town, Medway unitary authority, historic county of Kent, England, on the River Medway, east of London. In ancient times it was the site of a walled Roman-British town (Durobrivae), situated where the Roman road from the English Channel ports to London crossed the River Medway at the head of its estuary.

The medieval city grew around its cathedral. The Church of St. Andrew was founded in 604 by King Aethelberht I, who made Rochester an episcopal see. It was a royal borough in the time of William the Conqueror (1066–87), and its citizens acquired important privileges from Henry III (1216–72), which were confirmed by later kings. It is now a city by special letters patent.

The cathedral church has a Norman west front (1125–30) and later Gothic work. The remains of a Norman castle, chiefly a massive keep, overlook the river crossing, and there are remains of a 13th-century city wall. Other notable buildings include the Guildhall (1687), almshouses (1579), and the Elizabethan mansion that houses the museum. At Borstal, southwest of Rochester, early experiments on the educational treatment of delinquent youths were carried out, from which derives the modern British Borstal system for treatment of young offenders.

The Medway is navigable to Rochester Bridge for vessels drawing 26 feet (8 metres). Since the 1850s considerable industrial development has taken place, notably in engineering and the manufacture of cement and paper. The city is situated on the railway line that runs from London to Canterbury and Dover. Pop. (2001) 27,125.

Rochester's economy is based on health care, high-technology industries, and agriculture. The famed Mayo Clinic, which is actually a combination of hospitals, clinics, and research and education facilities, is by far the largest employer. Primary agricultural products are corn (maize), soybeans, peas, livestock, and dairy products; food processing is also important. Manufactures include computers and computer equipment, automotive parts, and electrical equipment. Minnesota Bible College (1913), now called Crossroads College, moved to Rochester from Minneapolis in 1971. A community and technical college was founded in Rochester in 1915. University Center Rochester is a joint effort of the community college, Winona State University, and the University of Minnesota (Minnesota, University of). The Mayo Clinic, which has a fine collection of art, can be toured. Also open to the public are Mayowood, the Mayo family country estate, and Plummer House (1917–24), the home of Mayo Clinic partner Henry Plummer. Carley and Whitewater state parks are nearby. Inc. 1858. Pop. (1990) city, 70,745; Rochester MSA, 106,470; (2000) city, 85,806; Rochester MSA, 124,277.

city, Strafford county, southeastern New Hampshire, U.S., on the Cocheco and Salmon Falls rivers, just northwest of Dover. Named for Lawrence Hyde, 1st earl of Rochester (Rochester, Lawrence Hyde, 1st earl of), it was incorporated as a town (township) in 1722, but no settlement was made until 1728. Chartered as a city in 1891, it now embraces Gonic and East Rochester. Early settlers were lumbermen, traders, and hunters. After fires destroyed local timberlands (1761–62), the people turned to farming. The arrival of the railroads in the late 1840s gave impetus to industrialization. Manufactures today include electrical and computer components, paper products, shoes, fabricated metal items, and electrical machinery. The Rochester (agricultural) Fair has been held annually since 1875, and poultry farming and the raising of dairy cattle and horses are basic economic activities. Pop. (1990) city, 26,630; Portsmouth-Rochester PMSA, 223,271; (2000) city, 28,461; Portsmouth-Rochester PMSA, 240,698.

industrial city, seat (1821) of Monroe county, northwestern New York, U.S. It is a St. Lawrence Seaway (Saint Lawrence River and Seaway) port on the Genesee River at its outlet into Lake Ontario (Ontario, Lake), 71 miles (114 km) east-northeast of Buffalo. It is the centre of a metropolitan area that includes Greece, Irondequoit, Perinton, Henrietta, and Brighton (the largest towns 【townships】); these, together with Gates, Chili, Pittsford, Penfield, and Webster, are mainly residential, although some have industrial parks.

Settlement was made in 1789 at the falls of the Genesee, which powered a grist-mill built by Ebenezer Allen on a 100-acre (40-hectare) tract granted on condition that he would serve the needs of the Seneca Indians. The venture was a failure, and Allen's land was sold to Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, Colonel William Fitzhugh, and Major Charles Carroll (all from Maryland). Rochester offered lots for sale in 1811, and in 1817 the village was incorporated as Rochesterville (shortened in 1822); it was incorporated as a city in 1834. The Erie Canal (1825) and the city's abundant waterpower and railway linkages (1839) made it, by the 1850s, one of the early boom towns of the “West” (population 10,000) with a prosperous flour-milling industry based on the wheat production of the Genesee River valley. The clothing and shoe industries, initiated in the 1860s, were stimulated by demands of the American Civil War, and mass production methods were rapidly developed. After its flour millers moved west to Minnesota, the city turned to nursery enterprises and became a pioneer in the mail-order sale of seeds and shrubs.

During the 1890s, industrialists such as George Eastman (Eastman, George), John Jacob Bausch, and Henry Lomb developed photographic, optical, and precision equipment. Photocopy machines and other products including auto parts, machine tools, electrical equipment, clothing, plastics, and processed foods now augment the economy. Rochester is also the processing, distribution, and shipping point for the surrounding fertile truck- and fruit-farming belt. In 1916 the city was extended in a strip along both banks of the Genesee to Lake Ontario, and in 1931 the port of Rochester was developed to handle Great Lakes and ocean shipping.

The city was the home of Margaret and Kate Fox, spiritualists who attracted world attention in the 1840s with a series of seances known as the Rochester rappings. In 1847 Frederick Douglass (Douglass, Frederick), the black abolitionist, published his antislavery paper (North Star) there. Rochester was also a terminus for the Underground Railroad (escape route for runaway slaves). Susan B. Anthony (Anthony, Susan B.), the early woman suffragist, lived there from 1866 to 1906; her house is preserved, and she is buried in the city's Mount Hope Cemetery.

The city is the seat of the University of Rochester (Rochester, University of) (founded in 1850, which includes the Eastman School of Music), the Rochester Institute of Technology (1829), and Roberts Wesleyan (1866), Nazareth (1924), and St. John Fisher (1948) colleges. The Monroe Community College of the State University of New York (New York, State University of (SUNY)) system was founded in 1961. The Colgate-Rochester Divinity School was founded in 1850 as the Rochester Theological Seminary. Cultural institutions include a symphony orchestra, an art gallery (University of Rochester), a planetarium, and the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. The city's parks, including Highland, Maplewood, and Genesee Valley, are noted for horticultural displays, and the Lilac Festival is a well-known annual (May) event. Pop. (1990) city, 231,636; Rochester MSA, 1,062,470; (2000) city, 219,773; Rochester MSA, 1,098,201.