Amersham, a market and a union town, and a parish in Bucks. The town was formerly called Agmondesham. It stands in a pleasant valley near the Misbourne tributary of the river Colne, surrounded by wood-crowned hills, 29 miles from London by the Metropolitan railway, 7 ENE from High Wycombe, and 8 1/2 SSW from Berkhampstead. It consists chiefly of a long street crossed by a shorter one. The town-house was erected in 1682 by Sir William Drake, and is a substantial brick edifice, with arched and pillared basement, used as a market-place, and a surmounting clock lantern. The parish church is a Gothic edifice of brick coated witli stucco; has a fine east window, filled with ancient stained glass; and contains monuments of the Drakes, the Dents, and the Curwens. The living is a rectory with the chapelry of Coles-hill annexed, in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly original value, £1500 with residence. There are also General Baptist, Particular Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. There are a free grammar-school, founded in 1620, almshouses, and other charities with aggregately about £400, and a workhouse. A weekly market is held on Tuesday, and fairs on Whit-Monday and 19 Sept. Manufactures of straw-plait and wooden chairs are carried on, and there are three flour mills and a large brewery and mailing establishment. The town has a head post, money order, and telegraph office, and some good hotels. It was a borough from the time of Edward I., sending two members to parliament, but was disfranchised in 1832. The Drakes represented it for upwards of two centuries, the poet Waller in the reign of Charles I., and Algernon Sydney in 1679. Several of its inhabitants were burnt at the stake as martyrs in the times of Henry I. and of Mary, and John Knox preached in its church.
The parish includes also the hamlet of Coleshill, 1 1/2 mile S of Amersham. It has a chapel of ease to St Mary Amersham. Area of the parish, 7969 acres; population of the civil parish, 2613; of the ecclesiastical, with Coleshill, 3129. Coleshill has an area of 1850 acres, and a population of 516. The manor belonged to the Nevilles, to Warwick the Kingmaker, and to the Tothills, and passed to the Drakes. Shardeloes, the manor house, stands about a mile NW of the town, in a park of 700 acres, and is a fine edifice, designed by Adams.
