DALTON-in-FURNESS, a parish in the hundred
of LONSDALE, north of the sands, county palatine of
LANCASTER, comprising the market-town of Dalton, the
chapelry of Ireleth, and the townships of Hawcoat-abovetown
and Yarleside, and containing 2446 inhabitants, of
vAich number, 714 are in the town of Dalton, 25 miles
(N.W. by W.) from Lancaster, and 265 (N.W. by N.) from
London. This place derives its name from being situated
in a dale in the lower part of the district of Furness, of
which it was formerly the chief town. According to
Tacitus, Agricola, when he had conquered that district,
erected a fort here for its protection, and the remains of
a Roman road, discovered in 1803 by some workmen, at
a considerable depth from the surface, confirm the probability
of its having been a Roman station, though
there are no other vestiges except some slight traces of
the fosse by which it was surrounded. The mount on
which the fort was built, upon due examination, was
found to be of artificial construction; it was defended
on the south and west sides by steep precipices, and on
the east by a rampart and ditch; and a brook which
flowed at the base supplied the garrison with water.
The town derived its principal importance from the
erection of the magnificent abbey of Furness, founded
in 1127, by Stephen, afterwards king of England, for
monks of the Cistercian order, whom he removed from
Tulket, in Amounderness, to this valley, where, obtaining
valuable grants, they continued to flourish for more than
four centuries. The abbots were invested with extensive
privileges, and enjoyed large possessions; they held in
their own right the woods, pastures, fisheries, and mills
of the district, and had considerable shares in the saltworks
and mines; the abbey and monastic edifices
formed a vast pile of buildings, the character of which
was more that of simple magnificence arising from
their extent, than of richness and beauty resulting from
their style. The chapter-house, which was by far the
most elegant of the conventual buildings, was of the
early style of English architecture; the church, and
most of the other parts, were in the Norman, style, partly
intermixed with the early English: the revenue of this
establishment, at the dissolution, was £966. 7.10. The
remains, an extended mass of ponderous ruins, occupy a
considerable part of an area of sixty-five acres, called
the Deer park, enclosed with a stone wall, in the sequestered
vale of Bekang's Gill, about half a mile west
of the town; the approaches are strewed with memorials
of its abbots, and mutilated tombs. In the reign
of Edward III., a castle, in which during peaceable times
the abbots of Furness held their secular courts, was
erected here, probably as a place of retreat for the inhabitants,
and for the protection of their property from
the frequent predatory incursions of the Scots, of whose
approach numerous beacons in this part of the country
were kept in constant readiness to give notice. In the
reign of Henry VIII., Lambert Simnel, the pretended
earl of Warwick, landed here, whence he proceeded to
assert his claims to the throne; and during the parliamentary
war in the reign of Charles I., the town and
neighbourhood were the scene of frequent engagements
between the hostile parties.
The town is situated on the acclivity of a gradual
eminence, and consists principally of one street, at the
western extremity of which is the market-place; the
houses, in general old, have in some instances given place
to others of modern erection: some improvement has been
made, but the inhabitants are indifferently supplied with
water. The environs are pleasant, and favourable for the
sports of the chase; the DaltonHunt, established in 1703,
and noticed in the London Gazette, under the title of the
Dalton Rout, and in a contribution to the Tatler, in
which the balls and amusements attending its celebration
are described, has been discontinued since 1789;
a book society, anciently established here, is still continued
under judicious regulations. The trade is principally
in malt, which is carried on to a great extent; and the
iron mines in the vicinity, which have been worked for
more than four centuries, produce many thousand tons
of excellent ore. A canal, one mile and a half in length,
has been constructed, by which vessels may sail up to
the town from the sea; and at South End Haws, at the
extremity of the Isle of Walney, a light-house, sixtyeight
feet in height, was erected in the year 1790. The
market is on Saturday: the fairs are, April 28th,
June 6th, and October 23d; the first is a statute fair.
The parochial affairs are under the direction of twentyfour
sidesmen appointed by the parishioners. A court
for the recovery of debts under 4Qs. is held every third
week for the barony of Furness; and the lord of the
manor holds a court leet twice in the year; the landholders
in the parish are customary tenants of the
manor; the estates are of the same extent, and pay the
same rent, and can neither be partitioned by the tenant,
nor devised by will. The castle, erected in the reign of
Edward III., and supposed to occupy a portion of the
site of the fort built by Agricola, is at present appropriated
to the holding of the courts for the liberty,
and for the recovery of debts; it is a massive quadrilateral
building of three stages, having the principal
entrance on the south side, over which is a central window
of three lights, surmounted by another of four
fights, with flowing tracery in the decorated style.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, rated in
the king's books at £17 6 S., endowed with £600 private
benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £1500 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the King, as
Duke of Lancaster. The church, dedicated to St. Mary,
is a neat plain structure of considerable antiquity, built
on the declivity of a hill within the precincts of the ancient
castellum. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan
Methodists. The free grammar school was founded
in 1622, by Thomas Boulton, Esq., who bequeathed in
trust to the twenty-four sidesmen £220, of which sum,
£20 was to be laid out in the erection of the schoolroom,
and the remainder to be invested in the purchase
of land for its endowment; with this sum, a farm at
Beggar, in the Isle of Walney, has been purchased, producing
at present £137 per annum, of which, £100 is
paid to the master, who instructs so many of the scholars
as require it, in Latin, arithmetic, and the mathematics,
and £35 per annum to the assistant, who teaches
the rest on Dr. Bell's system, the school is free to all
the boys and girls of the parish, and there are, upon
the average, eighty scholars attending it. At Ireleth, a
chapelry in this parish, there is a similar school. There
are various charitable bequests for distribution among the
poor. On High Haume, an eminence near the town, is
a circular intrenchment which appears to have been a
fortified beacon; and on the Pile of Fouldrey, a rocky
island separated from the Isle of Walney, are the ruins
of a castle, thought by Camden to have been erected in
the reign of Edward III., by the abbots of Furness, to
defend the approach to the harbour. George Romney,
an historical and portrait painter of considerable eminence,
was born in this parish, in 1734.