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The Book-Lover's Library
Edited by
Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A.
THE LITERATURE
LOCAL INSTITUTIONS
BY
GEO. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.
Joo
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW
1886
dio de's,
PREFACE.
The interest of this little work to book-lovers
will, I hope, be twofold. At a time when local
muniments are being examined and edited, and
at last preserved froin the wholesale destruction
of past years; and when the Bill in the present
session of Parliament for the enfranchisement of
Copyholds provides by one of its clauses that the
whole of the most important class of historical
documents in this kingdom, namely, the manor
rolls, shall be delivered up to the world of
letters, it is time for the book-lover to take stock
of what has been already accomplished towards
printing these and other records.
A further result of this little work is that
the book-lover is able to place at the disposal
of thinking men some idea of the extent of
the literature of local institutions; and, by indi-
cating how important that literature is, to urge
that it should not be neglected now that current
2
7 7
1 3-
2-
0
Preface.
:
thought is so much occupied with the question
of reform in local government.
Local institutions have been the subject of
study with me for many years, and I had hoped
ere this to have published a long-projected
volume dealing with their early history in this
country; but my many avocations, official and
private, have prevented this cherished idea ever
being completed. The materials' collected for
this undertaking, however, are of great value;
and the books which have from time to time
been consulted, form a branch of literature
which is now being fully recognised as perhaps
the only source of information on the social
manners and customs of the people in the past.
Nothing had ever been done to bring this litera-
ture together until, in 1882, in the BIBLIO-
GRAPHER, I gave some instalments of the
subject. The interest excited by these papers
encouraged me to proceed in collecting and de-
scribing books on the literature of local institu-
tions, and the present volume is the result of
these labours.
It is useless to hope that my collection of titles
Preface.
vii
is absolutely coinplete--so many books of this class
have been privately printed, or else printed for
purely local purposes, and have hence not found
their way into the general market. The British
Museum is notoriously deficient in this branch
of literature. I have in nearly all cases con-
sulted and used each work referred to. To
many of the titles I have given special biblio-
graphical information. Where such information
is not given, it is generally because no practical
good would come of such information. In
some instances I am indebted to kind friends
for references to out-of-the-way works, and I
must particularly mention, at the risk of being
invidious, Mr. 7. Newman, Mr. W. Macmath,
Mr. R. B. Prosser, Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith,
and the late Professor Stanley Jevons and Mr.
Cornelius Walford. My visits to the libraries
of the two last-mentioned scholars and book-
lovers will not be easily forgotten; and it was
this subject which first took one thither.
Of the faults, both of commission and omis-
sion, in this book, I trust a kindly view may
be taken ; and for any information helping
viii
Preface,
me to fill up gaps, or correct errors, I shall be
deeply thankful. Even as I go to the press, too
late for insertion in their proper places, two very
interesting additions may be made to the litera-
ture of local institutions, namely, a translation
of Gneist's great work, which is mentioned on
page 13, and Miss Toulmin Smith's edition of
Lady Caroline Kerrison's Commonplace Book of
the 15th century.
Barnes, S.W.
THE LITERATURE OF LOCAL
INSTITUTIONS.
INTRODUCTION.
ENGLISHMEN of the nineteenth century are
just as active in the "making of England"
as their ancestors were in the early period to
which the title of Mr. Green's famous book
refers. And it must ever be so : the means
and process differ as the ages differ ; but it
must be a question of making England
until that period arrives when the down-
ward progress commences. Closely con-
nected with this continuity of development
are the powers and privileges of local
government. When the Saxon conquerors
of Britain carved out the boundaries of our
modern shires by their ethnic settlements;
when they settled down in their several
village communities, they were solving in
their own fashion - the only one then
The Literature of
possible—the future of local government
in England. Shire- and hundred- and
township-government went on developing
under native Saxon rule, until the progress
of political events declared the necessity for
strong central government. The up-growth
of Saxon kingship and sovereignty was
the result of this inevitable and inexor-
able necessity; but Saxon kingship and
sovereignty, even aided by the Roman in-
fluences still extant, could not answer all
needs. The time came when the exigencies
of the constantly pressing events demanded
the surrender of much of the powers of
local government to the central govern-
ment. And the Norman conquest marks.
very strongly the age of this surrender.
I do not think it is too much to affirm
that the central authority has been built
up by taking to itself, one by one, or bit
by bit, all the powers which originally
belonged to local authorities. The process
has been a long one, and very insidious ;
and it has been greatly aided by the
uniform persistence of one of the most
Local Institutions. 3
remarkable of legal fictions. All English,
and indeed all European, jurists have
ever had before them the splendid legal
system of Rome ; the lawyer's education
begins with the study of Roman law, and
he has never had any professional occasion
to consult the barbarian codes which mark
the true beginnings of English law. All
legal history, in point of fact, lay outside
his knowledge or requirements, and hence
all legal theory has been developed from
the finished system of a civilised code of
law. When, therefore, the analytical
jurist came to consider the momentous.
question of the origin of law, he could
only see before him the central sovereign
power which lent its sanction to the
carrying out of the behests of the law, and
he very easily identified law with the
coercive force of the sovereign power. The
terminology of this definition is, of course,
borrowed from the modern authority of
John Austin, but the maxim it represents is
to be found throughout the legal authori-
ties of the middle ages, and has lain at the
B2
4
The Literature of
root of all legislation. It was the grand
fiction which the Norman lawyers worked
upon, and to which Norman power owes
more than half its enormous sway. When
William the Norman came to these shores
he found strong local centres of power,
already tending to decay, it is true, but
still strong. He did not sweep away these
local centres, but he gave them charters
and taught them to believe that the
sovereign was the source of all their legal
authority. The peace of the land became
the "king's peace”: The law became
" king's law”. Justice became “king's.
justice". The courts became “king's
courts”, and the judges who sat there be-
came the servants of the crown in theory,
if not in fact. All the local jurisdictions
leaned towards the central powers. · Lords
of manors, with the old rights of “sac and
soc”, surrendered their lands and had them
regranted, or they forfeited them and thus
allowed them to become the actual regrant
of the sovereign to faithful adherents and
followers.
Local Institutions. · 5
This, stated shortly, is the process which
has been going on in England since the
Norman conquest, and it has witnessed
the total surrender of all legal rights to the
central authority, the final stage being
marked, perhaps, by the transfer in 1877 of
local prisons to the authority of the Central
Home Department.
It is not a little curious to the student,
knowing this to have been the true course
of events in the history of local institutions,
to observe how ministers and political re-
formers, of all sides and all shades of
opinion, appear before the public to advo-
cate the conferring by Parliament of the
blessings of local government upon the
English people. To read some of the
speeches of the foremost politicians in
England, it would seem as if, from their
own sense of what was required for the
government of a country, they had wisely
decided that, at last, local institutions
should be founded. And yet what a
mockery such a proposition is.' Nearly all
that is now being urged as appertaining to
.
6
The Literature of
the privileges of a newly created system of
local government—local option, land allot-
ments, county boards, and other important
subjects-has always belonged to the old
local institutions, and has never been taken
away from them by any legal or constitu-
tional enactment. The insidious legal
doctrines already spoken of have, however,
done the work of the ruthless destroyer
most effectually; and when the Municipal
Reform Act of 1835 was passed amid ac-
clamation as a distinctly popular measure,
people did not know that its very first
clause was, perhaps, the only parliamentary
enactment which cut at the root of the
very municipal institutions which later on
were to be advocated so forcibly. This
clause is as follows :
“Whereas divers Bodies Corporate at sundry
Times have been constituted within the Cities,
Towns and Boroughs of England and Wales, to
the intent that the same might for ever be and
remain well and quietly governed ; and it is ex-
pedient that the Charters by which the said
Bodies Corporate are constituted should be
altered in the manner hereinafter mentioned';
be it therefore enacted by the King's most Ex-
Local Institutions.
cellent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent of the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament
assembled, and by the Authority of the same,
That so much of all Laws, Statutes and Usages,
and so much of all Royal and other Charters,
Grants and Letters Patent now in force relating
to the several Boroughs named in the Schedules
(A) and (B) to this Act annexed, or to the Inha-
bitants thereof, or to the several Bodies or
reputed Bodies Corporate named in the said
Schedules, or any of them, as are inconsistent
with or contrary to the Provisions of this Act,
shall be and the same are hereby repealed and
annulled."
If this enactment does not actually abro-
gate all old municipal rights, and that I
suppose is open to legal argument upon
the question as to what is inconsistent with
the act, it does so virtually, because it has
taught municipalities to look to Parliament
for all their powers. And yet, if they were
to look beyond their charters and their
Acts of Parliament, they would find that of
old such rights as local option, and much
more than we now include under that
term, had a place in their rights and privi-
leges, as may be seen from the records of
The Literature of
such towns as Dundee, Sandwich, Not-
tingham, Chesterfield, 4 and even London
herself ; they would find that at one time
in our history municipal boroughs ap-
peared as land-owning communities, where
every freeman had his right to a share in
municipal lands, where the community
could resume the ownership of the land
upon the death of a present owner, and
where the community had almost absolute
power over a great deal of the real property
in its area ;5 they would find, in short, in
the history of local institutions, that most
of the powers now proposed to be conferred
as a blessing at the hands of this or that
political party, already exist, but have been
lying dormant and unused as portions of a
social system which has become obsolete.
If, therefore, the history of local institu-
1 Cf. Maxwell's History of Old Dundee.
3 Cf. Boys's History of Sandwich.
3 Nottingham Borough Records.
4 Chesterfield Borough Records and Mr. Yeatman's
Introduction.
5 Some of the details of this I have set out in
Archeologia, vol. xlvi, pp.403-422; in Antiquary, vol.
ix, pp. 157-162.
Local Institutions.
9
tions point to such interesting facts as these
-facts which may guide modern politics in
its course is it well to ignore it so persis-,
tently? or at all events is it not a mere
matter of ordinary wisdom that we should
make ourselves acquainted with it before
trying our 'prentice hand upon a machinery
so delicate as national institutions ? In
answer to these very obvious questions
arising only from this necessarily very short
survey of the subject, the following notes
have been put together. They are practi-
cally the working materials by which I
have studied the subject for many years past
—the skeleton, which I hope one day may
be clothed in such a manner as to bring
before us a true picture of the past, but which
in the meantime may help to serve the
purpose of those who take an intelligent
view of the object and aims of future legis-
lation. In addition to this primary object,
there is the feeling that the notice of these
books, old and new, may form a not unin-
teresting fragment of a book-lover's library.
All of them have had human hands at work
TY
ΙΟ
The Literature of
upon them, most of them have occupied
the attention of some of our best thinkers,
many of them are the product of good
sound scholars and bookmen, who turned
their attention to such a concrete subject
because they knew, as we ought to know,
that to think properly and wisely of the
future we ought to know of the past. And
there is much, very much, of human inte-
rest in this subject. Municipal and town
records tell of men as well as of institutions;
and occasionally these men who took active
parts in the government of their native
places are of such universal interest as John
Shakespeare (the father of our poet), who
successively filled the posts of ale-taster,
assessor, burgess, constable, chamberlain,
alderman, and high sheriff at Stratford-
upon-Avon. Many of the municipal officers
of London became the founders of great
and distinguished county families — an
interesting fact, which has scarcely received
the attention it deserves. And when we
1 Pennant touches upon this subject in his Tour
through London; and Defoe, in his Tour through
England, draws special attention to it.
Local Institutions.
II
add to these phases of our subject that the
church formed the centre of local life,
that the holidays were holy days, that
all festivals were church festivals, that
the overseers and churchwardens are one of
the bodies corporate who administer parish
matters, and that the registers, account
books, etc., of these bodies are our chief and
sometimes only means of obtaining infor-
mation on the most important and interest-
ing phases of family and social history in
the past, it will be admitted that the sub-
ject has far wider interest than at first sight
would appear. Before the days of "Regis-
trars-General," parish registers existed, and
, everyone knows how universally these have
been recognised as documents of the greatest
value. Almost all the secular usefulness of
the church has now departed, but it is still
a question whether Englishmen will allow
that institution to drop out of the sphere
of local government without a struggle to
make it again an instrument for good in the
daily life of the people. By spiritualising it
overmuch we have lost its grand secular in-
12 . Local Institutions.
fluences for good ; but the English village,
or town, or city, is still crowned by the
church edifice to make it complete in pic-
turesque outline; and if we knew all about
old English village life, old English local
government, we should yet make it the
centre and head of local life in the future.
I must guard myself against the supposi-
to give an exhaustive account of the litera-
ture of local institutions. They aim only
at pointing out how extensive that litera-
ture is; what are the best guides to learn
the history of any particular section of the
subject; and to urge, in the strongest possible
terms, that it is not well to cast all this
literature on one side as useles's for future
guidance.
s
AVON
om
VIAU
.
S
.
.
.
.
.
11
.
-
.
.
1
I.--LOCAL INSTITUTIONS GENERALLY.
SOME important books have appeared upon
the local institutions of England taken
as a whole, and so important has the sub-
ject been to foreign students, that it is a
curious fact that the best account is written
by a foreigner, and remains still in its
foreign language, viz.: Gneist's Geschichte
und heutige Gestalt der englischen Com-
munalverfassung. Professor Kovolefsky,
of Moscow, has been investigating the
subject recently, and he expressed his great
surprise to me that so little attention was
paid to it by Englishmen. The result of
his labours may, it is hoped, soon see the
light, and there may be some chance, per-
haps, of putting it into an English dress.
But by far the most interesting studies are
those which have lately been engaging the
attention of American students. The Johns
Hopkins University has instituted a series
Local Institutions
of studies on historical and political science,
under the able editorship of Mr. Herbert
B. Adams. In this series have been inves-
tigated the local institutions of Virginia
and Maryland ; dealing with the land
system, the hundred, the parish, the county,
and the town. From these two very im-
portant books are to be gained some most
instructive lessons as to the application of
the principles of the local institutions of
England in the seventeenth century to an
entirely new country and settlement; and
it is greatly to be hoped that the university
authorities, more alive to the requirements
of the age than the authorities in England,
will pursue these studies, until they have
exhausted the rich and varied evidence
which must be forthcoming.
The following are the principal works on
the general history and principles of local
government in England. I have not in-
cluded the many treatises on government
in general, nor those on political economy,
though, of course, in both these studies the
question of the relationship of the central
Generally.
15
to local authorities is discussed. Mr. Mill's
Representative Government (1861, 8vo)
should be particularly consulted. Still
there is not much to be said when one has
digested all that is contained in the books
specially devoted to the subject.
The archæological interest of the subject
may be gathered from the following :
Smith (Sir Thomas), The Commonwealth of
England, and the manner and Government
thereof, with new additions of the chiefe
courts in England, and the offices thereof.
London, printed by Will. Stansby for J.
Smethwicke, and are to be sold at his shop
in Saint Dunstanes Church-Yard. 1633.
12mo, 5 leaves, pp. 285.
This was first published in 1583, and many
editions followed. The chapters relating to
Local Government are as follows: Of the
parts of Shires called Hundreds, Lathes,
Rapes and Wapentakes, of the Court Baron,
of the Leet or Law day, of the proceedings of
causes criminall and first of the Justices of
Peace, of Hue and Cry and Recognisance
taken upon them that may give evidence, of
the Coroners, of the Constables.
Officers : In this Boke is conteyned ye office of
Shyriffes, Baylyffes of Lybertyes, Escheatours,
Constables and Coroners, and shewethe what
16
Local Institutions
everye one of them may do by vertue of theyr
offyces drawen out of bokes of the comen
lawe of the statutes. Black letter, no date..
12mo, pp. 154 (not numbered)..
Freeman (E. A.), Comparative Politics. Lon-
don, 1873. Svo, pp. ix, 522.
Gomme (George Laurence), Primitive Folk-
Moots ; or, Open-air Assemblies in Britain.
London, 1880. Svo, pp. xi, 316. [An historical
treatise on the earliest forms of local assem-
blies.]
On the history and development of local
government the following are works of im-
portance :-
Chalmers (M.D.) Local Government (The Eng-
lish Citizen : his rights and responsibilities).
London, 1883. 8vo, pp. viii, 160.
Contents :- Cap. i. Introductory. ii. Gene-
ral View. iji. The Parish. iv. The Union.
v. The Municipal Borough. vi. The County.
vii. The Sanitary District. viii. The School
District. ix. The Highway Area. X. The
Metropolis. xi. General Control.
Cobden Club Essays : Local Government and
Taxation. Edited by J. W. Probyn. London,
1875. 8vo, pp. 454.
Contents : -- Local Government in Eng-
land, by Hon. George C. Brodrick.- Local
Generally.
17
Government and Taxation in Scotland, by
Alexander M‘Neel-Caird. --- Local Govern-
ment and Taxation in Ireland, by W. Neilson
Hancock.--Local Government and Taxation
in the Australian Colonies and New Zealand,
by Sir C. Dilke, Thomas Webb Ware and W.
H. Archer.-The Provincial and Communal
Institutions of Belgium and Holland, by Emile
de Laveleye.—Local Government in France,
by le Comte de Franqueville.—Local Govern-
ment and Taxation in Russia, by Ashton
Wentworth Dilke.- Local Government and
Taxation in Spain, by Señor Moret y Pren-
dergast.—Local Government considered in its
Historical Development in Germany and
England, with special reference to Řecent
Legislation on the subject in Prussia, by R.
B. D. Morier.
Cobden Club Essays : Local Government and
Taxation in the United Kingdom. Edited
by J. W. Probyn. London, 1882. 8vo, pp. vi,
520.
Contents:--Local Government in England,
by the Hon. George C. Brodrick.-County
Boards, by C. T. D. Acland.— The Areas of
Rural Government, by Lord Edmond Fitz-
Maurice.--London Government, and how to
Reform it, by J. F. B. Firth.-Municipal
Boroughs and Urban Districts, by J. Thack-
ray Bunce.---Local Government and Taxation
in Ireland, by Richard O'Shaughnessy.-
Local Government and Taxation in Scotland,
18
Local Institutions
by William Macdonald.—Local Taxation in
England and Wales, by J. Roland Phillips.
Gneist (Dr. Rudolf), Geschichte und heutige
Gestalt der Englischen Communalverfassung
oder des Self-Government. Berlin, 1863. 2
vols. 8vo, pp. xxi, 682 ; 683-1398, and index
31 pp. [A valuable contribution to the his-
tory and statistics of local self-government in
England.)
Contents : - Historical Development of
the English Local Constitution.-Present Lo-
cal Constitution in England and Wales :
Jurisdiction and Officers, Local Taxation,
Civil Jurisdiction of the County, Criminal
and Police Constitution of the County, Muni-
cipal Constitution, Military, Parochial, Poor
Law, Sanitary, Bridges and Highways, Law
of Corporations.—Theory of Self-Govern-
ment.
Smith (J. Toulmin), Local Self-Government and
Centralisation : the characteristics of each,
and its practical tendencies as affecting social,
moral, and political welfare and progress, in-
cluding comprehensive outlines of the Eng-
lish Constitution. London, 1851. 8vo, pp.
vi, 409.
-- Local Self-Government Unmystified:
a vindication of common sense, human na.
ture, and practical improvements against the
Manifesto of Centralism put forth at the
Social Science Association, 1857. Second
edition. London, 1857. 8vo, pp iv, 128.
Generally.
19
On matters of statistics and modern facts
the most important works are :-
Goschen (George J.), Reports and Speeches on
Local Government and Taxation. London,
1872. 8vo, pp. vi, 218.
Local Government Board, Reports of the Pre-
sented to both Houses of Parliament by
command of Her Majesty. London, 1872-
85. 14 vols., 8vo.
Local Taxation Returns [pursuant to Act 23 and
24 Vict., C. 51). Twenty parts, folio. House
of Commons, 1862-81.
Local Taxes of the United Kingdom, contain-
ing a Digest of the Law, with a summary of
statistical information concerning the several
Local Taxes in England, Scotland, and Ire-
land. Published under the direction of the
Poor - Law Commissioners. London, 1846
pp. vi, 278
Rathbone (Wm.) and Sam. Whitbread, Local
Government : Memorandum No. 1, General
View; Memorandum No. 2, Law, with Refer-
ences. (Privately printed, 1877.) Two parts
folio, pp. 42; 75. [These contain exceedingly
valuable information, both of reference and
of facts, which is arranged analytically under
the following heads : (1) Existing Units of
Local Government; (2) Matters which are
Locally Administered; (3) Local Taxation
and Indebtedness.]
C2 :
2012
II.—THE SHIRE.
As long as we can historically speak of
the old English “shire” we can think of
the old independence of government within
the shire. But when we have to speak of
the "county' we find that local govern-
ment is almost dead, replaced as it is by
local autocracy. This was one of the chief
works of the Norman conquest. A gather-
ing of the shire gemote, such as that on
Pennenden Heath, which met to do right
between Lanfranc and Odo, could not be
tolerated under the sovereignty of the
Angevin kings, and representation had to
give way to nomination. But the shire
organisation has never entirely dropped out
of our constitutional system. It has been
made one of the chief instruments of ad-
ministering justice, and in an extremely
altered form has brought down to modern
days some of its old traditional features.
The Shire. : 21
Now that modern legislation is to step in
and have its say on future shire govern-
ment, why is it not possible to revert to
the old names as well as to old forms? The
future shire government will be representa-
tive and elective ; and as in old days it was
representative and elective, there seems no
reason why we should not go back to the
names of old days, and speak of the “shire-
mootand not of the "county board."
The principal authorities on the history
of the shire are Mr. Kemble, in his Saxons
in England (vol. i, pp. 72-87), and Pro-
fessor Stubbs, in his Constitutional His-
tory of England (vol. i, pp. 108-118). Sir
Francis Palgrave, too, has much to say
in his History of the Rise and Progress of
the English Commonwealth (London, 1832);
but it is scattered throughout his unin-
dexed quarto volumes, and is not easily
available. The Censụs Report of 1851 (vol.
i) contains an exceedingly valuable intro-
duction on the “Ancient Kingdoms and
Provinces in England, Wales, and Scot-
land" (pp. lvi-lxxxii), from which we gain
22
Local Institutions.
.
some idea of the permanence of the bound-
aries during the period which has elapsed
since the Anglo-Saxon settlements. The
shires are evidently based upon the old

Beda. :
Asser.
Saxon Chronicle Saxon Chronicles
belore Alfred. | after Alfred.
Norfranhymbra
land
Sufanhymbra
land
Regio Loidis,
or Elmet
Eorforwicscir
Lincoln Lindisware and Lindicolnascir
Lindisse
Eastengle
East Engle
Essex Eastseaxan Eastseaxe
Kent Cantwara land
Cent
[Merscware, the
people of Rom-
ney Marsh)
Sussex Su seaxan SuS sease
Surrey Sufrige Sufrige
Regio
Sudergeona | Berkshire
Bearrucscir
Provincia S'ampton [Wiht (Isle of 1 Hamtunscir
Meanwarorun,
Wight)]
Hundreds >
of East and
West Meon
Westseaxan
| Wilts Wilsaetan
Wiltunscir'
Dorset Dornsaetan
Somerset | Sumorsaetan
Devon
Defenascir
The Shire.
23
divisions of the country, and the following
table, compiled from the early authorities,
will be found a useful key to the origin of
our modern shires.

Simeon of
Durham.
Florence of
Worcester and
William of
Malmesbury.
Modern
Shire.
Northumberland
Durham
Westmoreland
Cumberland
Lancashire
Yorkshire
Lincolnshire
1. Eborascira.
Lincolnescira
Lincoln
Northfolc
Sudfolc
East saxe
Kent
Norfolk
Suffolk
Essex
Kent
Norfolk
Suffolk
Essex
Kent
Suthsexia
Suthrei
Sussex
Surrey
Sussex
Surrey
Berks
Berocscir
Sudhamtescir
Hants
Berks
Hants
Wilts
Wiltescir
Dorsetescire
Somersetescire
Devenascire
Wilts
Dorset
Somerset
Devon
Cornwall
Dorset
Sonierset
Devon
Cornwall
Monmouth
Continued.
24
Local Institutions.

Beda.
Asser.
Saxon Chronicle Saxon Chronicles
before Alfred. after Alfred.
Middelangli
Mercii Australes
et Aquilonales
Myrcna land
Herefordscir
Scrobbesbyrigscir
Deorabyscir
Staffordscir
Snotingahamscir
Legeceasterscir
Hwiccas
Provincia
Huicciorum ]
Regio Gyrwio-
rum
Australes Gyrwii
Wigraceasterscir
U Gleawanceasterscir
Wæringwicscir
Hamtunscir
Huntandupscir
Grantábrycgscir
Oxpafordscir
Buccingahamscir
Bedanfordscir
Heortfordscir
Middelseaxe
Middleseaxan
Without going into the interesting his-
tory which this table reveals, it may be
pointed out how clearly it confirms historical
opinion that the northern lands had no defi-
nite place in the English settlement until
late in Saxon times; that Cheshire has been
carved out of the territorium of the Roman
city of Chester; that Cornwall remained
The Shire.
.
25

Simeon of
Durham.
Florence of
Worcester and
William of
Malmesbury.
Modern
Shire.
Herefordscira
Scrobscira
Cestrescira
Derbiscira
Steadfordscira
Snotinghamscira
Leorcestrescira
Hereford
Shropshire
Cheshire
Derby
Stafford
Notts
Leicester
Hereford
Shropshire
Cheshire
Derby
Stafford
Notts
Leicester
Rutland
Worcester
Gloucester
Warwick
Northampton
Wircestrescira
Gloucestrescira
Warewicscira
Norhamtunscira
Worcester
Gloucester
Warwick
Northants
Huntedunscira
Grantebrigescira
(xenefordscira
Bukingeham-
scira ,
Bedfordscira
Hertfordscira
Midlesexa
Hunts
Cambridge
Oxford
Bucks
Huntingdon
Cambridge
Oxford
Bucks
Beds
Herts
Middlesex
Bedford
Herts
Middlesex
impenetrably Celtic; and that Rutland and
Monmouth1 have altogether a modern his-
tory as English shires.
One curious archaic feature of the shires
is well worth noting, because it undoubtedly
"The position of this county as an English shire
has been worked out in the Antiquary (1881), vol.
iv, pp. 91.96.
26
Local Institutions.
denotes very early influences, namely, iso-
lated parts of one shire being locally
situated in another. The Act, 2 and 3
Will. IV, c. 64, sets out in a schedule a
number of the portions of counties which
were once isolated, and the Act, 7 and 8
Vict., cap. 61, did away with these anom-
alies. The subject has often been discussed
by the curious, and it is a feature that be-
longs to the early history of the English
shires, and probably tells us something
of the early migration of the conquering
races.
The later history of the shire, when,
indeed, it has become the county, is very
well summarised by Mr. Brodrick in the
volume of the Cobden Club Essays.
“By successive Acts of Parliament the
management of county affairs has been mainly
vested in the county magistrates. The more
important functions of county magistrates are
performed by them collectively at quarter
sessions, under the presidency of an unpaid
chairman elected by themselves. Of their
minor functions some can be performed by a
single magistrate, others by two magistrates
sitting together at petty sessions. But the
The Shire.
27
magistrates assembled at quarter sessions
exercise a general control, by way of appeal
or revision, over the action of individual magis-
trates, or of magistrates at petty sessions, and
the standing committees of quarter sessions,
through which they conduct most of their
business, are practically so many little depart-
ments of state for the local government of
counties.
“ The criminal jurisdiction of the court of
quarter sessions extends to all offences, except
a few of the most aggravated.
"It may, therefore, be broadly stated, that
county magistrates in quarter sessions have
inherited the criminal jurisdiction, together
with much of the administrative authority,
which formerly belonged to the suitors of the
old county courts, while the county magistrates,
sitting without a jury in their several courts of
petty sessions, have to a great extent taken the
place of the popular hundred courts and courts-
Ieet. On the other hand, the civil jurisdiction
of the old county courts, having been obsolete
for many generations, was revived by an Act of
1846, not in the court of quarter sessions, but
in the new county courts, which are constituted
on a wholly different principle. These courts
are really nothing more than provincial branches
of the imperial judicature, since their judges
need have no qualification of county residence,
and they are directed to be held in circuits
which have no relation to county boundaries.
They form, therefore, no part of county govern-
28
Local Institutions.
ment, which in this respect as well as in others,
is far less complete and self-contained than it
was in Saxon times,"I
The standard works on the office of
Justice of the Peace are Richard Burn's
Fustice of the Peace, first published in 1754,
continued by W. Woodfall, 4 vols., 8vo,
1805 ; Thomas Walter Williams's Justice
of the Peace, enlarged by H. Nuttall Tom-
lins, 4 vols., 8vo, 1812 ; and J. F. Arch-
bold's Fustice of the Peace and Parish
Officer, 5th edit., 4 vols., 1824-5, 12mo.
There is a useful article, giving the
history of the office, in the Penny Cyclo-
pædia, xiii, 158-160, as well as in Knight's
English Cyclopædia, "Arts and Sciences”,
V, 33. Consult also John Clarke's Biblio-
theca Legum ; or a complete Catalogue of
the Common and Statute Law-books of the
United Kingdom, ed. 1819, 8vo. Burn's
Fustice of the Peace is arranged alpha-
betically, and many of the entries in
its earliest editions are exceedingly curious
1 Local Government and Taxation, England, Brod-
rick, pp. 32-3.
.
29
The Shire.
and instructive upon county, legal, and
social antiquities. The first edition of this
noted book belongs to that unenviable
class which enrich the publisher and bring
no gain to the author--it was sold for a
few pounds.
There is a great deal of interesting per-
sonal history connected with county govern-
ment, a very good specimen of which was
given by Mr. Edward Peacock in the Anti-
quary, 1882 (vol. v, pp. 159-160), on the
Lindsey Justices of the Peace, temp. Henry
VIII; in which article Mr. Peacock draws
attention to the importance of publishing
the important documents connected with
this subject.
All the shires have found an historian of
more or less capability, and in most of them
there exists an archæological society which
publishes from time to time volumes rela-
ing to the history and antiquities of the
district. But it is curious how very little
1 These may be ascertained very readily from Mr.
Anderson's Book of British Topography, a very valu-
able aid to the local historian.
30
Local Institutions.
work has been done towards writing the
corporate history of each county. In point
of fact, it may be said that up to this time
nothing has been attempted in this direc-
tion. Materials are now, however, rapidly
accumulating and being made accessible.
The magistrates of Middlesex have allowed
their papers to be calendared, and a Middle-
sex County Record Society has been formed
to publish these valuable papers, and so
make them available for general use. The
prospectus states-
s The county of Middlesex possesses a col-
lection of old records relating to its civil and
criminal history which, commencing in the
year 1549 (the third of Edward VI), and con-
tinuing to the present time, covers with more or
less completeness a period of 335 years. Only
in Essex and the North Riding of Yorkshire
do the records date from so early a period as
in Middlesex.
" Quite recently, the old county records (in-
cluding in that category all up to the close of
the reign of George III) have been placed in a
newly-constructed Muniment Room at the
Sessions House, Clerkenwell, and have been
arranged, labelled, and indexed by order of the
Court of Quarter Sessions. This important
The Shire.
31
work has been carried out, at a cost to the
county of more than a thousand pounds, under
the advice and supervision of Mr. Cordy
Jeaffreson, who was in the first instance deputed
by the Historical MSS. Commissioners to
examine and report upon the records; and they
are now for the first time made practically
available for investigation and use.
“The various classes of records, form a col-
lection of upwards of ten thousand volumes,
and nearly five thousand rolls or bundles, each
of which contains numerous separate docu-
ments. They may be briefly stated to include:-
"1.-A series of sessions rolls almost com-
plete, except in some of the earlier years, from
Edward VI to 1820, of which Mr. Jeaffreson
remarks:-- Something more should, however,
be said of the contents of the sessions rolls,
that comprise considerably more than half a
million separate writings, in recognisances,
indictments, and inquisitions post norte11. It
having been the usage of the clerks of the
Middlesex Justices, from the time of Elizabeth,
to put at the foot of each recognisance a brief
ferred, and of the purpose for which the obliga-
tion was created, the recognisances of the
Middlesex Sessional Archives afford a larger
measure of entertainment and historical in-
formation than one would expect to gather from
writings of their class. A considerable minority
of these footnotes yield some interestng par-
ticulars of the social manners, domestic interests,
32
Local Institutions.
political ferments, and religious agitations of
Londoners in olden time. In the fewest pos-
sible words they tell the story of a playhouse
riot, a destructive fire, the arrest of a Jesuit, a
daring burglary at Whitehall, the great plate
robbery of the year, or an outbreak of the
London apprentices. They exhibit by turns
the humour of the court and the humour of the
tavern, the pomp of a noble's palace and the
cheer of a modest home, the tricks of the pro-
fessional cardsharper and the cunning ways of
tradesmen. And these notes are the more
deserving of attention because they often refer
to matters that, either from being dealt with
summarily, or from being dropped for want of
sufficient evidence, do not reappear with greater
preciseness and amplitude in the indictments of
the subsequent bundles. From some of the
memoranda curious particulars may be gleaned
respecting robberies committed in the dwellings
of persons stricken by the great plague, and
the dread of incendiaries and makers of explo-
sive compounds that seized the Londoners
immediately after the great fire of Charles the
Second's time ; respecting the temper and ex-
cesses of the Sacheverell rioters; and respecting
the demeanour of the London Jacobites, temp.
Anne and George I. Some of the indictments
are especially worthy of examination. A care-
ful manipulator of these sources of evidence
could extort a large addition to the materials
for England's religious history, from the records
of the presentments of Catholic recusants in
The Shire.
33
the earlier decades, and the prosecutions of
the Protestant Dissenters in the later decades
of the seventeenth century. From the indict-
ments for seditious libels he would also recover
to English literature the heart and life of many
a curious tract that perished in the Stuart
man.'
"2.-Sessions books, commencing 1639, con-
taining records of sentences passed upon pri-
soners ; orders relating to the various parishes
of the county ; addresses to the sovereigns,
etc., etc., forming a series of 1,775 volumes, from
which much information of value can be
gleaned.
"3.--Process books of indictments, from 1610
to 1775, containing many interesting entries,
including the names of persons fined for not
taking the sacrament.
"4.-Oath rolls, 1660 to 1820, containing oaths
of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration; de-
clarations against transubstantiation; associa-
tions in the reign of William III ; clergy oath
rolls ; entries of the meeting places of Dis-
senters ; etc., etc.
"5.-Registers of the estates of Papists, 1675
to 1764.
“G. - Justices' certificates of convictions and
appeals for holding conventicles, 1664-1687.
Files of proceedings against Dissenters charged
with being present at religious exercises other
than those appointed by the Church of England,
'constituting a body of evidences of the highest
34
Local Institutions.
interest and importance to the historian of
Anglican Nonconformity in London.'
607.Sacramental certificates. Many thou-
sands of certificates from 1671 to 1825, con-
taining the names and autographs of very many
eminent Englishmen, and of clergy of the
London parishes.
58.-Justices' certificates of non-jurors, re-
cusants, etc., from 1673, giving the names, pro-
fessions, trades, places of abode, etc., of those
who were summoned and appeared, or failed to
appear, of those who subscribed the rolls or
refused to do so, etc.
59.--Hearth and stove tax accounts, 1664,
a complete set, 'of great importance to the
genealogist.'
v10.List of freeholders liable to serve on
juries in the various parishes and places of the
county, in fifteen folio volumes, continuous from
1696 to 1789 ; commissions of the peace, etc.,
1687 to 1785; register of the estates of justices,
1746 to 1820; etc., etc.
11.-Orders of Council concerning the plague,
1661 to 1666. This book also contains lists of
recusants, persons fined for "prophane lan-
guage,” cursing and swearing, etc.
512.-Orders of Court made at Quarter Ses-
sions, from 1716. A series full of interesting
information of the proceedings of the justices
touching the government of the county in its
various departments.
5613.-Land tax accounts. A series extend-
ing from 1767 to 1833. Most useful in pedigree
enquiries.
The Shire.
35
1614.-Miscellanea. Lists of alehouses at
various periods, the earliest being 1552 ; lists
of butchers' recognisances against selling meat
in Lent, 1631 ; books and contracts relating to
county works, e.g., bridges, prisons, the New
Sessions House, Clerkenwell, the paving of the
Haymarket, maintenance of the streets, etc.,
etc., from George I; books relating to the
Militia, 1757–1816; and many others."
The whole forming (in Mr. Jeaffreson's words)
“a body of Muniments which would enable a
zealous and competent antiquary to produce an
adequate history of the county, from Elizabeth
to Victoria."1
Again, the Justices of the North Riding
of Yorkshire have taken steps for the
better preservation of their records. With
that view they asked the help of the His-
torical MSS. Commission, and Mr. Jeaf-
freson, who has been doing like work on
the West Riding muniments, was deputed
to draw up a report on the historical worth
of the records. These documents go back
to the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and
contain much matter of local and personal
interest, especially pertaining to the Catho-
1 Cf. a paper in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1860,
part ii, p. 123.
·
D 2
Local Institutions.
lics and their estates. Other counties are
following the same line. The arrangement
of the Essex County Records, kept at
Chelmsford, has just been brought to com-
pletion (1885). A proper record room has
been provided for their preservation, and
the various series of rolls and loose docu-
ments have been classified and ticketed.
The sessions rolls commence in the reign
of Elizabeth, and form the leading class,
but the various groups of records usually
found in county collections are also well
represented. The documents relating to
recusancy are full of interest. “Inasmuch
as tradition, if not better evidence, says
that when they were in Springfield Gaol
barrowloads of these very records were used
for manure (!), it is matter for congratula-
tion that this county has any records left
to arrange.''--Athenæum.
On the general functions of county go-
vernment we have the following works, all
of which are much more than mere curious
law treatises :-
The Shire.
Boke (The) for a Justyce of Peace neuer so wel
· and dylygently set forthe. Black letter. Lon-
don: Robert Redman, n.d. 12mo, fol. 51 and
tabula.
Lambard (W.), Justice of the Peace. 1619. 4to.
Dalton (M.), Country Justice. Third edition.
1626. 4to.
Horne (Andrew), The Booke called the Mirrour
of Justices, made by Andrew Horne; with
the book calld The Diversity of Courts, and
their Jurisdictions. Both translated out of
the Old French in the English tongue by
William Hughes. London, 1646. 12mo, 14
leaves, pp. 325 and the table.
Another edition : London, 1768. 8vo.
Another edition : Manchester, 1840. 8vo, pp.
XX, 262.
Greenwood (William), The Authority, Jurisdic-
tion and Method of Keeping County Courts,
Courts-Leet, and Courts-Baron ; explaining
the judicial and ministerial authority of
Sheriffs, also the office and duty of a Coroner.
Eighth edition. [London] in the Savoy, 1722. ·
8vo, pp. ii, 486, the table.
Tustices of the Peace. Gentleman's Magazine,
1788, i, p. 315; ii, 675-6; 856-7.
Acland (Charles T. D.), County Boards. Fort-
nightly Review, 1881, vol. xxix, pp. 93-102. .
Some most important information is to be
38
Local Institutions.
gained from a parliamentary blue book
issued in 1868, with a good index, and now
very scarce, entitled,
Report from the Select Committee of the House
of Commons on County Financial Arrange-
ments.
Historically, very suggestive contribu-.
tions to the subject will be found in--
Goldsmid (Augustus), On Hungarian Political
and County Institutions, and their analogy to
our own. Journ. Arch. Ass., vol. xxviii, pp.
241-244.
Hamilton (A. H. A.), Quarter Sessions from
Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne. 1878. 8vo.
1
Special counties have been treated of in
the following works :-
Brockett (John T.), Extracts from the Minute
Book in the Clerk of Assizes Office for the
Northern Circuit, 1665 to 1675. Archæologia
Æliana, vol. iii, 4to, pp. 86-92.
General Report to the King in Council from
the Honourable Board of Commissioners on
the Public Records. Vol. xv, large folio,
1837.
Contains reports upon the following county
records : Circuits-City of London, Midland,
The Shire.
Norfolk, Northern, Oxford, the Great Ses-
sions of Wales, Brecon. Counties Palatine-
Durham, Lancashire. Clerks of the Peace-
Berkshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland,
Derby, Durham, Essex, Hereford, Lancaster,
Leicester, Lincoln, Monmouth, Northampton,
Northumberland, Nottingham, Oxford, Salop,
Stafford, Suffolk, Sussex, Warwick, Worces-
ter, Cardigan, Caermarthen, Denbigh, Gla-
morgan, Merioneth, Montgomery, Pembroke,
Radnor. County Registries — Middlesex,
Yorkshire.
Anglesey :
Breese (Edward), Kalendars of Gwynedd ; or,
Chronological Lists of the Lords-Lieutenants,
Custodes Rotulorum, Sheriffs, and Knights of
the Shire for the counties of Anglesey,
Caernarvon, and Merioneth. London, 1873.
4to.
Carmarthen:
Phillips (John Roland), A List of the Sheriffs
of Cardiganshire from A.D. 1539 to A.D. 1868,
with genealogical and historical notes. Car-
marthen, 1868. 8vo.
Cheshire :
Black (W. H.), On the Records of the County
Palatine of Chester. Fourn. Arch. Ass., vol.
V, pp. 187-195.
Jolley (John), The Head-Constable's Assistant;
or, a Mize-Book for the County-Palatine of
S
40
Local Institutionis.
Cheshire : the same being Tables ready cast
up; whereby any Township's just proportion
of any Tax charged by way of the Mize may
readily and exactly be known. London, 1726.
8vo.
' .
Yates (Joseph Brooks), The Rights and Juris-
diction of the County Palatine of Chester, the
Earls Palatine, the Chamberlain, and other
officers. Printed in the Chetham Miscellany,
vol. ii, pp. 37.
Devon:
Hamilton (A. H. A.), Justices of the Peace for
the County of Devon under Charles I and
Oliver Cromwell. Transactions of the Devon-
shire Association, vol. x, pp. 309-314.
Worth (R. N.), The Common Seals of Devon.
Transactions of the Devonshire Association,
vol. vi, pp. 79-100, 686-688 ; vol. viii, p. 269.
Lancashire:
Lancashire Lieutenancy under the Tudors and
Stuarts : the Civil and Military Government
of the County, as illustrated by a series of
Royal Letters, Orders of the Privy Council,
the Lord-Lieutenant, etc. Edited by John
Harland, F.S.A. Chetham Society, 1859.
2 vols., 4to.
Lincolnshire:
Chronological Tables of the High Sheriffs of
the County of Lincoln. London, 1779. 8vo.
The Shire.
41
Middlesex:
Hawkins (Sir J.), A Dissertation on the Armorial
Ensigns of the County of Middlesex. 1780.
Norfolk:
Vicecomites Norfolciæ; or, Sheriffs of Norfolk
from the first year of Henry the Second to.
the fourth year of Queen Victoria inclusive;
chronologically and alphabetically arranged,
with their armorial bearings. Stow Bardolph.
1843. 4to.
Northumberland:
Dickson (William), The Wards, Divisions,
Parishes, and Townships of Northumberland,
according to the ancient and modern divisions.
Alnwick, 1833. 4to.
Oxfordshire :
Davenport (J. M.), Lords-Lieutenant and High
Sheriffs of Oxfordshire, 1086-1868. Oxford,
1868. Svo.
Renfrewshire :
Hector (William), Selections from the Judicial
Records of Renfrewshire, with notes, and six
facsimiles of old documents. Paisley, 1876.
8vo.
Somersetshire :
Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts, presented to both Houses of
Parliament by command of Her Majesty.
London, 1874-1881. Folio, 8 vols.
42
Local Institutions.
Contains reports on the county records of
Somerset, iii, 333-334 ; vii, 693-701.
Wilts:
Jackson (J. E.), The Sheriff's Tourn, county
Wilts, A.D. 1439. Devizes, 1872. 8vo.
Yorkshire :
Atkinson (J. C.), Quarter Sessions Records
(vol. i, part i, of the North Riding Record
Society's publications], 1884. 8vo, pp. 160.
VS
III.—THE HUNDRED.
MR
THERE is very great obscurity as to the
origin of the territorial divisions known as
hundreds. The territorial nature of the
division meets us in the peculiar use of the
word shire. Cornwall is professedly divided
dreds of Trigg and East, for instance, be-
ing mentioned as Triconscirel and Estwy-
veleshire; and in Yorkshire we have
Borgheshire, Craveshire, Richmondshire,
Riponshire, Hallamshire, Islandshire, and
Norhamshire ; and it is not very much be-
yond historical proof that the next higher
local division to the township was originally
known as shire. Without entering, then,
' In Alfred's Will. See Stubbs's Const. Hisl., i,
» Hist. MSS. Com., vi, 524.
3 Stubbs' Const. Hist., i, 100. The term “ shrift
shire” (Wilkins's A.-S. Laws, p. 83. secs. 6, 9, 15;
Thorpe, vol. ii. pp. 245, 246) is used, not parish, to
100.
44
Local Institutions.
into the question of the connection between
the hundred of Tacitus and the hundred to
be met with in English history, we may
safely state that its place in the early his-
tory of local government was immediately
above the township, the union of a number
of which, for the purpose of judicial admin-
istration, peace, and defence, formed the
hundred.1
The oldest aspect of the hundred is mili-
tary, and this has lasted down to our own
days. It is very probable that the colonists.
of Britain arranged themselves in hundreds
of warriors; and, in later ages, the new
express the range within which the priest fulfils his
duties. Lale translators have, indeed, but in the
teeth of the plain meaning, given this word the form
“ parochia.” Bede, again, has a term which King
Alfred renders “ mynster-shire", Hist. Eccles., lib. 5,
cap. xix, which compare with (e.3.) lib. iii, cap. xix;
and see King Alfred's translation of these passages.
Bosworth's A.-S. Dictionary, p. 245; and see "Preost
Shire,” p. 278.- Toulmin Smith's The Parish, p. 240.
There are a great number of authorities as to the
origin of the hundred; but the best English works
are Stubbs' Const. Hist., i, pp. 96-101 ; Kemble, cap.
ix, book i; Palgrave's Eng. Com., vol. i, pp. 97 et seq.;
Census Returiis, 1851, Report, pp. lxii.lxv; Ellis's
Introd. to Domes., i, 187, 188.
The Hundred.
45
territorial hundred was the basis upon
which military levies were made. Now,
in the hundred warriors of early times, we
must not understand an indiscriminate levy
of persons to serve in an artificially formed
army: they were the picked champions,
the representatives of a hundred families.2
And, moreover, a hundred families who
recognised a common inheritance and bond
of union with each other ; who ranged
themselves together under one name and
for common political and religious purposes.
• The early historical significance of the
hundred is to be tested by a comparison of
it with the wapentake. A law of Æthel-
red II is at great pains to define the con-
stitution and functions of the gemote or
judicial assembly of the wapentakes of
the north of England, yet there can be
little doubt of the existence of the wapen-
See throughout, Hist. MSS. Reports, e.g. v, 422,
and vi, 347, temp. Chas. I.
% The Swats reckon the number of their inhabi-
tants by the number of matchlocks. See Bengal As.
Soc. Journ., No. iii, 1862, p. 270 ; cf. Toulmin
Smith's The Parish, p. 18.
46
Local Institutions.
take court very long before the time of
that monarch. The wapentake answers in
every respect to the hundred (Ellis's 112-
troduction to Domesday), but its northern
terminology is much more expressive than
that of the southern hundred. An interest-
ing passage from Ellis's Introduction to
Domesday bears upon this point; and is
worth quoting.
The wapentake occurs in the northern
counties, and is synonymous with the hun-
dred in the counties of Nottingham, York,
and Lincoln to this day. The best expla-
nation of the wapentake is given in the
laws of King Edward the Confessor : “De
Hundredis et Wapentachiis. Ewerwick-
shire, Nicolscyre (Lincolnshire), Noting-
hamshyre, Leycestershire, Northampton-
shire, usque ad Watlingstrete, et octo mili-
aria ultra Watlingstrete sub lege Anglorum
sunt. Et quod Angli vocant Hundredum,
supradicti comitatus vocant Wapentachi-
um : et non sine causa : cum quis enim
accipiebat præfecturam Wapentachii, die
statuto in loco ubi consueverant congregari,
The Hundred.
47
omnes majores natu contra eum convenie-
bant, et descendente eo de equo suo omnes
assurgebant ei. Ipse vero erecta lancea sua
ab omnibus secundum morem fædus accipi-
ebat : omnes enim quotquot venissent cum
lanceis suis ipsius hastam tangebant, et ita
se confirmabant per contactum armorum,
pace palam concessa. Anglice enim arma
vocantur wæpnu, et taccane confirmare ;
quasi armorum confirmatio vel, ut magis
expresse secundam linguam Anglicam die-
amus Wapentac, armorum tactus est; þæ-
pnu enim arma sonat, tac tactus est. Quam-
obrem potest cognosci quod hac de causa
totus ille conventus dicitur Wapentac eo
quod per tactum armorum suorum ad invi-
cem confederati sunt." (Wilkins' Leges
Anglo-Sax., p. 203.)
Ranulphus Cestrensis tells us (lib. i, cap.
5; see Cowell; compare also Chron., Foan.
Bromton, ap. x, Script Twysd, p. 957):
"Quod quoties novus esset Hundredi Do-
minus ei in subjectionis signum arma red-
derent Vassalli :” an explanation which, in
some measure, connects the English wapen-
48
Local Institutions.
take with the wapinschaw, or wapinschaw.-.
ing, of the Scots." (Jamieson's Ety. Dic. of
Scot. Lang:)
That the wapentake was one of the earli-
est terms used by the Saxons in this country
for a district of territory, seems more than
probable. It may be traced among the
more ancient tribes of the north. Professor
Ihre tells us that among the Goths wapn-
tak implied the manner in which decrees
were passed by the people at large, by the
clashing of their arms. Tacitus, he adds,
has described the usage in his time. He
further informs us that wapntak also de-
noted the confirmation of a judicial edict
by the touch of arms. The votes being
collected, the judge reached forth a spear,
by touching which all his assessors con-
firmed the sentence.
"Wapntak erat modus per strepitum
concussorum armorum plebiscita olim con-
dendi, uti recte hanc vocem explicat Dol-
merus” (in Notis ad Fus. Aul. Norrw., p. 9;
conf. Heims' Kr., tom. ii, p. 313). “Their
bardo saman wapnom sinom, oc dæmdo tha
The Hundred.
49
alla utlaga, arma sua concutiebant, omnes-
que eos exsules esse jusserunt" (ib. p. 414).
“Arni beiddi, at men skuldo gera wapnatak
at Thui, at dæma med lagum Sigurd Jarl oc
allam flock Theirra til fiandans : Arni ad
populum ferebat, ut concussis armis ple-
biscitoque publico Sigurdum comitem om-
nesque sectarios illius diabolo adjudicarent"
(Adde Kizyti, s. p. 44). "Rem suo jam ævo
usitatem describit” (Tacitus de Mor. Germ.,
cap. xi). Dr. Wilkins, in his Glossary upon
the Anglo-Saxon laws, derives "wapentake"
from“ weapan arma" and "teacan docere,"
as the district where a given number of
persons in each county were accustomed to
meet and train themselves in the use of
arms (Wilkins's Leg. Ang.-Sax., p. 117;
see also Chron., Joan Bromton, apud x,
Script. Twysd, 895; Ellis's Introd. to
Domes., i, 181, 182, 183).
The muster rolls of the hundred recall
the concilium of Tacitus, where every
citizen was a soldier, and every soldier a
citizen. They come down to so late a
period as the time of Charles the First.
50
Local Instituti012s.
A general muster is attended by all the
inhabitants of a hundred;' and a warrant
of one of Cromwell's generals desires the
constables to summon all the men of the
hundred of Williton to appear before him
in complete arms on a certain day.”
There is an interesting fact to be noticed
before passing to the hundred as a terri-
torial division of the country. Most of the
names of the modern hundreds are not
repeated in the names of the townships.
If the hundred is derived from the old per-
sonal organisation, this is exactly what we
might expect. The names of the ancient
personal hundreds would be derived from
some tribal or clan chief who led the ancient
families making up the hundreds; and the
names of the territorial hundreds so far
meet this view as to be to a great extent
independent names of territory at the
present day. Thus, Lincoln comprises 29
wapentakes, of which 20 have distinctive
names that do not appear in the list of
'See the Muster Booke of all the inhabitants of the
hundred of Llyvou, Hist. MSS. Com., V, 422.
2 Ibid., vi, 347.
The Hundred.
51
towns. In Yorkshire, East Anglia, and
the north midland counties, the names
have the same character : 18 of 27 names
ofwapentakes in Yorkshire, 20 of 30 names
of hundreds in Norfolk ; 18 of 21 names in
Suffolk, are not derived from any of their
townships ; in the shires of Stafford, Wor-
cester, Warwick, Leicester, Rutland, Not-
tingham, Derby, Northumberland, and
Cumberland, the hundreds and wards have
not been derived from the names of towns;
and taking the whole of England, there
are only 362 out of 799 names of hundreds,
wapentakes, or liberties the same as names
of towns (Census Report, 1851, p. lxiv).
Considering how varied the names of the
present hundreds are compared with those
mentioned even so late as Domesday (Ellis
Introd. Domes., i, 34), this result is, I
think, significant enough to place it on
- record.1
'I communicated to Notes and Queries, 5th Ser.,
ix, p. 403, an example of a scheme, which I have
since improved upon, for a tabular view of the history
of the hundreds.
E
2
52
N
Local Institutions.
All the judicature lying outside the :
village system was centred in the hundred.
It was entitled to declare folk-right in every
suit ; its jurisdiction was criminal as well
as civil, and voluntary as well as conten-
tious. It tried criminals, settled disputes,
and witnessed transfers of land (Stubbs,
Const. Hist., i, 104).
Adding to this the two instances men-
tioned by Sir Henry Ellis (Introd. to Domes.,
i, 188) of land assigned to a hundred being
changed by a verdict of the men of the
hundred, in the Domesday accounts of
Gloucestershire and Bedfordshire, I think
we have some valuable evidence of the
ancient legislative functions of the hundred-
court.
The remaining feature of the hundred-
court which we have now to examine is.
the executive. As a civil and criminal
court of justice its judicial capacity was.
no doubt in the early times very extensive.
No suit could be taken to a higher court
until first it had been tried in the hundred-
court. Its hundreds-ealdor is directed by
The Hundred.
53
the laws of Edgar (iv, 8, 10) to be the
referee in questions of witness; and he is
probably a distinct officer from the hundred-
man, who with his tithing-men go forth to
execute justice on the thief (Ibid., i, 2, 4, 5).
The court was held once a month, and
was attended by all the fully qualified free-
men. Among the Franks and Lombards
a very significant term was applied to this
body of suitors, namely, rachimburgi,
which Savigny derives from rek, rich or
great, and burg, surety. It betokens that
some sort of superiority belonged to those
who attended the hundred-court over those
who did not attend ; and it betokens, more-
over, that the fact of a certain portion of
men of the hundred having ceased to
attend the hundred-court, had entered into
the politics of the age, and had, therefore,
impressed itself on the political phraseology
of the age.
The general reluctance to attend is
proved, in the reign of Henry I at all
events, by documentary evidence, namely
the entrances of fines in the pipe-roll,
Local Institutions.
(Stubbs, Const. Hist., i, 398). This non-
attendance brings about a clear distinction
between the old popular hundred assembly
and the new hundred-court. The shrinking
up of the old assembly into a committee,
so to speak, of twelve members, to transact
the judicial business of the court, began
very soon. Among the Franks, the smaller
body was called the sitting rachinburgs, in
opposition to the rest, who are the standing
members (Stubbs, i, 54); and the parallels.
in England I cannot doubt to be the great
court, or sheriff's tourn, or leet, as it was
afterwards called, held twice a year, and the
curia parya Hundredi, held every three
weeks, which, though appearing now to be
so distinct from each other, belonged ori-
ginally to the old hundred assembly-the
one representing the civil, the other the
criminal, jurisdiction of the hundred-moot.
The hundred-courts were not only not.
abolished, but were directed to be held
regularly, and non-attendance upon them
was punished by fines. Moreover, the
sheriff's tourn and leet, as it was called, a.
The Hundred.
55
court which so long exercised the same
kind of criminal jurisdiction as that now
vested in the magistrates, was but the
hundred-court under another and less
popular name. Yet these courts rapidly
lost their importance, partly because they
were superseded by the county-courts, now
held monthly, and partly because so many
franchises, or rights of private jurisdiction,
had been attached by grants to lordships,
as greatly to reduce and obstruct the busi-
ness of the smaller popular courts.
The legislative functions of the hundred
assembly passed away with its independence,
as the military concilium of the early Teu-
tons. When the local assemblies had ceased
to be sovereign, the business must always
have been mainly judicial (Freeman, Comp.
· Polit., p. 243). Accordingly, we have an
excess of the executive element from the
very beginning of the history of the
hundred-court. The legislative element,
however, does appear, even under the
1 Local Government and Taxation, Cobden Club,
England, Broderick, p. 11.
56
Local Institutions.
altered jurisdiction of the hundred-court.
We find it in the formal acceptance or re-
jection of the taxation demands ; in the
form of the muster rolls for the supply of
soldiers; and in some special cases where
the courts of the great franchises still exist
in something like their original form, being
less touched than the hundred-courts them-
selves by general legislation. There are
several instances among the local records of
a hundred having rejected, after delibera-
tion, the precept served upon them for
taxes; and Toulmin Smith mentions an
instance where Parliament is petitioned by
two hundreds for some redress with refer-
ence to recent taxation (The Parish, p. 20).
Interesting and important as this subject
is to the constitutional historian, we find
really that very little attention has been
given to it outside the general treatises on
constitutional history. Already I háve
enumerated in a note the best general au-
thorities. Besides these it may be noted that
the meeting places of the hundred-courts
are treated of in my Primitive Folk-roots.
The Hundred. 57
Mr. Seebohm, in his Village Community in
England, has drawn attention to some inte-
resting phases of the history of the hundred.
Mr. Eyton, in his Domesday Studies: Somer-
set (London, 1880, 2 vols., 4to), and Key to
Domesday: Analysis of the Dorset Survey
(400,1877), gives much valuable information
with reference to those two counties. But
the list of books and papers upon this sec-
tion of our subject is very meagre.
Rotuli Hundredorum temp. Hen. III et Edw. I
in turr' Lond' et in curia receptæ scaccarii
Westm. aşservati. Printed by command of
H.M. King George III. 1812. 2 vols., folio.
Pp. 16, 700; ix, IIOI.
Vol. I. Articuli ad inquirend'-Rotulorum
Hundredorum exemplar-Bedford'—Berk-
Buck-Cantebr-Cornub'-- Derb'— Devon'
Dorset' — Ebor — Essex-Glouc - Heref —
Hertf'- Huntedon'-Kanc'— Leycestr'-Lin-
coln'-Civiť Lond-Com' North-Comitatus
Northfolch-Index Locorum-Index Nomi-
num.
Vol. II. Norht' - North — Northumbr’-
Notingh'm-Oxon-Rotelond-Salop— Staf-
ford-Sum’set-Suffolc— Sussex-Suth’mtes
-Warrwyk’ – Wyltes' (Henry III)-Wylt
(Edw. 1)-Wygorn-Derb'-Noting: - Bede-
58
Local Institutions.
ford'— Buk' - Cantabr' — Hunt – Oxon' -
Index Locorum-Index Nominum.
Modus tenendi unum hundredum sive curiam
de recordo. Robert Redman, London, 1539.
12mo.
On the Ancient Division of Counties into Hun-
dreds. Gentleman's Magazine, 1828, pp.
99-102.
Barnes (Rev. William) On the Origin of the
Hundred and Tithing of English Law.
Journal of the British Archeological Associa-
tion, vol. xxviii, pp. 21-27.
Coote (Henry Charles), The Milites Station-
arii considered in relation to the Hundred
and Tithing of England. Archæologia, xliv.
Archæologia Cantiana : Extract from the Hun-
dred Rolls, vii, 322. .
Lightfoot (W. F.) Documents relating to a
dispute between the Seven Hundreds and
Lydd concerning the Watch at Denge Marsh,
from MS. Arch. Cant., viii, 299-310.
Mayer (Joseph) On the Arming of Levies in the
Hundred of Wirral, in the County of Chester,
and the introduction of small fire-arms as
weapons of war in place of bows and arrows.
Liverpool, 1859. 8vo.
Subsidy Roll for the Hundred of Faversham,
14 Henry VIII. London, 1878. 8vo.
!
!!
ME
.
til
.
IV.-MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
OF all forms of local government the most
vigorous is that incidental to the municipal
borough. Whether it be that Roman
influences have been at work on English
soil to a greater extent than is at present
recognised, or whether it be that the
English branchi of the Aryan race has fol-
lowed, in a considerably modified degree,
though on exactly the same principle, the.
constitutional instinct which is portrayed
in early Greek life, the fact remains that the
municipal borough has lent itself to the re-
quirements of succeeding ages far more effec-
tually than either the shire, the hundred,
or even the parish. There are marked
associations with the history of municipal
institutions which, unfortunately, have
hitherto impeded a thorough penetration
to the early history of English municipal
towns, and, indeed, have suggested, if not
60
Local Institutions.
asserted, that there is no such early history
at all ; nothing prior to the assumption of
municipal rights and privileges. These
associations may be thus grouped : the idea
that everything municipal has been derived
from Rome ;' that the charter granted by
the king, or other lord, is the commencing
point of the known history of English
municipal towns ;2 that municipal history
occupies a position quite apart from and
independent of all other local institutions.
In dealing with a definite set of institu-
tions like that of municipal corporations,
it is certainly well to ascertain what place
they occupy in the polity of the nation.
Are they of purely modern growth? Have
they exercised any special influences on the
1 Pearson's Early and Middle Ages of England, i,
264 ; Mr. Wright, in Archæologia, vol. xxxii ; and
Celt, Roman and Saxon; Coote's Romans of Britain,
359-382.
2 Hallam, Europe during Middle Ages, p. 571, 12.
(Murray), says that he is unable to discover any trace
of internal self-government before the granting of
charters. Robertson, Charles V, vol. i, p. 33, says
that corporations were introduced after the Conquest
from France.
Municipal Government.
61
political history of the nation ? Have
they a place in the wide field of compara-
tive politics ? These are some of the
primary questions to which just now an
appeal is being made to English history.
The citadel fortresses of the early Britons,
proudly enumerated by Nennius, were,
there can be little doubt, brought quickly
under Roman subjugation, and either de-
stroyed or utilised; the exact proportion of
these two alternatives being perhaps capable
of measurement by the extreme difficulty
of identifying, except in such special cases
as York, Chester, Lincoln, Leicester, Nor-
wich, Carmarthen, London, Canterbury,
and some others, the Roman occupation of
the old British site. But what then has
become of the Roman cities ? Mr. Freeman
puts it in this way, that "it seems quite cer-
tain that the English seldom, if ever, at
once occupied a Roman or British town.
The towns were commonly forsaken for a
while, though they were in many cases re-
settled by an English population." It is
· History of Norman Conquest, vol. i, p. 15.
62
Local Institutions.
not worth while, and of course it is not
possible within our present limits, to go
over the whole ground covered by this pro-
position, but it is to be observed that it is
just at this stage that all inquirers into the
early history of municipal institutions have
stumbled : they see in this re-occupation of
a Roman city a resuscitation of Roman
municipal polity; or they boldly answer
Mr. Freeman's continuation of the above-
quoted sentence— "the only question is
whether the towns, in any cases, preserved
a sort of half-independence after the con-
quest of the surrounding country".—by
asserting that the independence was real
and not half-hearted ; that here, if any-
where, Roman life and Roman polity have,
by unbroken descent, influenced English
life and English polity. But fully recog-
nising the uneven ground of the early
English settlement in Britain, there is yet
evidence enough to show that the fight with
Rome, even in her cities, was a fight which
Mr. Freeman speaks more decisively in Norman
Conquest, v, 470.
Municipal Government.
63
institutions, as well as English village insti-
tutions.
It is important to note that of the
existing municipalities of England, only
comparatively few occupy the same sites as
the Roman municipia, or colonia, mentioned
by Ptolemy and Nennius, or even as the
stations mentioned in the Antonine Itine-
rary, the Notitia, and by the Ravenna
Geographer; but, though London, York,
Lincoln, Leicester, Canterbury, and Win-
chester have a continuous historical exist-
ence in these authorities, they wisely do
not venture (to use the words of Professor
Stubbs'), like some of the towns of southern
France, to claim an unbroken succession
from the Roman municipality. Though
Verulamium, Caistor, Dunium, and Eto-
cetum find a place throughout these early
historians, St. Albans, Norwich, Dorchester,
and Lichfield rear themselves on or alongside
those old Roman sites, without, so far as
history teaches us, deriving any advantage
i Const. Hist., i, 62.
.
64
Local Institutions.
from Roman institutions. Again, Wrox-
eter, Cirencester, Silchester. Catarac,
though mentioned by the same authorities,
disappear as boroughs at and since the time
of Domesday; while Ludlow, Marlborough,
Doncaster, Carlisle, and Farnham, all men-
tioned either in Ptolemy or the Antonine
Itinerary, are not municipal boroughs until
long after Domesday.3 Such are a few ex-
amples of the broken line of progress which
towns, known to have had a Roman organ-
isation, either as municipia or colonia, have
made in England. The causes thereof, how-
ever difficult to trace and gather together
into a historical narrative, can at once be
stated not to belong to the Roman influence
by which the towns were created: that would,
on the contrary, have produced a uniform
progress, a strongly marked topographical
'Vide Thompson's Eng. Mun. Hist., pp. 91, 110.
2 Cirencester is mentioned as a borough in 1399,
but disappears again after that time.
3 The dates are as follows: Ludlow, 1300; Marl-
borough, 1200; Doncaster, 1194 ; Carlisle, Henry
III; Farnham, 1310. See tables affixed to Mere-
wether and Stephen's Hist. of Mun. Corp., vol. iii.
Municipal Government.
65
identity of each town in Roman and
mediæval times, and accompanying these a
continuous chronicle of events.
The second question is that relating to
the position of the charter. Does it origi-
nate all that is within the four corners of its
documentary form ; or does it set forth an
account of existing institutions in the prayer
for incorporation, and thereby obtain royal
sanction to what already has life? That
the latter is the true state of the case, I
have more than once ventured to urge ;
and if it is so, municipal charters form a
most interesting and valuable body of evi-
dence on the early existence of municipal
institutions.
Upon this subject the following interest-
ing quotation may be given: “The original
franchises of the Anglo-Saxon boroughs
being the common-law rights of the whole
free population, appear to have been under
no express charters from the sovereign;
and for a long period after the Conquest
the internal government of the English
boroughs was left to their ancient customs,
F
66
Local Institutions.
and the modification of these customs
which each community voluntarily made ;
all the earliest charters of the Norman
kings and great lords merely giving or
conferring as 'privileges', which they had
now, in great measure, really become, the
very common law right of which these free
communities had long been in the enjoy-
ment." And the Commissioners of 1835
reported that it would be difficult to de-
scribe accurately the early constitution of
the municipal corporations in England and
Wales ; it is certain that many of their in-
stitutions were established in practice long
before they were settled by law. In some
places, as at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Carlisle,
and Scarborough, the forms of the muni-
cipal government were defined by an ex-
press composition between the magistracy
and the people. It is probable that the
powers of government in all ordinary cases
were exercised by the superior magistracy,
but that in extraordinary emergencies the
? See “Statistics of Municipal Institutions,” in
Statistical Society's Journal, v, 98.
Municipal Government.
67
whole body of burgesses was called upon to
sanction the measures which interested the
community. The difficulty of conducting
business in such an assembly seems to have
suggested the expedient of appointing a
species of committee out of the larger body,
which acted in conjunction with the bur-
gesses, and which was dissolved when the
business was concluded. These committees
afterwards became permanent. In some
boroughs the common councils seem to
have been formed out of fragments of the
leet juries, whilst in others we have reason
to suppose that they were what their name
strictly imports, councillors, called into
the chamber by the alderman or presiding
functionary, with whom they were to ad-
vise. We have not discovered that there
was any general principle in the mode of
forming the constituency of the boroughs,
nor can we assume that any one system
of policy or common law right prevailed
at any period throughout the realm. As
far as we can judge, neither the opinion
of those who treat every extension of
F 2
68
Local Institutions.
authority beyond the select body as a popu-
lar usurpation, nor of those who view every
municipal corporation as formed out of a
symmetrical and uniform organisation of
the people, can be supported. It is suffi-
cient that we are enabled to collect the
main principles of administration, namely,
that the municipal magistracy and municipal
councils were theresident and effective heads
of the community, and that the community
probably included in its members all who
shared in its burthens and were liable to fill
its offices.''
Thirdly, we have noted that municipal
institutions seem to have been considered
as entirely unconnected with other local
institutions, as something so abnormal that
their history could only be obtained from a
study of their peculiar forms and ceremonies,
rights and duties, practices and pretensions.
But in one important particular it is now
known that municipal institutions, at all
events in England, Scotland, and Ireland,
? Report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corpo-
rations, i, p. 16.
Municipal Government.
69
have a feature common not only to the
local institutions of England, but to other
local institutions in all the Aryan lands.
This is in the matter of land-holding. In
spite of chartered rights, it is found that the
land-rights of municipal corporations are
parallel to the land-rights of village com-
munities; and the argument comes home
to us that this fact links municipal with
village institutions. The details of these
archaic land-rights I have worked out in
Archæologia (vol. xlvi, pp. 403-422), but the
general position is worth considering here.
The old village communities have long
ago been broken up, and their privileges,
customs, and rights divided between the
lord, the manor court, and the township
court. They could not stand against the
forces which swept over them when the
Saxon kingdom began to rear its head as a
European nationality, and, later on, when
the Norman rule brought down upon them
the usurping predispositions of a strong
centralised and centralising monarchy.
Therefore, as seen by the historian of to-
70
Local Institutions.
day, these old village communities present
but a scattered and mosaic-like picture.
But, if anywhere, there should remain a
more perfect organisation and a more per-
fect record of the process of change and
development in those towns which from
various circumstances early claimed the
right of incorporation and protection from
outside influences. Of course, there is a
later disturbing element in this group of
towns. Corporate towns, as a rule, ob-
tained their local independence and power
because they were rich enough to offer
some price for such favours, or some resist-
ance to oppression. These riches were ob-
tained not from agriculture, the basis of the
primitive village system, but from com-
merce, the most active opponent of the
primitive village system. Therefore, we
should expect to find that the result of
commercial enterprise and success is the
uprooting of old village institutions and the
replacing by other institutions; we should
expect to come upon a period in the history
of municipalities when they left off culti-
Municipal Government.
71
vating their own lands and began to collect
rents; when they left off allotting to their
members plots in the municipal lands, and
began to appropriate to individual owner-
ship that which once knew only common
ownership. But, though the aspect of the
archaic village community, viewed from
the evidence of municipal towns, may be
just as far off the primitive type as the
aspect viewed from the evidence of agricul-
tural customs, the lines of change are more
marked, and we can work backwards upon
these lines. Considered, therefore, from
the general outlook of the subject, so far as
evidence has come down to us, the munici-
pal towns contain better means of tracing
out the primitive village settlement of Eng-
land than any other localities. The cor-
rectness of this assertion I have proved by
long-continued studies on the subject, and
these allow me to suggest that the land-
rights of municipal boroughs are archaic
land-rights, and that they can be identified
with ease with the land-rights of primitive
village communities.
72
Local Institutions.
When we pause, therefore, to ask what
place municipal institutions have in English
polity, we soon beconie aware that they
enter early into the process of the building
up of the nation ; that, side by side with
village institutions, they have their place in
the science of comparative politics; and that
their history is not begun by a study of the
lex provinciæ of Rome, and completed when
we have considered how the Roman con-
stitution would have developed during a
thousand years of existence on English soil.
In point of fact, it is just at this pause that
we can fully grasp what an enquiry into the
history of municipal corporations really
means to the historical enquirer. It means
the ascertainment of whether modern
municipal institutions are, on the whole,
descendants from the Roman lex provinciæ
or from Teutonic village settlements. There
must be many points in such an enquiry of
extreme uncertainty and complexity. Ques-
tions must arise as to whether this or that
part of the municipal system is Roman, as
derived from the later influences of Roman
Municipal Government.
73
law, or is Roman as derived from the earliest
and direct influences of Roman law. Ques-
tions must arise, too, as to whether this or
that particular municipal custom is derived
from a primitive village original or from a
derivative or borrowed custom existing else-
where in its primitive form. But when all
these variations are considered, there must
remain the broad statement of the case-are
certain groups of municipal customs now
existing, or once existing, in England, the
result of Roman law developed on English
ground, or results of primitive institutions
developed alongside of other similarly placed
institutions? Between the Roman muni-
cipal organisation and the English village
community there was just the similarity
that exists between an old man just totter-
ing to his grave and a new-born infant just
entering into life. Both sprang from a
common original ; the one had worked it-
self out, the other had not begun its develop-
ment. Roman municipal institutions had
developed from the Latin village com-
munity, but through long years of change
74
Local Institutions.
and influences which had almost obliterated
the original. There can be no question,
therefore, as to what origin we are to ascribe
municipal institutions in England ; they
will bear the unquestionable stamp of their
Roman original, or they will be so primitive
as to be recognised at once as belonging to
the village system.
The constitution of the municipal assem-
bly in the various boroughs of Englar.d
illustrates this proposition in a very inte-
resting manner, and I will venture to
touch upon the subject a little more closely.
If we turn, in the first place, to London,
we can discover certain idiosyncracies
which proclaim the existence of facts not
to be met with elsewhere. Nothing is
more curious than the history of the Lon-
don folkmoot. We see it standing out,
now and again, in all its original strength,
attended by all the citizens in early
Teutonic fashion; but we see towering
behind it, overshadowing it too, a small,
compact body of aldermen, just such a body,
in fact, as Mr. Coote tells us governed the
Municipal Government.
75
Roman municipia, a high class of citizens
--optimates, meliores, primates, potentes
who monopolised all municipal power
and privilege, to the absolute exclusion of
the other class. The folkmoot was held in
the open air, upon a piece of ground at the
east end of St. Paul's Church, adjoining
the Cross. Here, at all events, we stand
upon undoubted Teutonic ground; con-
quered from the Roman by men who knew
and loved the village institutions they
sought to transplant into the city. But
then there is no evidence that this assem-
bly of the citizens ever wholly dominated
the city, and was recognised as the supreme
council ; but it seems more than probable,
since at times it took its part in those sur-
vivals of the old primary assemblies of the
nation which met to elect their king.3
? Romans in Britain, p. 368.
? See Liber Custumarum, pp. 338, 339, and my
Primitive Folkmoots, p. 158, where I have discussed
the archaic importance of this.
3 For the significance of the action of the London
folkmoot in the election of Stephen, see Green's His-
tory of the English People, vol. i, pp. 151-152 ; Free-
man's Norman Conquest, vol. v, pp. 245, 305. That
76
Local Institutions.
The fight between the popular assembly,
or folkmoot, where every citizen had' a
right to attend, and the smaller body, is
well related in the Chronicles of the Mayor
and Sheriffs of London, 1188 to 1274. In
1249, upon the Abbot of Westminster and
his advisers desiring to hold a conference
with the mayor and aldermen, “the whole
of the populace opposed it, and would not
allow them, without the whole of the cum-
mons being present, to treat at all of the
matter” (p. 18). Again, in 1257, on the
occasion of charges being made against cer-
tain aldermen, the King gave orders to the
sheriffs to convene the folkmoot on the
morrow at Saint Paul's Cross, upon which
day all the aldermen and citizens came there.
The proceedings are fully described, but
the passage interesting to us is the follow-
ing: "To which' inquiry (no conference
being first held among the discreet men of
this connection of the London folkmoot was kept up
is shown by the oath of fealty the citizens in assembly
gave to Prince Edward, 1252. See Chronicles of the
Mayors and Sheriffs of London, p. 20.
Municipal Government.
77
the city, as is usually the practice) answer
was made by some of the populace, sons of
divers mothers, many of them born without
the city, and many of servile condition,
with loud shouts of 'Nay, nay, nay'” (p.
38). In 1262 we have the following re-
markable passage. The mayor, Thomas
FitzThomas, during the time of his mayor-
alty, had so pampered the city populace,
that, styling themselves the "commons of
the city', they had obtained the first voice
in the city. For the mayor, in doing all
that he had to do, acted and determined
through them, and would say to them, “Is
it your will that so it shall be ?" and then
if they answered “Ya, ya", so it was done.
And on the other hand, the aldermen or
chief citizens were little or not at all con-
sulted on such matters (p. 59). In 1265 the
populace cried "Nay, nay” to the proposed
election of William FitzRichard as sheriff,
and demanded Thomas FitzThomas (p. 91).
In 1266 "the low people arose, calling
themselves the commons of the city" (p.
95). In 1271 the old dispute broke out
78
Local Institutions.
again in the election of mayor, and the
record of this is very instructive (pp. 154-
156).
In these curious and instructive passages
I cannot doubt that we have a record of
the final chapters of the history of the Teu-
tonic folkmoot in London. Its name, its
place of meeting, its popular form, its for-
mula of “Yea, yea", or "Nay, nay", all
proclaim its primitive origin. But then
under what circumstances do we see it with
these evident signs of its historical origin?
There are by its side “the discreet men of
the city'. We never meet with it, either
before the date of these records we have
quoted or afterwards, as the dominant
power of the city, impressing its forms and
ceremonies, its political system, its deriva-
tive forces, upon the municipal history of
the city. It was never powerful; it was
only fitful. And we may well ask why the
Teutonic conqueror who met in his folk-
moot, without let or hindrance, bowed in
municipal government to another body,
1 Cf. Freeman's Comparative Politics, sect. 5.
Municipal Government.
79
separate and distinct from it? The answer
I am inclined to seek in the masterful pages
of Mr. Coote's Romans in Britain, where
I find that Roman prowess, ingenuity,
- commercial acumen, and political insight,
managed to keep at bay in some places the
savage barbarism of Teutonic conquest.
The position of the assembly in the
boroughs of England may best be gathered
from the first report of the Municipal Cor-
poration Commissioners of 1835. They say,
"Without inquiring when corporations in
this country assumed their present form, it
may be safely asserted that the body, how-
ever named, which was originally intended
to share in the rights which the early char-
ters conferred, embraced the great mass of
the householders or inhabitants. By de-
grees, exclusive qualifications were insisted
on with increasing strictness and with new
exceptions, as the privileges to which these
exclusive bodies laid claim rose in import-
ance."
1 Report of Commissioners on Municipal Corpora-
tions, vol. i, p. 20.
80
Local Institutions.
This is official language, not historical ;
but it carries, nevertheless, an important
signification when compared with other
facts taken from the same source.
"The most common and most striking
defect in the municipal corporations of Eng-
land and Wales is, that the corporate bodies
exist independently of the communities
among which they are formed. The cor-
porations look upon themselves, and are
considered by the inhabitants, as separate
and exclusive bodies ; they have powers
and privileges within the towns and cities
from which they are named, but in most
places all identity of interest between the
corporation and the inhabitants has disap-
peared. This is the case even when the
corporation includes a large body of inhabi-
tant freemen ; it appears in a more striking
degree, as the powers of the corporation
have been restricted to smaller numbers of
the resident population; and still more
been conferred on non-resident freemen, to
Municipal Government. 81
the exclusion of the inhabitants to whom
they rightly ought to belong."l
Guided by what is known about the
London assembly this is very interesting,
and the popular general assembly is fully
shown to have been a part of mediæyal and
later English municipal constitutions by the
strong evidence of its existence which was
placed before the Commissioners of 1835.
They are able to report as follows : “A
distinction of great practical importance
may be made between corporations consist-
ing of a definite and those of an indefinite
number. Most of the charters incorporate
the men and inhabitants of the borough.
There are very few charters which un-
equivocally designate the corporate body as
a small and definite number of persons, but
in many places, custom (supported by the
silence of the charters as to any general
right to the franchise, and by its disuse and
oblivion, where any such may have formerly
existed) has practically established the same
restricted constitution. A very numerous
1 Mun. Corp. Com., vol. I, p. 32.
82
Local Institutions.
class of corporations exists, which may be
considered as occupying a middle place be-
tween those in which the number of corpo-
rators is indefinite, and those in which it
is now treated as necessarily definite. This
class consists of the corporations in which,
although there is no doubt, both from the
wording of the charters, and from the
modern practice, that the number of corpo-
rators may be indefinite, it has been the
policy of the ruling body to restrict the
number, so as to retain all the privileges
constitutionally belonging to a large and
indefinite body in the hands of a small and
select one.
“In a great proportion of the instances
in which the number of corporators is, both
in constitution and fact, large and indefinite,
the freemen have no share in the manage-
ment of the affairs of the corporation: this
prevails to so great an extent that, in such
corporations, the Commissioners often found
that the freemen had long ceased to consider
themselves as forming any part of the corpo-
ration, which term, in popular language, was
Municipal Government. 83
exclusively applied to the ruling body. In
some places this notion has been further
refined upon, and a distinction has been
drawn in the large indefinite body of corpo-
rators, between those elected by the ruling
body, and those claiming by an independent
right, the former class only being treated
as forming an integral part of the corpora-
tion."
And a little later on they say: "The
share which the freemen at large now take
in the election of their governing bodies
and corporate officers, is in most places very
limited.
“In a great majority of those towns in
which there is a large body of freemen, they
have no share whatever in those elections.
In a few instances, such as Berwick-upon-
Tweed, Ipswich, and Carmarthen, they
have the right of electing, from among
themselves, all, or nearly all, the corporate
officers ; in others, such as Beverley and
Pontefract, they elect only the mayor ; in
1 Report of Commissioners on Municipal Corpora-
tions, vol. i, p. 18.
G 2
84
Local Institutions.
Norwich, they elect the aldermen, com-
mon councilmen, and one of the two
sheriffs ; in some, such as Plymouth, they
have the right of electing their officers out
of a select body ; in others, as Oxford and
Swansea, they have only the power of se-
lection of the nominees of such a select
body. In many places, where the system
of self-election now prevails, no trace exists
of a more popular mode having been used
at any time; in others, such as Newcastle-
under-Lyme and Bridgnorth, the right
appears clearly to have been taken away
from the freemen by the ancient usurpation
of the select body; and in the case of New-
castle-under-Lyme it has been recently
restored, after an interval of two hundred
years, by a decision of the Court of King's
Bench.
“In some towns these rights are possessed
only by the resident freemen; in other
places by all the freemen, whether resident
or non-resident. The latter is the more
common case."
Mun. Corp. Com., vol. i, p. 20.
Municipal Governinent. 85
From these interesting passages it is clear
that much might be gained by a more
minute study of municipal antiquities than
has yet been given. For the present, the
general conclusions of the Commissioners
must be accepted as evidence of the propo-
sition I would advance, that municipal
institutions are based upon Teutonic prin-
ciples of government rather than Roman,
except in some few cases like London, where
special influences have been at work to
favour a continuity from Roman times.
Municipal archives, like other national
documents, have been treated with scant
attention during the past. Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps, reporting to the British Archæo-
logical Association on the municipal ar-
chives of Dorset, found that a large part of
the town papers of Weymouth were in
private hands, being only thus saved from
the waste-paper basket;' and we learn from
1 It is, I think, worth quoting Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps's words in full here: “At Weymouth I find
that a large part of the town papers are in private
hands, belonging to Mr. Sherren, who acquired them
at the time when the Municipal Reform Act, amongst
86
Local Institutions.
the Historical Manuscripts Commission
that Mr. James Sherren had rescued them
from a stable, where they had been de-
posited to await the tender mercies of the
housemaid and fire-grate (5th Report, p.
576). On August ist, 1879, these valuable
documents were offered for sale by auction,
and fortunately the Corporation has again
become possessed of these national me-
morials. We may be spared the fear of
such possible vandalism in the future, it is
hoped, and certainly the labours of the
Historical Manuscripts Commission will
greatly help us herein.
But all danger is not yet passed. In the
Antiquary for August 1885, we learn a
very terrible state of things relative to the
regalia of Exeter :-“The careless manner
in which the most valuable portion of it is.
preserved at the Guildhall is open to the
other evils, led to the ousting of what in many places
was deemed dusty rubbish. It is fortunate that Mr.
Sherren intervened to save from the waste-paper basket,
by purchase, a quantity of curious matter of great local
interest.”—“The Municipal Archives of Dorset”,
British Archæological Association, vol. xxviii, p. 28.
Municipal Government. 1 87
gravest objection. The priceless swords,
the only known examples of early royal
swords existing in England to-day ; the
maces, and other things appertaining there-
to, are kept in a flimsy cupboard on the top
of the stairs—a cupboard that any school-
boy could break open with a jack-knife. A
window is close by, communicating with
the roofs of adjacent houses, and through
it any one, with even only ordinary address,
could readily make off with the whole
paraphernalia, without the inspector and
the police in their offices beneath being any
the wiser. Further, if the thief took the
trouble to fasten the cupboard doors again
after him, the loss would, in all probability,
not be discovered until the next time the
insignia were wanted.”
After the passing of the Municipal
Reform Act of 1835, much of the old
corporation archives were entirely des-
troyed. Instances of this are given in the
Gentleman's Magazine and other contem-
porary authorities. In the above-mentioned
journal for March 1836 the following facts
are recorded:
88
Local Institutions.
“The new Corporations have, in some
places, made a perfect clearance of the in-
signia of office and other property of their
predecessors. At Leicester everything of
the kind has been sold off. An ancient
tobacco-box, of a very curious pattern,
chased with the town arms upon the lid,
with the name of the donor inscribed be-
neath, and the date of 1682, weight 8 oz.
13 dwts., was sold after the rate of 275. per
ounce. The first civic mace weighed 5 oz.
4 dwts., and was sold for £9; the second,
5 oz. 8 dwts., was sold for £6 155. ; the
third, 5 oz. 10 dwts., was sold for £6 65.;
the recorder's mace, 36 oz., was sold for
£16; the fifth was the large, grand state
mace, richly chased and gilt. It weighed
upwards of 100 ounces, and was in an ex-
cellent state of preservation, and realised
the sum of £85. Besides these there was
a fine portrait of the late William Pitt,
presented to the Corporation by Samuel
Smith, Esq., a late Member for the borough,
which sold for fifty guineas.
“At Hull a motion was made that the
Municipal Government. 89
regalia, viz., the sword of state, the mace,
and cap of maintenance, should be deposited
in the Museum of the Philosophical Society,
as objects of antiquarian interest and
curiosity; but this proposal creating a fear
that such a display of the 'baubles' would
place them too highly in the estimation of
the people, a radical councillor, who as-
serted, that'he would rather lock them up
in a dark room, and throw the key into the
Humber', moved, as an amendment, that
they should remain in the custody of the
mayor for the time being, and this amend-
ment was carried by a majority of 17 to 4.
The sword was presented to the town by
Henry VIII in 1541."
A better spirit is happily now prevalent,
for when, on Oct. 5th, 1885, the annual
convocation, or court, of the mayor, bur-
gesses, and capital inhabitants of Marazion
met together, in accordance with old cus-
tom, to elect "one fit and sufficient person"
to serve the office of mayor for the last time,
the proceedings were characterised, at least,
by decorum. It is about 290 years since
90
Local Institutions.
the first Mayor of “Marghasiewe" was
chosen. Under a recent Act of Parliament
the borough loses its charter in March next.
“Before eleven o'clock” in the forenoon
the mayor, accompanied by the town-clerk,
took their places in the council-chamber.
In accordance with the ancient custom, the
insignia of the corporation were placed on
the table. In the centre of the table lay
the charter. On either side of the charter
were laid the maces. These are of silver,
and date from 1768. They have the town
arms (three castellated towers embossed on
the coronæ), and also the inscription,
"Purchased by the Corporation of Mara-
zion: Humphrey Coles, mayor, 1768.” On
the second department of their shafts are
engraved the names of the eight burgesses
and nine capital inhabitants. The length
of the maces is 3 feet i inch each, and their
weight 67 ounces 2 pennyweights each.
The mayor's staff of office (a walking-stick)
bears the date of 1684. On the top of
the silver-mounted head, within a circle
surrounding the town arms, is a Latin in-
Municipal Government. 91
scription. There is also the inscription,
"Francis St. Aubyn, armiger, mayor of this
corporation in 1694.” The seals, too, lay in
their proper place: the one cut in ivory, and
the other sunk in copper, plated, are 134
inches in diameter, and have inscribed in a
circle surrounding the town arms, “Sigill.
maioris ville et borou de Marghasion." On
the table also lay a copy of the notice con-
vening the meeting, drawn up in accordance
with ancient usage, and printed, as deenied
appropriate for this occasion, on black-edged
note-paper. The question as to whether
some steps should not be taken with a view
to keeping the charter, muniments, papers,
and maces of the corporation in the borough
was discussed, and a deputation waited on
the Charity Commissioners with a request to
keep the municipal insignia in the borough.
Turning now to the bibliography of our
subject, it will be found that on the general
history of municipal institutions the follow-
ing are the most important authorities :-
First Report of the Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the Municipal Corporations in
92
Local Institutions.
England and Wales. Ordered, by the House
of Commons, to be printed, 30th March 1835.
Folio, pp. 131.
Municipal Corporation (England and Wales).
Appendix to the First Report of the Com-
missioners. Part i. Midland, Western, and
South-Western Circuits. Pp. 1-662, Part ii.
South-Eastern and Southern Circuits. Pp.
663-1408. Part iii. Northern and North-
Midland Circuits. Pp. 1409-2080. Part iv.
Eastern and North-Western Circuits. Pp.
2081-(2509-12*)-2940.
Analytical Index to the Reports of the Com-
missioners appointed to inquire into the
Municipal Corporations of England and
Wales. 1839. Folio.
Second Report of the Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the Municipal Corporations in
England and Wales (London and South-
wark, London Companies). 1837. Folio.
Report of the Commissioners appointed to
report and advise upon the Boundaries and
Wards of certain Boroughs and Corporate
Towns in England and Wales. Part i. Aber-
ystwith to Faversham Part ii. Folkestone
to Nottingham Part iii. Oswestry to York,
1837. Folio.
Municipal Corporations (Ireland): General
Report of the Commissioners, 1835. Folio.
Municipal Corporations (Scotland) : General
Report of the Commissioners appointed to
Municipal Government.
93
5
inquire into the state of Municipal Corpora-
tions in Scotland, 1835. Folio, pp. 99.
Appendix to the General Report of the Com-
missioners, 1835. Folio, pp. 101.
Local Reports of the Commissioners, 1835-
1836. Three parts, fol., pp. 463, 441, 192.
The importance of these reports can
scarcely be overrated, though the historian
must ever lament that the commissioners
did not extend their enquiries into the cus-
toms and local rights and privileges outside
the charter.
It is not often that the reports of a parlia-
mentary commission can be of so much
service to the cause of history as those which
deal with the condition of the municipal
corporations of Great Britain. Standing
as they do between the old and the new,
as the record of institutions which have to
a great extent been self-developed and not
created by legislation, they concentrate
within, their pages a mass of information
which, in the absence of local histories, is of
great value. But, unhappily, this informa-
tion is neither exhaustive nor so critically
accurate as the historian must require. The
94
Local Institutions.
pages bear unmistakable signs of hasty and
purely official work, and one has to lament
that the protests of Sir Francis Palgrave and
Mr. Hogg should be so well founded. Ap-
preciating to the full what is to be found
in the six thousand pages devoted to the
subject, there is great room still for the
well-founded regrets for what has not been
recorded, and is perhaps now irretrievably
lost. Still it is only necessary to con-
template for one moment the progress of
municipal history in England to understand
the position that these Reports occupy as
the most valuable record of a very im-
portant epoch. We see groups of towns
rising into prominent importance, new
groups springing into existence, other
groups beginning to decay. But to under-
stand the full significance of this factor in
English municipal history, a synthetical
arrangement at one definite period of the
recorded institutions of towns making up
these several groups is positively necessary;
and it is in this position of importance that
I would place the Reports of the Commis-
Municipal Government.
95
sioners of 1835, notwithstanding the lament-
able defects in the information supplied,
already alluded to. We learn thereby to
appreciate and understand the position
occupied by such towns as London, Man-
chester, Leeds, Liverpool, and others, as
types of the fullest development of munici-
pal institutions; we learn to class in groups
such towns as Maidstone, Norwich, Oxford,
Hull, and others, where local vigour has
given way to corruption, and where some
of the most historical rights and privileges
have been swept away; we gather from such
groups as Nottingham, Malmesbury, Ber-
wick-on-Tweed, Chippenham, Marlborough,
Arundel, and others, that many of our
municipal institutions had a previous exist-
ence as township, or even village, institu-
tions; and lastly, groups consisting of
Aberystwith, Cardigan, and most of the
Welsh boroughs, and a few English, such
as Altrincham, Dursley, Romford, Wootton-
under-Edge, show us that the old manorial
privileges have also entered into the con-
struction of English municipal history.
96
Local Institutions.
Information thus arranged from materials
collected within the space of two years, and
therefore belonging to the same period,
enables the scientific historian to study the
question from that comparative point of
view which is the basis of all modern re-
search, and enables the student of municipal
institutions to demonstrate what the con-
stitutional historian asserts must be the case,
only under forms which he is scarcely able to
identify, and which lie outside his scope and
period, namely, that relics of the older sys-
tem survive in the modern corporations.?
The other authorities on general muni-
cipal history and archives are varied and
numerous. Particularly should be noted
Mr. Fletcher's very admirable analysis of
the Reports of the Commissioners of 1835,
printed in the Journal of the Statistical
Society, vol. y. Many articles occur in the
fugitive literature of the day, and in the
Transactions of the local archæological so-
cieties, the most important of which are
duly noticed in the following pages. Some
i See Stubbs's Const. Hist., vol. I, p. 424.
Municipal Government. 97
interesting articles appear occasionally in
local newspapers, the Leeds Mercury par-
ticularly giving, during its issues for the
year 1884, many curious papers on the seals
and arms of the corporations of England.
The following list is believed to contain the
principal authorities, however:-
Amyot (Thomas), Remarks on the population
of English Cities in the Time of Edward the
Third. Archeologia, vol. XX, pp. 524-531.
Arnold (Thomas James), A Treatise on the Law
relating to Municipal Corporations in England
and Wales. Second edition, with chapters
on Practice by Samuel George Johnston.
London, 1875. 8vo, pp. xxxviii, 250. Appendix,
pp. ccxcix, and Index. [First edition (with-
out chapters on Practice). London, 1851.
8vo, pp. xxiv, 256; appendix, cclxxxviii; and
index.]
Astle (Thomas), Account of the Seals of the
King's Royal Boroughs and Magnates of Scot-
land. London, 1792. Fol.
Brady (Robert), An Historical Treatise of
Cities and Burghs or Boroughs, showing their
original, and whence and from whom they
received their liberties, privileges, and immu-
nities; what they were, and what made and
constituted a Free Burgh and Free Burgesses.
98
Local Institutions.
representatives to Parliament. With a con-
current discourse of most matters and things
incident or relating thereto. London, 1690.
Folio, pp. vi, 91; insertions, 2 pp.; appendix,
pp. 41.
The same. Second edition. London, 1704. Folio,
pp. as before. [The same book with a new
title-page, a mistake in the pagination being
repeated, pp. 84, 25, 26, 89, 90, 91, 88, then
commencing with appendix, pp. 1-41.]
- A new edition, corrected. London, 1777.
: Pp. iv, 170 ; appendix, 55; index.
Chamberlain (Right Hon. J.), Municipal Public
Houses. Fortnightly Review, 1877, vol. xxi,
pp. 147-159. [Diagram facing p. 148.]
Cockburn (A. E.), The Corporations of Eng-
land and Wales : an account of the constitu-
tion, privileges, powers, revenues, and ex-
penditure of each corporation, collected from
the Reports of the Commissioners. London,
1835. 2 vols., 8vo.
Cornhill Magazine, Unreformed Corporations,
July 1880, pp. 77-85.
Cripps (Wilfred Joseph), College and Corpora-
tion Plate (South Kensington Museum Art
Handbooks). London, 1881. 8vo, pp. xii,
155. (This book does not devote more atten-
tion to the artistic than the historical plate.]
Documents connected with the Question of
Reform in the Royal Burghs of Scotland.
Municipal Government.
99
Second edition. Edinburgh, 1819. Svo, pp.
viii, 144. The Preface is signed “A. B."
Fletcher (Joseph), Statistics of the Municipal
Institutions of the English Towns. Jouirn.
Statistical Society of London, 1842, V, 97-168.
General Report to the King in Council from the
Honourable Board of Commissioners on the
Public Records. Vol. xv, large folio, 1837.
Contains Reports upon the Records of the
following boroughs :-Altrincham, Andover,
Ashburton, Axbridge, Banbury, Basingstoke,
Beccles, Beverley, Bishops Castle, Bodmin,
Bradninch, Bridgenorth, Bridgewater, Brid-
port, Burford, Callington, Cardiff, Cardigan,
Carlisle, Carnarvon, Chard, Chesterfield,
Chippenham, Christchurch, Cirencester,
Cockermouth, Colnbrook, Cowbridge, Crick
lade, Crowcombe, Dartmouth, Deal, Devizes,
Dover, Dudley, Dunmow, Dunwich, Durham,
Falmouth, Farnham, Folkestone, Garstang,
Glastonbury, Godalming, Grampound, Grant-
ham, Greenwich, Grinstead, Guildford, Har-
wich, Hastings, Hemel Hempstead, Hereford,
Holt, Honiton, Horsham, Huntington, Hythe,
Knaresborough, Lampeter, Langport, Llanid-
loes, Leeds, Leominster, Lydford, Lincoln,
Liskeard, London, Looe (East), Love (West),
Longhor, Louth, Lyme, Maidenhead, Maldon,
Marazion, Monmouth, Morpeth, Newcastle-
under-Lyme, Newport, Newton, Oswestry,
Penryn, Plymouth, Pontefract, Portsmouth,
Preston, Queensboro', Radnor, Reigate, Ret-
H2
100
Local Institutions.
ford (East), Saffron Walden, St. Germains,
Salisbury, Sandwich, Scarborough, South-
ampton, Southwold, Tenterden, Thornbury,
Tiverton, Totnes, Tregony, Usk, Wareham,
Warwick, Watchet, Wenlock, Weobly, West-
bury, Weymouth, Wisbech, Wokingham,
Woodstock, Worcester, Wycombe, Yarmouth.
Po. 428-512.
Gentleman's Magazine, Reflections on the Con-
stitution of Incorporated Boroughs. 1787 (I),
pp. 9-10, 105-107, 953-954.
Gilbert (J. T.), Historic and Municipal Docu-
ments of Ireland, A.D. 1172-1420, from the
Archives of the City of Dublin, etc. London
[Record Publications], 1870. 8vo, pp. lxxxviii,
560.
Gomme (George Laurence), Index of Municipal
Offices; compiled from the appendices to the
first Report of the Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the municipal corporations in
England and Wales, 1835; with an Historical
Introduction. London, published for the
Index Society, 1879. 4to, pp. 77.
--- On Traces of the Primitive Village
Community in English Municipal Institutions.
Graves (Rev. James), The Records of the
Ancient Borough-Towns of the County of
pp. 84-93.
Municipal Goverizinent.
IOI
Gross (Dr. Charles), The Affiliation of Medi-
æval Boroughs. Antiquary (1885), vol. xi,
pp. 142-147, 199-203, 233-239.
Halliwell-Phillipps (J. O.), The Municipal
Archives of Dorset. Journ. Arch. Assoc.,
xxviii, 28-31.
Irving (Joseph), On the Origin and Influences
of Burghs in Scotland. Trans. Glasgow
Arch. Soc., i, pp. 333-353.
Lambert (George), Civic and other Maces.
Antiquary, vol. i, pp. 66-70.
Madox (Thomas), Firma Burgi; or, an His-
torical Essay concerning the Cities, Towns,
and Boroughs of England, taken from the
Records. London, 1726. Folio, II leaves,
pp. 297 and index.
Merewether (Henry Alworth) and Archibald
John Stephens, The History of the Boroughs
and Municipal Corporations of the United
Kingdom, from the earliest to the present
time : with an examination of Records, Char-
ters, and other documents illustrative of their
constitution and powers. London, 1835. 3
vols. Svo, pp. lxxi, 16 pages of tables, 577 ;
577 (sic) - 1469 ; 1469 (sic) - 2413. [Arranged
under British Period, Roman Period, Saxon
Period, and from thence under each reign,
ending with William IV.]
Oldfield (T. H. B.), An Entire and Complete
History, political and personal, of the
Boroughs of Great Britain, together with the
OX
102
Local Institutionis.
Cinque Ports, to which is prefixed an original
sketch of constitutional rights. London, 1792.
2 vols. 8vo. [Treats of the boroughs under
the headings : (1) Political Character ; (2)
Ancient State and Representation ; (3) Cor-
poration ; (4) Right of Election ; (5) Number
of Voters ; (6) Returning Officers ; (7)
Patron.]
The same. Second edition, corrected and im-
proved (the sketch of constitutional rights is
not included). London, 1794-97. 2 vols. 8vo,
pp. ix, 434 ; 484.
The same. New edition, corrected (with
author's name]. London, no date. 3 vols.
8vo, pp. xxii, 434 ; viii, 484 ; 548.
Palgrave (Sir Francis), Observations on the
principles to be adopted in the establishment
of New Municipal Corporations, together with
the heads of a bill for their future regulation
and government. London, 1832. Svo, pp.
xlvi, 71.
Parliamentary Publications. Returns from
those boroughs, cities, etc., which may elect
officers, on a Sunday, together with the regu-
lations in such a case. 1833 (4).
Payne (William), A Treatise on Municipal
Rights, commencing with a summary account
of the origin and progress of Society and
Government, and comprising a concise view
of the state thereof, from the earliest period
of British history to the institution of Corpo-
Municipal Government.
103
O
rations in general and that of the City of
London in particular, with an account of the
ancient modes of electing the Mayors and
Sheriffs of London, and the Representatives
in Parliament, and various other matters re-
lating to the Court of Common Council and
the Livery, connected with the public rights
of the Citizens of London, and applicable to
the present state of the times. London, 1813.
8vo, pp. xiv, 144.
Picton (J. A.), Self-Government in Towns.
Contemporary Review, 1878, vol. xxxiv, pp.
678-699.
Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts. Presented to both Houses of
Parliament by command of Her Majesty.
London, 1874-1881. & vols. folio.
Reports on the Records of the following
boroughs are given, the Roman figures indi-
cating the number of the report, and the
Arabic the pages occupied by the report :-
Aberdeen, i, 121-123 ; Abingdon, i, 98-99,
ii, 149-150; Axbridge, ii, 300-308; Berwick-on-
Tweed, iii, 308-310; Bridgewater, i, 99, iii,
310-320 ; Bridport, vi, 475-499; Cambridge,
i, 99-100 ; Chester, viii, 355-403; Cork, i, 128-
129; Coventry, i, 100-102; Dartmouth, v, 597-
606; Dublin, i, 129; Edinburgh, i, 126; Favers-
ham, vi, 500-511 ; Folkestone, V, 590-592 ;
Fordwich,v, 606-608; High Wycombe, v, 554-
565; Hythe, iv, 429-439; Kilkenny, i, 129-131;
Kingston-on-Thames, iii, 331-333 ; Kirkcud-
104
Local Institutions.
bright, iv, 538-539; Launceston, vi, 524-526;
Leicester, viii, 403-441; Limerick, i, 131; Lydd,
1,516-533; Montrose, ii, 205-206; Morpeth, vi,
526-540; New Romney, iv, 439-442, V, 533-554,
vi, 540-545 ; Norwich, i, 102-104 ; Notting-
ham, i, 105-106 ; Perth, v, 655 ; Pontefract,
viii, 269-276; Rye, v, 488-516; St. Albans, v,
565-568 ; Sandwich, v, 568-571; Tenterden,
vi, 569-572 ; Totnes, iii, 341-350; Walling-
ford, vi, 572-594; Waterford, i, 131-132;
Wells, i, 106-108 ; Weymouth and Melcombe
Regis, v, 575-590; Winchester, vi, 605; York,
i, 108-110.
Scottish Burgh Records Society:. Ancient Laws
and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland.
Edinburgh, 1868. 4to, pp. 1, 252.
Vol. i, A.D. II24-1424. i, Leges quatuor
Burgorum Edinburgh, Rokisburgh, Berewic,
Strivelin ; ii, Assise Regis Willelmi, the laws
of King William the Lion, in so far as these
relate to Burghs ; iii, Statuta Gilde ; iv, Re-
giam Maiestatem, certain laws concerning
burghs from the book of Regiam Maies-
of the Barons in so far as concerns the
Burghs ; vi, Constitutiones noue pro Bur-
gensibus ; vii, Assisa de Tolloneis, of petty
customs called Toll ; viii, Custuma Por-
tuum, of the custom of Schippis ; ix, Articuli
1 It should be noted that the British Museum
Library does not possess these exceedingly valuable
publications.
Municipal Government.
105
inquirendi in itinere camerarii, of inquiries
in the Chalmerlan air ; x, Juramenta officia-
riorum ; xi, Iter Camerarii, the Chalmerlan
air ; xii, Curia quatuor Burgorum, the court
of the four burghs-Edinburgh, Stirling, Ber-
wick, and Roxburgh; xiii, Fragmenta Col-
lecta; xiv, Acta Parliamentorum, regis David
Secundi ; xv, Obligations of the Towns and
Burgesses of Scotland anent the ransom of
King David II.-Glossary and Index.
Scottish Burgh Records Society, Miscellany of
the. Edinburgh, 1881. 4to, pp. ci, 295.
Containing : i, Report by Thomas Tucker
upon the Settlement of the Revenues of Ex-
cise and Customs in Scotland, A.D. MDCLVI;
ii, Register containing the State and Condition
of every Burgh within the Kingdom of Scot-
land, in the year 1692 ; iii, Setts of the Royal
Burghs of Scotland.
Smith (William), Old Yorkshire. London, 1881.
8vo. Vol. i, pp. 226-231 ; ii, 192-199, contain
articles on Seals of the Yorkshire Corpora-
tions.
Stubbs (Dr. W.), Select Charters and other
illustrations of English Constitutional History,
from the earliest times to the reign of Edward
the First. Oxford, 1870. 8vo, pp. xii, 530.
Contains the following charters: William I,
charter to London ; Henry I, charters to
London, Beverley, customs of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne ; Henry II, charters of Winches-
106
Local Institutions.
ter, Lincoln, and Nottingham ; Richard I,
charters to Winchester and Lincoln ; John,
charters to Nottingham, Northampton, Dun-
wich, Lincoln, York, Hartlepool, Niort, Hel-
stone, London.
Thompson (James), An Essay on English Mu-
nicipal History. London, 1867. 8vo, pp. xii,
196.
Contents : Cap. i, The Roman-British Mu-
nicipalities; ii, Saxon Town Institutions; iii,
The Borough of St. Albans ; iv-vii, The
Borough of Leicester ; viii, The Borough of
Preston ; ix-xi, The City of Norwich; xii, The
Borough of Yarmouth ; xiii-xiv, On Market
Towns not Incorporated ; xv, Municipal In-
signia ; xvi, The French Communes ; xvii,
Comparison between the French Communes
and English Boroughs ; xviii, Practical Con-
clusions.
- The Municipal Franchises of the Mid-
dle Ages, illustrated by documents from the
archives of the town of Leicester. Gentle-
man's Magazine, 1851, vol. XXXV (N. S.), pp.
260-263, 596-599 ; vol. Xxxvi (N. S.), pp.
244-249.
Vine (J. R. Somers), English Municipal Insti-
tutions : their growth and development from
1835 to 1879 statistically illustrated. Lon-
don, 1879. Svo, pp. viii, 272.
Contents: Introduction.—Nature and Con-
stitution of the English Municipal Corpora-
tions.—Short Historical Sketch of the English
Municipal Government.
107
Municipalities.-Acts of Parliament relating
to the English Municipal Corporations (1835-
1878), with an outline of their general purport.
-The Growth and Development of the Eng-
lish Municipalities subject to 5 and 6 Will. IV,
C. 76, between 1835 and 1879.- The Unre-
formed Corporations. — Populous Districts
not under Municipal Government.
Wilcock (J. W.), On Municipal Corporations.
London, 1827. 8vo.
wall, with notes on their arms and devices.
Fourn. Arch. Assoc., xxxiii, pp. 179-190.
Wright (Thomas), On the Existence of Muni-
cipal Privileges under the Anglo-Saxons.
Archeologia, vol. xxxii, 298-311.
Every municipal town has not yet found
a historian, and those that have are not by
any means satisfactory. A great deal of
miscellaneous information may, however, be
picked up from these local histories, though
here, as in county histories, the same absence
of information as to government and laws is
to be noticed. Independently, however, of
these local histories, much has been done
with municipal archives, and the accom-
panying list of works on special boroughs
is believed to be fairly complete.
108
Local Institutionis.
PARTICULAR BOROUGHS.
averdeen:
Aberdeen :
Spalding Club. Extracts from the Council
Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen, 1398-
1625. Edited by John Stuart. 1844-48, 2
vols.
Scottish Burgh Records Society. Extracts
from the Council Register of the Burgh of
Aberdeen, 1625-1642. Edinburgh, 1871. 4to,
pp. xxiv, 299.
The same, 1643-1747. Edinburgh, 1872. 4to,
· pp. lix, 392.
Axbridge :
Hunt (Rev. William), On the Charters and
Municipal Government of Axbridge. Somer-
set Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., xv, 6-20.
Bath:
Hunt (W.), The Early Royal Charters of Bath.
Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., xxii (1),
73-86.
Paynter (Vice-Admiral), Ancient Bath Charters.
Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., xxii (2),
1-9.
Falconer (R. W.), List of Charters connected
with the City of Bath. Bath, 1858. 8vo.
King (Austin J.) and B. H. Watts, The Muni-
cipal Records of Bath, 1189 to 1604. Pub-
lished with the approval of the Town Council
and at the special request.of the Bath Lite- .
Municipal Government.
109
rary Society. London, 1885. 4to, pp. vii,
63, and appendix, pp. xliv.
Birmingham:
Bunce (John Thackray), History of the Corpo-
ration of Birmingham, with a sketch of the
earlier history of the town. Published for the
Corporation, 1878.
Vol. i fonly). Contents : cap. i, Early Go-
vernment of Birmingham; ii, Gild of the Holy
Cross ; iii, First Proposal of Incorporation;
iv, Birmingham in the Eighteenth Century ;
v, Establishment of Street Commissioners-
First regular Local Government; vi, Petition
for Charter of Incorporation ; vii, Opposition
to Grant of Charter; viii, Grant of the Char-
ter; ix, Election and Proceedings of the First
Council ; x, The Birmingham Police Act ; xi,
Validity of the Charter of Incorporation Dis-
puted ; xii, The Charter enforced and con-
firmed ; xiii, Union of Governing Bodies in
the Borough ; xiv, Summary and Review.
Bridgewater:
Odgers (J. Edwin), A Short Report on some
MS. Accounts of the Commonalty of Bridge-
water. Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc.,
xxiii, 38-48.
Brighton:
Borough of Brighton : Copies of the Deeds re-
lating to the division of the tenantry lands in
IIO
Local Institutions.
the parish of Brighthelmston in the year 1822,
etc. Brighton, 1878. 8vo.
Bristol:
The City Charters, containing the original in-
stitution of Mayors, Recorders, Sheriffs, Town
Clerks, and all other officers whatsoever.
Bristol, 1736. 4to. [Another edition appeared
in 1792.]
Cranidge (John), A Mirror for the Burgesses and
Commonalty of that City of Bristol, in which
is exhibited to their view a part of the great
and many interesting benefactions and endow-
ments of which the city hath to boast. Bristol,
1818. 8vo.
Bush (H), Bristol Town Duties: a collection of
original and interesting documents intended
to elucidate the above important subject.
ſn. d.]
Manchee (T. J.), The Bristol Charities : being
the Report of the Commissioners for Enquiry
concerning Charities in England and Wales,
so far as relates to Charitable Institutions in
Bristol. Bristol, 1831. 2 vols. 4to.
Nichols (J. F.), Notes on the Regalia of the
Corporation of the City of Bristol. Fourn.
Arch. Assoc., vol. xxxi, pp. 310-315.
Gutch (John Mathew), The present Mode of
Election of the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Common
Council of Bristol considered. Extracted
from Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. Bristol,
1825. 8vo, pp. 50.
Municipal Government.
III
Planché (J. R.), On the Municipal Seals and
Armorial Ensigns of the City of Bristol.
Fourn. Arch. Assoc., xxxi, 180-189.
Ricart (R.), The Maire of Bristowe's Kalendar,
18 Edw. IV. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith.
London (Camden Society), 1872, 4to.
Birch (W. de Gray), Original Documents re-
lating to Bristol. London, 1874. 8vo.
Burton-on-Trent:
Ancient Charters relating to the Abbey and
Town of Burton-on-Trent. (Original docu-
ments.) Fourn. Arch. Assoc., vii, 421-428.
Bury St. Edmunds:
Guildhall Feoffment Estates, as contained in
the Decree of the 22nd July 1771. Bury St.
Edmunds, 1772. 4to.
Canterbury:
Charters granted by Edward IV, Henry VII,
James I, and Charles II, to the Citizens of
terbury, 1791. 8vo.
Civis (pseud., i.e., William Welfit], Minutes col-
lected from the Ancient Records and Accounts
in the Chamber of Canterbury, of Transac-
tions in that City, from A.D. 1234. Canter-
bury, 1801-1802. Fol.
Brent (John), Canterbury in the Olden Times,
from the municipal archives and other sources.
Canterbury, 1860. 8vo.
II2
Local Institutions.
The same. Second Edition. London, 1879. 8vo.
Wright (Thomas), Observations on the Muni-
cipal Archives of the City of Canterbury, with
many extracts therefrom. 1844. 4to.
Chester :
The Case of the Citizens of Chester in answer to
several petitions from Liverpool, Parkgate,
and the Cheesemongers, and also to provide
reasons against the Act to recover and pre-
serve the navigation of the river Dee. Ches-
ter, 1735. Sh. fol.
Chesterfield :
Yeatman (Pym), Records of the Borough of
Chesterfield, being a series of extracts from
the archives of the Corporation of Chester-
field, and of other repositories. Chesterfield
and Sheffield, 1884. Svo, pp. xv, 17.2.
Chichester :
Street (Eugène E.), The Mayor and Corpora-
tion of St. Pancras, Chichester, Suss. Arch.
Coll., xxiv, 135-138.
Clare :
Armstead (J. B.), Some Account of the Court
Leet of the Borough of Clare, with extracts
from the verdicts of the Head Boroughs.
Suffolk Arch. 112st., ii, 103-112.
Clitheroe :
Harland (John), On some Charters and Grants
Municipal Government.
113
to the Borough of Clitheroe. (Original docu-
ments.) Fourn. Arch. Assoc., vi, 425-435.
Harland (John), Ancient Charters and other
Muniments of the Borough of Clitheroe, in
the county of Lancaster. From the original
documents, with translations and notes. Man-
chester, 1851. 4to, pp. 52.
Clun:
A Concise Account of Ancient Documents relat-
ing to the Honour, Forest, and Borough of Clun
in Shropshire, with copies of some of them,
Read to the meeting of the Archæological
Institute at Shrewsbury, in August 1855.
Shrewsbury, 1858. 4to.
Colchester:
Harrod (Henry), Calendar of the Court Rolls
of the Borough of Colchester. Colchester,
1865. 4to.
- Repertory of the Records and Evidence
of the Borough of Colchester. Colchester,
1865. 4to.
- - Report on the Records of the Borough
of Colchester, 1865. Colchester, 1865. 4to.
Round (J. Horace), The Domesday of Colches-
ter. Antiquary (1882), vol. vi, pp. 5-9, 95-100,
251-256.
-- Municipal Offices : Colchester. Anti-
quary (1885), vol. xii, pp. 188-192 ; 240-245 ;
vol. xiii, pp. 28-30.
114 Local Institutions.
Coventry :
Mayors, Bailiffs, and Sheriffs of Coventry.
Coventry, 1830. 12mo.
Dover:
Knocker (Edward), A Lecture on the Archives
of the Cinque Port and Borough of Dovor,
delivered before the corporation and inhabi-
tants on the 25th day of April 1877 ; to which
is added a paper on the ancient connection
between the Cinque Ports and the borough of
Great Yarmouth. Dover, 1879. 8vo, pp. 117.
Dumbarton :
Scottish Burgh Records Society. Dumbarton
Burgh Records, 1627-1746. Dumbarton, 1870.
4to, pp. 107.
In the same volume are bound Dumbarton
Kirk-Sessions Records, pp. 9; Glasgow v.
Dumbarton, disputes regarding Clyde privi-
leges, pp. 10 ; Provosts of the Burgh of Dum-
barton, pp. 2; Members of Parliament for
Dumbarton county and burgh, 1608 to 1859,
PP. 3.
Dundee:
Maxwell (Alexander), The History of old
Dundee, narrated out of the Town Council
Register, with additions from contemporary
annals. Edinburgh and Dundee, 1884. 4to,
pp. 610.
Hay (William, Town Clerk), Collection of the
Charters, Writs, and Public Documents of
Municipal Government.
115
the Royal Burgh of Dundee, the Hospital, and
Johnstone's Bequest, from 1292 to 1880. 1880.
4to. [Not printed for sale.]
Warden (Alex. I.), Burgh Laws of Dundee,
with the History, Statutes, and the Proceed-
ings of the Guild of Merchants and Fraterni-
ties of Craftsmen. London, 1872. 8vo, pp.
X, 625.
Contents : Introduction --- Burgh Laws of
Dundee - Royal Acts and Statutes -- The
Guildry Incorporation of Dundee-The Nine
Incorporated Trades of Dundee : Introduc-
tion, Historical Account, Proceedings of the
Nine Trades, The Baker Trade, The Shoe-
maker Trade, The Glover Trade, The Tailor
Trade, The Bonnet-maker Trade, The Flesher
Trade, The Hammerman Trade, The Weaver
Trade, The Dyer Trade-Pendicles of the
Guildry—The Three United Trades : The
Mason Trade, the Wright Trade, The Slater
Trade-The Maltmen Incorporation-Con-
cluding Remarks-Glossary.
Dysart:
Euing (William), Notices from the Local Re-
cords of Dysart. Glasgow, 1853 (Maitland
Club). 4to, pp. 72.
Muir (Rev. W.), Gleanings from the Records of
Dysart, from 1545 to 1796. 4to, 1862.
Edinburgh :
City of Edinburgh : Rolls of Superiorities be.
I 2
116.
Local Institutions.
longing to the Magistrates of the, from the
year 1567 to 1879. Drawn up, with Introduc-
tory Notice, by Robert Adam, City Chamber-
lain. 1877-80. 4 vols., large folio. [Not
printed for sale.]
Marwick (Jas. D.), History of the High Con-
stables, with notes on the early watching,
cleaning, and other police arrangements of
the city of Edinburgh. Printed for private
circulation, 1865. Small 4to.
Scottish Burgh Records Society. Charters and
other Documents relating to the City of Edin-
burgh, A.D. 1143-1540. Edinburgh, 1871. 4to,
pp. xxvii, 281.
-- Extracts from the Records of the Burgh
of Edinburgh, A.D. 1403-1528. Edinburgh,
1869. 4to, pp. xxxvi, 339.
--- The same, A.D. 1528-1557. Edinburgh,
1871. 4to, pp. lvii, 369.
--- The same, A.D. 1557-1571. Edinburgh,
1875. 4to, pp. xxvii, 304.
Egremont:
Knowles (Rev. Canon), The Charters of the
Borough of Egremont. Cumberland and
Westmoreland Antiquarian and Arch. Soc.,
i, 282-287.
Exeter:
Antiquities of the City of Exeter : Giving an
account of the Laws and Customs of the
place, the Officers, Court of Judicature, Gates,
Municipal Government.
117
Walls, Rivers, Churches, and Privileges. To-
gether with a Catalogue of all the Bishops,
Mayors, Sheriffs, from the year 1049 to 1677.
Collected by Richard Izacke, Esquire, Cham-
berlain thereof. 1681. 8vo.
Vowell ſotherwise Hooker (John), Orders en-
acted for Orphans, and for their Portions
within the Cities of Excester, with sundry
other instructions incident to the same. Lon-
don, 1575. 4to.
- A Pamphlet of the Officers, and Duties
of everie particular sworne officer of the Citie
of Excester. London, 1584. 4to.
Gidley (B. C.), On the Distinctive Style and
Title of the Corporation of the City of Exeter.
Exeter, 1875. Svo.
Cotton (W.), and Venerable Archdeacon Henry
Woolcombe, Gleanings from the Municipal
and Cathedral Records relative to the history
of the City of Exeter. Exeter, 1877. 8vo, pp.
208, 38.
Wright (Thomas), The Municipal Archives of
Exeter. Fourn. Arch. Assoc., xviii, 306-317.
Fordwich:
Bryan (Benjamin), Some Account of the An-
cient Borough of Fordwich, in Kent. Reli-
quary, 1877-8, vol. xviii, 65-70.
Glasgow :
Maitland Club: Burgh Records of the City of
118
Local Institutions.
Glasgow, MDLXXIII-MDLXXXI. Glasgow,
1832. 4to, pp. xxi, 160, illustrated. (The
Prefatory Note is signed by John Smith.]
Maitland Club: Index to a private collection of
Notices entituled Memorabilia of the City of
Glasgow, selected from the Minute Books of
the Burgh, MDLXXXVII-MDCCL. (Glasgow],
1836. 4to, pp. 20. [The “Notice” is signed
by John Smith.]
Scottish Burgh Records Society. Extracts
from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow,
A.D. 1573-1642. Glasgow, 1876. 4to, pp. lvi,
497.
MacGeorge (Andrew), An Inquiry as to the
Armorial Insignia of the City of Glasgow.
1866. [Privately printed.]
Gloucester:
The State of the Case for the City of Gloucester
against the Bill for Disuniting the two Hun-
dreds of Dudstow and King's Barton from
the said city. [London, 1680.] Fol.
Gowran:
Watters (Patrick), Documents connected with
the Ancient Corporation for Gowran. Hist.
and Arch. Assoc. of Ireland, vol. i, pt. ii, pp.
535-552.
Halifax:
Halifax and its Gibbet Law placed in a true
light, together with a description of the town.
London, 1708. 2 parts, 12mo.
Municipal Government.
119
11
Davis (J. W.), The Halifax Corporation. Vol. ii,
pp. 205-210, of W. Smith's Old Yorkshire.
London, 1881. 8vo.
Hastings:
Ross (Thomas), Hastings Documents. Suss.
Arch. Coll., xxiii, 85-118.
Cooper (W. D.), Notices of Hastings and its
Municipal Institutions. Lewes, 1862. 8vo.
Hereford :
A Translation of the Charter granted to the
City of Hereford by King William the Third
... 1697. Hereford, 1820. 4to.
Johnson (Richard), A Lecture on the Ancient
Customs of the City of Hereford. Hereford,
1845. 8vo.
Black (W. H.) and G. M. Hills, The Hereford
Records and the Customs of Hereford.
Journal Arch. Assoc., xxvii, 453-488.
Tohnson (Richard), The Ancient Customs of the
City of Hereford, with translations of the
earlier City Charters and Grants ; also some
account of the Trades of the City, and other
information relative to its early History.
London and Hereford, 1868. 4to, pp. viii,
170.
Hull:
King (Kelburne), The Plate and Insignia of the
Huli Corporation. Vol. i, pp. 231-236, of W.
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Huntingdon :
Griffith (E.), Observations on a Collection of
Ancient Records relative to the Borough of
Huntingdon. 1827. 8vo.
Ipswich:
The principal Charters which have been granted
the Corporation of Ipswich. Translated by
R. Canning. London, 1754. Svo.
Ancient and Modern Perambulations, and Ex-
tracts from Charters, Trials, and other Re-
cords relative to the Liberties of Ipswich, etc.
Ipswich, 1815. Svo.
tomes, and governmt of the same, collected
out of ye records, bookes, and writings of that
town. By Nathll Bacon, serving as recorder
and town clerk in that towne. Anno Dom.
1654. Edited by W. H. Richardson, M.A.,
with a Memoir by Sterling Westhorpe, Mayor
of Ipswich, 1884-5. [Portrait of Bacon, from
the original painting in the Town Hall,
Ipswich.] Ipswich : printed for the sub-
scribers by S. H. Cowell. 1884. 4to. [The
above work, covering an important period of
local history (1200-1648), has hitherto existed
in MS. only, a sealed treasure in the archives
of the town.]
Report by Committee on the various officers of
the town of Ipswich, as originally constituted,
and list of those proposed to be continued.
Ipswich, 1838.
. Municipal Government. 121
Kendal:
Nicholson (C.), History and Incidents connected
with the Grants of the Three Royal Charters
of Incorporation of the Borough of Kendal.
London, 1875. 8vo.
Kilkenny: -
Prim (Sir G. A.), The Corporation, Insignia,
and olden Civic State of Kilkenny. Hist.
and Arch. Assoc. of Ireland, vol.i, p. i, 280-305.
King's Lynn:
Harrod (Henry), Report on the Deeds and Re-
cords of the Borough of King's Lynn. King's
Lynn, 1874. 4to.
Kingston-upon-Thames :
Roots (George), The Charters of the Town of
Kingston-upon-Thames translated into Eng-
lish, with Occasional Notes. London, 1797.
Svo.
Kintore:
Watt (Alexander), The Early History of Kin-
tore ; with an account of the rights and privi-
leges belonging to the heritors and com-
munity of the burgh; extracted from old
records and charters. 8vo.
Leeds:
Smith (William), Old Yorkshire. London, 1881.
8vo. Vol. i, pp. 236-237, contains an article
on the Leeds Civic Sceptre. Vol. ii, pp. 200-
205, on the Records of Leeds.
I 22
Local Institutions.
Wardell (J.), Municipal History of Leeds. Lon-
don, 1866. 8vo.
Leicester:
Kelly (William), The Great Mace, and other
Corporation Insignia of the Borough of
Leicester. Printed for private circulation.
1875. 8vo.
Leominster:
Townsend (G. F.), The Town and Borough of
Leominster, with Illustrations of its ancient
and modern History. Leominster, 1863. 8vo.
Lincoln :
Names of the Mayors, Bailiffs, Sheriffs, and
Chamberlains of the City of Lincoln since
1313. Lincoln, 1787. 12mo.
Llantrissant:
Llantrissant Borough Charters. (Original Docu-
ments.) Arch. Fourn., xxix, 351-359.
London:
Briefe (A) Discourse, declaring and approving
the necessarie and inviolable inaintenance of
the laudable customes of London. 1584. 12mo.
Analytical Index to the Series of Records known
as the Remembrancia, preserved among the
Archives of the City of London, A.D. 1579-
1664. London, 1878. Svo, pp. xviii, 623.
Antiquis (De) Legibus Liber: chronica maiorum
et vicecomitum Londoniarum et quedam
que contingebant temporibus illis ab anno
Municipal Governinent.
123
MCLXXVIII ad annum MCCLXXIV ; cum appen-
dice, nunc primum typis mandata, curante
Thoma Stapleton. (Camden Society), Lon-
don, 1846. 4to, pp. cclxxii, 276.
Arnold's Chronicle, The Customs of London
otherwise called, containing, among divers
other matters, the original of the celebrated
poem of the “ Nut Brown Maid”. Reprinted
from the first edition, with the additions in-
cluded in the second. London, 1811. 4to,
[The ballad is contained in pp. 193-203. A
reprint by Thomas Wright, F.S.A., of The
Nut Brown Maid, froin the earliest edition
of Arnold's Chronicle, was issued in 1836.
London, sm. 4to, pp. xvi, 30.]
Ashton (John) and F. C. Price, Lord. Mayors'
Shows in the Olden Time ; compiled from
various authentic drawings and ancient MSS.
showing the pageants and allegorical struc-
tures in the 15th and 16th centuries. London,
1883.
Bohun (W.), Privilegia Londini ; or the Rights,
Liberties, Privileges, Laws, and Customs of
the City of London. The third edition, with
large additions. London, 1723. Svo, pp. xvi,
498, the Table.
1. The several charters granted to the said
City from King William I to the present
times. 2. The Magistrates and Officers there-
124
Local Institutions.
of, with their respective creations, elections,
rights, duties, and authorities. 3. The Laws
and Customs of the City as the same relate
either to persons or estates of the Citizens-
viz., of Freemen's Wills, Feme-Sole, Mer-
chants, Orphans, Apprentices, etc. 4. The na-
ture, jurisdiction, practice, and proceedings of
the several Courts thereof, with tables of fees
relating thereto. 5. The several statutes con-
cerning the said City and Citizens alphabeti-
cally digested. [First edition is dated 1702,
and contains pp. 472 and Table.]
Brandon (Woodthorpe), The Customary. Law of
the City of London. The distribution of the
personal estates of Freemen dying intestate,
etc. London, 1845. 8vo, pp. 22.
-- An Inquiry into the Freedom of the
City of London in connection with trade ;
and into the laws and ordinances within the
City respecting wholesale and retail traders
and the power of the Corporation over per-
sons carrying on trade within the City, not
being free. London, 1850. 8vo, pp. vi, 56.
- A Treatise upon the Customary Law of
Foreign Attachment, and the practice of the
Mayor's Court of the City of London therein,
with forms of procedure. London, 1861. 8vo,
pp. xix, 243.
cal Municipal Courts as courts for the re-
covery of small debts. London, 1868. 8vo,
pp. 31.
Municipal Government.
125
Brandon (Woodthorpe), The Lord Mayor's
Court of the City of London, and the Custo-
mary Law of Foreign Attachment. London,
1876. 8vo, pp. xi, 71.
Brewer (Thomas), On the Guildhall of the City
of London. Journ. Arch. Assoc., viii, 83-94.
Carpenter (William), The Corporation of Lon-
don, as it is, and as it should be. Comprising
some account of the Legislative and Execu-
tive Bodies, the Incorporated Companies and
Municipal Franchises ; of the income and
expenditure of the Corporation and the man-
agement of its property ; of the past and
present condition of the City Gaols ; and of
the dispute between the Courts of Aldermen
and Common Council. With an appendix
comprising a list of all the Officers of the
Corporation and of the Committees of Com-
mon Council, with an alphabetical list of the
Members of the Court. London, 1847. 8vo,
pp. iii, 112.
[Chancellor (William)], Some account of the
several Wards, Precincts, and Parishes in
the City of London, to which is added lists of.
the Lord Mayors, Sheriffs, and other Officers,
from the year 1660 to the present time ; of
the Court of Aldermen at the time of the
Revolution in 1688 ; and of the Aldermen and
Members of Parliament since that period.
[London], 1772. 12mo, pp. 131.
City Liberties, or the Rights and Privileges of
Freemen; being a concise abridgment of all
126
Local Institutions..
the Laws, Charters, By-laws, and Customs of
London down to this time; containing the
liberties and advantages of the Citizens, their
wives, widows, orphans, and others, and the
laws concerning Wills, administration and
disbursement of Estates, Actions, Attach-
ments, and Sequestrations; also of binding
forth Apprentices, taking out Freedoms, elec-
tion of Officers and Courts in the City, Com-
panies of Trade, etc., as regulated by late
statutes. Very useful to all Citizens and
other inhabitants of the City of London. In
the Savoy, 1732. 8vo, pp. viii, 168, and Table
of Heads.
Collier (J. Payne), An Account of a MS. of
Thomas Norton relating to the Ancient Duties
of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of Lon-
don. Archeologia, vol. xxxvi, PP. 97-104.
TColthrop (Sir Henry:)7, The Liberties, Usages,
and Customs of the City of London, confirmed
by especiall Acts of Parliament, with the time
of their Confirmation ; also divers ample and
most beneficiall Charters granted by King
Henry the 6th, King Edward the 4th, King
Henry the 7th, not confirmed by Parliament,
as the other Charters were. And where to
find every particular Grant and Confirmation
at large. Published for the good and benefit
of this Honourable City. London, 1674. Sm.
4to, pp. 25.
The same. London, printed by B. Alsop for
Nicholas Vavasour, 1642. Sm. 4to, pp. 25.
Municipal Government.
127
Fairholt (F. W.), Collection of Lord Mayors'
Pageants. London (Percy Society), 1843-1844.
2 vols., 8vo.
Firth (Joseph J. B.), Municipal London ; or,
London Government as it is, and London
under a Municipal Council. London, 1876.
8vo, pp. xvi, 775.
Caps. i to v, The Corporation of the City
of London ; vi, The Metropolitan Board of
Works; vii, The London Vestries; viii, The
Gas Supply of London; ix, The Water Supply
of London ; x and xi, Various Jurisdictions ;
xii, Summary; xiii, Corporation Reform;
xiv, Bills in Parliament ; xv, Methods of Re-
form discussed ; xvi to xxi, Constitution of
the Supreme Council ; xxii and xxiii, Work
of the Supreme Council ; xxiv, London in the
Future. Index.
Fletcher (Joseph), A Statistical Account of the
Ancient Prescriptive Jurisdictions over the
Thames possessed by the Corporation of
London. Journ. Statistical Society of London,
1841, iv, 99-110.
- The Metropolis: its Boundaries, Extent,
and Divisions for Local Government. Fourn.
Statistical Society of London, 1844, vol. vii,
103-143.
- A Statistical Account of the Municipal
Provisions for Paving, Lighting, and Cleaning
the Streets and Public Places of the Metro-
polis, and for protecting them from Nuisances.
128
Local Institutions.
Fletcher 45 of Londo8.47, vol
Fourn. Statistical Society of London, 1846, ix,
204-222.
Fletcher (Joseph), Statistical Account of the
Markets of London. Fourn. Statistical So-
ciety of London, 1847, vol. x, 345-360.
Gilbert (William), The City: an Inquiry into
the Corporation, its Livery Companies, and
the administration of their Charities and En-
dowments. London, 1877. 8vo, pp. 376. .
Gomme (George Laurence), On the Early
Municipal History of London London and
Middlesex Archeological Society. 1885.
Harvey (Abraham), A Handbook to the Guild-
hall and the various Offices of the Corpora-
tion of London. London, 1862. Svo, pp. 72.
Historical (The) Charters and Constitutional
Documents of the City of London, with an
Introduction and Notes by an Antiquary.
London, 1884. 4to, pp. xlviii, 338.
Hobhouse (Sir Arthur), The Government of
London. . Contemporary Review, 1882, vol.
xli, pp. 404-416.
Hughson (David), Multum in Parvo: The
Privileges of Southwark, comprised in the
Charters granted to the City of London by
Edward III, Edward IV, Edward VI, and
confirmed by Parliament, containing the
whole of those charters and other authorities,
to prove that Southwark and its inhabitants
are under the sole jurisdiction of the City of
Municipal Government.
129
London and no other. Southwark 1817. Izmo,
pp. 22.
Hughson (David), An Epitome of the Privileges of
London, including Southwark, as granted by
Royal Charters, confirmed by Acts of Parlia-
ment, and established by ancient custom; with
remarks on the repeated invasions of the rights,
franchises, and jurisdiction of the Metropolis
of Great Britain. London, 1816. 12mo, pp.
287, and 7 leaves. containing Introduction,
Contents, and Glossary.
Hunt (Thomas), A Defence of the Charter and
Municipal Rights of the City of London and
the Rights of other Municipal Cities and
Towns of England. Directed to the Citizens
of London. London, printed by Richard
Baldwin, no date. 4to, pp. 46.
Luffman (John), The Charters of London, com-
plete; also Magna Charta, and the Bill of
Rights. London, 1793. 8vo.
Mildmay (Sir William), The Method and Rule
of Proceeding upon all Elections, Polls, and
Scrutinies at Common Halls and Wardmotes
· within the City of London. The second edi-
tion. London, 1768. 8vo, pp. xii, 165 ; ap-
pendix, 24.
The same; with additional notes on
Wardmote Elections ; an historical review of
the City Electoral Franchises ; and of the
Incorporated Mysteries with their Livery-
men, Electors of London, by Henry Kent S.
130
Local Institutions.
Causton. London, 1841. 8vo, pp. ccclxxxviii,
309.
Newall (W.), The Local Government of the
Metropolis. Conteinporary Review, 1873,
vol. xxii, pp. 73-86.
- The Municipality of London. Contem-
porary Review, 1875, vol. xxv, pp. 437-445.
Nichols (J.), London Pageants. Gentlemani's
Magazine, 1824, part i, p. 227 ; part ii, pp.
113-118, 411-414, 514-518; 1825, part i, pp.
30-33, 131-135, 221-223, 321-324, 418-422,
593-595. [These valuable communications
give a bibliographical account of these curious
civic customs, and they have been reprinted,
with additions and notes, in Gentlemari's
Magazine Library (Manners and Customs),
pp. 103-153. The earliest record of a pageant
is that noticed in the French Chronicle of
London, p. 250, as occurring in 1312.]
Norton (George), An Exposition of the Privi-
leges of the City of London in regard to the
claims of non-freemen to deal by wholesale
within its jurisdiction. London, 1821. 850,
pp. 72.
Pulling (Alexander), The Laws, Customs,
Usages, and Regulations of the City and Port
of London ; with notes of all the charters,
ordinances, statutes, and cases. Second edi-
tion. To which is added a summary of the
Commissioners' Report on the Corporation
of London and the Municipal Government of
Municipal Government.
131
the Metropolis, 1854, showing in what par-
ticulars the Laws and Customs of the City
are proposed to be altered. London, no date
[1854]. 8vo, pp. lxix, 580; appendix, 38.
Municipal Constitution of the City of Lon-
don ; ii, The Lord Mayor ; iii, The Alder-
men; iv, The Common Council ; V, The
Citizens of London ; vi, The Companies ; vii,
The Livery;. viii, The Property and Revenues
of the Corporation of London, and the mode
in which they are managed and disposed of;
ix, The Local Rates and Taxes ; x, The
Ministerial Officers of the Corporation ; xi,
The Sheriffs ; xii, The Police ; xiii, The
Courts of Law belonging to the City of Lon-
don ; xiv, The Gaols and Houses of Correc-
tion; xv, The Maintenance and Relief of the
Poor and Sick of London ; xvi, The Laws
relating to Tithes, Churches, Cemeteries, etc.,
in London ; xvii, Laws relating to Buildings
in London ; xviii, Regulations of the Streets,
Sewers, Lamps, and Aqueducts ; xix, The
River Thames and Port of London ; xx,
Pilots, Watermen, and Lightermen ; xxi, The
Quays, Wharfs, and Docks, and Regulations
of the Custom House; xxii, The Civic Regu-
lations as to Trade in London ; xxiii, The
Public Markets in London ; xxiv, The Royal
Exchange and Regulations as to Brokers,
etc.; XXV, The Bankers' Regulations and the
Money Market ; xxvi, The Stock and Share
K2
132
Local Institutions.
Market ; xxvii, The Shipping and Insurance
Regulations in London ; xxviii, Commercial
Sales ; xxix, The Corn Exchange ; xxx, The
Coal Trade ; xxxi, The Retail Trade in Lon-
don, and the Customs as to Apprentices and
Femes covert ; xxxii, The Laws relating to
Victuallers and Tavern Keepers in London ;
xxxiii, Porters, Carriers, and Coachmen in
London.
Riley (Henry Thomas), Mediæval Chronicles
of the City of London. Chronicles of the
Mayors and Sheriffs of London, and the
Events which happened in their days, from
the year A.D. 1188 to A.D. 1274. Translated
from the original Latin of the “ Liber de An-
tiquis Legibus” (published by the Camden
Society), in the possession of the Corporation
of the City of London ; attributed to Arnold
Fitz-Thedmar, Alderman of London in the
reign of Henry III.-Chronicles of London,
and of the Marvels therein, between the years
44 Henry III, A.D. 1260, and 17 Edward III,
A.D. 1343. Translated from the original
Anglo-Norman of the “Croniques de Lon-
don," preserved in the Cottonian Collection
(Cleopatra A. iv) in the British Museum.
Translated, with copious Notes and Appen-
dices. London, 1863. 4to, pp. xii, 319.
- Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis :
Liber Albus, Liber Custumarum, et Liber
Horn. London, 1859-1862. 3 vols., 8vo.
Vol. i, containing Liber Albus, A.D. 1419,
Municipal Government.
133
A
pp. cxxxi, 741. Vol. ii, 2 parts, containing
Liber Custumarum, with extracts from the
Cottonian MS. Claudius, D.H. pp. cxlvii,
432; 433-897. Vol. iii, containing transla-
tion of the Anglo-Norman passages in Liber
Albus, Glossaries, Appendices, and Index,
pp. xiii, 529.
Riley (Henry Thomas), Liber Albus: the White
Book of the City of London, compiled A.D.
1419, by John Carpenter, common clerk, and
Richard Whitington, Mayor; translated from
the original Latin and Anglo-Norman. Lon-
don, 1861. 4to, pp. x, 660.
Royal (The) Charter of Confirmation granted
by the King Charles II to the City of Lon-
don, wherein are recited verbatim all the
Charters to the said city granted by his
"Majesties Royal Predecessors, Kings and
Queens of England. Taken out of the Re-
cords and exactly translated into English by
S. G., Gent. Together with an Index or
Alphabetical Table, and a Table explaining
all the obsolete and difficult words in the said
charter. London (1663]. 12mo, pp. II leaves
and 247.
Schultes (Henry), An Inquiry into the Elective
Franchise of the Citizens of London and the
General Rights of the Livery. London, 1822.
Svo, pp. 56 and Index. [An important pam-
phlet on early municipal customs.]
S., M. [Moses Stringer], Opera Mineralia Ex-
,134
Local Institutions.
plicata; or, the Mineral Kingdom within the
dominions of Great Britain displayed: being
a compleat History of the Antient Corpora-
tions of the City of London ; of and for the
Mines, the Mineral and the Battery Works ;
with the original Grants, Leases, Instruments,
Writs of Privilege and Protection by Sea and
Land from Arrest (except in the Mineral
Courts); or being prest, or serving juries and
parish officers ; as also the Records of the
said Mineral Courts from the Conquest down
to this present year, 1713. London (1713].
12mo, pp. xii, 308.
Ludlow:
Copies of the Charters and Grants to the town
of Ludlow, with a mirror for the men of Lud-
low ; illustrating their Corporation rights, an
account of charitable foundations, three an-
cient descriptions of Ludlow, copies of Magna
Charta, Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus and
the Act of Settlement; and extracts from Mr.
Sharp's Essay on the Ancient Right of Elec-
tion. Ludlow, 1821. 8vo.
Lynn Regis : ..
Dashwood (Rev. G. H.), Extracts from the
Chamberlain's Book of Accounts, 14 Hen. IV,
in the possession of the Corporation of Lynn
Regis. Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc.,
ii, 183-192.
Turner (Dawson), Copies and Translations of
Two Deeds in the possession of the Corpora-
Municipal Government.
135
tion of Lynn. Norfolk and Norwich Arch.
Soc., ii, 193-197.
Maidenhead:
Gorham (G. C.), An Account of the Chapel
Chauntry and Gild of Maidenhead, with a few
particulars of the Parishes of Cookham and
Bray. London, 1838. 8vo.
Maidstone :
Gilbert (Walter B.), The Accounts of the Corpus
Christi Fraternity, and Papers relating to the
Antiquities of Maidstone ; together with a
list of mayors and other corporate officers
from the earliest times. Maidstone, 1865.
8vo.
James (W. R.), The Charters and other Docu-
ments relating to the King's town and parish
of Maidstone, in the county of Kent; with
notes and annotations clearly showing the
right of election of members of Parliament
to be vested in the inhabited householders.
London, 1825. 8vo, pp. xxi, 238.
Maldon:
Addresses and Correspondence of Col. J. Strutt,
respecting the Charter of Maldon. [Plate of
seals.] Privately printed. 1812. 8vo.
· Manchester :
Mamecestre; being chapters, from the early re-
corded history of the barony; the lordship or
manor, the vill, borough, or town of Man-
136
Local Institutions.
chester. Edited by John Harland. (Chetham
Society.) Manchester, 1861. 4to, 3 vols., pp.
626.
A Volume of Court Leet Records of the Manor
of Manchester in the 16th century. Com-
piled and edited by John Harland. (Chetham
Society.) Manchester, 1864. 4to, pp. xix,
208.
Continuation of the Court Leet Records of the
Manor of Manchester, A.D. 1586-1602. Com-
piled and edited by John Harland. Man-
chester, 1865. 4to, pp. viii, 128.
The Manchester Historical Recorder; being an
analysis of the municipal, ecclesiastical, bio-
graphical, commercial, and statistical history
of Manchester Manchester, 1874. 12mo.
City of Manchester: Chronicle of the City
Council from incorporation, October 1838, to
September 1879. Manchester, 1880. 8vo.
Marlborough:
Carrington (F.A.), Ancient Seals of the Borough
of Marlborough. Wilts Arch, and Nat. Hist.
Soc., iii, pp. 114-115.
Monmouth :
The Charters of the Town and Borough of
Monmouth. Newport, 1826. 8vo.
New Lymington :
Records of the Corporation of the Borough of
New Lymington, extracted from the monu-
Municipal Government.
137
ments in the possession of the mayor and
other authorities, by C. St. Barbe. London,
1848. 4to.
Newcastle-on-Tyne :
The Report of the Select Committee of Bur-
gesses of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, relative to
the intended Act of Parliament for the Im-
provement of the Town Moor, Castle leazes,
and Nun's Moor. Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
1811. Svo.
Brown (J.), A Short Account of the Customs
and Franchises of the Freemen of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, with an appendix containing the
charter of Elizabeth, the charter of James,
the Town Moor Act. Newcastle, 1823.
Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of New-
castle-upon-Tyne, extending from 1561 to the
Revolution of 1688. Newcastle, 1849. 8vo.
Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of New-
castle-upon-Tyne. Reprints of Rare Tracts
and Imprints of Antient Manuscripts, etc.,
chiefly iſlustrative of the history of the north-
ern counties, and printed at the press of M.
A. Richardson, Newcastle (n. d.], pp. 1-122.
Bell (John), Collections for a History of the
Municipal Government of the Borough, Town
and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and its
Conservancy of the River. [Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, 1733-1855.1 Fol. [This volume is in
the British Museum, and consists of docu-
138
Local Institutions.
ments, MSS., and extracts from newspapers,
etc., extending from 1733 to 1855.]
Collier (John), An Essay on Charters ; in which
are particularly considered those of New-
castle. Newcastle, 1777. 8vo.
Newport :
Morgan (Octavius), The Early Charters of the
Borough of Newport in Wentloog. Archæo-
logia, xlviii, pp. 431-455.
Northampton :
An Account of the Surrender of the Old Charter
of Northampton, and the manner of their re-
ceiving their New Charter. London, 1686.
Sheet folio.
Hartshorne (Rev. C. H.), Historical Memorials
of Northampton, taken chiefly from unprinted
records. Northampton and London, 1848.
12mo, pp. 25.
Contents: The Charters-Extract from the
Chamberlain's Book of Minutes—Municipal
Archives—The Castle and Parliament-
Queen Eleanor's Cross — The Religious
Houses in Northampton-The Mint-The
Fire.
Norwich:
Extracts from original Manuscripts belonging
to the Norwich Corporation, and other docu-
ments. Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc., i,
1-40.
Ewing (W. C.), Remarks on the Boundary of
Municipal Government.
139
the City and Hamlets of Norwich. Norfolk
and Norwich Arch. Soc., ii, 1-16. .
Harrod (Henry), Extracts from the Coroners'
Rolls and other documents in the Record
Room of the Corporation of Norwich. Nor-
folk and Norwich Arch. Soc., ii, 253-279.
Nottingham: .
Records of the Borough of Nottingham, being
a series of extracts from the archives of the
Corporation of Nottingham, published under
the authority of the Corporation of Notting-
ham. London and Nottingham, 1882--883.
Vol. i, 1155-1399, pp. xvi, 487 ; vol. ii, 1399-
1485, pp. xx, 509.
Heathcote (C.), An English Translation of the
Charter of Henry VI to the Burgesses of the
Town and County of Nottingham, confirmed
to them by letters patent of King William
and Queen Mary, to which is prefixed an
Introductory Address to the burgesses of the
said town. Nottingham, 1807. Folio.
Oxford :
Turner (William H.), Selections from the Re-
cords of the City of Oxford, with extracts
from other documents illustrating the muni-
cipal history – Henry VIII to Elizabeth,
1509-1583. Oxford and London, 1880. Svo,
pp. xl, 478.
Contents: Preface ; i, Entries and Docu-
ments concerning the Controversies between
140
Local Institutions.
the City and the University as to Jurisdic-
tion ; ii, Entries and Documents connected
with the routine business of the City ; iii,
List of Officers of the City ; iv, Regulations
respecting the Trades and Crafts of the Town;
v, The Presentation to the City Churches;
vi, Enrolments of Deeds in the “ Liber Albus",
and other documents chiefly referring to lands
and tenements in or near Oxford.
Peebles :
Scottish Burgh Records Society. Charters and
Documents relating to the Burgh of Peebles,
with extracts from the Records of the Burgh,
A.D. 1165-1710. Edinburgh, 1872. 4to, pp.
lxxv, 456.
Pevensey :
Larking (Rev. L. B.), Custumal of Pevensey, as
delivered to the Lord Warden at Dover Castle
in 1356. Suss. Arch. Coll., iv, 209-218.
Plymouth:
Plimouth Memoirs, containing a chronologicall
account of that corporation, a catalogue of
all the mayors, togather with ye memorable
occurrences in their respective yeares, the
oaths taken by severall officers in said corpo-
ration, particularly of the freemen, both befor
and upon ye Regulation, 1684, the charter
then granted by K. Charles the Second, etc.
Collected by James Yonge, 1684. Edited by
R. N. Worth. Plymouth, 1876. Svo, pp. 58.
Municipal Government.
141
C
Tewett (Llewellyn), The Maces, Loving Cups,
and Corporation Insignia of Plymouth. Re-
liquary, 1877-8, vol. xviii, 97-8.
Pontefract:
Holmes (Richard), The Booke of Entries of the
Pontefract Corporation, 1653-1726. Ponte-
fract, 1882. 8vo, pp. 434.
Preston :
Addison (John), Extracts from Ancient Docu-
ments in the Archives of the Corporation of
Preston. 1842.
Taylor (John), A Brief Description of the
Burrough and Town of Preston, and its Gov-
ernment and Guild. Originally composed
between 1682 and 1686. Preston, 1818. 8vo.
The Charters granted by different Sovereigns
to the Burgesses of Preston Printed from
attested copies, etc. Preston, 1821. 8vo, 2 pts.
Prestwich :
Maitland Club. Records of the Burgh of Prest-
wich in the Sheriffdom of Ayr. MCCCCLXX-
MDCCLXXXII; with an appendix and illustra-
tive notes. Glasgow, 1834. 4to, pp. xxvii,
147. [The Prefatory Notice is signed J. F.]
Rochester:
Authentic Copy of the Charter and Bye-laws of
the City of Rochester. 1749. Fol.
St. Albans :
Black (W. H.), On the Town Records of St.
142 Local Institutions.
Albans. Fourn. Arch. Assoc., xxvi, 143-
149.
Farrington (Serjt. E.), Charters of St. Albans.
1813. 8vo.
Salisbury:
[Easton (J.)], A Correct List of the Mayors of
New Sarum, or Salisbury, with an introduc-
tory account relative to the foundation of the
city. Salisbury, 1826. 8vo.
Southampton :
Charter to Southampton, 1641. London, 1810.
12mo.
Vaux (W. S. W.), Some Notices of Records pre-
served amongst the Corporation Archives at
Southampton. Arch. Fourn., iii, 229-233.
Stratford-upon-Avon :
Halliwell (James O.), A descriptive Calendar of
the Ancient Manuscripts and Records in the
possession of the Corporation of Stratford-
upon-Avon; including notices of Shakespeare
and his family, and of several persons con-
nected with the poet. London (privately
printed), 1863. Folio, pp. viii, 467.
-- A brief hand list of the Records belong-
ing to the Borough of Stratford-on-Avon,
showing their general character, with notes of
a few of the Shakespearian documents in the
same collection. Privately printed, 1862. 4to,
pp. 32.
--- Extracts from the Accounts of the
Municipal Government.
143
Chamberlains of the Borough of Stratford-
upon-Avon, from the year 1585 to 1608. Se-
lected and edited from the original manu-
scripts. Privately printed, 1866. 8vo, pp. 46.
Halliwell (James O.), Extracts from the Accounts
of the Chamberlains of the Borough of Strat-
ford-upon-Avon, from 1609 tó 1619. London,
1867, 4to.
- Stratford-upon-Avon in the Times of
the Shakespeares, illustrated by extracts from
the Council Books of the Corporation, selected
especially with reference to the history of the
poet's father. Illustrated with facsimiles of
the entries respecting John Shakespeare.
Privately printed, 1864. Folio, pp. 127.
Swansea :
Francis (George Grant), Charters granted to
Swansea, the chief Borough of the Seignory
of Gower in the Marches of Wales and County
of Glamorgan. Translated, illustrated, and
edited. London, 1867. 4to.
- Notes on a Gold Chain of Office pre-
sented to the Corporation of Swansea in 1875,
with a list of the gentlemen who have filled
the office of Mayor from 1835 to 1875. Swan-
sea, 1876. 8vo.
Tenby :
Property and Revenues of the Corporation of
the Borough of Tenby, in the years 1835 and
1839. Parliamentary paper, 1840 (611), xli,
545.
144
Local Institutions.
Totnes :
Amery (John S.), The Accounts of the Receiver
of the Corporation of Totnes in the year
1554-5. Transactions of Devonshire Associa-
tior, vol. xii, pp. 322-331.
Dymond (R.), Ancient Documents relating to
Devonshire Association, vol. xii, pp. 192-203.
Warwick:
The Governing Charter of the Borough of War-
wick, with a Letter to the Burgesses, by
Joseph Parkes. 1827. 8vo.
Wincheisea :
Bray (William), A Letter to the Mayor and
Turats of the Town of Winchelsea respecting
the choice of Officers in that Corporation,
A.D. 1609. Archæologia, vol. xviii, 291-293.
Winchester :
Bailey (Charles), Transcripts from the Municipal
Archives of Winchester, and other documents;
elucidating the government, manners, and
customs of the same city, from the thirteenth
century to the present period. Winchester,
1856. Svo.
Smirke (E), Ancient Consuetudinary of the City
of Winchester. Arch. Fourn., vol. ix, pp.
69-89.
Wycombe (Chipping):
Charters and Grants relating to Chipping
Wycombe. 1817. 4to.
Municipal Government.
145
Yarmouth :
Repertory of Deeds and Documents relating to
the Borough of Great Yarmouth. Great Yar-
mouth, 1855. 4to. [King John's Charter is
photographed.]
York:
A List or Catalogue of all the Mayors and
Bailiffs, Lord Mayors and Sheriffs of the City
of York to the year 1664. York, 1715. 8vo.
Torr (James), Antiquities of York City, and the
City Government thereof, with a list of the
mayors, sheriffs, etc., from Edward I to 1719.
York, 1719. Svo.
Davies (Robert), Extracts from the Municipal
Records of the City of York during the reigns
of Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III,
with notes illustrative and explanatory, and
an appendix containing some account of the
celebration of the Corpus Christi festival at
York in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six-
teenth centuries. London, 1843. 8vo, pp. vii,
304.
NI
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arrows
V.-GILDS.
The value of Gild Records cannot be over-
rated. Not only do they throw light upon
a most important portion of social history
during the middle ages, but to a very con-
siderable extent they form the materials for
the mediæval history of commerce We
have in these old documents, too, besides
their historical value, remnants of an archaic
mode of life which appears to me to stretch
far back into times which precede the age
of historians. If I am right in this view,
no time should be lost in getting together
all that remains of gild history and records
in the country, for it is curious to note that
gilds exist not oniy in municipal towns,
where they have thriven most of all, but in
towns which have never had, so far as can
be ascertained, any municipal constitution.
As to the origin of gilds much has been
written, and Mr. Coote, in his Romans of
Gilds.
147
.
Britain, boldly claims them as the direct
descendants of the Roman“collegia". But
I think their true origin must be found in
a much earlier institution than the late-
developed Roman collegium, and this, I
cannot help thinking, is the archaic family
-joint in food, worship, and estate-which
meets us on the threshold of all early
Indo-European history. The Anglo-Saxon
family has not yet met with its historian,
except in one of the interesting and valuable
Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law (Boston,
1876), where Mr. Ernest Young writes on
“The Anglo-Saxon family law”. But even
in the family as it is to be seen dimly
in the chronicle narratives and in the legal
codes of the Anglo-Saxons, there are strong
traces of its fundamental adherence to the
archaic type to be found elsewhere, and it
of the gild. The gild found in the archaic
· family, at all events, its organisation and
its vitality; and when kinship gave way
before commerce, the latter took advantage
of this natural organisation to promote and
L 2
148
Local Institutions.
foster its far-reaching ends. We meet with
the very process going on in modern Russia,
and it will be well for one moment to turn
to this important phase of the question as
guide.
In Russia, where the family ties in their
primitive characteristics are still very
strong, commerce has been grappled with
one of the sons left home to work elsewhere,
he was expected to bring or send home all
his earnings except what he required for
food, lodgings, and other necessary ex-
penses. ... During his absence his.
wife and children remained in 'the house as
before."'i This, no doubt, is the beginning
of the break-up of the family. But let us
see a more primitive state of things. “Very
often the peasants find industrial occupation
without leaving home. ... Occa-
sionally we find not only a whole village,
but even a whole district, occupied almost
exclusively with some one kind of manual
industry. ... These domestic industries
| Wallace's Russia, i, 135.
Gilds.
149
have long existed. ... The head of the
household bought the raw material, and
sold with a reasonable profit the manu-
factured articles at the local fairs.”'l No-
thing could be more instructive in the
right understanding of primitive economic
history than this. The family in this latter
case is collective in commercial as in agri-
cultural pursuits. In the former case the
communal system is kept up by the pay-
ment of earnings to the family chest. But
even when this occurs, the sons form them-
selves, in their character of workmen, into
collective units under the name of artéls.
“The artél in its various forms is a curious
institution”, says Mr. Wallace. “They
were simply temporary itinerant associa-
tions of workmen, who during the summer
lived together, fed together, worked to-
gether, and on the termination of each bit
of work, divided amongst themselves the
profits."
Now in these phases of primitive
economic history, I think we have the
+ Wallace's Russia, 155-156. 2 Ibid., 132.
150
Local Institutions.
germ of the later gild history-the germ
only, not the full growth. In course of
time it became linked to the great centres
of all commercial prosperity, namely, the
municipal boroughs; and when it reached
this point, it is not difficult to trace the
gradual approach of the gild to the
burghal community, the gradual amalga-
mation of both into the municipal corpora-
tion of modern times, or according to the
views of Mr. Coote, in reference to London,
the ultimate overturning of 'the old
burghal constitution in favour of the gild
constitution. There is much dispute as to
the exact period when the merchant
gild merged into the corporation. Mr.
Thompson (English Municipal History,
Introd., p. x), suggests that the reign of
Elizabeth marked the era, but my own
opinion would suggest a much earlier date
—a point, however, that can only be pro-
perly settled by a study of the important
literature which this interesting subject
has produced. One of the most remark-
1 Secular Gilds of London, p. 22.
Gilds.
151
.
able pieces of evidence which I have come
across is from the records of the Gild of
Totnes, dated 1260. Admissions to the
gild seem to have been obtained by pur-
chase, gift, or relationship, and the descrip-
tion of some of the chief formalities of the
gild, given in the Third Report of the
Historical MSS. Commission (p. 342), is
very curious. From the great care taken
in defining the sittings of the members of
the gild, it seems not improbable that a
certain seat or place was assigned to each
trader in the open market of the town, a
corresponding seat being assigned in the
church as well. The whole record rerninds
one of a trading community two or three
stages of development beyond the Russian
artél. The obligations to the community
are kept up by the gild payments and
the occupation of gild seats, whereas
the new departure towards individual
rights is marked by the influences of
purchase and gift, alongside of the older
influences of relationship, while the allot-
ment of church seats brings the whole
152
Local Institutions.
institution within the compass of the old
formula already quoted-joint in food,
worship, and estate.
But it is not possible to dwell upon so
complicated and fascinating a subject as
the origin of gilds within the limits now
available. It is enough, perhaps, to have
pointed out that the last word has not yet
been written, and that scholarly and im-
portant as Dr. Brentano's famous treatise
on the subject is, modern research will
enable much more definite conclusions to
be drawn than was possible fifteen years
ago. There is a fairly extensive literature
upon this section of our subject, and there
are vast treasures still remaining in MSS.
Aberdeen : An Inquiry into the Rights of the
Guildry of Aberdeen. By Mr. Thomas Ban-
nerman, the Dean of Guild. March 1834.
Aberdeen : printed by John Davidson & Co.,
MDCCCXXXIV. 8vo, pp. xvi, 130.
---- Notes on Mr. Bannerman's Inquiry
into the Rights of the Guildry of Aberdeen.
By A. Burgess. August 1834. Aberdeen :
printed at the Herald Office, by G. Cornwall,
1834. 8vo, pp. 34.,
Gilds.
153
Aberdeen: Report on the Affairs of the Guildry
of Aberdeen, ordered by a head court of the
Brethren, 5th October 1835. By a Committee
of Assessors. Aberdeen: printed at the Herald
Office, by G. Cornwall. 1836. 8vo, pp. 168.
- Letter to the Burgesses of Guild of the
City of Aberdeen, regarding the state of their
affairs ; with suggestions as to the course to
be pursued by them. By Leslie Clark, Dean
of Guild. Aberdeen : printed at the Herald
Office, by John Finlayson. 1839. Svo, pp. 28.
--- Report of the Committee of the Dean of
Guild's Assessors, appointed to inquire into
the state of the funds appertaining to the
Guild Brethren, to the Dean of Guild and
Assessors. March 1834. Aberdeen : printed
by D. Chalmers & Co., 25, Adelphi Court,
Union Street. 1834. Svo, pp. 12.
Abram (W. A.), Memorials of the Preston
Guilds, illustrating the manner in which the
Guild Merchant has been held in the Borough
from the Earliest on Record until the Last
Guild in 1862. Preston, 1882. Royal 4to.
Amery (P. F. S.), The Gild Merchant of Totnes.
Trans. of Devonshire Association, vol. xii, pp.
179-191.
Arber (Edward), Transcript of the Registers of
the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-
1640. London, 1875-7. 4to, 4 vols.
Archæologia : a particular note of suche chary-
table good uses as are performed by divers of
154
Local Institutions.
the Companies of London out of suche rentes
as they purchased of King Edward VIth.
Archæologia, vol. xxxi, pp. 386.
Arundell (Thomas), Historical Reminiscences
of the City of London and its Livery Compa-
nies. London, 1869. 8vo, pp. xii, 444.
Contents : The Livery Companies—Their
Origin and Objects—Their Antiquity--Their
Aldermen--Their Mayor—Their Sheriffs-
Their Name Livery– Their Religious Ob-
servances-Their Apprenticeship-Feasts in
Olden Time-Crowning with Garlands-Min-
strels-The Loving Cup and Players-Their
Maidens-Their Holidays-Their Mayings-
Royal Processions-Lord Mayor's Day-
Water Pageants - Out-door Games—Their
Fondness for Dirt in the Olden Times—The
Twelve City Ceremonials—The Relation of
the Companies to Trade-Their Modern Ban-
quets -- Their Armorial Bearings — Their
Training to Arms—Their Warriors- List of
Mayors from 1189 to 1869-Lord Mayors
M.P. for the City--Lord Mayors M.P. for the
Provinces - List of Charters from William the
Conqueror to George III-Index.
Black (W. H.), History and Antiquities of the
Worshipful Companies of Leathersellers of
the City of London. London, 1871.
Bower (S.), The Arms of the Principal Compa-
nies of the City of London. 1698.
Brentano (Lujo), On the History and Develop-
Gilds.
155
ment of Gilds, and the Origin of Trade
Unions. London, 1870. Svo, pp. xvi, 135.
Contents : I, The Origin of Gilds ; 2, Re-
ligious (or Social) Gilds ; 3, Town Gilds or
Gild Merchants ; 4, Craft-Gilds; 5, Trade
Unions. [A reprint of the Introduction to
Toulmin Smith's The Gilds, published by
the Early English Text Society.]
Bristol: Guild of Calendaries at Bristol. Gen-
tleman's Magazine, 1789, part ii, p. 993.
Cheesewright (R. J.), A Short Account of the
Worshipful Company of Cutlers. London,
1882.
[Clode (Charles Mathew), Memorials of the
Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity
of St. John the Baptist in the City of London,
and of its associated Charities and Institu-
tions. Compiled and selected by the Master of
the Company for the year 1873-4 (being the
574th Master in succession). London, 1875.
Svo, pp. xxxi, 746.
Compton (C. H.), The Horners of the City of
London. Fourn. Arch. Assoc., XXXV, pp. 372-9.
Cooper (W. D.), Guild and Chantries in Hor-
sham. Suss. Arch. Coll., xxii, 148-59.
Coote (Henry Charles), Ordinances of some
Secular Guilds of London, from 1354 to 1496;
to which are added ordinances of St. Marga-
ret Lothbury, 1456, and orders by Richard,
Bishop of London, for ecclesiastical officers,
156
Local Institutions.
1597, by John Robert Daniel-Tyssen. Lon-
don, 1871. 8vo, pp. 93.
Coote (Henry Charles), London Notes : The
English Gilds of Knights and their Socn.
London and Middlesex Arch. Soc., vol. v.
Cotton (William), An Elizabethan Guild of the
City of Exeter. London, 1873. 4to, pp. 179.
Daw (Joseph), Sketch of the Early History of
the Worshipful Company of Butchers. Lon-
don, 1869.
Dobson (William) and John Harland, F.S.A.,
A History of Preston Guild ; the Ordinances
of various Guilds Merchant, the Custumal of
Preston, the Charters to the Borough, the In-
corporated Companies, List of Mayors from
1327, etc., etc. Preston (no date]. 12mo,
pp. 115.
The items covered by the etc., etc., of the
title-page are the Corporation Regalia, the
Preston Guild, and the Incorporated Trades,
a Ballad of the Guild of 1802.
Dobson (W.), An Account of the Celebration
of Preston Guild in 1862. Preston, 1862.
12mo.
[Firth (James F.)], Coopers' Company, Lon-
don: Historical Memoranda, Charters, Docu-
ments, and Extracts from the Records of the
1396-1848. London, 1848. Syo, pp. 136.
Fitch (W. S.), Notices of the Corpus Christi
Gilds.
157
5
Guild, Ipswich. Suffolk Arch. Inst., ii, 151-
163.
Fox (Francis F.), Some account of the Ancient
Fraternity of Merchant Taylors of Bristol,
with transcripts of ordinances and other docu-
ments. Bristol, 1880. [Fifty copies privately
printed.] 4to, pp. 147.
Franks (Robert H.), A Letter to Lord Althorp
on the Justice and Necessity of Reforming
the Livery Companies of London. 1833.
Gillespy (Thomas), Some Account of the Wor-
shipful Company of Salters. London, 1827:
Gross (Dr. Charles), Gilda Mercatoria ; ein
Beitrag zur Geschichte der englishchen städt-
everfassung. Göttingen, 1883. 8vo, pp. vi,
109.
Heath (John Benjamin), Some Account of the
Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of
London. London, 1829. (Not published.)
8vo, pp. viii, 358.
- The same, second edition. London,
1854. [Privately printed.] 4to, pp. xvi, 580.
[Contains an Appendix of important original
documents not given in the first edition.]
- The same, third edition. London, 1869.
[Privately printed.] Svo, pp. xvi, 601.
Herbert (William), The History of the Twelve
Great Livery Companies of London ; princi-
pally compiled from their grants and records;
with an historical essay, and accounts of
158
Local Institutions.
each company, its origin, constitution, govern-
ment, dress, customs, halls, and trust estates
and charities, including notices and illustra-
tions of Metropolitan Trade and Commerce,
as originally concentrated in those societies;
and of the language, manners, and expenses
of ancient times; with attested copies and
translations of the Companies' Charters.
London : vol. i, 1837 ; vol. ii, 1836. 2 vols.,
8vo, pp. xi, 498; viii, 683.
Contents : Historical Essay -- Separate
Histories of the Companies-Mercers, Gro-
cers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths,
Skinners, Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers,
Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, Clothworkers.
Humphries (Henry), History of the Origin and
Progress of the Watermen's Company, 1514-
1859. London, 2 vols., 1878-1883.
Jervise (Andrew), Inscriptions from the Shields,
or Panels, of the Incorporated Trades in the
Trinity Hall, Aberdeen, including notices of
the antique carved oak chairs, etc. 1863. 8vo.
Jupp (Edward Basil), An Historical Account of
the Worshipful Company of Carpenters of the
City of London, compiled chiefly from records
in their possession. London, 1848. 8vo, pp.
xix, 338. [“ The first to attempt anything
like a detailed history of any particular Com-
pany."-Pref.]
Kingdon (J.A.), Facsimiles of Early Ordinances,
Minute and Account Books, etc., of the
Gilds.
159
Grocers' Company, 1345-1423; supplemented
by extracts from the Corporation Records.
London, 1883. [Privately printed.]
Kite (Edward), The Guild of Merchants or
Trading Companies formerly existing in De-
vizes. Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., iv,
160-174.
Lambert (G.), The Barbers' Company: a paper
read before the British Archæological Asso-
ciation at Barber Surgeon's Hall, Monkwell
Street, on Saturday, October 5th, 1881. Lon-
don, 1881. Svo, pp. 67.
Latchford (Benjamin), The Loriner: Opinions
and Observations on Bridle Bits, etc. Lon-
don, 1871. [The appendix contains ordinances
and other documents relating to the Com-
pany of Loriners.]
Laws and Constitutions of the Masters, Ward-
ens, and Commonalty of Watermen of the
River Thames. By the Court of Mayor and
Aldermen of the City of London. London,
1828. Svo, pp. xii, 85.
Little (William Charles), An Historical Account
of the Hammermen of Edinburgh, from their
TT:1
Loggon (1.), The History of the Brotherhood
or Guild of the Holy Ghost in the Chapel of
the Holy Ghost, near Basingstoke, in Hamp-
shire. Reading, 1742. Svo.
London : City of London Livery Companies
160
Local Institutionis.
Commission. Report and Appendix. Lon-
don, 1884. Fol. ſ blue book). Vol. i, con-
-
the Commissioners; and (2) the Oral In-
quiry. Vol. ii.
Ludlow (J. M.), Gilds and Friendly Societies.
Contemporary Review, 1873, vol. xxi, pp. 553-
72, 737-62.
Mackie (A. K.), Historical Notes regarding the
Merchant Company of Edinburgh and the
Widows' Scheme and Hospitals. Edinburgh,
1862. 4to, pp. 128; appendix, xlviii. [Privately
printed by Charles Lawson, Master of the
Company, upon his retirement.]
Mitchell (Robert), Sketches of a Glasgow In-
corporation Maltmen and Mealmen] Glas-
gow Arch. Soc., i, 420-437.
Morley (Timothy), Some Account of the Com-
pany of Armourers and Braziers. London,
1878.
Needlemakers : The Worshipful Company of
Needlemakers of the City of London, with a
list of the Court of Assistants and Livery.
London, 1874. 4to, pp. 90.
Nicholl (John), Some Account of the Worship-
ful Company of Ironmongers, compiled from
their own Records and other authentic sources
of information. London, 1851. Roy. Svo, pp.
vi, 610.
--- The same, second edition. London,
Gilds.
Ібі
1866. [Privately printed.] 4to, pp. xii, 657.
[The principal additions consist of pedigrees
of members and benefactors.]
Nichols (John Gough), The Fishmongers'
Pageant on Lord Mayor's Day, 1616. Chry-
sanaleia, the Golden Fishing, devised by
Anthony Munday, citizen and draper, repre-
sented in twelve plates by Henry Shaw,
F.S.A., from contemporary drawings in the
Fishmongers, accompanied with various illus-
trative documents, and an historical introduc-
tion. Printed for the Worshipful Company
of Fishmongers, 1844. Large folio, pp. 32
and 12 plates.
- Coat Armour of the Fishmongers and
Goldsmiths. London, 1859.
Norris (Edward S.), A Short History of the
Curriers' Company. 1874.
Oldisworth (Austin), The Armorial Bearings of
the twelve chief Companies of the City of
London. 1701.
Overall (William Henry), F.S.A. (Librarian to
the Corporation of the City of London], and
Samuel Elliott Atkins (formerly Clerk of the
Company], Some account of the Worshipful
Company of Clockmakers of the City of Lon-
don, compiled principally from their own
records and those of the Blacksmiths' Com-
pany. London, 1881. 8vo. [Privately printed.]
Index, pp. xvii; Introduction, pp. V, 346.
M
162
Local Institutions.
Contents : Introduction, The Company :-
Charter and Bye-laws – Arms -- Seals -
Badges - Colours-Court of Assistants—The
Livery-Freemen-Apprentices-Biographi-
cal Notices of Members-Meeting Places
Feasts-Archives—Plate-Charities - Gifts
to the Company-The Trade :--Regulations
of Workmen-Searches--Patents and Inven-
tions - Importation and Exportation of
Watches and Clocks_False Wörking-Hall
Marking.
Pennecuik (A.), Blue Blanket; or, Craftsmen's
Banner: An Historical Sketch of the Municipal
Constitution of the City of Edinburgh, includ-
ing the Set of the Burgh as established in
1583 and amended in 1730 ; with the Acts of
Parliament ard Council relating thereto, and
Lists of the Aldermen and Lord Provosts,
Magistrates, Deacon-Conveners, the Council,
Representatives in Parliament, Masters of
the Merchant Company, Moderators of the
High Constables, etc., from the earliest time
to the year 1826. To which is added, An
Historical Account of the Blue Blanket, or
the Craftsmen's Banner, containing the
Fundamental Principles of the Good Town,
with the Power and Prerogatives of the Crafts
of Edinburgh, etc. Edinburgh, 1826. Sm. 8vo.
- The History of the Blue Blanket or
Craftsmen's Banner, containing the funda-
mental principles of the good town of Edin-
burgh, with the powers and prerogatives of
Gilds.
163
the Crafts thereof. Edinburgh, 1832. 8vo,
pp. vii, 141.
Pettigrew (T. J.), History of the Barber-Sur-
geons of London. Fourn. Arch. Assoc., viii,
95-130.
Trade Guilds of the City of London. Fraser's
Magazine, April 1879, vol. xix (n. s.), 395-
405.
Pidgeon (Henry), Ancient Guilds, Trading Com-
panies, and the Origin of the Shrewsbury
Show. Reliquary, 1862-3, vol. iii, pp. 61-73.
Preston, An Account of the Guild Merchant of
Preston. Preston, 1762. 8vo, pp. 18. Pp.
9-18 are occupied by a list of the nobility and
gentry who appeared at the balls and assem-
blies at Preston Guild, September 1762.]
-- The Guild Merchant of Preston, with
an extract of the Original Charter granted
for holding the same; an account of the pro-
cessions and public entertainments; an au-
thentic list of the nobility and gentry who
dined with the Mayor and his Lady; also
separate lists of the subscribers to the Ladies'
and Trade Assemblies. Preston (1762). 8vo,
pp. 38.
- The History of Preston in Lancashire,
together with the Guild Merchant, and some
account of the Duchy and County Palatine of
Lancaster. London, 1822. 8vo.
- Preston Guild. Lonsdale Magazine, vol.
iii (1822), pp. 269-73, 344-54.
M 2
164
Ravenhill (William), A short Account of the
Company of Grocers, from their original, to-
gether with their case and condition ....as
also how their revenue is settled . ... Lon-
don: printed by Eliz. Holt for the Company,
of Grocers, 1589. 4to.
Reader (W.), The Origin and Description of
Coventry Show Fair and Peeping Tom.
Coventry, 1824. 12mo.
Register (The) of the Gild of Corpus Christi in
the City of York; with an appendix of illus-
trative documents containing some account
of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Canterbury,
without Micklegate bar, in the suburbs of the
city. Surtees Society : Durham, London, and
Edinburgh, 1872. 8vo, pp. xiv, 362.
Robins (E. C.), Some Account of the History
and Antiquities of the Worshipful Company
of Dyers. London and Mid. Arch. Soc., vol. v,
pp. 441-76.
Rogers (Rev. Henry), The Calendars of Al-
Hallowen Brystowe : an attempt to elucidate
some portions of the history of the Priory of
Fraternitie of Calendars, whose library once
stood over the north or Jesus aisle of All
Saints' Church, Bristol. Bristol, 1846. Pp.
xi, 279.
Rules and Byelaws for the regulation of the
Watermen and Lightermen of the River
Thames. By the Court of Mayor and Alder-
Gilds.
165
S
men of the City of London. London, 1828.
8vo, pp. V, 48.
Scriveners : The Case of the Free Scriveners of
London, set forth in a Report from a Committee
of the Court of Assistants of the Company of
Scriveners. London: to the Master, War-
dens, and Assistants of the Company at their
Court holden 23 day of June 1748. London,
1749. 4to, pp. 88.
Sharp (T.), The Pageant of the Company of
Sheremen and Taylors in Coventry, as per-
formed by them on the Festival of Corpus
Christi; together with other pageants exhibited
on occasion of several royal visits to that
city. Coventry, 1817. 4to.
- A Dissertation on the Pageants or
Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at
Coventry by the Trading Companies of that
city, etc. Coventry, 1825. 4to.
Skaife (R. H.), The Register of the Guild of
Corpus Christi in the City of York ; with an
appendix of illustrative documents contain-
ing some account of the hospital of St.
Thomas of Canterbury, etc. Durham (Surtees
Society), 1872. 8vo.
Smirke (Edward), Ancient Ordinances of the
Gild Merchants of the Town of Southampton.
Arch. Fourn., xvi, 283-96, 343-52.
Smith (Toulmin), English Gilds : the Original
Ordinances of more than one hundred Early
English Gilds ; together with ye olde usages
166
Local Institutions.
of ye citie of Wynchestre ; the ordinances of
Worcester; the office of the Mayor of Bristol;
and the costomary of the Manor of Tetten-
hall-Regis; from original MSS. of the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries. Edited with
notes by the late Toulmin Smith ; with an in-
troduction and glossary, etc., by his daughter,
Lucy Toulmin Smith, and a preliminary essay
in five parts on the history and development
of Gilds, by Lujo Brentano. London (Early
English Text Society), 1870. 8vo, pp. cxcix,,
483.
Symonds (Rev. G. E.), Thaxted and its Cutlers?
Guild. Reliquary, vol. v, pp. 65-72.
Turner (Rev. Edward), The Merchant Guild of
Chichester. Suss. Arch. Coll., xv, 165-77.
- The Ancient Merchant Guild of Lewes,
and the subsequent municipal regulations of
the town. Suss. Arch. Coll., xxi, 90-107.
Wadmore (James Foster), Some Account of the
History and Antiquity of the Worshipful
Company of Skinners. London, 1876. 8vo.
[This book is not at the British Museum.]
Walford (Cornelius), Gilds : their Origin, Con-
stitution, Objects, and Later History. [Re-
printed from vol. v of Insurance Cyclopedia.
Printed for private circulation, 1879.] 8vo,
pp. 57
Walford (W. S.), Observations on a Grant of
an Advowson of a Chantry to a Guild in
34 Hen. VI. Arch., xxxviii (i), 135-48.
Gilds.
167
Walker (T.) and M. A. Richardson, The Armo-
rial Bearings of the Incorporated Companies
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 1824.
Wallis (Richard), London's Armoury accurately
delineated in a display of all the Arms, Crests,
Supporters, and Mottoes of every distinct
Company in the honourable City of London.
1677.
Wilcockson (L.), Authentic Records of the Guild
Merchant of Preston in the county palatine of
Lancaster in the year 1822, with an introduc-
tion containing an historical dissertation on
the origin of Guilds and a relation of all the
different celebrations of the Guild Mercatoria
of Preston of which any records remain.
Preston, 1822. 8vo, pp. iv, 128.
Wilda (Wilhelm Eduard), Das Gildenwesen im
Mittelalter. Berlin (1831]. 8vo, pp. xii, 386.
Williams (William Meade), Annals of the Wor-
shipful Company of Founders of the City of
London. [Privately printed, n. d.] 8vo, pp.
xi, 291.
Wilson (J.), Cordwainers and Corvesors of
Oxford. Arch. Journ., vi, 146-59, 266-79.
Yeats (John), Guilds and their Functions.
Journ. of Society of Arts, vol. xxi, pp. 178-86.
U
UD
III
.
VI.-THE MANOR. ·
So far as historical records are concerned
this section of our subject forms perhaps the
richest. There are no documents so valu-
able to the historian as the old records of
manorial courts, because they show, in an
unexampled fashion, the earliest evidence
of social and agricultural history which we
possess. But, alas ! very little has been
done to get this material published and
available for use. It has been urged over
and over again by students of unquestioned
authority, that the manor court rolls ought
to be published. Mr. Kemble, writing in
1849, said, "It is deeply to be lamented that
the very early customs found in the copies of
court rolls in England have not been collect-
ed and published"; and one of the Commis-
sioners on Historical Manuscripts, referring
to some manor rolls he was then describing,
speaks in the same strain (see vol. ii, p. 69).
The Manor.
169
Mr. Edward Peacock, again, has made a
more direct appeal-alas ! in vain--in the
pages of the Athenæuin for August 1879,
and the following passages of his letter
may be quoted :-
"The writer of the review of Mr.
Turner's calendar of the charters in the
Bodleian, which appears in the Athenællin
of July 19th, draws attention to the im-
portance of manor court rolls, and points
out that they are often in the custody of
those who do not understand their value,
and who sometimes treat them 'as mere
rubbish'. This is certainly no exaggeration.
I have known instances in which such
records have been wantonly destroyed, and
have in my own possession at this moment
several years of the court roll of a Lincoln-
shire manor, which I myself saved from the
flames. There is no doubt whatever that
important records of this class are perish-
ing almost daily. Lords of manors and
their stewards are, perhaps, not so much to
blame for this as historical students are
inclined to think. The importance of the
170
Local Institutions.
kind of evidence these documents furnish
is utterly unappreciated by the ordinary
country squire and his solicitor. En-
closures, the alteration of the law with
regard to copyhold tenures, and several
other causes, have combined to render these
old documents of little service for purely
business purposes, and business purposes
are the only ones for which it is conceived
such things can be required. It would be
out of place here if I were to enter in detail
into the subject, but it should really be
impressed on all persons who have the care
of manor records that they are of value for
almost every purpose for which ancient
evidence is important. The true history of
our land tenure can never be made out
without an exhaustive examination of the
rolls of many times and from various widely-
separated parts of England. As genea-
logical evidence it is not easy to exaggerate
their importance, as they often give legal
proof of marriages and deaths centuries
before parish registers begin. Wills,
charters, and inventories are often enrolled
The Manor.
171
upon them. They moreover furnish what
are probably the best attainable materials
for the history of surnames, and facts,
which are simply invaluable as to the old
nomenclature of streams, fields, enclosures,
hills, and trees.
“If inquiries were instituted, and a list
made of, as far as possible, all existing manor
rolls, a great step would have been taken.
If no other good came of it, their present
custodians would have been informed, by an
authority which they would respect, that
their documents were not rubbish, but
things highly curious and worthy of the
most careful preservation."
The manor and the township are children
of the same archaic parent-the village
community. The former has taken all the
essential parts of the older organisation, and
has left the latter almost devoid of vitality,
except such new vitality as the needs of
the central government have called into
being, by from time to time imposing new
duties and calling upon it to assist in the
increasing needs of the government of the
172
Local Institutions.
State. But while the central government
has thus dealt with the township, it has
left the manor entirely to itself. It has
thus grown under the ever-increasing deve-
lopment of individual rights to become the
appendage of chiefs and lords. Its principal
characteristic has always been the posses-
sion of agricultural and land-owning rights
and duties, and in the constitution of the
so-called feudal manors, we can trace quite
easily most of the features of the primitive
village community, which in very early
times consisted of a band of relations, real
or assumed, who lived together, joint in
food, worship, and estate, and who thus
held property and rights in common, each
villager being the equal fellow of his co-
villagers. How these old rights have deve-
loped into lord's rights on the one hand,
and tenants' rights on the other, is a long
story, but it can be read in the books which
are enumerated in this section. The sub-
ject is one of increasing interest to the
historian and to the economist; and when
it touches upon so wide a question as
The Manor.
173
land owning, it will be seen how very great
indeed is the political interest also. We
have in our midst social reformers, who
would have us adopt the theoretical organi-
sạtion advocated by the communists and
socialists, as they are termed ; and yet it is.
not generally known that to adopt these
political principles would be to travel back
some thousand years of history. Our
earliest ancestors were socialists and com-
munists by descent from early stages of
society ; but before they became English-
men, and thought of empire and conquest
and civilisation, they threw off these social
surroundings, and stepped into the arena as.
individuals in thought and action. By this.
individualism we gained and triumphed in
the past, and it is a thought now worth
bearing in mind, whether to depart from it
would not lead us back to a condition of
things similar to that which kept those great
hordes of valiant men prone and helpless at
the feet of Rome for so many years.
It was once a well-supported assumption
that manors were introduced by the Nor--
174
Local Institutions.
mans, but later historical research opposes
this theory. And yet, after all, it is only
a partial opposition. Manors, as recognised
by lawyers, no doubt cannot be traced prior
to the Conquest ; for the law-loving Nor-
mans created legal fictions to meet the new
developments of the old institutions, and they
clothed the whole political life of England
with a rigid legal dress that of itself made
a new set of institutions. But before the
Norman era, and reaching almost from the
time of the first settlement of England, the
original free communities began to be en-
croached upon by powerful aldermen and
chiefs, and manor courts gradually arose as
appendages of the power of the chief. Then
the Normans gave them a definite position
in the political national system, by closely
knitting the feudal lords with the king and
his authority.
Under the name of manorial court, three
courts are usually included — the court
leet, the court baron, and the customary
court of the manor ; and though modern
legal theory keeps their origin apart, there
The Manor.
175
cannot be reasonable, doubt that all three
legitimately descended together from the
primitive village council (Maine's Vill.
Com., 139).
They represent both legislative and judi-
cial functions; the court baron and cus-
tomary court of the manor dealing with
the proprietary rights of the community,
and the court leet with the personal
matters.
The duties of these manorial courts were
many and significant. Every free tenant
was bound to attend, and a penalty was
imposed upon everyone who was absent
(see Year Book, xxi, Ed. i, Middlesex Iter).
This fine for non-attendance belongs so
thoroughly to the spirit of Teutonic insti-
tutions, and is so universal, that its signi-
ficance will at once be recognised.
The court baron was composed of the
lord of the manor and a certain minimum
number of free tenants, to sit with the lord
as its judges (Ellis's Introd. to Domesday,
i, p. 237). If there were not tenemental
lands enough to supply the free tenants, it
176
Local Institutions.
could only be upheld as a customary ma-
norial court. Both courts are alike in their
jurisdiction, though the court baron has
to deal with freeholders, and the customary
court with the villeins of the lord's domain.
The court baron had the right of admit-
ting a tenant, which answers to the right
of the community to determine whether a.
new settler should be admitted to member-
ship ; it had the right also of determining
the by-laws, the local arrangement for the
common husbandry, the fencing of the hay-
fields (Nasse, Agric. Com., pp. 17-18), the
proportion of cattle to be turned into the
common pasture (Nelson, Lex Maneriorum,
pp. 59-67). It may also hold plea of any
personal actions, of debt, trespass on the
case, or the like, where the debt or damages.
do not amount to forty shillings, which is
the same sum of three marks that bounded
the jurisdiction of the ancient Gothic courts
in their lowest instance, the fierding courts,
so called because four were instituted
within every superior district or hundred
(Blackstone, edit. 1853, iii, 375.
A
The Manor.
177
The customary court appertains entirely
to the copyholders, and in it their estates
are transferred by surrender and admittance,
and other matters transacted relative to
their tenures only. Again we have to note
that the customs of relief and surrender
are remnants of the policy of the time when
every transfer of property required the wit-
ness of the community, to whose member-
ship the new tenant was thereby admitted
(Stubbs' Const. Hist. Eng., i, 85).
. The extensive criminal jurisdiction of the
court leet is amply shown by the present-
ment in view of frank pledge. What this
actually was reflects very clearly its origin.
It had to make presentment to a higher
court of all wrong-doers and criminals with-
in its jurisdiction; a presentment which very
clearly replaced an actual power of its own
before higher courts were instituted. The
duties of this presentment as given below,
are summarised by Mr. Toulmin Smith
from Fleta, and other valuable authorities.
To state whether the roll of inhabitants is
complete; whether any have gone away
N
178
Local Institutions.
under any circumstances of suspicion ;
whether all on the roll have come up to the
folkmote ; touching burglars, thieves, and
robbers, forgers, murderers, house-burners,
and the accessories and harbourers of any
of these ; touching outlaws and returned
convicts ; touching treasure-trove, murders,
and stolen goods found and kept; touching
gaol-breach, rape, abduction, and wrong-
doers in parks, burrows, warrens, etc.;
touching maimings, assaults, false imprison-
ments, and other breaches of the peace ;
touching usurers, traitors, etc., and their
harbourers ; touching petty thefts ; touch-
ing the hue-and-cry wrongly raised, or, if
rightly, not followed up, who raised it, and
by whose default suit was not followed up;
touching land-marks broken, removed, or
altered ; touching watercourses turned or
obstructed ; touching ditches, walls, water-
banks, pools, or anything of like sort,
meddled with, damaged, or otherwise to
any man's hurt ; touching ways and paths
wrongfully obstructed or narrowed ; touch-
ing false weights and measures ; touch-
The Manor.
179
ing watch and ward not duly kept, and
highways not well maintained ; touching
bridges and waterbanks out of repair (The
Parish, pp. 367-368) ; touching the adul-
teration of food (ibid., 404, note T).
Although this seems to be a goodly
list, we have yet to add that so satisfied was
Parliament of the power of courts leet, that
even in one of those statutes on religious
matters which distinguish the latter part
of the reign of Henry VIII, it is expressly
enacted that the leets could enquire touch-
ing even heretics (ibid., 615).
It would seem almost that we have ex-
hausted the catalogue of duties belonging
also to modern vestries as well as to the
court leet; but besides the existence of free
townships, we shall find in a later section
that parochial duties soon become distin-
guished from manorial rights.
Before going further, it would be useful to
give an example of the kind of duties per-
formed in these local communities ; it will
serve to show their extensive jurisdiction,
and it will illustrate what large surrenders
N2
180
.
Local Institutions.
local self-government has made by allowing
itself to be engulfed by the centralising
process which has been going on for so
many years. Nowhere could we find a
better example than in the Scottish baronial
fiefs; and though the English manor is not
quite identical with its Scottish counterpart,
there is not sufficient difference in origin
nor in development to vitiate the force of
the example. Most important particulars of
manorial documents are given in the Re-
ports of the Historical MSS. Commission,
and the following is perhaps an exception-
ally valuable instance. It occurs among
a large mass of documents, and consists
of a
“MSS. volume, entitled 'Court Book of the
Baronies of Newtyle, Keillours, Cowty, and.
Bendochie', begun September 1725, when
Patrick Grant, of Bonhard, Baillie, held his
court at the mill of Newtyle, and at which Mr.
Charles Rattray, of Gelliebanks, produced a
letter of bailliary and chamberlainry, granted
by Anne Countess of Bute in his favour. The
courts seem ordinarily to have been held at
Haltoun and Newtyle, and the proceedings
illustrate the condition of agriculture in the
The Manor.
181
district, and in some measure bear on points of
social economy.
“In a court held on 8th November 1725, cer-
tain Acts were passed and recorded, with a
direction that they should be read over once or
twice in the year, when the tenants should be
convened in greatest number. The Acts had
the following heads :-
“1. Act anent commonties.
“2. Act anent planting and cutting of trees
and breaking of enclosures. .
“ 3. Act anent the milnes and farm meall.
“4. Act anent the moss.
“5. Act anent breaking of enclosures.
“6. Act anent vagrant persons. The tenants
were prohibited from admitting any person into
their grasshouses who have not a visible way
of living, and are not of good fame, and bring not
a sufficient testimony of their good behaviour.
“7. Act anent good neighbourhood. The
tenants in use to have common herds for sheep
and cattle are not to take on them to separate
their flocks, or to refuse to join in the common
charge of keeping herds, and that they have
their respective proportions of grass, meal, and
teathing of their own field, according to their
proper shares, under the penalty of ten pounds
toties quoties.
“8. Act anent the meadow.
"9. Act anent sward ground.
“10. Act anent smyddies.
“II. Act anent stipends.
" 12. Act anent biggins.
182
Local Institutions.
13. Act anent the tenants--attending courts
"14. Act anent sowing of pease.
“15. Act anent complaints and assessments.
“ 16. Act anent the disposal of corns.
“17. Act anent millars.
“At the court which followed this one, other
Acts of a like nature were passed, and bear to
have been made at the instance of the Countess
of Bute, 'and sanctioned by the tenants of Rose-
haugh's Estate in Perth and Forfar'.
“One of the additional Acts thus enacted is
against public-houses and offices not authorised,
and provides “That none presume to set up an
alehouse, brew or vend ale or any other liquors,
neither set up smiddies, or exercise the smith's
craft, nor set up malt barns, or make malt, but
by the special allowance or approbation of the
master ; and when any persons are so autho-
rized and appointed to exercise these different
trades, that all the inhabitants of the Barony
be obliged, as their occasions require, to em-
ploy them; and the brewers, smiths, and malt-
men of the Barony shall be preferred to all
others ; they in their respective offices giving
due service, attendance, and work, to those of
the Barony who employ them. The penalty of
the possessors or tenants not employing them
shall be 405. Scots, and the penalty of the
brewers, smiths, and maltmen not doing faith.
fully their parts shall be tro Scots, besides the
damages.
“Others are 'For ei couraging the enclosing
The Manor.
of grounds', and 'For encouraging and regulat-
ing the spinning of yarn?''1
From this insight into the duties of ma-
norial courts it will have been seen what
good evidence there is to show that they
have descended from an archaic and com-
plete system of polity; and it is not difficult,
I venture to think, in spite of Mr. See-
bohm's weighty evidence to the contrary,
to prove that they owe their present form
to the encroachment of modern ideas of
lordship and modern political necessities, as
represented by the events succeeding the
English Conquest, rather than to the in-
fluences of ancient ideas and political sur-
roundings, as represented by the influences
of the Romans in Britain. This is, of course,
not the place to discuss such a problem, but
it will nevertheless be useful to point out
one or two facts illustrative of the encroach-
ment of feudal lords upon archaic manorial
rights. Norden, writing so late as 1607,
asks, “Is not every manor a little common-
1 Hist. MSS. Commission, Lord Wharnecliffe, v, 623.
184
Local Institutions.
S
wealth, whereof the tenants are the mem-
bers, the land the bulke, and the lord the
head.?" (Surveyor's Dialogue, p. 28), -a
question which is pregnant with suggestions
as to the general aspect of a manor.
It has been well observed by Sir Henry
Maine, that the fact of the lord himself
sitting in the court baron, and having a
representative of competent legal learning
in the court leet, only proves that the
court leet, which was entrusted with the
examination of the Frank pledge, had more
public importance than the other manorial
courts (Vill. Com., p. 140). They are, to
all intents and purposes, lords' courts, or
rather popular courts · bearing a distinct
impress of the lords' encroachment of power.
The popular element, however, was not
entirely eradicated by, or was not entirely
separated from, the baronial elements. The
free tenants had still the right to sit in the
court baron as judges with the lord.
In some cases, however, the lord gained
the whole of the power to himself. This
is put in historical records as especial grants
The Manor.
185
of the crown. But they were the trans-
ference of rights which belonged to the
people's courts to some powerful noble or
prelate. According to English law terms,
it was the granting sac and soc. “Saca” was
the power and privilege of hearing and
determining causes and disputes, levying
forfeitures and fines within a certain pre-
cinct. “Soca" was the territory or precinct
in which the saca and other privileges were
exercised (Laws of Ed. Conf., Wilkins,
p. 202, quoted by Sir H. Ellis, Introd. to
Domes., i, 273). Upon this point Mr.
Pearson says :
“Having to protect and control a number
of dependants, it was natural that the noble
should attempt to withdraw them from the
operation of the local courts, in which he
had no voice. Special jurisdictions were
hence created by the side of the townships
and tithings, but with the markworthy
difference that they were not popular, but
aristocratic or feudal. Their appropriate
name was the soke, and the men subject to
them were soc-men. Their powers were
186
Local Institutions.
subordinate to the county gemots (Cd. Dipi,
i, p. xlvi); their functions were mixed, and
they have survived to the present day the
shadows of ancient feudality, as courts
baron for civil matters, and as courts leet
for the original frank-pledge purpose, the
ordering of the police, by a view of the
tenantry."
Dr. Stubbs, in pursuing this subject, men-
tions instances of special grants by the
king, in which the grantee would hold the
courts on his own estate (Const. Hist., i,
107), and most probably in his own hall.2
“At the time of the Conquest”, says the
Year Book of Edward I (xx Ed. I, p. 12),
"the manors with the franchises appurte-
nant were given to those who could lay
hold of them.” And bearing in mind the
nature and necessities of feudal sovereignty,
it will be seen how, with such grants as
i Blackstone, bk. iii, cap. 4, bk. iv, cap. 19; Pear-
son's England, p. 176.
2 An entry in Domesday at Burtone in Lincolnshire,
indicates that an “aula”, hall, or mansion, frequently
accompanied the 'soca”.- Ellis, Introd. to Domesday,
i, 274.
The Manor.
187
these, the lords would become more and
more powerful as necessary links in the
chain that bound the nation together. In
places where royal grants did not directly
aid them, the political requirements of the
age did so; and in places where the royal
grant placed power in their hands they
wielded it absolutely.
There are some interesting historical facts
connected with the hall of the chief which
may be noted perhaps, especially as they
introduce us to a valuable series of records.
The hall was a very important portion of
the lord's dominion. It was the seat of
justice, as well as the place of gathering
upon all festive occasions, at which the
chief, as in the celebrated instance of Fergus
Mac Ivor, entertained his tenantry and
followers. Sir Henry Ellis, in his intro-
duction to the Domesday Book (i, 232),
tabulates instances to show that the hall
was the usual appendage of a manor, and
was often used in the sense of "caput
manerii”, the capital village of a barony,
where the baron had his principal seat and
.188
Local Institutions.
common residence. We find this hall of
great importance also with the great
northern peoples, whose history is closely
allied with our own. Dr. Dasent, in the
introduction to his Story of Burnt Njal,
gives an elaborate description of the build-
ing, accompanied by some valuable plans
showing its construction. We are not sur-
prised, therefore, to find mention of “ Hal-
mote" records as belonging to old baronial
manors. Thus in the Hatton collection,
described in the first report of the Historical
Manuscripts Commission, we have the Hal-
mote Book of the manor of Raunds (i, 31),
and the Marquis of Bath possesses a whole
series of Halmote rolls, ranging from 1261
to 1540. Unfortunately, such old records
as these have never yet been published, and
we cannot therefore do more than be thank-
ful to know that they exist among the rich
historical archives of England. .
The most important historical review of
manorial customs and their archaic value
is—
Seebohm (Frederic), The English Village Com-
The Manor.
189
munity Examined in its Relations to the
Manorial and Tribal Systems, and to the
Common or Open-field System of Husbandry.
London, 1883. 8vo, pp. xxi, 464.
And Mr. Elton's Origins of English His-
tory (London, 1883) should also be con-
sulted. Mr. Seebohm's book has almost
revolutionised historical opinion upon the
origin of the manor. He claims for the
manorial system an origin going back to
the times of the Roman Empire, and boldly
declares that there is no evidence of the
free village community in England, but only
of a village community in serfdom under
the manor. Throughout all the pages of
Mr. Seebohm's remarkable book the student
is met by important and interesting facts
bearing upon the early social history of
the English people, and though I venture
to differ from the main conclusions he has
drawn, there can be no question that they
must enormously influence the lines of
future research.
General treatises of great value have
been published at the time when manorial
190
.
Local Institutions.
law had an extensive sway in the life of
the nation ; and these books are of great
importance now, for the purpose of gather-
ing up the remnants of this old life, which
has now so completely passed away. The
most important of these are the following:
The Maner of Kepynge a Courte Baron and a
Lete, with diuers fourmes of entreis, playntes,
processes, presentmētes, and other matters
determinable there. Newely imprynted and
corrected. Black letter, 12mo, fol. Din
eights E 1. 2. Impressum Londini in vico
qui vocatur Fletstret, per me, Elizabeth Pyke-
rynge, viduam nuper vxoram spectabilis viri
Roberti Redmani.
Covrt Leete et Covrt Baron, collect. per John
Kitchen de Greies Inne, vn apprentice in ley;
et les cases & matters necessairies pur sene-
schals de ceus courts a scier & pur les students
de les measons del chauncerie ore noulement
imprimee & per le author mesme corrigee
onesque diuers nouel additions come court de
Marshalsey; auncient demesne, court de
pipowders, essoines, imparlance, view, ac-
tions, contracts, pleadings, maintenance, &
diuers auter matters. In ædibus Thomæ
Wright & Bonhomi Norton, 1598. 8vo, II
leaves and fol. 289 ; table 3 leaves. -
Crompton (R.), L'avthoritie et iurisdiction des
The Manor.
191
covrts de la Maiestie de la Roygne : neuel-
mont collect. & compuse. London, 1637.
Sm. 4to, fol. 232.
Contents: De Treshavlt court de Parlia-
ment-de Starchamber—de Chauncerie-de
Banco Regis—de hault Steward et Constable
Dengleterre--de Admiraltie de Engleterre-
de Common Banke-de Marshalsey—d'es-
cheker-de Gardes et Liueries—des Justices
de Gaole Deliueriedes Justices de oyer et
terminer -- de Duchy de Lancaster-de coun-
ties palantine de Lancaster, Chester, et Dur-
ham et les Cinque Portes-des Justices in Eire
-des Justices del Forest-de Justices d'As-
sises et nisi prius-deschetors-de Coroners
del Clerk del Market--de Piepowders, Faires,
et Markets—de tourne de Viscount-de Hun-
dred et County Court.
Coke (Sir Edward), Three Law Tracts : i, The
Compleat Copyholder : being a discourse of
the antiquity and nature of manors and
copyholders. ii, .... iii, ... To which are
added the old tenures; also some notes and
additions to Lord Coke's Cominentary upon
Littleton, showing how the laws are altered
since those authors wrote. By William Haw-
kins. London, 1.764. 8vo, xii, 364, the table.
Court-Keeper's (The) Companion, containing all
common business of courts leet and courts
baron : as the charges to the juries, proceed-
ings in court and entries in the rolls ; with
precedents of copies of court-roll grants,
· 192
Local Institutionis.
admittances, surrenders, presentments, etc.,
of copyhold estates for lives and in fee.
To which is added the general customs of
copyhold estates, and some special cases of
law concerning them and the business of
Court-keeping; and also some necessary
precedents relating to land stewardship, etc.
In the Savoy : printed by Eliz. Nutt ......
1717. 12mo, pp. 214, and table to pp. un-
numbered.
Powell (Robert), A Treatise of the antiquity,
authority, uses, and jurisdiction of the an- :
cient Courts of Leet; or, View of Frank-
pledge, and of subordination of Government
derived from the institution of Moses, the first
legislator, and the first immitation of hirn in
this island of Great Britaine by King Alfred,
and continued ever since: together with addi-
tions and alterations of the moderne lawes.
and statutes inquirable at those courts untill
this present yeare 1642, with a large explica-
tion of the old oath of allegiance, and the
king's royall office of protection annexed.
Published by Robert Powell, of New Inne,
gent. London, printed by Richard Badger,
1642. Sm. 4to, pp. A 3, 241.
Scroggs (Sir Will., Knt.) (sometime Lord Chief
Justice of England, published from the
Manuscripts of], The Practice of Courts Leet
and Courts Baron, with full and exact direc-
tions for making up Court-Rolls, as well of
Courts Leet as of Courts Baron : as also the
The Manor.
· 193
manner of drawing and entering all sorts of
presentments and forfeitures in courts leet,
and of surrenders, admissions, and reco-
veries in the nature of writs of entry sur
disseisin en le post at the common law.
Likewise several curious matters and notes in
law relating to presentments, distress, amer-
ciaments, fines, rescous, replevin, wastes,
estrays, by-laws, harriots, escheat, surren-
ders, etc., with directions for giving charges
to the jury and homage at a court leet and
a court baron. To this third edition are added
very large additions, and the late Acts of
Parliament concerning the duty of surrenders,
admittances, etc., the whole carefully cor-
rected from the errors of the.former impres-
sion. In the Savoy: printed by T. Nutt, as-
signee of Edward Sayer, Esq., for T. Walthoe,
in the Middle-Temple Cloysters ; and at his
shop in Stafford. 1774. 8vo, preface; pp. I-
498; the table.
Ritson (Joseph), Jurisdiction of Courts Leet.
London, 1809. Svo.
The most important of the modern
treatises on manorial law are :
Watkins (Charles), Treatise on Copyholds.
Fourth edition. London, 1825. 2 vols., 8vo.
Elton (C. J.), Custom and Tenant Right. Lon-
don, 1884. 8vo. [Appended to the essay are
a Minute of the Copyhold Commissioners
(April 1865), a short notice of Manorial
194
Local Institutions.
Courts, The Customs of Yetminster Prima,
Old Forms of Primogeniture, Parliamentary
Surveys, Westmoreland, and the principal
provisions of the Copyhold Enfranchisement
Bill, 1882.]
The best general collection of examples of
tenures on land is :
Hazlitt (W. Carew), Tenures of Land and Cus-
toms of Manor. Originally collected by
Thomas Blount, and republished with large
additions and improvements in 1784 and 1815.
London, 1874.' Zvo, pp. xv, 456. [Arranged
alphabetically under the names of the manors.]
Special collections, relating to particular
manors or districts, are :
Andrews (W.), History of the Dunmow Flitch
of Bacon Custom. London, 1877. 8vo.
Beamont (William), Warrington in 1465, as
described in a contemporary rent roll of the
Legh family, in the possession of Thomas
Legh, Esq., of Lynn Park. Manchester,
1849. 4to.
Beauchamp (Earl)], Excerpta e Scrinio Maner-
iali de Madresfield in com. Vigorn. [Pri-
vately printed] 1873. 4to, pp. iv, 46.
Case (The) of the Commoners of the Mannor of
Epworth in the Isle of Axholme, in the County
of Lincoln. London, 169-.. Sheet folio.
The Manor.
195
Case (The) of the Mannor of Epworth con-
cerned in the Bill for an Act for settling the
level of Hatfield Chase. [London, 169-.]
Sheet folio.
Charnock (R. S.), Ancient Manorial Customs,
Tenures, etc., of Essex. 1870. 8vo.
Clark (George Thomas), The Custumary of the
Manor and Soke of Rothley, in the county of
Leicester. Archeologia, vol. xlvii, pp. 89,
130.
Corner (George R.), Borough English as exist.
ing in the county of Sussex. Suss. Arch.
Coll., vi, 164-189.
Croftes (Richard), Particulars of the Manor of
Little Saxham, in the county of Suffolk. Bury
St. Edmunds, 1788. Folio.
Duckett (Sir G.), Westmoreland : its Tenures,
General History, and Post Mortem Inquests.
Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiq. and
Arch. Soc., iv, 13-15.
Dwarris (Sir Fortunatus), Local Laws, Courts,
and Customs of Derbyshire. Fourn. Arch.
Assoc., vii, 199-210.
Elton (Charles Isaac), The Tenures of Kent.
London, 1867. 8vo.
Figg (William), Manorial Customs of Southese-
with-Heighton, near Lewes. Suss. Arch. Coll.,
iii, 249-252.
- Tenantry Customs in Sussex-The
02
196
Local Institutions.
Drinker Acres. Suss. Arch. Coll., iv, 305-
308.
Fitch (W. S.), A Catalogue of Suffolk Manorial
Registers, Royal Grants and Deeds, Court
Baron, Leet, and Rent Rolls, Surveys .....
and other documents, collected for the pur-
pose of illustrating a history of the county.
Great Yarmouth, 1843. 8vo.
Gad Whip Service rendered at Caistor Church
for lands at Broughton, Lincolnshire. Arch.
Fourn., vi, 238-248.
Hibbert (Samuel), Illustrations of the Customs
of a Manor in the North of England during
the 15th century. Edinburgh, 1822. 4to.
Imber (M.), The Case; or, an Abstract of the
Customs of the Manor of Merdon, in the
parish of Hursley, in the county of South-
ampton. London, 1707. 8vo.
Ingleby (Dr. C. M.), Shakespeare and the En-
closure of Common Fields at Welcombe, be-
ing a fragment of the Public Diary of Thomas
Greene, Town Clerk of Stratford-upon-Avon,
1614-1617, reproduced in autotype, with let-
terpress transcript. Edited with introduction
and notes by Dr. Ingleby. 1885. Sm. folio.
Only 50 copies printed.
The diary is presented in two forms : 1, a
reproduction, by the autotype process, of the
whole manuscript; 2, a literal transcript of
- the same, with the abbreviations expanded,
The Manor.
197
an historical introduction, and explanatory
notes.
Jones (William Arthur), The Customs of the
Manor of Taunton Deane. Somerset Arch.
and Nat. Hist. Soc., xviii, 76-99.
Lawrence (P. H.), Extracts from the Court
Rolls of the Manor of Wimbledon, extend-
ing from i Edward IV to A.D. 1864 ; selected
from the original rolls. London, 1866. 8vo,
pp. xii, 650.
Locke (Richard), The Customs of the Manor
of Taunton and Taunton Deane, agreeable to
the ancient Court Rolls and Customaries of
the said Manor; to which is added a par-
ticular of the fees taken by the Town Clerk
of the Castle of Taunton. Taunton (no date).
8vo, pp. 74.
Maitland Club: Notices from the Local Records
of Dysart. Glasgow, 1853. 4to, pp. X, 72.
Presented to the President and Members
of the Maitland Club by William Euing.
Peacock (Edward), Notes from the Court Rolls
of the Manor of Scotter, Lincolnshire.
Archæologia, vol. xlvi, pp. 371-388.
Robinson (Thomas), Common Law of Kent;
or, the Customs of Gavelkind. London, 1822.
Third edition.
history of gavelkind and other remarkable
198
Local Institutions.
.
customs in the county of Kent. London,
1851. 8vo.
Savill (J. W.), History of Dunmow; comprising
complete histories of the manors, etc. Dun-
mow, 1865. Svo.
Scrope (G. Poulett), On the Self-Government
of Small Manorial Communities as exempli-
fied in the Manor of Castle Combe. Wilts
Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., iii, 145-163.
Shillibeer (H. B.), The Ancient Customs of the
Manor of Taunton Deane, collected from the
records of the manor. Presented by the jury
at the Law Day Court, the 24th April, 1817,
and published under their sanction; to which
are prefixed some introductory observations
on copyholds in general, and remarks on
those of this manor in particular, with the
origin, history, and nature of courts leet and
courts baron. Taunton, Tiverton, and Lon-
don, 1821. 8vo, pp. vii, 29.
Somner (William), Treatise of Gavelkind (of
Kent), both name and thing; with his Life
by Bp. White Kennett. London, 1726. 4to.
[At the end is an appendix of such muni-
ments, charters, etc. (in Anglo-Saxon) as are
quoted in the preceding pages.]
The Free Customes, Benefits, and Priviledges
of the copyhold Tennents of the Mannors of
Stepny and Hackny. At London, printed by
William Jones, 1617. 4to.
Customs and Privileges of the Manors of
The Manor.
199
Stepney and Hackney, in the county of Mid-
dlesex. [London] in the Savoy, 1736. 12mo,
pp. 128.
Stevens (Rev. Henry), The Dumb Borsholder
of Chart, in the Parish of Wateringbury.
Arch. Cant., ii, 85-88.
Wentworth (George), Some Account of the
Town and Manor of Wakefield and Sandal
Castle. Fourn. Arch. Assoc., xx, 120-136.
Williams (Benjamin), An Account of the Officers
in a Manor in Oxfordshire, with remarks upon
the hide of land. Arch., xxxiii, 269-278; xxxv,
475-479.
KV
.
VII.-THE TOWNSHIP AND PARISH.
In thể previous section it has been pointed
out that the manor and township descend
from one archaic original. While the
manor has taken upon itself all the old
rights and privileges of the agricultural
community, the township, under its
ecclesiastical name of the parish, has be-
come the administrative unit of the State
machinery, and at the same time the sport
of all the political theorists who have had
the power and the opportunity of passing
their theories into Acts of Parliament.
This state of things prevents one aspect
of the township from being properly seen,
namely, that in some instances, through
the agency of local forces which cannot now
be discovered, it has retained functions
which almost universally belong to the
stricter organisation of the manor. It is
very important to note these early traces of
The Township and Parish.
201
the parent system living on in the town-
ship, because they must have an important
bearing upon the history of the manorial
system ; and, if I mistake not, they supply
evidence of the existence of the free village
community in England-evidence which
Mr. Seebohm has failed to observe. It is
clear that, with reference to the agricultural
features of the township, there can be no
question of a descent from an original vil-
lage community in serfdom, if the manorial
system is considered to be the legitimate
descendant of that early organisation. In
the township there is no lord at the apex
of the community, and in his place is the
township assembly. The agricultural rights
and duties of this assembly are archaically
of much interest, and I would urge upon
students the necessity of collecting as much
evidence as possible upon this subject. We
cannot gather the full significance of such
evidence until we have a long range of
examples before us, and.then I venture to
think both the historian and the economist
will have a word to say upon it. Already
202
Local Institutions.
the subject has passed from its proper
academical treatment to the wilder theories
of political reformers ; and, again, on this
account, I would urge the necessity of sift-
ing and examining old historical progress
before attempting to legislate upon the
many features which belong to the domain
of local self-government.
Some few examples of the agricultural
rights and duties of the township must be
given, and the following are selected from
a mass of information which has taken
years to collect.
The marshes and common lands of the
parish of Tottenham, Middlesex, contain
about 298 acres. The names of the marshes
are: Lock Mead Marsh ; Clendish Hills
Marsh; Mill Mead Marsh; Mitchley Marsh;
Broad Mead Marsh; Wild Marsh. The names
of the common fields are: Down Field; Hall
Field. The common fields and marshes (ex-
cept Mitchley) open on the 12th August
for cows and horses only belonging to the
parishioners, and close on the 5th April.
Mitchley Marsh opens about the 26th
The Township and Parish.
203
September, and shuts up at the same time
as the others. The propriety of regulating
the custom of turning cattle into the
marshes was taken into consideration by
the parishioners on the 17th July 1821.
It appeared to the vestry, by reference
to ancient documents, that the right of
turning cattle into the marshes belonging
to the parish rests with the inhabitant
householders only; and it was ordered to be
presented to the next court leet, request-
ing the interference of the proper officer of
the manor to carry the intentions of the
vestry into effect. The leet jury presented
"that by the custom of the manors of
Tottenham no person has a right to turn
cattle into the marshes of the manors other
than resident householders”, and the Hay-
ward was directed not to mark the cattle
of any person except a resident householder
of the parish of Tottenham. The inhabi-
tants in vestry appointed a committee to
inquire into the original rights and customs
of the marshes, who, at a vestry held 29th
March 1824, reported that ".... period
204
Local Institutions.
of opening the marshes has been in many
instances regulated by the vestry, but by
13 Geo. III, cap. 81, the power of regulat-
ing the same is vested in a majority of the
owners and occupiers of the lammas lands;
and that certain pieces of lammas lands
had been mowed twice in one season, and
other pieces fed previous to the time of
opening—such practice cannot be suffered,
and in case of a repetition of the same, that
the lord of the manor be requested to pro-
secute the party offending." At a vestry
held July 26, 1713, it was agreed "that
whereas the season of the year being very
wet, insomuch that several persons cannot
gett their crops out of the marshes by
Lammas day next as usuall, by reason
thereof wee do hereby order that no cattle
shall be turned into the said marshes untill
fourteen days after Lammas day afore-
said. ..."
These important examples of the vestry
taking action in matters usually manorial
are given in Robinson's History of Totten-
ham (vol. i, pp. 138, 139, 142), and there
The Township and Parish.
205
are other examples given besides alienation
of Lammas lands by the vestry on 18th
December 1769, and 23rd August 1773.
According to Mr. Toulmin Smith (The
Parish, p. 464), permission is often given to
individuals, by the inhabitants in vestry
assembled, to enclose certain parts of the
common or waste within the parish, on
certain conditions; and a record of the
transaction being entered on the Parish
Minute Book. “To some persons, who
have not examined into the subject of
parish history and acts,” says Mr. Smith,
“this may be unknown; and very likely
the title so derived may be one that many
a conveyancer would be puzzled to deal
with. It is probable, however, that there
is not a county in England in which the
sole title to good estates, or of part of good
estates, to the extent of many acres, has
no other root of title. It has been the cus-
tom in some parishes to keep a distinct
account of moneys received in consideration
of leave thus given by the vestry to make
these enclosures. Sometimes they are
206 Local Institutions.
entered under the name of "Waste Land
Fund'; and a valuable parish stock has
often been accumulated by this means,
which may be appropriated to any purpose
the vestry pleases, and is thus of far moré
substantial use than the right of common
over those pieces of ground ever was.”
This is a remarkable factor in parish his-
tory, and too little attention has been paid
to it. The "Towne Book" of Yardley, or
Ardley, in Hertfordshire, contains some
valuable records as to the power of the
township to deal with agricultural or land
questions, and it will be well to quote
an instance. “At a convention of the
parishioners”, held in 1707, among other
things it was ordered, "that no person or
inhabitant shall, at any time or times here-
after, keep within this Parish-i.e., on the
common land in the parish--above the
number of one sheep to an acre, for every
acre of Arable Land in Tillage, which he or
they shall hold at ye same time within this
Parish ; upon the paine of paying sureties
.for his dealing”—26th Sept. 1574 (ibid.,
The Township and Parish.
207
561)—"two pence for every sheep so kept
above yt number, for every time they shall
graze in any of the comon ffields within the
said parish”—“that no person or inhabitant
shall at any time or times hereafter keepe
any sheepe in any Lane within this Parish
where the Fence on one side is not his owne,
upon paine of paying 2d.per sheepe for every
time yt such sheepe shall graze there'-
"that every person or inhabitant within
this Parish shall, at the next Parish meet-
ing, bring in a particular of how many acres
he has in Tillage within this Parish."
(Toulmin Smith's The Parish, p. 526.)
Among the records of the parish of Horn-
sey, in Middlesex, 17 March 1784, "it was
unanimously agreed that I. B. and M. H.
have part of the Common on Fortress
Green, Muswell Hill, on their paying after
the rate of thirty shillings per acre, at 24
years' purchase, allowing them two years'
purchase for the fencing” (ibid., p. 531).
Two very remarkable instances from the
Kentish boroughs of Fordwich and Lydd
may not be inappropriately referred to
208 Local Institutions.
here, though strictly speaking they belong
rather to the section on municipal govern-
ment; but they serve to show that muni-
cipal and township government are parallel
developments distinct from manorial or-
ganisation. Of the thirty-one clauses of
the Custumale of the Corporation of Ford-
wich, the ninth prescribes the manner in
which lands may be bequeathed ; the tenth
explains "quomodo proximiores de sanguine
habebunt primam emptionem terrae"; the
fourteenth, "quomodo debent terrae et tene-
menta infancium infra ætatem custodiri";
and the nineteenth gives the mayor the
right of administering to the estates of in-
testates. (Hist. MSS. Com., v, 607.) The
commoners of Lydd, in a code of twenty-
eight resolutions, agree thereby to forego
their rights of common on the Ripe, and in
lieu thereof to have a flock of sheep there
for the general 'use of the town. A town
shepherd was to be appointed for keeping
the stock, as follows : "Item, it is ordered
that yearly, at the feast of St. Mary Magda-
len, there shall be chosen a shepperd to keep
The Township and Parish.
209
and look to the sheep of the towne, by the
Bayliffe, Jurats, and Commons, as they may
accord; which shepperd shall make account
of the number yearly remaining, and or
the increase and yearly decay of the same."
One very curious fact which is connected
with this part of our subject is the existence
of outlying parts of parishes surrounded
topographically by other parishes. It will
be remembered that the shires have the
same interesting phenomenon. Some maps
published by Stanford show the state of
the country with reference to these divisions
of parishes. Those parishes which are
divided are shown by links which pass
across the paper ; the long red line with
two links at the end marks the separated
portion of a parish. They exist all over
the country.
It is very difficult to get a satisfactory
explanation of this phenomenon. It has
been suggested as an explanation, with
reference to some of these places, that, inas-
much as it is found that many of those iso-
lated spots are in the centres of forests, or
210
Local Institutions.
in places where there were formerly forests
in ancient times, the inhabitants of the low-
land, or of the open land, had parts of
forests given them for purposes of fuel; and
that when the trees were cut down, and
forest, they claimed that land as part of
their own parish (Select Committee on
Boundaries of Parishes, etc., 1873, question
48). But these outlying parishes may now
be amalgamated with the district in which
they are situated, if the parties interested
in the localities deem it advisable that it
should be done, by Act 30 and 31 Vict., c.
106 (ibid., 52). And this has actually been
carried out in the instances of Woolaving-
ton, in Sussex, now divided into East
Lavington and West Lavington; of East
Lavant and West Lavant, near Chichester,
now Lavant; of Shipton, in Gloucester-
shire; and of Dalton-in-Furness, in Lan-
cashire (ibid., 54-9).
Some of these detached portions arise
out of a very archaic state of things, which
I forbear from touching now; but some of
The Township and Parish.
211
them are of modern origin, as may be
gathered from the evidence given before
the same Committee. Lord Kesteven (ques-
tion 2522) says, that “many years ago a
very extensive fen land of 30,000 acres was
drained by steam power, and has become a
highly cultivated district. It was a com-
mon. About half of it was under an an-
cient Act of Parliament, called the Adven-
turers' Act, who undertook to drain it
in the time of Charles the Second ; but
which was never completed. They got
about half the land, the drainage of which
they did complete ; the other half was
commonable, and the Act of Parliament
was obtained, about the year 1812, to enclose
the commonable part. It so happens that
the parish in which I lived had common
rights over this land, although it is eight
miles distant. A part of the parishes in
my district are naturally in the Stamford
Union, but they are in the Bourne Union.
The local board has the power of annexing
them if they think fit, and if a necessity
arises it can be done. But there is literally
P 2
212
Local Institutions.
no chargeable poor. Half of this district
was extra-parochial, and paid rates to no
union whatever ; had no overseer, and no
roads. When I was Member for the county
of Lincoln, there were 14,000 acres of it in
that condition, and I got a private Act
passed to enclose, allot, and parochialise, and
make it chargeable to the poor. They are
now brought within the pale of civilisation,
and have roads and a church.” Modern as
all this is, it will serve to guide the student
of archaic English history towards finding
a clue as to the course of the early settle-
ment and colonisation by the Anglo-Saxons.
We will now speak of the ecclesiastical
aspect of the township, for this is the oldest
touched upon, and turn to the living juris-
diction of the smallest local units.
The parish still retains a substantial
remnant of its old corporate life, clinging
as it were round the parish church and
burial-ground. Parochial overseers con-
tinue, as ever, to be the authorities mainly
responsible for the due collection of rates,
The Township and Parish.
213
and the accuracy of registers on which
electoral qualifications depend for their
validity, while the habit of common paro-
chial action is kept up by annual vestry
meetings, and the choice of various repre-
sentative officers—not to speak of less for-
mal but not less popular conventions of
parishioners at the village club or on the
village green (Local Government and Taxa-
tion, Cobden Club, England, by Brodrick,
page 30).
It is very important to bear in mind the
original secular, as well as sacred, position
of the parish church. So much is now be-
ing talked about the church that it is well
to draw attention to its place among the
some consideration to this phase of the sub-
ject. It may be worth while to restore the
original secular position of the church ; but
this cannot be done when the whole fabric
has been torn down. Of course, this is not
the place to discuss political problems, but
it is the place to urge a consideration of
the past before taking steps which will
214
Local Institutions.
divorce that past from all possible move-
ments in the future. As Mr. Toulmin
Smith has so tersely and admirably said in
one of his many writings on the “Church
Rate Question” in 1856-
every parish in England is, very properly, re-
quired to choose annually as its representatives,
to act in its name and on its behalf, both in-
ternally and in the external relations of the
parish to the State. They have many specific
and important duties;—the greater part of which
concern matters that have nothing at all to do
with the church. What have to do with it are
on behalf of the laity alone. They are the
chief officers of the secular institution of the
parish; which institution is itself the recognised
and actual basis of the system of civil govern-
ment in England. They are accountable to the
parishioners, in vestry assembled, for all their
acts and expenditure ; and they are, at present,
in every sense, truly responsible, and the office
is an honourable one, wherever Parish affairs
are rightly managed. If just dissatisfaction
exist, the parishioners can, at any time, remove
either or all of the churchwardens, and choose
fresh ones in their place.”
On the question of the rate to cover the
necessary expenses, Mr. Smith very ably
points out that-
The Township and Parish.
I
215
“Lord Chief Justice Coke says, expressly,
in a celebrated case, that the inhabitants may
make ordinances or bye-laws for the repa-
ration of the church, OR a highway, or of any
such thing as is for the general good of the pub-
lic.' And all the Judges of the Common Pleas,
in another case, declare that the parish church
is like to a bridge or a highway. A distringas
shall issue against the inhabitants to make them
repair it ; but neither the King's Court nor the
Justices of the peace can impose a tax for it.
The churchwardens cannot. None but Parlia-
ment can impose a tax. But the greater part
of a parish can make a by-law' for a rate.
This has always been the law in England : it
is still the law. There has never yet been an
Act of Parliament iinposing church rates,
except (such is human consistency) in the time
of the Connonwealth, when the Church of Eng-
land was down, and the Presbyterians and In-
dependents held the rule; who then enforced
church rates by Act of Parliament, without
either the consent of or accountability to the
parishioners. That Act happily became void
when things changed again.”
These quotations are very important in
showing that the historical view of local
institutions is much wider and more im-
portant than the narrow selfishness of
political views, and I think they serve as
216
Local Institutions.
very good evidence for urging an examina-
tion of the rights and principles of local
self-government before it is handled by
modern legislators.
To the historian and student of social
life of the past, the parish registers, church-
wardens' accounts, overseers' rating books,
and other similar parish documents, are
recognised as of great value; but they have
been neglected most shamefully. How
these documents have been destroyed there
is much evidence to show, and a quotation
from the Gentleman's Magazine for Jan-
uary 1862 (p. 71), will be a fair example of
numerous other instances.
" The most ancient portion of the registers of
the parish of Kingston-upon-Thames have lately
been rescued under the following circumstances:
--Some time since, a gentleman wrote to the
vicar, the Rev. H. P. Measor, and also to the
Archdeacon of Surrey, directing their attention
to the fact that among the lots included in a
sale by auction by Messrs. Puttick and Simp-
son, the well-known London auctioneers of
literary property, was the Ancient Parish
Register of Kingston - upon - Thames'. The
churchwardens at once put themselves in com-
munication with the auctioneers, claiming the
The Township and Parish.
217
register as parish property, and intimating that
its sale would be objected to as illegal. It was
then ascertained that the register had been
sent to them for sale by a bookseller at Ply-
mouth, who purchased it among other effects of
the late Mr. Edward Gandy, into whose posses-
sion it must have undoubtedly passed among
the books and papers of his brother, the Rev.
Samuel Whitlock Gandy, M.A., Vicar of Kings-
ton, who died in 1851. It appeared that the
trustees of the British Museum had offered £10
for the register, and this sum was demanded by
the Plymouth bookseller as the price of its resti-
tution. To this the vicar and churchwardens
naturally objected, and applied to the magis-
trates at Bow Street, who advised an amicable
settlement of the affair. The vestry-clerk also
endeavoured to get the register delivered up,
and the price asked ultimately fell to £5. The
credit, however, of the recovery belongs to Mr.
5. Bell, solicitor, who, on becoming church-
warden, actively exerted himself in the matter,
and received back the register on the payment
of two guineas. It is now in the keeping of the
Rev. H. P. Measor, who, as vicar, is the legal
custodian. These records thus recovered com-
mence in 1541 (three years after parish registers
were ordered to be kept, A.D. 1538, 29th of
Henry VIII), and continue till 1556. Between
this and the date of the other registers in Mr.
Measor's possession a hiatus occurs. These
latter recommence in 1560, go on till 1653, when
again there is a hiatus until 1668. From 1668
they continue till the present time.”
218 Local Institutions.
be plops or thereofod and
Much has been done of late years to
preserve these precious documents, and
all will remember the Bill introduced by
Mr. Borlase, to enable the Record Office
in London to take charge of them. If
the Bill had become law, all parochial
registers in England and Wales, and all
transcripts thereof in the custody of the
bishops or other diocesan officers, would
be placed under the control of the Master
of the Rolls, and removed to the Record
Office in London ; the time fixed for the
removal of such of the registers as are
dated after the ist of January 1813 being
postponed for a period of twenty years; the
time fixed for the removal of all the prior
documents being as soon as conveniently
may be after the passing of the Bill. Whether
this is the right course or not seems open
to argument ; but certainly something
ought to be done to preserye parish regis-
ters from the wholesale destruction which
formerly took place, and which again may
occur at any time. Yorkshire was foremost
in opposition to this bill, and at once estab-
The Township and Parish.
219
lished a record society for the purpose of
printing the registers of the county. Many
petitions were presented against the Bill,
and one from Leeds may be quoted as a
good summary of the objections to trans-
ferring the registers to London.
"3. That the said registers and transcripts
are documents of great value, not merely from
an archæological point of view, but as affording
in many cases the only means of tracing the
pedigrees of families and the devolution of
estates, and it is of the highest importance to
the public generally that the said documents
should be carefully preserved in places where
they may be of easy access to those who desire
to consult them. 4. That it is of great import-
ance to those who have occasion to obtain in-
formation from parish registers, especially to
the poorer classes of persons, that they should
be able to obtain such information personally
at such times as may be convenient to them,
without the necessity of taking a journey to
London. 5. That if the parish registers of
Yorkshire were removed to London, it would be
impossible for many persons who have occasion
to consult them to obtain the information they
require except at an unreasonable expense
occasioned by the necessity of making a journey
to London, or of obtaining the information
through agents unacquainted with the object in
220
Local Institutions.
view, and who, in consequence of being so
unacquainted, would have to be directed in
their search from time to time. 6. That the
removal of the diocesan transcripts to the place
where the parish registers are to be deposited
would remove one safeguard which at present
exists, and render it possible that the informa-
tion contained in the registers might be entirely
lost through the destruction by fire of the
original and the transcripts at the same time.
7. That many of the present custodians of the
parish registers are in the habit of assisting
persons who apply to them by answering in-
quiries sent to them by post, and sending in-
formation acquired by them through long resi-
dence in, or intimate acquaintance with, the dis-
trict, and by producing registers at times when
they would not be accessible if in the custody
of a public official.”
On the whole question of parish registers,
and all they may do for us in inquiring into
the past, there are two books of importance,
Mr. R. S. Burn's History of Parish Regis-
ters, a second edition of which appeared in
1862 (8vo), and Mr. Edmund Chester
Waters' Parish Registers in England, their
History and Contents (1883).
Turning to later engraftings on to the
old township institution, for the purposes of
The Township and Parish.
221
the relief of the poor the ecclesiastical and
civil parishes were identical. In the greater
part of England the ecclesiastical parish
was quite large enough, and not excessive,
for the purposes of the statute of Elizabeth.
That was found to be the case in all the
southern part of England, and in the mid-
land part, and in the eastern part also, but
it was found that that was not the case
throughout the whole of the country; and
therefore in a later statute, 14 Chas. II, c. 12,
provision was made to meet the inconveni-
ence which was felt from the existence of
very large parishes "in the counties of
Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, York-
shire, Northumberland, the Bishoprick of
Durham, Cumberland, and Westmoreland,
and many other counties in England and
Wales." The object of that statute was to
reduce the civil parish to dimensions suit-
able for the administration of the relief of
the poor (Select Committee 01 Boundaries
of Parishes, etc., 1873, questions 4 and 5).
It is perfectly clear from the records, that
the justices upon whom the duty was im-
222
Local Institutions.
posed must have divided large places in
the north of England very soon (ibid., 19);
and so imperative was this power, that
Lord Mansfield decided, in a case where a
township had been separated from the resi-
due of a parish, and other parts of the
parish claimed to be separated also, that the
justices were bound to make a subdivision
of the rest of the parish. The result has
been, no doubt, that a large number of
parishes have been subdivided to a much
greater extent than was necessary ; but still
the justices felt themselves bound to ac-
quiesce (ibid., 20). This went on until an
Act was passed to put a stop to it in 1844,
7 and 8 Vict., C. 101–but not before 5,355
townships were divided and separated from
the mother parish (question 152). And
the looseness of the wording of the Act of
Charles, although at first it was considered
only to apply to northern parishes, allowed
the interpretation that it might be applied
throughout the whole of England (ibid., 30).
The statute of Charles II had enabled
parishes to be divided. The next process,
The Township and Parish.
223
however, was that of uniting parishes; and
in the reigns of William III and Anne, some
of the large towns and cities of England
found that it would be desirable that they
should form combinations of the parishes
within their areas, so as to relieve the poor
by a common arrangement and system of
management. But there was no general
law on the subject ; each district that
special legislation applicable to itself. The
first locality which obtained any special
legislation was the city of Bristol ; then
follow Exeter, Gloucester, in 1701, Canter-
bury; and a good many others followed
during the whole of the next century from
time to time. Up to the commencement
of this century different Acts were passed
for the cities and boroughs of the country,
in which the system varied, and the consti-
tution varied according to what was con-
ceived to be the most convenient arrange-
ment for their own locality (ibid., 76-77).
Following upon this was the formation of
the Gilbert Unions by 22 Geo. III, cap. 82.
224
Local Institutions.
This statute was introduced by Mr. Gilbert,
a great philanthropist. The system was to
combine a variety of parishes together by
their mutual consent, and to have one
workhouse in common. At the time when
the Poor-Law Amendment Act came into
operation, in 1834, there were between sixty
and seventy Gilbert Unions (ibid., 84-85).
Then came the Poor-Law Amendment
Act, which gave power to the Poor-Law
Commissioners to dissolve any union with
the consent of two-thirds of the guardians
representing that union; and the influence
of the commissioners who proceeded
throughout the country was such that they
succeeded in pursuading rather more than
fifty of the unions to dissolve voluntarily
and form new unions; the remaining twelve
or thirteen unions remained undissolved for
the most part, except one or two who were
found to be illegally constituted, and were
so disposed of, until the passing of 31 and
32 Vict., C. 122, which gave the Poor-Law
Commissioners power over the remaining
unions (ibid., 87).
The Township and Parish.
225
Y
Every Act of Parliament, it will be seen
from this account, seems to take its own
view of the country, and to cut it up in vari-
ous ways, without any regard to existing
divisions; and an amusing instance of this
appeared in a letter in the Times of April
IIth, 1877.
“ Mr. George F. Chambers writes to us from
1, Cloisters, Temple :- I live, when at home in
the country in what may be called a well
Board-ed parish. We have, for 13,000 inhabitants
and 8,000 acres-1, a Local Board with twenty-
four members, a clerk, and a minute book ; 2, a
Board of Guardians with six members (for the
parish), a clerk, and a minute book ; 3, a Burial
Board, with nine members, a clerk, and a
minute book; 4, a Vestry meeting occasionally,
in honour of which there is a clerk and a minute
book, while a small section of the inhabitants
would saddle us with (5) a School Board, with
a clerk and minute book. Candidates for seats
on these Boards are scarce; a new face is quite
a novelty. Thus, of the twenty-nine candidates
who were nominated this year for our Local Board,
Guardians, and Burial Board, no fewer than
twenty-six had before been members or candi-
dates for some one, two, or in one or more cascs,
for all three of the above Boards. I write to you
to plead that the Government Burials Bill shall
be amended to render compulsory the amalga-
226
Local Institutionis.
mation of Burial Boards with Local Boards and
Urban Sanitary Authorities in the numerous
cases where the two at present exist side by side,
and with jurisdiction over identical areas. I
write also to plead that in his promised Poor
Law Consolidation Bill, Mr. Sclater Booth
should assimilate the present Poor Law election
machinery to that provided under the Public
Health Act, which happens to be the better of
the two, so that in the numerous cases of iden-
tical areas, one register of owners and one set
of voting papers should do for two purposes.
In my parish last week some 1,500 voting papers
were collected from door to door by a staff of
Local Board officials for the Local Board elec-
tion. Two days later a different staff of officials
went all over the same ground to distribute
another 1,500 voting papers to practically the
selfsame body of voters for an election of Guar-
dians. The money thus wasted in duplicate
machinery and printing amounted no doubt to
£20 or £30. Multiply this waste by the num-
ber of Local Boards in England acting for Poor
Law areas, and we shall arrive at a magnificent
sum total of money wasted, probably more than
£100,000 for the whole of England, there being
in England fully 600 Local Boards, the majority
of them ruling districts with boundaries conter-
minous with Poor Law parishes.'»
We now turn to the literature of the sub-
ject. The most important books, archæologi-
The Township and Parish.
227
cally, on the parish are Seebohm's English
Village Community, already noted, and Sir
Henry Maine's Village Commulizities in the
East and West, a third edition of which
was published in 1876. A study of these
masterful books will prepare the way for
the more special works, by far the most
important of which is :
Smith (J. Toulmin), The Parish : its powers
and obligations at law as regards the welfare
of every neighbourhood, and in relation to the
State ; its officers and committees, and the
responsibility of every parishioner; with
illustrations of the practical working of this
institution in all secular affairs, and of some
modern attempts at ecclesiastical encroach-
ment. London, 1854. First edition, cr. Svo,
pp. xi, 611. Second edition. London, 1857.
8vo, pp. xii, 682.
Other books and papers to be consulted
in the history of the parish among local
institutions are :
Innes (Cosmo), Origines Parochiales Scotiæ :
The Antiquities, Ecclesiastical and Terri-
torial, of the Parishes of Scotland. 1851.
3 vols., 4to.
22
228
Local Institutions.
t
Kennet (Bishop White), Parochial Antiquities.
Oxford, 1818. 2 vols., 4to.
Brady (). H.), and revised by James N. Mahon,
A Popular Dictionary of Parochial Law and
Taxation, and of the Duties of Parish Offi-
cers ; alphabetically arranged: comprising
assessed taxes, poor and church rates, high-
rates, marriage, baptism, and burial, militia
settlement and maintenance of the poor,
juries and jury lists, churchwardens, over-
seers, constables, vestry and vestry clerk,
vicar, rector, etc., parish clerk, beadle, dis-
tress for rent and taxes, etc., and generally
all information likely to be serviceable to
parochial authorities, or sought for by pa-
rishioners and ratepayers. London, 1834,
8vo., pp. X, 421.
E. W., The Exact Constable, with his original
and power in all cases belonging to his office; as
also the office of churchwardens, overseers of
the poor, surveyors of the highways, treasurers
of the county stock, parish clerks, governor
of fairs, and other inferior officers, as they
are at this day establisht, both at the common
laws and statutes of this kingdom. The
sixth edition, whereto is added, The Office of
a London Constable. I2mo, pp. 160. Lon-
don, printed for F. B., Thomas Passenger
and Thomas Sawbridge, 1682.
- The Assize of Bread, with sundry good
and needful ordinances for bakers, brewers,
The Township and Parish.
229
victuallers, butchers; with statutes, ancient
orders, customs of making and retailing,
weights, etc. London, 1671. Small 4to.
Eden (Sir F. M.), State of the Poor ; or, His-
tory of the Labouring Classes in England
from the Conquest. London, 1797. 3 vols.,
4to.
Fowle (Rev. T. W.), Decay of Self-Government
in Villages. Fortnightly Review, 1879, vol.
xxvi, pp. 127-209.
James (Walter H.), The Parochial Charities of
the City of London. Conteinporary Review,
1878, vol. xxxiii, pp. 67-80.
Kerslake (Thomas), What is a Town? Arch.
Journ., xxxiv, 199-211.
North (Thomas), The Constables of Melton in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth : a paper read
before the Leicestershire Architectural and
Archæological Society, at Melton Mowbray.
Leicester, 1865. Svo.
Ritson (J.), The Office of Constable. Second
edition. London, 1815. 8vo.
Selden (John), History of Tithes. London,
1618. 8vo.
Smallfield (J. S.), Assessment of the Parish of
Cowden. Arch. Cant., xi, 392-393.
The attempted legislation on parish
registers has brought about a very useful
230
Local Institutions.
energy in the publication of these docu-
ments, and the following books are speci-
mens of the most important. There are
many more titles than are here given, but
the necessity for printing them here is
obviated by the indefatigable industry of
Dr. Marshall, who, in the Genealogist for
July 1885 (vol. ii, pp. 193-202) gives a list of
the printed parish registers.
Copy of a Book containing Registers of Births,
Burials, and Marriages, and other records
belonging to the General Baptist Church of
Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire. `Harrow, 1860.
8vo.
Cowper (J. Meadows), Our Parish Books and
What they Tell Us; Holy Cross, Westgate,
Canterbury. Canterbury, 1884. Svo, pp. iii,
150 (vol. i only].
Fletcher (W. G. D.), The Parish Registers of
Loughborough, in the county of Leicester.
London, 1873. 8vo..
Gatty (A. S.), The First Book of the Marriage,
Baptismal, and Burial Registers of Eccles-
field Parish Church, Yorkshire, from 1558 to
1619; also the churchwardens' accounts from
1520 to 1546. London, 1878. 4to.
Glasscock (J. L., jun.), The Records of St.
The Township and Parish.
231
Michael's Parish Church, Bishop Stortford.
London, 1882. 8vo, pp. xii, 235.
Glover (J. Hulbert), Kingsthorpiana ; or, Re-
searches in a Church Chest, being a calendar
of old documents now existing in the church
chest of Kingsthorpe, near Northampton,
with a selection of the MSS. printed in full,
and extracts from others. London, 1883. 8vo,
pp. xi, 156.
Kerry (Rev. Charles), A History of the Muni-
cipal Church of St. Laurence, Reading,
Reading and Derby, 1883. 8vo, pp. viii, 256.
ments relating to Lingfield. Suss. Arch. Coll.,
xix, 36-52.
Margerison (S.), Registers of the Parish Church
of Calverley, with a description of the church,
and sketches of its history prior to 1650.
Bradford, 1880. 8vo, 2 vols.
Peacock (Edward), On the Churchwardens'
Accounts of the Parish of Stratton, in the
County of Cornwall. Archæologia, vol. xlvi,
- pp. 195-236...
Turner (Rev. Edward), Ancient Parochial Ac-
count Book of Cowden. Suss. Arch. Coll.,
XX, 91-119.
Walbran (J. R.), The First Register Book of
Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials solemnised
at the Chapel of Denton, in the parish of
Gainford, in the county of Durham. Ripon,
1842. Svo.
232
Local Institutionis.
Wilkie (Rev. C. H.), St. Andrew's, Edburton,
Sussex : Copy of Parish Register Book, 1558-
1673. Brighton, 8vo, pp. 68.
Wright (T.), Churchwardens' Accounts of the
Town of Ludlow in Shropshire, from 1540 to
the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
London, 1869. 4to.
Each of the parishes or districts of
London are compelled by the Metropolis
Local Management Act, 1855, to make a
report annually of the work accomplished
by the vestry or local board during the
year ; but besides statistical information,
there is not much to be gained from these
books. One notable exception, however, is
the Vestry of St. James's, Westminster, the
last report of which is a model which ought
to be copied throughout the metropolis.
Its full title is—
Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Vestry of
the Parish of St. James's, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex. 1885. Svo, pp. 259.
[This interesting volume, edited by the Vestry
Clerk, Mr. Harry Wilkins, includes, in addi-
tion to the ordinary statistics and returns,
some important historical information, and is
accompanied by the ordnance map of 1869
The Township and Parish.
233
and Blome's map, made from a survey in the
time of Charles II-a comparison between
the two showing great changes.]
We have now arrived at the end of our
task, though without considering a not un-
important branch of local institutions, and
one which has a very interesting body of
literature attached to it-special jurisdic-
tions. These are the liberties, the palat-
inates, the forests, fairs, and markets, the
stannary jurisdictions, the Cinque Ports, the
curious jurisdictions of the Isle of Man, and
other similar institutions. They have no
direct influence upon the immediate use
to which the present publication, it is
hoped, will be put, and therefore they are
excluded, to await a more convenient op-
portunity.
We have before us now the great ques-
tion of reform in local institutions. I
shall not dwell upon this question here,
because it has been touched upon in the
several places where it is of immediate
importance to draw the attention of
the reader, and because, moreover, no-
234
Local Institutions.
thing could be advanced here at any
great length, beyond asking that all the
old machinery and the traditional instincts
for local self-government, which the pre-
vious chapters must have revealed, should
not be carelessly laid aside to be replaced
by the pet crotchets of individual thinkers,
however eminent. The time has now un-
doubtedly arrived when Englishmen must
look to their local institutions, and the
first step in the way of true reform is to
gather up all the deep lessons of the past ;
and if the Government, before attempting
legislation, were to first examine by a com-
petent machinery what is left of the old
system, what has been swept away by forces
inimical, and what has decayed through
natural disease, they would obtain results
satisfactory to future development. In
India they are beginning to find out now
that reform should be based upon the his-
torical instincts of the people, and Mr.
Tupper's Punjab Customary Law reveals
how very important this discovery really
is. With our speculative philosophy, we
The Township and Parish.
235
are too apt to ignore the teaching of tradi-
tional instincts. We do not, as of old, keep
to old lines because we cannot think out
for ourselves new lines, and we rush to the
other extreme of believing new lines of so
much more importance than the old. A
reform based upon what is best in the past,
and upon the largest and widest extension
of thought for the future, is the safest way
to progress, and I hope it is not too much
to ask that the historical instincts of Eng-
lishmen should be made known and re-
spected, just as the historical instincts of
Hindus are.
d upon this for the fute it is incts of
.
.
..
...
.
.
HUN
AK
PIAU
INDEX.

02-
Aberdeen, gilds of, 152-153, 158 ; municipality of, 103, 108
Aberystwith, municipality of, 95
Abingdon, municipality of, 103
Accounts, municipal, of Bridgewater, 109; Ludlow, 134 ; New-
castle-on-Tyne, 137 ; Stratford-on-Avon, 143 ; Totnes, 144
Affiliation of mediæval boroughs, I0I
Agricultural duties of the township, 201, 202-209
Agriculture, manorial rules for, 176, 181
Alehouses in Middlesex, 35
Alienation of lands by vestry, 205
Altrincham, municipality of, 95, 99
American evidence on English local institutions, 13-14
Amolyr, custom of, 113
Andover, municipal archives of, 99
Anglesey, 39
Anglo-Saxons, municipal privileges of, 107
Ardley, "towne book' of, 206-207
Areas of local government, confusion of, 221-225
Arms of municipalities, 97, 107 ; of Glasgow, 118; of Fish-
mongers' Company, London, 161; of gilds of Newcastle-
upon Tyne, 167
Arundel, municipality of, 95
Ashburton, archives of, 99
Assemblies, local, books on, 16
Assembly, municipal, 67, 74-84
Attendance at assemblies, compulsory, 175
Australian Colonies, local government in, 17
Axbridge, municipality of, 99, 103, 108
B.
Bailiffs of liberties, books on, 15
Banbury, archives of, 99
Baron, court, 15, 37, 174, 175, 176, 184, 190, 191, 192
Basingstoke, archives of, 99 ; gild of, 159
Index.
Bath, municipality of, 108
Beccles, archives of, 99
Bedfordshire, hundreds of, 51, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25
Belgium, local institutions in, 17
Berkshire, shire organisation of, 23, 39, 57
Berwick-on-Tweed, municipality of, 83, 95, 103
Beverley, municipality of, 83, 99, 105
Birmingham, municipality of, 109
Bishop's Castle, archives of, 99
Bishop's Stortford, parish books of, 220
Bodmin, archives of, 99
Borgheshire, division of, 43
Borough-English, 195
Boundaries, jurisdiction of courts leet upon, 178; of municipali-
ties, 92 ; of Norwich, 138
Bradninch, archives of, 99
Breconshire, 39
Bridgewater, municipality of, 99, 103, 109
Bridport, municipality of, 99, 103
Brighton, municipality of, 109
Bristol, gilds of, 155, 157, 164 ; municipality of, 110, III
Buckinghamshire, hundreds of, 57, shire organisation of, 25
Burford, archives of, 99
Burton-on-Trent, municipality of, III
Bury St. Edmunds, municipality of, III

II-1
Callington, archives of, 99
Calverley, parish books of, 231
Cambridge, municipality of, 103
Cambridgeshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25.
Canterbury, municipality of, 61, 63, III-112; parish registers
of, 230
Cardiff, archives of, 99
Cardigan, municipality of, 95, 99
Cardiganshire, shire organisation of, 39
Carlisle, municipality of, 64, 66, 99
Carmarthen, municipality of, 61, 83
Carmarthenshire, 39
Carnarvon, archives of, 99
Castle Coombe, manorial customs of, 198
Catarac, municipality of, 64
Central authority, encroachment of, on local authorities, 2
Centralisation, book on, 18
Chard, archives of, 99
238
Index.

Charities of Bristol, 110 ; of London, 229
Chart, Dumb Borsholder of, 199
Charter, position of, in municipal institutions, 60, 65-68, 81
Charters, municipal, 105; of Axbridge, 108; Bath, 108, Bristol,
IJO; Burton-on-Trent, III; Canterbury, III; Clitheroe, 112;
Dundee, 114; Edinburgh, 116; Egremont, 116; Hereford, 119;
Ipswich, 120 ; Kendal, 121; Kingston, 121; Llantrissant, 122 ;
London, 123, 126, 128, 129, 133; Ludlow, 134 ; Maidstone,
135; Maldon, 135; Monmouth, 136; Newcastla-on-Tyne,
138; Newport, 138; Northampton, 138; Nottingham, 139;
Peebles, 140 ; Preston, 141; Rochester, 141; St. Albans, 142:
Southampton, 142 ; Swansea, 143; Warwick, 144 ; Wycombe,
144
Cheshire, hundreds of, 58; shire organisation of, 24, 25, 39
Chester, municipality of, 61, 103, 112
Chesterfield, municipality of, 8, 99, 112
Chichester, gild of, 166 ; municipality of, 112
Chippenham, municipality of, 95, 99
Christchurch, archives of, 99
Church, the position of, in local institutions, 11, 213-215
Churchwarden, secular office of, 214
Cirencester, municipality of, 64, 99
Clare, municipality of, 112
Clitheroe, municipality of, 112-113
Clun, municipality of, 113
Cockermouth, archives of, 99
Colchester, municipality of, 113
Colnbrook, archives of, 99
Colonies, Australian, local government in, 17
Commerce, influence of, on municipal institutions, 70
Commercial organisation in Russia, 148-149
Constables, books on, 15
Copyholds, treatises on, 191, 193
Cork, municipality of, 103
Cornwall, hundreds of, 43, 57 ; shire organisation of, 23, 24, 39
Coroners, books on, 15, 37
County, sce“ Shire"
Coventry, gild pageant of, 164, 165 ; municipality of, 103, 114
Cowbridge, archives of, 99
Cowden, parish of, 229; parish book of, 231
Craveshire, division of, 43
Cricklade, 'archives of, 99
Criminal jurisdiction of courts leet, 177-178
Crowcom be, archives of, 99
Cumberland, hundreds of, 51; shire organisation of, 23, 39
Customary court, 174, 175-176, 177
Index.
239
Dalton-in-Furniss, township, 210
Dartmouth, municipality of, 99, 103
Deal, archives of, 99
Debt, manorial courts adjudicate on, 176
Denbighshire, shire organisation of, 39
Denton. parish books of, 231
Derbyshire, hundreds of, 51, 57; manorial customs of, 195;
shire organisation of, 25, 39
Destruction of documents, 25, 85, 88, 216-217
Detached portions of parishes, 209-212 ; of shire, 25-26
Devizes, gild of, 159 ; municipality of, 99.
Devonshire, hundreds of, 57; shire organisatio
Documents, destruction of, 85, 88, 169, 216-217, see "Records”
Doncaster, municipality of, 64
Dorchester, municipality of, 63
Dorsetshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 23
Dover, municipality of, 99, 114
Dublin, municipal archives of, 100, 103
Dudley, archives of, 99
Dudslow, hundred of, 118
Dumbarton, municipality of, 114
Dundee, municipality of, 8, 114-115
Dunmow, manorial customs of, 194, 198 ; municipality of, 99
Dunwich, municipality of, 99, 106
Durham, municipal archives of, 99 ; shire organisation of, 23, 39
Dursley, municipality of, 95
Dysart, municipality of, 115, 197
Ecclesfield, parish books of, 230
Ecclesiastical aspect of the township, 212-220
Ecclesiastical duties of courts leet, 179
Edinburgh, gilds of, 359, 160, 162-163 ; municipality of, 103,
115-116
Edburton, parish books of, 231
Edward VI, Middlesex records date from, 30
Egremont, municipality of, 116
England, local government in, 16, 17
Epworth, manorial customs of, 194, 195
Escheatours, books on, I5
Essex, hundreds of, 57; manorial customs of, 195 ; shire organi-
sation of, 23, 36, 39
Estwyvelshire, division of, 43
Exeter, gild of, 156; municipality of, 86-87, 116, 117

240
Index.
Falmouth, municipal archives of, 99
Families, county, descended from London municipal officers, 10
Family, Anglo-Saxon, history of the, 147
Farnham, archives of, 99; municipality of, 64
Faversham, hundred of, 58; municipality of, 103
Fierding courts, Gothic, 176
Folkestone, municipality of, 99, 103
Food, adulteration of, 179
Fordwich, custunial of, 208; municipality of, 103, 117
Forest of Clun, 113
France, communes of, 106; local government in, 17
G.
Garstang, archives of, 99
Genealogy, importance of manor rolls for, 170
Germany, local government in, 17
Gilds, general histories of, 146-167, 154-155, 157, 163, 165, 166,
167 ; of Dundee, 115, of Maidenhead, 135; Maidstone, 155;
Preston, 141
Glamorganshire, 39
Glasgow, gild of, 160 ; municipality of, 117-118
Glastonbury, archives of, 99
Gloucester, municipality of, 118
Gloucestershire, hundreds of, 51, 57, 118; shire organisation
of, 25
Godalming, archives of, 99
Gowran, municipality of, 118
Grampound, archives of, 99
Grantham, archives of, 99
Greenwich, archives of, 99
Grinstead, archives of, 99
Guildford, archives of, 99
:H.
Hackney, manorial custom of, 198-199
Halifax, municipality of, 118-119
Hall, importance of the, to manorial organisations, 186, 187-188
Hallamshire, division of, 43
Halmote records, 188
Hants, 23
Hartlepool, charter to, 106
Index.
241
Harwich, archives of, 99
Hastings, municipality of, 99, 119
Helston, charter to, 106
Hemel Hempstead, archives of, 99
Hereford, municipality of, 99, 119
Herefordshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25
Hertfordshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25, 39
Highway areas, books on, 16
Holland, local institutions in, 17
Holt, archives of, 99
Honiton, archives of, 99
Hornsey, alienation of common by, 207
Horsham, archives of, 99; gilds of, 155
Hue and Cry, 15, 178
Hull, municipality of, 88-89, 95, 119
Hundreds, books on, 15, 43-58;
Hungarian county institutions, 38
Huntingdon, municipality of, 99, 120
Huntingdonshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25
Hythe, municipality of, 99, 103

Insignia, municipal, of Hull, 119; Kilkenny, 121; Leeds, 111;
Leicester, 122; Plymouth, 141, Preston, 156; see "Regalia"
Ipswich, gild of, 156, 157 ; municipality of, 83, 120
Islandshire, division of, 43
eland, local government in, 17; municipalities of, 92, 100
J.
Justice of the Peace, books on, 28, 37
K
Kendal, municipality of, 121
Kent, hundreds of, 57, 58; manorial customs of, 195, 197, 198;
shire organisation of, 20, 23
Kilkenny, municipal records of, 100, 103, 121
King's Barton, hundreds of, 118
King's Lynn, municipality of, 121
Kingsthorp, parish books of, 230
Kingston, municipality of, 103, 121 ; parish registers of, 276-
217
Kintore, municipality of, 121
242
Index.
Kirkcudbright, municipality of, 103
L.
Lampeter, archives of, 99
Lancashire, 23, 39, 40
Land-holding, municipal, 69-71
land rights, manorial, 172, 194, 195 ; m
ship. 901 major 101, 172, 194, 195; municipal, 208, 209; town-
Land tenure, importance of manor rolls in respect of, 170
Lands, municipal, of Brighton, 109; Bury St. Edmunds, III;
Tenby, 143
Langport, archives of, 99
Lathes, books on, 15
Launceston, municipality of, 104
Lavant, township of, 210
Leeds, municipality of, 95, 99, 121-122
Leet, courts, 15, 37, 174, 175, 177-179, 184, 190, 191, 192, 193
Leet, court, of Clare, 112; of Manchester, 136
Leicester, municipality of, 61, 63, 88, 104, 106, 122
Leicestershire, hundreds of, 46, 51, 57; shire organisation of,
25, 39
Leominster, municipality of, 99, 122
Lewes, gild of, 166 "
Lichfield, municipality of, 63
Lidford, archives of, 99
Limerick, municipality of, 104
Lincoln, municipality of, 61, 63, 99, 105, 106, 122
Lincolnshire, hundreds of, 46, 50, 57 ; shire organisation of, 23,
..29, 39, 40
Lingfield, parish books of, 231
Little Saxham, manorial customs of, 195
Liskeard, archives of
Liverpool, municipality of, 95
Llanidloes, archi
Llantrissant, municipality of, 122
Local government, generally, 13-19; encroached upon by central
government, 2
London, gilds of, 150, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161,
163, 164, 165, 166, 167 ; municipality of, 16, 17, 61, 63, 74-79,
92, 95, 99, 105, 106, 122-133 ; municipal officers of, 10; paro-
chial charities of, 229 ; records of, 38
Londoners, religious agitations of, 32
Looe, East and West, archives of, 99
Lords, growth of power of, 184-186

Index.
243
Loughborough, parish books of, 230
Loughor, archives of, 99
Louth, archives of, 99
Ludlow, municipality of, 64, 134 ; parish books of, 232
Lydd, custumal of, 208, 209 ; municipality of, 104
Lyme, archives of, 99.
Lynn Regis, municipality of, 134-135
M
.
Maces, municipal, 101; of Exeter, 87; of Hull, 89; of Leicester,
88, 122 ; of Marazion, 90 ; of Plymouth, 141
Madresfield, manorial customs of, 194
Maidenhead, municipality of, 99, 135
Maidstone, municipality of, 95, 135
Maldon, municipality of, 99, 135
Malmesbury, municipality of, 95
Manchester, municipality of, 95, 135-136
Manor, the, 168-199
Manuscripts, see "Records”
Marazion, municipality of, 89-90, 99
Market towns, 106
Markets of London, 128
Marlborough, municipality of, 64, 95, 130
Melton, constables of, 229
Merdon, manorial customs of, 196
Merionethshire, 3
Metropolis, see "London"
Middlesex, 25, 30-35, 39, 41
DIilitary organisation of the hundred, 44, 49-50
Minerals, privileges to London in respect of, 134
Monmouth, 23, 25, 39; municipality of, 99, 136
Montgomeryshire, 39
Montrose, municipality of, 104
Morpeth, municipality of, 99, 104
Municipal government, 16, 17, 18, 59-145
Municipal institutions, influence of Reform Act on, 6
Municipal land rights, 208, 209
N.
Names of hundreds, 50-51
Newcastle-on-Tyne, gilds of, 167; municipality of, 66, 105, 137-
138
Newcastle-under-Lyne, municipality of, 84, 99
244
New Lymington, municipality of, 136-137
New Romney, municipality of, 104
Newport, municipality of, 99, 138
Newton, archives of, 99
Niort, charter to, 106
Norfolk, hundreds of, 51, 57 ; shire organisation of, 23, 39, 41
Norhamshire, hundred of, 43
Norman influences, 4; on manorial institutions, 174
Northampton, municipality of, 106, 138
Northamptonshire, hundreds of, 46, 57 ; shire organisation of,
25, 39
Northumberland, hundreds of, 51, 57 ; shire organisation of, 23,
39, 41
Norwich, municipality of, 61, 63, 84, 95, 104, 106, 138-139
Nottingham, municipality of, 8, 95, 104, 105, 139
Nottinghamshire, hundreds of, 46, 51, 57; shire organisation
of, 25, 39
"Nut brown maid,” poen of, 123
Officers of local institutions, 15-16, 18
Officers, municipal, 100, 102 ; of Bristol, 110; Colchester, 113;
Coventry, 114 ; Exeter, 117; Ipswich, 120; Lincoln, 122; Ox-
ford, 140; Salisbury, 142 ; Winchelsea, 144 ; York, 145
Offices, municipal, filled by John Shakespeare, 10
Oswestry, archives of, 99
Oxford, gilds of, 167 ; municipality of, 84, 95, 139-140
Oxfordshire, hundreds of, 57; shire organisation of, 25, 39, 41;
manorial customs in, 199
P.
Pageants, London, 123, 127, 130, 161
Parish, books on, 16
Parish and township, 200-232
Peebles, municipality of, 140
Pembrokeshire, 39
Pennenden Heath, assembly on, 20
Penryn, archives of, 99
Perth, municipality of, 104
Pevensey, municipality of, 140
Index.
245
Place-names, importance of manor-rolls for, 171
Plate, corporation, 98 ; of Hull, 119
Plymouth, municipality of, 84, 99, 140-141
Pontefract, municipality of, 83, 99, 104, 141
Poor, history of, 229
parish organisation for relief of, 221-229
Poor-law, books on, 16, 18
Population of English cities, 97
Portsmouth, archives of, 99
Pre-emption, right of, 208
Preston, gilds of, 153, 156, 163, 167; municipality of, 99, 106,
141
Prestwich, municipality of, 141
Primogeniture, old forms of, 194
Public-houses, municipal, 98 ; manorial jurisdiction concerning,
182
Quarter sessions, records of, 38
Queensborough, archives of, 99
R.
Radnor, archives of, 99
Radnorshire, 39
Rapes, books on, 15
Reading, church of St. Lawrence at, 231
Records of Middlesex, 30-35
Reform, municipal, 98, 102, 103, 127, 130
Regalia, civic, of Bristol, 110; Exeter, 86-87; of Hull, 88-89,
119; of Leicester, 88; of Marazion, 89-90 : see “Insignia"
Registers, parish, importance of, 11
Reigate, archives of, 99
Relationship, means of admission to gilds, 151
Renfrewshire, 41
Retford, archives of, 99
Richmondshire, division of, 43
Riponshire, division of, 43
Rochester, municipality of, 141
Roman influences on manorial organisation, 183, 189; on muni-
cipal institutions, 60, 61, 62, 64, 72, 74, 79, 106
Roman law, influence of, 3
Roman origin of gilds, 147
Romford, municipality of, 95
Rothley, manorial customs of, 195
246
Index.
Rural government, areas of, 17.
Russia, the artel organisation in, 148-149 ; local government
Rutlandshire, hundreds of, 51, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25
Rye, municipality of, 104
in, 17
S.
3
Sac and soc, grant of, 185
Saffron Walden, municipality of, 100
St. Albans, municipality of, 63, 105, 106, 141-142
St. Germans, archives of, 100
Salisbury, municipality of, 100, 142
Sandal Castle, manor of, 199
Sandwich, municipality of, 8, 100, 104
Sanitary district, books on, 16
Scarborough, municipality of, 66, 100
School district, books on, 16
Scotland, baronial fief, duties of, 180-183 ; local government in,
17; municipalities of, 93, 101, 104-105
Scotter, majorial customs of, 197
Seals, municipal, of Bristol, III; of Marazion, 91; of Marl-
borough, 136; of municipalities, 97
Seals of Scottish municipalities, 97; of Yorkshire municipalities,
105
Shakespeare (John) as a municipal officer, 10
Shakespeare (William), connection of, with the enclosure of
common fields, 196
Sheriffs, books on, 15, 37
Shipton, township of, 210
Shire government, 16, 17, 18, 20-42
Shrewsbury, gild of, 163
Shropshire, hundreds of, 57; shire organisation of, 25, 39
Silchester, municipality of, 64
Social history, illustration of, 32
Socialism, historic and modern, 173
Somersetshire, hundreds of, 57; shire organisation of, 23, 41
Southampton, gild of, 165 ; municipality of, 100, 142
Southwold, archives of, 100
Spain, local government in, 17
Staffordshire, hundreds of, 51, 57; shire organisation of, 25, 39
Statistics, municipal, 99, 106, 127, 128
Stepney, manorial customs of, 198-199
Stratford-upon-Avon, municipal officers of, 10; municipality of,
142-143
Stratton, parish books of, 231
Index.
247
Suffolk, hundreds of, 51, 57 ; manorial registers of, 196; shire
' organisation of, 23, 39
Surnames, importance of manor rolls for, 171
Surrey, shire organisation of, 23
Sussex, hundreds of, 57; manorial customs of, 195, 196; shire
organisation of, 23, 39
Swansea, municipality of, 84, 143
Swords, municipal, of Exeter, 87; of Hull, 89
Taunton Deane, manorial customs of, 197, 198
Taxation, local, books on, 17, 18, 19
Tenants, functions of manorial, 175
Tenby, municipality of, 143
Tenterden, municipality of, 100, 104
Thames, jurisdictions over the, 127
Thaxted, gild of, 166
Thornbury, archíves of, 100
Tiverton, archives of, 100
Tobacco-box belonging to Leicester corporation, 88
Totnes, gild of, 151, 153; municipality of, too, 104, 144
Tottenham, township of, 202-204
Towns, occupation of, by the English, 61-62
Township, its relation to the manor, 171, 200
Township and parish, 200-232
Trades, manorial jurisdiction concerning, 182
Trades in Dundee, 115
Tregony, archives of, 100
U
Unions, see "Poor-law".
Usk, archives of, 100
Vestry, alienation of lands by, 205
Village community, its descendants, 171; traces of, 6 -71, 100
W,
Wakefield, manor of, 199
Wallingford, municipality of, 104
Wapentake, the northern, 15, 45-49
Wareham, archives of, 100
248
Index.
Warrington, manorial customs of, 114
Warwick, municipality of, 100, 144.
Warwickshire, hundreds of, 57 ; shire organisation of, 25, 39
Watchet, archives of, 100
Waterford, municipality of, 104
Wateringbury, manorial custom of, 199
Welcombe, manorial customs of, 196
Wells, municipality of, 104
Wenlock, archives of, 100
Weobly, archives of, 100
Westbury, archives of, 100
Westminster, St. James, vestry report of, 232
Westmoreland, 23; tenures of, 195
Weymouth, municipality of, 85-86, 100, 104
Wiltshire, hundreds of, 57; shire organisation of, 23, 42
Wimbledon, manorial customs of, 197
Winchelsea, municipality of, 144
Winchester, municipality of, 63, 104, 105, 144
Wirral, hundred of, 58
Wisbeach, archives of, 100; parish books of, 230
Wokingham, archives of, 100
Woodstock, archives of, 100
Woolavington, division of, 210
Wootton-under-Edge, municipality of, 95
Worcestershire, hundreds of, 51, 57; shire organisation of, 25, 39
Wroxeter, municipality of, 64
Wycombe (High), municipality of, 100, 103, 144
Yardley, "towne book" of, 206-207
Yarmouth, municipality of, 100, 106, 145
Yetminster, customs of
York, gild of, 164, 165 ; municipality of, 61, 63, 104, 106, 145
Yorkshire, hundreds of, 43, 46, 51, 57; shire organisation of, 23,
35, 39, 42
222

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lew
:
,
是
​九九
​“
好​.
くにとうたい
​行业​,
主要
​1.