Early history The town was once said to have been a
Roman settlement, but no evidence shows this to be the case. Similarly, it is often linked to the
monastery established by the
Saxon monk Botolph at "Icanhoe" on the
Witham in AD 654 and destroyed by the
Vikings in 870, but this is doubted by modern historians. The early medieval geography of
The Fens was much more fluid than it is today, and at that time, the Witham did not flow near the site of Boston. Botolph's establishment is most likely to have been in
Suffolk. However, he was a popular
missionary and
saint to whom many churches between
Yorkshire and
Sussex are dedicated. The 1086
Domesday Book does not mention Boston by name, but nearby settlements of the tenant-in-chief Count
Alan Rufus of Brittany are covered. Its present territory was probably then part of the grant of
Skirbeck, part of the very wealthy manor of Drayton, which before 1066 had been owned by
Ralph the Staller,
Edward the Confessor's
Earl of East Anglia. Skirbeck had two churches and one is likely to have been that dedicated to St Botolph, in what was consequently Botolph's town. Skirbeck is now considered part of Boston, but the name remains, as a church parish and an electoral
ward. The order of importance was the other way round, when the Boston quarter of Skirbeck developed at the head of
the Haven, which lies under the present Market Place. At that stage, The Haven was the
tidal part of the stream, now represented by the Stone Bridge Drain, which carried the water from the East and West Fens. The line of the road through Wide Bargate, to
A52 and
A16, is likely to have developed on its marine silt levees. It led, as it does now, to the relatively high ground at Sibsey, and thence to
Lindsey. The reason for the original development of the town, away from the centre of Skirbeck, was that Boston lay on the point where navigable tidal water was alongside the land route, which used the
Devensian terminal
moraine ridge at Sibsey, between the upland of East Lindsey and the three routes to the south of Boston: • The coastal route, on the marine silts, crossed the mouth of Bicker Haven towards
Spalding. • The
Sleaford route, into
Kesteven, passed via Swineshead, thence following the old course of the River Slea, on its marine
silt levee. • The Salters' Way route into Kesteven, left Holland from
Donington. This route was much more thoroughly developed, in the later Medieval period, by Bridge End Priory. The
River Witham seems to have joined The Haven after the flood of September 1014, having abandoned the port of Drayton, on what subsequently became known as Bicker Haven. The predecessor of Ralph the Staller owned most of both Skirbeck and Drayton, so it was a relatively simple task to transfer his business from Drayton, but Domesday Book in 1086 still records his source of income in Boston under the heading of Drayton, so Boston's name is not mentioned. The Town Bridge still maintains the preflood route, along the old Haven bank.
Growth After the
Norman conquest, Ralph the Staller's property was taken over by
Count Alan. It subsequently came to be attached to the Earldom of
Richmond, North Yorkshire, and known as the Richmond Fee. It lay on the left bank of The Haven. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Boston grew into a notable town and port. In 1204,
King John vested sole control over the town in his
bailiff. That year or the next, he levied a "fifteenth" tax ('''') of 6.67% on the moveable goods of merchants in the ports of England: the merchants of Boston paid £780, the highest in the kingdom after London's £836. Thus, by the opening of the 13th century, Boston was already significant in trade with the continent of Europe and ranked as a port of the
Hanseatic League. In the thirteenth century it was said to be the second port in the country.
Edward III named it a
staple port for the
wool trade in 1369. Apart from wool, Boston also exported
salt, produced locally on the
Holland coast,
grain, produced up-river, and lead, produced in
Derbyshire and brought via
Lincoln, up-river. A quarrel between the local and foreign merchants led to the withdrawal of the Hansards around 1470. Around the same time, the decline of the local guilds and shift towards domestic
weaving of English wool (conducted in other areas of the country) led to a near-complete collapse of the town's foreign trade. The silting of the Haven only furthered the town's decline. At the
Dissolution of the Monasteries by
Henry VIII during the
English Reformation, Boston's
Dominican,
Franciscan,
Carmelite, and
Augustinian friaries—erected during the boom years of the 13th and 14th centuries—were all expropriated. The
refectory of the Dominican friary was eventually converted into a theatre in 1965 and now houses the
Blackfriars Arts Centre. Henry VIII granted the town its charter in 1545 and Boston had two Members of Parliament from 1552.
17th and 18th centuries The staple trade made Boston a centre of intellectual influence from the Continent, including the teachings of
John Calvin that became known as
Calvinism. This, in turn, revolutionised the Christian beliefs and practices of many Bostonians and residents of the neighbouring shires of England. In 1607, a group of
pilgrims from
Nottinghamshire led by
William Brewster and
William Bradford attempted to escape pressure to conform with the teaching of the
English church by going to
the Netherlands from Boston. At that time, unsanctioned emigration was illegal, and they were brought before the court in the
Guildhall. Most of the pilgrims were released fairly soon, and the following year, set sail for the Netherlands, settling in
Leiden. In 1620, several of these were among the group who moved to
New England in the
Mayflower. Boston remained a hotbed of religious dissent. In 1612,
John Cotton became the Vicar of St Botolph's and, although viewed askance by the Church of England for his nonconformist preaching, became responsible for a large increase in Church attendance. He encouraged those who disliked the lack of religious freedom in England to join the
Massachusetts Bay Company, and later helped to found the city of Boston, Massachusetts, which he was instrumental in naming. Unable to tolerate the religious situation any longer, he eventually emigrated himself in 1633.) This and the religious friction put Boston into the
parliamentarian camp in the
Civil War, which in England began in 1642. The chief backer of the drainage locally,
Lord Lindsey, was shot in the
first battle and the fens returned to their accustomed dampness until after 1750. The later 18th century saw a revival when the Fens began to be effectively drained. The
Act of Parliament permitting the embanking and straightening of the fenland Witham was dated 1762. A sluice, called for in the act, was designed to help scour out The Haven. The land proved to be fertile, and Boston began exporting cereals to London. In 1754, the first financial bank was opened, and in 1776, an act of Parliament allowed watchmen to begin patrolling the streets at night.
Modern history In the 19th century, the names of Howden, a firm located near the Grand Sluice, and Tuxford, near the Maud Foster Sluice, were respected among engineers for their steam road locomotives, threshing engines, and the like. Howden developed his business from making steam engines for river boats, while Tuxford began as a miller and millwright. His mill was once prominent near Skirbeck Church, just to the east of the Maud Foster Drain. The railway reached the town in 1848, and it was briefly on the main line from London to the north. The area between the
Black Sluice and the railway station was mainly railway yard and the railway company's main depot. The latter facility moved to
Doncaster when the modern main line was opened. Boston remained something of a local railway hub well into the 20th century, moving the produce of the district and the trade of the dock, plus the excursion trade to
Skegness. Boston once again became a significant port in trade and fishing in 1884, when the new
dock with its associated
wharves on The Haven were constructed. It continued as a working port, exporting grain, fertiliser, and importing timber, although much of the fishing trade was moved out in the interwar period. At the beginning of the
First World War, a number of the town's trawlermen, together with some from
Grimsby, were taken prisoner after their ships were sunk by German raiders in the North Sea. Their families did not know what had happened to them until late September 1914. The men were taken to
Sennelager camp, then on to
Ruhleben POW camp, where most remained until repatriated in 1918. A full report of their homecoming is in the
Lincolnshire Standard newspaper, January 1918. During the war the port was used by hospital ships and some 4,000 sick or wounded troops passed through Boston. The town was bombed by a
Zeppelin on 2 September 1916, injuring three adults and killing a child. The first cinema opened in 1910, and in 1913, a new town bridge was constructed. Central Park was purchased in 1919, and is now one of the focal points of the town. Electricity came to Boston during the early part of the century, and electrical
street lighting was provided from 1924.
Second World War During the
Second World War, 17 residents of the borough were killed by enemy air raids. A memorial in
Boston Cemetery commemorates them.
Recent development The Haven Bridge, which now carries the two trunk roads over the river, was opened in 1966, and a new dual carriageway, John Adams Way, was built in 1976–1978 to take traffic away from the town centre. A shopping centre, named the Pescod Centre, opened in 2004, bringing many new shops into the town. == Healthcare ==