RUTLAND, a midland county of England, bounded north and east by Lincolnshire, north and west by Leicestershire, and south-east by Northamptonshire. It is the smallest county in England, having an area of 152 sq. miles. The western portion is formed of the Jurassic beds, including Lias, inferior Oolites and great Oolites, which form the high ground. They dip gently to the east and are interrupted in places by faults, as in the Welland valley between Ketton and Duddington. The lower Lias occupies but a very small part in the extreme north-west. The middle Lias includes marlstone and ferruginous limestone yield ing iron in workable quantities and forming the productive soil of the Catmose valley. The upper Lias forms the steep slopes below the Oolitic scarps, and furnishes materials for bricks and tiles. The inferior Oolite limestones and sands form the highland of the west and the dip slope to the east, where, in the north-east, they are overlain by great Oolite. All these deposits are covered with glacial deposits.
Rutland is drained by the tributaries of the Welland, which flows along its eastern boundary.
History.—Ancient stone implements have been found in the Oakham district and along the river Wash, and small late Bronze age hoards. At the time of the Roman invasion, this region was inhabited by a scanty population of the Coritani tribe. This is inferred by the absence of finds, although Ermine street passes through its eastern portion. Rutland was forested in pre-Norman days and only a few early settlements occurred, which were found on the belt of Northampton sands at its junction with the Lias clays, where dry sites could be found near springs, with pastures on the clay beds. These sites were occupied by a tribe of the Middle Angles in the 6th and 7th centuries, and the whole region was absorbed subsequently in the kingdom of Mercia.
Although mentioned by name in the will of Edward the Con fessor, who bequeathed it to his queen Edith for life, with remainder to Westminster abbey, Rutland did not rank as a county at the time of the Domesday survey in which the term Rutland is applied only to that portion assessed under Notting hamshire, while the south-east portion of the modern county is surveyed under Northamptonshire, where it appears as the wapen take of Wiceslea. Rutland is first mentioned as a distinct county
under the administration of a separate sheriff in the pipe roll of 1159, but as late as the 14th century it is designated "Rutland Soke," and the connection with Nottinghamshire, a county which does not adjoin it at any point, was maintained up to the reign of Henry III., when the sheriff of Nottingham was by statute appointed also escheator in Rutland.
Rutland was included in the diocese of Lincoln, and in 1291 it became a new rural deanery, within the archdeaconry of North ampton; but on the elevation of Peterborough to an episcopal see by Henry in 1541, the archdeaconry of Northampton, with the deanery of Rutland, was transferred to that diocese. In 1876 the deanery of Rutland was placed within the newly founded archdeaconry of Oakham.
The Norman Walkelin de Ferrers was connected with this county, and founded Oakham castle in the 12th century. The castle was subsequently bestowed by Richard II., together with the earldom of Rutland, on Edward, son of Edmond, duke of York. Essendine (Essenden, or Essingdon) was purchased in 1545 by Richard Cecil of Burleigh, and the title of baron of Essenden bestowed on his grandson is retained by the earls of Salisbury. Burley-on-the-hill was held by Henry Despenser, the warlike bishop of Norwich, in the reign of Richard II., and was purchased by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, who there entertained James I. During the Civil War, Rutland was on the side of the parliament.
Two members were returned to parliament for the county of Rutland from 1295 until under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 the representation was reduced to one member.