THRAPSTON, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Northamptonshire. The town stands on the river Nen, and on the Northampton and Peterborough railway, at the intersection of the line from Kettering to Huntingdon, 20 miles NE by N of Northampton; had a ruined hermitage in the time of Henry VIII.; comprises four streets, in the form of a cross; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, three banking offices, a hotel, a court-house, a corn exchange, a bridge, an ancient church partly rebuilt in 1841, a Baptist chapel, national schools, a girls' educational endowment of £21 a year, a workhouse, a weekly market on Saturday, and three annual fairs. The parish comprises 990 acres. Real property, £5,013. Pop., 1,257. Houses, 247. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £430.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor.—The sub-district contains 14 parishes. Acres, 27,387. Pop., 7,459. Houses, 1,624.—The district includes Raunds sub-district, and comprises 51,188 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £7,011. Pop. in 1851, 12,841; in 1861, 14,065. Houses, 3,064. Marriages in 1863, 116; births, 517,-of which 40 were illegitimate; deaths, 368,-of which 170 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,071; births, 4,721; deaths, 2,658. The places of worship, in 1851, were 25 of the Church of England, with 6,069 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 450 s.; 10 of Baptists, with 2,353 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,376 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 168 s.; 1 undefined, with 12 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 60 s. The schools were 21 public day-schools, with 1,220 scholars; 20 private day-schools, with 385 s.; 34 Sunday schools, with 2,479 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 12 s.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))