borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 832
acres.

Christchurch is mentioned in Saxon documents under the name of Tweotneam
or Tweonaeteam, which long survived in the form Christchurch Twineham.
In 901 it was seized by Aethelwald, but was recaptured by Edward the
Elder. In the Domesday Survey, under the name of Thuinam, it appears as
a royal manor, comprising a mill and part of the king's forest; its
value since the time of Edward the Confessor had decreased by almost
one-half. Henry I. granted Christchurch to Richard de Redvers, who
erected the castle. The first charter was granted by Baldwin earl of
Exeter in the 12th century; it exempted the burgesses from certain tolls
and customs, including the tolls on salt within the borough, and the
custody of thieves. The 2nd Earl Baldwin granted to the burgesses the
tolls of the fair at St Faith and common of pasture in certain meads.
The above charters were confirmed by Edward II., Henry VII. and
Elizabeth. The Holy Trinity fair is mentioned in 1226. Christchurch was
governed by a bailiff in the 13th century, and was not incorporated till
1670, when the government was vested in a mayor and 24 capital
burgesses, but this charter was shortly abandoned. The borough was
summoned to send representatives to parliament in 1307 and 1308, but no
returns are registered until 1572, from which date it was represented by
two members until the Reform Act of 1832 reduced the number to one. The
secular canons of the church of Holy Trinity held valuable possessions
in Hampshire at the time of Edward the Confessor, including a portion of
Christchurch, and in 1150 the establishment was constituted a priory of
regular canons of St Augustine. Baldwin de Redvers confirmed the canons
in their right to the first salmon caught every year and the tolls of
Trinity fair. The priory, which attained to such fame that its name of
Christchurch finally replaced the older name of Twineham, was dissolved
in 1539.

See _Victoria County History--Hampshire_; Benjamin Ferrey,
_Antiquities of the Priory of Christchurch_, 2nd edition, revised by
J. Britton (London, 1841).

CHRISTCHURCH, a city near the east coast of South Island, New Zealand,
to the north of Banks Peninsula, in Selwyn county, the capital of the
provincial district of Canterbury and the seat of a bishop. Pop. (1906)
49,928; including suburbs, 67,878. It stands upon the great Canterbury
plain, which here is a dea