stone
front of the Tuscan order, of chaste and pleasing design. Coventry
forms a diocese jointly with Lichfield, of which the seat was fixed in
this city from 1102 till 1188, when it was removed to Lichfield; the
diocese com- prehends the whole counties of Derby and Stafford
(excepting the parishes of Broom and Clent in the latter), the greater
part of Warwickshire, and nearly half of the county of Salop, and
comprises five .hundred and fifty-seven parishes. Of the cathedral,
once a sumptuous and magnificent structure, formerly the Benedictine
monastery founded by Leofric, of which at the dissolution the revenue
was £731. 19. 5., only the slightest vestiges are discernible, in the
mouldings of arches and outlines of windows and doors worked in with
the materials of a modern building, which has been erected on the site
of one of its ancient towers, and some indistinct remains of what are
supposed to have been the conventual buildings. The city comprises the
parishes of. St. Michael, the Holy Trinity, and St. John the Baptist,
the last having been constituted a parish by act of parliament in
1734, all in the archdeaconry of Coventry, and diocese of Lichfield
and Coventry. The living of St. Michael's is a vicarage, rated in the
king's books at £26. 15. 5., and in the patronage of the Crown. The
church is a splendid structure, principally in the later style of
English architecture, with a lofty tower of four stages, panelled and
ornamented with niches in which were finely sculptured figures, and
surmounted by a lofty and finely proportioned octagonal spire, the
whole height being, from the base of the tower, three hundred feet,
exactly equal to the length of the church; the interior is finely
arranged, and derives great beauty from the loftiness of its
elevation, and the delicacy of the piers which support the roof; the
clerestory windows of the nave form a noble range of large dimensions,
and are ornamented with ancient stained glass; the chancel, which is
of earlier date, was formerly a chapel erected in 1133, to which the
nave and aisles were subsequently added; it deviates from a straight
line, and forms an angle with the line of the nave, which sensibly
offends the eye. The living of the parish of the Holy Trinity is a
vicarage, rated in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of
the Crown; the church, which is of earlier date than the more recent
part of St. Michael's, is a venerable cruciform structure in the later
style of English architecture, with a. well proportioned tower rising
from the intersection, and surmounted by a handsome octagonal spire;
the proportions of the interior are more massive than those of St.
Michael's; and, though less elaborate in its details, this church
preserves throughout a conr sistent unity of design; the oak roof is
divided into panels, decorated with gilded mouldings; the pulpit is of
stone similarly ornamented. The living of St. John's is a rectory not
in charge, endowed with £600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of the Mayor and Corporation; it is always annexed to the head-
mastership of the free school, and includes also a lectureship for the
.second master, the former taking two-thirds and the latter one-third
of the income. The church, formerly a chapel erected in honour of our
Saviour, upon ground given by Isabel, queen-mother of Edward III.; is
an interesting structure, quadrangular in the lower part, and
cruciform in the upper; from the centre rises a square embattled
tower, with circular turrets at the angles, and supported on four
finely clustered piers and arches of singular beauty; the interior is
characterised by a simple grandeur of style, which more than
compensates for the want of elaborate embellishment. To the south of
the city was the monastery of the Grey friars, the brethren of which
were famous for their skill in the representation of religious dramas;
it was originally founded in 1234, and the church was built in 1358,
for which Edward the Black Prince granted the friars permission to
take stone from the quarries in his park at Cheylesmere; the monastery
was destroyed at the dissolution; all that remains is the very
beautiful steeple of the church, consisting of an octagonal tower,
with a pierced parapet, from which rises a lofty and finely
proportioned octagonal spire; to this a body is now being annexed by
subscription among the inhabitants, aided by a grant from the
parliamentary commissioners. There are places of worship for Baptists,
the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, Unitarians,
and Roman Catholics. The free grammar school was founded, in the reign
of Henry VIII., by John Hales, Esq., who endowed it with lands at that
time of the value of two hundred marks, but which now produce an
annual income of £900, of which the head-master receives two-thirds
and the second master the remainder; it is under the management of the
corporation, by whom the masters are appointed; there are three
exhibitions of £ 10 each, and two of £5 each per annum, to either of
the Universities; two fellowships in St. John's College, Oxford; and
one fellowship and one scholarship in Catharine Hall, Cambridge,
belonging to. this establishment. The schoolroom is the remaining part
of a church which anciently belonged to the hospital of St. John,
built in the reign of Henry II., the revenue of which, at the
dissolution, was £83. 3. 8.; it is a spacious room, lighted with
windows in the decorated style, with rich tracery, and fitted up with
the ancient carved seats, removed from the choir of the church
belonging to the monastery of the White friars; the western end, taken
down to widen the street, has been rebuilt in an appropriate style,
and ornamented with two handsome turrets. Sir William Dugdale, the
celebrated antiquary, and Archbishop Seeker, received the rudiments of
their education at this school. The Bablake Blue-coat school,
occupying one side of the quadrangle of the Bablake hospital, was
founded, in 1566, by Mr. Thomas Wheatley, ironmonger, and mayor of the
city, in consequence of an accidental acquisition of wealth, by the
delivery of barrels of cochineal and ingots of silver in mistake for
steel gads, which he sent his agent to purchase in Spain. The original
endowment, increased by subsequent benefactions, produces £340 per
annum, -which is applied to the clothing, maintenance, and instruction
of twenty-six boys, who receive a small sum as an apprentice-fee on
their leaving school; they are nominated by the corporation, who are
trustees. A charity school, for clothing and instructing forty girls,
of which number six are maintained in the house for the last year, and
qualified? for service, is supported by subscription. The National
school,, also supported by subscription, for an unlimited number of
children of both sexes, is a large handsome building of brick, in the
antique style, having the master's house in the centre, and on each
side of it a large schoolroom, supported on brick columns and groined
arches, affording a sheltered area for a playground. Another school,
situated in Cow-lane, for clothing and instructing forty children, has
an endowment in land, with a house for the master, given by Mr. W.
Baker, and augmented by subsequent benefactions; there is also a
Lancasterian school, supported by subscription; and there are Sunday
schools connected with the church and the dissenting congregations.
Bond's hospital was founded, in 1506, by Mr. Thomas Bond, draper, who
endowed it with lands for the maintenance of ten poor men and one
woman; the number of pensioners, in consequence of the improvement of
the income, has been increased to fortyeight, who receive each a
weekly allowance of six shillings; thirteen of them are resident in
the hospital, and have each an apartment, firing, and washing, free of
expense. The building, occupying one side of the Bablake quadrangle,
is an ancient edifice of timber frame-work and brick, in the
Elizabethan style, but much of its original character has been
destroyed by repairs and alterations. The Grey friars' hospital, so
called from its proximity to a monastery of that order formerly
existing here, was founded in 1529, by Mr. William Ford, who endowed
it for five aged men and one woman; from the increased amount of the
income, there are at present eighteen women in this establishment, who
receive a weekly allowance of 2s. 6d., with additional advantages; the
buildings, which form a long and narrow quadrangular area, almost
darkened by the projection of the upper stories, are in the style of
domestic architecture prevailing in the reign of Elizabeth; the timber
frame-work, richly carved, and decorated with cornices and canopies
over the central windows and doorways is, as perfect as when first
erected, and these beautiful almshouses are deservedly admired as the
most entire and elegant specimen of the kind in the kingdom. The house
of industry occupies the site, and includes the remains, of an ancient
monastery of Carmelites, founded in 1342, by Sir John Pulteney, lord
mayor of London, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £7. 13.
8.; part of the arched cloisters, beautifully groined, the refectory,
and dormitory, are still remaining, with the beautiful entrance
gateway, richly groined and ornamented with three canopied niches in
front; to these remains has been added a large and handsome brick
building, well adapted to the purpose; the management of this
establishment, which is also a comfortable asylum for the aged poor,
is vested in a body of guardians. The corporation have at their
disposal funds to the amount of £3000 per annum, for distribution
among the poor, arising chiefly from Sir Thomas White's donation of &
1400 in the reign of Henry VIII., exclusively of considerable sums to
be lent for nine years to apprentices of good character, on the
expiration of their indentures; in this loan natives of Leicester,
Northampton, Nottingham, and Warwick, participate. At Allesley, about
a mile distant, is a petrifying spring, not much used. William
Macclesfield, created Cardinal by Pope Benedict XI.; John Bird, Bishop
of Chester, who was deprived of his see in the reign of Mary; Humphrey
Wanley, the antiquary; and Nehemiah Grew, the botanist, were natives
of this city; and Dr. Philemon Holland, the translator of Camden's
Britannia, resided here for the greater part of his life. Coventry
gives the title of earl to the family of that name.