Henry III. granted the borough to the burgesses for £40 yearly; but they having omitted to pay the crown rent, it was seized by Edward I. In the reign of James II., the town having neglected to return two burgesses to serve in parliament, the mayor and alder men were expelled their offices by the king, and his ministers nominated two members of parliament for the town. Their charter was, however, restored by this king, and the rig-ht of election remains vested in the burgesses, freemen, and inhabitant householders not receiving alms, amounting to about 1400 voters.
Bedford was made a dukedom by Henry V., and the honour conferred on John Plantagenet, third son of Henry IV., who was. the first duke of Bedford : a title, which was successively enjoyed by the Nevi's and De Hatfields, and at length was bestowed on John Russel, the ancestor of the present Duke of Bedford.
This town is distinguished as myth by the variety of its religious sects, (which,besides all the common classes of religious persuasions in England, has Jews and Moravians among them,) as by the number and extent of its charitable endowments. The hospital of St John is said to have been founded in 980 by Robert de Paris, who was the first master ; it nuw has 10 poor men under the rector of St John's church, who is the master. St Leonard's hospital was built and endowed in the reign of Edward I., and the hos pital of Grey Friars in that of Edward II. by Mabi lia de Pato-hail. Thomas Christy founded an la] for S poor people, endowed a charity-school for 40 children, and repaired the old town-hall, a wooden building, which has since been removed, to widen and open the street, and a new one erected. The bene volent and well•intentioned Sir 'William Harper, a native of Bedford, having nettled in London, and be come Lord Mayor in 1561, he purchased, for RIFO, 134 acres of land in St Andrew's parish, Holborn, which, with his dwelling-house in Bedford, he be queathed to the corporation of Bedford, for the en dowment of a grammar school, and for apportioning young women of the town upon marriage; a fruitful source of evil to the poor girls themselves, in the temptation to which it has exposed hundreds of them, from soldiers of marching regiments and the most abandoned individuals, who have married them in hopes of " fingering Harper's twenty pounds !" and of ruin to the town in its consequences. The origin al rent of this Harper charity-estate in London was £40. In 1668 it was leased for 41 years, at £99 per annum ; and the rapid extension of London having commenced, a reversionary building lease was granted by the trustees for a further term of 51 years, at 150 per annum : the whole having been covered by va luable houses, forming Bedford Row and the adjoining streets ; and the leases having fallen in, and new ones been granted, the present net rent is k' 4.000, and short ly is expected, by second renewals, to reach £5000 per annum ! Yet, notwithstanding all these, and nu merous other sources of relief, unknown to the indi. gent of the greater part of the kingdom, such is the effect of charity distributed by law, and without sound discretion in the distributor, that Bedford, having never possessed extensive manufactures which had declined, after drawing together a surplus popu lation, became so oppressed by poors rates, that in 1791 the inhabitants, by way of checking the grow ing evil, which threatened to swallow up all their property, applied to parliament for an act for consolidating the 5 parishes, as far as concerns the maintainance of the poor, and building and organising
.an effective " house of industry," the money for which purpose was raised principally on life annuities ; a measure which, with the growing expenses of the poor, increased the poors rates to seventeen shillings and sixpence in the pound on the rack rents, during some years. The just terrors to the dissolute poor, of being made to work, if able, and a fortunate extinc tion of money annuities, had, however, in 1803, re duced the poors rates in Bedford to Gs. 4•d. in the pound rent, (while yet, the average of the whole county, without this town, was but 3s. 9d. in the pound rent,) and a further reduction of rates has since followed ; but ever must the pours rates of this town continue to mock the evils of gratuitous mar riage portions, distributed with little of that sound discretion which must ever direct the distribution of charity, unless an evil is to be produced instead of the good intended.
The late Mr Whitbread left handsome legacies for building and endowing almshouses, and towards the erection of a county infirmary, which has since been carried into effect. A new county gaol and bride well, and a new town gaol, have lately been built. In the loathsome gaol in this town, which has not many years been pulled down, the well-known John Bunyan wrote most of h;s books, in the 17th century, during a captivity of near 20 years, for the crime of preach ing; a prosecution, instigated by a spirit of intoler ance, happily unknown among the present inhabitants of Bedford. The county hall, where the sessions are held, is a handsome and commodious stone building. This town, particularly the southern part of it, is subject to inundations from the swelling of the Ouse after sudden rains : of late years these have been more frequent and greater than formerly, as is suppo sed from the general straightning and opening of brooks, in the many newly inclosed parishes which Amin into the Ouse, which now pour their floods with more celerity than formerly, into the vale of the Ouse, whose swell, comparative declivity, and numerous milldams and sinuosities, occasions the temporary stagnation of the water, 12 or 15 feet deep on the meadows in many places, on such occasions.
Bedford miles from London, having the Leeds mail-coach running through it daily : it arrives from London at 7; hours in the morning, and leaves Bed ford for London at 21 hours in the afternoon. A bank has some years been established here, by the firm of Barnard & Co., who draws on Harrisons & Co. in London.
Thread•lace making, by the poor women and girls, is the principal manufacture of the place. Some coarse baises are made at the house of industry ; a little wcol-comhing is done; coke is burnt, in highly domed ovens, for the use of misters ; some lime is burnt, and tiles made for sale to the neighbouring villages : besides which, we have not heard of any ma nufactures in this place. Bedford is, on the whole, pretty well built, and rather a handsome and clean town, with excellent gravelled roads out of it in all directions.
The town of Bedford, according to the parliamen tary returns of 1801, contained 800 houses, and 3918 inhabitants : of whom 1712 were males, and 2236 fe males ; a disproportion between the sexes, which strongly illustrates our remarks above, on premiums for•marriages. There are here 2221 persons employ ' ed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft. (g)