KNUTSFORD, a town of the county of Chester, in the hundred of Bucklow, 173 miles from London. It stands on the river Birken, is the place where the sessions for the county are held, and has a well-attended market on Saturday. The principal employment is in the cotton manufacture. It is an ancient town, said to have been in existence in the time of the Danish king Canute, who gained a victory, and gave its name, Canute's Ford, to the place where his army passed. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2052, in 1811 to 2114, in 1821 to 2753, and in 1831 to 2823.