FAVERSHAM, or Feversham, a municipal borough and market-town of England, county of Kent, is situated 10 miles W.N.W. of Canterbury, and 47 E.S.E. of London by rail. The town consists of four principal streets, forming an irregular cross, in the centre of which are the townhall and market-place. The parish church is a spacious cruciform structure, surmounted by a tower and spire; both its exterior and its interior have lately undergone restorations. Faversham has a free grammar school, a national school, a theatre, and assembly-rooms. Faversham Creek, which communicates with East Swale, is navigable up to the town for vessels of 150 tons. The shipping trade is pretty extensive, chiefly in coal, timber, and agricultural produce. The oyster fisheries are the principal industry, but brewing, brickmaking, and the manufacture of Roman cement are carried on, and there are several large powder mills in the vicinity of the town.

Faversham is very ancient, and on account of its situation directly opposite the south-east extremity of the Isle of Sheppey early rose into consideration. In 812 it was styled “the king’s little town of Fefresham,” and in 930 it was the meeting place of a witαη or national council. King Stephen and Queen Maud founded here, in 1147, a Cluniac Abbey, and both they and their son, Eustace count of Boulogne, were buried within its walls. It was to Faversham that the boatmen conveyed James II. after preventing his escape in a small vessel lying at Shellness. The population in 1871 was 7198