LANCASTER, city, municipal borough, market, river port, county town, Lancaster parliamentary division, Lancashire, Eng land, 230 m. N.W. of London by the L.M.S. railway. It has two railway stations, Castle and Green Ayre. Pop. It lies at the head of the estuary of the river Lune, mainly on its south bank, 7 m. from the sea. The site slopes sharply up to an eminence, crowned by the castle and the church of St. Mary, and commands fine views over the rich valley and Morecambe bay. St. Mary's church was originally attached, in the 11th century, by Roger de Poictou to his Benedictine priory. It has a Decorated doorway, but is mainly 15th cent., with a tower built in and a clock dated 1759. Lancaster became a city in 1937.
The castle occupies the site of a Roman castrum. The Saxon foundations remain, and the tower at the south-west corner is supposed to have been erected during the reign of Hadrian. The Dungeon tower, also supposed to be of Roman origin, was taken down in 1818. The greater part of the old portion of the present structure was built by Roger de Poictou, who utilized some of the Roman towers and the old walls. In 1322 much damage was done to the castle by Robert Bruce, but it was restored and strength ened by John of Gaunt, who added the greater part of the Gate way tower as well as a turret on the keep or Lungess tower, named "John o' Gaunt's Chair." During the Civil War the castle was captured by Cromwell. Shortly after this it was put to public use, and now, largely modernized, contains the assize courts and gaol. Other buildings include the Storey Institute with art gallery, technical and art schools, museum and library, presented to the borough by Sir Thomas Storey in 1887, and an observatory in Williamson Park. The Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park, commemorating members of the Ashton family, is a lofty domed structure. The grammar school occupies modern buildings, but its foundation dates from the 15th century, and in its former Jacobean house near the church William Whewell and Sir Richard Owen were educated.
The chief industries are cotton-spinning, cabinet-making, oil cloth-making, railway wagon-building and engineering. Glasson Dock, 5 m. down the Lune, with a graving dock, is accessible to vessels of 600 tons. The Kendal, Lancaster and Preston canal crosses the Lune by an aqueduct and the river is also crossed by a handsome bridge dated 1788.
History.-Lancaster (Lone-caster or Lunecastrum) was an important Roman station, and traces of the Roman fortification wall remain. The Runic Cross is Anglo-Saxon, but the Danes left
few memorials of the occupation. At the Conquest the place be came a possession of Roger de Poictou, who founded or enlarged the present castle on the old site The town and castle had a somewhat chequered ownership till in 1266 they were granted by Henry III. to his son Edmund, first earl of Lancaster, and have since been part of the duchy of Lancaster. A town gathered around the castle, and in 1193 John, earl of Mertoun, afterwards king, granted it a charter, and another in 1199 after his accession, by which charters the burgesses claimed the right of electing a mayor, of holding a yearly fair at Michaelmas and a weekly mar ket on Saturday. John of Gaunt in 1362 obtained a charter for the exclusive right of holding the sessions of pleas for the county in Lancaster itself, and up to 1873 the duchy appointed a chief justice and a puisne justice for the court of common pleas at Lancaster.
In 1322 the Scots burnt the town, the castle alone escaping; the town was rebuilt but removed from its original position on the hill to the slope and foot. Again in 1389, after the battle of Otterburn, it was destroyed by the same enemy. At the outbreak of the Great Rebellion the burgesses sided with the king, and the town and castle were captured in Feb. 1643 by the Parliamentarians. In March 1643 Lord Derby assaulted and took the town, but the castle remained in the hands of the Parliamentarians. In May and June, 1643 and in 1648 the castle was again besieged, but each time in vain. During the rebellion of 1715 the northern rebels occupied Lancaster for two days. During the 1745 rebellion Prince Charles Edward's army passed through the town in its southward march and again in its retreat, but the inhabitants stood firm.
Two chartered markets are held weekly on Wednesday and Saturday and three annual fairs in April, July and October. A merchant gild existed here, which was ratified by Edward M.'s charter (1362), and in 1688 six trade companies were incor porated. The chief manufactures used to be sailcloth, cabinet furniture, candles and cordage. The borough returned two mem bers to parliament from 1295 to 1331 and again from some time in Henry VIII.'s reign before 1529 till 1867, when it was merged in the Lancaster division of north Lancashire.