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Faversham, or Feversham (St. Mary)

FAVERSHAM, or Feversham (St. Mary), a seaport, market-town, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Faversham, Upper division of the lathe of Scray, E. division of Kent, 9 miles (W.) from Canterbury, 18 (E. N. E.) from Maidstone, and 47 (E.) from London, on the road to Dovor; containing 4621 inhabitants, of whom 4040 are in the town. This place is of great antiquity, having been inhabited by the Britons prior to the Roman invasion. It was held in royal demesne in 811, and is called in a charter granted by Kenulf, King of Mercia, "The king's little town of Febresham;" in 930, Athelstan held a council here, "to enact laws, and devise methods for their future observance." It is returned in Domesday book as being held by William the Conqueror, by the name of Favreshant; and that king is said to have given the advowson to the abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury, and the manor to one of his favourite Normans as a reward for services. In 1147, a celebrated abbey for twelve Cluniac monks was founded here by Stephen, who, with Matilda, his consort, and his eldest son, Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, was interred within the walls, as were several other persons of renown. The town, also, obtained peculiar liberties and numerous charters from various kings. Selden states that the endowments and privileges granted to the abbey by Stephen were confirmed by successive sovereigns, and that the abbots sat in thirteen several parliaments, in the reigns of Edward I. and II., but that, on account of their reduced state and poverty, they ceased to do so after the eighteenth year of the latter monarch's reign. It appears that an acrimonious feeling existed for a considerable time between the monks and the people of Faversham, who endured with reluctance the imposts and exactions of the former. Among these grievances were claims, by way of composition, for allowing the inhabitants to send their swine to pannage, for exposing their wares to sale in the market, for the liberty of brewing, &c.; in which state matters continued till the time of Henry VIII., when the monastery shared the fate of the other religious houses. At that period its clear revenue was estimated at £286. 12. 6¾., but the full annual value, according to a record published by Jacob, was £355. 15. 2. In 1539, the year after its surrender, the chief parts of the monastery were destroyed, and the site was granted to Sir Thomas Cheney, lord warden of the cinque-ports, together with some adjoining lands. The two entrance gates were remaining about 80 years ago, but, being in a ruinous state, they were taken down, and there is nothing now except some portions of the outer walls. James II. having been seized at Shellness Point, on his first attempt to quit the kingdom, after the landing of the Prince of Orange, in 1688, was detained at Faversham, and subsequently escaped from Rochester.

The town is situated on a branch of the river Swale, called East Swale, in which is an excellent roadstead for shipping; and consists principally of four streets. Towards the end of the last century it underwent some very material improvements, among which were the opening of a spacious avenue from the London road into Preston-street, and the erection of a bridge over the stream at the bottom of West-street, in 1773. The town is remarkably neat and clean, well lighted and paved under an act obtained in 1789, and has many wealthy and respectable inhabitants; some of the houses are large and handsome, and there are an assemblyroom and a public subscription library. It has long been distinguished for its manufacture of gunpowder, which is said to have been established here prior to the reign of Elizabeth, and was in the hands of privileged individuals till 1760, when government constructed buildings with due regard to additional security. Nevertheless, in 1767, a store containing 25 barrels of gunpowder blew up, and considerably damaged the town; and a much more disastrous occurrence took place on the 17th of April, 1781, through the explosion of 7000lb. of gunpowder, by which the corning-mill and dustinghouse were blown to atoms, the workmen killed, and the buildings in Faversham and Davington either wholly or partially unroofed, and otherwise greatly damaged; so tremendous was the report that it was heard at the distance of 20 miles. Government granted pecuniary aid for the suffering inhabitants, and an act was passed for the greater safety of gunpowder-works, one of the provisions of which was the removal of the stores into the marsh, a considerable distance below the town. During the late war, the quantity of powder annually manufactured here was from 12,000 to 13,000 barrels, affording employment to nearly 400 persons. Since the peace of 1815, the crown has disposed of the works near the town, but retained those more distant; the former have become the property of a private manufacturer, who conducts the business on a considerable scale, employing about 100 persons regularly, and occasionally many super-numeraries.

Faversham is a place of considerable traffic. More than 40,000 quarters of corn, besides a considerable quantity of hops, fruit, wool, and other articles of merchandise, are sent to London: there is a manufactory for Roman cement; and ship-building is carried on to some extent. The port, in the reign of Elizabeth, had 18 vessels, of from 5 to 45 tons' burthen. The quay mentioned by Leland, under the appellation of Thorn, has long been in disuse; but three new quays, or wharfs, have been constructed close to the town. The navigation of the river has been much improved of late; vessels of 100 tons can generally come up to the wharf with the tide, and the channel will now admit ships drawing eight feet of water to sail up at spring tides. The number of vessels of above 50 tons' burthen belonging to the port, is 42, and their aggregate tonnage 3769. The management and support of the navigation are vested in the corporation. The oyster-fishery has been very considerable, and formerly constituted a prominent source of trade, but it has much declined. The company of free fishermen and free dredgermen of the hundred of Faversham, as tenants of the lord of the manor, are under his jurisdiction and protection; and he appoints a steward, who holds two courts annually, called Admiralty or Water Courts, at which all regulations for the benefit of the fishery are made. The markets are on Wednesday and Saturday; and there is a fair on Michaelmas-day.

From an early period the town has been a member of the port of Dovor, one of the cinque-ports, and this connexion may account for many of the privileges it has obtained. The oldest charter now extant is that of the 36th of Henry III., in which the freemen are styled "Barons:" charters of confirmation, with extended privileges, were given by subsequent monarchs; and that under which the town was governed previously to the passing of the act of the 5th and 6th of William IV., cap. 76, was granted in the 37th of Henry VIII., and confirmed in the 1st of Edward VI. The control is now vested in a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors; the mayor and late mayor are justices of the peace, and the number of other magistrates is six. A company of mercers, established by a by-law of the corporation in 1616, has been abolished. A court of session is held quarterly, at which all offenders, except for high treason, are tried by the recorder: petty-sessions are held weekly. The powers of the county debt-court of Faversham, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Faversham. The guildhall was erected in 1574, and enlarged in 1814; the upper part is appropriated to the holding of the courts, and the lower to the use of the market. The gaol was built in 1812.

The parish comprises 2269 acres. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £26. 17. 6.; net income, not including poor rates, £342; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The church was founded prior to the Conquest. The present edifice is a spacious cruciform structure of flint, partly in the decorated and partly in the later English style, with a light tower at the west end, crowned with pinnacles, and surmounted by an octagonal spire; the interior of the west end was rebuilt in 1755, at an expense of about £2500, and the tower and spire are of still more recent erection. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. The grammar school was founded in the 18th of Henry VIII., by Dr. Cole, a native of Kent, and warden of All Souls' College, Oxford, who bequeathed to the convent of Faversham certain lands in the neighbourhood, for a school; at the Dissolution the property became vested in the crown, and continued so until the 18th of Elizabeth, when a charter was obtained for refounding the school by the corporation: the annual produce of the endowment is £176. A national school, established in 1814, is endowed with £55. 16. a year; and the twelfth part of the rent of a farm, let for £450 per annum, bequeathed by the Dowager Lady Capel, is also paid for the instruction of children. The town has several other excellent charities, including an estate of about £600 per annum, left by Henry Hatch for the repairs of the creek, the highways within a mile of the town, and for ornamenting the church. Almshouses for six widows were founded in 1614, and endowed by Thomas Mansfield; and in 1823, Henry Wreight erected six more. Thomas Napleton, in 1721, founded and endowed almshouses for six men; and there are some other almshouses and benefactions. The poor law union of Faversham comprises 25 parishes or places, containing 15,915 inhabitants. Dr. John Wilson, gentleman of the chapel-royal in the reigns of Charles I. and II., and musical professor in the university of Oxford, was born here in 1595; and the town is also the birthplace of Dr. Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough, who died in 1839. Faversham gives the title of Baron to the family of Duncombe.


Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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