DUNSTABLE, a market-town and, since 1864, a municipal borough of England, in the county of Bedford, 33 miles N.W. of London, and 18 miles S.S.W. of Bedford, with communication by both the North-Western and the Great Northern railways. Its parish church, a fine old building, formerly part of the Augustinian priory, was restored about 1865; the principal points of interest are the richly decorated west front, the ancient monuments of the Chew family, and, among the interior adornments, Sir James Thornhill’s painting of the Last Supper. The five dissenting churches, the temperance hall, several alms-houses, and the Ashton charity and other schools complete the list of public buildings. Straw-plaiting and the making of straw hats and bonnets are the principal industries; and, as a consequence, the female considerably outnumbers the male population. The census of 1861 gave 2712 females out of a total of 4470 inhabitants; and that of 1871, 2702 out of 4558....
From its situation at the junction of the ancient Watling and Icknield Streets, it seems probable that Dunstable was a Roman station, but its identification, whether with Magiovinium or Durocobrivae, is not certainly established. Matthew Paris mentions, in his Lives of the Abbots of St Albans, that about 1110 the play of S. Katharina was acted in the town by direction of Geoffrey, afterwards abbot of St Albans, and thus the name of Dunstable is associated with the very earliest authentic notice of theatrical representation in England. The Augustinian priory, to which it was afterwards indebted for its celebrity, was founded in 1131 by Henry I., and for a long period exercised lordship over the town. From 1227 to 1229 there was a violent dispute between the burghers and the canons, but the claims of the latter were acknowledged by Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary. It was at Dunstable that in 1244 the discontented barons met and ordered the papal nuncio to leave the kingdom; and in 1533 the commissioners for the divorce of Queen Catherine sat in the priory. The Annales de Dunstaρlia are one of the most valuable of the monastic chronicles still extant. They extend from the incarnation to the year 1297, and are fortunately fullest in the account of contemporary events. The entries from 1210 to 1242 are due to Richard de Morins, the prior. The original is a parchment folio preserved among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum (Tiberius, A. 10). It was greatly damaged by the fire of 1731, and is consequently slightly imperfect, in spite of the care with which it has been stretched and mended. Hearne published an edition in 1733 from a fairly accurate transcript by Humrjhrey Wanley (Harleian MSS. 4886); another by H. R. Luard, from the original MS., occupies 420 pages of vol. iii. of the Annales Monastici, published by the Master of the Rolls.
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