T has become customary in recent years for topographical and other writers to depict Weymouth, if not exactly as a town of mushroom growth, at least as one whose history and antiquity date no further back than from the time when George III. found its salubrious air so suited to his health. True, the aspect of the modern town has little left of its pre-Georgian days to tempt the archæologist or allure the casual literary worker; but a few hours spent among the old records of the town would speedily remove this first impression of modernity, and convince even the most sceptical antiquary that the old town of Weymouth is one of the most ancient in the county of Dorset. The casual visitor may, therefore, be forgiven his impression that Weymouth was founded by George III.; for so nearly were the older buildings swept away at the time of this royal invasion that even loyal Weymouth citizens now find it difficult to realise how living a thing was the ancient past of their town, since whatever was left untouched by the Georgian builders has been well-nigh destroyed in more recent times to make way for what is called modern convenience and improvement.
The word Weymouth is derived directly from the Saxon “Waegemuth,” waeg meaning a wave, that is the sea; and mutha, an opening. The Celtic name for the river Wey, allied to the Welsh word gwy, meaning water, seems to have caused some confusion in the Saxon mind, and have led them to regard the mouth of the estuary (the Backwater) as the inlet of the sea rather than the outlet of a small stream.
Sidney Heath
The Quay Weymouth
The earliest beginnings of the town are lost in obscurity; yet, even if we are not prepared to accept the assertion of certain historians that the Tyrian and Phœnician merchants traded here in their numerous visits to these shores, we have evidence of a more than respectable antiquity in some traces and memorials of the Roman occupation, in the way of roads, coins, and pottery; while at Preston, an almost adjoining village, remains of a Roman villa may still be seen, and considerable Roman remains have been found at Radipole.
There are very few records or official documents antecedent to the reign of William I., and naturally many chasms occur in the continuity of the recorded history of Weymouth. The earliest mention of the place is in Saxon annals, which state that King Athelstan, A.D. 938, granted to the Abbey of Middleton (Milton), in Dorset, in order that masses might be said for his soul and the souls of his ancestors and successors, Kings of England:
All that water within the shore of Waymuth, and half the stream of that Waymuth out at sea: twelve acres for the support of the wear and its officer, three thaynes and a saltern by the wear, and sixty-seven hides of land in its neighbourhood.
The next mention of the place occurs in a Saxon charter of King Ethelred II., wherein the King gives land to his minister, Atsere, during his life, and licence to leave the inheritance of it as he wills. The charter is signed by the King with the sign of the cross; by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Oswald, Archbishop of York; and the Bishops Athelwold, Living, and Hirwold. The date of this interesting document is either obliterated or was never inserted; but in 980 Dunstan was Grand-Master of the fraternity of free and accepted Masons in England, and both he and Oswald died about 988.