Edmonton All Saints

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EDMONTON, All Saints, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred in Middlesex. The parish lies on the Enfield branch of the London and Hertford railway, and on the New River, 8 miles N by E of St. Paul's, London; contains Lower Edmonton, Upper Edmonton, Southgate, Winchmore-Hill, Palmers-Green, and the wards of Bury-street, Church-street, Fore-street, and South-street; includes part of Enfield chace; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a railway station at Lower Edmonton, and two post offices, of the names of Edmonton and Southgate, under London N. The central part of it figured at Domesday as Edelmeton; was anciently a town; is now a long broken street, has four churches, nine dissenting chapels, a coach factory, a court house, and a police station; and may be regarded as a suburb of London. The parish church consists of nave, chancel, and north aisle, with square embattled tower; was encased with bricks in 1772; had anciently a chantry; and contains monuments of the Huxleys and the Myddletons, and three old brasses. St. James' church...Upper Edmonton; St. Paul's,...Winchmore Hill; Christ-church,...Southgate; and the last of these is a large edifice in the pointed style. The remains of the poet Lamb, and those of his sisters, with a monumental stone, are in the churchyard. An Independent chapel, built in 1850, at a cost of £6,000, is a handsome structnre, in florid Gothic. The court-house is a modern edifice, on the site of an old seat of the Snells. Latymer's school, for educating and clothing boys, has £327 from endowment; Stanbridge's school, for educating and clothing girls, bears the inscription, -"A structnre of Hope, founded in Faith, on the basis of Charity, 1784;" Wild and Styles' alms-houses have £160; and all charities, inclusive of these, have £633. Edmonton figures in Cowper's poem of John Gilpin; and is known also for "a merry devil" and "a witch, " each of whom has been made the subject of a play. The merry devil was a Peter Fabell, who seems to have acquired notoriety by sleight-of-hand tricks; and the witch was an Elizabeth Sawyer, who was put to death for alleged sorcery in 1621. The parish comprises 7,480 acres. Real property, £53,447. Pop., 10,936. Houses, 2,079. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to Sir W. Curtis, Bart. Pymmes was the seat of Lord Burleigh; Bury Hall, of President Bradshaw; and Bush Hill, of the Myddletons. The parochial living is a vicarage, and the livings of Upper Edmonton, Southgate, - and Winchmore Hill, also are vicarages, in the dio. of London. Value of the first, £1,160;* of the second and the third, each £200; of the fourth, £100. Patrons of the first, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's; of each of the others, the Vicar. Owen, the author of "Critica Sacra", was vicar; Tillotson, the archbishop, when dean, resided in the parsonage; and Dr. B. Taylor, the mathematician, was a native.

The sub-district is conterminate with the parish. The district comprehends also the sub-districts of Hornsey, Tottenham, Enfield, Waltham - Abbey, and Cheshunt, each conterminate with the parish of its own name, and the last electorally in Herts. Acres, 46,607. Poor-rates in 1862, £27,029. Pop. in 1851, 45,298; in 1861, 59,312. Houses, 10, 861. Marriages in 1860, 267; births, 1, 884, -of which 67 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,015, -of which 360 were at ages under 5 years, and 35 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 2, 360; births, 15, 336; deaths, 9,417. The places of worship in 1851 were 25 of the Church of England, with 11,589 sittings; 14 of Independents, with 4, 090 s.; 5 of Baptists, with 1,697 s.; 2 of Quakers, with 510 s.; 5 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 870 s.; 1 of the Wesleyan Association, with 90 s.; 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 80 s.; 2 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 275 s.; 2 of Brethren, with 187 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 162 s. The schools were 52 public day schools, with 4,597 scholars; 107 private day schools, with 2,405 s.; 37 Sunday schools, with 3,289 s.; and 5 evening schools for adults, with 81 s. There are two workhouses, the one in Edmonton, the other in Enfield. The hundred contains the parishes of Edmonton, Enfield, Hadley, South Mimms, and Tottenham. Acres, 32,026. Pop., 40,885. Houses, 7, 681.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))