Faversham, Kent
Historical Description
Faversham, a town, a municipal borough, and a parish in Kent. The town stands on Watling Street, on a navigable creek of the river Swale, adjacent to the junction of the Margate railway with the L.C. & D.R., opposite the SE curve of Sheppey Isle, 9 miles WNW of Canterbury, and 48 from London. It was known to the Saxons as Favresfield, and to the Normans as Favreshant. It was a seat of the Saxon kings in 811, and the meeting-place of a wittenagemot, under Athelstan, in 930. It acquired much consequence from the founding of an abbey at it by Stephen and Matilda in 1147-49. It was visited by Henry VIII. in 1519, 1522, and 1545; by his sister Mary in 1515, by Elizabeth in 1573, by Charles II. in 1660, by James II. in 1688, when he was endeavouring to escape to France, and when he was seized by the sailors. The town consists of spacious and well-paved streets, but may be said to include the suburbs of Preston, Davington, and Ospringe. Its chief public buildings are a guildhall, a custom-house, an assembly room, a literary institute, a workmen's club, a cottage hospital, a parish church, several dissenting chapels, a grammar school, national schools, almshouses, and a workhouse. The guildhall stands in the centre of the town, and is supported upon pillars, and partly timbered. The assembly room stands, in Preston Street, and was built in 1848. The literary institute comprises lecture-room, reading-room, museum, and class-rooms, and was opened in 1862. The church' is cruciform, occupies the site of an ancient Saxon one, has at different times been entirely remodelled, has been subjected to thorough restoration, ' is chiefly Early English, of much size and great beauty, but has debased Corinthian character in its nave, has also a curious western tower of about the year 1800, and contains a very fine modern font of alabaster and serpentine, a number of interesting Early English paintings, three sedilia with detached pilasters, a richly-canopied Later English altar-tomb, another tomb with decorated canopy, alleged to be the tomb of King Stephen, a brass of Henry Hatche of 1533, who was a great benefactor to the town, and a mural monument of Thomas Mendfield. There were formerly in. The church a chapel of Thomas of Canterbury, and altars of Erasmus, Crispin, and Crispina. These altars were much frequented by devotees, and the persons or reputed saints to whom they were dedicated were locally held in high veneration. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £460 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. There is a chapel of ease in connection with the church opened in 1885. The abbey stood on ground now called Abbey Farm, was commonly called St Saviour's of Faversham, was first Cluniac, afterwards Benedictine, was the burial-place of King Stephen, his queen Matilda, their son Eustace, and many noble personages; held such rank that its abbots in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. sat in thirteen several Parliaments, was given at the. dissolution to Sir Thomas Cheney, and sold afterwards to Thomas Arden, the subject of a tragedy printed in 1592, is now represented only by foundations and part of a boundary wall. A Congregational chapel was built in 1865 at a cost of £3000, and is in the Second Pointed style. A mission church was erected in 1872, and a Baptist chapel in 1873. The grammar school was founded in 1527 for novices in the abbey, passed at the dissolution to the Crown, was regranted by Elizabeth, and is now managed under a scheme proposed by the Charity Commissioners. A row of almshouses, under a new scheme for the administration of Wreight's charity, was erected in 1863, includes a chapel, and cost upwards of £11,500. The income of the borough charities is over £3000. There are also some parochial charities, and there is on the E side of the town a recreation ground of 20 acres. The workhouse can accommodate 500 inmates.
The town has a head post office, two banks, and four chief inns; is a member of Dover Cinqufr port, and publishes two weekly newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesday and Saturday, and fairs on Oct. 11 and two following days. A considerable trade in corn, hops, fruit, and wool is carried on. The growth of madder, in the vicinity and at Dartford, was introduced in 1660. An extensive oyster fishery dates from remote times, and belongs to a " company of free fishermen and dredgermen" of the hundred of Faversham. An extensive manufacture of cement employs a large number of persons. Gunpowder mills were established adjacent to the town before the time of Elizabeth, exploded with dreadful effects in 1781, were rebuilt at some distance from their former site, and are now among the most important in the kingdom. An ancient quay, called the Thorn, and mentioned by Leiand, was long ago relinquished, and three new quays now in use are close to the town. The creek at the harbour has about 12 feet of water at ordinary spring tides, and the navigation of it has been improved at a cost of upwards of £30,000. Faversham is a limb of the Cinque ports. The number of vessels registered as belonging to it in 1893 was 235 (20,642 tons). The entries and clearances average 9300 (435,000 tons) per annum. The exports consist chiefly of country produce, and the imports are chiefly timber, iron, pitch, and tar, from Sweden and Norway, and coals from Sunderland. Faversham is a borough by prescription, had numerous charters, and is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. Population of the municipal borough, 10,478. Acreage of the civil parish, 2282; population, 10,660; of the ecclesiastical, 10,550. Hamo de Faversham, Simon de Faversham, Wilson the musician, and Bishop Herbert Marsh, were natives. Some curious chalk caverns with columns are in the neighbourhood, and were thought by Camden to be excavations by the ancient Britons, for chalk dressing.
Faversham Parliamentary Division, or North-Eastern Kent, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 69,345. The division includes the following:- Faversham-Badlesmere Bapchild, Bobbing, Borden, Bough-ton-under-Blean, Bredgar, Buckland (near Faversham), Dav-ington, Doddington, Dunkirk, Eastchurch, Eastling, Elmley, Faversham (the part in the county), Goodnestone-next-Faversham, Graveney, Halstow (Lower), Hartlip, Harty (St Thomas), Hernhill, Iwade, Kingsdown, Leaveland, Leysdown, Linsted, Luddenham, MUstead, Milton-next-Sittingboume, Minster-in-Sheppy,' Murston, Newington-next-Sittingbourne. Newnham, Norton, Oare, Ospringe (part of), Preston-next-Faversham, Eainham, Redmersham, Selling, Sheldwicb, Sit-tingbourne, Stalisfield, Stone-next-Faversham, Teynham. Throwley, Tonge, Tunstall, Upchurch, Warden; Faversham, municipal borough; Queensborough, corporate town.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Kent | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Faversham St. Mary | |
Hundred | Faversham | |
Lathe | Scray | |
Poor Law union | Faversham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast have the following online for Faversham, St Mary of Charity: baptisms 1620-1901, marriages 1620-1901, burials 1620-1895
Findmypast have the following online for Faversham, The Brents, St John the Evangelist: baptisms 1881-1909, marriages 1881-1916,
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Faversham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Faversham, or Feversham (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Faversham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:
- Kent & Sussex Courier
- Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
- Dover Express
- Kentish Gazette
- Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
- Kentish Chronicle
- Maidstone Telegraph
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.