ENFIELD, a parish (formerly a market-town) in
the hundred of EDMONTON, county of MIDDLESEX, 1
miles (N. by E.) from London, containing 8227 inhabitants.
This place is in Domesday-book called Ene-
felde, from which its present name, denoting its situation
among fields, or in the felled part of the forest, is
derived. The Chase formerly extended to the river Lea,
in the neighbourhood of which, for the facility of its
conveyance, the timber growing in this extensive tract,
would probably be felled prior to that in any other
part of the parish. Richard II. granted the inhabitants
exemption from tolls, and various privileges,
which were confirmed by succeeding monarchs. Ed-
ward VI. had a palace here, in which he kept his court
for a considerable time; and in 1557, the princess, after-
wards Queen Elizabeth, spent some days in the palace,
when, with great pomp, she came to hunt in Enfield
Chase, which was well stocked with deer. In the earlier
part of her reign the queen made this her principal residence,
where she held her court previously to its rer
moval to London. James I., who had a palace at Theobald's,
made frequent excursions to this forest, to enjoy
the diversion of the chase; and Charles II. here had a
hunting seat, where he occasionally resided. During the
great civil war, the parliamentarian army destroyed the
game, and cut down the trees; and a considerable part of
the land was divided into small farms; it. continued in
this state till after the Restoration, when it was r.e-planted
and stocked with deer. In 1777, it was finally disafforested
by act of parliament, and allotments assigned
to such parishes and individuals as claimed a right of
common: the Chase, on admeasurement, was foxmd to
contain eight thousand three hundred and fifty acres,
of which the greater part is now in tillage. Of
the ancient palace, which was probably repaired during
the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, but of
which the major part was taken down in 1792, only
one of the principal rooms on the ground floor is remaining;
it is still in its original state, with oak panels
and a richly ornamented ceiling; the chimney-piece of
freestone, which is embellished with finely sculptured
birds and foliage, is supported by columns of the Corinthian
and Ionic orders, and decorated with the rose
and portcullis crowned, and with the arms of England
and France quartered, having for supporters a lion and
dragon, and the motto " Sola salus servire Deo; sunt
ctstera fraudes:" part of a similar chimney-piece, removed
from one of the upper rooms, has been placed
on the wainscot over the door. A fine cedar of Libanus
was planted in the garden of the palace in 1666, the girth
of which at a short distance from the ground is nineteen
feet three inches. A knife and fork, and a gilt silver
spoon, were found in-taking down part of the ancient
building in 1789, and among the ruins another silver
spoon, apparently of the date of Elizabeth; which is in
the possession of the present occupier of the premises,
a sixpence of the reign of Elizabeth, and a gold coin
of that of Charles I.
The town, which is situated to the west of the road
from London to Ware, consists of two streets, in which
are several handsome houses, and is well supplied with
water from springs. A royal manufactory for small
arms, previously carried on at the Tower and at Lewisham,
was, in 1816, established partly in this parish and
partly at Waltham Abbey: there are a corn-mill, and
a mill for dressing skins, a brewery, and an extensive
tannery 5 and at Ponder's End, in the parish, is a large
manufactory for finishing crape, which affordsemployment
to one hundred and fifty persons. The New River
runs through the town, and the Lea navigation passes
through part of the parish. The market on Monday,
granted by charter of Edward I. in 1304, and
another on Saturday, by charter of James I., are both
discontinued; but fairs are still held on September
23d, which is a statute fair, and  November 30th, for
horses, cows, and cheese. Near the . market-house, a
handsome stone cross, in the ancient style of English
architecture, was erected in 1826, by subscription. The
county magistrates hold here a petty session for the
division every alternate Wednesday; courts leet and
baron are held on the Wednesday in Whitsun-week;
and a court of requests is held for the hundred, for the
recovery of debts under 40s. Enfield is a liberty her
longing to the duchy of Lancaster, and the inhabitants
appoint their own coroner. The parish comprises the
town, the Chase, Bull's cross, Baker street, and Greenstreet,
with Ponder's End.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Middlesex,
and diocese of London, rated in the Icing's books
at £26, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows
of Trinity College, Cambridge. A lectureship was established
in 1631, by Mr. Henry Loft, who endowed it
with £4 per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew,
is an ancient structure in the decorated and later
styles of English architecture, with a low square embattled
tower; the nave is separated from the aisles by
clustered columns and pointed arches; it contains many
ancient, and several splendid monuments, among which
are the tomb and effigies of Sir Nicholas Raynton and
his lady; an altar-tomb to the memory of Joyce, Lady
Tiftoft, mother of the talented Earl of Worcester; a
handsome monument of Italian veined marble to Thomas
Stringer, Esq., and various others. In enlarging
the arch which separates the chancel from the nave,- a
rude painting of the Resurrection in six compartments
was removed} and in opening a vault in 1829, some
coffins hi the shape of the human frame were discovered.
A chapel of ease is about to be built in the di vision
of Green-street and Ponder's End, at an estimated
expense of £48.00, to be defrayed partly by a grant from
the parliamentary commissioners, and partly by subscription.
There are places of worship for Independents,
Wesleyan Methodists, and Presbyterians.
The free grammar school was originally endowed with
funds arising from a bequest by Mr. Robert Blossom, in
1418, of land and premises in the parish of South Bernfleet,
for the establishment of a chantry in that place,
which after the dissolution was granted to trustees for
the payment of a schoolmaster for the instruction of
poor children of the parish of Enfield, with remainder,
after paying the expenses of repairs, &c., for distribution
among the poor: the produce arising from
this and subsequent benefactions, and from the sale of
timber, is at present nearly £400 per annum: there
are about one hundred and seventy boys in the school,
who are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, -the mathematics,
and the classics. Mrs. Mary Turpin, in
1775, bequeathed £200 to be vested in the three per cent,
consols., for the instruction of three poor girls. A
school of industry, in which forty-five girls are clothed
and instructed, established in 1800; a similar school, in
which forty girls are clothed and instructed, established
by the dissenting congregations in 1806; and an infant
school, instituted in 1825, are supported by subscrip-
tion; an infant school was also established at Ponder's
End in 1830. Sir Nicholas Raynton, in 1646, bequeathed
£10 per annum in trust to the Haberdashers'
Company, for apprenticing children of this parish, to
which the churchwardens have added £3 per annum,
being the dividend on £100 stock, purchased with a
sum of £70 returned to them by the company, who for
thirty-five years had deducted £2 per annum for the
land tax. Henry Dixon, Esq., in 1693, left considerable
estates in the parishes of Bennington and Munden, in
the county of Herts; of Enfield in the county of Middlesex
5 and of St. Mildred's in the Poultry, London, in
trust to the Drapers Company, for apprenticing boys
of these parishes above .the age of fifteen; such as
bear his Christian and surname, wherever born, are to
be preferred, and to receive a premium of £5, and
£ 5. on the expiration of their indenture: those who
bear only his surname receive a premium of £4, the
sons of tenants of any of his lands, wherever born, £3,
and any who are nominated by the court of assistants
of the Drapers Company, £4. Mrs. Anne Crowe,
in 1763, endowed almshouses for four aged persons, with
£500 reduced Bank Annuities. Thomas Wilson, Esq.,
in 15QO, bequeathed the rents of three houses in Whitechapel,
London, producing £162. 14. 6. per annum, for
distribution among six aged men of this parish; one of
these houses was sold by act of parliament and the money
vested in the purchase of £2091 three per cent, consols.,
the interest of which, with £150, the rental of the two
remaining houses, amounts to about £212 per annum.
John David, Esq. bequeathed the rents of tenements on
Enfield-green, producing £50. 5. per annum, to be divided
among four aged widows. King James I. gave
£ 500 for the purchase of three hundred and thirty-five
acres of land, a part of Enfield Chase, with which sum
the churchwardens bought an estate at North Mimms,
in Hertfordshire, afterwards exchanged for another at
Eastwood, in Essex, which is distributed among aged
widows; there are several other bequests for charitable
purposes. A charity for the relief of lying-in women
was established in 1797, and is supported by subscription.
The Ermin-street led through part of the Chase to
Hertford; and in a meadow called Old Bury, about half
a mile to the east of the church, is the site of an
ancient mansion, surrounded by a wide and deep moat,
with high intrenchments, including a quadrilateral area
of ninety-six yards in length, and forty in breadth; at
the north-west angle is an eminence having the appearance
of the keep of a castle, probably the manorial residence
of Humphrey de Bohun. To the south-west
of the town, and about a mile from Old Bury, is a
smaller moat, on the estate of John Clayton, Esq.; and
to the south of Goulsdown-lane is another, separating
two square fields, in the first of which are the remains
of out-buildings belonging to a mansion in which Judge
Jeffreys- is said to have resided, and near the entrance
a deep well, called King's Ring, the water of which is
deemed efficacious in diseases of the eye: a celt was
dug up in 1793, at the depth of twelve feet from the
surface. In 1816, several Roman urns and coins were
found in a gravel pit in the vicinity; and in Windmill
field, large painted tiles have been frequently discovered
by the plough; and recently part of a coffin and some
-urns, in one of which were bones, and in another three
pieces of gold. In September, 1820, several Roman coins
of silver and brass were ploughed up in a field near Clay
Hill; they were of the reigns of Domitian, Nerva,Trajan,
Aurelius, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and one with the
head of the Empress Sabina, and several others, about
seventy in number, many of which are in the possession
of Dr. May and C. P. Meyer, Esq. William Pitt,
Earl of Chatham, was an inhabitant of Enfield for
several years, and Richard Gough, the antiquary, resided
here till his decease in 1809. Enfield gives the. title
of baron to the Earl of Rochford.