Formerly a small village known as "Leamington Priors", Leamington began to develop as a town at the start of the 19th century. It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Lamintone". For 400 years, the settlement was under the control of Kenilworth Priory, from which the older suffix derived. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon "Leman-tūn" or "Lemen-tūn" = "farm on the River Leam". The spa waters had been known in Roman times, and their rediscovery in 1784 by William Abbotts and Benjamin Satchwell led to their commercialisation, with invalids beginning to resort here in 1786. Six of the seven wells were drilled for; only the original spring at the site of the Aylesford Well, adjacent to the Parish Church, occurred naturally.