WANDSWORTH, a town, a parish, and a district, in Surrey. The town stands on the river Wandle at its influx to the Thames, on the London and Windsor railway, near the point of the Southwestern railway whence the branch goes off to Croydon, and 6 miles SW of St. Paul’s, London.
It is mentioned in Domesday book; became a seat of several important manufactures introduced by French refugees and by Dutchmen, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes; is a seat of petty sessions and county-courts; carries on industry in oil-mills, dye-works, calico-printing-works, hat-making establishments, extensive paper-mills, corn mills, vinegar-works, distilleries, and a brewery; conducts inland commerce from the mouth of the Wandle; occupies the declivities of two hills.
It includes a suburb on the E called New Wandsworth; contains many handsome houses; and has a post-office under London SW, two r. stations, two chief inns, a recently-erected court-house, a police station, the Surrey house of correction, the Surrey lunatic asylum, the Bridge-House reformatory, the Royal Victoria Patriotic asylum, three churches, seven dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary and scientific institution, a collegiate school, five national schools, a British school, a green-coat school with £67 a year from endowment. the industrial school of St. James, Westminster, the Fishmongers’ alms houses, the Hibbert alms houses, and other charities £321.
The house of correction has capacity for 742 male and 244 female prisoners. The lunatic asylum was built in 1842, at a cost of more than £150,000; is in the Tudor style, 535 feet long, with centre and wings; and has accommodation for upwards of 1,000 patients.
The Patriotic asylum was founded in 1857 by the Queen; was built and endowed from a surplus of the patriotic fund, formed during the Crimean war in 1854-5; presents a general resemblance to Heriot’s hospital, in Edinburgh; and serves for 300 orphan daughters of soldiers, sailors, and marines.
All Saints church, excepting the tower, was rebuilt in 1780. St. Anne’s church was built in 1824, at a cost of £14,600; and is in the Ionic style. Trinity church is recent and spacious. A Baptist chapel, built in 1863, is in the Romanesque style. The Fishmongers’ alms houses were built in 1849-51, at a cost of £25,000; are in the Tudor style; form a quadrangle 255 feet by 235; and have a handsome chapel in the centre.
The parish includes Garrett and Summer-Town; is ecclesiastically cut into three sections; and comprises 2,432 acres of land, and 46 of water. Real property, £73,414; of which £1,607 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 9,611; in 1861, 13,346. Houses, 1,909.
The livings of All Saints and St. Anne are vicarages, the former with Trinity chapel annexed, in the diocese of Winchester. Value of A. S., £350; of St. A., £800. Patron of A. S., the Rev. J. Buckmaster; of St. A., Miss Du Buisson. The p. curacy of Summer-Town is a separate benefice.
The district contains also Clapham, Putney, Lower Tooting, Streatham, and Battersea parishes, except Penge hamlet. Acres of the district. 11,695. Poor rates in 1863, £44,571. Pop. in 1851, 50,764; in 1861, 70,403. Houses, 11,186. Marriages in 1863, 504; births, 2,579, of which 105 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,498, of which 613 were at ages under 5 years, and 21 at ages above 85.
Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 3,528; births, 18,205; deaths, 12,376. The places of worship, in 1851, were 21 of the Church of England, with 17,461 sittings; 7 of Independents, with 3,200 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1,920 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 180 s.; 7 of Wesleyans, with 1,366 s.; 1 undefined, with 100 s.; 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 100 s.; and 2 of Roman Catholics, with 382 s.
The schools were 40 public day-schools, with 5,061 scholars; 140 private day-schools, with 2,968 s.; 44 Sunday schools, with 4,211 s.; and 6 evening schools for adults, with 88 s.
The workhouse is in Battersea.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850
Wandsworth, 5 miles S.W. London. P.7614
Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.
Bankrupts
Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.
Aldridge John, Wandsworth, Surrey, calico printer, April 1, 1828.
The following people from Surrey have been recorded in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837.
Curtis, William, of Wandsworth, co. Surrey, maltster, 34, b., & Mary Baker, of Petersfield, 26, sp., at P., 26 July, 1810. Thomas Baker of the s., butcher, bondsman.
FILDER, John, of Wandsworth, co. Surrey, mariner, 30, b., & Mary Wright, of Portsmouth, 21, sp., at P., 28 Feb., 1783.
