B I S 



457 



B I S 



but there are several very good houses in detached situ- 

 ations. The place derives its name from a castle belonging 

 to the Bishops of Hereford, which formerly stood here, 

 and was generally their country residence. It has long 

 been demolished, but its site may still be traced, and part 

 of it, probably of the keep, now forms the bowling-green 

 of an inn. The town is an old corporation, and received from 

 Queen Elizabeth the privilege of sending two members to 

 parliament, which it continued to do until it was disfran- 

 chised by the Reform Bill. The town has had three char- 

 ters, the first from Queen Elizabeth, the second from James 

 I., and the last from James II. These charters vest the 

 local government in a bailiff, a recorder, and fifteen capital 

 burgesses. The borough magistrates hold a quarter session, 

 the business of which is very trifling ; the bailiff is also em- 

 powered to hold petty sessions whenever occasions require : 

 and there is also a civil court of record, which has cogni- 

 zance of all suits where the sum in dispute does not exceed 

 20/. The town-hall, a plain brick building, erected in 1 750, 

 includes a prison for criminals, and another for debtors. 

 The market-house is a handsome edifice of stone. The 

 market is held on Friday, and the fairs on February 13th, 

 Friday before Good Friday, Friday after the 1st of May, 

 July 5th, September 9th, 'November 13th. All these are 

 cattle-fairs except that in May, which is the pleasure fair, 

 and that in July, which is a wool-fair. The market and 

 the fairs are much resorted to by the Welsh, which is 

 a great benefit to the place. The parish contained 388 

 houses in 1831, and the population was then 2007, of whom 

 1124 were females. The population of the borough alone 

 was 1 729. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 

 is a fine old structure, with a square embattled tower, sur- 

 mounted by pinnacles. It is chiefly in the Norman style ; 

 but having been burnt in the parliamentary war, it was 

 afterwards" restored without sufficient attention being paid 

 to the original character of the architecture. It has accom- 

 modation for 1 000 persons. The living is a vicarage in the 

 diocese of Hereford, with an annual net income of 3501. 



The free school at Bishop's Castle was founded by Mrs. 

 Mary Morris, in grateful remembrance of her first husband, 

 John Wright, Esq. By her will, dated in 1785, she 

 directed that 1000/. should be paid to the bishop, the interest 

 of which was to be applied to the education of fifty children, 

 half of them boys, to be instructed in reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic ; and the other half girls, to be instructed in read- 

 ing, writing and plain sewing. She also gave 200^ for 

 the building of a school. The bishop is visitor and trustee 

 of the school, the property of which now consists of \598l. 

 13*. three per cent, consols. The interest amounts to 

 47 1. 19*. 2rf., of which 471. is paid to the schoolmaster. 

 There are about thirty girls instructed free on this founda- 

 tion ; the schoolmaster's wife instructs them in needlework 

 at the schoolhouse, in the afternoon, and the master 

 teaches them reading, writing, and accounts with the boys 

 at the market house in the morning. There are fifty boys 

 in the school, of whom twenty-five are taught free on the 

 foundation ; the rest are pay scholars, with the exception of 

 ten, who are taught by an annual donation of 21/. from 

 Lord Powis's family and the members for the town. The 

 master takes all children who apply, and places such as he 

 thinks proper on the list of free scholars. There is no other 

 National or Sunday school in connexion with the Esta- 

 blished Church, but the several dissenting congregations 

 have schools in connexion with their chapels. 



(Camden's Britannia ; Magna Britannia ; Beauties of 

 England and Wales ; Twenty-fourth Report on Cha- 

 rities ; Reports on Municipal Corporations.) 



BISHOP'S STORTFORD, a parish and market-town 

 in the hundred of Braughin, county of Hertford, twelve 

 miles E.N.E. from Hertford, and twenty-six miles N.N.E. 

 from London. The place derives its name of Stortford from 

 its situation upon the river Stort, and the prefix, from its 

 having been, even from Saxon times, the property of the 

 bishops of London. Domesday Book records that the Con- 

 queror gave the town and castle of Stortford to Maurice, 

 bishop of London ; if so, as Salmon remarks, he gave 

 no more than he had previously taken, for the same 

 document mentions that William, the last bishop but one 

 before Maurice, had purchased this manor of the lady 

 Eddeva. The same authority states that the property was 

 then worth eight pounds per annum, but had been worth 

 ten in the time of the Confessor. The small castle, which 

 stood on an artificial hill, is said by Chauncey to have been 



built by William the Conqueror to protect" the trade of the 

 town, and to keep it in subjection at the same time. 

 Salmon, however, thinks that it existed before the Con- 

 quest, and was merely strengthened and repaired by this 

 king. It was called Waytemore Castle, and stood in a 

 piece of land surrounded by the Stort. It would seem that 

 the site had at a previous period been occupied by a Roman 

 camp, as some Roman coins of the lower empire have been 

 found in the castle gardens. It appears to have been re- 

 garded as a fortress of some consequence in the time of 

 King Stephen, and the empress Maud endeavoured, but 

 without effect, to prevail upon the bishop to exchange it 

 with her for other lands. King John caused the castle to 

 be demolished in revenge for the active part which Bishop 

 William de St. Maria took against him in his difference 

 with the pope, this prelate being one of the three who 

 placed an interdict upon the kingdom. When the pope 

 triumphed over the king, the latter found it necessary to 

 give the bishop his own manor of Guildford, in Surrey, to 

 atone for the demolition of this castle. ' The castle hill,' 

 says Salmon, ' stands yet for a monument of King John's 

 power and revenge ; and the bishop's lands remain a monu- 

 ment of the pope's entire victory over him.' It seems that 

 some of the outbuildings and other parts of the castle were 

 standing in the seventeenth century, and indeed some very 

 small remains are still existing. The bishops continued to 

 appoint a custos, or keeper, of the ' Castle and Gaol' of 

 Stortford till the time of James I. The last who made use 

 of the prison was Bishop Bonner, in the time of Queen Mary, 

 who kept convicted Protestants in its deep and dark dungeon. 

 Quit-rents for castle guard are still paid to the see of Lon- 

 don from several manors adjacent to Bishop's Stortford. 



We are disposed to concur with Salmon in consider- 

 ing that the town more probably arose from the castle, 

 than the castle from the town, as Chauncey supposes. 

 Here, as in many other cases, the castle seems to have 

 formed an inducement for people to settle in the neighbour- 

 hood, as it offered a place of safety to which they could 

 retire with their moveables in time of danger. It must 

 have became a place of some consequence at the time that 

 King John demolished the castle, for that king, in order 

 to make it independent of the bishop, erected the town 

 into a borough, with power to the commonalty to elect their 

 own officers for the local government, and to return two 

 members to parliament. This new constitution held until 

 the 14th of Edward III., when the bishop was restored to 

 his usual privileges in the place, as he had before been to 

 his lands, and the town was thenceforward relieved from 

 the necessity of making returns to parliament. The town 

 is now within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, 

 who hold a petty session here once a fortnight. 



Bishop's Stortford is built chiefly on the western side of 

 the Stort, where it extends up the slope of a hill from the 

 river. It consists of four principal streets, or properly two 

 lines of street, in the form of a cross. There are some good 

 inns, and many houses of the better class. The church, 

 dedicated to St. Michael, stands upon elevated ground, 'as,* 

 says Salmon, ' those dedicated to that Saint generally do,' and 

 consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a fine lofty tower 

 at the west end. Chauncey was inclined to think it must 

 be a church of Saxon erection, because the figures of King 

 Athelstan and Edward the Confessor were in the windows 

 about thirty years before his time ; but later inquirers ac- 

 quiesce in the determination of Salmon, who says the 

 painted glass may have been taken from some earlier 

 structure, but that the church itself has no appearance of 

 being older than the time of Henry VI. The church was 

 partly rebuilt in 1820, and now accommodates 2000 persons. 

 The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London in the 

 gift of the precentor of St. Paul's, and has an annual net 

 income of 419^. 



A fresh impulse was given to the prosperity of Bishop's 

 Stortford in the last century, by means of a canal which 

 was completed in 1769. The surrounding district being 

 fertile in corn, the trade of the place is chiefly in malt and 

 other grain, considerable quantities of which are sent by the 

 river or by the canal, the banks of which arc furnished with 

 convenient wharfs and quays. This trade, with a silk mill 

 which has been established here, affords the principal employ- 

 ment to those who are not immediately engaged in supplying 

 the wants of the other inhabitants. The market is held on 

 Thursday, and there are three annual fairs, respectively 

 held on Holy Thursday, Thursday after Trinity Sunday, 



NO. 262. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.- 3 N 



