WOOLWICH, a market-town and parish in the
hundred of BLACKHEATH, lathe of SUTTON at HONE,
county of KENT, 8 miles (E. by S.) from London, containing,
according to the last census, 17,008 inhabitants,
which number has, since that period, considerably decreased.
This place, originally a small fishing town,
unnoticed by any of the earner Kentish historians,
owes its present importance, among other causes, to
its situation "on the river Thames, which, in this part,
is nearly three quarters of a mile broad, and of sufficient
depth, at the lowest state of the tide, for ships
of the largest burden. In the reign of Henry VII.,
a ship of war of one thousand tons' burden was built
here, which that monarch named the "Harry Grace
de Dieu;" but it does not appear that any regular
establishment for ship-building had been formed previously
to the reign of Henry VIII., who constructed
a royal dock-yard here, which was enlarged by Queen
Elizabeth, and has continued progressively to increase
in every succeeding reign. The " Sovereign of the
Seas," the largest ship that had ever been built in
England, was launched from this dock-yard in the
reign, of Charles I.: this ship, which was of one thousand
six hundred and thirty-seven tons' burden, and
carried one hundred and seventy-six guns, was richly
ornamented with carving and gilding; from which circumstance,
combined with the destructive efficacy of
its heavy ordnance in the war with the Dutch, it obtained
from that people the appellation of the " Golden
Devil." In the reign of George I., the cannon for the
Board of Ordnance was cast in a foundry situated in
Moorfields, which having been destroyed by an explosion,
occasioned by dampness in the moulds at the time
of pouring in the liquid metal, the establishment was removed
to Woolwich, and placed under the superintendence
of Mr. Andrew Schalch, a native of Schaffhausen
in Switzerland, who, travelling for improvement, visited
the foundry in Moorfields at the time when preparations
were in progress for casting several pieces of ordnance
on the day following, in the presence of many of the
nobility, general officers, and a large concourse of people.
Mr. Schalch, who had obtained permission to
inspect the process, minutely examined the preparations,
and instantly perceiving the improper state of
the moulds, warned the surveyor-general of the ordnance,
and the superintendent of the foundries, of the
lurking danger; and they, sensible of the justness and
importance of his apprehensions, retired with their
friends and all whom they could persuade to accompany
them, in time; to escape the effect of the explosion,
by which several lives were lost, and many of the
workmen dreadfully burnt and mangled. The Board
of Ordnance subsequently finding this gentleman duly
qualified, authorised him to choose a commodious situation
within twelve miles of the metropolis, for the
erection of a new foundry; and, after having visited
several places, he selected the Warren at Woolwich for
that purpose. The first specimens of ordnance cast
under his superintendence being highly approved of, he
was appointed master founder, which office he held for
nearly sixty years, with so much skill and attention,
that, during this long period, not a single accident occurred.
This circumstance may be considered the origin
of the present arsenal, the subsequent extension
and establishment of which, with the augmentation of
the artillery, whose head-quarters were fixed here, the
institution of the Royal Military academy, and various
other foundations, have raised the town to a degree of
importance, which, as a grand naval and military dep6t,
is without a parallel in any empire of the world:
The town is situated on elevated ground rising gradually
from the south bank of the river Thames, on the
opposite side of which, in the county of Essex, is a
detached part of the parish: it consists of one main
street, extending nearly a mile parallel with the river,
from which numerous other streets branch off in various
directions, and is partly included in the parish of Plumstead.
The houses in that part of it which may be considered
the principal street are of ancient appearance,
occasionally interspersed with substantial and well-built
dwellings but the other streets consist of modern
houses, principally erected for the accommodation of
the artificers and labourers employed in the dock-yard,
arsenal, and other public works. The upper part of
the town, towards the common and the Charlton road,
is elevated and pleasant, and contains several ranges of
well-built and handsome modern houses; the environs
abound with rich woodland scenery, agreeably diversified
with the windings of the Thames, sometimes seen
in pleasing combination, and at others in striking contrast.
The town is partially paved, under the superin-
tendence of commissioners annually chosen under the
provisions of an act of parliament passed in the 47th
of George III.; lighted with gas by a company established
by act of parliament; and amply supplied with
water from the works of the Kent Water Company.
The public buildings are all on a scale of vast extent,
and most of them in a style of magnificence corresponding
with the importance of the purposes to which
they are applied. The dock-yard commences hear the
village of New Charlton on the west, and extends
nearly a mile along the bank of the river, to the east;
the breadth varies from one to two furlongs; the
principal entrance is through a stone portal, of which
the piers are ornamented with anchors sculptured iri
stone. On the left hand, within the walls, is a house
for a commissioner, and on the right are the houses
belonging to the principal officers of the yard. Beyond
these is the smithery, a spacious and lofty building,
in which are, a steam-engine of twenty-horse power,
which works two large lift-hammers', weighing nearly
four tons each, and one of fourteen-horse power, working
three tilt-hammers, of less weight; the general fall
of these hammers is about nine inches, and the number
of strokes from thirty to fifty per minute: there
is another steam-engine, of fourteen-horse power/ for
blowing the fires throughout the smithery, and there
are several blast furnaces for converting scrap iron into
pigs, and a machine for rolling iron. Kneels, keelsons',
breast-pieces, and all other iron work connected with
ship-building, are manufactured here, and also anchors
of the largest size, great numbers of which, kept in readiness
for supplying the R&yal Navy, are disposed in
extensive ranges in the area in front of the "building.
There are two dry docks, one of which is double, for
the repairing of vessels, and several slips, in which
ships of war of the largest dimensions are built, under
lofty sheds lighted from the roof; and a capacious
basin, four hundred feet long, and two hundred and
ninety feet in mean breadth, has been recently excavated,
capable of receiving ships of the largest class, the entrance
into which from the river is by caisson of large
dimensions; the embankment is by strong sloping
walls of brick, coped with massive blocks of stone.
The line of wharfage is very extensive and of proportionate
breadth: there are a nlast-pond, a boat-pond,
and several mast-houses and boat-houses, also extensive
ranges of timber-sheds, storehouses of every kind upon
the largest scale, a mould loft, and every requisite
arrangement for the purposes of the establishment.
Several fine first and second rate ships have recently
been built here, among which are, the Lord Nelson,
of one hundred and twenty guns; the Invincible, of
seventy-four; the Venerable, of seventy-four; the Redoubtable,
the Hawk, the Talavera, Black Prince, and
others, together with numerous third-rates and frigates
and several fine ships are now on the stocks,
among which are, the Trafalgar, of one hundred and
twenty guns; the Boscawen, of eighty; the Thunderer,
of eighty-four; the Ohichester, of fifty-two; the Ambuscade,
of thirty-six; the Halcyon and Hysena sloops;
iand the Dee, & steam-vessel of seven hundred and one
tons' burden. The establishment, Under the direction
of the Navy Board, consists o'f a master attendant, a
store-keeper, a master shipwright and assistants, a
master smith, master painter, with their assistants, a
surgeon and an assistant surgeon, and other officers-
In the eastern part of the town is the rope-yard, an extensive
range of building, three stories high, and more
than one thousand two hundred feet in length, in which
ropes of various sizes, cordage for rigging the shipsi,
and cables of the largest size, are made; in the up-
per story the hemp is spun into yarn, which, in the
next story below, is made into lines, cordage, and
smaller ropes; and in the lowest story the larger ropes
and cables are twisted by the help of powerful ma1
chinery, a part of which, by a very ingenious contrivance,
is applied to stretching the largest cables, which
they strain till they break, in order to ascertain their
strength, and the exact weight which they are capable
of sustaining; some of the cables made here are
one hundred and two fathoms long, arid twenty-four
inches in circumference: this establishment, which is
enclosed with high walls, and is under the superintendence
of a resident clerk, is about to be transferred to
Chatham, or Portsmouth.
To the east of the rope-yard is the royal arsenal,
under the control of the Master-General and the Honourable
Board of Ordnance; this magnificent establishment
comprises within the boundary walls more than
one hundred acres, and, including the canal, more than
one hundred and forty-two, the greater part of which is
within the adjoining parish of Plumstead. The principal
entrance is through a spacious and lofty central gateway
for carriages, with smaller entrances on each side; the
inner piers are ornamented with small piles of shot, and
the outer piers, which are loftier, are surmounted by
mortars. Nearly opposite the entrance is a range of
handsome houses, appropriated to the commandant of
the garrison, the field-officers of the royal artillery, and
the principal officers attached to some of the departments;
the chief of which are, the inspector of artillery's
department, the royal carriage department, the royal en-
gineer's department, the storekeepers department, superintendant
of shipping, the royal laboratory. In addition
to these are immense ranges of storehouses, forming a
grand national dep6t of warlike stores, of every description,
for the naval and military departments of the
service. On the right hand of the entrance is a range
of buildings used, till within the last few years,' as an
academy for- part of the gentlemen cadet company, iri
connexion with the Royal Military academy, arid now
occupied partly as store-rooms and partly as dwellinghouses.
On the left hand is a haridsome guard-house,
with a portico of four columns of Portland stone, beyond
which is the royal brass foundry, erected by
Vanbriigh, a spacious and lofty building of red brick,
ornamented with stone and roofed With slate, which is
perforated for ventilation. Over the entrance are the
royal arms, handsomely carved in stone, above which
is a neat cupola: it contains three large furnaces for
casting brass ordnance only, the- largest of which Will
melt eighteen tons of metal at one time f to avoid all
danger of explosion, the moulds are heated to a considerable
degree before the inetal runs into them! To
the east of the foundry are appropriate workshops for
boring arid engraving the' cannon: the machine- for
boring is well adapted to the purpose; the gun is fixed
to a shaft turned round by a horizontal wheel, mbved
by horse power, which, working into ariother attached
to the erid of the piece, gives it a vertical motion; the
cutter, or borer, is placed in a frame, and adjusted by
iron clamps and screws, and is moved gradually forward,
as the cavity deepens, by machinery adapted to
that purpose: the time requisite for boring a ninepounder
is usually three days, and longer in proportion
for pieces of a larger calibre. The several duties
are performed under the direction of the inspector of
artillery, in whose department is also carried on the
examination and proving of ordnance, the fitting and
adjusting of them with the necessary instruments for
taking the degree of elevation, and other arrangements
connected with the service. All ordnance used in the
Hon. East India Company's, and in the merchants' service
are sent here to undergo examination and proof,
previously to their being used. To the east of the
buildings appropriated to the boring and engraving of
cannon are the workshops of the royal carriage department,
for the construction and manufacture of gun
carriages for naval and land service, and of all carts,
ammunition wagons, and other carriages used in the
ordnance department; in these workshops are steamengines
applied to the working of circular and other
saws for converting timber, machinery of ingenious
construction for planing wood, and for turning wood
and metal. In a line with this range of buildings
is the royal engineer department, under the direction
of which are the erection and repair of all buildings
belonging to the Board of Ordnance within a limited
distance of Woolwich. To the north-west of the foundry
is the royal laboratory, in which are made up blank
and ball cartridges for small arms, cartridges-for cannon
of all descriptions, grape and case shot, and all
combustible articles, and a variety of other important
duties relating to the naval and military service is performed.
In addition to the workshops for these purposes
are the buildings by Vanbrugh, in which are now
deposited some ingenious models of fire-ships, completely
prepared for explosion, models of various fireworks
exhibited on public occasions, and other curiosities.;
and in the other are various machines for ascertaining
the strength of gunpowder, with samples of the
different ingredients for making it, in their several
stages of purification and refinement; specimens of the
various kinds used by different nations, and of the several
degrees of fineness, from the coarsest used forthe
heaviest ordnance to the finest for small arms; .-numerous
models of muskets, and arms of different construction
and a variety of interesting and curious objects.
A line of wharfage, with a commodious quay,
accessible to ships of large burden, extends for. many
hundred yards along the bank of the Thames, on
which is a spacious and magnificent range of-storehouses,
occupying three sides of a quadrangle, the area
of which is filled with vast quantities of shot and shell
of every size, ranged in regular quadrangular and pyramidal
piles, and duly numbered. The buildings are
of light brick, with quoins, cornices, pilasters, and pediments
of stone, and handsomely embellished with
appropriate ornaments: the central range, comprising
three stories, is connected with the wings, which are
two stories high, by handsome arched portals of. stone
forming the entrances into, the quadrangle,. and; surmounted
with balustraded corridors, communicating
with the-principal stories of each range. In the basement
story of the principal range are deposited general
stores for the naval service; in the second are the
harness and other equipments for the royal horse artillery;
and in the upper story, stores of various descriptions.
The east wing is appropriated to the reception of
stores for garrison and field services, with a large assortment
of nails and other necessaries: the west contains
the stores and various implements used by the
sappers and miners, and those for making intrenchments
and constructing fortifications, among which are
sand-bags, axes, shovels, spades, barrows, grates for
heating shot, and numerous other articles, and an extensive
collection of samples of different materials, and
patterns of various implements, with which the several
articles furnished to the Board of Ordnance are compared,
before they are received into the dep&t. On the
ground-floors of these store-rooms are iron tram-roads,
upon which carriages constructed for the purpose, once
put in motion, will run, when heavily loaded, from
one extremity to the other, for the conveyance of stores
to the wharf. To the east and west of the principal
buildings are smaller quadrangular ranges of storehouses,
of one and two stories in height: in both, of
these, the ranges parallel with the river are of one
story, and are appropriated as repositories for carriages;
in the lower story of the eastern ,range are stores of
oil and cement; and in the upper, a general repository
of stores of various kinds: the lower story qf the
western range is for the reception of carriages, and the
upper is the depdt of clothing for the royal artillery
:and for the sappers and miners, and in the centre of
each of these smaller quadrangles are painters' shops.
There ,are also various ranges of building for ware-
houses in different parts of the enclosure. To--the
south of the principal quadrangle are immense quantities
of iron ordnance of various calibres, placed on
iron  skidding, and ranged in double files, extending
many hundred yards in length, and, with small intervals
between the rows, spreading over several acres
of ground: large quantities ofiron carriages for guns,
and beds for mortars, are ranged at the extremity and
around the space occupied by the ordnance; and numerous
mortars of the largest calibre are disposed in
various parts of the ground.
The arsenal is bounded on the south-east by a
canal, thirty-five feet broad, on the banks of which are
wooden buildings for the manufacture of the Congreve
rockets, under the superintendence of the officers of the
royal laboratory; and towards the south-eastern extremity
of the boundary wall is pleasantly situated, on
the road to Plumstead, the house appropriated to the
residence of the storekeeper and paymaster. A little
to the west is a saw-mill, worked by a steam-engine of
twenty-horse power, for sawing trees and rough timber
into planks of any required thickness,. to which the
saws, fixed in frames and worked perpendicularly with
great efficacy, can be adjusted at pleasure; there are
also circular and other saws, with machinery of a very
ingenious description, for turning and other purposes,
all under the direction of the officers belonging to the
royal carriage department. At a short distance from
the royal. arsenal, on "the road to Woolwich common,
are the barracks for the sappers and miners, a neat
substantial, range of building, with accommodation for
two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy
men. Adjoining these is the grand depot of field
train artillery, consisting of a central building appropriated
as offices for the director-general of the field
train, and other officers of the department, and five
spacious sheds, averaging each three hundred feet in
length, in which are deposited, in double files, an immense
number of guns, mounted on field carriages,
in readiness for embarkation at a minute's notice, and
supplied with a due proportion of stores and ammunition
for immediate service. To the south of the dep6t
is the ordnance hospital, a handsome building, containing
apartments for a resident surgeon and apothecary,
and other officers, and for the servants of the
establishment, with wards for the reception of seven
hundred patients, a medical library, and other requisite
offices: it is under the superintendence of the directorgeneral
and medical staff of the garrison, from which
all the ordnance medical establishments abroad are supplied.
The barracks for the royal foot and horse artillery
form a spacious and splendid pile of. building, of
which the principal front, facing the common, is three
hundred and forty yards in length. The main entrance
is through a central portal of three arches, divided by
lofty columns of the Doric order, supporting pedestals
surmounted with military trophies, and above the
central arch are the royal arms, finely sculptured in
stone The building, which is of light brick, ornamented
with Portland stone, consists of six principal
ranges, connected by four lower buildings, in front of
which are colonnades of the Doric order, surmounted
by balustrades: above the second range, on the east
side of the entrance, is a handsome cupola, in which
is a clock j and above the corresponding building on
the west side is a similar cupola, with a wind-dial. The
chapel, which is neatly fitted up, contains one thousand
sittings, and is regularly open for divine service: the
library and reading-room are well supplied with works
of general literature and periodical publications. The
mess-room is a splendid apartment, sixty feet in length
fifty feet wide, and of proportionate height; at one
end is a circular recess, in which is a music gallery,
and at the other, a handsome range of windows looking
upon the common: from the ceiling, which is ornamented
with groining above the cornice, three elegant
cut-glass chandeliers are suspended, and the whole
arrangement is in the style of an elegant assemblyroom.
Attached to it is a suite of apartments, comprising
a drawing-room of appropriate character, with
retiring and ante-rooms; in this elegant suite of rooms
the officers of the garrison give frequent balls to the
gentry of the vicinity, and, in 1830, had the honour
of entertaining King William IV. and Queen Adelaide,
who accompanied His Majesty on his visit to review the
royal artillery. From the principal entrance, an avenue,
two hundred and twenty yards in length, and terminating
with a handsome arched portal, divides the buildings
into two spacious quadrangles, round which are
the stabling and barracks for the horse artillery; and
at the extremity of the east quadrangle is a spacious
riding-school of elegant design: the whole establishment
is arranged for the accommodation of from three
thousand to four thousand men.
The Parade, in front of the barracks, is about sixty
yards in breadth, adjoining the common., which, in this
part, is a fine level lawn, appropriated for the exercise
of the foot artillery. In the centre of the Parade are
ranged several beautiful pieces of artillery, mounted
on carriages of bronze, richly chased and ornamented.
Among these is a very large piece of ordnance taken at the
siege of Bhurtpoor, in the East Indies, and presented
by the captors to the King of England; it is mounted
on a splendid carriage of bronze: the breech, which is
of unusually large proportion, rests upon the shoulders
of a lion couchant, beautifully executed: one side of
the carriage is ornamented with a view of the citadel
of Bhurtpoor in a medallion, and the other bears an
inscription commemorative of its capture: the wheels
are solid, with a face of Apollo, or the sun, forming
the nave, and the beams of the sun the radii. The
more distant part of the common is appropriated to
the exercise of the horse artillery.
Adjoining the barrack field to the west is the repository,
for the exercise and general instruction of all
persons belonging to the artillery, occupying an extensive
piece of ground, tastefully laid out in parterres
and walks leading to the several buildings; nearly opposite
to the entrance are the modelling rooms for
the use of the officers and men, in which are models,
and drawings of projected improvements in the construction
of gun-carriages and implements of war, and
in which various mechanical experiments are performed
for that purpose. In a shed adjoining them are preserved
the funeral car of Napoleon, brought from St.
Helena; a travelling oven used by the French army in
their campaigns under Buonaparte, and some other curiosities
5 and in various parts of the ground are numerous
pieces of brass ordnance, of different kinds,
taken from the enemy, among which are, two captured
at the battle of Malplaquet, with three barrels each,
and several others of very singular construction. The
ground, which is in many places unequal and precipitous,
rising abruptly from several pieces of water, by
which it is intersected, is made available for the practice
of the artillery corps in the construction of bridges
of pontoons> for transporting artillery across rivers, in
the managing of gun-boats, and in the more difficult
and arduous exercises of their duty; heavy pieces of
artillery are manoeuvered under every possible disadvantage
of situation, lowered down steep declivities, and
raised up precipitous heights, by a variety of contrivances;
in various parts of the ground are intrenchments
of earth and batteries of turf, which are thrown
up by the students for their improvement in the art of
fortification. On the north of the entrance is the rotunda,
or model-room, a spacious circular apartment, one
hundred and fifteen feet in diameter, originally erected
in the gardens of Carlton palace by George IV., when
Prince Regent, for the entertainment of the allied sovereigns,
on. their visit to this country after the peace, and
presented by that monarch to the garrison. The roof, in
the form of the awning of a tent, is supported on a lofty
central Doric column, on the pedestal of which are
various kinds of ancient armour, coats of mail, helmets,
and other military trophies, with specimens of the small
arms of various nations. The room is lighted by a range
of windows in the several compartments into which it
is divided, and in which a vast-number of beautiful and
well-finished models of machinery are arranged, with
apparatus for military and naval warfare; among these
are guns and weapons of various descriptions, boats,
pontoons, carriages, and implements, a variety of missiles,
and Congreve and other rockets, with machines for discharging
them singly or in vollieg; a block of wood,
fifteen inches square, pierced through and shattered by
a Congreve rocket, which is wedged within the fissure, is
preserved as a specimen of the destructive efficacy of
this invention. Around the inner circle is arranged a
most interesting variety of larger models, finished with
the most scrupulous and minute exactness: among these
are a bomb ship, with the whole apparatus for throwing
the shells; a ship for the transport of horses, with the
apparatus for slinging them, and the several arrangements
for their management on board; models of all
the royal dock-yards; the lines and fortifications of
Portsmouth; the breakwater at Plymouth; the island of
St;Kits;.Cumberland fort; the citadel of Massina; the
floating battery at South Carolina; the town of Quebec;
the rock of Gibraltar, with the fortifications and batteries
formed by excavated passages in the solid rock,
and fine specimens of the strata highly polished; Fort
William, in Bengal; Rio Janeiro; with a beautiful model
of St. James' Park, and the several buildings erected in
it on the occasion of the celebration of peace; a pair of
kettle drums, of which the larger weighs more than
four hundred weight and three quarters, taken from the
cathedral of Strasbourgh; a lever target upon a new
construction, and an infinite number of interesting
and ingenious specimens of the adaptation of science
to the invention, or improvement, of machinery connected
with the art of war. On the south-west part of
the common is the veterinary hospital for the horse
artillery, under the control of the commandant and the
superintendence of a veterinary surgeon and assistants;
this building, which is well adapted to its use, is situated
in the parish of Charlton. Between, the repository and
the veterinary hospital are fifty cottages, neatly built of
brick, containing two apartments each, for the accommodation
of one hundred married soldiers.
At the south-eastern extremity of the common, opposite
to the artillery barracks, is the Royal Military academy,
established in 1741, originally for the instruction of
officers and men belonging to the military department of
the ordnance, but now appropriated exclusively to gentlemen
cadets, the number of whom varies from one
hundred to one hundred and forty, and is at present one
hundred and thirty. The establishment is under the
superintendence of a governor, who is always mastergeneral
of the ordnance for the time being; a lieutenant-
governor and an inspector, who are officers of
high rank in the artillery and engineer departments;
a professor of mathematics, and four mathematical
masters; a professor of fortification, and one master;
a drawing-master of military plans, surveying, and perspective;
a drawing-master for landscape; a Frenchmaster
and a lecturer on chemistry. Examinations of
the students are held monthly, when lists of the state of
progress are laid before the master-general: from these
lists, the number of cadets is selected to supply vacant
commissions, and on their nomination, according to merit,
they become candidates at the half-yearly examinations.
The scale of progress is referred to for promotion
to the different classes, and every gradation is exclusively
the result of merit. To prevent disappointment
in the ultimate nomination to commissions, a
minimum of progress within the first year is fixed, the
attainment, or non-attainment, of which decides the
prospect of the student, who if unsuccessful is not,
by an unnecessary loss of time, precluded from other
pursuits. The buildings form a spacious pile in the
early English, and partly in the Elizabethan, style of
architecture, and comprise a central range with angular
octagonal towers crowned with domes, containing
on the basement story the entrance-hall and schoolrooms,
and, in a central situation between them, an
apartment originally intended for the inspector, but
used only as a receptacle for stores, and as a place from
which hot air is distributed for warming the building;
above these is the grand hall, in which the public examinations
are held. The centre is connected by corridors,
with two wings in the Elizabethan style, with
turrets at the angles, and containing the apartments
for the residence of the cadets: behind the central
range is the refectory, a spacious hall with a lofty timber-
framed roof, lighted by windows of appropriate
character, adjoining which are the kitchen and domestic
offices. On the east side of the common are the
houses of the professors, and some handsome ranges
of building, including the quarters of the field officers
of the garrison, and several private residences. The
barracks for the Woolwich division of marines are situated
at a short distance to the north of the artillery
barracks; they are a plain irregular building, having
accommodation for about four hundred men, and attached1
is an hospital for seamen and marines. There
is no trade except what is requisite for the supply of
the inhabitants, nor any particular branch of manufacture
carried on here. The intercourse with the metropolis
is great, and is facilitated by passage-boats on
the river, by carriages direct, and by vans, which run
every half hour from the Ship Tavern to Greenwich,
whence there are coaches to London every half hour.
There was also an ancient ferry to the Devil's House, originally
DuVal's house, on the opposite side of the river,
but the present ferry is nearly a mile further up the
river. Hulks are moored off Woolwich, for the reception
of convicts whose sentence of transportation is commuted
for hard labour at home, and who are employed
in the dock-yard, arsenal, and public works. The market
is on Friday; and under the provisions of the local
act before mentioned, markets are also held on Wednesday
and Saturday: a market-house was erected a few years
since, but it has never been used for that purpose, and
the entrances are now closed up, the building having
been appropriated to the reception of stores. The town
is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, who
hold their sittings every Monday and Friday at the
King's Arms hotel; and a petty session for the division
is held at the Green Man, at Blackheath, on the
first Thursday in every month. The court of requests
for the hundred of Blackheath, and other places in the
county of Kent, is held under commissioners annually
appointed by the act of the 4?th of George III., at the
Crown and Anchor tavern, every alternate Friday, for
the recovery of debts not exceeding £5.
The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Rochester, rated in the king's books at
£7. 12. 6., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Rochester.
The church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene,
was rebuilt by act of parliament passed in the
5th of Gegrge II., at an expense of £6500, towards de-
fraying which £ 3000 was appropriated from the grant
of Queen Anne, for building fifty new churches, and the
remainder raised by contribution of the inhabitants:
it is situated on an eminence overlooking the dock-yard
and the river, and is a neat building of brick with a
square tower, ornamented with copings and cornices of
stone; the interior, in which several standards taken
from the enemy are deposited, is lofty and well arranged
the galleries are supported on Ionic columns
of good proportion; there are few monuments of any
celebrity; in the churchyard are numerous monuments
to officers of the royal artillery, among which is one to
the memory of Lieutenant-General Williamson, whose
wife was lineally descended from Robert, second King
of Scotland. The ordnance chapel, on the road to
Plumstead, a plain commodious building, and the chapel
in the barracks, are the only additional episcopal
churches, to both of which chaplains are appointed
by the Honourable the Board of Ordnance. There are
places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyan
and Welch Methodists, and for a society calling themselves
Arminian Bible Christians, also a Scottish church,
and a Roman Catholic chapel. Mrs. Mary Wiseman,
in 1758, bequeathed £1000 South Sea annuities for
educating and clothing six orphan sons of shipwrights
of His Majesty's dock-yard, and for apprenticing them
to the same business in the yard: this property, by
accumulated savings, now produces £86. 5. per annum,
for which ten boys are clothed, educated, and apprenticed,
according to the intention of the testator,
when practicable, in the dock-yard, or, when not so,
to shipwrights out of the yard, or to other trades
when such cannot be found. Mrs. Mary Withers,
in 1750, bequeathed £600 Old South Sea annuities, of
which £100 was to be laid out in building a school--
room, with an apartment for a mistress, who was to
receive the dividends on the remainder, for instructing
thirty girls maintained in the workhouse, in reading,
knitting, and needlework; and the further sum of
£600, in the same funds, to augment the salary of the
schoolmistress, on condition of her teaching as many
children nominated by the rector, as would make up
the number to thirty, when so many might not be at
any time in the workhouse: the building adjoins the parish
workhouse, and the salary arising from the endowment
is £33 per annum. The National school, in Powisstreet,
in which two hundred boys, and a similar establishment
in the churchyard, in which one hundred
and thirty girls, are instructed, are supported by subscription.
There is also a British and foreign school,
in which one hundred and sixty-four boys, and one
hundred girls, are taught; and an infant school, in which
there are one hundred and twenty children of both
sexes, supported by the same means. Attached to
Enon chapel is an endowed school, in which one hundred
and thirty boys and sixty girls are taught free of
expense. An almshouse for five aged widows was
founded, about the year 1560, by Sir Martin Bowes,
who endowed it with a portion of the produce of lands
and tenements vested for charitable uses in the Company
of Goldsmiths, London, by whom the almshouses
wererebuilt in 1771: the buildings consist of five
houses of four apartments each, and are inhabited
by five widows, parishioners of Woolwich, above fifty
years of age, to each of whom the company pay
£10. 10. per annum, exclusively of a donation of £l
at the annual visitation: they receive, in addition, a
chaldron of coal, and a supply of candles. There are
also several other bequests for charitable purposes, and
for distribution among the poor.