MORTLAKE, a parish in the western division of
the hundred of BRIXTON, county of SURREY, 6 miles
(S.W. by W.) from London, containing, with East
Sheen, 2484 inhabitants. In this parish, about the
year 1616, a manufactory of tapestry was established,
but it was destroyed in the time of the civil war; there
is at present one for earthenware. The cultivation of
asparagus and lavender was formerly extensive, but not
more than thirty acres are now applied to this use,
A farm, comprising eighty acres, on the Richmond side
of the parish, was formerly the private property of
George III. The river Thames flows on the north side of.
the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the pfeeuliar
jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, being in
the exempt deanery of Croydon, and in the patronage of
the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church, which
was founded in the fourteenth, and rebuilt in the sixteenth,
century, has undergone many modern repairs;
the tower, which is very ancient, is of stone and flint,
square and embattled; in the interior is an ancient font,
ornamented with rich tracery, the gift of Archbishop
Bourchier. There is a place of worship for Independents.
A free school, for the education of poor children
in the principles of the established church, founded
in 1700, and endowed by the will of Dorothy, LattJT
Capcl, in 1719, was enlarged by subscription m
1815, when the National system was introduced; about
ninety boys and fifty girls are instructed. An a""el"
house in this parish, said to have belonged to Oilv
Cromwell, was subsequently the residence of E(W»
Colston, Esq., the great benefactor to the city of ontol,
who, during his lifetime, expended more uw
£70,000 in the support of various charitable mo
tions. The only remaining vestige of Mortlake House,
anciently the residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury,
is the foundation of a single wall.