Rochester seems to have been considered as of great conse quence by Edward the Fourth; for that Monarch, in the year 1460, in the first of his reign, granted a new charter, wherein having recited, that " the City was situated in a place most defensible, and fit for the resistance of enemies who might enter the realm, and that considering the loyalty and services of the Citizens, as well to him as to his progenitors, and that if they had more ample liberties, their service and readiness would be enlarged," confirmed to them all their former charters; and granted that they should thenceforth be styled "the Mayor and Citizens of Rochester; and so to purchase, plead, &c." By the same charter, he extended the 'metes and bounds of the City, and granted many new and important privileges to the Citizens.*

Henry the Eighth, and his respective successors to the time of Charles the First, confirmed all the preceding charters; and the latter

Among these were the right to search all merchandize shipped on the river Medway, and to have "all forfeitables, wrecks of the sea, and fishes, within the liberties and precincts of the same; and to have the ferry over the water if the bridge should be broken: and also, assize of bread and ale, and of all victuals, and weights and measures, and all other things whatsoever belonging to the office of Clerk of the Market: and to be free by land and water throughout England; and have goods of felons, and out-laws, of men resident, &c. and to keep a court of Portmote, from fifteen days to fifteen days; and to have power to attach by goods and arrest by body, or imprison: and to have cognizance of all pleas, real, personal, and mixed, within their limits; and return of all writs and precepts: and that the Sheriff of the City, and his officers, be exempt from doing any office and that they should have all manner of fines, trespasses, deodands, &c. and keep two law days, or leets on the Bullie, and a court of pie-powder; and have a fair on St. Dunstan's day; and that they should have pasturage of cattle in the City and Castle-ditch, and liberty to build on Eastgate Bridge: that they should be Justices of the Peace within themselves, and direct their writs to their own ministers, and be exempt from the Justices of the Peace for the county that no resident should be charged to bear offices out of the City: and lastly, that they should have liberty to purchase to the amount of 20 pounds per annum, to them and their successors.

:

Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 6, 7, Fo.

atter Monarch, in the year 1630, constituted, in addition, that "the Corporation should consist of a Mayor, twelve Aldermen, (of which latter number the Mayor was to be one,) twelve Assistants or Common-Council, a Recorder, and Town Clerk, two Chamberlains, a principal Sergeant at Mace, a Water-Bailiff, and other inferior officers." By this last charter the City is now governed: the Mayor is elected annually, on the Monday before St. Matthew's day. The present Seal of the Corporation is of considerable antiquity: on one side is St. Andrew on the Cross, and on the other, the Castle of Rochester: round the former are the words SIGILLUM COMMUNE CIVITATIS ROFFENSIS; and round the latter, SIGILLUM CIVIUM ROFFENSIS. In the year 1783, an Act was passed for the recovery of small debts in the City of Rochester, and the adjoining Parishes.

Some men, says Lambard, "desirous, belike, to advaunce the estimation of this Citie, have left us a farre-fetched antiquitie concerning one peece of the same, affirming, that Julius Cæsar caused

CASTLE at Rochester (as also that other at Canterbury, and the Towre of London) to be builded of common charge: but I having not hitherto read any such thing, eyther in Cæsar's own Commentaries, or in any other credible hystorie, dare not avow any other beginning of this Citie, or Castle, then that which I find in Beda, who writeth, that the Citie of Rochester tooke y2 name of one Rof, or rather Hrof, as the Saxon boke hath it, which was sometyme the Lorde and owner of the place."*

Kilburne, however, advances further, and affirms, that " Cæsar commanded the Castle to be built (according to the Roman order) to awe the Britons, and the same was called the Castle of Medway: but time and tempests bringing the same entirely to decay, Oisc, or Uske, King of Kent, about the year 490, caused Hroff, one of his chief Counsellors, and Lord of this place, to build a new Castle upon the old foundation, and hereupon it took the name of Hroffe's Ceaster."t

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* Perambulation of Kent, p. 293,-4.

Survey of Kent, p. 225.

That

That Rochester Castle was not Built by Cæsar, may be presumed with great probability, from the shortness of the time which he continued in Britain; yet that it was really founded by the Romans, the coins that have been found within the walls evidently prove;" as well as the circumstance of there being no other part of Roches fer so well calculated for the immediate site of the station Durobrivis. That the Roman Castrum was rebuilt, or repaired, by Oisc, may be admitted, for the Castle certainly existed in 765, when Egbert, King of Kent, gave a certain portion of land to the Church lying within the walls of the Castle of Rochester: and int 855, Ethelwulph, King of Wessex, gave a house to one Dunne, his Minister, situated " in meridie Castelli Hroffi." It must be here observed, that it appears, from different parts of the Textus Roffensis, that the whole City was frequently comprehended under the appellation Castrum, and Castellum Hroff-ceaster.

After the Danes had obtained possession of Rochester, the Cas tle was much dilapidated; but, according to Kilburne and Hasted, the latter of whom quotes a manuscript in the Cotton Library as his authority, it was repaired, and garrisoned with 500 men, by William the Conqueror. The repairs appear to have been effected under the superintendence of Odo, Bishop of Baieux, who had been constituted Earl of Kent, and Chief Justiciary of England; but afterwards proving ambitious and tyrannical, was seized, and sent prisoner to the Castle of Rouen, in Normandy, where he continued till the accession of William Rufus. This Monarch restored him to his possessions; but neither generosity, duty, nor gratitude, could restrain the turbulence of Odo, who excited an insurrection in Kent in favor of Robert, Duke of Normandy, the King's brother; and having pillaged and destroyed various places, he secured his plunder in Rochester Castle; but went himself to Pevensey Castle, in Sussex, where he sustained a siege of six weeks before Rufus could compel him to submit; but was then ob liged to surrender from want of food. Among other conditions,

*See before, p. 612.

+ Vesp. A. 5. fo. 68. No. 22.

tions, he then agreed to deliver up his Castle at Rochester, 'wherein were many gallant men, and almost the whole nobility of Normandy,' and was conducted hither for the purpose; but Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, the Governor, detained both him and his guards, and positively refused to surrender the fortress to the King.

Rufus immediately marched his army to Rochester; but finding his strength insufficient for the siege, and that his subjects were less zealous in their support than accorded with his wishes, he issued a proclamation, declaring, that "whosoever would not be reputed a Nithing, must repair to the siege of Rochester." This expedient produced its intended effect; the people flocked to the Royal standard in great numbers, and the town and Castle were closely invested; yet it was not till after the eration of several weeks, that the besieged could be induced to capitulate. The King, who was highly incensed at their resistance, refused to grant them any terms; but was at length persuaded to pardon them, açcording to the phraseology of those times, in life and limb.' They were, however, compelled to abjure the realm, with forfeiture of their estates. Odo himself was sent prisoner to Tunbridge Castle; but the King afterwards released him, on condition that he quitted the realm for ever.

This siege occasioned considerable damage to the Castle: and it is not improbable, but that Gundulph, the then Bishop of Rochester, and the Prior, might have been thought luke-warm in their allegiance; for the King would not grant them any kind of indulgence, nor confirm any grant in their favor, till, by the good offices of the nobility, they had purchased their peace, by expending 601. in the repair of the Castle, and in building a new Tower of stone' within the walls.

Gundulph, who was particularly skilful in architecture and ma. sonry, was also engaged in works more consonant to his sacred functions,

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The meaning of this term has been contested; but it seems to have been a nick-name for those possessed of a mean and dastardly spirit, and who were guilty of sacrilege, and rifling the dead.

functions, such as the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Rochester, and its adjoining Monastery. This, conjoined with the smallness of the sum provided, and the few years that the Bishop lived after he had undertaken to erect the Tower, have induced a supposition, that it could not have been completed by him; though, from his having laid the foundation, and partly raised the superstructure, it may justly claim the distinction which it has ever enjoyed, of being called Gundulph's Castle.

In the year 1126, Henry the First, by the advice of his council, granted to William Corboyl, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, and to his successors, the custody of this Castle, with the office of Castellan, together with free liberty to build a Tower in it for his own residence. The keeping of the Castle was resumed by Henry the Second, probably after his quarrel with the ambitious Thomas á Becket, who, among his other insulting charges, accuses the King of having deprived him of the Castle of Rochester, which had been formerly annexed to the Archbishopric.

In the year 1215, when the civil broils between King John and the Barons had involved the nation in calamity, and the King had been compelled to sign Magna Charta, John strove, by every means, to recede from what had been forced from him. For that purpose, with a few adherents, he retired to the Isle of Wight, and having obtained the Pope's interdict, as well as assistance from the French King, he determined to rescind his engagements; and Langton, the Archbishop, who had refused to obey the Pope in publishing the interdict, was suspended. It was in vain that the Prelacy tried to accommodate the discordant spirits of each party; for the Barons, highly exasperated at the Sovereign's perjury, in endeavoring to falsify the oath he had so solemnly taken at Runnimede, prepared to appeal to arms, and having seized on the Castle of Rochester, entrusted its defence to William de Albini, a brave and skilful soldier.

The King, who was convinced of the importance of this fortress, immediately besieged it in a formal manner. The Barons deputed Robert Fitz-Walter to its relief; but John had taken such measures of security, by breaking down the hedges, and fortifying the passes, that