67 



BOSTON. 



BOSTON. 



Tintagel is supposed by Lysons to have been appropriated to the 

 abbess aud convent of Fontevralt in Normandy, and having come into 

 possession of the crown, to have been given by Edward IV. to the 

 collegiate church of Windsor. The dean and chapter of Windsor are 

 the patrons. 



11OSTOX, Lincolnshire, a seaport, market-town, municipal and 

 parliamentary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the 

 i of Boston, wapentake of Skirbeck and parts of Holland, is 

 situated near the mouth of the river Witham, in 52 58' N. lat., 

 2' W. long. ; 36 miles S.S.E. from Lincoln, 116 milea N. from 

 London by road, and 107 miles by the Great Northern railway. 

 The population of the municipal borough in 1851 was 14,733; that 

 of the parliamentary borough was 17,518. Boston is governed by a 

 corporation consisting of 6 aldermen and 18 councillors, one of 

 whom is mayor ; and returns two members to the Imperial Parliament. 

 The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of Lincoln. 

 Boston Poor-Law Union contains 23 parishes and townships, with an 

 area of 97,250 acres, im-.l a population in 1351 of 37,677. 



The origin and ancient history of Boston are obscure. The great 

 canal or drain, called the ' Car-dyke,' which extends 40 miles in length 

 from the Wetland, in the south of the county, near Lincoln, to the 

 Witham, is generally attributed to the Romans. The ' Foss-dyke ' is 

 a continuation of the drain from Lincoln to the Trent at Torksey, and 

 have been formed about the same time. The ' Westlode,' 

 another ancient drain in the parts of Holland, carries off the upland 

 waters, by its communication with the Welland at Spalding. The old 

 Eea-dyke is a great bank erected along the coast, in order to render the 

 drains safe from the influx of the ocean. The county of Lincoln was 

 included in the Roman province of Ptat'ia CtwaricJiyis, and there 

 were several military stations in different parts of the county. Lin- 

 colnshire was a part of the kingdom of Mercia during the heptarchy, 

 and Boston is believed to be the Yceau-ho or Icanhoe, at which, 

 according to the Saxon Chronicle, St. Botolph built a monastery in 

 A.D. 654, which existed till the county was ravaged by the Danes, 

 A.D. 870. 



Little worthy of notice is recorded of Boston during the early part 

 of the Norman government. In the year 1204 when the ' quinzicme ' 

 was levied (a duty which was raised on the fifteenth part of land aud 

 at the several ports of England), London paid the largest sum 

 ) of any port, and Boston was the second (7302.) in amount. A 

 great annual fair was at an early period held at Boston ; it was 

 resorted to from Norwich, Bridlington, and Craven in the 13th cen- 

 tury. Articles of dreas, wine, and groceries formed part of its com- 

 merce. In 1281 part of Boston was destroyed by fire ; and in 1286 a 

 !>art of the town and the surrounding district suffered from an 

 inundation. It was one of the towns appointed by the statute of 

 staple (27th Edward III.), where the staple of wools, leather, woolfels, 

 am 1 lead should be held. Many merchants from the important com- 

 mercial towns of the Continent resided at Boston during this early 

 period ; it also ranked high as one of the seaports of the kingdom. 

 The merchants of the Hanscatic league established their guild here. 

 At the time when Leland wrote his account of Boston (1530), the 

 commerce of the town had begun to decline. Boston was still further 

 1 l.y the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., 

 though that monarch made some amends by granting the town a 

 charter of incorporation; it was thus made a free borough, and 

 iiy important privileges. Philip aud Mary, in the first 

 year of their reign, endowed the corporation with a rich grant of 

 lands and messuages. This important endowment, rendered more 

 i)le by subsequent Inulosure Acts, has given the corporation 

 upwards of 500 acres of land. Queen Elizabeth granted the mayor 

 an'l burgesses a charter of admiralty, giving them power to levy cer- 

 ! ities on ships entering the ' Norman Deeps.' In 1571 Boston 

 ai: 1 tli" /'in-onii ding district suffered much from a violent tempest, an 

 account of which is given by Holinshed. During the latter part of 

 the 16th century, and again in 1625, it was visited by the plague. In 

 lioston was made the head-quarters of Cromwell's army. The 

 pal men of the district favoured the cause of the Protector. In 

 1 Cavendish dvfeut'jd the parliamentary troops at 

 i gton, near Boston, and soon after Cromwell removed his quarters 

 iiiiford. During the 18th century the commerce of Boston 

 continued to decline. 



'I'l^ I ' i us, or Black friars, were established at Boston in the 



part of the 13th century : in A.D. 1288 their church was burnt 



in i i-iot; but they were afterwards re-established. The Carmelite 



had a priory at Boston, founded in 1301. The Augustine friars 



had an establishment at Boston, founded in 1307 ; the Franciscans, or 



Gray friars, had also one founded in 1332, under the wardenship of 



Monastery at York. The sites of these houses were granted to 



the corporation at the Reformation. Several associations, called 



!K,' existed in the town, some of which seem to have had a 



icter. The monks arc supposed to have been their first 



;;uild of St. fiotolph was a fraternity of merchants, 



and appears to have had only mercantile objects in view. The 



guild of the Blcsnod Mary was one of importance, and in its purposes 



hall is now used by the corporation for their 



dinners, &c. The guild of St. Pct:r 



a religious establishment, and had a chapel or an 



altar in the parish church. St. George's guild was a trading commu- 

 nity. The possessions of all these guilds were vested in the corporation 

 of Boston when the religious houses were dissolved. 



The portion of the town on the left bank of the Witham consists of 

 one long street, called Bargate, the market-place, and some minor 

 streets. On the right side of the river is another long street called 

 High Street. The market-place is spacious, and the market is well 

 supplied with cattle and corn from the inland districts. An abundant 

 supply of water has been procured for the town under the powers 

 conferred by an Act passed in 1847. Boston is well supplied with 

 coal, by sea from the Tyne and the Wear, and by railway from Derby- 

 shire aud Yorkshire. The old poor-house, in St. John's Row, was 

 built in 1730 ; the new Poor-Law Union workhouse was constructed 

 in 1838. 



The first stone of the present church of St. Botolph was laid in 

 1309, but the existence of a church at Boston is recorded as early as 

 1090. This church is one of the largest parish churches without 

 transepts in the kingdom. It is 245 feet long, aud 98 feet wide within 

 the walls. Its tower is one of the loftiest iu the kingdom, being 300 

 feet high. The tower, which is visible at sea for more than 40 miles, 

 is surmounted by an elegant octagonal lantern, which is a guide to 

 mariners on entering the Boston and Lynn Deeps. Iu a chamber over 

 the south door is the parish library, which contains several hundred 

 volumes, among which are many valuable and scarce works on divi- 

 nity ; it was formed by Anthony Tuckney. The church has recently 

 undergone extensive repairs and restoration. 



The chapel-of-ease which was erected by subscription in 1822 is a 

 perpetual curacy. A new church was built in .Skirbeck parish iu 

 1848 in addition to a former church in the same parish. There are 

 places of worship in Boston for Independents, Wesleyan and Primitive 

 Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, aud Quakers. 



A Grammar school w< provided for by the rich grant of Philip 

 and Mary iu 1554. The building was erected by the mayor and bur- 

 gesses in 1567 ; it is in the Mart-yard, so called from the great annual 

 fair having been held in it. The school had been almost closed for 

 several years, when iu 1850 the trustees obtained a new scheme. 

 There are four masters who are paid from the charity estates : the 

 head master's salary is 2001. a year, with a free house and other 

 advantages. The number of scholars in 1851 was 94. The Blue- 

 Coat school, established in the year 1713, by subscriptions and dona- 

 tions, is for the education of boys and girls. There are National and 

 British schools. Laughton's Charity school was established in 1707. 

 There are numerous Infant, Sunday, and other schools. The naun-s 

 of other charities sufficiently explain their object ; such are the 

 Dispensary, Bible Society, a Dorcas Charity, and the Poor Freemen's 

 and Apprentices' Charities. 



Boston has two subscription libraries ; it possesses also a mechanics 

 institution. A spacious court-house for county and other business 

 was built about 1843 at a heavy expense. Salt-water baths were 

 established at Boston about the year 1830; the walks and grounds 

 belonging to them, which are pleasantly laid out, are open to the 

 inhabitants of the town. Over the market-house is a suite of assembly 

 rooms. The custom-house is a plain substantial building near the 

 quay. There is a cast-iron bridge of elegant structure over the 

 Witham ; it has but a single arch, of 86 feet span, and its rise is fj 

 slight that the roadway over it is nearly horizontal. The cost to the 

 corporation for this bridge and the approaches to it was 22,000/. 



As the prosperity of Boston depended in a great degree on the 

 Witham being navigable, considerable attention has been in past 

 times directed to the removal of obstructions and the cleansing of 

 the river. In 1720 a vessel of 250 tons could ascend to the town ; 

 but by the year 1750 the Witham had become so choked tip as barely 

 to allow u passage for a sloop of 40 or 50 tons at a f;pring-tide. Under 

 the powers of Acts of Parliament subsequently obtained great efforts 

 have been made to maintain the Witham in a navigable state ; and 

 Boston is now a port of considerable trade. Vessels of 300 tons 

 burden are enabled to deliver their cargoes in the heart of the town. 



The foreign trade of Boston is chiefly with the Baltic, whence are 

 imported hemp, iron, timber, tnr, and other commodities. The chief 

 exports consist of corn, particularly oats, large cargoes of which are 

 sent to London. The gross receipts of customs in the year ending 

 5th- January 1851 amounted to 28,77b7. The number of vessel regis- 

 tered as belonging to the port of Boston on December 31st 1852 was 

 under 50 tons 115, tonnage 4313; above 50 tons 54, tonnage 3539; 

 with one steam-vessel of 18 tons. During 1852 there entered and 

 cleared at the port, in the coasting trade, inwards, 755 vessels, tonnage 

 36,598; outwards, 522, tonnage 24,942 : in the foreign trade, inwards, 

 British vessels 12, tonnage 1630; foreign vessels 14, tonnage 1313; 

 outwards, British 19, tonnage 1472; foreign 13, tonnage 1239. 



The manufactures carried on within and around the town consist 

 chiefly of ships, sails, canvass, sacking, iron aud brass work, cooperage, 

 ropes and cordage, leather, hats, bricks, whiting; there are also 

 breweries and uialthouses. 



By means of the Witham and the canals connected with it Boston 

 has a navigable communication with Lincoln, Qainiborcmgh, Notting- 

 ham, and Derby, and by them with all the inland towns. The East 

 Lincolnshire railway connects Boston with Louth, Grimsby, aud other 

 towns in the north ; the Great Northern places it in connection with 



