Editing Colchester (section)

===17th and 18th century===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = {{visible anchor|Colchester Improvement Act 1623}}
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for the payringe and mainteyninge of the Haven River and Channell runing unto the Borowgh and Towne of Colchester in the Countie of Essex, and alsoe for the paveing of the said Towne.
| year                  = 1623
| citation              = [[21 Jas. 1]]. c. ''34''
| introduced_commons    = 
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| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 29 May 1624
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
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| millbankhansard       = 
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| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = {{visible anchor|Bays Regulation (Colchester) Act 1660}}
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for the regulating of the Trade of Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay Hall, in Colchester.
| year                  = 1660
| citation              = [[12 Cha. 2]]. c. ''7''
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 13 September 1660
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
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| amends                = 
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| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}

[[File:Lucas and Lise.jpg|thumb|The place of the execution of [[Charles Lucas]] and [[George Lisle (Royalist)|George Lisle]]]]
The town saw the start of the [[Stour Valley riots]] of 1642, when the town house of [[John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield]] was attacked by a large crowd. In 1648, during the [[Second English Civil War]], a [[Cavalier|Royalist]] army led by [[George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich|Lord Goring]] entered the town. A pursuing [[Roundhead|Parliamentary]] army led by [[Thomas Fairfax]] and [[Henry Ireton]] surrounded the town for eleven and a half weeks, a period known as the [[Siege of Colchester]]. It started on 13 June. The Royalists surrendered in the late summer (on 27 August Lord Goring signed the surrender document in the Kings Head Inn) and [[Charles Lucas]] and [[George Lisle (Royalist)|George Lisle]] were executed in the grounds of [[Colchester Castle]].<ref>''The English Civil War: a military history of the three civil wars, 1642–1651'', Young, Peter and Holmes, Richard (1974) p. 290. Available here [https://books.google.com/books?id=_VsJAQAAIAAJ]</ref> A small obelisk marks the spot where they fell.

[[Daniel Defoe]] mentions in ''A tour through [[England and Wales]]'' that the town lost 5259 people<ref name=Defoe/> to the [[Great Plague of London|plague]] in 1665, ''"more in proportion than any of its neighbours, or than the city of London"''.<ref name=Defoe>Daniel Defoe, ''A tour through England and Wales'', J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, London (1959) [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe&c_id=2&cpub_id=0 Available online here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184013/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe&c_id=2&cpub_id=0 |date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> By the time he wrote this in 1722, however, he estimated its population to be around 40,000 (including "out-villages").

Between 1797 and 1815 Colchester was the HQ of the Army's Eastern District, had a garrison of up to 6,000, and played a main role in defence against a threatened French or Dutch invasion, At various times it was the base of such celebrated officers as Lord Cornwallis, Generals Sir James Craig and David Baird, and Captain William Napier. It was in a state of alarm during the invasion threat of 1803/4, a period well chronicled by the contemporary local author Jane Taylor.
<ref>(Sources—Records of Army's Eastern Command at National Archives, Kew; Julian Foynes "East Anglia against the Tricolor 1793–1815", Poppyland Press, 2016)</ref>