STRATFORD. 
Maryland Point and the Gravel Pits, one facing the road to 
Woodford and Epping, and the other that to Ilford. The 
hither part is almost joined to Bow, notwithstanding the in¬ 
tervention of canals, rivers, and marshy grounds. The 
bridge over the river Lea is said to be the most ancient stone 
arch in England, having been built by Maud, wife of Henry 
I., as its old church was by Henry II. 5 -1 mile north of West 
Ham, and 3| north-east of London. 
STRATFORD, a village and parish of England, in the 
county of Suffolk, situated near the river Stour, opposite 
Manningtree, and on the road from Colchester and London, 
to Ipswich. It is a great thoroughfare, and has also some 
manufacturing business. The church is a handsome build¬ 
ing. About a quarter of a mile south-west of this place, on 
the bank of the Stour, is a camp, which some antiquarians 
assert to have been a Roman station; 085 miles north-east 
of London. 
STRATFORD, a parish of England, in Suffolk; 2J miles 
south-west-by-west of Saxmundham. 
STRATFORD, or Stratford-upon-Avon, a large and 
respectable market town of England, in Warwickshire, is 
chiefly celebrated for being the birth-place of Shakspeare. 
It is seated on the western bank of the river Avon, over which 
is a bridge of 14 arches, and 376 yards in length. The 
town consists of 12 principal streets, and has on the whole a 
cheerful, though not a busy aspect. The public buildings 
are, the bridge over the Avon, the church, the chapel of the 
Holy Cross, and the town-hall. The church, a spacious and 
venerable structure, was formerly collegiate, but the college 
buildings are now destroyed. It stands on the margin of the 
river Avon, and is embosomed in lofty trees. The structure 
is of a cruciform description, with a square tower at the in¬ 
tersection of the transept, of early and curious architecture, 
and on which was raised in 1764 an octagonal spire of stone, 
in place of one of wood. The different parts of the church 
appear, from the style of architecture, to have been con¬ 
structed of various periods during the 14th and 15th centuries. 
The interior is divided into a nave, two aisles, a transept or 
cross aisles, and a chancel. It contains numerous monuments 
and inscriptions, some of which are interesting. The most 
remarkable is the monument and bust of Shakspeare, which 
is attached to the north wall of the chancel, near which lie 
the remains of the poet. Two other flat stones near the 
grave of Shakspeare, denote the spots where were interred the 
bodies of his daughter Susanna, and her husband, John Hall, 
the physician. Several large monuments to the families of 
Combe, Clopton, &c„ are preserved in this church. The 
chancel contains a monumental effigy of Mr. John Combe, 
a neighbour and acquaintance of Shakspeare, and who is 
said to have been satirised by the poet, iiyin epitaph written 
on him in his lifetime. The chapel of the Holy Cross is a 
handsome structure, and a considerable ornament to the 
town. It belonged to the guild of the Holy Cross, a frater¬ 
nity partly civil and partly religious, which was established 
here so early as the year 1269, by Giffard, bishop of Wor¬ 
cester, under the name of the hospital of the Holy Cross in 
Stratford, and which had particular municipal privileges 
granted them. Many parts of the building were taken down, 
and rebuilt in the ornamental Gothic style, by Sir Hugh Clop 
ton, in the reign of Henry VII.; but the chancel appears 
from the account of the fraternity, to have been rebuilt about 
the year 1443. In 1804 the chapel underwent some repairs, 
and it was then discovered that the interior face of the walls 
had been embellished with fresco paintings. Attached to 
the chapel are a hall for the brethren of the guild, an aim- 
house for 24 poor persons of both sexes, and a free grammar 
school for children, natives of the borough. The guild and 
fraternity were dissolved at the general suppression of religi¬ 
ous houses, but the school and aim-houses are still continued, 
and the guild-hall is used for the meeting of the corporation. 
The town-hall, first erected in 1633, was a lofty edifice, built 
on semicircular arches, and supported by round columns, 
with a cupola on the top. Above was a room used as a ma - 
gazine for arms and ammunition, which being in the year 
1642 much damaged by the explosion of a barrel of gun- 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1595. 
621 
powder, was partly taken down in 1767, and the present 
building erected in the year following. Being dedicated in 
1769, at Garrick’s jubilee, to the memory of Shakspeare, it 
was then denominated Shakspeare-hall. It contains a room 
of 60 feet in length, decorated with two paintings by Wilson 
and Gainsborough, of the poet, and of Garrick, by whom 
they were presented. The outside of the hall is also orna¬ 
mented with a statue of Shakspeare, likewise presented by 
Garrick. Stratford contains an old dilapidated house, in 
which it is said Shakspeare was born. It is situated in 
Henley-street, and remained the property of the Hart family, 
descended from Jone, the sister of Shakspeare, until ] 806, 
when it was sold. It is now divided into two dwellings, and 
used as a butcher’s shop and a public house. After he had 
attained comparative affluence, Shakspeare retired to a house 
called New Place, which is destroyed. It was originally 
erected by sir Hugh Clopton, in the time of Henry VII. In 
1597, it was bought by Shakspeare, who gave it the name of 
New-Place, and resided in it till his death in 1616. In 1753, 
it. was sold to the reverend Francis Gastrell, who seems to 
have had but little regard for the memory of its former pos¬ 
sessor. In 1756 he cut down the famous mulberry tree 
planted by the hand of Shakspeare ; and in 1759, razed the 
building to the ground. 
Stratford has no staple manufacture, or business of any con¬ 
sequence, except a little trade in corn and malt. The great 
road from London to Holyhead, through Birmingham, passes 
through the town. Other turnpike roads branch off to wards 
Warwick, Coventry, and Alcester, and to different parts of 
Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, and Glouces¬ 
tershire. The Avon is navigable hence to the Severn ; and 
a canal lately completed to join the Worcester and Birming¬ 
ham canal, opens a communication with the northern parts 
of the kingdom. The town was formerly under the jurisdic¬ 
tion ofa bailiff, 14 aldermen, and 14 burgesses ;and was in¬ 
corporated in the 7th year of Edward VI. A fresh charter 
of incorporation was granted in the 16th of Charles II. by 
which the municipal government is vested in a mayor, 12 
aldermen, and 12 burgesses. The existence of Stratford may 
be referred to a period three centuries before the Norman 
conquest, when a monastery existed here, belonging to Ethe- 
lard, a viceroy of the Wiccians, and supposed to have been 
founded soon after the conversion of the Saxons to Christia¬ 
nity. This convent was annexed to the bishopric of Wor¬ 
cester, at the beginning of the 8 th century, when the manor 
of Stratford had attained to some degree of consequence, and 
was rated in the Norman survey at the sum of £25. In the 
reign of Richard I. a charter was granted for a weekly market 
on Thursday, which is still continued. In the time of queen 
Elizabeth, the town was nearly destroyed by fires. In the 
civil war of Charles I. an important period in the history of 
the principal towns in Warwickshire, a party of the royalists 
was stationed at Stratford, but was driven from the town by 
the parliamentary army, who destroyed one arch of the bridge, 
to prevent their returning incursions; the royalists, how¬ 
ever, again approached Stratford, and it afterwards became 
the residence of the queen Henrietta Maria, till she departed 
to meet Charles near Edge Hill. In 1769 was celebrated at 
Strafford, Garrick’s jubilee in honour of Shakspeare, a per¬ 
formance which excited much attention at the time. Among 
the eminent natives of the town are John de Stratford, arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, lord Chancellor of England, and 
regent of the kingdom in the reign of Edward III.; Robert 
de Stratford, his brother, also lord Chancellor and bishop of 
Chichester; and Ralph de Stratford, nephew of the above 
prelates, and bishop of London in the same reign. In 1811, 
the town and parish of Stratford contained 563 houses, and 
2842 inhabitants. Market on Thursday, and three annual 
fairs; 8 miles south-west of Warwick, and 94 north-west of 
London. Lat. 52. 12. N. long. 1.41. W. 
STRATFORD, a hamlet of England, in Bedfordshire; 2 
miles north of Biggleswade. 
STRATFORD, a post township of the United States, in 
Coos county, New Hampshire, .east of the Connecticut. 
Population 339. 
7 T 
STRATFORD, 
