ROTHERHAM, West:Riding of Yorkshire, a market-town and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Rotherham, is situated on elevated ground on the right bank of the river Don, in 53° 26' N. 1st, 1' 20' W. long., distant 48 miles S. by W. from York, 159 miles N.N.W. from London by road, and 172 miles by the North-Western and Midland railways. The population of the town of Rotherham in 1851 was 6325. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of York. The government of the town is chiefly in the hands of 12 feoffees. Rotherham Poor-Law Union contains 27 parishes and townships, with an area of 50,591 acres, and a population in 1851 of 33,082.
Rotherham is a place of some antiquity. The station 'Ad Fines,' on the great road from Little Chester to Castleford, is fixed by the best authorities at Temple Brongh about a mile from the town. Rotherham probably originated early in the Saxon period. The church at Rotherham was then the only ecclesiastical edifice in an extensive district. A weekly market and an annual fair were held here before the Conquest; the Saxon lord of the manor had his corn-mill ; and these were sufficient, with its ecclesiastical superiority, to render Rotherham a place of some importance. In 1307 Edward L granted the town another market and a second fair. The parish church, a very handsome edifice in the early English style, with a highly enriched central tower and spire, was built in the reign of Edward PT. There are chapels in the town for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Independents', Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians. The Grammar school, which has a small endowment, had 40 scholars in 1853. The Feoffee's school, built in 1776, for 23 boys and 20 girls, has an endowment of about 1001. a year. There are also National schools. A college for the training of young men for the ministry in the Independent connexion, had 13 students iu 1854. The town possesses a dispensary, a subscription library, a news-room, a literary and mechanics institution, and a savings bank. Archbishop Rother
ham, a native of the town, in 1482 founded a college for a provost, three fellows, and six scholar. It was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI. ; some remains of it still exist and are used as an inn. The bridge-chapel on the Don has been long used as the town jail. The town is lighted with ca.% well paved, and has a good supply of water. Rotherham is united with Marlborough on the left bank of the Don by a handsome stone bridge of five pointed arcbea. The court-house, in which the Midsummer quarter sessions are held, was built by the county in 1827. A county court is held.
Extensive beds of coal, of a quality suitable for manufacturing pro cesses, exist in nearly every part of the parish, and iron-ore is also abun dant In 1746 the Messrs. Walker established a work for the manu facture of cast-iron goods of all kinds; and at the large establishments which originated in their enterprise, great part of the cannon used in the navy during the American and French wars was cast Marlborough is now the more strictly manufacturing part of the town, of which it may be said to form a part. There is an extensive brass-foundry. Glass, earthenware, starch, soap, naphtha, and pyroligneous acid, are largely manufactured. Malting is carried on, and there are two breweries. Vessels of 50 tons burden are occasionally built in yards adjoining the river Don. There Is a flax-mili. The markets for corn and cattle are held on Monday : on every alternate Monday the cattle market is one of the largest in the north of England. On Friday a market Is hold in a covered atone building in the market-place for butter, poultry, and eggs. Fairs for horses and cattle are held on Whit-Monday and December 1st; and a statute fair in November. The Don is connected with the Trent by tho Stain forth and Keadby Canal.