TEW 



TEX 



holding tlie quarter -feflions ; the upper floor for a banquetting 

 room, and for the meeting of the corporation. Among 

 the charitable eftabliftimcnts are a free grammar-fchool, a 

 eharity-fcliool, and feveral alms-houfes. The Anabaptills, 

 Quakers, Independents, and Metliodifts, have each a meet- 

 ing-houfe in the town. The population, according to the 

 returns of the year 1811, amounted to 4820; the number 

 of houfes being 1003 : the latter are chiefly of brick, and 

 principally ranged in three fpacious ftreets. Since the 

 year 1786, when an aft was pafTed for paving and lighting 

 the town, many improvements have been made ; and the 

 buildings have affumed an air of refpcftabiHty. 



The Ahhey. — A monaftcry was lirft ereftc-d here, and 

 endowed by two brothers, Oddo and Doddo, dukes of 

 Mercia, A.D. 715, to the honour of the lilefTed Virgin, 

 which having undergone many calamities during the civil 

 and Danifli wars, about 980 became a priory, fubjeft to 

 Cranbourn in Dorfotlhire : but Robert Fitzhamon, a noble 

 Norman, who came to England with the Conqueror, 

 enlarged the buildings and increafed the poflefiions ot 

 Tewkefbury fo much, that the monks of Cranbourn 

 chofe, about 1102, to remove to this place, leaving 

 only a prior and two monks behind, and made Cran- 

 bourn in future fubjeft to the abbey of Tewkefbury. 

 From this time it became a great eftablifhment of Benedic- 

 tine monks ; and at the fupprelTion, the annual revenues 

 amounted to 1598/. \s. 7,d., exclufive of 136/. 8j. \d. 

 granted by ihc convent for fees and annuities : its plate 

 alfo was very valuable, the facrifty alone containing 142 1 

 ounces. After the diflblution, the deftriiftion of the 

 nionaftic buildings was rapid and complete, through the 

 inefFeftual oppoiition of the monks to the vifitors ap- 

 pomted by the king, who, in revenge, deftroyed the 

 Lady chapel, cloifters, chapter-houfe, and other appen- 

 dages by fire. The remains of the buildings were after- 

 wards purchafed by the inhabitants : and the Abbey 

 Church was made parochial. This magnificent ftrufture 

 difplays an interefting example of early Norman architec- 

 ture, combined with fpecimens of later ftyles, and is in 

 other refpefts well calculated to arreft the attention of the 

 antiquary. It is built in the cathedral form, and confifts 

 of a nave, choir, tranfept, and central tower, with the 

 addition of feveral chapels, ranged roimd the aifle of the 

 choir. The nave and choir are feparated from the aifles 

 by eighteen mailive columns, fuftaining the roof, and four 

 fubftantial piers which fupport the tower. At the weft 

 end is a large window with a pointed arch, which appears 

 to have been introduced within a femicircular arch in 

 1656. There were cloifters on the fouth fide of the 

 nave, where fome fragments yet remain ; and appear to 

 have been highly ornamented in a fimilar ftyle to thofe at 

 Gloucefter. The tower, according to the Abbey chro- 

 nicles, was once terminated by a wooden Ipire, which fell 

 down on Eafter-day, 1559. The moft remarkable fpecimens 

 of the architefture are three tiers of arcades in the upper 

 part ; the arches of the middle tier iiave interefting 

 mouldings. The length of the churcli is 300 fgct ; of the 

 tramfept 1 20 ; the breadth of the choir and fide-aifles is 

 70 feet; of the weft front 100; the height from the area 

 to the roof is 120 feet ; the height of the tower 152 feet. 

 The monuments, which are numerous, have attracted the 

 attention of various antiquaries, particularly Mr. Gough 

 and Mr. Lvfons ; the latter of whom has taken great 

 pains in afiigning the different tombs to the real perfons 

 they were intended to commemorate : many miftakes, in 

 this refpeft, having been committed on traditional authority 



by former writers. Near the weft end of the church is. the 

 Abbey Gate-houfe, which appears of the age of the fifteenth 

 century : it is embattled and ornamented with grotefque 

 figures, projefling from a cornice ; beneath which is a 



canopied niche between two fquare windows Dyde's 



Hiftory, &c. of Tewkefbury, 8vo. 1798. Rudge's Hiflory 

 of Gloncefterfliire, vol. i. 1 803. Beauties of England and 

 Wales, vol. v. Gloucefterlhire j by J. Britton and E. W. 

 Brayley. 



Tewkesbuky, called Wamejit, or Pawtuchl, by the In- 

 dians, a townfhip of MafTachufetts, in the county of Middle- 

 fex, containing 943 inliabitants ; 24 miles N. of Bofton. 



TEXALI, in j^nciciit Geography, the inhabitants of the 

 fua-coafts of Aberdeenfhire ; who had a town, called De- 

 vana, at the mouth of the river Deva (Dee), where oltf 

 Aberdeen now ftands. 



TEXAS, in Geography, a province of New Spain, which 

 properly forms part of Louifiana. This province is claimed 

 by Spain as part of the internal provinces, and included in 

 the vaft intendancy of San Louis Potofi : k is bounded E. 

 by the ftate of Louifiana, S. by the gulf of Mexico, W. 

 by an imaginary limit, and N. by Red river, and contains an 

 area exceeding 100,000 fquare miles. The capital of this 

 province is the garrifon of San Antonio de Bejar, ridicu- 

 loufly called the New Philippines. It was founded in 1731, 

 confifting of a captain, a lieutenant, and one company of 

 foldiers. The ftation of Cenis in this province, is now a mere 

 Indian village, with the ruins of a fo-rt built by the French. 

 That called Natchitoches, from an Indian tribe, friends of 

 the French and enemies of the Spaniards, was a fmall fort, 

 built on an ifland of the Red river by fome French veterans. 

 But the ftation of Adayes, or Adaes, is regjarded by the 

 Spanifh writers as the extreme fortrefs in this quarter : it is 

 feated in a fertile counti-}-, at the diftance of two leagues from 

 a lake of the fame name, which abounds in fiih, and which 

 in fome parts is five leagues in di.imeter, and probably ten in 

 circumference, with a gulf which may be navigated by large 

 vefTels. In the middle of the lake is a hill, or rock, of a 

 pyramidal form, more than 100 yards in circumference, the 

 ftone of which refembles cryflal in its rcfleftion of the folar 

 rays, and it is the highelt in the diftrift. The vicinity 

 abounds in wild cattle, bears and beavers ; and the foil is 

 fertile in maize and other grain. Pinkerton. 



TEXEIRA, Joseph (Peter), in Biography, a Portu- 

 tuguefe hiftorian, was born in 1543, entered among the Do- 

 minicans, and became prior of the monaftcry at Santarem 

 in 1578. When Phihp II. of Spain tuok pofteffion of Por- 

 tugal, Texeira attached himfelf to Don Antonio, who had 

 been proclaimed king by the Porluguefe, and accompanied 

 him into France. In 1582 he was taken prifoner by the 

 .Spaniards, but made his efcape from Lifbon. He became 

 confeifor to Don Antonio, and, in proccfs of time, preacher 

 and almoner to the French king Henry III. He afterwards 

 attached himfelf to Henry IV., and in 1596 affifted at the 

 abjuration of Calvinifm by the princefs of Conde. He was 

 fent on oiie milTion to England, and favourably received by 

 king James. He died at Paris in 1604, as fome fay ; but 

 according to another account, in 1620. 



In 1582, Texeira printed his " Compendium de Portu- 

 galhae ortu Regni initiis, &c." This work was anfwered 

 by order of the king of Spain ; and Texeira replied, in 

 1592, by a " Confutatio, &c." wrhich profelfed to refute 

 the hereditary right of Pliilip to the crown of Portugal, and 

 to v-indicate that of Don Antonio ; — probably the fame work 

 that is entitled " De Elcttionis Jure quod competit Viris 

 Portugallcnfibus in-augurandis fuis Regibus," Lyons, 1589. 



As 



