SUDBURY, Suffolk, a municipal borough, market-town, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated on the left bank of the river Stour, in 52° 2' N. lat., fr 43' E. long., 16 miles S. from Bury St. Edmunds, 54 miles N.E. from London by road, and 68 miles by the Eastern Counties and Eastern Union railways. The population of the borough in 1851 was 6043. The borough is governed by four aldermen and 12 councillors, of whom one is mayor. Sudbury sent two members to Parliament until 1844, when it was disfranchised for bribery and corruption. The livings are in the archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely. Sudbury Poor-Law Union contains 42 parishes and townships, with an area of 78,302 acres, and a popu lation in 1851 of 30,814.
Sudbury is a borough by prescription. It waa one of the first towns in which Edward III. settled the Flemiuga in order to instruct his subjects iu the woollen manufacture. A church and priory, of which few vestiges remain, were erected here in 1272 for Donaiuiean friars. The Knights Hospitallers had a house near the bridge, with the tolls of which it was endowed. Near the town was a Benedictine cell attached to Westminster Abbey. The three pariah churches are
chiefly of perpendicular character. All Saints church was, from the year 1150 to the Reformation, appropriated to St. Albans abbey. In the chancel of St. Gregory's church the body of Archbishop Theobald, who was beheaded in 1381 by 1Vat Tyler's mob, was interred; and the head, dried by art, is still preserved. The Indepeudents, Baptists, and Quakers have places of worship. The Grammar school has an endowment of 901. a year. There are Church of England, National, and British schools, and a savings bank.
The town is neat, clean, well-built, paved, and lighted. Ballingdon, in Essex, forms a suburb to Sudbury, with which it is united by a bridge over the St-our. Tho town-hall and the corn-exchange are modern buildings. The silk manufacture is the principal branch of industry in the town. The river navigation, which is not good, has been almost superseded by the railway. A coru-market is held on Thursday, and a general market on Saturday. Fairs are held in March and July. Quarter sessions and a couuty court are held.