No. 4. "A Description of the Three Hundred Acres, rated to the Poor's Rate of the Borough of Uxbridge, ascer- tained and determined by the Commissioners of the Hillingdon Inclosure, with the assistance of the Church- wardens and Overseers of the poor of the parish of Hil- lingdon, and the Chapel-wardens and Overseers of the poor of the Borough of Uxbridge, on the 8th. day of No. 6. "Nov. 1659. The Business between Hillingd : and Uxbridge about repairing the Church yard wall No. 7. An Account of the Annual Receipts of the Chapel- wardens from the year 1708 to the present time. p. 307. No. 8. A Letter from the Rev. Mr. Lightfoot to the Inha- bitants of the Town. p. 308-319. No. 9. Extracts from "The Presentments and Survey on view of the Jury of a Court Barron held for the Mannor and Burrough of Uxbridge the 10th. of January 1727, ERRATA. p. 160, line 12, for Chantery, read Chantry.—p. 159, l. 20, for Re- THE HISTORY OF UXBRIDGE. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY. SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION,—ANTIQUITY,—ETYMOLOGY OF ITS NAME, EVIDENCE OF HAVING BEEN A BOROUGHTOWN. Introduction. THE study of history is one of the most pleasing, and may be made one of the most instructive of human pursuits. Among its many improving lessons, none is more frequently or more impressively repeated, than that which teaches the frailty of man and all his works. When we are called to witness the ease with which Time obliterates the records, and destroys the monuments of remote ages, our ambition and our curiosity are checked. B The review of but a few centuries is, in most cases, sufficient to involve all our inquiries in doubt; and if, after encountering many em-. barrassments and difficulties, we are resolved to prosecute the research into more distant ages, we must be content with much conjecture and uncertainty. Time either refuses to answer our queries, or replies only in mortifying and ambiguous generalities. The ingenuity and industry of man may indeed be said to have annihilated, in several important respects, distance of space, but not of time. The most remote as well as the most minute objects are made to approach the eye and submit to investigation. But time is spreading an atmosphere of augmenting density around distant ages, which yields to no instrument we can employ. The Historian and the Antiquary often have to encounter a thick and obstinate obscurity, which resists every effort to pierce it with a single ray of light. Of the men of other times, then, we must be satisfied with inferring a few general truths, from the scanty relics we possess; or, if we persist in our inquiries, we ought at least to stand prepared for the humbling issue to which many a laborious investigation into Antiquity has led, "Their memorial has perished with them." (3) Antiquity. To those who are conversant with the very few facts which have come down to us from the Anglo-Saxon period of our history, and who know that only a faint and general view can now be gained of what was then the internal state of the country, it will not appear strange, that the annals of an inconsiderable town, should be incapable of being distinctly traced back, even so far as to that period. There are, however, reasons which render it probable that Uxbridge was one of the regular, though possibly one of the smaller boroughs, established under Alfred or some of his immediate successors. Of its existence early in the twelfth century there are sufficient evidences in documents still remaining. It is expressly mentioned in a curious deed, by one Brien Fitz-Count, under the name Oxebruge, which must be dated soon after 1139*. It is well known that Boroughs are the most ancient towns in Englandt. That Uxbridge was called a BOROUGH in the time of Henry II. * See sect. 2. of this chapter, on the Manor and Borough, and chap. iii. sect, 1. on Ecclesiastical Affairs. + See Littleton 1. 2. c. x. s. 164. His words are, " les antient villes appel burgh, sont les pluis ancient vills que sont deins Engleterre, &c." is clearly proved from an ancient grant in which its Burgesses are distinctly mentioned*, as well as from several manuscripts†, and from various records also, which describe it as surrounded by a borough ditch, part of which is still visible. It was a rule observed, particularly by Alfred, who founded most of the Ancient Boroughs, to allot to the towns intended for trade but a small portion of land, while to the villages intended for agriculture, he granted a much larger space. This town was evidently founded as a borough, and not as a villa; the township having been surrounded with a ditch, and the site of the whole comprehending not more than eighty-five acres. To this reasoning, we apprehend, no valid objection can be founded on the silence of the ancient record called Domesday-book, relative to Uxbridge, * See Basset's Grant, sect. 3. of this chapter. + See the Appropriation Grant of Hillingdon Rectory, &c. to the Bishop of Worcester, dated 1281, in Appendix No. 1. To some of our readers it may be necessary to offer a brief account of this very valuable and ancient record: this we shall do in the words of Ingulphus, who was Secretary to William the Conqueror, by whose order the survey of Domesday was made: "King William for the taxing of his whole land, tooke this order in all England, there was not an hide of land but he knew the value thereof and the possessor also, neither meire nor place their was, but it was valued in the King's role, the rents and profits, the possession and possessor, were made manifest and knowne unto the King, according to the fidelitie of taxórs, which being chosen out of every countrey taxed or seized their owne territories, or made their own rent role. This role is called the role of Winton, and of the Englishmen for the generalitie thereof, containing wholie all the |