WITNEY, (Oxfordshire) 5 m. from Woodstock, 7 from Oxford, 54 cm. 63 mm. from London, is a long straggling, uncouth, but
populous T. which was of good repute before the Conquest, and in the 5th and 8th of Edward II. sent members to Pt. which
it continued till the 33d of Edward III. and no longer. This was one of the manors which the Bp. of Winchester gave to St.
Swithin's Ch. in that city, on Q. Emma's happily escaping the fiery ordeal, a method of trial much practised in her time;
but it has been long since alienated from that See, for, in 1171, its Bp, gave it to his new-founded hos. at St. Cross. It
has a trade in spinning for the neighbouring clothiers; but its chief mf. is rugs and blankets, the latter of which are
commonly from 10 to 12 quarters wide, and preferred before all others for their whiteness. Here are 150 looms, that, one
with another, earn 20 s. a day, whereof 100 are almost continually employed on it, and every loom employs 8 hands, besides
above 3000, from 8 years old and upwards, in carding, spinning, &c. and it is said above 100 packs of wool are spinned in
it every week. They scour the blankets at the mills erected in the r. Windrush, whose waters, some think, have a more
abstersive nitrous quality than others. These blanket-makers are formed into a Corp. who inspect and govern all the looms
20 m. round. Every journeyman works by the piece, and earns about 8 s. a week. They also make duffils here, which are a
yard and three quarters wide, for exportation to Virginia and New-England, for cloathing the Indians, and now much worn in
Old-England in the winter. Cuts for hammocks, and tilt-cloths for bargemen, are likewise made here; and in the T. are a
great many fell-mongers, who having dressed and stained their sheep-skins, make them into breeches, jackets, &c. and sell
them at Bampton, where they are bought up, and carried to Berks, Wilts, Dorsetshire, &c. Here is a fr. sc. founded and
endowed by Mr. Hen. Box, a druggist in London, (for which there was a statute of the 15th of Charles II.) with a fine
library adjoining to it. The grocers company in London are governors, and Oriel Coll. visitor. Here is an hos. also for 6
poor blanket-makers widows, and a sc. for 12 poor children, founded in 1723 by John Holloway, to which Mr. Blake has made
an addition for teaching 30 children. The Mt. is on Th. the Fairs on Holy-Th. June 29, and Nov. 23. Here is a sort of
yellow ochre, and a coarse kind of gritty umber, which is of great use to leather-dressers. This T. consists of one street
a m. long, and, including 3 hamlets, contains 570 houses, and 4200 inh. Dr. Friend, the late master of Westminster school,
has built a noble parsonage-house here, and the living is reckoned at 400 l. a year.