NOR 
2L4 
bailiff, or deputy, prefides at the ele&ion of members of 
parliament. This borough, having fent 26 Edward I. 
intermitted, and made no other return till called upon, 
as Maltop was, to fend members, by order of the houfe 
of commons, anno 1640. It now fends two members to 
parliament. The right of voting is annexed to the fcite 
of the greater part of the houfes adjoining to, and front¬ 
ing, the ftreet; few or none of the back tenements are 
confidered as part of the burgage-tenures, or confequently 
entitled to votes. Some of thofe tenures now fubfift in 
the form of Rabies, or cow-houfes, in which the appear¬ 
ance of one or more chimneys is ufually preferved, as a 
memorial of their right ; others are let out to poor per- 
fons, at a final] annual rent, on the condition of their 
keeping them in repair; and many are totally ruinous 
and uninhabited. The vote is in fome inftances feparated 
from the houfe, by the practice of granting a leafe of the 
latter for the term of 990 years, fubjebt to an annual 
pepper-corn rent; in either cafe, of the vote being re- 
ferved or fold with the houfe, it is confidered as iool. in 
the purchafe. We are informed, that the right of voting 
in the borough has been invariably annexed to the an¬ 
cient and eftablilhed burgage-tenures ; and never, as in 
fome others, enlarged to the houfeholders in general. A 
majority of thefe houfes are known to be the property of 
Henry Pierfe, efq. (brother-in-law to the late lord Mon- 
fon,) one of the members, and to the earl of Harewood, 
whole fon, vifcount Lafcelles, is the other. The number 
advertifed to be fold fome time ago, as the property of one 
gentleman, was thought to be fifteen. The remainder is 
divided fingly, or in fmall (hares, among various proprie¬ 
tors. Previous to an eleftion, in cafe an oppofition is 
expedfed, the affignments, we are informed, of the feve- 
ral tenures, are prepared for fuch perfons as the refpeflive 
proprietors can confide in ; but they are not executed 
unlefs called for, nor even then ufually entrufted to the 
cuftody of the voters. The number of voters is nominally 
200, really 2. Oldfield's RepreJ'entative HiJL 1816. 
Places of antiquity in and about this town are, the 
Caftle Hills, about a quarter of a mile weft of the town, 
fo called front a caftle which formerly (food there, at which 
place are to be feen many Roman entrenchments.—The 
bilhop’s palace, built by William Cummin, bilhop of Dur¬ 
ham, anno 1142; but the late Gothic proprietors have 
not left one (tone upon another.—On the eaft fide of the 
town formerly ftood a fmall monaftery called the Treres, 
built by Thomas Hatfield, fecretary of ftate to king Ed¬ 
ward III. for white friars, anno 1354. 
Near the town is alfo an hofpital, dedicated to St. 
Tames, and founded by H.ugh Pufar, biftiop of Durham, 
about the clofe of the twelfth century; it was granted at 
the diffolution to fir Richard Moryfine, and afterwards be¬ 
came part of the endowment of Chriftchurch-college, Ox¬ 
ford. A fimilar eftablifhment, founded by Richard de 
Moore in the year 1476, is yet in being; .but part o'-' its 
pofteftions having been alienated, only four perfons are 
maintained in it, who are nominated by the earl of Carlille, 
the patron. Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xvi. 
Wilkes's Britijh Diredory, vol. iv. 
NOR'THAM, a village in Devcnfhire, between Barn- 
ftaple Bay and Biddeford, famous for rearing mariners ; 
and its fteeple is a fea-rriark. There is a fine plain here, 
called Burrows, along the fea, from which it is defended 
by a ridge of land called Chefil, abounding with fea-holly. 
NOR'THAM, a village in Hamplhire, on the river 
Itchin, two miles from Southampton. Gibfon’s edition 
of Camden informs us, “ that here was a large dock for 
building men-of-war; and that feveral gold coins had 
been lately found.” 
NORTH AM'PTON, a town in England, capital of a 
county of the lame name, fituq,ted in lat. 52. 15. N. Ion. 
o. $5. W. According to Camden, it was formerly called 
Narth-afandon, from its fituation to the north of the river 
Nen,called ancientlyHK/imw, by which and another fmaller 
river it is almoft enclofed. Gibfon fays, that the ancient 
NOR 
Saxon annals called both it and Southampton fimply 
Harnton; and afterwards, to diftinguilh them, called the 
one, from its fituation, Southamton, and the other North- 
amton ; but never North-afandon. 
Northampton is memorable in the annals of political 
and local hiftory for the number of councils and fynods 
held there ; for its formidable ancient caftle, with the 
provincial earls ; alfo for numerous monadic foundations, 
and military events ; and laftly, for its modern improve¬ 
ments and pleafantnefs of fituation, as a place of bulinefs 
or retirement. It may be faid to be divided into four al¬ 
moft equal parts, by two ftreets running eaft and weft, and 
north and fouth. Both thefe ftreets are wide and com¬ 
modious, and each extends nearly a mile in length. Molt 
of the houfes are built of a reddilh-coloured land-done, 
dug from quarries in the neighbourhood; but fome are 
conftrudted with ftone of a yeilowilh tint, and a few are 
brick-buildings. At the ealtern extremity of the town a 
pleafant walk has been made, which is called Vigo Para- 
dife Walk, or the New Walk, and was formed at the ex¬ 
pend of the corporation. At the lower extremity of it is 
a fpring of chalybeate-water; and near the upper end is 
another fpring of clear water, known by the name of 
Thomas a Becket’s Well. On the north fide of the town 
is a trafif of land, which, in the year 1778, was an open 
field of 894 acres; but in that year an aft of parliament 
for enclofing it was obtained. About 129 acres of this 
were then allotted to the freemen of the town, for cattle. 
See. but it was provided in the aft, that the fame may be 
claimed and ufed as a race-courfe for any two days be¬ 
tween the 20th of July and the 20th of Oftober. 
It is ftated that a town was formed at this place during 
the Anglo-Saxon dynafty; and that the fame was attacked, 
plundered, and burnt, by the Danes, in their different 
predatory incurfions into this part of the illand. The 
Northumbrians, under earl Morcar, took poffeffion of this 
town in the year 1064; and, in the genuine fpirit of fa- 
vage warriors, murdered many of the inhabitants, burnt 
the houfes, and carried away multitudes of cattle and 
prifoners. According to records, there were then fixty 
burgeffes in the king’s lordfnip, and lixty houfes; but at 
the era of the Norman conqueft fourteen of the latter 
were wafte. “ William the Conqueror gave to Simon §t. 
Liz, a noble Norman, the town of Northampton, and the 
whole hundred of Faikely (Fawfley), then valued at forty 
pounds per annum, to provide (hoes for his horfes.” 
King Henry I. in the 23d year of his reign, kept the fes¬ 
tival of Eafter at Northampton, with all the pomp and 
ftate peculiar to that age; and, in the 31ft year of the 
fame reign, a parliament was held in this town, when 
the nobles fwore fealty to the emprefs Maud, on whom 
the king had fettled the right of fuccefiion. When the 
celebrated ftatutes of Clarendon were eftablilhed (10 
Hen. II.) for the better defining the boundaries of eccle- 
liaftical jurifdidtion, and archbilhop Becket alone refufed 
his affent (a refufal attended with a train of evils, vexa¬ 
tious to the king and fatal to the prelate), a council of 
the ftates was convened at Northampton, before which 
the archbifnop was fummoned to appear, and anfwer to 
the charges of contumacy, perjury, &c. which Ihould 
then be exhibited againft him. In the 26th year of this 
monarch’s reign, a convention of the barons and prelates 
was affembled here to amend, confirm, and enforce, the 
conftitutions of Clarendon. By this council the kingdom 
was divided into fix circuits; and jultices itinerant were 
affigned to each. From the formation of this convention, 
the advice of the knights and burgeffes being required, 
as well as that of the nobles and prelates, it has been 
confidered as the model by which parliaments have been 
conftituted in fucceeding times. 
During the reign of Henry III. Northampton was fre¬ 
quently honoured with his refidence, and with particular 
marks of his favour; and in the wars between that king 
and the confederate barons, it was alternately befieged 
and poffeffed by each of the contending parties. About 
this 
