BOSTON, a parliamentary and municipal borough and seaport town of England, in the county of Lincoln and wapentake of Skirbeck. It is situated in a rich agricultural district on the Witham, six miles from the sea, and 28 miles S.E. of Lincoln. Lat. 52. 59. N. Long. 0. 2. E.
Boston is by some supposed to have been a Roman station in the province of Staria Casariensis, of which Lincolnshire formed a part, but of this sufficient evidence does not seem to exist. According to the Saxon Chronicle, St. Botolph, the patron of sailors, founded a monastery at Icanhoe in 654, which was destroyed by the Danes in 870. From this Boston is said to have taken its name (Botolph's town). It became a place of considerable commercial importance after the Norman conquest, and, in 1204, when the quinzième tax was imposed on the ports of England, that of Boston amounted to L.780, and was exceeded only by that of London, which was L.836. A great annual fair was held at Boston about this time. By 27th Edward III. it was made a staple for wool, woollfells, leather, and lead. Its prosperity about this time induced merchants from the Hanseatic and other Continental commercial cities to settle here, who, however, about a century later, were obliged to leave, in consequence of a quarrel with the townsmen. From this time it rapidly declined. The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. injured the town, though compensation was in some degree made by granting the town a charter of incorporation, and Philip and Mary endowed it with upwards of 500 acres of land. It afterwards suffered from the plague and from inundations, to which its low situation rendered it particularly liable. During the civil wars it was for some time the headquarters of Cromwell's army.
Boston is well built, paved, and lighted, and contains many good dwelling-houses, shops, and warehouses. It is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Witham, here crossed by an elegant iron bridge of one arch 86 feet in span. Until recently the supply of water was very deficient, but in virtue of an act passed in 1847 it has now a plentiful supply conveyed by pipes from a distance of twelve miles. The principal building is the parish church of St. Botolph, founded in 1309. It is one of the largest churches without aisles in the kingdom, being 290 by 98 feet within the walls. The tower, 290 feet in height, resembles that of Antwerp cathedral, and is crowned by a beautiful octagonal lantern, forming a landmark seen forty miles off. There is a chapel of ease, erected in 1822, and chapels of Independents, Methodists, Baptists, &c.; a free grammar-school, founded in 1554, Laughton's charity school for the sons of poor freemen, a bluecoat, national, infant, Sunday, and other schools. There is also a dispensary, a town-hall, market-house, assembly rooms, theatre, borough gaol, house of correction, union poor-house, Vauxhall, mechanics' institution, public baths, two subscription libraries, custom-house, four banks, and a savings-bank. The manufactures consist chiefly of sail-cloth, canvass, sacking, ropes, beer, leather, hats, and bricks. There are also two iron and
brass foundries, and three ship-yards, with patent slips, where vessels of 200 tons are built.
From neglect to clear the river, it became so obstructed that in 1750 a sloop of forty or fifty tons could with difficulty come up to the town at spring tides. Since that period great improvements have been made, and vessels of 300 tons are enabled to unload in the town. The foreign imports are chiefly timber, pitch, tar, and hemp from the Baltic, and coal and manufactures coastwise; the exports, wool, wood, corn, and other agricultural produce. In 1849 there belonged to the port 177 sailing vessels of 8377 tons, and two small steamers; 1253 vessels of 60,298 tons entered, and 570 vessels of 24,622 tons cleared; custom-duty received, L.31,355. By means of the river and the canals connected therewith, Boston has a navigable communication with Lincoln, Gainsborough, Nottingham, and Derby. The East Lincolnshire railway connects it with Louth, Grimsby, and other towns in the north, and the Great Northern with Peterborough and the south; another line extends to Lincoln. Market-day, Wednesday. Boston is divided into two wards, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. It has returned two members to parliament since the reign of Edward IV. Registered electors (1851-52), 987. Population (1851) within the parliamentary boundaries, 17,518; within the municipality, 14,733.