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Towcester in the 18th Century
DateEvent Related to Towcester
1702 June4d paid for watching a drunken woman in the stocks (The Towcester Constables accounts)
1707/8Fire causes £1057 of damage ( Church briefs & Royal Warrants for charitable objects, W A Brewes 1896)
1708The "Act for repairing highways from Old Stratford to Dunchurch in Warwickshire" improved Watling Street.
c.1720Towcester had approximately 350 inhabitants. (Baker p.324)
1722Particular or Calvanistic Baptists established in the town. Joined with Independents and obtained a licence to hold meetings two Sunday mornings in succession and then went to Paulerspury for the third. (Baker p.323)
1727Churchwardens accounts: 6d given to a woman and 6 children to leave the town.
1734Charles Palmer, Vicar of Towcester, died on 7th December 1734. (NRO)
1736Abthorpe with Foscote & Challock were made into a separate parish. Previously Towcester Parish Church had been the mother church where parishioners were buried.
1749 March 25thFire at the George Inn - boy with candle accidentally ignited straw and kicked the burning straw into a stable which within a few hours had spread to 36 houses. (Baker p.324)
1752Small meeting house 22 foot square built for Independents and Baptists. (Baker p.333)
1756-7Turnpike Act for route from Towcester to Weston on the Green via Brackley.
1762Open fields of Towcester, Wood Burcote and Caldecote enclosed. (Baker p.312)
1770Decline of the Worsted industry.
1777Militia list of trades in the town included framework knitters and brick makers.
1780Sale of Gilbert Flesher's premises used as a woolstapler's business (NM 24/1/1780)
1781Jenkinson's bank started on a site which is still a bank, the HSBC. Jenkinson was a silk merchant, linen draper and woolstapler.
1782Baptists wanted a settled pastor in the town but the Independent preacher was unwilling to give up his 3rd Sunday slot. The two groups split. (Baker p.333)
1783John Jenkinson had a stone and tiled warehouse in the Buck & Bell yard.(Guildhall Library Ms 7523/9)
17846th September - Bill for painting and gilding St. Lawrence's Church weather cock was £1 13s 0p (Hicks charity).
1785Independents erected a meeting house which was 33'2' long by 24'4" wide situated in a yard at the east end of the principal Street (Sun Yard?). It was galleried on 3 sides. (Baker p.323)
1793War with France and end of the Worsted trade.
1794-5Turnpike Act for the route from Towcester to Cotton End.
1795Gallery added to church. (Baker p.329)
1798The people of Towcester are employed in the manufacture of lace and silk. Here are annual horse races,. Easton Neston has very bad roads about it, particularly a considerable one from Northampton, through Towcester and Oxford to Bath.(Universal British Directory)
1799Authentic data stone on the Post Office building. (Ref 15).
References
  1. Baker "The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton" by G.Baker 1822 and 1836 (two volumes) London.
  2. NRO National Records Office.
  3. Church Survey 1637 ???? tba
  4. "Towcester - The story of an English country town" Towcester and District Local History Society 1995, ISBN 0-9524619-1-9
  5. Moss tba
  6. NDR "Northampton Daily Record"
  7. NM Northampton Mercury
  8. Guildhall Library Ms
  9. Universal British Directory
  10. NRO National Records Office
  11. NPL ???? tba
  12. "The Towcester Constables." ?? tba
  13. "Church briefs and Royal Warrants for Charitable Objects." W. A.Brewes 1896
  14. Whellan "History Gazetteer and Directory of Northamptonshire" W.Whellan 1874
  15. A Towcester Trail, The Towcester Local History Society, 1983
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