Historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England
The
Isle of Ely
(
) is a historic region around the city of
Ely
in
Cambridgeshire
,
England
. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an
administrative county
.
Etymology
[
edit
]
Its name has been said to mean "island of
eels
", a reference to the creatures that were often caught in the local rivers for food. This etymology was first recorded by the
Venerable Bede
.
[1]
History
[
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]
Until the 17th century, the area was an island surrounded by a large area of
fenland
, a type of swamp. It was coveted as an area easy to defend, and was controlled in the very early medieval period by the
Gyrwas
, an Anglo-Saxon tribe. Upon their marriage in 652, Tondbert, a prince of the Gyrwas, presented
Æthelthryth
(who became St. Æthelthryth), the daughter of King
Anna of the East Angles
, with the Isle of Ely. She afterwards founded a monastery at Ely, which was destroyed by Viking raiders in 870, but was rebuilt and became a famous
Abbey
and
Shrine
.
The area's natural defences led to it playing a role in the military history of England. Following the
Norman Conquest
, the Isle became a refuge for Anglo-Saxon forces under Earl
Morcar
,
Bishop Aethelwine of Durham
and
Hereward the Wake
in 1071.
[2]
The area was taken by
William the Conqueror
only after a prolonged struggle.
[3]
The story of
Tom Hickathrift
is sometimes set around this period.
In 1139
civil war
broke out between the forces of
King Stephen
and the
Empress Matilda
.
Bishop Nigel of Ely
, a supporter of Matilda, unsuccessfully tried to hold the Isle. In 1143
Geoffrey de Mandeville
rebelled against Stephen, and made his base in the Isle. Geoffrey was mortally wounded at
Burwell
in 1144.
[4]
In 1216, during the
First Barons' War
, the Isle was unsuccessfully defended against the army of
King John
.
Ely took part in the
Peasants' Revolt
of 1381.
During the English Civil War the Isle of Ely was held for the parliamentarians. Troops from the garrison at
Wisbech Castle
were used in the siege of
Crowland
and parts of the Fens were flooded to prevent Royalist forces entering Norfolk from Lincolnshire. The Horseshoe sluice on the river at
Wisbech
and the nearby castle and town defences were upgraded and cannon brought from Ely.
[5]
The Fens were drained beginning in 1626 using a network of canals designed by Dutch experts.
[6]
Many Fenlanders were opposed to the draining as it deprived some of them of their traditional livelihood. Acts of vandalism on dykes, ditches, and sluices were common, but the draining was complete by the end of the century.
[7]
Administration
[
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]
From 1109 until 1837, the Isle was under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Ely
who appointed a Chief Justice of Ely and exercised temporal powers within the Liberty of Ely. This temporal jurisdiction originated in a charter granted by King
Edgar
in 970, and confirmed by
Edward the Confessor
and
Henry I
to the abbot of Ely. The latter monarch established Ely as the seat of a bishop in 1109, creating the Isle of Ely a
county palatine
under the bishop. An
act of parliament
in 1535/6 ended the palatine status of the Isle, with all justices of the peace to be appointed by
letters patent
issued under the great seal and warrants to be issued in the king's name. However, the bishop retained exclusive jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, and was
custos rotulorum
. A chief bailiff was appointed for life by the bishop, and performed the functions of
high sheriff
within the liberty, who also headed the government of the city of Ely.
[8]
In July 1643
Oliver Cromwell
was made governor of the isle.
[9]
United Kingdom legislation
The
Liberty of Ely Act 1837
(
7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict.
c. 53) ended the bishop's secular powers in the Isle. The area was declared a division of
Cambridgeshire
, with the right to appoint
justices
revested in the crown. Following the 1837 Act the Isle maintained separate
Quarter Sessions
, and formed its own constabulary.
Under the
Local Government Bill
of 1888, which proposed the introduction of elected
county councils
, the Isle was to form part of Cambridgeshire. Following the intervention of the local
member of parliament
,
Charles Selwyn
, the Isle of Ely was constituted a separate
administrative county
in 1889. The county was small in terms of both area and population, and its abolition was proposed by the
Local Government Boundary Commission
in 1947.
[10]
The report of the LGBC was not acted upon, and the administrative county survived until 1965. Following the recommendations of the
Local Government Commission for England
, on 1 April 1965 the bulk of the area was merged to form
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
, with the
Thorney Rural District
going to
Huntingdon and Peterborough
.
Subdivisions
[
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]
In 1894 the county was divided into county districts, with the rural districts being
Ely Rural District
,
Thorney Rural District
,
Whittlesey Rural District
,
Wisbech Rural District
,
North Witchford Rural District
, and the urban districts were
Ely
,
March
,
Whittlesey
and
Wisbech
(the only
municipal borough
). Whittlesey Rural district consisted of only one parish (Whittlesey Rural), which was added to Whittlesey urban district, in 1926.
The
Isle of Ely parliamentary constituency
was created as a two-member seat in the
First
and
Second Protectorate Parliaments
from 1654 to 1659. The constituency was re-created with a single seat in 1918. In the boundary changes of 1983 it was replaced by the new constituency of
North East Cambridgeshire
. Original historical documents relating to the Isle of Ely are held by
Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies
at the County Record Office in Ely.
Marquessate
[
edit
]
The title Marquess of the Isle of Ely was created in the
Peerage of Great Britain
for
Prince Frederick
. The title of
Duke of Edinburgh
was first created on 26 July 1726 by King
George I
, who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick, who became
Prince of Wales
the following year. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon; Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall; Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent;
[11]
and Marquess of the Isle of Ely. The
marquessate
was apparently erroneously
gazetted
as Marquess of the
Isle of Wight
[11]
although Marquess of the Isle of Ely was the intended title. In later editions of the
London Gazette
the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely.
[12]
[13]
Upon Frederick's death, the titles were inherited by his son Prince George. When he became
George III
in 1760, the titles "
merged into the Crown
", and ceased to exist.
Mining
[
edit
]
Coprolites
were mined in the area in the 1800s for their rich phosphate content.
[14]
[15]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Historia Ecclesiastica
,IV:XIX
- ^
Hereward and the Isle of Ely
, BBC History, accessed 6 January 2008
- ^
The taking of Ely
, BBC History, accessed 6 January 2008
- ^
The Isle of Ely and Civil War
: Trevor Bevis,
Hereward of the Fens
, (Cambridgeshire Genealogy), accessed 6 January 2008
- ^
"Wisbech and the civil war"
. Retrieved
12 January
2019
.
- ^
"Cambridgeshire History & the Isle of Ely Timeline"
. Archived from
the original
on 17 June 2016
. Retrieved
25 April
2013
.
- ^
"The Draining of the Fens"
. Visit Ely. Archived from
the original
on 4 June 2016
. Retrieved
10 March
2015
.
- ^
Lewis, Samuel,
Topographical Dictionary of England
, Vol. II, London 1831
- ^
"Fenland riots"
.
elystandard.co.uk
. 7 December 2006. Archived from
the original
on 13 January 2019
. Retrieved
12 January
2019
.
- ^
"Town and county boundaries - First decisions of the Commission",
The Times
, 2 May 1947
- ^
a
b
"No. 6494"
.
The London Gazette
. 12 July 1726. p. 1.
- ^
"No. 6741"
.
The London Gazette
. 4 January 1728. p. 2.
- ^
"No. 9050"
.
The London Gazette
. 16 April 1751. p. 1.
- ^
Grove R (1976).
"Coprolite Mining in Cambridgeshire"
(PDF)
.
Agricultural History Review
.
24
(1). Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 9 March 2006.
- ^
"Cambridgeshire - The Coprolite Mining Industry"
. EnglandGenWeb. 13 January 2000.
Further reading
[
edit
]
Fairweather, Janet (2005). "introduction".
Liber Eliensis
. Translated by Fairweather, Janet. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. pp. Xiii?xliv.
ISBN
978-1-84383-015-3
.
External links
[
edit
]