WAREHAM, a borough and market-town, having separate jurisdiction,
though locally in the hundred of Winfrith, Blandford (South)
division of the county of DORSET, 17 miles (E. by S.) from
Dorchester, and 119 (S. W. by W.) from London, containing, with
the out portion of the parish, of Lady St. Mary, and the liberty
of Stowborough, 1931 inhabitants. This town has been of great
note in history; it existed in the time of the Britons, and was
called Durngneis; by the Saxons it was named Vepham
and ThornscEta, and in ancient records it is designated
Warham, and Varama, a compound of Var-Ham, " a habitation
on a fishing shore." It has been supposed to
occupy the site of the Morionium, or Moriconium, of Ravennas,
but this is doubtful. That it was known to the
Romans is demonstrated by the existence of a Roman
way proceeding to Dorchester, and by the discovery of
coins in the vicinity. In the Saxon times it was of
some importance, and the burial-place of Brithric, the
West Saxon Icing, about the year 800. The Danes soon
afterwards massacred the inhabitants, and reduced the
town to ruins; but it had so recovered in the time of
Athelstan, that he established two mints in it. In 97S,
the body of Edward the Martyr, after his assassination
at Corfe-Castle, was temporarily interred here, and
was removed by St. Dunstan, with much ceremony, to
Shaftesbury. After the lapse of twenty years more, the
town was again ravaged by the Danes, who, making the
Isle of Wight their general place of rendezvous, proceeded
thence to the mouth of the river Frome, and
kept Wareham in a state of continual alarm. In 1138,
the castle and town were seized for the Empress Maud,
by Robert de Lincoln, but retaken and burnt by Stephen.
On the intended expedition of John against France, in
1205, that monarch landed here, and three years afterwards
garrisoned the town, which, in 1213, became the
scene of the cruel execution of Peter of Pomfret, a religious
enthusiast, and his son, because the former had
foretold the deposition of that monarch. During the
parliamentary war, Wareham was alternately possessed
by the king and the parliament, but was finally given
up to the former, on the surrender of Corfe Castle. I1
1762, two-thirds of it were destroyed by fire; but, by
a liberal subscription throughout the country, and an
act procured for its restoration, it was, within two
years, completely rebuilt.
The town is pleasantly situated on an eminence between
the mouths of the Frome and the Piddle, which
commands a prospect of Poole harbour, and in form
resembles a parallelogram, occupying an area of about
one hundred acres, enclosed, except on the south, by
a high wall, or rampart, of earth; the intervening
space between the wall and the town is laid out in large
garden grounds, divided into regular squares by lanes,
which still exhibit traces of some ancient buildings.
The four principal streets, as well as the minor streets
and lanes, diverge at right angles, and the former are
open and spacious, corresponding with the cardinal
points of the compass. The south and north entrances
are formed by bridges over the Frome and the Piddle;
the former is a handsome modern stone structure of five
arches, erected in 1775, in lieu of an old bridge, which
had stood from the time of William Rufus; the latter
has three arches: from both bridges are raised stone
causeways, that from the south, leading to Stowborough,
and- being eight hundred paces in length; the other to
North Port, on the London road. Wareham was formerly
a noted port, and, in the time of Edward III.,
furnished three ships and fifty-nine men for the siege
of Calais; but the retreat of the sea from its harbour
has long destroyed its importance, and withdrawn
its commercial traffic; although, at very high tides,
the water flows up nearly five miles to Holm bridge:
the quay is on the south side of the town. The river
Frome was anciently a celebrated salmon fishery, of
which the profits formed part of the dowry granted by
Henry VII. to his queen; and so abundant and cheapwas
this fish, that the curious stipulation inserted in the
indentures of apprentices, that they should not be compelled
to eat of it more than thrice a week, prevailed
here, as in various other places; the fishery has long
since declined, very few being now caught. The manufacture
of shirt buttons and straw-plat, and the knitting
of stockings, employ a great number of females;
pipe-clay is obtained in large quantities from pits in
the neighbourhood, and exported, in the proportion of
considerably more than ten thousand tons annually,
from Poole, for the Staffordshire potteries, also to London,
Liverpool, Hull, and Glasgow, for the manufacture
of tobacco pipes; coal, manufactured goods, and grocery,
are imported. The gardens within the town produce
a sufficient quantity of vegetables for the supply
of its own market, and also for those of Poole and
Portsmouth. The market is on Saturday; and fairs
are held on Midsummer-day, April 17th, and September
llth, for cattle, cheese, and hogs: the toll of the
market and fairs belongs to the mayor; of late years
six cattle markets have been held during the spring,
and are well attended. This is a borough by prescription,
and the inhabitants have had their privileges confirmed
by several charters; the last, under which the
town is now governed, was granted by Queen Anne, in
1703, The municipal body consists of a mayor, and
six capital, and twelve assistant burgesses, with a recorder,
town clerk, and inferior officers. The mayor,
who is a justice of the peace and coroner for the town
and the isles of Purbeck and Brownsea, and capital
burgesses, hold quarter sessions of the peace, having
exclusive jurisdiction: a court of record is held on
the first Monday in every month, for the recovery
of debts under £40, A court baron is held annually
by the lord of the manor. The gift of the freedom of
the borough is vested in the corporation. This town
has returned members to parliament from the time of
Edward I.: the elective franchise is in the mayor, magistrates,
and inhabitants paying scot and lot, and in
the freeholders of lands and tenements who have been,
bondjlde, in the occupancy or receipt of the rents and
profits thereof for the space of one whole year next
before the election; except the same came to such freeholders
by descent, devise, marriage settlement, or appointment
to some benefice in the church; the number
of voters paying scot and lot are about one hundred and
sixty-five, but the- whole number of electors is above
seven hundred: the mayor is the returning officer.
Wareham comprises the parishes of the Holy Trinity,
St. Martin Within and Without, and Lady St.
Mary Within and Without, in the archdeaconry of Dorset,
and diocese of Bristol. The living of Holy Trinity
parish is. a rectory, to which those of St. Martin's and
St. Mary's were united in 1678, rated in the king's
books at £7. 5, 5., and in the patronage of John Calcraft,
Esq. 5 the church is disused. The living of St.
Martin's is rated in the king's books at £ 8. 2. 6.: this
church also is disused. The living of St. Mary's is a
rectory not in charge: the church is a spacious and
ancient structure, containing early and decorated portions;
it is believed to have been conventual, and attached
to a priory founded here before 876, when the
monastery was destroyed by the Danes, and to have
been rebuilt about the period of the Conquest: over a
small north door is a rude piece of sculpture, representing
the Crucifixion, surmounted by a Saxon arch.
In a small south chapel, of which the ceiling is richly
groined, are the monuments of two warriors recumbent,
and in complete mail: in this chapel the remains of
Mr. Hutchins, rector of this place, and author of the
" History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset," are
deposited; here also are several mural monuments to
the members of the Calcraft family. There were formerly
two other parochial churches, St. Peter's and St.
Michael's. There are places of worship for Independents,
Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians: that for
the Independents was erected in 1670, and its first minister
was one of the confessors of Bartholomew-day:
they have recently erected'a British free school, readingroom,
and library, in which lectures are given during the
winter, which is supported by voluntary contributions.
The free school, situated in the parish of Lady St.
Mary, was founded by George Pitt, of Stratfieldsaye,Esq.,
with a salary of £25 per annum for a schoolmaster; the
endowment was further augmented by a bequest from
Henry Harbin in 1703, who left £200 for the purchase
of land, to instruct the children of the poor. An almshouse,
opposite St. Peter's church, was founded by John
Streche, of Exeter, Esq., for six aged men and five women;
it was rebuilt, in 1741, by Henry Drax and John Pitt,
Esqrs., andvahied in the chantry roll at £11. 13. 10.
The antiquities of Wareham comprise the walls built by
the Danes in the time of Alfred; the west wall is one
thousand eight hundred feet in length, the north one
thousand nine hundred and sixty, the east one thousand
six hundred, and the south one thousand seven hundred,
varying as to height in different places; near Bloody
bank, the place of execution, in 1684, of Mr. Baxter,
Holman, and others, for their attachment to the Duke
of Monmouth, it is thirty feet perpendicular. Of the
castle, situated in the south-west angle of the town, and
originally supposed to have been built by the Romans,
and rebuilt by the Conqueror, only the mound, or
keep, called Castle hill, remains. The relics of the
priory have been converted into a dwelling-house.
At Stowborough, on opening a barrow, called King
Barrow, in 1767, a large hollow trunk of an oak was
discovered, in which were human bones, wrapped up in
a large covering composed of several deer skins, and a
small vessel of oak, in the shape of an urn, conjectured
by Mr. Hutchins to have been the drinking cup of the
deceased, who, in the opinion of Mr. Gough, was some
Saxon, or Danish, chieftain. Dr. John Chapman, tutor
to the great Lord Camden; and Horace Walpole, Earl
of Orford, were natives of this town.