Taunton has played a prominent part during the troubled periods of English history. Various Roman remains prove it to have been occupied by the Romans; but it first obtained historical notice when Ine, king of the West-Saxons, made it the border fortress of his kingdom. It takes the name Taunton, or Thoneton, from its situation on the Tone or Thone. The castle was razed by Ethelburg after expelling Edbricht, king of the South-Saxons. About the time of λVilliam the Conqueror the town and castle were granted to the bishop of Winchester, and for many years the castle was the bishop’s principal residence. In the reign of William it possessed a mint. In 1497 the town and castle were seized by the impostor Perkin Warbeck. Taunton was made the seat of the suffragan see of Taunton and Bridgwater in 1538, but, on the death of William Finch, the first bishop, in 1559, the Act had no further operation in reference to Tauuton. Like the other towns of Somerset, Taunton was strongly Puritan in its sympathies. Situated at a point where the main roads of the county met, it was during the Civil War almost constantly in a state of siege by one or other of the rival parties. Having been garrisoned by the Parliamentary forces, it was captured by the Royalists in the summer of 1643, but on 8th July 1644 it was, after a long siege, taken by Blake, who held it with heroic pertinacity till relieved by Fairfax on the 11th May 1645, and again after it was invested by 10,000 troops under Goring till the siege was finally raised on the 3d July. Still constant to its Puritan traditions, Taunton welcomed Monmouth in 1685 with acclamation, and he was proclaimed king there on the 20th J une, the maidens of the town presenting him with a standard. As a consequence, Taunton was made the chief example of the fearful vengeance of Jeffreys, who, at the assizes held in the castle, condemned no fewer than 134 inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood to death, and a much larger number to transportation. Taunton obtained a municipal charter from Charles I. in 1627, which was revoked in 1660. A second charter, granted by Charles II. in 1677, was permitted to lapse in 1792 owing to the corporation allowing a majority of their number to die without filling up the vacancies. From this time until it again received municipal government, 17th April 1877, it was under the care of two bailiffs appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor. Formerly the town returned two members to parliament, but in 1885 the number-was reduced to one.

See Totilmin’s History of Taunton, edited by Savage, 1822; and several papers in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society for 1872.

TAUNTON, a city of the United States, the county seat of Bristol county, Massachusetts, lies some 31 miles nearly south from Boston. The town proper, sometimes called Taunton Green, stands on the right bank of the Taunton river, at the head of navigation, about 17 miles above its mouth. The entire area enclosed within the corporate limits is 37 square miles. Taunton is traversed by the main line of the Old Colony Railway, which connects it with Boston and Fall River, Mass., and Providence, R.I. Owing to its situation and its connexions by rail and sea, Taunton has become a supply point for the greater part oτ south-eastern Massachusetts. The population of the city was 18,629 in 1870, 21,213 in 1880, and 23,674 in 1885, showing an increase somewhat in excess of that of the State at large. Fully one-fourth of the population are of foreign birth, and the proportion is increasing. The State lunatic asylum is in Taunton. The leading industries are the manufacture of cotton goods, iron and steel products (particularly locomotives, machinery, nails and spikes), and silver-plated table ware. Taunton was incorporated as a town in 1639, and received a city charter in 1864.