Halifax, a. town, a municipal, parliamentary, and county borough, and a parish in the W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the Calder and Hebble navigation, and on theL. & Y.K., 7 miles SW by S of Bradford, and 16J SW by W of Leeds, and has railway communication with all parts of the kingdom. It cannot boast of great antiquity; it does not figure • in Domesday book; nor is it mentioned by name in any record earlier than one which mentions the grant of its church, probably in the early part of the 12th century, by Earl Warren, the lord of the manor, to the priory of Lewes, though somelocal antiquaries are of opinion that it is mentioned underthe name of Feazley or Fezley, and give probable reasons for their opinion. That church is said to have occupied the siteof an ancient hermitage—to have been dedicated to Sfc John the Baptist, "the father of hermits"—to have possessed asa. sacred relic the alleged true face of St John; to have attracted great numbers of pilgrims from all quarters, and to have been approached by four ways, which afterwards formed the main town thoroughfares, concentrating at the parish church ; and it is supposed to have given rise to the name Halifax, either in the sense of "holy face," with reference to the face of" John, or in the sense of "holyways," with reference to the four roads, the word "fax" being the old Norman-French for " highways."