SHEFFIELD, West Riding of Yorkshire, a market-town, a muni cipal and parliamentary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the pariah of Sheffield, is situated near the junction of the river Sheaf (from which the town is named) and three other rivers with the Don, In 53' 22' N. lat., 1' 25' W. long., distant 50 miles S.S.W. from York, 162 miles N.N.W. from London by road, and 1624 miles by the Great Northern railway. The population of the borough of Sheffield iu 1851 was 135,310. The borough is governed by 14 aldermen and 42 councillors, one of whom is mayor; and returns two members to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of York. Sheffield Poor-Law Union contains 4 town ships, with an area of 10,950 acres, and a population in 1851 of 103,626.
Sheffield became a parliamentary borough and acquired the privilege of returning two member* under the Reform Act. It received a char ter of incorporation All a municipal borough on August 24th 1843. In population and commercial Importance it is the second town of the county. With the exception of single level outlet towards Don caster, Sheffield is encompassed by an amphitheatre of hills pleasingly diversified in their appearance and culture. The manor of Sheffield is mentioned in Domesday Book. In the early part of the reign of Henry I. it was in the pose...ion of the family of De Lovetot, who lead here their baronial residence. They founded an hospital, called St. Leonard* (suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII.), upon an emi nence still called Spital Hill, established a corn-mill, erected a bridge over the Don, and fixed here the nueleua of a town, which from the natural advantages of the locality afterwards rose into importance. In 1296 Edward I. granted a charter to hold a weekly market and an annual fair in Sheffield. Sheffield had about this time acquired a reputation for iron manufacture', especially for faulcblon heads, arrow piles and an ordluary kind of knives called whittles. The leading breeches of industry in the place became permanently settled here before the Introduction of steam, which has since been employed to sustain owl extend them. Sheffield Manor acquired celebrity in the
reign of Elizabeth by the imprisonment there of Mary, queen of Scots. Alter being for some timo confined in Tutbury Castle, in Staffordshire, she was, in 1570, removed to Sheffield Castle, and shortly afterwards to the Sheffield manor-house. She left Sheffield iu 1584, having spent fourteen years of her imprisonment in this neighbourhood. The Duke of Alva caused many artisans to emigrate from the Netherlands iuto England, where they were well received by Queen Elizabeth, and the general rule was adopted of settling all of oue craft in one spot. The workers in iron were, by the advice of the queen's chamberlain, the Earl of Shrewsbury, settled on his own estate at Sheffield, and the neighbourhood from this time became known for the manufacture of shears, sickles, knives of every kind, and scissors. Iu 1616 the Sheffield estates passed by marriage into the possession of Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, who, on the restoration of Charles IL, was restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk, forfeited by his ancestor in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1624 the cutlers obtaiued an act of incor poration. In the contest between Charles L and the Parliament, Sir John Cell, with troops from Derbyshire, took military possession of the town and =tie ; but the Duke of Newcastle, at the head of the royal army, having taken Rotherham by storm, marched to Sheffield, when the Parliamentarians fled into Derbyshire. A garrison was left in Sheffield Castle uuder Major Thomas Beaumont, who held the town and castle till after the battle of Marston Moor, when, being besieged by 12,000 Parliamentary infantry, the castle was obliged to capitulate on August 10th 1844. It was then demolished by order of Parliament. No vestiges of it remain ; but tho names of Castle-Hill, Castle-Green, and Castle-Folds, still indicate its site.