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Rh for the sons of freemen, but now open to all. Rochester has an oyster fishery of some importance, and there is a considerable shipping trade, a quay and landing-place having been erected by the corporation. There is a large steam-engine manufactory. In Strood, which is a ward of the borough of Rochester, there are oil-mills, and brick and cement works. The dockyards and government works of Chatham employ many inhabitants of Rochester. The parliamentary borough returns one member. The city is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. Area, 2933 acres.

History.—Its situation on the Roman way from the Kentish ports to London, as well as its strategical position on the bend of the river Medway, gave Rochester (Durobrivae, Hrofescester or Hrobicester, Roffa) an early importance. It was a walled Romano-British town (though of no great size), and the original bridge across the Medway probably dated from that period. The church of St Andrew was founded by King Æthelbert, who also made Rochester a bishop's see. Rochester was a royal borough in the time of William I., who raised a castle here, probably on Boley Hill. Richard I. granted the citizens quittance of passagium from crusaders in the town of Rochester. In 1227 Henry III. granted them the city at a fee farm rent of £25; he also granted them a gild merchant, the right to be impleaded only within the city walls, and other liberties. These charters were confirmed by subsequent sovereigns down to Henry VI., who in 1446 incorporated the city by the title of the bailiff and citizens, and granted them the power of admiralty and many privileges. Edward IV. by his charter of 1461 altered the style of incorporation to the mayor and citizens. Charters were granted in successive reigns down to Charles I., whose charter of 1629 remained the governing charter until 1831. A fair on the 18th, 19th and 20th of May was granted to the citizens by Henry VI., and another fair was formerly held in December by prescription. At the present time fairs are held on the 18th of May and the 26th, 27th and 28th of August. A “formarket” was granted in the second charter of Henry III.; the market days were formerly Tuesday and Friday. Corn and cattle markets are now held on Tuesday.

ROCHESTER, a city and the county seat of Olmsted county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on the Zumbro river, about 70 m. S.E. of St Paul. Pop. (1890) 5321; (1900) 6843; (1905, state census) 7233 (1905 foreign-bom); (1910 census) 7844. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western and the Chicago Great Western railways. The city has a public library (1865), and is the seat of St John's School and the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes (both Roman Catholic), of a state hospital for the insane (1878), originally planned (1877) as an inebriate asylum, liquor dealers being taxed for its erection, and of St Mary's Hospital (1889), a famous institution founded and maintained by the Sisters of St Francis. There is valuable water-power, and the city has grain elevators and various manufactures. Rochester was first settled in 1854, and was chartered as a city in 1858.

ROCHESTER, a city of Strafford county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., on the Cochecho and Salmon Falls rivers, about 30 m. E. by N. of Concord. Pop. (1890) 7396; (1900) 8466, of whom 1651 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 8868. Area, about 34 sq. m. Rochester is served by four lines of the Boston & Maine railroad. The rivers furnish excellent water-power for various manufactures. Rochester, named in honour of Lawrence Hyde, earl of Rochester, was incorporated as a town by a royal charter in 1722, but no settlement was made here until 1728. From parts of the original town Farmington and Milton were erected in 1798 and 1802 respectively, and in 1846 part of Rochester was annexed to Barrington. It was the birthplace of John Parker Hale. Rochester was chartered as a city in 1891.

ROCHESTER, a city and the county-seat of Monroe county, New York, U.S.A., about 70 m. E.N.E. of Buffalo and about 230 m. W. of Albany, on the Genesee river, 7 m. above where it empties into Lake Ontario. Pop. (1880), 89,366; (1890), 133,896; (1900), 162,608, of whom 40,748 were foreign-born (including 15,685 Germans; 7746 English-Canadians; 5599 Irish; 3909 English; 1777 Russians; and 1278 Italians) and 601 were negroes; (1910, census) 218,149. Rochester is served by the Erie, the Pennsylvania (two divisions), the Lehigh Valley, the West Shore, the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg (two divisions), and the New York Central & Hudson River (five divisions) railways. The Genesee river, which cuts through the centre of the city in a deep gorge whose banks vary in height from 50 to 200 ft., is navigable for lake craft only for 2 m. from the mouth, to a point 4 m. below the city; the Erie Canal runs through the heart of the city and is carried across the river on a stone viaduct of seven arches, 850 ft. long, and having a channel 45 ft. wide. Several lines of freight and passenger steamboats connect with Buffalo, Oswego and other lake ports, and there are daily passenger steamboats to Toronto, Canada, 70 m. distant across the lake. Electric railways connect with neighbouring cities and lake-side resorts on Lake Ontario (Ontario Beach) and Irondequoit Bay, an irregular arm of the lake 5 m. long 2 m. E. of the city limits. Rochester is on high plateaus on either side of the Genesee river at a general altitude of about 500 ft. above sea-level; It occupies an area of 20.3 sq. m. Within the city limits are the famous Falls of the Genesee three cataracts of 96, 26 and 83 ft. respectively, the banks above the first fall, which is in the heart of the city, rising to a height of fully 200 ft. above the river. From the city limits the river falls 263 it. in its 7 m. course to the lake. Ten bridges, road and railway, connect the two sides of the river.

Rochester is an attractive city, with many fine avenues. East Avenue is perhaps the most beautiful street in the city, and Plymouth, West and Lake Avenues are other prominent residential streets. The park system of Rochester, planned by Frederick Law Olmsted, was 1264 acres in extent in 1908. The largest park is Eastman-Durand (512 acres), on the shore of Lake Ontario; Genesee Valley Park (443 acres) is on both sides of the river; Seneca Park (212 acres) includes a zoological garden; Highland Park (75 acres) and eleven other smaller parks. In Washington Park there is a soldiers' monument surmounted by a statue of Lincoln, and a statue (1898) by S. W. Edwards of Frederick Douglass, the negro orator and editor, who lived in Rochester in 1847–70, stands at the approach to the New York Central & Hudson River railway station. The principal cemeteries are the Mount Hope, the Holy Sepulchre, and Riverside. The Powers Building, a 7-storey stone and iron structure surmounted by a tower 204 ft. high, was one of the first office buildings in the United States to be equipped with elevator service. The Monroe County Court House (of New Hampshire granite) on West Main Street is in the Renaissance style, and contains a law library of about 25,000 volumes. The City Hall (of grey sandstone) has a tower 175 ft. high. Among the other prominent buildings are the Post Office, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lyceum Theatre, the Temple Theatre, the Masonic Building, the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg office building, the Sibley building, the Duffy-Mclnnerney building, and the Young Men's Christian Association building. The following churches are architecturally noteworthy: the Central, the First and the Third Presbyterian, the Brick Presbyterian, St Patrick's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), the Cornhill and the Asbury (Methodist Episcopal), the First Baptist, St Pau1's (Protestant Episcopal), and the First Unitarian. Rochester is the see of a Roman Catholic bishop. In Rochester are the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes, the Monroe County Penitentiary, a State Arsenal, a State Hospital for the Insane, the Protestant Episcopal Church Home, Rochester City Hospital (1864), and others, including the Rochester Municipal Hospital (1903) for contagious diseases and consumption.

Rochester is an important educational centre. Its best-known institution is the University of Rochester (Baptist, 1850; co-educational since 1900), having in 1968-9 28 instructors, 352 students (231 men and 121 women), and a library of 49,000 volumes. It occupies a tract of 24 acres