DARLEY-ABBEY, a chapelry in that part of the parish of ST-ALKMUND, DERBY, which is in the hundred of MORLESTON-AND-LITCHURCH, county of DERBY, 1 mile (N.) from Derby, containing 841 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and in the patronage of Walter Evans, Esq., who, in 1819, built and endowed the church at his sole expense, for the accommodation of his work-people. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Derwent, on which are extensive cotton and paper-mills, the proprietors of which have established schools on an extensive scale, for the children of the people in their employment. The abbey was founded in the reign of Henry I., for friars of the order of St. Augustine, and endowed and its privileges confirmed by Henry II.; at the dissolution its annual revenue was £285. 9. 6.