town, Doncaster metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, north-central England, historic county of Yorkshire, England. The town derives its name from the great north British Roman routeway, Ermine Street. The earliest references to the town are found in Domesday Book (1086), and the parish church of St. Lawrence dates from the 12th century. The Washington family—from which George Washington, the first president of the United States, was probably descended—occupied Adwick Hall in the town in the 16th and 17th centuries. A former coal-mining town, Adwick is now mainly a centre of light industry. Pop. (2001) 10,507.