DORCHESTER, a parish (formerly a market
town) in the hundred of DORCHESTER, county of
OXFORD, 5 miles (S.E. by S.) from Oxford, and 49
(N. W.) from London, containing 854 inhabitants. The
town is situated on the banks of the river Thame, over
which there is a stone bridge, at a short distance to the
north of its junctiou with the river Isis, or Thames. It
is a place of great antiquity, supposed to have been a
British town, and afterwards a Roman station, called
by Richard of Cirencester Dorocina, being situated on
the Roman road passing through the centre of the
island, and Roman coins and medals having been frequently
discovered here. Under the Saxons it flourished
greatly, and Cynegils, King of Wessex, having
been converted to Christianity, and baptized at Dorchester,
by Birinus, an Italian priest, founded here a
bishoprick, of which Birinus was the first bishop; and the
see continued, with a short intermission, to be fixed here
till after the Norman Conquest, when it was removed to
Lincoln. King Athelstan held a council at Dorchester,
in 958, when he. granted a charter to the abbey of Malmesbury,
in which this place is styled the celebrated city of
Dornacestre. According to Leland, it suffered greatly
from the incursions of the Danes. After the removal
of the bishoprick it rapidly declined in importance,
so that William of Malmesbury, who wrote about
1140, mentions it as small and thinly inhabited; and
subsequently it fell into a state of greater decay.
About the middle of the twelfth century, Alexander,
Bishop of Lincoln, placed here a convent of Augustine
canons, instead of the clergy who had belonged to the
cathedral, whose revenue at the dissolution was £219. 12.
The market has long been discontinued; but there is
still an annual fair on Easter-Tuesday.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the jurisdiction of
the peculiar court of Dorchester, and in the patronage
of the Trustees of Mr. Fettiplace. The church,
which was formerly the cathedral, is dedicated to
St. Peter and St. Paul: it is a large and very curious
structure, with a tower at the west end, and exhibits
in its various parts the different styles from
the Norman to the later English. In the north
aisle there is a remarkable Norman doorway; the windows
of the chancel display much singularity in their
ornamental tracery; some stone stalls have peculiarly rich
canopies, and in the windows above them are remains of
fine stained glass. There is a very ancient leaden font,
with Norman arches and figures in relief on the sides of
it; and among the sepulchral monuments are some
which appear to be extremely ancient. Leland mentions
three parish churches here, but there are no traces of
two of them. .A grammar school, founded in 1656, by
John Fcttiplace, has an endowment of £10 per annum,
for the education of six boys. In the church-yard is still
standing a part of the conventual buildings, now used
for the free grammar school. On the west side of the
town is a double intrenchment, called Dike hills, supposed
to be of Roman origin.