Stamford, a municipal borough chiefly in Lincolnshire, but partly also in Northamptonshire, on the Welland, 12 miles WNW. of Peterborough. Hengist is said to have here defeated the Picts and Scots in 449, and Stamford thereafter is notable as one of the Danish 'five burghs,' as having been visited by at least thirteen sovereigns (from Edward the Elder in 922 to Queen Victoria in 1844), for the persecution of its Jews (1190), as having between 1266 and 1334 only missed becoming a rival to Oxford, for its colony of Flemish Protestants (1572), as the birthplace of the earliest provincial newspaper, the Stamford Mercury (1695), and for its famous bull-running on 13th November from King John's time until 1839. It has lost ten of its sixteen churches, an Eleanor Cross, two castles, six religious houses, and two hospitals. Existing edifices are St Mary's, with a fine spire, All Saints, with a fine tower and steeple, St Martin's with Lord Burghley's grave and, in the church-yard, Daniel Lambert's, a town-hall (1777), corn exchange (1859), literary institute (1842), bridge (1849), Browne's Hospital (15th century), and boys' and girls' high schools (1874-76). 'Burghley House, by Stamford town,' is a magnificent Renaissance pile, dating from 1575, with a noble park, carvings by Grinling Gibbons, and a great collection of pictures. The trade and industries are mainly agricultural. Chartered by Edgar in 972, and afterwards by Edward IV., Stamford was a parliamentary borough, but lost one of its two members in 1867 and the other in 1885. For good services rendered by the inhabitants at the battle of Loose-coat-field (in 1469) the town seal bears the royal arms. Pop. (1851) 8933; (1891) 8358.
See works by Butcher (1646), Howgrave (1726), Peck (1727; new ed. 1785), Drakard (1822), Sharp (1847), Walcott (1867), and Nevinson (1879).