ILCHESTER, market town, Somersetshire, England, in the valley of the river Ivel or Yeo, 5 m. N.W. of Yeovil. Pop. (1931) 485. Ilchester (Cain Pensavelcoit, Ivelcestre, Yevel chester) was a fortified British settlement, and later a military station of the Romans, on the Fosse Way. Its importance con tinued in Saxon times, and in 1086 it was a royal borough with I o7 burgesses. In 118o a gild merchant was established, and the county gaol was completed in 1188. Henry II. granted a charter, confirmed by John in 1203, which gave Ilchester the same liberties as Winchester, and its bailiffs are mentioned before 123o. The borough was incorporated in 1556. Ilchester was the centre of the county administration from the reign of Edward III. until the 19th century, when the change from road to rail travelling completed the decay of the town, and the corporation was abolished in 1886. Parliamentary representation began in 1298, and the town continued to return two members until 1832. The Wednesday market dates from before the Conquest. It pos sesses almshouses founded in 1426 and an ancient mace of the former corporation.
an old district of France, forming a kind of an island, bounded by the Seine, the Marne, the Beuv ronne, the Theve and the Oise. In this sense the name is not found in written documents before 14 29 ; but in the second half of the I Sth century it designated a wide military province of gov ernment, bounded on the north by Picardy, on the west by Nor mandy, on the south by Orleanais and Nivernais, and on the east by Champagne. Its capital was Paris. From the territory of Ile de-France, were formed under the Revolution the department of the Seine, together with the greater part of the Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Oise and Aisne, and a small part of Loiret and Nievre. (The term Ile-de-France is also used for Mauritius, q.v.) See A. Longnon, "L'Yle-de-France, son origine, ses limites, ses gouverneurs," in the Memoires de la Societe de l'histoire de Paris et de l'fle-de-France, vol. i. (1875) .