Stamford

(8), an interesting old town, partly in Lincoln shire and partly in North amp tons hire, on the Well and, 12 m. WNW. of Peter borough; was one of the five Danish burghs, and is described in Domesday Book ( q. v .); a ma acre of Jews occurred here in 1140, and in Plantage net times it was a place of ecclesiastical, parliamentary, and royal importance; figures in the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War of Charles I.'s time; has three fine Early English churches, a corn exchange, two handsome schools, Browne's Hospital, founded in Richard III.'s reign, and Burghley House, a noble specimen of Renai ance architecture; the Stamford Mercury (1695) is the earliest provincial newspaper; the district is mainly agricultural.