WELLINGBOROUGH, a market-town and parish
in the hundred of HAMFORDSHOE, county of NORTHAMPTON,
10 miles (N. E. by E.) from Northampton, and
07 (N- N. W.) from London, containing 4454 inhabitants.
The name is derived from the wells, or springs,
that abound here, of which that denominated Red Well
was formerly in such repute for its medicinal properties
that, in 1626, Charles I. and his queen resided in tents'
during a whole season, for the purpose of drinking its
salubrious water at the source. In 1738, the town
was nearly destroyed by fire, and rebuilt on the slope
of a hill nearly a mile northward from the navigable
river Nen; it consists of several streets lighted and
pitched, the principal of them meeting in the marketplace;
the houses, built of red sand-stone, which
abounds in the vicinity, are of modern style and handsome
appearance. The chief articles of manufacture
are boots and shoes, and bobbin-lace; the former was
very extensive during the war, and is still considerable
and the latter, though on the decline, employs many
females and children: a silk-mill has been recently
established. The market was granted by King John,
at the request of the monks of Croyland abbey, the
proprietors of the manor, which was subsequently held
by Queen Elizabeth, after the dissolution; it is on
Wednesday, and is a very considerable corn market.
Fairs are on the Wednesdays in Easter and Whitsunweeks,
and October 29th; the last is a large one for live
stock. Manorial courts are held annually in October;
and petty sessions for the division, every week by the
county magistrates, who assemble at the town hall,
which has been recently erected by the feoffees, and is
used for vestries and other public meetings.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough, rated in
the king's books at £24. 1. 8., and in the patronage
of Quintus Vivian, Esq. The church, dedicated to All
Saints, is a spacious and handsome structure, combining
specimens of the different styles of English architecture,
with an elegant tower and spire; on the south
side is a Norman door, and in the interior are some
ancient screen-work and stalls; the east window, is
richly ornamented with sculpture and tracery: the
exterior is protected by an iron palisade. There are
three places of worship for Independents, and one each
for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyan Methodists.
A free grammar school, adjoining the churchyard,
was founded in the 2nd of Edward VI., and endowed
with the revenue of a guild of the Blessed Virgin,
formerly attached to the church; the funds have
received considerable augmentation from subsequent
benefactors, and are under the management of sixteen
feoffees: the head and under masters are elected by the
inhabitants assessed to the land tax, and receive certain
shares of the annual income. In 1711, a copyhold
house was bequeathed by John Freeman, Esq., to
be used as a charity school, in which twenty-five boys
are taught to read, and twenty-five girls to read, sew
and make lace: the salaries to the master and the mistress
are-derived from invested legacies given by Samuel
Knight, Mary Roan, and John Robinson, together
with four-eighths of the rental of fifty-five acres of
land, producing about £137. 10. per annum, the remainder
of which is appropriated to the head and
tinder master of the free grammar school, and to two.
aged inhabitants not receiving parochial relief. There
is a gift of land for the use of the poor, made, in the
reign of Elizabeth, by a person unknown. The chalybeate
spring, which flowed about half a mile north-,
west of the town, is now covered over, and, with other
streams, supplies the reservoir of a corn-mill.