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Ushaw

USHAW, a hamlet, in the chapelry of Esh, union and parish of Lanchester, W. division of Chester ward, N. division of the county of Durham, 4 miles (W.) from Durham. This place derives its name from the abundance of yew-trees that formerly grew in the neighbourhood. It belongs to a Roman Catholic college established here in 1808, and which owed its origin to the dissolution of the English College of Douay, in French Flanders, by the tyranny of the French republic in 1794. The majority of the professors and students, having escaped to their native land, settled at Crook Hall, in this county; but the building soon proving too small, they were enabled by the liberal support of the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, to raise the present edifice. The college comprises a spacious quadrangle, adapted to the reception of 150 students, with a president, vice-president, and professors; and has a valuable library of more than 12,000 volumes, with numerous splendidly illuminated MSS.

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

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