MAIDSTONE, market town, municipal borough and county town of Kent, England, 41 m. E.S.E. of London by rail. Pop. (1931) 42,259; area, 4,008 ac.
There is evidence of a Roman settlement but the name Maid stone (Medwegestun, Meddestane, Maydestan), probably mean ing Medway Town, is presumably Saxon. At the time of the Domesday Survey the town belonged to the archbishop of Canter bury, and from the reign of John the archbishops had a residence there. The shire-moot was held on Penenden• Heath in the nth century, and Maidstone was an assize town in the reign of Edward I. In 1537 Cranmer exchanged the manor of Maidstone with the king, and it was granted by Edward VI. to Sir Thomas Wyatt. Edward also incorporated the town but this charter was forfeited through Wyatt's rebellion ; a second charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1559 and confirmed by subsequent sovereigns. A new charter was given by George II. in 1747, and remained the gov erning charter until 1835. Four fairs were granted by the charter of 1559; these are now held on the 13th of February, the 12th of May, the 20th of June and the 17th of October. A Thursday market was granted by Henry III. to Archbishop Boniface, and a market every second Tuesday in the month by charter of George II. A corn market on Tuesday and a cattle market on Thursday are still held. The manufacture of linen and woollen goods was introduced by Walloons, who settled here in 1567. This was succeeded by paper-making, now the chief industry of the town. The cultivation of hops has been carried on since the 17th century.
The hop grounds form the so-called middle growth of Kent, and the town has the principal grain market in the county. Arch bishop Boniface in 126o established a hospital here (Newark hospital) for poor pilgrims, the chapel of which, with modern addi tions, is now St. Peter's Church. The parish church of St. Mary, which had existed from Norman times, was demolished in 1395 by Archbishop Courtenay, who erected on the site the present church of All Saints. Courtenay also founded a college of secular canons, the ruins of which are an interesting specimen of 14th-century architecture. From the reign of John until the Reformation the archbishops had a residence here. A Perpendicular building, with an Elizabethan east front, now houses the school of science and art. The grammar school was founded in 1549, and endowed with the estates of the local Corpus Christi fraternity, then dissolved; the hall in which the gild assembled remains, but the school is established in modern buildings on a new site.
In addition to the paper mills, there are cement and lime works. There is a considerable carrying trade on the Medway. A museum, with public library, was opened in 1858, in an early 16th-century building, which is the headquarters of the Kent Archaeological Society. From Saxon times down to 183o condemned malefactors were executed, and all the great county meetings were held, on Penenden Heath, a common now enclosed as a public recreation ground.