THE

HISTORY & ANTIQUITIES

OF

CROYDON

WITH VARIETY OF

OTHER INTERESTING MATTER ;

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE

OP

The Most Reverend Father in God

JOHN WHITGIFT,

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ;

AND AN

APPENDIX.

+

illiam

By the Rev. D. w. GARROW, 1781. 1827.
Rector of East Barnet, Herts, and one of the Chaplains in Ordinary

to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.

Indictum neque enim fas est tacitumque relinqui---Hunc, qui tot populis
pervolat ora, locum.

CLAUD, in Apono.

CROYDON :

PRINTED FOR W. ANNAN, HIGH-STREET : AND SOLD BY GEO, COWIE & co.

31 POULTRY, LONDON.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDER FOUNDATIONS R

1980

W. Annan, Printer, Croydon.

PREFACE.

It has been suggested that a short History of Croydon might be acceptable to the Public---and, indeed, when it is considered to what a degree of notoriety this Town has attained, what it was, and what it is, it may be reasonably hoped that an account of it may be interesting.

CROYDON, in respect to its antiquity, is a subject worthy of record---as it has been the seat in which many venerable Primates have sought retirement from the fatigue attendant upon their temporal engagements, and in which they have also pursued their pious and learned labours, it is entitled to more than a casual notice. Its charitable Institutions, of dates reinote from our times, command our respect for the past, and excite our best feelings as to the present. In this respect, a History of Croydon it is thought, may be gratify, ing to the Inhabitants of its vicinity ; and in addition to this, the amenity of the surrounding Landscape appears to recommend it to the particular attention of the Traveller.

Since Topography has of late become so much an object of amusement, of interest, and of research, the Author has

employed very considerable pains in preparing the following sheets; with regard to the plan of the work, the Author's great care has been, in relating every thing which he conceived relevant to make it entertaining without being prolix. For this purpose, he has selected from Dr. DUCAREL's Account of the Town, Church, and Archiepiscopal Palace of Croydon, the substance of all that he thought useful or amusing : and here, perhaps, it may be expected that he should offer some apology for presenting to public view a History of Croydon, while the work of the learned Ducarel is still extant. The Author begs humbly to state, in the first place, that though Dr. Ducarel's “ Account” is still in print, it is very rarely to be found ; Secondly, that notwithstanding its great merit for learning and research, it is not a work of a nature likely to satisfy the purpose for which the present undertaking is designed---the stile of Dr. Ducarel, good and expressive, is not, perhaps, what the notions of modern taste would require ; much of his matter also, deep and recondite, would probably weary the traveller, and afford but a scanty gratification to the Reader in his Closet, when perhaps far absent from the scene to which the Book relates. Besides Ducarel's work, no History of Croydon has ever been published,

For useful and interesting information, the Author has diligently consulted the most eminent Historical Writers, he has compared them one with another, and has drawn from them such matter as be thought inost likely to answer the purpose