charters granted to the city by Henry II. The Liber Winton speaks of a “cnihts’ gild,” which certainly existed in the time of the Confessor. The prosperity of Winchester was increased by the St Giles’s Fair, originally granted by Rufus to Bishop Walkehn. It was held on St Giles’s Hill up to the 19th century, and in the middle ages was one of the chief commercial events of the year. While it lasted St Giles’s Hill was covered by a busy town, and no trade was permitted to be done outside the fair within seven leagues, or at Southampton; the jurisdiction of the mayor and bailiffs of the city was in abeyance, that of the bishop’s officials taking its place.
From the time of the Conqueror until their expulsion by Edward I., Winchester was the home of a large colony of Jews, whose quarter in the city is marked to the present day by Jewry Street; Winchester is called by Richard of Devizes “the Jerusalem of England” on account of its kind treatment of its Jews, and there alone no anti-Jewish riots broke out after the coronation of Richard I. The corporation of Winchester claims to be one of the oldest in England, but the earliest existing charters are two given by Henry II., one merely granting to “my citizens of Winchester, who are of the gild merchant with their goods, freedom from toll, passage and custom,” the other confirming to them all liberties and customs which they enjoyed in the time of Henry I.; further charters, amplified and confirmed by succeeding sovereigns, were granted by Richard I. and John. The governing charter till 1835 was that of 1587, incorporating the city under the title of the “Mayor, Bailiffs and Commonalty of the City of Winchester”, this is the first charter which mentions a mayor, but it says that such an officer had existed “time out of mind,” and as early as 897 the town was governed by a wicgerefa, by name Beornwulf, whose death is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There is a doubtful reference to a mayor in 1194, and the office certainly existed early in the 13th century. Until 1832 the liberty of the soke encompassing the city on almost every side was outside the jurisdiction of the city magistrates, being under the seignioralty of the bishop of Winchester.
Winchester seems to have reached its zenith of prosperity at the beginning of the 12th century; the first check was given during the civil wars of Stephen’s reign, when the city was burned. However, the last entry concerning it in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Henry Plantagenet, after the treaty of Wallingford, was received with “great worship” in Winchester and London, thus recognizing the equality of the two cities; but the latter was rising at Winchester’s expense, and at the second coronation of Richard I. (1294) the citizens of Winchester had the significant mortification of seeing in their own city the citizens of London take their place as cup bearers to the king. The loss of Normandy further favoured the rise of London by depriving Winchester of the advantages it had enjoyed from its convenient position with regard to the continent. Moreover, it suffered severely at the hands of Simon de Montfort the Younger (1265), although it still continued to be an occasional royal residence, and the Statute of Winchester (1285) was passed in a council held there. Meanwhile the woollen trade had drifted in great measure to the east of England; and an attempt made to revive the prosperity of Winchester in the 14th century by making it the of the staple towns proved unsuccessful. The wine trade, which had been considerable, was ruined by the sack of Southampton (1338); a few years later the city was devastated by the black death, and the charter of Elizabeth speaks of “our city of Winchester now fallen into great ruin, decay and poverty.”During the Civil War the city suffered much for its loyalty to Charles I. and lost its ancient castle founded by William I. After the Restoration a scheme was started to restore trade by making the Itchen navigable to Southampton, but neither then nor when revived in the 19th century was it successful. Charles II., intending to make Winchester again a royal residence, began a palace there, which being unfinished at his death was used eventually as barracks. It was burnt down in 1894 and rebuilt in 1901. Northgate and Southgate were pulled, down in 1781, Eastgate ten years later. Westgate still stands at the top of the High Street. The guardroom was formerly used as a debtors’ prison, now as a museum. The two weekly markets, still held in the Corn Exchange of Wednesday and Saturday, were confirmed by Elizabeth’s charter; the latter dates from a grant of Henry VI. abolishing the Sunday market, which had existed from early times. The same grant established three fairs—one on October 13 (the day of the translation of St Edward, king and confessor), one on the Monday and Tuesday of the first week in Lent, and another on St Swithin’s day; the former two are still held. Winchester sent two members to parliament from 1295 to 1885, when the representation was reduced to one.
WINCHESTER, a town and the county-seat of Clark county, Kentucky, U.S.A., in the E. part of the Blue Grass region of
the state, about 18 m. E. by S. of Lexington. Pop. (1890) 4519;
(1900) 5964, including 3128 negroes; (1910) 7156.It is served
by the Louisville & Nashville, the Chesapeake & Ohio and the
Lexington & Eastern railways, the last being a short road (from
Lexington to Jackson) extending into the mineral and timber
region of Eastern Kentucky. The town is the seat of the Kentucky
Wesleyan College (co-educational; Methodist Episcopal,
South), opened in 1866, and of the Winchester Trades and
Industrial School (1900). Winchester is in an agricultural,
lumbering and stock-raising region, and has various manufactures.
It was first incorporated in 1792.
WINCHESTER, a township of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 8 m. W. of Boston at the head of Upper
Mystic Pond, one of the sources of the Mystic river. Pop, (1900)
7248,of whom 1968 were foreign-bom and 140 were negroes,
(1910) 9309. Area, 6 sq. m. Winchester is served by the
southern division of the Boston & Maine railway, and is connected
with Boston, Arlington, Medford, Stoneham and Woburn by
electric lines. It is chiefly a residential suburb of Boston.
Through the centre of the township winds the Aberjona river,
which empties into Mystic Pond, in Winchester township, both
favourite resorts for canoeing, &c. Wedge Pond and Winter
Pond, in the centre of the township, are clear and beautiful
sheets of water. The streets of Winchester are heavily shaded,
the view as presented from the neighbouring hills being that of a
continuous forest stretching from the beautiful Mystic Valley
parkway (of the Metropolitan park system), of which more than
one-half (50.2 acres) is in the southern part of the, township, to
the Middlesex Fells Reservation (another Metropolitan park)
of which 261.9 acres are in the eastern part; and there are a
large public playground and a common. Horn Pond Mountain
and Indian Hill are about 320 ft. above sea-level. One of the
pleasantest residential districts is Rangely, a restricted private
park. The town-hall and library building is a fine structure;
the library contains about 20,000 volumes, and the museum and
collections of the Winchester Historical and Genealogical Society.
The principal manufactures are leather and felt goods.
Winchester was originally within the limits of Charlestown. In 1638 allotments of land between the Mystic Pond and the present Woburn were made to various Charlestown settlers, including John Harvard and Increase Nowell (1590–1655), secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1644–1649, and the new settlement was called Waterfield. Most of this territory in 1642 was incorporated in Woburn and was called South Woburn. In 1850 Winchester was separately incorporated, parts of Arlington (then West Cambridge) and Medford going to make up its area, and was named in honour of Colonel W. P. Winchester of Watertown, who left to the township a legacy for municipal works.
WINCHESTER, an independent city and the county-seat of Frederick county, Virginia, U.S.A., 87 m. by rail W.N.W. of Washington. Pop. (1890) 5196; (1900) 5161, including 1105 negroes; (1910) 5864. Winchester is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Cumberland Valley railways. It is pleasantly situated in the fertile Shenandoah Valley about 720 ft. above sea-level. Fort Loudoun Seminary for girls occupies the site of old Fort Loudoun, and in the city is the Shenandoah Valley Academy, a military school for boys. The Handley library
