Taunton
Taunton names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Taunton a town in Somersetshire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Somersetshire, England; in the valley of the Tone; 45 miles S. W. of Bristol. Here about 710, Ina, the West Saxon king, built a fortress, which, passing with the manor to the bishops of Winchester, was rebuilt by Bishop William in the first quarter of the 12th century. Added to in the 13th and 15th centuries, this castle received Perkin Warbeck (1497), and was held by Blake during his famous defense of the town (1644-1645). In its great hall, fitted up now as a museum, Judge Jeffreys opened the "Bloody Assize" hanging 134 and transporting 400 of the inhabitants of Taunton and the neighborhood who had accorded Monmouth an enthusiastic welcome (1685); and here too Sydn Sydney Smith made his e his "Mrs. Partington" speech (1831). The church of St. Mary Magdalene has a noble perpendicular tower 153 feet high (about 1500; rebuilt 1858-1862); and other buildings are the Elizabethan shire hall (1858), the municipal buildings (formerly the grammar school founded by Bishop Fox in 1522), King's College school (1880), Independent college (1847-1870), Wesleyan Institution (1843), Huish schools (1874), Bishop Fox's girls' school, hospital (1809-1873), barracks, etc. Formerly one of the great "clothier towns" of Somerset, Taunton now has shirt, collar, glove, and silk manufactures, with a large agricultural trade. Pop. about 22,500.
Taunton a city and county-seat of Bristol co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Bristol co., Mass.; on the Taunton river, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad; 36 miles S. of Boston. It contains a public library, court house, United States government building, State Hospital for the Insane, waterworks, electric lights, electric street railroads, National and savings banks, and several daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. Taunton is a noted manufacturcotton numerous ing city, having mills, machine and printing-press works, foundries, nail and tack mills, brick and tile works, stove and furnace works, an extensive britannia-ware plant, a jewelry factory, copper works, shoe-button factories, and locomotive works. It was incorporated as a town in 1639, and chartered as a city in 1864. Pop. (1910) 34,259; (1920) 37,137.
Taunton RIVER, a small river in Massachusetts
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RIVER, a small river in Massachusetts, which rises in Plymouth county, flows S. W. through Bristol county, and empties into Mount Hope Bay (Narragansett Bay) at the city of Fall River. It is navigable to Taunton and affords extensive water power.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's gave the Somerset town about 22,500 people in 1921 and credited it with shirt, collar, glove and silk manufactures; the cloth trades are gone, the population is now roughly three times that, and the town's biggest employers are administrative and defence-related, including the UK Hydrographic Office, which moved to Taunton in the 1960s. The castle great hall that Collier's noted was "fitted up now as a museum" is still one, reopened in 2011 as the Museum of Somerset. In Massachusetts, Taunton has grown from the 37,137 counted in 1920 to around 59,000, but the industries listed have almost all closed: the "extensive britannia-ware plant" was Reed & Barton, which shut in 2015 after some 190 years, and the locomotive works and tack mills went long before. The New York, New Haven and Hartford is history too, though commuter service to Boston returned to the area in 2024 under the South Coast Rail project.
Written for this edition, 2026.