A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



building sold, and the assets handed over to the 

 General Hospital. 



The Northampton Queen Victoria Nursing Institu- 

 tion, opened in 1901, has two maternity homes 

 dependent upon it, opened in 1918 and 1919, in 

 Colwyn Road and Kingsthorpe Road. There are at 

 the present time eight Infant Welfare Centres in the 

 town with an attendance of 700 mothers, and a stafi 

 of one lady doctor, and 4 health visitors assisted by 

 70 voluntar)' workers. 



Of other important buildings, the B-irracks in St. 

 George's Square were built in 1 796 on the petition 

 of the townsmen ; the Working Men's Club in St. 

 Giles' Street was founded in 1865 by the late Major 

 Whjte-Melville ; the Opera House in Guildhall 

 Road was erected in 1884, the Temperance Hall in 

 Newland in 1887 and the Masonic HaU in Princess 

 Street in 1889-90. A statue in terra-cotta of Charles 

 Bradlaugh, for many years member of Parhament for 

 the city, was unveiled by Sir Philip Manfield, M.P., on 

 25 June 1894 in Abington Square. There is also 

 in the Market Square a monument with a bronze 

 bust of Lieut.-Col. Edgar R. Mobbs, D.S.O., 'a 

 great and gallant sportsman,' who raised a company 

 of the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1914 and was 

 killed in action 31 July 1917. The monument was 

 unveiled by Lord Lilford on 17 July 1 92 1. There 

 is a bust of King Edward VII in the north-west 

 angle of the wall in front of the General Hospital in 

 the Billing Road. 



A large proportion of the names associated with 

 Northampton are those of dinnes of varying de- 

 nominations. The famous schoolman, Duns Scotus, 

 was ordained a priest in St. Andrew's Priory Church 

 by Bishop Oliver Sutton on 17 March 1291.*'° 

 Among the friars of the Northampton houses 

 were the famous 13th-century Franciscan, Thomas 

 Bungay, lecturer at both Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge, who died and was buried here ; the Dominican, 

 Robert Hokot, the reputed author of Philobiblon 

 and 26 other treatises, who died here in 1 349; the 

 Augustinian friar, Geoffrey Grandfelt (d. 1 340); 

 the Carmelites, John Avon, a distinguished mathe- 

 matician, who died in 1349 ; William Bcaufcu, a noted 

 theologian (d. 1390), and Thomas Ashburne, the 

 author (in 1384) of De Contemptu Mundi. Among tlie 

 Anglican divines, besides a number of distinguished 

 rectors of All Saints' and St. Peter's Churches, are T. 

 Cartwright (1634-89), born at Northampton and edu 

 catcd at Chipsey's Grammar School, Bishop of Chester, 

 1685, and a wholehearted supporter of James II, 

 like his fellow-townsmen, Samuel Parker (1640-88), 

 Bishop of Oxford, 1686-88, and intruded by James II 

 into the presidency of Magdalen College, Oxford. 

 Among the famous Nonconformists, besides Doddridge 

 and the Rylands, should be mentioned John Penry 

 (1559-93), the reputed author of m.anyof the Marpre- 

 late Tracts, whose wife was a native of Northampton, 

 and who lived here 1587-1590; Robert Browne** 

 (i 550-1633), founder of the Brownists, who died in 

 Northampton Gaol and was buried in St. Giles' 



Churchyard ; and Samuel Blower (d. 1701), the founder 

 of Castle Hill meeting house. Of literary worthies, 

 Anne Bradstreet, the New England poetess (161 2- 

 1672), should be noted as a native of Northampton ; 

 also Thomas Woolston, the freethinker (1660-1733), 

 the son of a Northampton currier, deprived of his 

 fellowship at Sidney Sussex College for his icono- 

 clastic criticism of the Old Testament ; Simon 

 Wastell (d. 1632), headmaster of Chipsey's school 

 and author of Microbiblion ; and William Shipley 

 (1714-1803), drawing master in Northampton, 

 originator of the Royal Society of Arts ; the two anti- 

 quaries, George Baker (1781-1851), author of an 

 unfinished History of Northants, and his sister, Ann 

 Baker (1786-1861), who helped to save St. Peter's 

 Church from neglect and ruin, and compiled a 

 glossary of Northamptonshire words and phrases ; 

 John Cole (1792-1848), bookseller and antiquary, 

 the friend of Baker, the author of a short account 

 of Northampton (18 1 5), who pubUshed many anti- 

 quarian works, and made a collection of books on 

 the town and county, now in the Pubhc Library. 

 E. A. Freeman, the liistorian, was a schoolboy in 

 Northampton from 1829-37, and James Rice, col- 

 laborator with Sir Walter Besant in novel writing, 

 was born here in 1843. Of the medical profession, 

 besides Rushworth (1669-1736), Sir James Stonhouse 

 (1716-98) should be mentioned, the founder, with 

 Doddridge, of the County Infirmary, converted by 

 Doddridge, and ordained as a deacon of the Church 

 of England in 1749, practising medicine in Northamp- 

 ton 1743-64, and ending his life as a parish clergyman. 

 Sir Charles Locock (1799-1875), accoucheur to Queen 

 Victoria, was a native of Northampton. In connec- 

 tion with political hfe. Sir Richard Lane (1584-1650), 

 deputy recorder of Northampton,* nati\eof Courteen- 

 hall, defended Straflord on his trial, and was made 

 Lord Keeper in 1645. Spencer Perceval and Brad- 

 laugh have been mentioned in connection with the 

 parhamentary history of the borough. R. G. Gam- 

 mage (d. 1 888), a native of Northampton, was an active 

 organiser of Chartism in Northampton and the 

 neighbourhood, and author of a History of the Chartist 

 Movement (1854). W. L. Maberley (1798-1885), 

 member for Northampton from 1820 to 1830, 

 was secretary of the Gener.1l Post Office and a die- 

 hard opponent of Rowland Hill's postal reforms from 

 1846 to 1854, ' wasting millions of public money.'** 



The church of ST. PETER stands 

 CHURCHES, on the south side of Marefair, 

 near the west end of the town, 

 close to the site of the castle. The building is chiefly 

 of late 1 2th century date, but two fragments of pre- 

 Conquest cross-shafts" found in 1850 point to an 

 earlier church having occupied the site. No part 

 of the present building, however, is older than c. 1150- 

 75, to which period the chancel and nave arcades, 

 the tower arcli and part of the clearstory walls belong ; 

 the arcades arc very perfect examples of the highly 

 decorated work of the time, and have frequently 

 been noticed and illustrated." 



•" Arrb. Francti Hill. ann. xxii, Faic. 

 1, 11, 19J9. 



•• A. Jetiopp'i life of R. Browne in tlic 

 Dill. A'ffl/. Bio[(. iliouUl be lupplenicnted 

 by R. M. Serje.intion'i account in lliii. 

 «/ Cb. of Si. 6'i/cj, !<orihampl. (pp. 188- 



20z). A monument to hit memory w.i» 

 erected in the churchyard in 1913. 



•• Did. Nat. Biog. for all prccedin)?. 



" r.C.II. Norihanli. ii, 189. They 

 were found under the \ve«t reipondi of the 

 nave arcade", and arc now in (he Public 



40 



Museum. They are figured in R. M. Ser- 

 jeantion'i llist. of Ch. of St. Peter, 

 Norlhampt. 12. Mr. Serjeant ion's work 

 has been used in the following description. 

 " See references in SrrjeanHon, op, cit. 

 40. 



