in August 1756. General John Stanwix built Fort Stanwix here at an expense of £60,000, and the first permanent settlement dates from about this time. In October-November 1768, Sir William Johnson and representatives of Virginia and Pennsylvania met 3200 Indians of the Six Nations here and made a treaty with them, under which, for £10,460 in money and provisions, they surrendered to the crown their claims to what is now Kentucky and West Virginia and the western part of Pennsylvania. Of this cession the part which-lay in Pennsylvania was secured by purchase from the Indians for the proprietors Richard and Thomas Penn (see Pittsburg). The fort was dismantled immediately afterward. After 1776, when it was partly repaired by Colonel Elias Dayton, it was called by the continentals Fort Schuyler, in honour of General Philip Schuyler, and so is sometimes confused with (old) Fort Schuyler at Utica. The third regiment of the New York line under Colonel Peter Gansevoort occupied the fort in April 1777 and completed the repairs begun in 1776; on the 3rd of August in the same year (one month before the official announcement by Congress of the design of the flag) the first flag of the United States, made according to the enactment of the 14th of Tune and used in battle, was raised here: it was made from various pieces of cloth. On the 2nd of August an advance party of Colonel Barry St Leger’s forces coming from the west arrived before the fort, and the main body (altogether about 650 whites, including loyalists—the Royal Greens—under Sir John Johnson, and more than 800 Indians, some led by Joseph Brant) arrived soon afterwards. The fort then contained about 750 men under Colonel Gansevoort, with Lieut.-Colonel Marinus Willett as second in command. The danger to the fort roused General Nicholas Herkimer to gather a force of between 700 and 1000 men (including some Oneida Indians), who during their advance on the 6th of August were ambuscaded in a ravine near Oriskany (q.v.), about 8 m. E. of the fort; after heavy losses to both sides, about 250 men from the fort under Willett attacked the camp of the Indians who were supporting St Leger, thus relieved Herkimer through the falling back of the British and Indians to save their supplies, captured five ensigns of the Royal Greens, and seized large quantities of stores from the enemy’s camp. The siege now lost force, the Indians straggled away after the loss of their camp supplies, and on the 23rd of August, St Leger, hearing exaggerated reports of the immediate approach of large reinforcements under General Benedict Arnold, withdrew, abandoning his camp and stores. The successful resistance here to St Leger contributed greatly to the American success at Saratoga. Fort Stanwix was the headquarters of Colonel Gozen Van Schaick (1736–1789) in 1779 when he destroyed the Onondaga villages. At the fort, on the 22nd of October 1784, a treaty was made by Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, commissioners for the United States, with the chiefs of the Six Nations. In 1796 a canal was built across the old portage between Wood Creek and the Mohawk river. In 1796 the township of Rome was formed, receiving its name, says Schoolcraft, “from the heroic defence of the republic made here.” The village of Rome, in the centre of the township, was incorporated in 1819; and Rome was chartered as a city in 1870.
See Pomroy Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida County (Rome, 1851); W. M. Willett, A Narrative of the Military Actions of Col. Marinus Willett (New York, 1831); and Orderly Book of Sir John Johnson during the Oriskany Campaign (Albany, 1882), with notes by W. L. Stone and J. W. de Peyster.
ROMÉ DE L’ISLE, JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS (1736–1790), French mineralogist, was born on the 26th of August 1736 at Gray, in Haute-Saône. As secretary of a company of artillery he visited the East Indies, and was taken prisoner by the English in 1761 and held in captivity for three years. Subsequently he became distinguished for his researches on mineralogy and crystallography. He was the author of Essai de Cristallographie (1772), the second edition of which, regarded as his principal work, was published as Cristallographie (3 vols. and atlas, 1783). He died at Paris on the 7th of March 1790.
ROMESH CHANDRA MITRA, Sir (1840–1899), Indian judge, was born in 1840. When the East India Company’s charter was renewed in 1853, the old supreme courts and sadr courts in the presidency towns were changed into high courts, and Roma Prasad Roy, son of the great reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, was the first Indian who was appointed a judge of the new high court of Calcutta. He did not live, however, to take his seat on the bench, and was succeeded by Sambhu Nath Pandit, and then by Dwarka Nath Mitra, perhaps the most talented judge that India produced in the 19th century. Dwarka Nath’s great ability and thorough insight into cases were universally recognized in India; his decisions were valued and often quoted; and his name was often mentioned as an illustration of the judicial capacity of the natives of India. Anukul Chandra Mukerji also sat on the bench for a time; and on his death in 1871, Romesh Chandra Mitra was appointed judge in his place. He maintained the high reputation of his predecessors, and for a period of nearly twenty years, down to 1890, he performed his judicial duties with credit and distinction. When the post of chief justice was temporarily vacant in 1882, the marquis of Ripon, then viceroy of India, appointed Romesh Chandra to officiate in that post—the highest judicial position in the Indian empire. Lord Dufferin, who succeeded Lord Ripon as viceroy of India, appointed Romesh Chandra a member of the Public Service Commission, and in this capacity he did valuable work. Failing health compelled him to retire from the high court in 1890, and he was then knighted and appointed a member of the viceroy’s legislative council. Till he died in 1899, he continued to take interest in all social, educational and political reforms in India.
ROMFORD, a market town in the Romford parliamentary division of Essex, England; on the small river Rom, which flows into the Thames; 1212 m. E.N.E. from London by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 13,656. The ancient church of St Edward the Confessor was replaced in 18 50 by a structure in Decorated style. There is a large brewery in the town, and extensive market gardens in the neighbourhood. A grant of a market was obtained in 1247, and this is still of importance as regards both cattle and corn. Romford was included in the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, which until 1892 had a jurisdiction of its own distinct from that of the county, with a high steward, magistrates, clerk of the peace, coroner and quarter sessions. The name of Bower was derived from a queen’s residence attached to the ancient royal hunting-lodge in the vicinity.
The fact that Romford (Rumford, Rompford) lies on the high road between Colchester and London has determined its history. Bronze implements have been found here, but no notice of Romford occurs till the 12th century. It was included in the liberty of Havering, and the chief business of the liberty was conducted there. But the corporation which is mentioned in medieval records is not that of the town of Romford, but of the liberty of Havering. Romford has only had a separate constitution since a local board of health was formed in 1894, under the act of 1875, after the abolition of the liberty in 1892. In the middle ages Romford was rather a meeting place for merchants than an industrial centre. Brewing, however, is mentioned in 1331, and one tanner at least carried on business in Hare Street in 1467.
ROMILLY, JOHN ROMILLY, 1st Baron (1802–1874), English judge, was the second son of Sir Samuel Romilly, and was born on the 10th of January 1802. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1827. He first entered parliament in 1832 as member for Bridport, and in 1843 he became a queen’s counsel. He was elected M.P. for Devonport in 1847, and was appointed solicitor general in 1848 in Lord John Russell’s administration and attorney-general in 1850. In 1851 he was appointed master of the rolls, and continued to sit for Devonport till the general election in 1852, when he was defeated. He was the last master of the rolls to sit in parliament. Romilly. was raised to the peerage as Baron Romilly of Barry in 1866, and
