sou 



of New York, and county of Weft Chefter ; 50 miles fi-oni 

 New York ; bounded north by North Salem, eall by the 

 ftate of Connedlicut, fouth by Connefticut and the towns 

 of Pounbridge and Bedford, and weft by Somers. The 

 whole of this townfhip may be called a good farming 

 country. In 1810, the number of its inhabitants was 1566. 

 This town was formerly called Salem, but its name was 

 ahered in 1808. The inhabitants manufafture moft of 

 their clothing in their own houfes. 

 South Sea. See Pacific Ocean. 



^OVTH-Sea Cajlle, a fortrefs of England, in the vicinity 

 of Port/mouth ; which fee. 



^o\:vw.-Sea Company. See CoMPAXY and FuND. 

 South- j'm Tea, in Botany, &c. See Ilex. 

 South Tbule, in Geography, a point of land in the South 

 Atlantic ocean, being the moft fouthern land difcovered by 

 navigators. S. lat. 59° 54'. W. long. 27^ 45'. 



Sovrii-iyejl Bay, a bay on the fouth-weft coaft of 

 Tavai-Poenammoo, between Cape South and Cape Weft. 



South- fVe/1 Cape, a cape on the fouth coaft of New 

 Holland, north-weft of South Cape. S. lat. 43= 37'. E. 

 long. 146- 7'. 



SovTH-lVe/l Point, a cape on the fouth-weft coaft of the 

 ifland of Anticofti. N. lat. 49=" 25'. W. long. 63° 4'. 



SOUTHADLEY, or South H.^dley, a poft-town of 

 America, in the ftate of Madachufetts, and county of 

 Hampftiire, on the eaft bank of Connefticut river ; 12 miles 

 N. of Springfield; incorporated in 17531 and containing 

 902 inhabitants. 



SOUTHAKER Ledge, a reef of rocks, near the fouth 

 coaft of Labrador. N. lat. 50" 5'. W. long. 60'. 



SOUTHAM, a fmall market-town in Southam divifion 

 of Knighlow hundred, Warwickftiire, England, is fituated 

 lo miles from Warwick, 12 from Coventry, and 82 N.W. 

 from London. In Domefday book the name is written 

 Sucham, and the town is there faid to contain four hides, 

 with two mills, and woods of one mile in length and half 

 a mile in breadth ; all which belonged to the king. 

 Henry III. granted it a weekly market, and an annual fair. 

 The market is held on Mondays, but little bufinefs is tranf- 

 afted. The chief fources of emolument are the two roads 

 which pafs through it : that from Coventry to Banbury, 

 and that from Warwick to London. The parifh church is 

 a handfome edifice, with a fpire rifing from a fquare tower 

 at the weft end. The population of the parifh, in the year 

 181 1, was returned as 1007; the number of houfes 165. 



Two miles from Southam is the village of Long itching- 

 ton, where the earl of Leicefter magnificently entertained 

 queen Elizabeth, July 9, 1575, in her progrefs to Kenil- 

 worth. The village is now fmall, but appears to have been 

 of confiderable confequence at the time of the Conqueft, 

 and for fome fucceeding ages. It was the birth-place of 

 St. Wolftan, bifhop of Worcefter, in the eleventh century, 

 a man of fome eminence in the pious chronicles of that 

 period. Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xv. part 2. 

 Warwickftiire, by J. N. Brewer. 



SOUTH AMBOY, a town of America, in Middlefex 

 county, New Jerfey, containing, by the cenfus of 1810, 

 3071 inhabitants. See VE.T^.TH-ylmboy, which contained 

 S15 inhabitants. 



SOUTH AMERICA. See America. 

 SOUTHAMPTON, or Southton, an ancient bo- 

 rough, pert, and corporate town of Hampftiire, England, 

 is feated on a neck of land, which is bounded on the weft 

 and fouth by a broad lake -like expanfe, called the South- 

 ampton Water, and by the river Itchin on the eait. From 

 this peculiarity of fuuation, it has only one approach by 



SOU 



land, from the north ; and from the fame caufe, the iirft 

 buildings of the town appear to have been raifed at the ex- 

 treme point of land, and to have projTreftively continued 

 in a line northward, on a ridge of ground between the two 

 waters. Hence the town was foon formed by one long 

 ftreet, flanked and guarded by embattled walls, and itrongly 

 fortified gates towards the water on the fouth, and to the in- 

 land country on the north. The prefent Soutiiampton is 

 comparatively a modern town, and originated in the fuperior 

 eligibility of its fcite, for commerce, to the itation at Bit- 

 tern, the Claufentum of the Romans, and the Hamton of 

 the Saxons, &c. The ancient hiftory, before the Norman 

 conqueft, applies chiefly to Old-Hampton ; but it is almoft 

 impoflible to afcertain when the old town was deferted, and 

 the new one formed and governed by its own laws. It is 

 evident that Hampton niuft have been a town of confe- 

 quence under the Anglo-Saxon dynafty, as it imparted its 

 name to the whole county, and is ftill the county town. 



Htftorkal Events. — The origin and name of this town have 

 occafioned much conjefture and diffcrtation. The moft 

 natural fuppofitio^^ is, that it was derived from the river 

 Ant, or Anton, near the fouthern extremity of which it 

 ftands. This river, after flowing from the upper parts of 

 the county, and giving appellations to feveral places in its 

 courfe, here widens into a confiderable eftuary ; and, in 

 conjunftion with the Itchin, forms the head of the South- 

 ampton Water, the fuppoied Antona of Tacitus. There are 

 indeed thofe who prefer deducing it from Ham, a home or 

 refidence, with the adjunct Ton. Domelday book and 

 other ancient records, however, clearly favour the former 

 opinion ; for in thefe writings it is fpelt Hantun, and Han- 

 tune. The prefix of South evidently arofe from its relative 

 fituation to Northam. The county itfelf was alfo called 

 Hantunfcyre, though its name has been long altered into 

 Hampjh'ire. 



It appears from the Saxon Chronicle, that in 873 Han- 

 ton was attacked by the Danes, who landed from 33 ftiips ; 

 but, after committing many atrocities, they were repulfed 

 and driven to their Ihips. About the year 980 another 

 body of Danes landed here, and ravaged the town and its 

 neighbourhood ; and it was fcarcely 1 2 years afterwards, 

 that they are recorded to have a third time plundered South- 

 ampton, under the command of Sueno of Denmark, and 

 Olaus of Norway. 



It does not appear with any certainty, whether the town 

 had been fortified previous to thefe devaftations ; though an 

 eminent antiquary, fir Henry Englefield, fuggefts the 

 opinion, that a cajlle was built here by the Saxons, very 

 foon after they had achieved a permanent eftablifliment in 

 this country. " The peculiar advantages of the narrow 

 and rather high point of land on which Southampton now 

 ftands," fays the worthy baronet, " commanding at once 

 the Itchin and Teft rivers, and very eafily fortified on the 

 land fide, could not efcape their notice ; and from the high- 

 circular hill, on which the keep of the caftle formerly ftood, 

 and the curved line of its yet remaining wall, we have pro- 

 bable grounds for fuppofing it to be among the moft ancient 

 of the Saxcn caftles." 



The different aflaults made on Hanton by the Danes, 

 render it probable that it had very early rifen to fome im- 

 portance ; and moft likely from its commerce, to which its 

 fituation was very favourable. The acceffion of Canute to 

 the Britifti fceptre, however, put a period to the Danilh 

 ravages in this ifland ; and Southampton appears to have 

 become an occafional refidence of that fovcreign : for it is. 

 here that he is recorded, by Henry of Huntingdon, to have 

 repreiled the impious flattery of his courtiers by a moft im- 



preflive 



