James I. in 1610, established a
governing council of two bailiffs and fifteen capital burgesses.
Charles I. in 1629 instituted a mayor, six aldermen and six capital
burgesses, and also incorporated all the freemen of the borough, for the
purposes of trade, under the government of a council consisting of a
governor, assistants and twenty-four freemen, the governor and four
assistants to be chosen out of the twenty-four by the freemen, and five
other assistants to be chosen by the mayor out of the capital burgesses;
the Council was empowered to hold four courts yearly and to make laws
for the regulation of the markets and trade. Dorchester returned two
members to parliament from 1295, until the Representation of the People
Act of 1868 reduced the number to one; by the Redistribution Act of 1885
the representation was merged in the county. Edward III. granted to the
burgesses the perquisites from three fairs lasting one day at the feasts
of Holy Trinity, St John Baptist and St James, and markets on Wednesday,
Friday and Saturday. Elizabeth granted an additional three days' fair at
Candlemas. The days of the fairs and markets have remained unchanged.
The cloth industry which flourished during the 16th century never
recovered from the depression following on the Civil War. The malting
and brewing industries came into prominence in the 17th century, when
there was also a considerable serge manufacture, which has since
declined.

See _Victoria County History, Dorsetshire_; John Hutchins, _The
History and Antiquities of the Town and Borough of Dorchester_ (3rd
edition, corrected, augmented and improved by W. Shipp and J. W.
Hodson, Blandford, 1865).

DORCHESTER, a large village in the south parliamentary division of
Oxfordshire, England, 9 m. S.S.E. of Oxford by road, on the river Thame,
1 m. from its junction with the Thames. This is a site of much
historical interest. There was a Roman station near the present village,
facing, across the Thames, the double isolated mound known as Wittenham
Hills (historically _Sinodun_), on one summit of which are strong early
earthworks. In Dorchester itself the chief point of interest is the
abbey church of St Peter and St Paul. This consists of a nave of great
length, primarily of the transitional Norman period; a choir with
arcades of the finest Decorated work; north choir aisle of the close of
the 13th century, south choir aisle (c. 1300) and south nave aisle (c.
1320). T