Æ farthing, undated. Diameter 15.5mm.  * IOHN· SHOTTER around; in centre, the grocers' arms.  R. * IN· MEDHVRST around, I·S in centre.  BW 137; Norweb 5240. Mediocre.  *US customers please note that this is strict British grading.

Midhurst developed as a village in Roman times because it was at the junction of the River Rother and the crossing of what are now the A272 (east-west) and A286 (north-south) routes across the county.  After the Norman conquest, Robert de Montgomery ordered the building of a motte-and-bailey castle on what is now called St Ann's Hill, a strategic bluff on a curve of the River Rother, overlooking the cross-roads and a long stretch of Rother Valley to the north, east and the west, protecting the River Rother crossing. St Ann's Hill may also have been the site of an Iron Age fort.
The principal reason of growth for the town was its regular market, where the principal local products of the local industries - wool, cloth and leather, were sold along with the products of related trades such as weaving, whitening, quilt-making and cobbling were sold.
In 1672 the wealthy local coverlet maker, Gilbert Hannan, founded a grammar school for twelve poor boys.  It was at this school that H G Wells was a pupil in 1882, and later a pupil teacher.
In the 1770s Charles James Fox was Member of Parliament for the Town.
Its population in 1821 was 1,335. In 1831 there were only 41 eligible voters and Midhurst was considered a rotten borough. So, with the Reform Act of 1832 Midhurst was reduced to one Member of Parliament and the constituency was expanded to include most of the surrounding villages. 
In 2011 it had 4,914 inhabitants. In 2002, ‘Country Life’ magazine rated Midhurst the second best place to live in Britain, after Alnwick.