Bath (variously known as Achemann, Hat Bathun, Bathonea, Batha) was a place of note in Saxon times, King Edgar being crowned there in 973. It was a royal borough governed by a reeve, with a burg mote in 907. Richard I. granted the first charter in 1189, which allowed the same privileges as Winchester to the members of the merchant gild. This was confirmed by Henry III. in 1236, 1247 and 1256, by charters giving the burgesses of Bath the right to elect coroners, with freedom from arrest for the debts of others, and from the interference of sheriffs or kings’ bailiffs. Charters were granted by succeeding kings in 1312, 1322, 1341, 1382, 1399, 1414, 1432, 1447, 1466 and 1545. The existence of a corporation being assumed in the earliest royal charter, and a common seal having been used since 1249, there was no formal incorporation of Bath until the charter of 1590, 1794 and 1835. Parliamentary representation began in 1297. Various fairs were granted to Bath, to be held on the 29th of August, the 9th of August, the 30th of June to the 8th of July (called Cherry Fair), the 1st of February to the 6th of February, in 1275, 1305, 1325 and 1545 respectively. Fairs are now held on the 4th of February and on the Monday after the 9th of December. These fairs were flourishing centres of the cloth trade in the middle ages, but this industry has long departed. Bath “beaver,” however, was known throughout England, and Chaucer makes his “Wife of Bath” excel the cloth-weavers “of Ypres and of Gaunt.” The golden age of Bath began in the 18th century, and is linked with the work of the two architects Wood (both named John), of Ralph Allen, their patron, and of Richard Nash, master of the ceremonies. Previously the baths had been ill-kept, the lodging poor, the streets beset by footpads. All this was changed by the architectural scheme, including Queen Square, the Royal Crescent and the North and South Parades, which was chiefly designed by the elder Wood, and chiefly executed by his son. Instead of the booth which did duty as a gaming club and chocolate house, Nash provided the assembly rooms which figure largely in the pages of Fielding, Smollett, Burney, Dickens and their contemporaries. Anstey published his New Bath Guide to ridicule the laws of taste which “Beau” Nash dictated; but two royal visits, in 1734 and 1738, established Bath as a centre of English fashion. The weekly markets granted on Wednesday and Saturday in 1305 are still held.
See R. Warner, History and Antiquities of Bath (1801); C.E. Davis, Ancient Landmarks of Bath; The Mineral Baths of Bath (1883); Excavations of Roman Baths (1895), and The Saxon Cross (1898); Sir G. Jackson, Archives of Bath (2 vols., 1873); R.E.M. Peach, Rambles about Bath (1875), Bath Old and New (1888), Collections of Books belonging to the City (1893), &c.; H. Scarth, Aquae Solis, or Notices of Roman Bath (1864); A. Barbeau, Life and Letters at Bath in the 18th Century (from the French Une Ville d’eaux anglaise au XVIIIe siècle) (London, 1904); A.H. King, Charter of Bath Corporation.
BATH, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of Sagadahoc county, Maine, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Kennebec river, 12 m. from its mouth and 36 m. N.E. of Portland. Pop. (1890) 8723; (1900) 10,477, of whom 1759 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 9396. It is served by the Maine Central railway, by steamboat lines to Boston, and by inter-urban electric railway. The city covers an area of about 9 sq. m., and extends along the W. bank of the river for about 5 m.; the business district is only a few feet above sea-level, but most of the residences are on higher ground. The streets are well shaded, chiefly with elms. At Bath are the state military and naval orphan asylum, two homes for the aged, and a soldiers’ monument. Bath has a good harbour and its principal industry is the building of ships, both of wood and of iron and steel, several vessels of the United States navy have been built here. In 1905 three-fourths of the city’s wage-earners were employed in this industry. Bath also manufactures lumber, iron and brass goods, and has a considerable trade in ice, coal, lumber and iron and steel. First settled about 1660, Bath was a part of Georgetown until 1781, when it was incorporated as a separate town; in 1789 it was made a port of entry, and in 1847 was chartered as a city.
BATH-CHAIR, a vehicle with a folding hood, which can be used open or closed, and a glass front, mounted on three or four wheels and drawn or pushed by hand. If required to be drawn by a donkey or small pony it is then mounted on four wheels, with the usual turning arrangement. James Heath, of Bath, who flourished rather before the middle of the 18th century, was the inventor.
BATHGATE, a municipal and police burgh of Linlithgowshire, Scotland, 19 m. W. by S. of Edinburgh by the North British railway. Pop. (1901) 7549. The district is rich in limestone, coal, ironstone, shale and fireclay, all of which are worked. Silver also was once mined. The manufactures include paraffin, paper, glass, chemicals, flour and whisky, and freestone is quarried. The burgh is a considerable centre for agricultural produce. Bathgate became a burgh of barony in 1824 and a police burgh in 1865. Although it was not until the development of its mineral wealth that it attained to commercial importance, it is a place of some antiquity, and formed the dowry of Marjory, Robert Bruce’s daughter, who married Walter, the hereditary steward of Scotland, in 1315.