Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 1.djvu/633

Rh COLBOURN. 623 COLCHE8TEK. , he Independents have a place of worship, and there , N ional school for boys. There are some small mrities. The trustees of the late Lord Kolle are lords f the manor. COLBOURN, or COLBTJRN, a tnshp. in the par. of atterick, in the wap. of East Hang, in the North from Richmond, its post town. It is situated on the ver Swale. Sir William Lawson is lord of the manor. COLBY, or COLEBY, a par. in the hund. of South rpinghum, in the co. of Norfolk, 11 miles from Nor- ich, and 2 N.E. of Aylsham, its post town. It is tuated on a branch of the river Bure. The living is u ct.* in the dioc. of Norwich, val. 271, in the patron. Lord Suffield. The church is dedicated to St. Giles, nl has an east window of ancient stained glass. The .lies were commuted in 1839. The charities amount '2t'i per annum. COLBY, a vil. in the par. of Ivirk-Arbory, in the Isle Man, 1 mile from Castletown, and 11 miles S.W. of ougbs. The principal residence is Bell Abbey, near iiii'h is part of a Druidical circle of stones. COLBY, a tnshp. in the par. of Appleby St. Law- nee, East ward, in the co. of Westmoreland, li mile .W. of Appleby, its post town and railway station. is situated on Colby Beck, a tributary of the rirer The charities produce about 3 per annum. ATTS, a hmlt. in the par. of Steyning, in the isex, 2 miles N. of Steyning. OL( 'HESTER, a div. of tho hund. of Lexden, in the "i.x. It contains tho borough of Colchester, and pars, of Birch, Mount-Bures, Fordham, Dedham, ergholt, Boxted, AVivenhoe, East Donyland, Worming- rd, Horksley, Easthorpe, Langham, and Stan way, tnprising about 32,240 acres. .COLCHESTER, a market town, parliamentary and unicipal borough, locally situated in the hund. of xilcn, in the co. of Essex, but exercising a separate tisdictiou. It is 22 miles from Chelmsford, and 51 jm London, by the Great Eastern railway. There are aneli lines to Ipswich and Bury, Sudbury, Harwich, d jS'unvich. Colchester, according to all accounts, is a wn of the most remote antiquity, having been in exist- r to Julius Ciesar's invasion. It was called by Romans CamcloduniitR, or Colonia ; and if we may She latter name, they must have regarded it as eir colony par excellence in Britain, in the same way that ovence w as their province par excellence in Gaul. It > -ars that tin: name of Camelodmmm was given before .1 of I'nlunia, and was derived from an altar dedicated JIars under the name of Ca,imlun, by which also that inity is designated on some coins still extant of nobeline (the Cymbeline of Shakspearc), King of the .1, who, according to Dion Cassius, had his resi- icfl here. The name of Colonia does not occur till r ( laudius's victories, which acquired for him tho rname of Britannicus, and who, according to Tacitus, irisoned Colchester with the second, ninth, and four- >nth legions, which he designated the conquerors of < probably changed from Camelotii/innn to Colonin, it Ing the first military colony in Britain. It is to be
 * iding of the co. of York, 1 mile from Hipswell, and
 * tain. From this circumstance the name of the town
 * arkcd that both the Britons and the Saxons muti-

i thy word Colonin rather than the word Camelodunnm, yen adopting the Roman name. In Cymric it becomes -''", and in Saxon Colne-Ceastre. It seems, how- <:T, equally probable that the name of the place is ' 'ived from the river Colne, on which it stands, '.-.-is this also be a contraction of Colonia. After tho i irn of Claudius to Rome, the Teeai, under Boadicea, .inrd temporary possession of the settlement; but in the extent of the Roman works, and from the iber of antiquities discovered, there is very good idence that the Romans again became masters. In ti hands of the Saxons, Colchester does not, appear to h-e been a place of very great importance ; but it was a l mrite stronghold of the Danes, who defended it in-;! Edward the Elder in 921. The Saxon king was yorioiu und the Danes were nearly all put to the sword. After tho Conquest, it appears from Domesday Book that Eudo Dapifer, William's steward, was pos- sessed of a great portion of Colchester and its neigh- bourhood. He built the castle, or, as seems more probable, rebuilt it on the site of a more ancient fortress. In the reign of John, Saher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, seized the town, plundered it, and placed a garrison in the castle, which was, however, soon compelled to surrender to the king. In 1216, Colchester was occupied by the forces of Prince Louis, son of Philip II. of France, who had been invited into Eng- land by the barons to assist them against John. But after the first confirmation of the Magna Charta by Henry III., and the general pacification which ensued upon it, the position of Louis became untenable, and he retired to France. After the death of Edward VI., the inhabitants of Colchester displayed great zeal in tho in- terest of Mary, and presented her with a silver cup aijd 20 in gold. She requited their enthusiasm with an enthusiasm of her own, and endeavoured to free the town from the pollution of heresy by the aid of the stake. A great variety of sects flourished, or at least existed, in Colchester at this time, and among them that of "The Family of Love," of which Sir Christopher Vitels was tho chief apostle in Colchester, and Henry Nicholas, of Delft, the original founder. In the reign of Elizabeth many of the Flemings, driven from their own country by the Duke of Alva, found a resting place in Colches- ter, where they introduced the manufacture of " bays and says." At the commencement of the Civil AVar, Colchester took the side of the king Lord Goring and Sir Charles Lucas defended the town against Fairfax, who attempted to carry it by a coup de main. The suburbs were forced after a long and bloody conflict ; but the town itself was not taken until it had sustained a siege of eleven weeks. The provisions of the defenders were then exhausted, and the most favourable terms which could be obtained from the besiegers were " quarter to all below the rank of captain." Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot ; and Lord Capel was execu- ted, after trial and condemnation. Colchester suffered severely from the plague in 1348, 1360, and 1665. The town is built on the slope and summit of a hill, which rises gently from the Colne. The houses are generally well-built, and some of them have tho appearance of antiquity. The approach to the town by the old London road is adorned with elegant modern houses, and forms the principal promenade of the inhabitants, commanding extensive views of tho town itself and of the surrounding country. There is a good supply of water from the springs at tho foot of Balkerne Hill. There are three bridges across the river Colne, which is navigable from the North Sea, 15 miles distant, to Hythe, the port and suburb of Colchester. A little town of neat and commodious dwellings has recently sprung up between St. John-street and Mill-street. The town- hall has been rebuilt by the architects, Blorc and Bran- don, on the original site chosen by Eudo Dapifer. The borough sessions are held here, and the basement is used as a gaol. A new corn-exchange has recently been erected, to meet the increasing demand for space. The building is an ornament to the town, and bears testi- mony to its prosperity. Of the other buildings, the prin- cipal are the theatre, the debtor's gaol, the Essex and Colchester Hospital, and the Asylum for Idiots. This last is close to the railway station, and was built as a railway hotel, but it proved to be too large for that purpose. It is now the great asylum for the eastern counties, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, and has accommodation for 100 patients. The Camp, which has accommodation for about 2,500 men, is now (1863) being largely increased, and barracks erected for cavalry. The population of Colchester has been steadily increasing during the whole of the present cen- tury. In 1801 there were only 11,520 inhabitants; in 1851 there were 19,443; and in 1861 there were 23,809. In 1861 there were 4,447 inhabited houses, 180 unin- habited, and 31 building. The oyster-fishery is an im- portant branch of the trade of Colchester ; the oysters