SITTINGBOURNE, a town and a parish in Milton district, Kent. The town stands on Watling-street, on Milton creek, and on the London, Chatham, and Dover railway, at the junction of the S. and Sheerness railway, contiguous to Milton, 10 miles ESE of Chatham; was anciently a ba1ting-place for pilgrims to Canterbury; entertained Henry V., on his return to England after Agincourt; was the favourite resting-place of George I. and George II. on their way to Hanover; numbers among its natives Theobald, the hero of the "Dunciad;'' was incorporated by Elizabeth to have a mayor and jurats, and to send members to parliament; made little or no use of its parliamentary franchise; is now a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; consists chiefly of one long old street, and several shorter modern ones; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, public rooms' a corn exchange, two churches, five dissenting chapels, a recent ultra-mural cemetery, national schools, and several public institutions. A weekly corn-market is held on Friday; bimonthly cattle-markets, on Tuesdays; and fairs, on Whit-Monday and 11 Oct. Some trade is done in the export of corn and bricks, the import of coals, and the dredging for oysters; and a weekly newspaper is published.—The parish comprises 1,008 acres. Real property, £15,944. Pop. in 1851, 2,897; in 1861, 4,301. Houses, 829. The head living is a vicarage, and that of Trinity is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Canterbury. Values were undergoing rearrangement in 1868. Patron, the Archbishop.

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