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Newport-Pagnell (St. Peter and St. Paul)

NEWPORT-PAGNELL (St. Peter and St. Paul), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Newport, county of Buckingham, 4 miles (E. by N.) from Wolverton, 15 (N. E. by E.) from Buckingham, and 51 (N. W.) from London; containing 3569 inhabitants. The distinguishing addition to its name is derived from the family of Paganell, or Pagnell, to whom the manor descended from William Fitzansculf, a powerful baron who held it at the time of the Conquest. Their castle had fallen to decay previously to the time when Camden wrote. In the early part of the great civil war, Newport was garrisoned by Prince Rupert, but the garrison was withdrawn after the first battle of Newbury, in 1643, when the parliamentary troops under the Earl of Essex entered the town. Sir Samuel Luke, supposed to have been the Hudibras of Butler, was governor in 1645. Newport is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and is well built, particularly the principal street. It is watered by the river Ouse, and by the river Lovett, which falls into the Ouse half a mile distant from the town; there is also a branch of the Grand Junction canal to the town from Great Linford. An elegant bridge of cast-iron, having one arch 58 feet in the span, was constructed across the Lovett, in 1810; and about the same time a very handsome stone one was erected over the Ouse: the expense of both was about £12,000. The races, which had been discontinued for forty years, were revived in 1827. The assizes for the county were occasionally held here, from the reign of Henry III. to that of Henry VI.: the petty-sessions for the three hundreds of Newport are held here on every alternate Wednesday. The powers of the county debt-court of Newport, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Newport, and the parishes of Calverton, Wolverton, and Stony-Stratford. The manufacture of bone-lace was formerly carried on in the neighbourhood to a very considerable extent, the market for its sale being on Wednesday; but of late years the trade has much declined. A grant of a market and a fair was made, or confirmed, to Roger de Somery, in 1270; and a renewal of the charter for the market, which is held on Saturday, was obtained by John de Botetort in 1333. Fairs are held on February 22nd, in March, on April 22nd, June 22nd, August 29th, October 22nd, and December 22nd.

The parish comprises 3230a. 2r. 18p. of rich arable and pasture in nearly equal portions. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £230. The tithes were commuted for land in 1806 and 1807. The church is an ancient and spacious edifice with a square tower, standing on an eminence which affords a fine view of the surrounding country: the sum of £9000 has recently been expended in repairing it. In the north aisle, the body of a man was disinterred in 1619, when it was found that the skull and other hollow bones had been filled with lead, of which that taken from the skull is preserved in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. A school for girls was endowed with £10 per annum from a bequest by Dr. Lewis Atterbury, brother of the celebrated Bishop of Rochester. A Lancasterian school now called the Royal British School, and a national school, are supported by subscription. In 1280, John de Somery founded an hospital, dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, which was refounded by Anne of Denmark, queen of James I., and called Queen Anne's hospital; its revenue is about £297, appropriated to the vicar and to the maintenance of three poor men and three women. Two other hospitals, called St. Margaret's and the New hospital, were founded so early as 1240, but they have fallen to decay. John Revis, citizen and draper of London, endowed an almshouse in 1763, for four men and three women. The union of Newport-Pagnell comprises forty-five parishes or places, containing a population of 22,999. Fulk Paganell, in the reign of William Rufus, founded a convent of Cluniac monks at Tickford, adjoining the town, as a cell to the abbey of Marmontiers, in Normandy; the monastery and lands, valued at £126. 17., were given in the 17th of Henry VIII. to Cardinal Wolsey.


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

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