Colchester, an ancient municipal and parliamentary borough in the NE. of Essex, on the right bank of the Colne, 51 miles NE. of London, and 12 miles from the sea. It is built on the ridge and sides of a promontory, with a port on the river at a suburb called the Hythe, which has a quay for vessels of 150 tons. It is a town of special historical and antiquarian interest. Before the Roman conquest of the island it was the British 'Royal Town' of Cunobelin (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare); and when the Emperor Claudius had conquered the south-eastern part of the island, he founded a colonia here—the first Roman town in Britain. There are still many remains of that town. The walls are the most perfect Roman walls in England. Immense quantities of pavements, coins, pottery, and other remains of domestic use and personal adornment have been found here. A large cemetery along the principal road out of the town has been carefully explored, and a valuable collection of sepulchral remains found, many of which are in the town museum. The tower of Holy Trinity Church has all the characteristics of Saxon architecture. The castle is the largest Norman keep in England. In the Norman west front of St Botolph's Priory the Roman bricks are a striking feature; and all the old churches have an intermixture of Roman brick in their walls. The Domesday Survey is very full, and gives a complete census of the people. Two taxations of the beginning of the 13th century give not only a complete census of the inhabitants, but also an inventory of their domestic furniture and stock-in-trade, and present a complete view of an English borough of the period. The Protestant refugees from the Low Countries at the end of the 16th century introduced the bay and say (baize and serge) trade, which became an important manufacture, and spread into the neighbouring towns and villages. Colchester was one of the eight 'Dutch Congregations' incorporated by royal license. The wars with Spain in the reign of Queen Anne closed the markets for these goods, and the trade died out. The only important historical event of later times was the siege of Colchester, one of the last events of the Civil War between Charles I. and the parliament. The royalists of Essex and Kent under Goring took possession of the town, and were besieged by Fairfax and the parliamentary army from the middle of June 1648 till the middle of August, when the town, starved out, surrendered, and the execution of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, by sentence of court-martial, created a great sensation.
The chief cause of the prosperity of the town throughout its history has been that it was the principal town and natural market of an extensive and fertile corn-growing district, inclosed on three sides by the rivers and the sea. It was during the great continental wars of the beginning of this century, and has again in later times become, a large military depot; and the number of troops quartered here, with their officers and their families, have contributed to its prosperity. The fishery of the Colne and its creeks has for centuries been famous for the quality of its oysters, and has been a valuable portion of the property of the corporation, to which it has belonged from, or even before, the Norman Conquest. Though always the most important town in Essex, it has never been the county town, owing probably to its being too far down in the Essex peninsula. Pop. (1851) 19,443; (1881) 28,395; (1891) 34,559. See the Rev. E. Cutts's Colchester ('Historic Towns' series, 1888), and Benham's Colchester Worthies (1892).