Doddington, Cambridgeshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1835.

DODDINGTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1835.

"DODDINGTON, a parish in the northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD-ISLE-of-ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 4 miles (S. by W.) from March, comprising the chapelries of Benwick and Marsh, and the hamlet of Wimblington, and containing 5899 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely, and in the patronage of Sir H. Peyton, Bart. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. The sum of £500, given in 1719, by Lionel Walden, Esq., a native of the parish, for the erection of a free school, having for many years remained unappropriated, has accumulated to £1800 three per cents., and £500 four per cents., and a school has been recently established, the master of which has a salary of £40 per annum and a house."

"BENWICK, a chapelry in the parish of DODDINGTON, northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 8 miles (S. W.) from March, containing 514 inhabitants. The chapel is dedicated to St. James."

"MARCH, a market-town and chapelry in the parish of DODDINGTON, northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 31 miles (N. by W.) from Cambridge, and 80 (N.) from London, containing 3850 inhabitants. The town is situated on the banks of the navigable river Neue, by means of which corn, and the local horticultural produce, are conveyed to Cambridge, Lynn, Peterborough, and other places. The market, granted to Sir Alexander Peyton, in 1671, is on Friday, chiefly for butchers meat; and there are two fairs, each of which continues three days, commencing on the Monday before Whitsuntide, and on the second Tuesday in October: at the first of these, horses ore sold only on the third day. Manorial courts are held in the guildhall, a modern and commodious edifice situated in the High-street; and this place is within the jurisdiction of a court of requests, for the recovery of debts under 40a. throughout the Isle of Ely, established by act of parliament passed in the 18th of George III., held here once a month. The chapel, which is dedicated to St.Wendreda, is a very ancient structure, with a spire at the west end; it was erected about the year 1343, at which period an indulgence was granted by the Pope to all who should contribute to it; in the interior are several ancient monuments. A school was founded, in 1696, by William Neale, Esq., for the education of eight boys in Latin and English, and endowed with thirty-three acres and a half of land in Whites Fen, upon the special condition that the land should never be broken up, unless overgrown with rushes, and in that case it was to be once cropped with oats, and again laid down as greensward; a forfeiture of the property to the heirs of the donor to be the penalty of infringing this condition. Mr. Henry Wade having bequeathed a house and lands for charitable purposes, the rents were appropriated, under a decree obtained in the court of Chancery in 1713, in *ne following manner: £20 per annum to a schoolmaster, for the instruction of twenty poor children of March; £20 per annum for apprentice fees; £ 5 per annum for decayed housekeepers; and the residue in the purchase of heifers, on Easter Monday, for poor housekeepers; the schoolmaster on Neale's foundation receives the above-mentioned salary, and the further sum of £6.15., arising from land devised, in 1653, by Mr. James Sheppard, and the interest of £30, the gift of Mr. Gabriel Sheppard, for the instruction of children. There ure some unendowed alnishouses for the parochial poor. Between this town and Wisbeach, in the year 1730, urns enclosing burnt bones, and a vessel containing one hundred and sixty Roman denarii of different emperors, were discovered."

"WIMBLINGTON, a hamlet in the parish of DODDINGTON, northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 4 miles (S.) from March, containing 859 inhabitants. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. A school was directed to be founded, in 1714, by Mr. Thomas Eaton, for teaching forty children reading, writing, and accounts; it was endowed with lands of considerable value, but, in consequence of a suit in Chancery, it has not been yet established."