Lancaster Then and Now Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sometime around 80 CE a market town grew up around a Roman fort.

The town was not originally called Lancaster. The Celts had called the local river "Lune" (clean); the Saxons called groups of Roman buildings a "ceaster," and renamed the Roman fort "Lune Ceaster". Lune Caster became Loncastre (in the Domesday Book) and then Lancaster.

Answer: a prison

This was, of course, long before charters gave townspeople any part of self-governance. The 1193 charter gave the townspeople the right to hold a weekly market, and permission to hold a "fair" (a big market drawing merchants and customers from a distance) annually. Lancaster University was not established until 1964!

Answer: In 1357 the town's name was changed to Leonardstown, and changed back only in 1444 just before the War of the Roses.

I made up "Leonardstown" for this quiz, and am unaware of any real-life version. However, in 1357 a leper hostel was founded and dedicated to St Leonard. Lancaster's district "St. Leonard's Gate" is the 21st century version.

Answer: King James personally participated in two of the trials.

Twenty people were accused and ten were found guilty and hanged. Of the others, one died in prison and eight were acquitted. The remaining one was found guilty, but was sentenced to no more than a time in the stocks.

Answer: Being on the West coast, its trade benefited from the colonies in the West Indies and America.

Lancaster was the fourth busiest port in the slave trade. Sugar importing and the sugar processing industry were even more important contributors to Lancaster's economy. And it was a center for importing mahogany and making furniture. However, when the river silted up, it lost its position as a major port and Heysham became the primary port in the area.

Answer: brewing ale and packing meats

In the late 20th and the early 21st century, Lancaster's economy has emphasized service industries.

Answer: Preparing to sail with an army to retake the American colonies, Charles III was persuaded not to proceed only when he reached Lancaster.

The first Duke of Lancaster was John of Gaunt. The 15th century War of the Roses determined how royal Lancaster was to be. The Royal Duchies of Lancaster and York conducted a civil war over their rival claims to the throne. The war's name comes from the emblems of the two Duchies: the white rose was the emblem of the House of York and the red rose was the emblem for the House of Lancaster.

Answer: 19th century Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote "In Memoriam" in Lancaster.

I must admit I am irrationally amused by the thought of the founder of the completely peaceful Quakers as an ex-convict. Of course, Fox was in prison only for his religious beliefs and not for any violent crime.

Answer: "Lancaster Boys," the 1990s third-best-selling Aussie band, were named for their home town in New South Wales.

With a quick Google search, I found 23 towns named Lancaster or New Lancaster in the United States alone, and a more careful search would probably have found more.

Answer: Lancaster was capital of Massachusetts as State for 27 months before Boston became the capital of Massachusetts as Commonwealth.

Lancaster is sometimes called the "mothertown" of central Massachusetts. The incorporated town was originally huge, and many towns--a partial list includes Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, and Harvard--were once part of Lancaster. John Chapman ("Johnny Appleseed") is considered to hail from Leominster, but that too was a town that had split off from Lancaster.

Lancaster's most important building is the First Church of Christ Unitarian, the fifth church building for that congregation that started with Reverend Rowlandson's church, burned during the same famous raid that kidnapped the Reverend's wife Mary. The church is locally known as the "Bulfinch Church," since its architect was the same Charles Bulfinch whose work included Faneuil Hall and the U. S. Capital Building.