COLCHESTER, a borough and market-town having separate jurisdiction,
locally in the Colchester division of the hundred of Lexden, county of
ESSEX, 22 miles (N. E. by E.) from Chelmsford, and 51 (N. E. by E.)
from London, containing 12,005 inhabittants, and, including the
parishes of Bere-Church, Greenstead, Lexden, and Mile-End, which are
within the liberties, 14,016. The name of this place, which by some
antiquaries is supposed to have been the Camalodunum of the Romans, is
derived from its situation on the river Colne, and its history may be
traced to a period of very remote antiquity. It was by the Britons
called Caer Colun, and appears to have been a town of considerable
importance prior to the invasion of the Romans, who, according to
Tacitus and other historians, having, under the conduct of Claudius,
subdued the Trinobantes and taken possession of this town, garrisoned
it with the second, ninth, and fourteenth legions, styled by him the
conquerors of Britain, and named the place Colonia. Claudius having
reduced the adjacent country to a Roman province, appointed Plautius
his propraetor, and returned in triumph to Rome. After his departure,
Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, taking advantage of the absence of part
of the Roman legions, attacked Camalodunum, which, after a feeble
resistance, she entirely demolished. According to Pliny, and the
evidence of Roman coins and other ancient inscriptions, it appears to
have been soon rebuilt with increased splendour, and to have been
adorned' with public edifices, a temple to Claudius, a triumphal arch,
and a statue to the Goddess of Victory. Constantine the Great is
traditionally said to have been born in this city, which continued to
flourish as a primary station of the Romans till their final departure
from Britain. The Saxons, by whom it was afterwards occupied, gave it
the name of Colne-ceaster, and it retained its consequence as a place
of strength for a considerable time, but began to decline in
proportion as London rose into importance. On the irruption of the
Danes it became the residence of that people, who, by treaty with
Alfred, were established in the city and country adjacent; but
commencing their barbarous system of plunder and devastation, Edward
the Elder took the town by assault, and, putting them all to the
sword, re-peopled it with West Saxons; according to the Saxon
Chronicles he repaired the walls in 922, at which time he is. stated
to have erected the castle, now falling to decay, but the remains of
that edifice are evidently of Norman character. Colchester was a
considerable town at the time of the Norman survey, but suffered
greatly in the wars of the succeeding reigns. During the turbulent
reign of John, Saber de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, having assembled
an army of foreigners, laid siege to the city in 1215, but, on the
approach of the barons, who were advancing from London to its relief,
he drew off his forces and retired to Bury St. Edmund's; he afterwards
got possession of the town, and, having plundered it, left a garrison
in the castle, which, having been invested by the king, was compelled
to surrender; it was subsequently besieged and taken by the troops of
Prinqe Louis, whom the barons had invited into England to their
assistance, and who, thinking the opportunity favourable for conquest,
kept possession of it for hjmself, and hoisted the banner of France
upon its walls; but the barons having submitted to their new
sovereign, Henry III., retook the castle from the prince, and expelled
him from the kingdom. In the reign of Edward III., the town
contributed five ship's and one hundred and seventy mariners towards
the naval armament for the blockade .of Calais. The inhabitants,
during the attempt to raise Lady Jane Grey to the throne, steadfastly
adhered to the interests of Mary, whose cause they supported with so
much zeal, that very sopn after her accession, that queen visited the
town, for the express purpose of testifying her gratitude; her majesty
was received with every public demonstration of joy, and, on her
departure, was presented with a silver cup, and £20 in gold. During
her reign many of the Protestant inhabitants were put to death on
account of their religious tenets. In 1648, the town was besieged by
the parliamentary forces under Fairfax; after a close blockade for
eleven weeks, during which period it was gallantly defended by the
Earl of Norwich, Lord Capel, Sir Charles Lucas, and Sir George Lisle,
the garrison, reduced to the extremity of want and suffering,
surrendered to Fairfax, when Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle
were shot under the castlewalls. The town is built on the summit and
northern acclivity of an eminence rising gently from the river Colne,
pver which are three bridges, and occupies a quadrilateral area
enclosed by the ancient walls, within which the. houses ,to the south
and south-east are irregularly disposed; the streets are spacious, and
the High-street contains many excellent houses; the town is well
paved, lighted with gas, and supplied with water by an engine worked
by steam. The theatre, a neat and commodious edifice erected in 1812,
is opened annually by the Norwich company of comedians. A literary and
philosophical society was established in 1820, the members of which in
rotation deliver a lecture at their monthly meetings; attached to it
is a museum of shells, fossils, and natural curiosities. A botanical
society was instituted in 1823; there is a medical society,
established in 1774; and there are a private subscription library, and
a musical society of amateurs. The barracks, with a park of artillery,
were capable of accommodating ten thousand troops, but since the
conclusion of the war they have been taken down. The woollen
manufacture appears to have been carried on so early as the reign of
Edward III., but the weaving of baizes was probably introduced by the
Flemings in the reign of Elizabeth, and at that time employed a
considerable number of the inhabitants; the baize was subject to
certain regulations prescribed by the Baize-hall; but the trade has
been transferred to other towns, and is here succeeded by a large
silk-manufactory. The oyster fishery on the river Colne, granted to
the free burgesses by Richard I., confirmed by subsequent charters,
and for the preservation of which courts of admiralty were usually
held on the borough walls, affords employment to a great number of
men, and some hundreds of smacks are engaged in conveying to London
the oysters dredged from the river, for which there is a very great
demand, especially for those of Pyfleet, which are found in a small
creek, and are remarkable for their goodness and flavour; the river is
navigable for vessels of two hundred tons' burden to the Hythe, where
there are a spacious quay and a custom-house. The market days are
Saturday and Wednesday, the former being the principal, on which corn
and cattle are sold; a market for meat, fish, and vegetables, is held
daily on the north side of the High-street, where a convenient and
spacious market-place has been constructed. The corn-exchange, a
handsome building supported on columns, was erected a few years since,
of which the lower part is appropriated to the corn market, and the
upper part occupied as offices by the Essex and Suffolk Insurance
Society. The fairs are on July 5th and the following day, and July
23rd 'and the two following days, for cattle; and October 20th for
cattle, and the three following days for general merchandise. The
borough was first incorporated in 1089, by charter of Richard I., who
conferred on the inhabitants many valuable privileges, which were
confirmed by succeeding sovereigns, and extended by Henry V. By its
charter, which, having been forfeited on several occasions, was
renewed by George III. in 1818, the government is vested in a mayor,
high steward, recorder, chamberlain, twelve aldermen, eighteen
assistants, and eighteen common council-men, aided by a town-clerk,
two coroners, a water-bailiff, four Serjeants at mace, and other
officers. The mayor, recorder, the late mayor, and four of the
aldermen, are justices of the peace for the borough, the freedom of
which is inherited by birth, and acquired by servitude within the
borough, and by presentation. The corporation hold quarterly courts of
session for the borough and liberties, together extending over sixteen
parishes, and two courts of pleas for the recovery of debts to any
amount, the jurisdiction of which, by Edward IV., was extended to the
adjoining parishes of Bere-Church, Greenstead, Lexden, and Mile-End;
these courts are held at stated periods; one, called the Law Hundred,
for actions against free burgesses, is held on Monday; and the other,
called the Foreign Court, for actions against foreigners, or
nonfreemen, is held on Thursday; the petty sessions for the division
are also held in this town, every Saturday. The moot-hall is an
ancient edifice, originally erected by Eudo, dapifer, or steward, to
Henry I., and containing the hall and the exchequer-chamber, in part
of which the records are deposited; over these is the councilchamber,
a spacious room in which the public business of'the corporation is
transacted; underneath is the town gaol. The borough first exercised
the elective franchise in. the 23rd of Edward I., since which time it
has, with occasional intermissions, returned two members to
parliament; the right of election is vested in the free burgesses
generally not receiving alms, whose number is about one thousand four
hundred, but may be augmented at the will of the corporation in common
council assembled; the mayor is the returning officer. Colchester is,
but upon very disputed authority, supposed to have been the seat of a
diocese in the early period of Christianity in Britain; Henry VIII.
made it the seat of a suffragan bishop, and two bishops were
successively consecrated. The town comprises the parishes of All
Saints, St. James, St. Martin, St. Mary at the Walls, St. Nicholas,
St. Peter, St. Runwald, and the Holy Trinity, within the walls, and
the parishes of St. Botblph, St. Giles, St. Leonard, or the Hythe, and
St. Mary Magdalene, without the walls, all in the archdeaconry of
Colchester, and diocese of London. The living of All Saints' is a
rectory not in charge, endowed with & 400 private benefaction, and
£400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of
Balliol College, Oxford; the church was erected in the year 1309, near
the east gate of the monastery of Grey friars, which .had been founded
by Robert Fitz-Walter in that year. The living of St. James' is a
discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £11. 10., endowed
with £400 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £500
parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Crown; the church is
a spacious structure built prior to the reign of Edward II. j it has a
fine altar-piece representing the Adoration of the Shepherds. The
living of St. Martin's is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's
books at £6. 13. 4., endowed with £800 royal bounty, and £800
parliamentary grant. The Bishop of London, for that turn, was patron
in 1825; the church was much damaged during;the siege of the town in
1648,; the steeple, which was built with Roman bricks, is now in a
ruinous state. The living of St. Mary's at the Walls is a rectory,
rated in the king's books at £ 10, and in the patronage of the Bishop
of London; the church was rebuilt in 1713, with the exception of the
ancient steeple, which, becoming ruinous, was repaired in 1729. The
living of'St. Nicholas' is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's
books at £10, endowed with £800 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of Balliol
College, Oxford; the church is ancient; the tower some years since
fell down upon the nave and the chancel, the latter of which is still
in a ruinous state. The chapel of St. Helen, in this parish, rebuilt
by Eudo in 1076, was lately used as a place of worship by the Society
of Friends, and is now used for a Sunday school. The living of St.
Peter's is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £10,
endowed with £600 private benefaction, and £ 600 royal bounty, and in
the patronage of John Thornton, Esq.; the church, an ancient
structure, was erected before the Conquest, and in Domesday-book is
noticed as the only church in Colchester; it was extensively repaired
and modernised in 1758, when the tower at the west end was erected,
and was some time since greatly beautified at an expense of £3000; the
altar-piece is embellished with a fine painting by Halls, the subject
of which is the raising of Jairus' daughter. The living of St.
Runwald's is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £7.
13. 4., endowed with £600 private benefaction, and £1000 royal bounty,
and in the patronage of C. Round, Esq.; the church, which is small,
was erected about the close of the thirteenth century. The living of
the parish of the Holy Trinity is a discharged rectory, rated in the
king's books at £6. 13. 4., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and
£200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of
Balliol College, Oxford; the church was erected in the year 1349. The
living of St. Botolph's is a perpetual curacy, united to the rectory
of All Saints'; the church has been in ruins since the siege in 1648,
exhibiting indications of its original magnificence, and of the
antiquity of its style, which appears to have been the early Norman,
and of the same date as the neighbouring priory; it was built with
bricks of extraordinary hardness, supposed to have been taken from the
Roman station; in the interior are several plain massive piers and
circular arches, and part of the arches of the triforium is remaining;
the west front has a central doorway, on the south side of which is a
deeply receding Norman arch; over these are two series of intersecting
arches. The living of St. Giles' is a discharged rectory, rated in the
lung's books at £30, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200
royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Devisees of the Rev. J. W.
Morgan; the church, a very ancient structure, and formerly greatly
dilapidated, has lately undergone a thorough repair. The living of St.
Leonard's is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £10,
endowed with £200 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £200
parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of
Balliol College, Oxford; the church is a spacious structure in good
preservation. The living of St. Mary Magdalene's is a rectory, rated
in the king's books at £11, and in the patronage of the Crown; the
church, which is small, is pleasantly situated on Magdalene Green.
On the site of the chapel of St. Anne, which stood in the parish of
St. James, and was formerly a hermitage, a barn has been erected,
part of the chapel having been incorporated with the building. There
are two places of worship for Baptists, two for Independents, and
one each for the Society  of Friends, Wesleyan Methodists, and
Unitarians. The free grammar school was founded and endowed by the
corporation, to whom 'Queen Elizabeth, in the twenty-sixth year of her
reign, granted certain ecclesiastical revenues for that purpose; the
present income is £117 per annum; the number of scholars on the
foundation is generally from thirty to forty. A scholarship for boys
educated at this school was founded in St. John's College, Cambridge,
by the Rev. Robert Lewes, in 1620; two scholarships, founded in the
same college by the Rev. Ambrose Gilbert, in 1642, revert to
this'school on failure of applicants of the surnames of Gilbert, or
Torbington; and four founded in Pembroke College, Cambridge, by Mr.
Ralph Scrivener, in 1601, on failure of boys from the grammar school
at Ipswich. Dr. Harsnet, Archbishop of York, received the rudiments of
his education in this institution. Two charity schools, for the
education of fifty-five boys'and thirty girls, who are also clothed,
were established in 1708; towards the purchase of the school-house Mr.
Samuel Rush, in 1711, gave £100, and £50 was given for the same
purpose by  his widow. Mr. William Naggs, in 1747, gave a freehold
messuage'and twenty-five acres of land, in the county of Essex, to
certain trustees, for the better maintenance of these schools, to
which seven other benefactions have been added. The National school
constitutes an extension-of the original plan of the charity school;
the number of children educated is about four hundred, of whom one
hundred and fortyeight are clothed. A Lancasterian school for
children of both sexes is supported by subscription; there are
schools also supported by the several dissenting congregations. A
school for the children of members of the Society of Friends was
established in 1816, and eniflowed with a sum of money and an
extensive library by John Kendall, to which has been added a legacy
'by the late Francis Freshfield, Esq.; the election of the-master -is
vested in eight trustees, subject to the sanction of the society at
their quarterly meeting; in consideration of the dividend arising from
the legacies, he instructs gratuitously six day-scholars, sons of
members of the society, or, in failure of such, sons of necessitous
parents of sober conduct, in addition to the boarding and education of
the pupils for whom he is regularly paid. Mr. Arthur Winsley, in 1726,
founded and endowed almshouses for twelve poor men, to which six
others have since been added; each of the almsmen receives seven
shillings and sixpence per week, and a chaldron of coalannually. Mr.
John Wenock, in 1679, erected and endowed almshouses for six aged
widows, which number, by a bequest from Mrs. Bardfield, has since been
increased to fourteen. Ralph Finch also, in 1552, founded and endowed
almshouses for four poor persons. Those erected by Lady Mary D'Arcy,
and others situatedin Eld-lane, having no endowment, are occupied by
persons requiring parochial relief; there are also several charitable
bequests for distribution among the poor. The Essex and Colchester
general hospital, completed in 1820 and supported by subscription, is
a neat building of white brick, situated on the south side of the
London road, comprising a front receding curvilinearly from the
rear at both angles, so as to present the appearance of wings. Of the
monastic establishments anciently existing here, the hospital,
originally founded at the command of Henry I., for a master and
leprous brethren, and dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, by Eudo, who
had been a principal officer of the household to William the Conqueror
and his two sons, of which, at the dissolution, the revenue was £11,
was refounded in 1610 by James I., for three poor brethren and a
master, who is always the clergyman of the parish. Of the other
ancient establishments, the principal was St. John's abbey, founded
in'the reign'of Henry I. by the same Eudo, for monks of the
Benedictine order, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £523.
17.; of this only the gateway is remaining, a handsome structure in
the later style of English architecture, and, consequently, either
rebuilt since the foundation of the abbey, or a subsequent addition
to it. To the south of the town was a monastery-of Augustine canons,
founded in the reign of Henry I., and dedicated to St. Julian and St.
Botolphi by Ernulphus, who afterwards became prior; at the dis-
solution, its revenue was £113. 12. 8.; the only remains are its
stately church, now in ruins, which was previously the parish Church
of St. Botolph. Without the walls was an hospital, or priory, of
Crutched friars, an order introduced into England about the year 1244,
the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £7. 7. 8. The priory of
Franciscan, or Grey, friars was founded, in 1309, by Robert Fitz-
Walter, the only probaible remains of which are the parish church of
All Saints. Of the Walls of which the city was surrounded, and in
consideration of repairing which, Richard III is recorded to have
exempted the burgesses from sending members to three of his
parliaments, only some detached portions are remaining; they were
strengthened by bastions, and defended on the west by an ancient
fort of Roman construction, the remaining arches of which are built
with Roman bricks; and the north and west sides, where the town was
most exposed, were protected by deep intrenchmerits; the entrance to
the town was by four principal gates and three posterns, which have
been mostly demolished. The ruins of the castle occupy an elevated
site to the north-east of the town; the form is quadrilateral, and the
walls of the keep, twelve feet iii thickness, are almost entire; the
building is of flint, stone, and Roman brick intermixed, and is
supposed to have been originally erected by the Romans, though
subsequently repaired by Edward the Elder; the solidity of the
structure has frustrated repeated attempts to demolish it for the sake
of the materials. The town and environs abound with ancient relics,
among which are, a quantity of Roman bricks in several of the churches
and other buildings, tesselated pavements, sepulchral urns, statues,
lamps, rings, coins, medals, arid almost every species of Roman
antiquities. William Gilbert, physician to Elizabeth and James I., and
author of a work on the qualities of the loadstone, entitled " De
Magnate" and Dr. Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York, were natives of
this place. The late Right Hon. Charles Abbot, Speaker of the House
of Commons, who was born in the neighbourhood, was elevated to the
peerage, June 3rd, 1817, by the title of Baron Colchester, which is
now enjoyed by his son.