The industries are agriculture and the making of esparto mats, pottery, bricks, oil, soap, cloth, linen and hats.
Osuna, the Urso of Hirtius, famous in the 1st century B.C. for its long resistance to the troops of Caesar, and its fidelity to the Pompeians, was subsequently called by the Romans Orsona and Gemina Urbanorum, the last name being due, it is said, to the presence of two urban legions here. Osuna was taken from the Moors in 1239, and given by Alphonso X. to the knights of Calatrava in 1264. Don Pedro Giron appropriated it to himself in 1445. One of his descendants, Don Pedro Tellez, was the first holder of the title duke of Osuna, conferred on him by Philip II. in 1562.
Estepa (pop. 8591), a town 6 m. E.N.E. is the Iberian and Carthaginian Astepa or Ostipo, famous for its siege in 207 B.C. by the Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio. When further resistance became impossible, the people of Astepa set fire to their town, and all perished in the flames.
OSWALD (c. 605–642), king of Northumbria, was one of the
sons of Æthelfrith and was expelled from Northumbria on
the accession of Edwin, though he himself was a son of Edwin’s
sister Acha. He appears to have spent some of his exile in
Iona, where he was instructed in the principles of Christianity.
In 634 he defeated and slew the British king Ceadwalla at a
place called by Bede Denisesburn, near Hefenfelth, which has
been identified with St Oswald’s Cocklaw, near Chollerford,
Northumberland. By this he avenged his brother Eanfrith,
who had succeeded Edwin in Bernicia, and became king of
Northumbria. Oswald reunited Deira and Bernicia, and soon
raised his kingdom to a position equal to that which it had
occupied in the time of Edwin, with whom he is classed by Bede
as one of the seven great Anglo-Saxon kings. His close alliance
with the Celtic church is the characteristic feature of his reign.
In 635 he sent to the elders of the Scots for a bishop. On the
arrival of Aidan in answer to this request he assigned to him
the island of Lindisfarne as his see, near the royal city of Bamborough.
He also completed the minster of St Peter at York
which had been begun by Paulinus under Edwin. Bede declares
that Oswald ruled over “all the peoples and provinces of Britain,
which includes four languages, those of the Britons, Picts,
Scots and Angles.” His relationship to Edwin may have helped
him to consolidate Deira and Bernicia. Early in his reign he
was sponsor to the West Saxon king Cynegils, whose daughter
he married. In 642 he was defeated and slain at a place called
Maserfeld, probably Oswestry in Shropshire, by Penda of
Mercia.
See Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896), ii. 5, 14, 20; iii. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9-14: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. J. Earle and C. Plummer (Oxford, 1899), s.a., 617, 634, 635, 642, 654.
OSWALD (d. 992), archbishop of York, was a nephew of Oda, archbishop of Canterbury, and at an early age became, by purchase, head of the Old Minster at Winchester. Desiring to become a monk, he went with Oda’s approval to the monastery
of Fleury on the Loire—at that time the great centre of reviving
Benedictinism. Here he soon distinguished himself by the
monastic austerity of his life. In 959 he returned to England
at the request of Oda, who, however, died before his arrival.
He now went to York to his kinsman the Archbishop Oskytel,
who took him with him on a pilgrimage to Rome. Soon after
his return he was appointed bishop of Worcester at the recommendation
of Dunstan, his predecessor in the see (961).
As bishop he took a prominent part in that revival of monastic
discipline on Benedictine lines of which Aethelwold, bishop
of Winchester, was the most ardent leader. His methods, however,
were less violent than those of Aethelwold. Among other
religious houses he founded that of Ramsey in conjunction with
Aethelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia. In 972 he was translated
(again at Dunstan’s recommendation) to the archbishopric of
York, with which he continued to hold the see of Worcester.
He died on the 29th of February 992 and was buried at
Worcester.
See Memorials of St Dunstan, edited by W. Stubbs, Rolls series (London, 1874).
OSWALDTWISTLE, an urban district in the Accrington
parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, on the Leeds
and Liverpool Canal, 312 m. E.S.E. of Blackburn. Pop. (1901)
14,192. It possesses cotton-mills, printworks, bleachworks and
chemical works, and in the neighbourhood are collieries, stone
quarries and potteries. At Peelfold, in the township, was born
(1750) Sir Robert Peel, first baronet, who, as a factory-owner
effected wide developments in the cotton industry.
OSWEGO, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of Oswego
county. New York, U.S.A., on the S.E. shore of Lake Ontario,
at the mouth of the Oswego river, about 35 m. N.W. of Syracuse.
Pop. (1900) 22,199, of whom 3989 were foreign born; (1910
census) 23,368. It is served by the New York Central &
Hudson River, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the
New York, Ontario & Western railways, by several lines of lake
steamboats, and by the Oswego Canal, which connects Lake
Ontario with the Erie Canal at Syracuse. There is an inner
harbour of 9·35 acres and an outer harbour of 140 acres, which
are defended by Fort Ontario. The city lies at an altitude of
300 ft., and is divided into two parts by the Oswego river.
Oswego is the seat of a state Normal and Training School (founded
as the City Training School in 1861, and a state school since
1867), a state armoury, and a United States life-saving station;
among the public buildings are the City Library (about 14,000
volumes in 1909), founded by Gerrit Smith in 1855, the Federal
Building and Custom House, the City Hall, the City Hospital,
the County Court House, an Orphan Asylum, and a business
college. The Oswego river has here a fall of 34 ft. and furnishes
excellent water power. Among the principal manufactures are
starch (the city has one of the largest starch factories in the
world), knit goods, railway car springs, shade-cloth, boilers and
engines, wooden-ware, matches, paper-cutting machines, and
eau de cologne. The factory products were valued in 1905 at
$7,592,123. Oswego has a considerable trade with Canada;
in 1908 its exports were valued at $2,880,553 and its imports at
$999,164. Lake commerce with other American Great Lake
ports is also of some importance, the principal articles of trade
being lumber, grain and coal.
The site of Oswego was visited by Samuel de Champlain in 1616. Subsequently it was a station for the Jesuit missionaries and the coureurs des bois. In 1722 a regular trading post was established here by English traders, and in 1727 Governor William Burnet of New York erected the first Fort Oswego (sometimes called Fort Burnet, Chouaguen or Pepperrell). It was an important base of operations during King George’s War and the French and Indian War. In the years 1755–1756 the British erected two new forts at the mouth of the river. Fort Oswego (an enlargement of the earlier fort) on the east and Fort Ontario on the west. In August 1756 Montcalm, marching rapidly from Ticonderoga with a force of 3000 French and Indians, appeared before the forts, then garrisoned by 1000 British and colonial troops, and on the 14th of August forced the abandonment of Fort Ontario. On the following day he stormed and captured Fort Oswego, and, dismantling both, returned to Ticonderoga. The British restored Fort Ontario in 1759, and maintained a garrison here until 1796, when, with other posts on the lakes, they were, in accordance with the terms of Jay’s Treaty, made over to the United States. It was here in 1766 that Pontiac formally made to Sir William Johnson his acknowledgment of Great Britain’s authority. On the 6th of May 1814 Sir James Yeo, with a superior force of British and Canadians, captured the fort, but soon afterwards withdrew. In 1839 the fort was rebuilt and occupied by United States troops; it was abandoned in 1899, but, after having been reconstructed, was again garrisoned in 1905. The modern city may be said to date from 1796. Oswego became the county-seat in 1816, was incorporated as a village in 1828 (when the Oswego Canal was completed), and was first chartered as a city in 1848.
See Churchill, Smith and Child, Landmarks of Oswego County (Syracuse, 1895).
OSWESTRY, a market town and municipal borough in the Oswestry parliamentary division of Shropshire, England, on
