Isle of Ely
Area
• 1891	239,259 acres (968.2 km2)
• 1961	239,951 acres (971.0 km2)
• Coordinates	52°24′N 0°15.5′E / 52.400°N 0.2583°E / 52.400; 0.2583
Population
• 1891	63,861
• 1961	89,180
History
• Origin	Liberty of Ely
• Created	1889
• Abolished	1965
• Succeeded by	Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
Status	Administrative county (within Cambridgeshire)
Government	Isle of Ely County Council
• HQ	County Hall, March

1880 map of the Isle of Ely with nearby rivers

The Isle of Ely (/ˈiːli/) is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county.

Etymology

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

1648 map by J Blaeu of Cambridgeshire with the Isle of Ely

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

This plaque in Chatteris serves as a reminder of the Isle's county status

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]

Liberty of Ely Act 1837
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to explain and amend an Act of the Sixth and Seventh Years of His late Majesty, for extinguishing the Secular Jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Ely in certain Liberties in the Counties of York, Nottingham, and Cambridge.
Citation	7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 53
Dates
Royal assent	15 July 1837
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1874
Status: Repealed

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.

Marquessate

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.

References

External links

• Origins of the Liberty of Ely , Victoria County History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4 (British History Online), accessed 6 January 2008