WIGTON (St. Mary), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the ward, and E. division of the county, of Cumberland; containing, with the townships of Oulton, Waverton, and Woodside-Quarter, 6432 inhabitants, of whom 4738 are in the town, 305 miles (N. N. W.) from London. Of the early history of this place little is recorded: the barony was given by William de Meschines to Waldeof, Lord of Allerdale, and by him to Odoard, who lived about the period of the Norman Conquest, and assumed the name De Wigton. The town was burnt by the Scots when they plundered the abbey of Holme-Cultram, in 1322; and during the civil war, in 1648, the van of the Duke of Hamilton's army was quartered here. Wigton consists principally of one spacious street, with a narrower extending transversely at one end of it, and contains some handsome well-built houses; it is pitched with pebbles, and supplied with water from wells, the property of individuals, and from a public pump, erected near the centre of the town. There are a subscription and a circulating library: races formerly took place in the month of August. The principal articles of manufacture are checks, muslins, and ginghams, which are made to a considerable extent; and an establishment for calico-printing and dyeing affords employment to many of the inhabitants. Coal is obtained within three miles, and copper-ore within five miles, of the town. A branch of the Maryport and Carlisle railway was opened to Wigton on May 3rd, 1843: the station here is 16 miles from the former town, and 11½ from the latter. The market-days are Tuesday and Friday, the former for corn, of which a great quantity is pitched in the market-place. Fairs are held on Feb. 20th, a very large horse-fair; on April 5th, for hornedcattle; and Dec. 21st, called Wallet fair, for cattle, butchers' meat, apples, and honey: there are statutefairs at Whitsuntide and Martinmas. The powers of the county debt-court of Wigton, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Wigton. The county magistrates hold a petty-session every month; and constables are appointed at the court leet and baron of the manor, which takes place in September.
The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £17. 19. 0½.; net income, £162; patron, the Bishop of Carlisle; impropriators, the landowners. The tithes were commuted for land in 1811. The church, which is said to have been originally erected by Odoard, with materials brought from a neighbouring Roman station called Old Carlisle, subsequently belonged to the abbey of Holme-Cultram. It was taken down in 1788, and the present edifice, a light and handsome building, erected on its site: attached is a library for the use of the clergy, presented by Dr. Bray. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar school, at Market Hill, near the entrance of the town, was founded in 1730, by certain of the inhabitants. In 1787, the sum of £1000 three per cent, stock was bequeathed by John Allison to the school; and in 1798, £355 by Thomas Tomlinson, Esq., who also left £100 for the establishment of a public library: the present income is about £68. The Rev. John Brown, D.D., author of the tragedy of Barbarossa, received his early education in the school. An hospital for six widows of beneficed clergymen or curates of two years' standing, was founded in 1725, by the Rev. John Tomlinson, who endowed it with a rent-charge of £45. 12., to which other benefactions have been added. The poor-law union embraces 31 parishes or places, which contain a population of 23,366. Ewan Clarke, the Cumberland poet; Joseph Rooke, a distinguished mathematician and philosopher; R. Smirke, R.A., the celebrated historical painter; and Mr. George Barnes, professor of mathematics, were natives of the town.
