FAVERSHAM, a market town and river-port, member of the Cinque Port of Dover, and municipal borough in the Faver sham parliamentary division of Kent, England, on a creek of the Swale, 9 m. W.N.W. of Canterbury on the Southern railway. Pop. (1931) 10,091. The church of St. Mary of Charity (restored 1874) is of Early English architecture, and has some remains on one of the columns of frescoes of the same period, while the 14th century paintings in the chancel are in better preservation. Some of the brasses are very fine, and there is one commemorating King Stephen, as well as a tomb said to be his and to have been transferred from the abbey which he founded (1147), of which only a wall and the foundations below ground remain. At Daving ton, close to Faversham, there are remains, incorporated in a residence, of the cloisters and other parts of a Benedictine priory founded in 1153. Faversham has a free grammar school founded in 1527 and removed to its present site in 1877. Faversham creek is navigable up to the town for vessels of 200 tons. The shipping trade by London hoys is considerable, chiefly in coal, timber and agricultural produce, and the port maintains a customs officer. The oyster fisheries are important, and are managed by a very ancient gild, the Company of Free Dredgermen of the Hundred and Manor of Faversham. Hops and cherries are largely grown in the neighbourhood; brewing, brickmaking and the manufacture of cement are carried on, and there are large powder mills in the vicinity. The town is governed by a mayor, four aldermen and 12 councillors, has its own Quarter Sessions and a separate com mission of the peace; and owns its own electricity undertaking and recreation grounds (20 ac.) .
There was a Romano-British village on the site of Faversham. The town (Fauresfeld, Faveresham) owed its early importance to its situation as a port on the Swale, to the fertile country sur rounding it, and to the neighbourhood of Watling Street. In 811 it was called the king's town "of Fafresham," and a witenagemot was held here under Aethelstan. In 1o86 it was assessed as royal demesne, and a market was held here at this date. Stephen and Matilda were buried in the abbey which they had endowed with the manor and hundred of Faversham ; this grant caused many disputes between the abbot and men of Faversham concerning the abbot's jurisdiction. Faversham was probably a member of Dover from the earliest association of the Cinque Ports, certainly as early as Henry III., as shown by a charter of 1252 granting among other liberties of the Cinque Ports, that the "barons" or freemen of Faversham should plead only in Shepway Court. In this reign also the abbot appointed the mayor, but from the reign of Edward I. he was elected by the freemen and then installed by the abbot. The corporation was prescriptive, and a hallmote held in 1293 was attended by a mayor and twelve jurats. All the liberties of the Cinque Ports were granted to the barons of Faversham by Edward I. in 1302, and confirmed by Edward III. in 1365, and by later monarchs. The governing charter till was that of Henry VIII., granted in 1545 and confirmed by Edward VI.