y 
 
 
 
 THE 
 
 CITY OF LONDON.
 
 ' For that the restoring of the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens to their ancient 
 liberties, of which they had been deprived, tends very much to the peace and good 
 settlement of this kingdom, 
 
 ' BE IT ENACTED, That the mayor, and commonalty, and citizens of the City of 
 London shall for ever hereafter remain, continue and be, a body corporate and politic, 
 and shall enjoy all their rights, gifts, charters, grants, liberties, privileges, franchises, 
 customs, &c. &c.' Stat. 2nd William <k Mary, sess. 1, cap. 8, reversing the quo \varranto 
 judgment of Charles II. 
 
 ' To treat of the great and notable franchises, liberties, and customs of the City 
 of London, would require a whole volume of itself.' Coke's 4th Inst.
 
 COMMENTARIES 
 
 HISTORY, CONSTITUTION, & CHARTERED FRANCHISES 
 
 THE CITY OF LONDON 
 
 GEOEGE NORTON, 
 
 FORMERLY OXE OF THE COMMON" ri.EADF.RS OV TTTF. CTTT OF LOM10X. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 1869.
 
 I.ONDOW: PRINTED BY 
 
 9POTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQCAI 
 AND PARLIAMENT STttEET 

 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE THIED EDITION. 
 
 THE scope and object of this treatise, and the cir- 
 cumstances under which it was first submitted to the 
 public, have been fully explained in the Preface to the 
 First Edition. The second was merely a reprint. Both 
 have been long ago out of circulation. 
 
 The issue of this Third Edition is due to the Corpora- 
 tion of London (to whom the copyright of the work 
 has been presented by the author), and who have passed 
 a resolution for taking three hundred copies for the use 
 of its members and officers. It has appeared to them 
 that such information as the writer has attempted to 
 contribute towards elucidating the early history of the 
 City, the origin and nature of the civic constitution, and 
 the quality of its franchises, might also deserve the atten- 
 tion of their fellow-citizens. The author allows himself 
 to share in that hope, and ventures to think that such a, 
 work may not be without interest to some of the class 
 of general readers. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the system of municipal 
 government in the cities and boroughs of England and 
 more particularly that of the City of London -is of 
 
 2039263
 
 VI PEEFACE TO 
 
 national concern. On that system, and on the franchises 
 through which it is maintained, the principles of self- 
 government, as far as is conceded by the English Consti- 
 tution, is in a very great degree founded. The personal 
 interests and the social position of a large portion of the 
 public are also intimately involved in these civic institu- 
 tions, and in the authority which they exercise. The 
 political power possessed by municipal corporations is 
 a subject of still more important consideration. The 
 student of general history and of antiquarian literature 
 finds his enquiries continually directed to the effects of 
 the corporate rights and privileges enjoyed by great cities, 
 and their influence on the manners and customs of the 
 inhabitants, as well as on the national weal. In no point 
 of view are these topics unworthy of enlightened inves- 
 tigation, or of the notice of the public at large. 
 
 All these rights and privileges depend on charters, or 
 are derived from ancient customs. But the unlearned 
 enquirer, desiring to obtain some knowledge of the 
 nature of these civic charters, and of the customary rights 
 and liberties secured by them, would feel compelled to 
 acknowledge that the meaning of the early, the most im- 
 portant, and the most really effective of these charters, 
 and of these ancient customs, have become, through the 
 lapse of ages, for the most part unintelligible without the 
 help of legal and antiquarian study. As little would such 
 a reader gather from the bare perusal of the City Charters, 
 or of the documentary evidence through which these 
 ancient customary franchises are established, their bearings 
 on the interests of the people, and particularly of the 
 citizens, at the present time. Consequently, every asser-
 
 THE THIRD EDITION. Vll 
 
 tion of these privileges, essentially requisite to be main- 
 tained, every effort for the expedient modification of 
 others, and every tendency to the judicious abandon- 
 ment of such as are no longer beneficial, become (as in 
 times past) a theme for controversy rather than for wise 
 regulation. The mass of the citizens most concerned in 
 the right conclusions, and in the most suitable measures, 
 find themselves altogether at the mercy of the few who 
 may choose (or perhaps only pretend) to make themselves 
 acquainted with the subject proposed to be dealt with. 
 At no period throughout the history of London, could 
 the attention of the citizens to their ancient rights and 
 customs be more appropriately called for than at the 
 present time, when their municipal government and fran- 
 chises have become the matter of much public criticism, 
 and even of Parliamentary discussion. 
 
 The work now submitted to the public is confined to 
 an attempt at explaining, in as popular a manner as the 
 subject wih 1 admit of, these chartered and customary 
 rights and liberties. The author has felt how impossible 
 it is to accomplish such a task without reviewing, his- 
 torically, the rise and progress of this great city of the 
 world, in its relative connection with the history of the 
 English nation itself. This historical account, however, 
 was originally intended to be merely introductory to a 
 larger treatise, and such only can it perhaps be properly 
 considered. The elaborate professional work of Mr. 
 Serjeant Pullen, on the Laws and Customs of the City of 
 London, has supplied all that the author had further pro- 
 posed ; and the author is happy in thus reciprocating the 
 compliment paid him by the learned Serjeant in saying
 
 Vlll PREFACE TO 
 
 that, had the author's full purpose been carried out, it 
 would have superseded his own labours. An abstract 
 and explanation of the Charters of London forms, how- 
 ever, no part of Mr. Serjeant Pullen's treatise. Neither 
 would historical dissertations have consisted with his 
 strictly legal and practical design. The author's work 
 may therefore claim the character of a substantive treatise 
 in itself. Superficial it may be, and for that reason, per- 
 haps, the better adapted to the ordinary reader. At the 
 same time, to those who may be disposed to turn their 
 minds to more profound researches, and a more accurate 
 knowledge of details, in this branch of historical literature, 
 the great mass of references quoted may prove a reper- 
 tory, and possibly a guide. 
 
 It is with much misgiving that the author after a long 
 life passed in a distant part of the empire, and in avocations 
 which have no affinity with such researches has under- 
 taken a revisal of his work. A comprehensive exposition 
 of the constitution and franchises of the City of London 
 would better befit one who, with more learning than he 
 could pretend to in his earlier years, or than he can now 
 be at the pains to acquire, would apply his hard-gained 
 knowledge to such a task. The author's own experience, 
 however, has taught him the difficulty of compressing so 
 complicated a subject within the limits of a single volume, 
 while very few would, perhaps, be attracted to the perusal 
 of a more minute and extended treatise. In a literary 
 field, where hardly any reputation and no profit can be 
 looked for, it is almost vain to expect a labourer. 
 
 The encouragement afforded by the Corporation of 
 London, and more immediately by its Library Committee,
 
 THE THIRD EDITION. IX 
 
 demands the just acknowledgment of all cultivators of 
 this department of constitutional literature, and of the 
 public. Their liberal patronage of Mr. H. A. Eiley's 
 numerous translations from the City Archives, illustrating 
 the manners and habits of the citizens in early times, and 
 annotated with so much multifarious learning, is entitled 
 to appropriate mention. No restriction prohibits consul- 
 tation of these ancient records. If any reservation is 
 made, it applies only to documents strictly affecting pro- 
 prietary rights. The courtesy of the Librarian, Mr. 
 W. H. Overall, in supplying ready assistance to the 
 curious enquirer, as well as to the student, will be grate- 
 fully appreciated by all who have occasion to seek it. 
 The author desires also to record his thanks for the assis- 
 tance he has received from the City Solicitor, Mr. Nelson, 
 and more particularly for that afforded by the City Town 
 Clerk, Mr. Frederick Woodthorpe, similar to that rendered 
 him, in times long past, both by his father and grand- 
 father all successively Town Clerks of London. And, 
 lastly, the author gladly takes this opportunity of tender- 
 ing his thanks to the Library Committee, and to their 
 Chairman, Mr. Benjamin Orridge, himself a contributor to 
 several publications on subjects of civic interest, for the 
 honour done him by moving the Eesolution unanimously 
 adopted by the Court of Common Council, which has led 
 to the undertaking of this new edition. 
 
 That he may do no discredit to this enlightened spirit 
 displayed by the Corporation, or to this mark of respect 
 for his own labours, the author . has endeavoured, by a 
 careful revision of his work, to render it better worthy 
 of their acceptance. He has redistributed some of the
 
 X PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 chapters, and has made many corrections and several 
 additions, though he has not essentially altered the 
 original text. Some of the disquisitions incorporated 
 may appear too digressive, but this was hardly to be 
 avoided in an attempt to explain the subject-matter of 
 ancient charters, and the various and changing interests 
 affected by them. His object has been to supply easily 
 accessible information, at least to such as are most con- 
 cerned in attaining it ; but neither to them, nor to the 
 general reader, can he profess to offer other entertainment 
 than what attends the rational pursuit of useful know- 
 ledge. His gratification will be sufficient if he may fairly 
 indulge a consciousness of having contributed something 
 to the service of the public.
 
 JtMtation 0f tjtf first fttii 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. WILLIAM THOMPSON, M.P. 
 
 LOED MAYOR, 
 THE ALDERMEN AND COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL 
 
 OF THE CITY OP LONDON, 
 
 THIS ATTEMPT TO ELUCIDATE THE BISTORT AND CONSTITUTION, 
 TO EXPLAIN THE CHARTERED FRANCHISES, AND 
 
 TO ESTABLISH THE CORPORATE RIGHTS OF THEIR ANCIENT CITY, 
 
 IS, 
 IN RECOLLECTION OF OBLIGATIONS FORMERLY RECEIVED, 
 
 GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 
 BY THEIR FELLOW-CITIZEN AND OBEDIENT SERVANT 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 THERE are few subjects in English History more involved 
 in obscurity than the original constitution and progres- 
 sive condition of cities and boroughs. A theme of such 
 national importance has by turns exercised the pens of 
 legal, of statistical, of political, and of historical writers ; 
 but although their labours, and particularly those of 
 Madox and Spelman, have scattered much light over its 
 darker topics, yet the public have still to regret the want 
 of a connected and systematic treatise comprehending the 
 whole of the subject. Those authors who have pursued 
 their enquiries with so much industry as to advance 
 theories, may be said rather to have raised controversies 
 than to have established principles : and no positions 
 have been more confidently disputed of late years, than 
 those regarding the origin and mercantile quality of town 
 communities, propounded by Dr. Brady in his elaborate 
 Treatise on Boroughs. 
 
 It may readily be imagined that the City of London, 
 the most ancient constitutional borough in England 
 which has preserved its ancient Saxon independence and 
 its political and judicial customs inviolate which has
 
 XIV PREFACE TO 
 
 constantly exercised such a decided influence in the State, 
 and always maintained an internal self-jurisdiction which 
 has been the very cradle of civil liberty and civilisation in 
 this country, would have furnished the best materials 
 for the work, if not the best writer upon a topic of such 
 universal interest that it would at least have presented to 
 the public a compendious account of its own privileges 
 and of the nature of its own constitution, by which that of 
 other cities might have been greatly illustrated. Materials, 
 indeed, of great antiquity and peculiar value the City 
 possesses amongst its records, and sufficient for the sub- 
 stantiation of all its legal rights : but amongst all the 
 eminent characters engaged in the higher and literary 
 professions to whom the City has given birth, or the 
 Corporation a livelihood, not one has, except in a very 
 superficial degree, devoted himself to this task ; and of all 
 the writers on civic affairs in general, the most learned in 
 London antiquities was a tailor. 1 
 
 The author of the following work attained, at an early 
 period of life, an office in the City of London, which im- 
 posed, as a professional duty, the obligation of some 
 acquaintance with its laws and customs. In his anxious 
 endeavour to acquire that information, from which alone 
 all the value of his services to the Corporation could be 
 derived, he very soon found reason to lament the absence 
 of any work calculated even to direct his studies, much 
 less to explain the object of them. The older chroniclers, 
 to whom the ancient constitution and customs of London 
 
 1 Stow, the author of the Survey Strype, have supplied the greatest 
 of London. Subsequent editors, part of the legal matter of the work, 
 however, and more particularly
 
 THE FIRST EDITION. XV 
 
 were the most familiar, have expended all the energies of 
 their labour and of their intellect in the description of 
 churches, tombstones, and civic pageantry ; and modern 
 civic historians have done little more than extend their 
 researches over the same surface. The professed exposi- 
 tors, both ancient and modern, of the polity, the chartered 
 franchises, the privileges of the City, and the laws and 
 practice of the civic courts, are very few in number ; 
 most of them anonymous, who quote one from another, 
 without acknowledgment, a dry list of charters, customs, 
 and decisions, which, so far from attempting to explain, 
 their very phraseology proves them not to have under- 
 stood. In the meantime a host of controversial pam- 
 phleteers have virulently disputed on some of the more 
 constitutional and essential characteristics of the citizens 
 and of the civic community ; until, at times, the authority 
 of the Legislature, or of a superior court of law both 
 more ignorant, perhaps, than these controversialists, of 
 the true nature of the rights under contest has by some 
 enactment or absolute decision swept many of them 
 altogether away. In short, such is the perplexity which 
 the alterations of times and circumstances, and changes 
 in practice, have introduced ; so contradictory are the 
 writers on isolated topics ; so widely dispersed, or so 
 difficult of -access, the genuine authorities from which 
 information is to be derived, and so utterly barren the 
 treatises of those who have pretended to collect them 
 that to obtain a clear and accurate knowledge of the City 
 law has been declared by one, 1 the most capable perhaps 
 
 1 William Bolland,Esq., afterwards been for more than twenty years one 
 A Baron of the Exchequer, who has of the City Counsel, and who at an
 
 Xvi PREFACE TO 
 
 of any man now living to form an opinion on the subject, 
 to be a task likely to baffle the most enterprising industry 
 and the most matured reflection. 
 
 The writer of these pages, however, had not proceeded 
 far in his investigation of the subject, when he felt that 
 it possessed an interest sufficient to reward amply the 
 curiosity both of the learned and the unlearned, and 
 meriting the consideration as well of the Englishman as of 
 the citizen. While the nature of that civic constitution, 
 under which London from its humble origin has emerged 
 the metropolis of England, could not fail to supply an 
 attractive source of reflection to the general reader, in- 
 quisitive in all that deeply concerns the history of his 
 country, or warm in his attachment to the free principles 
 of its government, the peculiar quality and purport of 
 the City charters and laws could not but excite some 
 attention amongst the more enlightened of that immense 
 population who live and thrive under their administration. 
 Avoiding the investigation of the more obsolete customs of 
 the City, now deservedly lapsed into desuetude, the first 
 topic appeared to the author capable of great elucidation ; 
 the other, of a systematic exposition. Of the internal civic 
 polity he conceived, that it not only presented an epitome 
 of the original Saxon system of free government in this 
 country; but embodying with the most complete and 
 beneficial practical effect the principles of self-government, 
 it exemplified in the composition of its deliberative and 
 executive assemblies, in the free election of all its magis- 
 
 early period of his professional career, ministered in the City Covirts ; for 
 
 and before other increasing duties the free perngal of which, the author 
 
 commanded his avocations, made has to testify to that gentleman the 
 
 laborious collections on the law ad- sincere acknowledgments of a friend.
 
 THE FIRST EDITION. XV11 
 
 trates, in the minute subdivisions of delegated authority, 
 in the extent and quality of the elective franchise, the 
 best as well as the purest model of a free representing and 
 representative community which can exist under a limited 
 monarchy. Of the law, as administered in the City Courts, 
 his experience in them induced him to think that it 
 evinced a simple and effectual medium, through which, 
 amidst a vast and concentrated population of traders, 
 cheap, prompt, and pure justice was afforded to suitors, 
 valuable in proportion to the accumulated intricacy and 
 expense in other departments of the English law. Con- 
 siderable intercourse with the citizens of all classes has 
 served to confirm these sentiments. And now that all 
 personal interest in the prosperity of the civic community, 
 save that which may arise from a general regard for the 
 welfare of his country at large, has long ceased, while his 
 acquaintance with the rights of the London citizens has 
 perhaps increased, his opinion remains unchanged. 
 
 Actuated by these impressions, he began to dedicate the 
 leisure which professional engagements would allow, to 
 the task of collecting and digesting the materials to which 
 he has adverted, with a view to compile a treatise, confin- 
 ing its subject to the rise, progress, and present constitu- 
 tion of the Corporation of London, and to an exposition 
 of the law and practice of the City Courts. In the prose- 
 cution of this design, it was his original intention, after 
 giving some historical account of the City, and examining 
 the tenor of its charters, to have pursued his undertak- 
 ing systematically, by displaying the quality of the free 
 citizens and of their elective franchises, the appointment 
 and functions of the various civic magistrates and chief
 
 XV111 PREFACE TO 
 
 officers, and the composition and powers of the constitu- 
 tional assemblies of the Court of Aldermen ; the Court of 
 Common Council, and the Hustings Court of Common Hall. 
 In treating of the civic law, he would have examined into 
 the nature and jurisdiction of the many City Law Courts ; 
 as the Hustings Court, the Lord Mayor's Court, the 
 Sheriff's Courts, the Court of Conservancy, the Orphans' 
 Court, the Chamberlain's Court for apprentices, and the 
 Appeal Court of St. Martin's-le-Grand : and, in adverting 
 to the exercise of the various legal functions of these 
 Courts, it would have been incumbent on him to notice 
 many City customs still in practical operation; more 
 particularly the Law of Foreign Attachment, so peculiarly 
 productive of beneficial results in a mercantile com- 
 munity. If he was encouraged in this attempt by a sincere 
 ambition to render at least some service to his fellow- 
 citizens, if not valuable information to the public at large, 
 his zeal was not less sanctioned by the example of many 
 great and learned characters, whose projected efforts in 
 the same undertaking would no doubt have been crowned 
 with success, had not more important duties intervened 
 to direct their public labours in a different channel. 1 
 Whatever objects in succeeding or hopes of success 
 
 1 Lord Coke and Mr. Calthrop jected a distinct work on that of 
 
 (both Recorders of London) edited London ; and it is believed, that 
 
 superficial and short dissertations on the learned Mr. Hargrave collected 
 
 City Law ; and the former almost in his valuable materials on City Law 
 
 terms recommends a more detailed with a similar design. Lastly, Mr. 
 
 work on the subject. Lord King, Whitaker, whose History of Man- 
 
 who was likewise Recorder, and Chester proves his ability for the task, 
 
 afterwards Lord Chancellor, also had designed A History of London, 
 
 collected materials for a work on the which he contemplated 'as quite new 
 
 Law of Foreign Attachment. Mr. and original.' The last three were 
 
 Kyd, who wrote on Corporations, pro- arrested in their progress by death.
 
 THE FIKST EDITION. XIX 
 
 the author may have conceived in the full accomplish- 
 ment of his original design, they have been suddenly ex- 
 tinguished by a change in his circumstances, which has at 
 once removed him from the chief sources of information, 
 and imposed duties which fully engross the time requisite 
 for the just fulfilment of his wishes. He may, perhaps, 
 be thought deservedly to suffer imputation by not retir- 
 ing, in deference to the example of more competent indi- 
 viduals, altogether from the further prosecution of them. 
 If the only alternative had been to produce a scanty 
 and incoherent dissertation on the subject, it would 
 have manifested a contemptible ambition of author- 
 ship to have deluded the public by the publication of it. 
 But as his researches upon some parts of his projected 
 work had proceeded to almost their full extent, and were 
 already digested into composition, the author indulged 
 the idea, that merely to deduce the civil and political his- 
 . tcwy of the City, to exhibit the fundamental principles of 
 the municipal constitution, and to explain the tenor and 
 effect of those highly valued charters, the purport of which 
 are so little understood, would be to convey some 
 valuable information, and to perform no unwelcome 
 service. Had he not hoped to accomplish so much of his 
 task with some success, he would, though with reluctance, 
 have resigned the project which had so long engaged his 
 zealous pursuit. If, however, he has formed an erroneous 
 estimate of his capacity to perform it in this limited 
 degree, he must submit without murmur to the mor- 
 tification incurred by his own mistaken pretensions. 
 He might certainly have suspended his labours in expect- 
 ation of more favourable opportunities hereafter ; but he
 
 XX PREFACE TO 
 
 is aware, that if there is apy value in the present treatise, 
 the precarious tenure of his life in a noxious climate for- 
 bids any confident hope of its ever becoming enhanced by 
 the contribution of his future exertions. 
 
 These particulars of the following work it has been 
 thought expedient to premise, not out of any vain desire 
 to deprecate that censure which the public interests re- 
 quire should pursue all literary failures, but for the pur- 
 pose of precluding any ill-founded expectations, and of 
 accounting for the desultory character of some discussions 
 introduced into the body of it. Had the composition pro- 
 ceeded according to its original arrangement, many of the 
 statistical particulars embodied in the history, and much 
 of the subject-matter of the charters, would have been 
 distributed under more specific and appropriate heads. 
 As it is, without wandering beyond the legitimate bounds 
 of digression, some topics which have appeared to be of 
 more than ordinary interest, have been canvassed at some- 
 what greater length, perhaps, than the occasion would 
 seem naturally to suggest. 
 
 To the learned reader the author feels that he has little 
 occasion to appeal, either for a calm and deliberate con- 
 sideration of those positions he may be disposed to dispute, 
 or for a candid allowance for those errors which may be 
 pronounced unavoidable, in a work embracing so many 
 obscure and intricate points. His liberality will induce 
 him to confess, that, upon subjects from which, shrouded 
 as they are in the darkness of antiquity, many able men 
 have shrunk with dismay, and over which learned dispu- 
 tants have struggled with all the honest warmth of mutual 
 conviction, he might himself draw a mistaken conclusion.
 
 THE FIRST EDITION. XXI 
 
 Xorcan the author better vindicate his sincere purpose of 
 communicating information rather than party zeal, and of 
 establishing truth rather than theory, than by scrupulously 
 referring those who may correct him, to the sources and 
 authorities of almost every fact he advances. It is true, 
 that the authorities quoted may not always be exactly pre- 
 cise to the point submitted ; sometimes the combination 
 of many are relied upon, and sometimes the general dis- 
 cussion of one, as justifying the resulting position. Such 
 a course is occasionally unavoidable in weaving a multi- 
 farious subject into a connected narrative ; and the 
 reader may be reminded that Gibbon remarks ' how much 
 ' particular knowledge is requisite for general description, 
 ' the author of which ought to be much more learned 
 4 than his work.' 1 But if too little caution or discrimina- 
 tion is sometimes evinced in drawing these inferences, 
 at least the means are honestly furnished by which the 
 public may be undeceived. 
 
 A desire to render these pages attractive to the 
 general reader, has induced the introduction of some 
 matter which would hardly be sanctioned in a work 
 strictly of a legal character, and perhaps a more discur- 
 sive style in the historical part than the nature even of 
 that part of the subject would warrant. The statement 
 of some simple and notorious truths, in history or in law, 
 the learned enquirer, should he deign to direct his eye 
 through these pages, wih 1 pass over with indulgence ; re- 
 membering that what is needless information to him, may 
 form valuable knowledge to others. On the other hand, 
 the more general reader, whose instruction is as much 
 
 1 Introductory letter to ' The Antiquities of the House of Brunswick.'
 
 XXli PREFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION. 
 
 sought as his amusement, may readily excuse the apparent 
 parade of learning which disfigures each sheet ; in the 
 recollection that, wherever popular rights or historical 
 facts are discussed, the only knowledge, which can be 
 either useful or satisfactory, is that which can be traced to 
 its source. 
 
 The author has but few acknowledgments to make for 
 assistance afforded him ; his most valuable acquisitions 
 having been derived from the patient industry of one indi- 
 vidual, by whom the public expression of his gratitude is 
 not looked for as a recompense. But having already 
 alluded to the kind assistance of Mr. Bolland, he is still 
 less disposed to repress the testimonial of a sincere friend 
 to the ready zeal and cheerful exertions of the City Soli- 
 citor, William Lewis Newman, Esq., in communicating 
 from the wealthy stores both of his library and his own 
 mind, and in collecting with critical judgment for his 
 service many of the scarcer materials of this work. By 
 his friends the late Town Clerk, Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., 
 and the present Town Clerk, Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., 
 LL.D., the author has been placed under similar obliga- 
 tions ; and he has lately availed himself of some judicious 
 hints with which he has been favoured by a distinguished 
 prelate, 1 recently deceased, whose literary reputation can- 
 not be advanced by a more particular mention of him on 
 this occasion. 
 
 MADRAS: 1828. 
 
 1 Bishop Heber. EDIT.* 
 
 * The editor (in the absence of the son of the then Remembrancer of 
 author in India) of the first edition the City, and himself Ilemenibrancer 
 was Mr. Edward Tyrrell, Barrister, subsequently.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP THE EISE AND PROGRESS 
 OP THE CITY OP LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of the earliest Foundation of the City ; and its Occupation by the 
 Romans 1 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 From the Invasion of the Saxons to the Norman Conquest Internal 
 Condition of London at the time of the Norman Invasion . . 14 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Survey of the Changes introduced into the Laws and Government of 
 England hy the Conqueror Of the Establishment of the Feudal 
 System Of the Privileges of the Citizens, which consisted in an 
 exemption from the effects of these Changes . . . . .40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 From the Xonnan Conquest to the Accession of Edward I. . . 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 From the Accession of Edward L to the Death of Edward H. . .76 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Account of the Original Qualifications of the Free Citizens, and of the 
 First Establishment of the Mercantile Quality of the Civic Corpora- 
 tion in the Reign of Edward H. 91
 
 XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From the Accession of Edward III. to that of Henry VII. . . .108 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 From the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of Elizabeth Of the 
 Civic Processions and Pageants Of the interior Conditions, Popu- 
 lation, Style of Building and Manner of Living within the City 
 at this Period . . . .^ 131 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Review of the Progress of Trade generally in England and in the 
 City . . : . 157 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Inquiry into the Nature and Effect of the Exclusive Trading Privileges 
 of the City of London . . . . . . . .174 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 From the Accession of James I. to that of Charles II. . . . 199 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 From the Accession of Charles II. to the close of the Reign of George II. 
 
 ; Survey of the Measures of Charles II. Seizure of the City Fran- 
 chises by a Writ of Quo Warranto Survey of the Measures of 
 James II. Confirmation of the City's corporate Rights, Franchise?, 
 &c. Privileges by the Statute of 2 William III. Nature and 
 effect of the Statute of 11 George II. for regulating the elective 
 Franchises Summary of subsequent Legislation and of the Civic 
 elective Franchises at the present time Conclusion of the First 
 Book . 220 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Charter of William the Conqueror . 255 
 
 The Portreve 258 
 
 The Borough Barons 260 
 
 Citizens to be Law-worthy 262 
 
 Right of Heirship , , . '. . . . . . 265
 
 CONTEXTS. XXV11 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Second Charter of Edward III. . . .. ^ ',':.-. . 363 
 
 Grant of Southwark . . ... . . . . .363 
 
 Third Charter of Edward III .... 363 
 
 Exclusive Trade 363 
 
 Fourth Charter of Edward HI 364 
 
 Power of making Bye- Laws 365 
 
 Fifth Charter of Edward III . . .365 
 
 City Maces 365 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 First Charter of Richard II 367 
 
 Protections of persons engaged in the King's sendee not to avail 
 
 against suits for Victuals 369 
 
 Second Charter of Richard H 370 
 
 First Charter of Henry IV 371 
 
 Custody of City Gates Tolls of Markets 371 
 
 Second Charter of Henry IV 371 
 
 First and Second Charters of Henry V 372 
 
 Charter of Henry VI 372 
 
 Grant of Common Land within the City ..... 372 
 
 Purprestures and Improvements ...... 372 
 
 First Charter of Edward TV 373 
 
 Certifying City Customs 375 
 
 Second Charter of Edward IV 376 
 
 Tronage 376 
 
 Third Charter of Edward IV 379 
 
 Purchasing in Mortmain 379 
 
 Fourth Charter of Edward IV. 379 
 
 Scavage 380 
 
 Package, Pickage, and Portage 382 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Charter of Henry VII 384 
 
 Wholesale Dealers Office of Gauger 384 
 
 First Charter of Henry VHI. . . . " 385 
 
 Tronage 385 
 
 Second Charter of Henry VHI 385 
 
 Inquisitions at St. Martin's Le Grand transferred to Guildhall . 385 
 
 Third Charter of Henry VIH 385 
 
 Confirmation of Tronage 385
 
 XXV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Charter of Edward VI. . . . . . . . . 386 
 
 Land granted in the Borough of Southwark .... 388 
 
 First Charter of James I .390 
 
 Conservancy of the Thames 390 
 
 Office of Measurer 392 
 
 Metage Duty on Goods on behalf of Funds of City Orphans . 394 
 
 Second Charter of James 1 396 
 
 Search and Survey of Goods ....... 396 
 
 Third Charter of James 1 397 
 
 Weighing and Metage of Goods ....... 397 
 
 First Charter of Charles 1 398 
 
 General confirmation of all preceding Charters nominatim . . 398 
 
 Moorfields Markets 400 
 
 Second Charter of Charles I. 404 
 
 Scavage and Waterbaillage . 406 
 
 Charter of Charles II. General confirmation of all previous Charters, 
 
 and reciting at large their Contents 407 
 
 Charters of William and Mary, and of George II 407 
 
 INDEX . 409
 
 CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Charter of Henry I -" - . . . .267 
 
 Holding Middlesex to farm . . . .".''.'. , 268 
 
 Citizens to appoint their o\vn Justiciar . r ' . . . 270 
 Not to plead without the Walls . . . . .277 
 
 Exemption from Scot . . . . . . . . .281 
 
 Exemption from Danegeld ........ 283 
 
 Exemption from Murder 283 
 
 Exemption from Waging Battle 284 
 
 Purgation in Criminal Pleas 285 
 
 Lodgings for the King's Household ...... 287 
 
 Exemption from Toll, Passage, and Lestage . . . .287 
 
 Of the City Socs 280 
 
 Arnerciaments and Weres ........ 292 
 
 Miskennings at the Hustings 294 
 
 Attachments for illegal Toll-taking, and for Debts . . . 298 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Charter of Henry II 301 
 
 Pleas of Foreign Tenures 302 
 
 The King's Moneyers 302 
 
 Portsoken Ward * 302 
 
 Bridtoll 303 
 
 Childwite 303 
 
 Jeresgive 303 
 
 Scotale 304 
 
 First Charter of Richard I. . 305 
 
 Second Charter of Richard 1 305 
 
 Wears to be removed from the Thames 305 
 
 First Charter of John 306 
 
 Second Charter of John 306 
 
 Sheriffwick of London and Middlesex 307 
 
 Blank Money . '. '. . i\ 307 
 
 Removal of Sheriffs . 307 
 
 Presentation of Sheriffs 312 
 
 Sheriffs' Accounts 312 
 
 Sheriffs' Amerciaments 312 
 
 Third Charter of John 313 
 
 Fourth Charter of John 313 
 
 Weavers' Gild expelled 313 
 
 Fifth Charter of John . . ' . ..... . .315 
 
 Grant of the Mayoralty . . . . .".--.- . 315 
 
 Presentation of the Mayor 317 
 
 Chamberlainship reserved to the King . . . . . 318 
 b
 
 XXVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First Charter of Henry III. . ;'. . , . , . .319 
 Second Charter of Henry III. . . * . . . .319 
 
 Third Charter of Henry III . .319 
 
 Fourth Charter of Henry III. . . . . . . ' . .320 
 
 Fifth Charter of Henry IH . .320 
 
 Warren of Staines . 320 
 
 Sixth Charter of Henry III ' , . , . 821 
 
 Queenhithe granted ...-, . 321 
 
 Seventh Charter of Henry III 323 
 
 Allowance in the Sheriffs Court for the Liberty of St. Paul's . 323 
 Eighth Charter of Henry III. . . . . . . . .324 
 
 Ninth Charter of Henry III. . . . . . ... .324 
 
 Pleading without the Walls 326 
 
 Swearing on Graves 327 
 
 Prisage of Wines .328 
 
 Making Attorneys for pleading irf the Courts .... 328 
 Inrolment of Debts of Citizens 329 
 
 First Charter of Edward I. 332 
 
 Presentation of Mayor and Sheriffs ...... 332 
 
 Second Charter of Edward 1 333 
 
 First Charter of Edward II 333 
 
 Articles for the better Government of the City, and for regulating 
 
 the City constitutional Franchises confirmed .... 333 
 
 Second Charter of Edward II 344 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 First Charter of Edward III 345 
 
 Infangtheft and Outfangtheft 347 
 
 Bequeathing in Mortmain 349 
 
 Anierciaments of Sheriffs for Escapes 351 
 
 Custody of those escaping to Sanctuaries 354 
 
 King's Clerks of the Market to have no jurisdiction in the City . 355 
 
 Mayor to be Escheator 356 
 
 Citizens to be exempt from Prises of Victuals taken by the Con- 
 stable of the Tower 357 
 
 Recording of Charters in the King's Courts .... 359 
 
 Citizens to be taxed as a Commonalty and not individually . 359 
 
 King's Officers not to trade in the City . . . . 360 
 
 Citizens' Lands without the City as well as within liable for City 
 
 Officers' defaults 360 
 
 Criminal Inquisitions to be held only at St. Martin's Le Grand 
 
 besides those at the Tower and at the Gaol-delivery at Newgate 361
 
 COMMENTARIES ON LONDON, 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF 
 THE CITY OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OP THE EARLIEST FOUNDATION OF THE CITY, AND ITS 
 OCCUPATION BY THE ROMANS. 
 
 THE natural interest which all feel in tracing the history of CHAP. 
 
 the place they inhabit, or with which they may be otherwise , * 
 
 intimately connected an interest which rather increases B - a 
 than diminishes in proportion as the sphere within which it 
 operates becomes contracted would in itself, perhaps, be a 
 rational and sufficient inducement to preface a treatise upon 
 a topic so local as the elucidation of the Constitution and 
 Privileges of the City of London, with some account of its 
 origin and progress. It will, however, upon reflection, pre- 
 sently suggest itself, that a due comprehension of its laws 
 and customs, as well as of the civic government in general, 
 must greatly depend on a competent acquaintance with the 
 history of the times in which they originated, and of the 
 manners of the age which gave rise to, and serve to illustrate, 
 them. A dissertation of this nature, therefore, becomes not 
 only apposite, in deference to common feelings of curiosity, 
 but even necessary for the purposes of the present undertaking. 
 Many of the ancient privileges and customs of London, being
 
 5 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK no longer applicable to the present state of society, are con- 
 _ T ' _^ tinually liable to be misunderstood : many commercial rights, 
 B-c> though highly prized in former times, and still valuable, 
 have, through the gradual changes in mercantile intercourse, 
 sunk into disregard, and are in danger of being for ever lost ; 
 and much of that power and authority anciently exercised 
 both in a judicial and ministerial capacity by the superior 
 members of the Corporation, has, through the alteration of 
 times and circumstances, naturally become subject to doubt 
 or misconstruction. Difficulties of this kind can only be re- 
 moved by directing our attention to those passing events, 
 and that state of things, by which all laws and rights are 
 influenced ; and such attention becomes the more requisite, 
 according as the laws and customs enquired into have a 
 more peculiar and limited import. 
 
 The many ample and laborious works which have been 
 already devoted to this subject, might seem, perhaps, to 
 render an attempt of this nature superfluous : nor can there 
 be any doubt, that whoever is curious to enquire into all the 
 public events in detail connected with the history of the City 
 of London, may gratify his wishes to the fullest indulgence 
 by resorting to those volumes. It will nevertheless be seen 
 upon examination, that, in all the accounts of London which 
 have hitherto appeared, the writers have, for the most part, 
 contented themselves with a minute, though very superficial, 
 statement of historical facts and particulars ; but have alto- 
 gether withdrawn from the more difficult and uninviting 
 task of enquiring into, and explaining, the progressive state 
 of the civic government and constitution, and the relative 
 condition of the City with respect to the rest of the kingdom. 
 Consequently, for want of such illustration, much of their 
 narration becomes barren and unsatisfactory ; and in many 
 of those particulars which concern the ancient and present 
 rights and privileges of the citizens, impossible to be properly 
 comprehended. In this undertaking, therefore, it will be 
 attempted to supply such deficiency, by deducing a history 
 of the legal constitution and government of the City of 
 London, rather than to record those casual events, which, 
 however interesting as connected with it, are foreign from
 
 EABLIEST FOUOTATIOX OF LOXDOX. 
 
 the purposes and object of the present work. Towards the 
 accomplishment of this design, much reference must neces- 
 sarily be made to the political history of the nation at large ; 
 but in so doing, every caution will be observed in introducing 
 no more of it than will serve to explain, or at least throw 
 light upon, the peculiar civic history of London. 
 
 In taking this brief retrospect into the history of London, 
 we shall purposely abstain from more than alluding to those 
 strange accounts of the remote origin and antiquity of that 
 City fables which are now generally and justly deemed of 
 comparatively modern fabrication. The secret, and perhaps 
 unconscious, desire of flattering the propensity in human 
 nature to venerate antiquity, has prompted many, and par- 
 ticularly the more ancient authors of English history, in 
 treating upon a favourite topic, to strain arguments beyond 
 the limits of conjecture, and even to indulge in the most 
 absurd inventions, for the sake of assigning a very early 
 period to the establishment of the British polity and seat of 
 government. Thus Geoffrey of Monmouth, as he is called, a 
 monk who wrote in the twelfth century, ascribes, on the pre- 
 tended authority of an ancient British manuscript, the foun- 
 dation of the City of London to Brute, a descendant of ^neas. 
 who migrated to this country, according to his relation, about 
 half a century after the destruction of Troy : and he reckons 
 from him seventy kings, who reigned successively before the 
 arrival of Julius Caesar. The reveries of this chronicler seem 
 to have been adopted by several of our early historians ; and 
 they gained so much credit. with our unlettered ancestors, 
 that they have been with difficulty exploded in later and 
 more civilised ages. 1 Even the accurate and learned Coke, 
 indulging the bias of his veneration for the antiquity of the 
 
 1 Geoffrey's account of the foundation even pleaded as good authority in point 
 of London is inserted by way of preface of law in the reign of Henry VI., as 
 in a book belonging to the City of Lon- may be seen in the Tower Records. 
 don, denominated Liber Borne, from Vide Lib. Albtis, an old book of copied 
 the name of the chamberlain who com- records in the Town Clerk's Office, 
 piled it; which book is a compilation Bishop Gibson, the editor of Camden's 
 of all the laws and customs of the City Britannia, endeavours to support the 
 of London, written in the reign of credit of Geoffrey and his work. Cam- 
 Edward II. ; and the same account was den's Brit. 1772, vol. i. p. 5. 
 B 2
 
 I HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK Common Law of England, quotes this account of the coloni- 
 _ T ' _^ sation of England with respect ; and labours strenuously to 
 B>c - prove its laws and customs to be of Grecian origin. 1 We 
 cannot but wonder, however, by what means it has escaped 
 the recollection of those who have adopted or acquiesced in 
 the notion of the settlement of Brute in this island, that the 
 ancient Britons were ignorant of letters till long after Csesar's 
 invasion ; so that any legend deducing the history of the coun- 
 try, which could have been composed, even at the very earliest 
 period at which letters became known, must have been com- 
 piled out of an immense mass of traditions transmitted orally 
 through a series of at least twelve hundred years. Allowing 
 also the real existence of the British manuscript, from which 
 Geoffrey, as he professes, translated his history, it may be 
 safely averred that there has been no other work yet discovered 
 of a prior date referring to the British dynasty before the 
 Roman incursion. It appears, however, by its own internal 
 evidence, that this manuscript must have been compiled 
 many centuries after the introduction of letters into this 
 country ; indeed, there is much reason to believe, after the 
 Norman Conquest. 2 When it is considered, therefore, that 
 the materials for composing such a history could only have 
 been collected from oral traditions, many of which must have 
 survived the lapse of twenty barbarous ages, it becomes 
 impossible to encourage the least faith on its testimony ; 
 and we may rest satisfied with the conviction, that all 
 enquiries into the exploits and government of our uncivilised 
 ancestors, before they were discovered by the Romans, 
 would be as vain, as incapable of conveying any genuine 
 instruction. i 
 
 Having recourse then to those sources of information 
 which alone deserve to be entitled authentic, we shall be 
 
 1 Lord Coke's Preface to the Third hardly be dated earlier than the close of 
 Part of his Eeports. the fourth century. He also alludes to 
 
 2 The author of the British manu- the denomination of the City of London 
 script, quoted by Geoffrey, calls himself as Londres by foreigners who had sub- 
 Walter Archdeacon of Ehydycen (Ox- dued the country. By these terms must 
 ford) ; BO that he must haye written of necessity be understood the Normans. 
 some time after the establishment of Maitland's History of London, 1772, 
 Christianity in Britain, which can TO!, i. p. 11.
 
 EARLIEST FOUNDATION OF LONDON. 5 
 
 readily disposed to think, that upon the arrival of Caesar CHAP, 
 in this country, there existed no place of habitation on ^_ - , _^ 
 the present site of London, or indeed in any other part B-c ' 
 of this island, which could properly be denominated a city. 
 Speaking of the most considerable station of which he 
 gained any knowledge, that general says, ' The Britons deem 
 
 * a thick wood, fortified by a ditch and mound, a town ; and 
 ' retire thither for the purpose of securing them selves from an 
 
 * invading enemy.' l The circumstance of his not mentioning 
 any town or fortress of a more regular construction, although 
 he must have been very near the spot on which London now 
 stands, if not actually upon it, tends most strongly to con- 
 firm the conclusion that no such place had at that time been 
 established. 
 
 Indeed all the writers who lived at or near the age to 
 which we are alluding, and who furnish any account of 
 the inhabitants of Britain at that period, concur in repre- 
 senting their manners and customs to be of a nature quite 
 inconsistent with the establishment of cities, or indeed of any 
 stated and regular form of government. They were but half 
 clothed, and that with the skins of beasts ; they dwelt in huts 
 built of hurdles and mud, which were the only kind of habita- 
 tions they were capable of rearing. Agriculture was rarely 
 and in very few places followed ; but, subsisting chiefly by 
 pasture, and the produce of forests and marshes with which 
 the country was covered, their lives were passed in perpetual 
 migration. 2 
 
 Julius Caesar, it appears from his own narrative, may be 
 rather said to have shown the country to the Romans than 
 to have reduced it under their dominion ; and almost a 
 hundred years elapsed after that event, before the Britons 
 were again molested by any foreign enemy. In the second 
 year, however, of the reign of the Emperor Claudius, a 
 powerful armament was fitted out, under the command of 
 Aulus Plautius, a very able general, for the purpose of making 
 a complete conquest of the island. The Britons fought 
 desperately in defence of their liberty ; but being defeated 
 
 1 Cxs. Com. de Bel. Gal. lib. 5. Geog. lib. 4 ; Dion Cassias in Vit. 
 
 Ibid.; Diod. Sic. lib. 60; Strabo. Ker.
 
 r HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK in several engagements, which appear to have taken place 
 _ L ... on the banks of the Thames, Claudius himself was invited 
 B.C. over, in order to reap the honour of finishing the war. That 
 Emperor, therefore, taking upon himself the personal com- 
 mand of the army, attacked the Britons, who were posted 011 
 the brink of the river Thames in the neighbourhood, as 
 is supposed, of Chelsea, and entirely routed them. Thence 
 penetrating into Essex, and overcoming all opposition, he 
 left Plautius in possession of the country through which he 
 had passed, and returned to Rome in triumph. 
 
 All these transactions took place in the immediate vicinity 
 of London ; and Claudius, in his progress into Essex, having 
 to pass over the identical spot on which London stands, would 
 hardly have failed, according to the Roman rules of war and 
 policy, to have made himself master of the capital of the 
 country ; as, indeed, he did of Camalodunum, now supposed 
 to be Maldon in Essex, which is described as the royal seat 
 of Cynobelin. But Dion Cassius, who relates all the events 
 of this war, makes no mention whatever of the City of Lon- 
 don ; and there is, therefore, every reason to conclude, that, 
 even at this period, no such place was distinguished either 
 as the seat of government or as a fortified position of any 
 importance. 
 
 It is very probable, however, that even before the time of 
 Julius Ceesar, the district which London now occupies might 
 have been an occasional rendezvous of the description of 
 those which he characterises ; and it is not unreasonable to 
 suppose that the advantages of its situation might render the 
 stay of the natives within it less precarious and inconstant 
 than usual. This circumstance might, in the progress of 
 their intercourse with more civilised foreigners and neigh- 
 bours, gradually lead to such an improvement, as well as 
 increase, of the original assemblage of habitations, as would 
 in the course of a century constitute a place of some local 
 distinction and consideration, without the favourite solemnity 
 of a formal foundation by men acquainted with the laws of 
 civil society. The name ' Londinium,' by which the City was 
 recognised within a very few years after the Romans became 
 
 1 Dion Cass. lib. 60.
 
 DESTRUCTION OF LONDON BY BOADICEA. 
 
 really possessed of any part of the country, being neither of 
 Greek nor Latin etymology, but, according to the best 
 literary testimony, clearly British, 1 very much favours this 
 supposition. 
 
 The first historical writer who expressly notices London by 
 name is Tacitus ; 2 and it is interesting to remark that, in 
 the earliest record of its existence, honourable allusion is 
 made to the trade of that City as its peculiar characteristic. 
 We learn from him that for twenty years after the invasion 
 of Claudius, a Roman army maintained itself constantly in 
 the island, and having founded several colonies in different 
 places, made considerable progress in subduing the inhabi- 
 tants ; not, however, without bloody and continued struggles 
 on their part : when, about the seventh year of the reign of 
 Nero, Suetonius Paulinus succeeded to the command. That 
 general, being engaged in the reduction of the Isle of Mona 
 (now called Anglesea), heard that a furious insurrection had 
 broken out in the south-eastern parts of the country against 
 the Roman yoke, and that the Britons, headed by their queen 
 Boadicea a woman whose masculine courage was roused to 
 fierceness by the indignity of the Roman rods were ravaging 
 those provinces with fire and sword. He accordingly hastened 
 to the relief of the veterans and colonies, against whom 
 their vengeance was directed ; and after marching through 
 the enemy's country, he arived suddenly at London; 'a place/ 
 to use literally the language of the historian, ' not at that 
 ' time dignified by the name of a colony, but much celebrated 
 * for the abundant resort of merchants with their stores.' He 
 doubted some time whether he should there await the attack 
 of the Britons, who were in full march against the place, and 
 make it the seat of war ; but at length, judging it indefensible, 
 he resolved to abandon it to the barbarians. The inhabitants 
 in vain urged him by tears and the most affecting entreaties 
 to stay and protect them from their ferocious invaders : he 
 deemed it absolutely necessary to sacrifice the town for the 
 preservation of the whole dominion, and peremptorily gave the 
 
 1 Vide authorities collected in Maitland's London, 1772, vol. i. pp. 18, 19. 
 * Tacit. AnnaL lib. 14.
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 signal of retreat. The place was scarcely evacuated bytheforces, 
 when the enemy, bursting in, reduced it completely to ashes ; 
 and, sparing neither age nor sex in their murderous work of 
 destruction, massacred the whole of the inhabitants who re- 
 mained there, with the most vindictive cruelty. From thence 
 they proceeded to the town of Verulam, now St. Albans, where 
 the same exterminating slaughter was repeated. It is com- 
 puted that no less than 70,000 Romans and strangers were 
 put to the sword in these two places. These cruelties, how- 
 ever, were soon after amply revenged by Suetonius in a 
 decisive battle, in which it is said that 80,000 of the 
 Britons perished; and Boadicea herself, to avoid falling 
 into the conqueror's hands, destroyed herself by poison. This 
 was the last opposition, of any consequence, ever made to the 
 Roman power in Britain. 
 
 From this narrative it may be reasonably collected, that 
 although the City of London might not owe, literally speaking, 
 its foundation to the Romans, yet that its establishment as a 
 city, its increase, and prosperity, may certainly be attributed 
 to that nation. We know that at the departure of Claudius 
 no nourishing city of that name existed ; we are told that 
 Plautius and the generals who immediately succeeded him, 
 were busily engaged in colonising the country : and we find 
 that on the occasion of Boadicea's irruption, London was 
 occupied almost entirely by those who had enjoyed the privi- 
 leges of Roman citizens and their allies. 1 The fact of the 
 vengeance of the natives being, at the very first, directed to 
 this quarter, and the earnest rapidity with which Suetonius 
 marched the distance of more than two hundred miles to its 
 relief, sufficiently indicate the settlement not to have been 
 that of mere natives. Indeed Tacitus relates, that the pro- 
 fessed design of the Britons was to extirpate the Roman colony. 
 Neither does the account given of London at this crisis 
 justify any conclusion that it had then arived at such a pitch 
 of splendour and opulence as would be incompatible with the 
 fact of its having recently emerged from obscurity. In speak- 
 ing of it the historian, so select in his language, uses no 
 
 1 ' Cives et socii.' Tacit. Annal. lib. 14.
 
 LONDON UNDER THE ROMANS. 9 
 
 term expressive of a regular city, but even appears to avoid 
 communicating such impression by the phrases he employs. 
 When obliged to give it some appellation, he calls it ' oppidum' 
 a word by no means so significative of a city of importance 
 as ' urbs : ' nor does the commerce carried on at this time 
 appear to have been of such a description as implies old 
 mercantile establishments ; but rather denotes that of an 
 infant colony. The terms * negotiators ' and * commeatus,' 
 which Tacitus adopts in reference to the trade for which 
 it had become famous, would, perhaps, be rendered better 
 by the words brokers or contractors, and provisions, than 
 by merchants and merchandise, according to the more usual 
 translations. 
 
 Nevertheless, many persons, and especially the earlier 
 writers of English history, who had not the opportunity of 
 knowing what experience has proved with respect to the 
 sudden and rapid growth of new colonies, have been much 
 struck with the relation of the prodigious slaughter just 
 described as taking place in London, as well as with the 
 magnificent description Tacitus gives of its trade ; and have 
 thence drawn conclusions, in palpable contradiction to con- 
 temporary writers, that London must have long previously 
 been a city of regular structure, subsisting under digested 
 laws and a settled government. Of late, however, we have 
 had reason to know that, under favourable circumstances, the 
 growth of population is so rapid as in a few years to increase 
 a very small community into a city as important as London 
 is represented to have been at the time of its destruction by 
 Boadicea. 1 It must be recollected, that the situation of 
 London is one of great and peculiar advantage in a commer- 
 cial point of view, and was occupied by inhabitants not 
 altogether unacquainted with trafiic. If therefore the Romans, 
 on taking possession of the country, determined to fix on 
 this spot as the central mart and emporium of the kingdom, 
 it is easy to conceive how great an accession of inhabitants 
 
 1 The population of the province of of the United States) ; that of the city 
 
 New York in America increased from of Baltimore, from 13,000 to 46,000 in 
 
 34,000 to 959,000 from the year 1790 nineteen years; and many other towns 
 
 ,to 1810 (Seybert's Statistical Annals in a like proportion (Fearon's America).
 
 10 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK this would occasion in a place where constant supplies were 
 . 4- required, and in which a regular intercourse with foreign 
 
 to D 4/8 na tions was kept up. But, supposing one-half of those who 
 fell victims to the slaughter inflicted by Boadicea's followers 
 perished in London, it would be very erroneous to conclude 
 that all these 35,000 were actually local residents. Upon the 
 news of such an irruption, all who dwelt within the sur- 
 rounding district would naturally fly to a place containing a 
 large population, for refuge; and especially when it was 
 known that an army of veterans was hastening to its protec- 
 tion. These observations may serve to illustrate the founda- 
 tion and rise of the City of London : and perhaps any attempt 
 to give more precise information, upon a subject so much 
 involved in uncertainty as the origin and infancy of ancient 
 cities, would be useless. 
 
 Julius Agricola, about the year 70, fifteen years after the 
 defeat of Boadicea, was appointed governor of Britain, and 
 continued in that authority for the space of sixteen years. 
 We find that even, at this period, the Britons had barely 
 emerged from a state of barbarism, and were unaccustomed 
 to regular habitations a circumstance strongly corrobo- 
 rating the presumption that the City of London, properly so 
 denominated, and as it appeared in the time of Nero, was 
 orignally built by the Romans. For Tacitus informs us, 
 that Agricola, having finally completed the conquest- of the 
 whole island, and having settled the country securely under 
 the Roman dominion, began to exhort the natives to the 
 structure of temples and houses, and to instruct them in the 
 liberal arts of peace and civilisation. 1 These efforts, how- 
 ever, had but a very partial effect ; for, in the time of the 
 Emperor Lucius Septimus Severus (A.D. 210), the natives, 
 according to Herodian, were still almost all in a state of bar- 
 barism. They went naked ; they wore iron rings round their 
 loins and necks, which they considered as a proof of wealth ; 
 they marked their bodies all over with grotesque stains. 
 Even in the time of the Emperor Theodosius (A.D. 368), 
 Ammianus Marcellinus writes, that the natives were perpe- 
 
 1 Tacit, Vit. Agric.
 
 LOXDOX UNDER THE ROMANS. 11 
 
 tually wandering from place to place, and making irruptions 
 on the Eoman stations. The same writer also relates, that 
 Theodosius made a progress throughout the country, begin- 
 ning from London ; and effected much towards the general 
 civilisation of the inhabitants, whom he calls barbarians, by 
 collecting them into cities and teaching them the arts of 
 fortification. 1 These are still more conclusive proofs that all 
 the cities and stations existing before his time were, strictly 
 speaking, of Roman foundation. 
 
 Later writers, in recounting the visits of the Emperors 
 Adrian and Severus to this country, and the transactions of 
 subsequent Eoman governors, make scarcely any allusion to 
 London ; so that it is from two or three historical facts only 
 that we are acquainted even with its existence during the 
 latter ages of the Eoman sway. About the year 288 Carau- 
 sius, who was in command of the Eoman fleet stationed at 
 .Boulogne, having rebelled against the Emperor Diocletian, 
 with the help of an army of Franks, usurped, and maintained 
 for some years afterwards, the sovereignty of Britain. He 
 was at length assassinated by his minister Allectus, who 
 thereupon assumed the government. This last usurper was, 
 however, totally defeated in the west of Britain by the Eo- 
 man general Asclepiodotus, commanding the advance of an 
 army under Constantius, who had undertaken the recovery 
 of Britain. On this occasion (being about the year 298), we 
 are informed the City was pillaged by a party of Franks, who 
 were in rapid flight after the defeat of the army of Allectus, 
 in which they had served, and hoped to have escaped with 
 their booty across the sea. In this object, however, they 
 were disappointed, being intercepted before they left the 
 City, and cut to pieces by the Eoman force under Constan- 
 tius, which arrived suddenly. 2 In the reign of the Emperor 
 Julian (A.D. 360) an expedition under Lupicinus was sent 
 from Gaul against the Picts and Scots, who made London 
 the place of muster. 3 In the year 368, the Emperor Theo- 
 
 1 Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 18. p. 331 ; Gibbon, Rom. Emp. vol. ii. 
 
 2 Panegyr. Vet. delivered to the chap. xiii. ; and in Dr. Stukeley's 
 Emperor Maximian and to Constantius Medalic Hist, of Carausius, 1757, p. 
 Caesar, by Mamertinus and others; 271. 
 
 quoted in Camden's Brit. 1772, vol. i. 3 Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 20.
 
 12 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK dosius the elder arriving in Britain, drove the northern bar- 
 ._ /_ _^ barians from the vicinity of London, after routing them in 
 
 A - B - 70 several engagements, and entered the City in formal 
 triumph. 1 It is not probable, therefore, that at either of 
 these periods the City was fortified by a wall ; otherwise it 
 must have been much more capable of defence than on these 
 several occasions it appears to have been. 
 
 The Romans, compelled to rally in defence of their very 
 seat of empire against the irruption of the northern barba- 
 rians, took their final leave of this island about the year 
 448, having been masters of the most considerable part of it 
 narly four centuries. During the latter period of their 
 sway, the City of London made a very considerable advance- 
 ment both in grandeur and civilisation. It was generally 
 their chief station, and was very numerously inhabited. It 
 was dignified with the name of Augusta a name, however, 
 which does not appear to have superseded its more ancient 
 appellation, or indeed to have been long retained. 2 From 
 the remains and antiquities which have been from time to 
 time discovered, it is evident, not only that the City was 
 adorned with temples and buildings constructed in no com- 
 mon style of architecture, but that many of those arts and 
 conveniences of life were cultivated which betoken a consi- 
 derable progress towards a state of refinement. Its wealth 
 and prosperity could hardly have been of trivial considera- 
 tion, when we find it, at different periods, an object of the 
 first regard, as a scene of plunder or of victorious triumph. 
 Nothing, indeed, can better prove the importance and 
 comparative grandeur of the City, than the very extensive 
 and substantial wall, which the Eomans some time before 
 their departure raised round it, 3 and of which very considerable 
 vestiges even still remain. This wall was strengthened and 
 adorned by them with many towers, of so firm a structure, 
 
 1 Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 17. He 1772, vol. i. p. 330); and was not 
 calls the City at this period 'Vetustum called Augusta till after Theodosius's 
 oppidum.' time (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 17). 
 
 2 It was called London Ceaster, Lon- 3 Woodward's Remarks upon the 
 don Byrig, and London Wic, by the Ancient and Present State of London, 
 Saxons on their arrival (Camden. Brit. 1723, p. 15.
 
 LONDON UNDER THE ROMANS. 13 
 
 that two existed two centuries ago ; 4 and there is no reason CHAP, 
 to donbt that nearly the whole circuit of the City wall, as it ^ - 
 stood in 1707, was erected upon the old Roman foundation, A " D " 
 comprehending an area of more than three miles in circum- 
 ference. 5 
 
 1 Mait land's London, 1772, voL L Ancient and Present State of London, 
 p. 31. 1723, p. 20. 
 
 1 Woodward's Remarks upon the
 
 14 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 520 
 to 974. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PEOM THE INVASION OF THE SAXONS TO THE NORMAN CON- 
 QUESTINTERNAL CONDITION OF LONDON AT THE TIME OF 
 THE NORMAN INVASION. 
 
 WHATEVER may have been the state of magnificence at 
 which London arrived under the government of the Romans, 
 it rapidly declined upon being deserted by its powerful 
 protectors. The Picts and Scots, at all times with difficulty 
 restrained within their boundaries, no sooner felt themselves 
 released from the terror of a disciplined force, than they 
 poured in upon the southern provinces of Britain, spreading 
 ruin and desolation throughout the whole country. In vain 
 the Britons sought for protection from the Saxon barba- 
 rians, whom they called to their assistance. Their new and 
 faithless allies soon either joined with or emulated their 
 northern foes ; and, arriving in large numbers at different 
 times and in different parts of the kingdom, finally established 
 that dominion over the whole of it, which has since passed 
 by the name of the Saxon Heptarchy. Hengist, the first of 
 the Saxon chiefs who landed, after many bloody engage- 
 ments, established his government over Kent, Essex, and 
 Middlesex, and fixed upon Canterbury as his capital in pre- 
 ference to London a manifest proof of the decay of the 
 latter city. Essex and Middlesex were, about the year 520, 
 wrested from the successors of Hengist, and being incor- 
 porated with Hertfordshire, formed the kingdom of the East 
 Saxons, of which London was made the capital. The king- 
 dom of the East Saxons was reduced again to a sort of vas- 
 salage under Ethelbert, who began to reign over Kent in the 
 year 564, but he was not induced to transfer the seat of his 
 government to London, or to add that City to his own proper 
 dominions.
 
 INVASION OP THE SAXOXS. 15 
 
 Towards the latter end of this king's reign, about the year 
 600, Christianity was first publicly preached to the Saxons in 
 Britain, by Augustine, a monk sent for that express purpose 
 from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great. 1 Having converted 
 the Kentish and East Saxons, Augustine was consecrated 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, which may therefore reasonably be 
 supposed to have been at that time the city of the greatest 
 consequence in those provinces. He ordained Mellitus Bishop 
 of the East Saxons, who converted that kingdom to the true 
 faith, and King Ethelbert built a church for him and his 
 successors in London, dedicated to St. PauL ' At this time,' 
 says Bede, * London was a mart town of many nations, which 
 ' repaired hither by sea and land.' ' Still, however, it must 
 have been very far from that nourishing state in which it 
 was left by the Romans ; for no architecture in brick or 
 stone was attempted by the Saxons till the year 680 : 3 and 
 the churches and monasteries were most of them built of 
 wood down to Edgar's time in 974. 4 
 
 In the confused and perpetual wars of the Heptarchy, 
 nothing of any consequence can be traced as regarding 
 London. We may believe, however, that throughout the 
 universal scene of change and bloodshed which charac- 
 terised a country divided into petty barbarous principalities, 
 its relative importance did not decrease : for, on the various 
 Saxon states being finally united under the sole dominion of 
 the victorious Egbert in the year 827, he fixed upon this City 
 as the seat of his residence and the metropolis of his em- 
 pire ; which rank it has ever since maintained. This may 
 be assumed as a sort of second era of the foundation of 
 London : it having from that period always held the first 
 rank in national consideration, and gradually increased in 
 wealth and influence till it arrived at its present flourishing 
 condition. 
 
 Egbert was scarcely seated on his throne, when the Danes 
 
 1 Christianity had made some pro- * Ibid. lib. 2. Stovrs Survey, 1754, 
 
 gress among the Britons before Angus- vol. i. p. 9. 
 
 tine's mission : but after the arrival of * Edgar's Charter to the Abbey of 
 
 the Saxon Pagans, it iras no longer Malmesbury. Stow's Surrey, 1754, vol. 
 
 acknowledged as the national religion. L p. 9. 
 
 1 Bede, lib. 2, cap. 3.
 
 16 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK first began those invasions, which, in the three subsequent 
 . L ~ reigns of his unwarlike successors, had wellnigh over- 
 A.D. 520 whelmed the whole kingdom with ruin. Their original de- 
 sign appears to have been plunder and devastation, rather 
 than regular conquest: fire and sword marked their pro- 
 gress in every direction ; and among many other cities Lon- 
 don was sacked and burnt by them. At length, resolving to 
 subjugate the island altogether, they took possession of the 
 City and fortified it; and proceeding from one success to 
 another, they had all but accomplished their enterprise, 
 when the genius of the great Alfred enabled him to raise the 
 nation from despair, and at last to save it by the expulsion 
 of these merciless invaders. After gaining several great 
 and signal victories, he besieged the Danes in London, who 
 capitulated after some resistance. Alfred instantly began 
 to repair and reinstate the walls and buildings of the City ; 
 which he accomplished in so effectual a manner, that it was 
 able to withstand the most desperate sieges in after times 
 successfully : and having finally either driven the Danes out 
 of his kingdom, or so settled those who remained as to 
 disable them from making any further attacks, he began to 
 establish on a firm basis though he cannot claim the 
 honour of inventing a more regular system of law and go- 
 vernment than the nation had hitherto enjoyed a system 
 from which, it is not too much to say, the present liberties of 
 England have been mainly, though gradually, derived. 
 
 In the benefits of this settlement of the national law and 
 constitution, there is no doubt the City of London very 
 largely partook. Indeed it may be satisfactorily shown, that 
 the most prominent of those free customs and privileges, as 
 well as that peculiar internal polity which, in a subsequent 
 age of almost universal slavery, distinguished the City of 
 London from the rest of the nation, were not only coeval 
 with, but originally formed part of, that general law of the 
 land which has, time out of mind, passed by the name of 
 the Common Law of England ; and which owes its first 
 regular establishment to Alfred the Great. 
 
 That prince, it appears, collected together all the various 
 customs and laws which prevailed in different parts of his
 
 LOXDOX UNDER THE SAXOX LAWS. 17 
 
 realm, and out of them he constructed one universal code, CHAP. 
 
 called the Dombok, which was to he the rule of law through- .- ' 
 
 out the kingdom. 1 This hody of laws was subsequently ^974 
 revised by Edgar, who incorporated with it many of the 
 Danish customs, which had gradually gained ground; and 
 was more completely established and confirmed in its full 
 operation by Edward the Confessor. This free system of 
 law was, however, almost totally overthrown at the Conquest, 
 and gave way to the tyranny of the Norman laws and the 
 feudal scheme of government, from which the nation after 
 long struggles through many ages hardly at last emerged. 3 
 Nevertheless the Conqueror, desirous of acquiring the good- 
 will of the most powerful body among his new subjects, 
 reserved to the citizens of London, by his first charter, the 
 high privilege of being governed by their ancient laws ; de- 
 claring, that 'he grants them all to be law-worthy, as they 
 ' were in King Edward's days.'* To know the purport of this 
 charter, the nature of the privileges conferred by it, and the 
 true date of the foundation of them, we must look back to 
 the original establishment of the Common Law by Alfred ; 
 and if any further proof were wanting that he was the true 
 founder of the municipal laws and privileges of London, we 
 shall amply trace it in the identity of many of them with 
 the provisions of that ancient Saxon code. It has been 
 
 1 Blackst one's Commentaries, voL iv. clamorous for their observance, that 
 
 p. 411. The Dombok, though contain- the first Xorman kings often pretended 
 
 ing one general rule of law operating to restore them, -when either through 
 
 throughout the whole kingdom, com- fear or ambition they wished to cultivate 
 
 prised many distinct codes such as the good opinion of their English sub- 
 
 the Wessex law, the Mercian law, the jects. Thus the Conqueror, in the 
 
 Danish law, &c. which prevailed in fourth year of his reign, had a Digest 
 
 different parts of the kingdom, and composed of the laws observed in the 
 
 were added to the general code from Confessor's time ; and Henry I., after a 
 
 time to time, as the various districts, more systematic collection of them, 
 
 into which the kingdom was divided, swore to establish them (Heywood's 
 
 became again united under the same Dissertation upon the Ranfa of the 
 
 authority. Alfred's original Digest did People, 1818. Introduction, p. xxiii.). 
 
 not comprise the Danish law. Hey- Every attempt to restore them proved 
 
 wood's Dissertation upon the Banks of abortive ; and in the meanwhile the 
 
 the People, 1818. Introduction, p. rxiii. feudal system became thoroughly inter- 
 
 * Blackstone's Commentaries, rot iv. woven with the Constitution, 
 p. 414, et seq. So attached were the * First Charter of William the Con- 
 people to these ancient laws, and so qneror. Vide post, p. 257. 
 C
 
 18 
 
 IIISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 520 
 to 974. 
 
 said that this original Dombok, or a copy of it, was carefully 
 preserved among the City Records ; and the Mirror of Jus- 
 tices, which was a book written in the reign of Edward II. 
 by Home, who was Chamberlain of London, seems to have 
 been compiled from that very work. 1 
 
 To specify a few instances : Among the institutions of the 
 Common Law it was provided, that justice should be ad- 
 ministered throughout the kingdom in local courts, over 
 which the Earl (or Alderman, as he was originally termed) or 
 the Eeve, 2 together with the Bishop, were to preside ; 3 and 
 so accordingly we find in the time of Athelstan, who reigned 
 within twenty -four years after Alfred, and afterwards in that 
 of the Conqueror these magistrates, or at least the two 
 latter, were at the head of the judicial authorities in London. 4 
 The privilege of a special legal jurisdiction has always been 
 considered by the citizens as one of their most valuable 
 immunities. It was secured to them in express terms by 
 one of the laws of Edward the Confessor, and by the earliest 
 of their charters which refer to any of their privileges in 
 detail. 5 Another of the ancient Saxon institutions esta- 
 blished by Alfred was, that the members of the various 
 districts, into which the kingdom was divided, should elect 
 freely their own magistrates. 6 This also is a right which 
 has always been deservedly prized by the City of London as 
 one of the highest importance, and was in very early times 
 granted, or rather confirmed, to it by charter ; 7 for it was 
 evidently enjoyed under the Saxon dynasty. The first civic 
 temporal magistrates at that period were the Eeves; and 
 they appear to have exercised an authority, even in a legis- 
 lative capacity, quite independent of the king. 'This,' 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxiv. p. 
 187. There is reason to believe that 
 Magna Charta, which was framed in 
 London, was founded on some such 
 document. Vide Ch. II. ; and Lyttel- 
 ton's History of King Henry II., 4to. 
 1T67, vol. i. note to p. 99. 
 
 2 As to the quality and functions of 
 these dignitaries, who seem originally 
 to have performed the same magisterial 
 duties under different appellations, vide 
 
 Book II. Ch. I. p. 258, ' Portreve.' 
 
 3 Ingulphus, p. 870. 
 
 4 "Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicse, 
 1721, p. 65. First Charter of William 
 the Conqueror. Book H. Ch. I. p. 257. 
 
 s Charter of Henry I. Wilkins, 
 Leges Anglo-Saxonicse, p. 197. 
 
 6 Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. 
 p. 413. 
 
 7 Charter of Henry I. Book II. Cli. 
 I. ' Portreve.'
 
 LONDON UNDER THE SAXON GOVERNMENT. 
 
 19 
 
 begins one of Athelstan's laws, * is the agreement which the 
 * Bishops and Keves belonging to the City of London have 
 ' resolved upon and sworn to observe : ' and then are recited 
 many resolutions for mutual defence against robbery and 
 violence, entered into by the free gilds, or fraternities, over 
 which they presided. 1 The Conqueror, on his arrival, appears 
 readily to have acquiesced in the authority and title of the 
 Portreve, who then, as chief magistrate, governed the City; 
 and neither that king, nor any of his immediate successors, 
 prior to the charter confirming the liberty of choosing a 
 chief magistrate, seems, in any one instance, to have inter- 
 fered in the appointment of the chief magistrate, except 
 under some plea of forfeiture ; when the king, for a time, 
 seized the government of the City into his own hands. 2 
 Again, by the Common Law, though the Danish burthen of 
 Jit riot, and some other taxes and services were due in respect 
 of lands, yet the possessors of land were free from all the 
 
 1 "Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicae,"p. 
 65. A Gild was an association of men 
 who contributed for political purposes 
 to a joint stock ; from the Saxon 
 ' Gildan ' to pay (Spelman's Glossary, 
 1687:' Geldnm '). ' Frith ' is an ancient 
 Gothic word signifying peace. 
 
 * Although it seems clear that the 
 citizens of London in the Saxon times 
 appointed most of their own magistrates, 
 yet it is not so certain that they had 
 always appointed all of them. If the 
 City was put on a par with counties in 
 point of jurisdiction, it would follow 
 that the Reve or Portreve or Sheriff 
 (who was at that period the Mayor or 
 chief magistrate) would, in conformity 
 with the Saxon system of law, be elected 
 by the citizens. Indeed, if they 
 belonged to no superior lord, but were 
 freemen, it could not be otherwise, 
 because the lordship carried with it the 
 magistracy and jurisdiction. Yet still, 
 as the king sometimes appointed Earls, 
 or, as they were anciently termed, Alder- 
 men, to exercise the Shrieval authority 
 over counties, and who. even after sheriffs 
 superseded their ordinary functions, 
 still possessed a concurrent jurisdiction 
 
 with them, and, in some respects, a su- 
 perior jurisdiction over several counties ; 
 so the king might, perhaps, do the same 
 occasionally in London; and we find that 
 Alfred appointed one Alderman to have 
 jurisdiction over all London (Sajron 
 Chronicle, A.D. 886). This, however, is 
 the only instance on record of any other 
 than the Reve and Bishop, and the 
 Aldermen in their Gilds, having au- 
 thority in London in the Saxon era. 
 The Bishop, who acted as a magistrate, 
 was appointed by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. The Aldermen of the 
 London wards or gilds (though it does 
 not seem probable that the governors of 
 those districts were known by that name 
 in the time of the Saxons) were evidently 
 appointed by the inhabitants ; as we 
 find that the king gave Knighten-gild, 
 which was the ancient name of Portsoken 
 ward, to the knights or men of that dis- 
 trict ; and it is certain that they, being 
 so liberated from demesne, (i.e. the pure 
 proprietorship), gave the gild to the 
 Prior and Canons of the Holy Trinity 
 at Aldgate; and the Prior thereby 
 became an Alderman. Vide post, p. 59, 
 and Ch. VL 91 et seq.
 
 20 IIISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK more oppressive feudal services which characterised the Nor- 
 ._ L . man sway. 1 From these feudal grievances also the citizens 
 A.D. 520 of L on( j on were always privileged, and held their property 
 according to the tenure of Saxon times. 2 So, by the ancient 
 Common Law, every freeman possessed the right of disposing 
 of his real property by will a right which was overthrown 
 by the Normans, as incompatible with that system, of feudal 
 tenure which they introduced ; 3 but this right was preserved 
 to the citizens, as a peculiar custom. Another remarkable 
 coincidence between the ancient City customs and the pro- 
 visions of the Common Law appears in regard to the resi- 
 dence of foreign merchants ; which, by a law of Athelstan, 
 and according to ancient usage in the City, was restricted to 
 forty days. 4 Lastly, the citizens always retained the ancient 
 constitutional trial by Jury and by Wager of Law, as esta- 
 blished by Alfred's code ; and were expressly exempted from 
 the necessity of submitting to the trial by Battle, as intro- 
 duced by the Normans 5 a privilege which existed, as a 
 matter of right, in no other part of the kingdom. 
 
 One of the regulations adopted by Alfred in the adminis- 
 tration of his government, was, that the assembly called the 
 Wittenagemote, should meet twice a year in London for legis- 
 lative purposes. 6 The precise meaning of the term Wittenage- 
 mote is, a ' deliberation of wise men ; ' but much dispute has 
 arisen upon the quality and functions of this assembly. We 
 
 1 Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. in the text appears more consistent 
 P- 413. with the history of the age. It is to be 
 
 2 Brady on English Boroughs, 1777, recollected, that in early times, the 
 P- 29. citizens of London, so far from evincing 
 
 8 Coke on Littleton, lib. 2, sect. 167 ; an un warlike disposition, were the most 
 
 Hargrave's Notes, p. 138 ; Selden's efficient soldiers in the kingdom. Fitz- 
 
 Notse et Spicilegium ad Eadmmim ; Stephen, who wrote in Henry the 
 
 Leges Edwardi, xxxvi. Second's time, says that the City mus- 
 
 Vide Ch. VI. pp. 91, 92 ; Ch. VII. tered80,000 troops-a number probably 
 
 120> more than equal to the whole male 
 
 5 Charter of Henry I. Justice Black- population capable of bearing arms : 
 stone, indeed, attributes this exemp- and although little credit can be placed 
 tion of the citizens from trial by on such a calculation, yet we may col- 
 Battle to an idea of ' fighting being lect from it that the military strength 
 ' foreign to their education and employ- of the City was very considerable. 
 ' ments ' (Blackstone's Commentaries, Hume's History of England, vol i 
 vol. iv. p. 347). The reason assigned cli. ii. Le Mirrour de Justice.
 
 LONDON UNDER THE SAXON GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 may gather that at all events it was of a parliamentary 
 nature. This Council had been summoned in much earlier 
 times, at the royal discretion, to London and elsewhere ; and 
 usually attended at whatever place the king might happen to 
 hold his Court at the time he thought proper to summon it ; 
 if, indeed, it is not rather to be considered as part of the 
 King's Court itself. The fixing of a stated period and place 
 of its future meeting may serve to show the advancement of 
 the national policy, and the relative importance of the City 
 of London, in the reign of Alfred. 
 
 We learn from a circumstance mentioned in the laws of 
 Athelstan that, in his reign, London still maintained the rank 
 of the first city in the kingdom. Upon the occasion of the 
 general coinage which took place throughout the realm, 
 eight moneyers were appointed for London, six for Can- 
 terbury, and a smaller number for several other cities. 1 A 
 remarkable statute also passed during the reign of the same 
 monarch, by which we may judge how great a national 
 object the encouragement of commerce had become, and can 
 estimate the consideration in which those engaged in it were 
 held. By this law, which chiefly, if not solely, affected the 
 citizens, as may be collected from the circumstance of its 
 being annexed to the * Agreement' of Londoners before 
 alluded to, forming, as it were, a code of civic ordinances, it 
 was ordained, that a merchant who had made three long 
 sea voyages on his own account, should be entitled to the 
 quality of a thane, or nobleman. 3 
 
 A more accurate judgment, however, may be drawn from 
 other sources, of the real condition of the metropolis and 
 of the quality of its inhabitants, as we advance towards the 
 close of the Saxon ascendency. We have observed that in 
 Edgar's time (A.D. 974) almost all the buildings throughout 
 England, both public and private, were built of wood. 3 And 
 \ve are not to suppose the extent of London was equal to the 
 present site of that part of it called the City. The walls, 
 indeed, remained the same as in the time of the Romans ; 
 but we are informed that in Ethelred's reign (A.D. 1000), there 
 
 1 Wilting, Leges Anglo-Saxonicae, * Ibid. p. 71. 
 
 1721, p. 59. Supra, p. 15.
 
 22 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK were very few houses within the City walls j and that a large 
 ._ L area in the middle was left vacant. 1 These walls, however, 
 to^'oe? were P reserved in sucl1 strength and condition, that when at 
 the latter end of the reign of Ethelred London was invested 
 by Sweyn at the head of a most powerful army of Danes 
 an army which had marched in victorious triumph from one 
 end of the kingdom to the other the citizens opposed 
 so effectual a resistance as to oblige him to abandon the 
 siege. 2 His son Cnut, in the succeeding reign of Edmund 
 Ironside, twice furiously assaulted the City in vain ; and so 
 intent was he upon the reduction of it, to ensure the con- 
 quest of the whole kingdom, that, by the incredible labour 
 of a very numerous armament, he cut a canal from below 
 London bridge then lately constructed, and which had been 
 securely fortified by the citizens round by the south side of 
 the Thames, in order to invest the City on all sides. 3 
 
 Notwithstanding his utmost efforts, the citizens so suc- 
 cessfully maintained their ground, that Cnut was fain to com- 
 promise the struggle for dominion with Edmund, and, the 
 kingdom being divided between them, London was ceded to 
 the former. 
 
 Edmund, the favourite of the Londoners, whose cause they 
 had espoused with so much zeal and courage, was murdered 
 very soon after this arrangement ; which removed the only 
 obstacle to the sole dominion of Cnut. The former had been 
 elected to the throne, and crowned in London with great 
 pomp and splendour, chiefly through the influence of the 
 citizens, in opposition to the original claims of Cnut in right 
 of his father Sweyn, who had gained possession of the 
 sovereign power in the lifetime of Ethelred. 4 
 
 Almost the first act of Cnut on his accession was to levy a 
 contribution from the whole nation of 83,OOOZ. an enormous 
 sum in those days ; out of which the City was taxed to supply 
 no less than 11,000?. ; being nearly a seventh of the whole. 
 It is to be confessed, however, that this monarch was, 
 throughout his reign, ever mindful of the true interests of 
 
 1 Fabian's Chronicles, 4to. 1811, p. 3 Ibid. p. 197. 
 
 202 ; Sim. Dun. Hist. < wm 'iam of Malmesbury, A.D. 1016 
 
 2 Saxon Chronicle, 4to. 1823, p. 184.
 
 XO CORPORATION IX SAXOX TIMES. GILDS. 
 
 the country. He turned an anxious and patriotic attention 
 to the revision and establishment of the laws upon the 
 original Saxon system ; and took care that justice was 
 administered with strictness and impartiality towards all 
 classes of his subjects. 1 The nation nourished under his 
 wise and temperate administration; and London, in particular, 
 opulent as it appears to have been at his accession, and not- 
 withstanding its vigorous opposition to his original usurpa- 
 tion, advanced under his government very considerably both 
 in prosperity and political importance. 
 
 At the close of his reign, we find the citizens represented 
 at a "Wittenagemote, summoned at Oxford, on no less a 
 national occasion than the choice of a successor. Those who 
 attended on behalf of the City are termed in the Saxon 
 Chronicle 'the Lithsmen ' of London an expression not easily 
 translated at the present day, though probably meaning 
 merchants ; 2 at all events, we may suppose them to have 
 been the men who possessed the highest civic dignity at that 
 period. 
 
 It has been conjectured, rather hastily, from the City 
 having a voice in the national assembly, that it had already 
 become one individual and chartered body politic. 3 In answer 
 to this conjecture it may be alleged in the first place, with 
 some confidence, that the elective franchise of sending repre- 
 sentatives to the national council, or, as it afterwards became, 
 the Parliament, was not originally and constitutionally a 
 corporate privilege in any of the cities or boroughs in England, 
 but that the assumption of such privilege by the corporations 
 of towns was, in truth, an usurpation over the more ancient 
 system of borough representation. 4 The hypothesis, there- 
 
 1 Hume's History of England, TO!, i. Gothic Dictionary, vol. i. 'Lifcan,' 1772 ; 
 
 ch. iii. Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1035. 
 
 - Alaitland and Northouck in their * Northouck's Hist. Lon., pp. 17, 18. 
 
 Histories of London have, apparently 4 Vide Book II. Ch. III. p. 313. This 
 
 without consideration, adopted the most position is satisfactorily established by 
 
 ready translation, and have rendered Merewether's Sketch of the History of 
 
 Litfomen by Mariners (Maitland, 1772, Boroughs, 1822, p. 26. The subject, 
 
 vol. i. p. 36 ; Northouck, p. 17). The however, is by no means thoroughly 
 
 term is derived from LiSan, navigare, discussed in that work, though much 
 
 which is often used in a mercantile learning and ability is displayed. It 
 
 sense by the Saxon writers. Lye's may be seen by the City Records, that
 
 24 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 fore, of the early existence of the Corporation of London 
 built on such a foundation must fall to the ground. It may 
 be doubted whether the citizens at large had, properly speak- 
 ing, a voice in the Wittenagemote, for no trace can be found 
 in the history of the times, of the mode of electing and 
 deputing political representatives, or that any were deputed at 
 all by the citizens themselves, in the strict character of free 
 constituents. There appears greater probability in supposing 
 that these Lithsmen, or merchants, of London who found a 
 place in the Wittenagemote, attended rather in the character 
 of Thanes than of burgesses, since the terms employed to 
 designate the members of that council always imply nobility ; * 
 and we have seen that the more successful and prosperous of 
 the London merchants were entitled by the laws of Athel- 
 stan to the dignity of Thanes. 2 
 
 The conjecture that the whole mass of the citizens formed 
 at this period one corporation admits of still clearer refuta- 
 tion. It is true, indeed, that corporations, considered as 
 associations of many individuals for a permanent common 
 purpose, are older, even in England, than the reign of 
 Cnut, and older, perhaps, than the Saxon era. 3 The di- 
 vision of the kingdom into tithings, hundreds, and counties, 
 may be considered in some sense a creation of so many cor- 
 porations. But, even in this sense, the term will not apply 
 to the City of London. For, although we find that in the 
 reign of Athelstan 4 several gilds or fraternities, partaking, it 
 may be allowed, very much of the nature of the hundreds in- 
 stituted by Alfred, 5 existed in London ; yet it seems plain, 
 
 the Members of Parliament were in fact Life of Eichard the Second, makes 
 for upwards of the first hundred years it very apparent that the Commons 
 elected by the same persons as composed of England had no representatives in 
 the Common Council; that is, house- Parliament till the 49th Henry III.; 
 holders of the wards paying scot, and and this opinion seems to be established 
 indeed usually in the Common Council. by the authorities adduced in the Re- 
 Vide post, pp. 85, 87, 88. Book I. Ch. VI. jort of the Lords' Committee appointed 
 Book II. pp. 336, 337. July 1815 on the dignity of a peer. 
 
 1 They are termed in the ancient 3 Millar on English Government, 
 historians, ' principes, satrapae, opti- Stewart on the Antiquity of the Engli*] 
 mates, magnates, proceres.' Constitution. 
 
 2 Vide p. 21. Tyrrell, in his Biblio- < Vide pp. 18, 19. 
 theca Politica, Dialogue VI. and in his & Vide Ch. II. & IV.
 
 NO CORPORATION OF LONDON IN SAXON TIMES. GILDS. 25 
 
 that they were distinct and independent of each other. One 
 district in particular, within the liberties of London, namely, 
 that of Portsoken ward, anciently called Knighten-gild, was a 
 gild altogether distinct from the rest of the civic body, 
 throughout the Saxon times ; and remained so to the time of 
 Henry I., possessing independent franchises, and at the same 
 time all the judicial privileges which belonged to any part of 
 London. 1 In the reign of Henry I. this gild was bestowed 
 by the men of the gild, with the king's charter of confirma- 
 tion, upon the prior and canons of the Holy Trinity in Aid- 
 gate ; by virtue of which title, the prior afterwards, when ^s 
 it may be presumed the whole City with its liberties became 
 strictly one corporation, held the rank of an Alderman. 2 
 There is no mention made of London as one gild or fraternity 
 in the Saxon times ; nor are the citizens spoken of in a cor- 
 porate capacity by William the Conqueror's charter, or by 
 those of his immediate successors. Gilds, however, if they 
 are to be considered in the light of corporations, were, accord- 
 ing to the well authorised opinion of Madox, very different 
 from, and far more ancient than, town corporations, strictly 
 so called : and that author adds, that the practice of gildat- 
 ing or embodying whole towns sprung up, in all probability, 
 in imitation of them. 3 Anciently, many towns and districts 
 
 1 Stew's Surrey, 1755, vol. i.p. 348 ; London, nor of its ever having been a 
 Madox' s Firma Burgi, 1726, ch. i. sec. general mercantile gild; though gilds, 
 9, p. 23, and note (I). both mercantile and territorial, were 
 
 2 Ibid. Vide p. 35, note 4. common enough within it : and yet this 
 
 3 Madox's Firma Burgi, 1726, pp. 23, City is universally considered as one of 
 27. It must not, however, be supposed the oldest in England. It was common 
 that the practice of gildating or incor- for a particular body of townsmen, and 
 porating whole towns as mercantile still more so for individuals, to have a 
 corporations arose in imitation of these gild in propriety, and with it sac and 
 gilds. That the term gilds originally soc, or a civil and criminal jurisdiction 
 had no peculiar mercantile signification (Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 23), which, 
 is clear ; for there were many associa- it is presumed, is quite sufficient to 
 tions, both in the country and in cities, show that these gilds were not con- 
 passing by that name, which were com- sidered merely as associations of trad- 
 posed, of the inhabitants of particular ing individuals. When such an asso- 
 districts; indeed, the members of the ciation was incorporated in a town, it 
 borhoes,friborhoes,OTfribourgs,vreTea,lso was so termed expressly; viz. that the 
 termed members of frithgilds (Spel- town should have a ' Gilda or Hausa 
 man's Glossary: ' Geldum'). There is no mercatoria;' but when the whole town 
 trace of any mercantile incorporation of itself was incorporated, it was said to
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 947 
 to 1066. 
 
 which were not incorporated, nevertheless possessed exclusive 
 immunities, 1 and even rendered in an aggregate capacity ser- 
 
 haveacomiminity, ' communia, commune, 
 communitas;' that is, according to Dr. 
 Brady, a representative faculty (Brady 
 on Boroughs, 1777, p. 30; Madox's 
 Firma Bwrgi, p. 35). So that, although 
 these incorporations may truly have 
 sprung from gilds, they were not raised 
 in imitation of, nor had they much re- 
 semblance to, mercantile gilds. In 
 process of time these merchant gilds 
 grew to be the only gilds established 
 under that name ; and then the term, in 
 all probability, began to be applied to 
 such corporations solely; and thus the 
 notion might arise, that to confer a gild 
 on a town was in effect to make it a 
 corporation of free citizens, which how- 
 ever, in strictness, depended on the 
 nature of the gild. There can be no 
 doubt that the engrafting a commercial 
 constitution on the aggregate corpora- 
 tions of cities and boroughs, originated in 
 usurpation ; and, in all probability, took 
 its rise in the following way. It was 
 the ancient practice, in the Saxon times, 
 to enroll all the dwellers in towns, as 
 well as throughout the rest of the king- 
 dom, \nfrankpledge, either as free house- 
 holders, or as inmates, at the leets. 
 This would make them citizens, as it 
 were, of that leet. When a whole town 
 became one associated body, apprentices, 
 who, as inmates, were before in pledge 
 within the City, would of course become 
 
 entitled to enrolment in the civic com- 
 munity : accordingly j we find from the 
 
 very earliest records now to be seen in 
 
 the Town Clerk's Office, of enrolments 
 
 of citizens in Londoir(Lib. Ordinationum, 
 
 temp. Ed. I. fol. 143 et seq. et Stat. 
 
 Civit. Lond. 13 Edw. I.), that appren- 
 tices to tradesmen were enrolled upon 
 
 having served their time. Being thus 
 
 admitted as members, they naturally 
 
 came to be considered as representing 
 
 true citizens (which they certainly did 
 
 not, in the original and full sense of 
 
 the word, nor do they to this day in the 
 
 City of London). At length, as scarcely 
 
 any resided in such towns but tradesmen 
 and their inmates, the established mode 
 of making free citizens began to be 
 grounded on the absolute requisition of 
 passing, actually or nominally, through a 
 trade. In like manner those towns 
 which could only trace title to a mercan- 
 tile gild, and not to a community in any 
 other sense, adopted the same mode of 
 supplying their associations ; and, since 
 their trading privileges extended to 
 nearly the whole of the inhabitants, the 
 gilds would be co-extensive with the 
 towns: and thus, that which was origi- 
 nally but a merchant gild, would be 
 converted into a town corporation. 
 There are two instances as early as the 
 time of Henry III. of charters granted 
 to cities, by which the qualification of 
 the citizens are made to depend as well 
 upon their freedom of the merchant gild 
 as upon residency (Madox's Firma 
 Burgi, pp. 270, 272). It is impossible 
 to suppose that the erection of a com- 
 munity, or, strictly speaking, a town 
 corporation, could, any more than that 
 of a gild in a town, deprive the original 
 inhabitants and their heirs or assigns of 
 their free rights, as citizens, derived 
 from actual tenancy; and those who 
 would endeavour to prove by authentic 
 evidence that genuine corporate privi- 
 leges were originally granted to citizens 
 in any other capacity than as mere 
 tenants, or residents, will make the 
 attempt in vain. Vide Ch. VI. p. 101 
 and Book II. p. 313. 
 
 1 That a grant made to the inhabi- 
 tants, good men, or citizens, of any 
 particular place did not thereby con- 
 stitute them a corporation, is clear 
 from the case of Norwich and other 
 corporations (21st Edw. IV. 55, cited in 
 Moore, 581), by which it is decided that 
 any such grants should be enjoyed by 
 the corporation of such place in case it 
 should afterwards be incorporated by 
 the name of the Mayor and Com- 
 monalty, or by any other name.
 
 NO CORPOKATIOX OF LONDON IN SAXON TIMES. GILDS. Zi 
 
 vices and dues, or fee farm rents in lieu of such dues, to the CHAP. 
 
 king or lord of whom the burgesses or citizens held. 1 A town - ^ 
 
 corporate is one which has succession as a community modi- ^io'es 
 fied or put into a particular form, and under a special deno- 
 mination ; as of Mayor, Bailiffs, and Community, or Mayor, 
 Jurats, and Community ; and the like. 2 What constituted a 
 Town Corporation, says a learned French writer 3 in treating 
 of their origin, was a college or council, a mayoralty, a com- 
 mon seal, a bell to convoke the members of it, and a 
 jurisdiction. 4 These are terms (with the exception perhaps 
 of the last) no way applicable to the condition of London in 
 the age which we are considering. The practice of gildating 
 or incorporating whole towns began first, according to Dr. 
 Brady, in France, and not before the middle of the eleventh 
 century. It was very soon followed in England and Scotland ; 
 though, with respect to London, the first express intimation 
 to be discovered on record of its becoming one corporation, 
 is the account of a general assembly of the nobility and 
 citizens of London in the second year of Eichard I., held by 
 his brother John, then Earl of Moreton and regent of the 
 kingdom, at which it was granted and solemnly confirmed by 
 oaths, that the whole City should have or be represented by a 
 community 5 or corporation. 
 
 It seems reasonable therefore to conclude, that at the period 
 when the citizens of London began to assume so important an 
 influence in the affairs of the nation, the City was not repre- 
 
 1 Itfadox's Finna Burgi, p. 85. appears usually to have been applied on 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 49, 50. occasions of a general assessment of a 
 
 * Du Fresne Glossary, ' Communia.' district to any fiscal payment. The 
 
 4 In orig. Scabinatus, Collegium, citizens of London began to be recognised 
 
 Majoratus, Sigillum, Campana, Ber- as a commonalty in records and deeds 
 
 fredus, et Jurisdictio. first in the reign of Henry TIT, (Madox's 
 
 s Brady's treatise on Boroughs, p. 43. Hist. Exch. vol. ii. pp. 94, 247, 260). 
 
 This author considers the term ' Com- Their charters were granted to them, 
 
 munity ' to be synonymous -with ' Cor- either in the name of the citizens or 
 
 poration,' and produces many records in barons, till the reign of Henry LH., 
 
 corroboration of that position. That when they began to be addressed by the 
 
 the term ' Community ' did not always name of Mayor and Citizens, and in the 
 
 imply a Corporation, is amply shown in reign of Edward III. by the name of 
 
 Madox's Finna Burgi, p. 37, and the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty, 
 
 community of counties and hundreds and of Mayor, Commonalty, and 
 
 is frequently mentioned in ancient Citizens. 
 
 records. In such cases the term
 
 28 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK sented at the Wittenagemote in a corporate capacity. The 
 
 v _L , national consideration and influence of the citizens may 
 
 A.D. 974 na t u rally be attributed to their collective opulence, derived 
 from an increasing commerce, and to the individual wealth 
 of many among them. They were possessed also of a strong 
 and, in those days, an almost impregnable fortress, the 
 command of which alone was almost sufficient to confer a 
 sovereignty then subject to perpetual dispute. This will 
 sufficiently account for their usual interference at the 
 commencement of a new reign, as well as for their success in 
 obtaining and preserving inviolate many privileges and 
 immunities not possessed by the kingdom at large. 
 
 The two sons of Cnut, Harold Harefoot and Hardicnut, 
 successively mounted the throne with the sanction of the 
 citizens. 1 Their reigns were short and inglorious, and on 
 their deaths 'without issue, Edward the Confessor obtained 
 the crown under the same auspices. 2 This monarch, the last 
 of the Saxon dynasty (if we except the second Harold, who 
 may be said rather to have contended for, than to have 
 attained, the crown), instructed in the good effects of a 
 regular administration of justice by the example and pros- 
 perous reigns of the wisest among his predecessors', devoted 
 himself to the adjusting and compiling the body of laws 
 which had been accumulated by preceding legislators, and 
 which, though now lost, was long an object of affection to 
 the English nation. London seems to have held a conspicu- 
 ous rank in the government throughout this reign ; and it 
 may be as well at this crisis when a most important revo- 
 lution is about to begin in the laws, the manners, and the 
 policy of the country, in consequence of the Norman invasion 
 to take a survey of the internal constitution of the City, 
 and the condition of its inhabitants, as far as can be ascer- 
 tained from the scanty sources of information which are 
 authentic. It must be confessed, however, that it is very 
 difficult to form a competent judgment on the subject. 
 
 Although the great body of the people under the Saxon 
 dynasty enjoyed the advantages of a free form of government 
 
 1 Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1035 ; Flor. Sim. Dun. Hist, A.D. 1039. 
 Wigorn. Chron. 1592, lib. 2, p. 398. * Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1042.
 
 CITIES A5D BOROUGHS IX SAXOX TIMES. DEMESNES. 
 
 holding their possessions freely in their own right, appoint- 
 ing their own magistrates, interpreting and administering 
 the national laws and customs themselves in their own local 
 courts, and being exempt from the arbitrary control of any 
 superior a very considerable portion of the community, 
 under the character of serfs or villeins, were doomed to a 
 condition little, if at all, short of absolute slavery ; which 
 has been manifestly proved by the testimony and authorities 
 produced by the most learned writers on the subject. 1 These 
 were individuals who having, independently, no land of their 
 own, were employed either in the personal service of the 
 more powerful landed proprietors, or in the cultivation of 
 their demesne land as it was termed ; being that part of their 
 possessions which they retained under their own immediate 
 superintendence, for the support of their rank and household 
 establishment. This class of persons were in a state of 
 absolute dependency on their lord's will ; they possessed no 
 property which might not instantly be seized and appropriated 
 by him ; law and justice was administered in courts of his 
 own, over which he exercised all but despotic power. 8 
 
 Whatever may have been the original condition of the 
 inhabitants of many towns in England, and whatever credit 
 we may give the assertion of Dr. Brady, that most of them 
 were serfs or villeins it appears from Domesday Book, that 
 at the period of the Norman Conquest, almost all the cities 
 and towns of England were possessed either by the king or 
 his nobles or chief clergy, as their private property or in 
 demesne. 3 They were all indiscriminately known by the name 
 of boroughs ; 4 by far the greater portion of them, including 
 
 1 Wright's Tenures. Turner's His- * Ibid. There is some variance 
 
 tory of the Anglo-Saxons, 1823, voL among the learned authorities in regard 
 
 iiL p. 182. Bobertson's History of to the etymology of the word borough.' 
 
 Charles V., eh. i. note xL Some derive it from the Saxon Bo;ih or 
 
 2nd Blacks. Comm. p. 91. Bophoe, a pledge, from which we cer- 
 
 * Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 4; and tainly derive our 'headborongh' or 
 
 Millar, p. 379 ; also Coke Lift. p. 109. ' borhsolder,' and infer thence that all 
 
 London and a few other cities are left boroughs were originally nothing but 
 
 out of the account of lands in Domes- those associations of a few families 
 
 day Book altogether. The rest of the which have been commonly since known 
 
 boroughs are enumerated among the as decennaries or tythings, in which the 
 
 demesne lands. ten were pltdges fur each other's COB-
 
 30 
 
 HISTOKICAL ACOUXT OF LONDOX. 
 
 BOOK nearly all those which merited the appellation of flourishing 
 L . cities, belonged to the king himself; and there is reason to 
 A.D. 1066. k e ij eve that even those few cities which, like London, were 
 not held then in demesne, were nevertheless held of the king 
 under some kind of tenure, and that most of, if not all, such 
 cities had, at one time or other, been held in demesne. 1 
 The tenure by which the houses of the inhabitants of these 
 demesne boroughs were held, was that of rendering certain 
 fixed rents in kind and services. Their superior, whether 
 the king or any inferior lord, also imposed various tolls, 
 duties, and customs, to be paid by those attending the fairs 
 and markets which he established in such districts ; and 
 which demands were, for a long time subsequent to the Con- 
 quest, regulated solely by his own discretion. 2 The situation 
 of these borough tenants holding strictly in demesne, who 
 neither enjoyed the positive right of being governed by their 
 own customs, nor had obtained from their superiors any 
 peculiar immunities, was, if the certainty and quality of 
 their rents and services be excepted, such as differed little, if 
 at all, from that of the common villeins or serfs : 3 and Dr. 
 
 duct, and one of them the capital pledge 
 or headborough. This opinion, however, 
 is quite inconsistent with history; for 
 there existed many considerable towns 
 and cities before the system of tything, 
 or frankpledges, or the Saxon dynasty, 
 all of which were subsequently called 
 ' boroughs,' though consisting of as 
 many boroughs, in the sense of tythings 
 or pledges, as there were tens of fa- 
 milies. It seems more reasonable to 
 suppose that the derivation is from the 
 Saxon or rather Gothic, Byrig, Burig, 
 or Surh, signifying, specifically a town 
 or castle: thus London was called 
 'London byrig,' and the Conqueror 
 called the citizens in his charter ' Burh- 
 icaran;' 'war' signifying a man, and 
 ' an ' the Gothic plural termination. So 
 we derive St. Edmund's Bury, and 
 many other places; as Lothbury, ac- 
 cording to Stow, the dwelling of the 
 tinworkers; and Buckler sbury, the 
 buildings erected by one Buckler 
 
 (Spelman's Glossary: 'Burgus'). It is 
 to be remarked also that the term Bofih 
 was used quite in a different signification 
 from that of a town in records, where 
 we may see this word Burig or Byrig 
 expressly so applied. Wilkins, Leges 
 Anglo- Saxonies, 1721, pp. 78,80, where- 
 in Boph and Bup h are distinguished. 
 1 Vide p. 45, note. 
 
 * Vide p. 44, and notes. 
 
 * We find in Domesday Book an enu- 
 meration of the burgesses held by the 
 lords in the account of almost every 
 one of the boroughs. Such burgesses 
 seem to have lived in the demesne 
 boroughs on the same terms and con- 
 ditions as the villeins lived on the 
 demesne farms or manors of the lords, 
 and were amenable precisely in the 
 same way to the Lord's own Courts of 
 Justice. There were many burgesses, 
 Turner says, even in the most privileged 
 cities, who were attached to manors 
 (Turner's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, vol.
 
 CITIES AND BOROUGHS IN SAXON TIMES. DEMESNES. 31 
 
 Brady's account of the English boroughs, as far as regards CHAP. 
 them, may be entitled to some deference. ^_ _^ 
 
 There were, however, very few of these boroughs in which AJ>> 1066> 
 the inhabitants did not possess the privilege of having their 
 respective rights regulated by their own customs customs 
 which time out of mind had gradually grown up among 
 them, and many of which had originated among their British 
 ancestors, and subsisted at the time when they fell a prey to 
 their Saxon conquerors. Among the most valuable of these 
 customs must be considered the right of heirship to their 
 ancestor's estates, and the alienation of them under particular 
 restrictions ; rights which, though at variance with the 
 condition of those who were tenants in the lord's demesne, 1 
 prevailed in one shape or other in several of the boroughs of 
 England, and particularly the royal ones. 2 The burgesses 
 who held their possessions under such a tenure and with 
 such privileges, enjoyed some little share of liberty and inde- 
 pendence ; and might be regarded in the light of freemen, 
 though still perhaps, strictly speaking, in demesne. Notwith- 
 standing these privileges, unless some special and distin- 
 guishing immunities had been granted to them, they were all 
 subject to the judicial control of their respective lords, who 
 administered justice in their own courts, and claimed those 
 
 iv. p. 144.) A specimen of a town held Angl. Sax. vol. ii. p. 172. 
 in demesne, as proved by the liberation 2 The descent of land in the way of 
 
 granted from all the slavish oppressions borough English, that is, to the young- 
 
 of a demesne tenure, is enumerated in est instead of the eldest son, is by 
 
 the charter of Dunwich. Madox's Hist. virtue of an ancient Saxon custom, 2 
 
 Ejcch. 1769, vol. i. p. 402, note^. Black. Comm. pp. 82, 83; and there- 
 
 1 That alienations by sale, will, or fore it would appear to be of a much 
 
 otherwise, and the claim of heirship, earlier date than the period when the 
 
 was not a common right in towns held inhabitants of boroughs grew rich and 
 
 strictly in demesne, appears clear from powerful enough to liberate themselves 
 
 two records quoted in Mad. Hist. Exch. from a demesne tenure, and to acquire 
 
 pp. 402, 442. That such rights were land in their own free right. However, 
 
 general by common law in the Saxon times Dr. Brady asserts, with good ground, 
 
 among freemen, vide Selden's Notse et that tenants in strict demesne had no 
 
 Spicilegium ad Eadmerum ; Leges Ed- right of heirship at the Conquest ; and 
 
 wardi XXXVI. Vide also Wright's if so, this custom of borough English 
 
 Tenures, p. 171, and authorities; and could only be referable to such in- 
 
 Spelm. on Feuds, p. 12; and vide habitants of boroughs as held their 
 
 many records quoted in Turner's Hist. lands freely.
 
 32 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK mulcts, fines, and forfeitures by which almost all crimes in 
 
 . L _. those days might be expiated. 1 
 
 A.D. 1066. ^ seigniory and jurisdiction of this nature, it may be 
 easily supposed, would be rendered a source of oppression, 
 both in regard to the dispensation of justice, and also with 
 respect to the collection of the multifarious rents and tolls 
 arising out of an increasing and prosperous city. Accordingly, 
 we find in proportion as the wealth and influence of the 
 burgesses increased, they manifested the utmost anxiety to 
 rid themselves of so obnoxious a dependency. In many 
 boroughs the most wealthy of the inhabitants, on one con- 
 sideration or other, contrived to emancipate themselves, in- 
 dividually, from the demesne of their lords altogether, and 
 held their possessions as of their own right ; 2 others, forming 
 themselves into gilds and fraternities, obtained from their 
 lords, not only the free possession of their tenements, but 
 also all judicial rights over the districts in which their 
 property lay : 3 some few cities, which originally belonging to 
 the king, had, either through royal indulgence or through 
 their own influence, succeeded in liberating, in a similar 
 manner, the whole body of citizens from the vassalage inci- 
 dent to the tenure in demesne ; and some of them were also 
 allowed to compromise, by paying one certain annual contri- 
 bution by way of rent or tax, in lieu of all other payments 
 and of all those customary dues, tolls, and other levies, which 
 the king, as lord of the demesne, had been used to collect 
 and receive ; but which were afterwards levied by the citizens 
 themselves, for the purpose of satisfying out of them the 
 lord's rent. 4 These annual contributions were called the 
 farm (popme Sax. Victum, alimeutum). As early in the 
 Norman government as the reign of Henry L, this farm was 
 in favour of some particular cities, estimated at a specific 
 sum, and made perpetual ; upon which it was denominated a 
 fee farm, and such cities were then said to be held of the 
 
 'Vide Brady on Boroughs. Spelman's * Ellis's Introd. to Domesday. Vide 
 
 Glossary: ' Soca,' ' Infangthefe.' Vide p. 26. 
 also p. 46, note. 4 Ibid et Vid Millar, pp. 379. 380. 
 
 2 Vide Ellis's Introduction to Domes- Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 232 
 day Book : title ' Cities.'
 
 LONDON NOT IN DEMESNE, BUT HELD AT FEE FARM. 33 
 
 king in capite, or in chief, &tfee farm. 1 The king was then CHAP, 
 considered to have relinquished the property of the soil, - ^I- 
 retaining nothing more than the mere seigniory. 2 The citi- A ' D- 1066 ' 
 zens who in the Saxon times held their possessions thus in 
 their own right, and possessed judicial authority among 
 themselves, but more particularly those citizens who likewise 
 held at farm, were called freemen or free burgesses ; 3 not 
 being subject to the arbitrary will of a superior, and entitled 
 to be governed by their own customs or the general law of 
 the land. This was the case with London at the Norman 
 Conquest. It is possible indeed that it had never been in 
 vassalage, or under the strict demesne of the king, but had 
 always asserted its own independence, and claimed to be 
 governed by its own laws in common with the free part of 
 the national community. There are, however, certainly 
 indications of its having been held in some sort of proprie- 
 torship even in the Saxon times ; and it is not easy to 
 account for such proprietorship at that period, on any 
 other score than that of a demesne origin. 4 From the 
 grant of the office of Sheriff of the City to its inhabi- 
 tants in fee, or at fee farm, by the early Norman charters, 
 it must be considered that a proprietary title of some kind 
 was vested in the king, which had descended to him from 
 his Saxon predecessors. For, as we have already noticed, 5 
 the citizens were allowed by a special charter of William the 
 Conqueror to be as free in all respects as they were in the 
 
 1 That this farm was paid in the Saxon may either mean to hold in demesne, or 
 times is not only evident from the to preside over it in a magisterial 
 Saxon derivation of the term, but from capacity. The latter has been the ac- 
 the circumstance of its being the common ceptation among the learned (vide 
 source of revenue to the Saxon kings, Malms, de Gest. Reg. lib. 2, caps. 4 & 5 ; 
 and paid by many other towns and Selden Tit. Hon. 650). So Eichard I. 
 whole districts in the kingdom to a said he would sell it, could he meet a 
 stated amount. Spelman's Glossary : purchaser (vide p. 65 ; though it is 
 ' Firma.' clear he had it not after the charters of 
 
 2 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 15. William I. and Henry I.). But, in fact, 
 
 3 Brady on Boroughs ; Mad. Hist. during the sway of the earlier Norman 
 Exch. 407, note e ; 421, note u. princes, it was a frequent subject of 
 
 4 Malmsbury says, Alfred gave Lon- dispute whether London was in demesne. 
 don to Ethelred as the marriage portion or not, and as such, subject to be tattiaged. 
 of his daughter; or, according to the Vide Mad. Hist. Exch. p. 712, note a. 
 Saxon manuscript, 'he set London to 5 Vide p. 1?. 
 
 Alderman Ethelred to hold: This grant
 
 34 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK days of Edward the Confessor : but the charters by which 
 ^__ I i _. the office of Sheriff was disposed of at fee farm to the citi- 
 A.D. 1066. zeng> did no t imply an assumption of any new title, but rather 
 the grant of new immunities, in order to promote the inde- 
 pendence and welfare of the City. Madox states, that when- 
 ever a town was granted in fee farm, the king had been pre- 
 viously seised of that town in his demesne. 1 Contrary to his 
 almost uniform practice, he does not in this instance adduce 
 any direct authority for this assertion ; and perhaps it may 
 require some qualification : but the well-known caution and 
 accuracy of this author will probably gain him credit at least 
 so far as to induce a belief that such grants had a demesne 
 foundation. It is however beyond a doubt that the City of 
 London was not in demesne, either at the Norman Conquest 
 or for some time previous. 
 
 As a necessary consequence of the City's free tenure of 
 the ground on which it stood, the citizens possessed an 
 independent jurisdiction both civil and criminal, to be 
 exercised by magistrates of their own appointment. 2 Whether 
 the latter was exercised by a general court of criminal 
 judicature extending over the whole City, or whether all 
 kind of criminal justice was administered in the separate and 
 distinct free gilds, into which it appears the City was in the 
 Saxon times divided, 8 is not easy to ascertain ; but it is 
 probable that criminal justice was dispensed in the separate 
 free gilds. According to Spelman, 4 the term Gild (which 
 originally signified an association of men paying to a common 
 stock) was applied to the jurisdiction afterwards known by 
 the term Friborg, from the Saxon Fpibophoe, free pledge. 
 The assembly and review of the Friborgs, free pledges or gilds, 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 15. anil issues in lieu of which the fee farm 
 
 * It appears from Domesday Book, rents of cities and boroughs were paid, 
 
 that almost invariably where the bur- pleas and perquisites are almost invan- 
 
 gesses possess the property of the ably mentioned. Madox's Firma Burgi, 
 
 borough, either in whole or in part, p. 23; vide Ellis's Introduction to 
 
 they held likewise what was called the Domesday Book ; vide also Hist. Esccfi. 
 
 sac and soc (terms which signify a civil ch. x. and ch. xi. 
 
 and criminal court and jurisdiction over Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicse, pp. 
 
 the district), Justin the same manner as 54, 65. 
 
 the barons anciently in their manor Spelman's Glossary: Geldum.' 
 courts. In the enumeration of the duos
 
 CRIMINAL JURISDICTION. GILDS. LEETS. WARDS. 35 
 
 was called the Court Leet, or La$, from the word Lallan, CHAP. 
 to assemble, 1 the primitive of which seems to be Leo$, people : ._ / _^ 
 this meeting was held in each hundred of a county in turn AJ) - 1066 - 
 by the reve or sheriff; by whom, according to the Saxon 
 policy, the criminal law was formerly administered. 8 This 
 leet jurisdiction was in ancient times usually possessed by 
 the lords over their demesnes, and accounts for the leets held 
 in manors which were carved out of the Sheriff Turns. 3 It 
 was no uncommon thing to grant precisely the same judicial 
 powers to the civic authorities, or to a number of burgesses 
 composing a gild, or possessing part only of the borough. 4 
 The circumstance of these free gilds assembling in the 
 reign of Athelstan for the purpose of passing penal re- 
 solutions against all offenders by robbery or violence, 5 
 strongly corroborates this conjecture. The division of 
 the City into gilds, was most probably the origin of the 
 division into wards. 6 There are many records in which 
 aldermen are noticed as presiding over gilds-, 7 and the 
 criminal jurisdiction of aldermen over their wards or gilds, 
 was similar to that of the original lords of demesne over their 
 demesne lands,* or rather of the sheriff over his hundred. 9 
 
 Throughout the Saxon era, the administration of criminal 
 justice was very irregular and unsettled. The judicial pro- 
 
 1 Vide 2nd Co. Inst. Mag. Chart c. merated. Madox's Firma Burgi, chap. i. 
 
 35. 4th Co. Inst. c. 54 ; bat this deri- And again. The men of Dover had a 
 
 ration is by no means certain (ride gild, and also with it the sac and see, 
 
 Spelman's Glossary : ' Leta ; ' Lye's Sax. for which they paid the king a fee farm 
 
 Diet.). The ancient Prisons had their rent. Domesday Book. And so many 
 
 Liod-tJring, a sort of legislative assembly other burgesses, as may be seen in Mad. 
 
 (Vide Edim. St*. voL ^rii p . u). Hist. Erch. 
 
 * Rid. 4 Black. Comp. 273. * Vide p. 19. 
 
 * Ibid. " Thus Knighten-gild was as early as 
 4 Vide p. 25, note. Thus the men of the reign of Henry L identified with 
 
 Knighten-gild held their property in Portsoken "Ward ; and FiUstephen, who 
 
 die liberties of the City, with the right writes in Henry IL's reign, speaks of 
 
 of sac and we, in&ngtheft, theam, toll, the division of the City into distinct 
 
 and all customs (terms implying a court districts as of no very recent date, 
 
 and jurisdiction over all crimes, with T Madox's Firma Bnrgi, p. 30 ; Hist, 
 
 the fines, mulcts, and forfeitures ac- Exch. pp. 562, 708, 709, 738, 739. 
 
 cruing to it), and subsequently granted Maitland*s Lond. vol. iL p. 1199; 
 
 the same, as appears from a charter of Brady on Boroughs ; T.T. Edw. Lamb. 
 
 Henry L, confirming such grant to the Archaion. foL 132. 
 
 Prior and Canons of the Holy Trinity, 3rd Co. Inst, pp. 69, 70. 
 with all these rights expressly enu- 
 
 D2
 
 36 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ceedings of their leets seem to have been neither systematic nor 
 ^_. / ^ uniform. These courts had their jurymen, composed of neigh - 
 A.D. 1066. b ours ae viceneto ; but the verdict they pronounced was, in fact, 
 the charge which they presented ; and in many cases such^re- 
 sentment was in itself tantamount to a conviction. This may 
 appear strange, and contrary to all principle and common 
 sense, but can' be explained with some shade of reason. It is 
 to be assumed that some sort of trial, that is by testimony 
 to the fact, really took place before these jurymen of leets or 
 hundreds previous to their presentment of the crime as having 
 been committed; a second investigation before the same 
 jurymen might have been considered superfluous. There may 
 have been, moreover, insuperable difficulties in assembling 
 a second jury and all the witnesses before the tribunal which 
 was finally to decide on the guilt and punishment, out 
 of a sparse population with scanty means of locomotion, 
 and for the most part sunk in ignorance and degrada- 
 tion. Further trials, however, if they can be so called, were 
 often had ; but such trials appear to have been nothing more 
 than solemn appeals to the Deity by the accused, through 
 the medium of ceremonials varying probably with the 
 circumstances of the case, and with the district in which 
 the trial took place. Sometimes the party denied the 
 charge on his own oath and on that of his friends, who 
 swore to their belief in his innocence, and were termed his 
 Compur gators. 1 Sometimes the culprit took the corsned, 
 or sacred morsel : sometimes he underwent the ordeal ; that is, 
 plunged his hands in boiling water, or walked over burning- 
 ploughshares, or pretended to do so with the assistance of 
 the priests, in testimony of his innocence. 2 In the case of a 
 culprit taken in the manner, that is, with the stolen goods 
 upon him, no investigation seems to have taken place ; but 
 the seizure of him under such circumstances was a conviction, 
 
 1 Vide Book II. Ch. I. p. 265. There witnesses taken in court before them, 
 
 is reason to conjecture that this trial (if instead of the oath of denial by the 
 
 the term can be allowed) by oath of com- accused, and of that of his compurgators 
 
 purgators, or wager of law, was the of their belief. Vide p. 286. 
 origin of the real trial by petit jury 2 Vide ibid, 
 
 who gave their verdict upon evidence of
 
 CIVIL JURISDICTION. 
 
 37 
 
 and summary justice was instantly executed by the lord of 
 the soc or district, or the magistrate. 1 The blackest crimes 
 
 n > n 1 i T 1 1 j. A.D. 1066. 
 
 might generally be expiated by a pecuniary mulct ; in some 
 cases fixed by positive law, but in others, a/e&red, or assessed, 
 by persons delegated by the leet jury. 2 In short, there 
 appears to have been no other rule of law or of judicial trial 
 in the Saxon criminal courts, than what resulted from the 
 resolutions of the proprietors of land associating together in 
 their various gilds for mutual protection, or from the arbitrary 
 will of such proprietors exercised over their own immediate 
 vassal tenants. 3 
 
 Of the administration of civil justice throughout the king- 
 dom more specific information may be gained. In all the 
 counties of England courts were established, in which every 
 claim, whether of a personal nature or in respect of land, was 
 tried : those between tenants in demesne were adjusted by the 
 Lord in a court of his own 4 the Court Baron ; those between 
 free members of the same hundred, in the hundred courts ; 5 
 those between free members of different hundreds in the 
 county court. 6 This county court, called the Sciregemote, 
 was held twice every year ; and over it presided the Alder- 
 man or the Sheriff together with the Bishop. 7 But in 
 London a peculiar and separate legal establishment sub- 
 sisted, in which all litigation between the citizens was 
 decided. How rights of a personal nature were tried is not 
 very clear. In all probability a court for these causes, when 
 of importance, was occasionally held by the Eeve or Portreve, 
 to which court the present Lord Mayor's and Sheriff's courts 
 may have succeeded. Possibly, however, for minor causes the 
 Reve or Alderman of the gild might exercise a similar civil 
 jurisdiction as the Sheriff in his hundred, or the Lord over his 
 demesne ; but these courts, not being of record, there are no 
 traces of their trials. The Lord Mayor's and Sheriff's courts, 
 in which alone all personal causes are at present sued, did not 
 
 1 Vide Book II. Ch. V. p. 347. Exch. p. 107 ; and ch. xi. 
 
 * Vide Book II. Ch. IV. * Leg. Edwardi, c. 2. 
 
 3 Hume's Hist. Appendix 2nd ; Brady Hume's Hist. App. 2nd: andautho- 
 on Boroughs ; Wilkins, Leges Anglo- rities there quoted. 
 
 Saxonicae, p. 65. 7 Ingulph. p. 870. 
 
 4 Brady on Boroughs ; Madox's Hist.
 
 38 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK exist at this period, at least under those names, or according 
 
 - ,! - to their present establishment. 1 It may be noticed, that 
 
 A.D. 1066. p ersona l property was very trivial and but little regarded in 
 the laws of those early times. The only civil court particu- 
 larised is that, the jurisdiction of which was always time out 
 of mind confined to suits which either directly or indirectly 
 affected land. This court, called the Court of Hustings, is de- 
 scribed by old writers and in old records 2 as one of the greatest 
 antiquity and dignity. It was one common jurisdiction ex- 
 tending throughout the whole City, over which the first magis- 
 trate presided in conjunction with the Bishop, in a similar 
 way as in the county courts. 3 The privilege of suing and 
 being sued in this court only, and of being tried in their own 
 criminal courts by their own appointed judges was, in these 
 times, of great value to the citizens, and was anxiously 
 secured to them in their earliest charters. They were there- 
 by not only protected from the arbitrary jurisdiction of a 
 demesne lord, who would have had an absolute dominion 
 over the property of those who were strictly tenants in 
 demesne, but they had the advantage of obtaining justice at 
 their own doors on that spot where their laws and customs 
 were likely to be best understood. 
 
 Such then was the state of freedom and independence 
 enjoyed by the citizens of London, when the Saxon Govern- 
 ment, after subsisting upwards of six hundred years, was 
 finally overthrown by the Normans. Holding their posses- 
 sions in their own inherent right, they were entitled either 
 
 1 ThePortreve, Keve,or Sheriff, called ' Hustipg' has been variously derived ; 
 also sometimes the Bailiff, was the only that of Spelman seems to have been most 
 temporal magistrate over the -whole body generally adopted by learned writers, 
 of citizens till the time of Kichard I. It namely from ' Hus,' domus, and ' thing,' 
 was then the term Mayor was first used, causa (quasi domus causarum). ' Thing,' 
 and he immediately superseded almost however, is to this day a term common 
 all the Sheriff's magisterial functions, to all courts and assemblies among the 
 as well as many others (vide Ch. IV. Northern nations of Europe. 
 
 pp. 60, 68). When the Mayor was ap- s We find by the Judic. Civ. Lond., 
 
 pointed as the chief magistrate, his that in Athelstan's time the Bishops 
 
 judicial court became the chief court, and Eeves were the magistrates in chief 
 
 and the Sheriff s the inferior ; and thus authority in London; and likewise 
 
 a new constitution would be formed. that they presided at the county courts 
 
 2 Vide Spelman's Glossary: 'Hus- with a jurisdiction precisely similar, 
 ting;' and Leges Edwardi. The term
 
 LONDON UNDER THE SAXON LAWS. 
 
 to dispose of them at their discretion, or to transmit them 
 to their posterity. Governed by their own magistrates, 1 and 
 amenable only to their own courts, they were privileged 
 in having justice dispensed to them, not according to the 
 will of any superior, but according to the general law of the 
 land, modified by their own peculiar customs. In short, they 
 possessed all the legal rights and privileges which in that 
 age distinguished men of the first rank among the Anglo- 
 Saxons, being those who held their land independently in 
 their own right, and which entitled them to the appellation 
 of Freemen, in a country where a large class of the community 
 was in a complete state of servitude. To this state of liberty 
 undoubtedly must be attributed the flourishing commerce for 
 which the City of London had, even at this period, become 
 famous, and the opulence it seems in consequence to have 
 acquired. 2 
 
 1 Vide pp. 19, 20. says, 'London was a noble city, fre- 
 
 * "William of Malmesbury, who wrote quented by merchants from all parts of 
 
 in King Stephen's reign, speaking of the world.' 
 
 London in Edward the Confessor's time,
 
 40 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 SURVEY OP THE CHANGES INTRODUCED INTO THE LAWS AND 
 GOVERNMENT OP ENGLAND BY THE CONQUEROR OP THE ESTABLISH- 
 MENT OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM OP THE PRIVILEGES OP THE CITIZENS, 
 WHICH CONSISTED IN AN EXEMPTION PROM THE EFFECTS OF THESE 
 CHANGES. 
 
 BOOK IN consequence of the Norman Conquest, a vast revolution 
 
 ' r - was gradually effected in the constitution and condition of 
 
 A.D. 1066. ^.j ie gQ-Qj^jy^ rp ne fi^ an( j immediate result was a change 
 of proprietors of the greater part of the landed property in 
 the kingdom. The battle of Hastings was attended not only 
 by the death of Harold, who had assumed the crown, but 
 also with a prodigious slaughter of the chief nobility and 
 landholders in the kingdom. This enabled William the 
 Conqueror to reward his followers with the possession of the 
 estates of all those who had borne arms against him, as being 
 confiscated by reason of such resistance. London, as a royal 
 burgh, fell into the hands of the Conqueror himself, who, in 
 order to ensure the allegiance of that place which had now 
 become the very key to the empire, raised a fortress of great 
 strength within the walls of the City, since called the Tower 
 of London. 1 The citizens, perhaps not without reason, began 
 to entertain apprehensions that the king, upon the assump- 
 tion of his royal rights, might deprive them of all their im- 
 munities, and reduce them to the condition of strict tenants 
 in demesne : and probably this measure had been enforced 
 against some of the boroughs which fell to the lot of the new 
 Norman lords. William, however, either induced by the 
 civic magistrates one of whom, namely the Bishop, was a 
 Norman or willing to attach the citizens to his government, 
 
 1 Gul. Pict.
 
 CHANGES UNDER THE NORMAN GOVERNMENT. 41 
 
 who had indeed readily submitted to him on his arrival, re- CHAP. 
 
 lieved them from this anxiety, and granted to them their first . ^ - 
 
 charter, by which he declares they shall be all law-worthy, A>D - 1066> 
 and that each man should be his father's heir ; the meaning 
 and importance of which grants may be understood from 
 what has already been premised. 
 
 Another important alteration, introduced by the Normans, 
 was the extending the original jurisdiction of the king's own 
 appointed judges, or justices, to all parts of the kingdom. We 
 have seen that, by the Saxon policy, remedial courts of law 
 were established in each county and hundred for the dispen- 
 sation of justice, over which the local authorities presided: J 
 and by the Saxon laws every man was forbidden to appeal to 
 the king sitting in council, or wittenagernote, unless justice 
 had been denied him in that court which was appointed for 
 him in the first resort. 2 But by the Normans a specific and 
 supreme judicial court, called the aula regis or curia regis, 
 was established, over which an officer called the Capital Jus- 
 ticiar presided, who gradually assumed the authority by his 
 process in the first instance to draw within his jurisdiction 
 all causes arising within the kingdom beyond the value of 
 forty shillings, and also to review all the proceedings of infe- 
 rior local courts in an appellate capacity. This court was, 
 indeed, no other than the king's supreme council of the 
 realm; in which the chief justiciar, while he acted, supplied 
 the place of the king himself; and it exercised the functions 
 of the wittenagemote or parliament, as well as those of a 
 court for the dispensation of justice both criminal and civil, 
 as may be clearly seen by the tenor of a vast number of 
 records. 3 For a long period after its first erection, it was 
 
 1 Although, generally speaking, the 2 LL. Canuti ; Lamb. Archaion. fol. 
 
 earl or bishop together with the reve 108. 
 
 or sheriff presiding over the district * Madox's Hist. Exch. passim; and 
 
 administered justice in these courts, yet particularly in pp. 12, 14, 16, 20, 31, 
 
 in the Saxon times the king's chief al- 36, 84, 87, 88, 93, 95, 103, 113, 119, 
 
 derman, or judge occasionally, as it 209, 210. So it is provided by Magna 
 
 appears, travelled about to the local Charta, that barons and earls should 
 
 courts; perhaps as a kind of visitor, or only be amerced by their peers; which, in 
 
 for the purpose of settling some impor- a record temp. Henry III., is explained, 
 
 tant dispute (vide authorities and that they were to be amerced, before the 
 
 records collected in Hunt's Hist. lib. 6 ; king's council only. Ibid. 529. 
 Jani. Anglic, p. 128).
 
 42 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ambulatory, and followed the person of the monarch, who 
 v__^ . often presided in it personally a circumstance calculated to 
 A.D. 1066. occas i on a g rea t grievance to distant suitors. A much more 
 serious evil, however, resulted from the establishment of this 
 new judicial authority, in the change thereby introduced, 
 both in the rules and practice of the law. The first judges 
 who presided in this court, and who continued so to preside for 
 many years, were Normans ; who, understanding neither the 
 English law nor language, clung, for the most part, to that 
 of their own country. Consequently, all law proceedings 
 were carried on in the Norman-French a language never 
 generally understood in England, and which very much con- 
 tributed to hasten the surrender of the ancient maxims of 
 the common law to Norman notions of jurisprudence. What 
 still further contributed to the downfall of the Saxon judicial 
 system, was the art and labour expended by the foreign prac- 
 titioners in engrafting upon the law all those niceties and 
 metaphysical distinctions and subtilties which were engen- 
 dered by the study of the Aristotelian philosophy, to which 
 the learned in those days were passionately addicted sub- 
 tilties and distinctions which, in spite of every legislative 
 effort for many generations to eradicate, have ever since con- 
 tinued to deform and encumber the simple principles of the 
 ancient law of the land. It is not surprising, therefore, that, 
 under an arbitrary government, which administered justice 
 from one court to all parts of the kingdom, through the 
 medium of judges and lawyers who were foreigners, and 
 whose minds were imbued with foreign prejudices and learn- 
 ing, the old national law, which depended much upon local 
 customs, and which was a law of liberty, proceeding upon the 
 principle that the whole people ought, as far as possible, to 
 be judges of each other, should, not only in forms, but in 
 substance also, be in a great degree superseded, though it 
 never was altogether forgotten. 
 
 In this wreck of the valuable rights of the people, the 
 citizens of London, as a peculiar privileged body, still pre- 
 served their independence, together with their ancient forms 
 of law and municipal government. By a very early Norman 
 charter, they were not to be impleaded out of the walls of the
 
 INTRODUCTION OF FEUDAL LAWS AND TENURES. 43 
 
 City ; and they were to hare no foreign justiciar placed over CHAP. 
 
 them, but only such as they themselves elected, for the dis- ,J 
 
 pensation of penal or criminal justice. 1 We need not wonder *""' 1066 ' 
 at the earnest anxiety always manifested by the citizens in 
 ancient times in regard to the privileges of their local juris- 
 dictions, for to this circumstance alone can we attribute the 
 preservation of their most valuable customs ; otherwise these 
 customs, together with the rest of the general law of the 
 land, would either at once have been surrendered to new 
 legal institutions, or have been gradually frittered away 
 by the logical casuistry of the Norman jurists. 
 
 The introduction of the trial by Wager of Battle has been 
 already noticed as another Norman innovation. 2 But the 
 most important change in the constitution and legal polity 
 of the country which followed the Norman Conquest, was 
 effected by the institution of feudal tenures, by which, either 
 purely or under modification, all the land in the kingdom 
 began to be held. It is not consistent with the plan of this 
 work to enter into a minute examination of the peculiarities 
 and details of the feudal law, which, through the artificial 
 refinements of the commentators upon it, has been rendered 
 very abstruse ; though it is not to be doubted that an inti- 
 mate acquaintance with this branch of jurisprudence would 
 serve to explain and illustrate, not only the present general 
 system of English law, but also those peculiar laws and cus- 
 toms now prevalent in the City of London, either as con- 
 trasted or corresponding with the feudal doctrines. 3 It will 
 be necessary, however, in order to convey anything like a com- 
 petent idea of the nature and origin of many of the civic 
 
 1 Charter of Henry I. There can be * Vide p. 20, and also Selden, Duello, 
 
 no doubt that these franchises were cap. 6 ; and authorities there quoted, 
 
 considered as peculiarly valuable at the * For an elaborate, and at the same 
 
 times when they were granted. They time a clear, explanation of the law of 
 
 were sought for with aridity by several Feudal Tenures, see a very learned and 
 
 cities. The City of York paid a large able note of Mr. Bntler, Co. Litt. lib. 3, 
 
 fine to obtain them only for a short 191 a, note 77 ; from which, as well as 
 
 time. Madox's Hist. Etch. p. 387. It from Wright's Tenures, Madox's Hist, 
 
 was the common practice to extort large Exch. and Firma Burgi, and the 2nd 
 
 sums in the shape of fines to the king vol. of Blackstone's Commentaries, this 
 
 for obtaining justice in the king's court, brief account of the feudal system is 
 
 which were of course avoided by suing abstracted, 
 elsewhere. Ibid, passim, ch. xii.
 
 44 H1STOEICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK privileges, and of the relative condition of the citizens during 
 
 r ' the earlier ages of the English government, to draw an out- 
 
 A.D. 1066. -Q ne o f ^e distinguishing principles which characterised that 
 scheme of law, which, in its consequences, gave a tone to the 
 manners, and controlled the interests of the whole community 
 of the nation. 
 
 Much dispute has arisen, both respecting the first origin 
 of the feudal system, and the time of its first introduction 
 into this country. It appears certain that, if it did prevail at 
 all under the Saxon dynasty, it was not to such an extent as to 
 supersede the plan, either of government or of law, which took 
 its rise from the institutions of Alfred. Suffice it to say, 
 that the Conqueror, in the twentieth year of his reign, 1 sum- 
 moned together a great council of the nation ; at which, with 
 the consent of all present, a statute passed by which, in effect, 
 the law of feudal tenure was engrafted on all the land held 
 by freemen 2 throughout the kingdom. The fundamental doc- 
 trine of pure feudal tenure was, that all the land of a country 
 was held immediately of the king. He was to be considered 
 the original possessor of the whole ; and, after his first acqui- 
 sition, to have granted the greater part to those about him 
 of the chief consideration and influence (as indeed was actu- 
 ally the case with respect to William and his followers), to 
 be held by them, upon condition of rendering certain services, 
 according to the nature of their respective tenures ; reserving 
 the rest for the support of his kingly dignity, under the apel- 
 lation of his royal demesne. Those who thus received their 
 lands from the king himself, were termed his tenants in 
 capite, and were in fact the aristocracy of the nation. These 
 tenants, however, of the king, assumed a power, inconsistent 
 indeed with the pure principles of feudalism, of parcelling 
 out their territories to other tenants, upon similar conditions 
 
 1 There is every reason to think that satisfactorily ascertained by consulting 
 
 William was tardy in introducing this the Spicilegium of the learned Selden. 
 
 great change in the laws and constitu- 2 The tenure in demesne or in A-illen- 
 
 tion of the country. That he originally age can hardly be termed a feudal 
 
 professed at least a great anxiety for tenure ; and if it was, the tenure cer- 
 
 the full and universal establishment of tainly existed in the Saxon times, as has 
 
 the laws of Edward the Confessor, and been explained before, 
 to govern the kingdom by them, may be
 
 EXPLANATION OP THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 45 
 
 to those under which they themselves held of the supreme CHAP, 
 lord ; reserving, in a similar manner, and for the same pur- v_ ,-!__- 
 poses, their private demesnes ; these sub-tenants, again, to A-I> ' 10 
 still inferior dependants: till, thus, a regular gradation of 
 subordinate feudatories was established; all, indeed, sub- 
 jected to the same general allegiance to the king, but most 
 of them owing also a more contracted and immediate duty to 
 that lord from whose hands they received their estates or 
 feuds. These intermediate lords were denominated mesne 
 lords, and their inferior tenants, tenants paravail. To this 
 practice of subinfeudation a stop was at last put by several 
 statutes passed in the reigns of Henry III., Edward I., Ed- 
 ward II., and Edward III. ; but not before it had proceeded 
 to a very considerable extent. 
 
 Every free man 1 who received lands from his lord, by 
 whatever services he held them, was, in the first place bound 
 to take an oath of fealty, that he would be faithful to his 
 lord, would do him suit and services in his court, and would 
 defend him against all enemies : he was also compelled, upon 
 his investiture, to do his lord homage, as it was termed, by 
 kneeling before him and holding his hands together between 
 those of the lord, and then declaring that he became his man. 
 There were also other important services which all tenants 
 were bound in some shape or other to render to their respec- 
 tive lords in virtue of their tenancies, into the nature of 
 which it remains now to enquire. 
 
 The first species of tenure, and that which alone charac- 
 terised a pure and proper feud, was that by Knight's service ; 
 by virtue of which tenure every tenant, possessed of such 
 considerable quantity of land as would amount to what was 
 termed a Knight's fee, was bound to attend his respective 
 lord in his wars for forty days in a year, whenever he might 
 be called upon, or to provide a knight who should so attend 
 for each knight's fee. This power of suddenly and arbitrarily 
 raising a body of bold soldiers, so attached by oath and a 
 
 1 Villeins, when they came to hold nally they were not admitted to fealty 
 
 land, were admitted to fealty and homage ; and homage, and were considered merely 
 
 Init that enfranchised them in a degree, as slaves. Vide Wright, p. 216. 
 and they then became tenants. Origi-
 
 46 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK spirit of clanship to their lords, contributed to raise the 
 
 - 'r political influence of the great barons and landholders who 
 
 A.D. 1066. a great number of knight's fees, to a very great 
 
 height : for they soon began to exercise a kind of royal 
 authority over their domains ; and eventually, under the 
 sway of the weaker Norman princes, as we afterwards find in 
 the early history of the country, the combination of a few of 
 them became a match even for the king himself. At the 
 time of the Conqueror, the whole body of tenants holding by 
 knight's service either of the king or of mesne lords amounted 
 to upwards of 60,000, ready to be called together on any 
 emergency, and attend in the field, under the penalty of for- 
 feiting their estates. 1 This warlike service, according to the 
 original principles of the feudal system, was all that could 
 be required of the tenant, and all that was contemplated by 
 our ancestors, perhaps, upon their first submission to the yoke 
 of such a tenure. But the Norman lawyers, incited in all 
 probability by the encouragement and rapacity of the first 
 Norman princes, soon contrived to engraft upon this branch 
 of feudal tenure a variety of burthens and taxes, which 
 reduced the nation to almost an absolute slavery, and 
 became at last so intolerably oppressive, as to occasion that 
 famous rebellion in the reign of King John, the fruit of which 
 was the granting Magna Charta, whereby some of the most 
 prominent of them were removed. Still, however, many of the 
 grievances incident to this species of tenure continued to 
 harass the people for many generations ; and although various 
 efforts were from time to time made to get rid of them, they 
 were not finally and entirely abolished till the reign of 
 Charles II., when this tenure by knight's service was changed 
 into socage tenure a tenure which we shall presently have 
 occasion to notice, and by which, in fact, all the freehold 
 property in the kingdom is holden to this day. 
 
 The burthens, which were incident to the tenure by knight's 
 service, were, first, Aids ; which were a pecuniary contribution 
 by the tenant, demandable on four different occasions : 
 namely, to ransom the Lord's person when taken prisoner ; 
 
 1 Spelman's Glossary : ' Feodum.' Selden, Tit. Hon. part 2nd, chap. v. 
 sect. 17.
 
 EXPLANATION OP THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 to make his eldest son a knight; to portion his eldest 
 daughter ; and, lastly, to pay the lord's debts. Secondly, the 
 Relief ; which was at first an arbitrary, but after many strug- 
 gles an ascertained sum, payable by the heir of the last tenant 
 upon coming to his estate. Thirdly, the Primer Seisin, inci- 
 dent only to tenancies in capite ; which was the right to a 
 year's profits of the land held, whenever the tenant died; on 
 the ground that it behoved the supreme lord to hold posses- 
 sion of the land for one year, in order to protect it from false 
 claimants and intruders. Fourthly, Wardship ; which was, 
 the privilege of holding possession of all the estates of heirs 
 until they became of age, who were then still further obliged 
 to pay the value of half a year's profits for the ceremony of 
 delivering the lands up ; and, if he was a tenant in capite, he 
 was at this period compelled to take up his knighthood (an 
 order conferred with much pomp and solemnity) or else to 
 pay a fine to the king. Fifthly, Marriage ; which was the 
 right of selling a ward to the best bidder, in marriage, pro- 
 vided it was no disparagement ; and if the wards refused such 
 tender of marriage, they forfeited the value of it that is, as 
 much as any jury would say a person of equal rank would 
 give for it to the lord ; if they married without his consent, 
 they then forfeited the double value : this was, undoubtedly 
 the most oppressive hardship which arose out of the system 
 of feudal tenures. The principle on which wardship and 
 marriage were claimed, was, that the lord had an interest 
 in providing a sufficient tenant to render the service due to 
 him, and might run some risk of losing it if the tenant had 
 a discretionary power in marrying ; and he actually did lose 
 it while the tenant was a minor. Sixthly, Fines upon alie- 
 nation : these fines were in England exacted only from the 
 tenants in capite, who, not being allowed to sell their estates 
 without the king's license, were obliged to pay a heavy con- 
 sideration for such liberty. Seventhly and lastly, Escheat; 
 which was the determination of the tenant's estate and the 
 resumption of it by the lord, either for want of heirs or in 
 consequence of the tenant's having committed treason or 
 felony ; by which means his blood became corrupted and lost 
 all heritable qualities. In this enumeration of feudal bur- 
 
 47
 
 48 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK thens, that of Escuage must not be overlooked ; though it 
 
 ^ was not, strictly speaking, an incident of knight service, but 
 
 A.D. 1066. rai .j ier th e sery i ce it se if. F r these military tenants, galled 
 by the dependency and uncertainty of their warlike duties, in 
 process of time acquired permission, first, to serve by deputy, 
 and afterwards, to make a pecuniary satisfaction in lieu of 
 such service. This satisfaction was called the tenant's escuage, 
 and the king by his prerogative levied it in an arbitrary 
 manner, till that power, being grossly abused, the levying of 
 escuage was first regulated by Parliament, and afterwards 
 altogether prohibited without the previous consent of the 
 legislature. 
 
 Another kind of tenure, namely that by Socage-service, pre- 
 vailed also to a considerable extent in the kingdom, and which, 
 under the Norman jurisdiction, bore many of the genuine 
 marks of a feudal quality, though the services rendered by 
 virtue of it were of an essentially different character. Those 
 who held their estates under this species of tenure, instead of 
 performing knight's service, which, though of a free and 
 honourable nature, was nevertheless, from its uncertainty, 
 very burthensome, rendered some certain rent or some stipu- 
 lated acknowledgment, not of a military nature, by the dis- 
 charge of which their land . was preserved to them. This 
 acknowledgment was sometimes the bare oath of fealty; 
 sometimes it was of a personal kind ; but usually, both that 
 and the rent was of a trivial amount. 
 
 Tenure by socage-service had the advantage of that by 
 knight' s-service, not only in respect of certainty, but also inas- 
 much as it was exempted from many of those slavish conse- 
 quences which have been mentioned as characterising the 
 latter. For, in the first place, neither wardship nor marriage 
 could be claimed by the lord, by reason that no personal 
 military service being due, it was of no importance to him to 
 secure an able and suitable tenant. Both wardship and mar- 
 riage, therefore, were entrusted to that nearest relation of 
 the socage tenant who could not by possibility succeed to 
 the inheritance. Such guardian was bound to account to 
 his ward, both for the profits of the estate and the suitable- 
 ness of the marriage, in case he married his ward under the
 
 SOCAGE TENURES. VILLEINAGE OR DEMESNE TENURES. 49 
 
 age of fourteen. In tlie second place, the other burthens of CHAP, 
 knight's service (with the exception of aids) namely, primer .._ , ' _^ 
 seisins, fines on alienation, and escheats, which were levied A ' D ' 1066 ' 
 (legally or not) on cities and boroughs as being in demesne, 
 as well as on those held on knight's service, came to be 
 compromised for by a collective rent or farm. 1 
 
 A tenure so liberal in its terms as this, and so mild, when 
 compared with the oppressive quality of that by knight's 
 service, seems to have been a modified remnant of ancient 
 Saxon liberty, 2 and to have been retained by those who had 
 strength or influence enough to resist the Norman encroach- 
 ments ; as may be exemplified in the case of Gavelkiiid in 
 Kent, which is a species of socage tenure, and was preserved 
 to the men of Kent by their terms of capitulation to the 
 Conqueror. It soon naturally became an object of general 
 interest, especially among tenants who were not of the 
 nobility, to emancipate themselves from the thraldom which 
 a military tenure imposed, and to enjoy their estates under 
 the easy and plain terms of socage tenancy. Gradually, as 
 the slavish burthens of knight's service wore off, the two 
 tenures approached nearer in quality ; socage tenures grew " 
 more and more in vogue, and were the more easily granted ; 
 till at last, in the reign of James I., the total abolition of 
 chivalry tenures, and the conversion of them into socage 
 tenures, began to be seriously thought of, though the measure 
 was not altogether completed till the reign of Charles II. 
 
 There was another tenure, not strictly feudal nor perhaps 
 of feudal origin, but which may nevertheless be classed under 
 the same system ; under which tenure a very large class of 
 the people served, and which was the lowest species of all ; 
 namely, that of villenage or in demesne. The villeins, indeed, 
 were at the Norman Conquest little better than mere slaves, 
 which they no doubt had originally been ; and they could be 
 sued for in courts of justice in the same manner as any 
 chattel interest. As before stated, they were cultivators of 
 the lord's demesne lands, and were astricti glebes, being 
 
 1 Vide p. 51. etymology of the word, vide Book II. 
 
 * For an enquiry into the nature and Ch. II. 
 derivation of this tenure, and into the
 
 50 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK unable to leave the land without the lord's permission. 
 
 r They were allowed a small portion of land for their own 
 
 support, upon condition of doing the menial offices prescribed 
 to them ; to which land, however, they had no independent 
 title of their own, but were liable to be dispossessed at 
 a moment's warning, being tenants merely at the will of the 
 lord. In process of time, these villeins became universally 
 emancipated personally from the proprietorship of their 
 superiors ; and imperceptibly so gained ground on their 
 lords, that at last they came to have a fixed interest in 
 the soil they held, descendable to their heirs ; an interest 
 which, growing up in a gradual usage, has, by virtue of such 
 usage, now become sanctioned in law as a right, under the 
 modern title of copyhold-tenure. 
 
 Under one or other of these tenures all the land in the 
 kingdom, with a few special exceptions, and excepting that 
 of the superior cities, was held soon after the Norman Con- 
 quest. 1 The tenants occupying possessions in the inferior 
 towns and boroughs were said indeed to hold by tenure in 
 burgage ; but this was a tenure in all respects similar to that 
 in socage, and, in fact, as is said by Littleton, nothing other 
 than a kind of town socage. It has been suggested, that these 
 boroughs, so held by the inhabitants individually in burgage 
 tenure, in all probability escaped the burthensome effects of 
 a tenure by knight's service, from the insignificancy of the 
 tenements ; a hundred of them together amounting scarcely 
 to a knight's fee. 2 They might, however, rather be con- 
 sidered as districts originally in demesne, and afterwards 
 specially liberated and converted into socage : indeed, by the 
 earlier Norman authorities, they were for all purposes of 
 taxation still considered in principle as lands held in demesne ; 3 
 and it is very probable, that on the arrival of the Normans, 
 many of the boroughs and tenants in them, who had in the 
 
 1 Tenures in Frankalmoign, in grand Madox's Hist. Exch. and Firma Burgi, 
 and petit serjeantry, and homage ances- in which the^'boroughs of England are 
 tral, are passed over, as being compara- talliagcd, as being in demesne ; ami 
 tively rare, and unimportant in a national exemptions are claimed by some cities 
 point of view. from this tax, on the ground that they 
 
 2 Blacks. Comm. vol. ii. are not in demesne. Vide, p. 83. 
 1 The records are very numerous in
 
 BUKGAGE TEXURES AT FEE FARM RENT. Oj 
 
 Saxon times become emancipated, were reduced again under CHAP. 
 
 actual demesne, and subsequently liberated on terms. How- ^ 
 
 ever, there can be no doubt that the independence and 
 certainty which eventually characterised these burgage or 
 socage tenures, most mainly contributed to improve the 
 commerce and wealth, and thereby the importance, of these 
 boroughs ; till at last by their parliamentary and general 
 influence they had a very considerable share in emancipating 
 the whole nation from a state of comparative slavery, and in 
 restoring the ancient constitutional liberty enjoyed by our 
 early ancestors. 1 
 
 But in great cities, as we have seen, a privilege prevailed, 
 even in the Saxon times, of paying annually one aggregate 
 contribution, called a farm rent, in lieu of all those services, 
 duties, tolls, &c. which the king or other lord of the demesne 
 had been used to exact from the inhabitants individually. 2 
 It is to be remarked, that in many boroughs where the 
 inhabitants held by burgage tenure, their borough was after 
 the Conquest let at farm ; but whatever rank such cities 
 might hold in the Saxon times and before the creation of 
 perpetual fee farms, yet after the Norman Conquest, when 
 these boroughs were not assigned to the inhabitants them- 
 selves at farm, or, if so assigned, were not held at a perpetual 
 or fee farm, they could not be considered, although holding 
 by burgage tenure and rendering either a free certain service 
 or none at all, as altogether liberated from demesne, and to 
 hold freely ; at all events, they were not on a par with the 
 tenants of those cities who held at fee farm. Their farm was 
 liable to be changed or done away with, and the demesne 
 perquisites resumed, by the lord in the cases where they held 
 their borough at farm themselves in their own right : and, 
 of course, when such borough was let to an individual, such 
 demise only produced a change of master. Upon the intro- 
 duction of the feudal system throughout the kingdom, this 
 farm rent, being made perpetual or in fee, seems to have 
 been converted into, or rather came to be accepted as, the 
 condition or service by which these cities were to be held in 
 
 1 Anderson's Hist. Com. vol. i. p. 169. Vide page 33. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 
 .n. 1066. 
 
 the aggregate. Such a tenure would appear the most easy 
 of any ; for the inhabitants thereby not only enjoyed the 
 advantages of the tenure in burgage, but, paying their dues 
 te their lord in one collective capacity, they became thereby 
 exempted even from those remaining feudal burthens which 
 still attached to individual socage tenures ; namely, reliefs, 
 primer seisins, 1 fines upon alienation, and feudal escheat. 2 
 For as the citizens in a collective capacity could never die, 
 or commit felony, t>r alienate the soil, it followed that none of 
 these feudal dues, according to the Norman legal construction, 
 could -arise. It was a tenure, therefore, sought at the king's 
 hands by the greater towns with the utmost avidity, and 
 often largely paid for. 3 This fee farm rent was not, however, 
 collected from the inhabitants by contribution, but arose, as 
 we have observed, from certain issues and profits arising out of 
 inland customs, fairs, markets, and other like franchises, which 
 being originally enjoyed by the lord of the demesne, had been 
 granted to, or at least were possessed by, the citizens ; and, 
 being received by the proper civic authorities, were accounted 
 for at the rent fixed. 4 So that, in fact, the inhabitants of 
 these privileged cities might be said to hold their estates as 
 freely and independently as could be, in any way, consistent 
 with allegiance to a superior. 
 
 In this manner was the City of London held from the 
 earliest establishment of the feudal system in England, and 
 that is what is meant when it is said in ancient records, that 
 London is held of the king in capite, in free burgage. Thus 
 we find that this City survived all the mighty innovations 
 
 1 Lord Coke says, ' Neither shall the 
 king have primer seisin of lands holden 
 in burgage, as some have said ; for that 
 it is no tenure in capite.' This reason is 
 completely disproved by the authorities 
 quoted in the above pages, and still 
 further by many records quoted in 
 Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. i. It seems 
 much more probable that the reason 
 assigned in the text, therefore, is correct ; 
 and that although what ' some have said ' 
 as to the king not having primer seisin 
 of lands held in burgage may be just, 
 yet that the reason they assign can only 
 
 apply to burgage lands in towns not 
 held at fee farm. 
 
 2 Escheats are to be here understood 
 as distinguished from forfeit urts, which 
 were not of feudal origin. Aids, it 
 seems, were paid in all cases by towns 
 and cities held in capite (vide Madox's 
 Hist. Exch. ch. xv.). Though, as socage 
 tenures were exempt in most particulars, 
 (vide ibid.) it is not easy to perceive the 
 legal ground of such charge. Vide p. 356. 
 
 * Vide Madox's Hist. Exch. pp. 397, 
 398, 399, 500, 503. 
 
 4 Vide infra, p. 96.
 
 SAXOX LIBEBTIES PEESEKYED TO LOXDOX. OO 
 
 introduced by the Norman Conqnest. Retaining its ancient CHAP. 
 
 laws and customs, governed by its own magistrates, who - . 
 
 dispensed justice according to the old established forms of AJ> " 106G " 
 trial, preserving the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts, and 
 privileged from all those feudal oppressions which gave a 
 tyrannical and almost despotic authority to the king and his 
 barons, over nearly the whole population of the realm, it 
 presented the only genuine model of the free and independent 
 rights which prevailed in the Saxon times ; and became iii 
 fact the very ark of the constitution. It is true, indeed, 
 that this model of the civic constitution was seldom in a 
 perfect state during the early ages of the English government, 
 and that the rights and liberties of the City were continually 
 subject to invasion and interruption : still, however, they 
 were never lost sight of; nor did the citizens cease to assert 
 them whenever the first favourable juncture in political 
 affairs gave an earnest of success. In after times, when such 
 noble struggles were made for emancipation from the many 
 abuses of the Xorman law, and for a more regular adminis- 
 tration of justice, we find, not only that the citizens were ever 
 conspicuously active, but that Magna Charta itself was 
 framed in the very midst of them, confessedly on the basis of 
 the laws of Edward the Confessor. It would look, therefore, 
 as if the citizens were in a manner appealed to, as preserving 
 among themselves the sample of that legal polity, if not the 
 very laws themselves, so much venerated by the people, and 
 which they considered to embody the just constitutional 
 rights and liberties enjoyed by their ancestors. 1 
 
 1 Vide Blackstone's Introduction to sources (ride Litt. Hist, of Henry U., 
 
 Magna Charta. It seems pretty clear voL i. note to p. 142). If it is true, 
 
 from that learned judge's account of the as has been said (ride Edin. Rrriftr. 
 
 original of Magna Charta, that the roL xxxiv. p. 187, and Supp. p. 24), 
 
 story of its being formed upon the that a copy of the ancient Book of 
 
 accidental discovery of Henry L's Common Law, called the Dombok. was 
 
 national charter is unfounded. That preserved among the archives of the 
 
 charter, as embodying some of the Chy, from which Tery work in the reign 
 
 Confessor's laws and alluding generally of Edward H- the compilation called the 
 
 to them, was no doubt, in one sense, Mirror of Justices was made by Home, 
 
 the foundation of the great Charter ; but then Chamberlain of London, 'this fact 
 
 the details of the latter must have been would almost substantiate the remark 
 
 collected from other and more extensive suggested in the text.
 
 54 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE NOKMAN CONQUEST TO THE ACCESSION OF EDWABD I. 
 
 BOOK To REVERT to a more direct and historical account of the 
 * ^ progressive state of the City, it appears that, throughout the 
 A.D. 1066 r eign of William the Conqueror and that of his successor, 
 the City of London sustained little or no molestation in its 
 privileges ; although the rest of the nation groaned, during 
 the whole of that period, under a tyrannical and rapacious 
 government. Henry I. upon his accession to an usurped 
 throne, the more readily to secure the attachment of the 
 body of the people, promised to ohserve the laws of the Con- 
 fessor, and even granted a charter to that effect, enumerat- 
 ing many particular grievances which he professed to 
 abolish. 1 But so little mindful was he of any such engage- 
 ments after his present purpose was served, that the whole 
 of his long reign was passed in the continual violation of all 
 the articles of his charter ; 2 and so rapidly did it fall into 
 neglect and oblivion, that in one century afterwards it was 
 with difficulty that any traces of it were discovered, to found 
 the stipulations contained in Magna Charta. 3 
 
 The reign of this monarch, however, is rendered remark- 
 able by the grant of the first of the City charters which 
 specify any of its liberties and privileges in detail a charter 
 conferred at his accession, and which, as is justly ob- 
 served by Hume, seems to have been the first step towards 
 rendering the City a corporation for there does not appear 
 anything in that charter indicating the previous existence of 
 a body politic, or of a community having a modified and 
 artificial succession according to the definition of Madox. 4 
 Neither does the charter, by its inherent force, create a cor- 
 
 1 Matthew Paris, p. 74 ; Selden's Epinomis, ch. vi. 
 2 Hume's Hist, * Vide p. 53, note. 4 Firma Burgi, ch. ii-
 
 REIGXS OF HENRY I. AND OF STEPHEN. 55 
 
 poration. The privileges granted by it are, in fact, such as 
 might be granted to any class of people, however uncon- 
 nected with and independent of each other. It is directed, 
 not to any magistrates or aldermen of the City, nor to the 
 citizens generally, but to the dignitaries of the national coun- 
 cil nominatim, and to all the king's subjects. It grants that 
 the citizens shall have the right of appointing the sheriff of 
 Middlesex, and also that of appointing their own Justiciar ; 
 and in these terms, there is reason to believe, were included 
 the right of appointing the Sheriff of London, as well as of 
 Middlesex, and the governor over the whole City, under 
 whatever title he may have exercised his authority, whether 
 that of Beve, or Portreve, or Sheriff. 1 It also grants that the 
 Church, the barons (by which appellation it may be assumed 
 was meant the aldermen), and the citizens should have their 
 socs in other words, the subsidiary government of their re- 
 pective districts or gilds afterwards called wards in peace. 
 These are all subjects which will be treated of more at large 
 in future pages better appropriate to the consideration of 
 them. It may be observed, however, here that these rights 
 of self-government appeared to have been commonly exer- 
 cised in the Saxon times by the citizens. 2 
 
 The reign of King Stephen affords many unequivocal 
 proofs of the great influence possessed by the City in the 
 government ; and we have also the testimony of a cotempo- 
 rary writer* as to its internal grandeur and prosperity. 
 Stephen, it seems, was so convinced of the powerful effect of 
 its patronage, that during the latter years of the reign of 
 Henry he studied by every art and address to acquire the 
 affection of the Londoners. 4 No sooner had Henry breathed 
 his last, than Stephen hastened at once to London, where 
 he was immediately saluted king ; and to bribe the favour of 
 the people and give them an earnest of something like a 
 restoration of their ancient liberties, his first act was to pub- 
 lish a charter, confirming, in general terms, that granted by 
 Henry, and commanding the good laws of Edward the Con- 
 
 1 Vide p. 60, and note, post : Charter * Fitz-Stephen, secretary to Thomas 
 
 of Henry I. a Becket, 
 
 Vide ibid. William of Malmesbury, p. 179.
 
 56 HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK lessor to be observed. The vague terms of this charter 
 - .' .- seem to indicate, either that the king was cautions in bind- 
 A 'o'ii89? in g k imself ty an J fixed and specific rules, or that most of 
 the laws of Edward the Confessor, if not the charter itself of 
 Henry, had become obsolete and unknown. Whatever his 
 intentions might have been in respect of the administration 
 of his government (and from his personal character we are 
 justified in forming a favourable opinion of them), his whole 
 reign was so completely occupied by the intestine wars aris- 
 ing from a powerfully disputed succession, that he had no 
 opportunity of evincing the sincerity of his patriotism. 
 Obliged by the weakness of his regal title to cultivate the 
 good-will of the greater barons, and depending much upon 
 them for military assistance, he was compelled, in his turn, 
 to connive at their usurpations of power, and the tyrannical 
 authority exercised by them over their immediate tenants. 
 Aristocratical power and the oppressions of feudal govern- 
 ment arrived, therefore, in Stephen's reign to their greatest 
 height ; and consequently the people in general were sunk to 
 the lowest state of degradation and misery. 
 
 From the striking contrast between the condition of the 
 citizens of London and that of the rest of the people, we 
 may gather the most incontestible proof of the value and 
 importance of the rights secured to them, and that this su- 
 periority was owing to nothing but the preservation of their 
 ancient institutions, and their exemption from the slavery of 
 feudalism. A remarkable occurrence in Stephen's eventful 
 reign will serve as a manifest illustration of this remark. 
 In one of the many battles fought by that prince for his 
 crown against the partisans of Matilda, who, as the only 
 child of Henry, was the rightful heir to the throne, he had 
 the misfortune to be made prisoner. Matilda, well aware of 
 the all-powerful influence of the clergy in those days, instantly 
 summoned an ecclesiastical synod, from which, rather than 
 from the assembled states of the realm, she preferred to ac- 
 cept the crown ; and by that assembly her title to the throne 
 was instantly acknowledged. The only laymen called to 
 this meeting were the citizens of London, who were bold 
 enough to remonstrate against the imprisonment of
 
 POLITICAL DfFLCEXCE OF LONDOX IN STEPHEN'S REIGX. 57 
 
 Stephen, and demanded his liberation. It was answered, 
 that * it ill became them, who were considered as noblemen 
 in the kingdom, to take part with those barons who had 
 deserted their king.' 
 
 In the meanwhile Matilda, swayed rather by her passions 
 than by any true policy, delivered up both the office of justi- 
 ciary of London and the sheriffwick to her partisan Geoffrey, 
 Earl of Essex, who seems to have aimed at reducing the City 
 to the same condition as the rest of the nation. The citi- 
 zens soon besought a restoration of their laws and privi- 
 leges, as enjoyed under the Confessor; but received a 
 contemptuous answer. Exasperated by their situation and 
 the little respect paid to their remonstrances, they no longer 
 hesitated to revolt against the new government ; and so im- 
 mediate was the success of their influence, that Matilda was 
 compelled within a few months to abandon the kingdom and 
 to liberate her royal prisoner, who at the head of a powerful 
 army, composed chiefly of Londoners, overcoming all oppo- 
 sition, again mounted the throne, which he continued to 
 occupy during the remainder of his life. 
 
 This account of the political transactions of this era, ex- 
 tracted from the annals of cotemporary writers, 1 will suggest 
 a magnificent conception of the influence commanded by the 
 City in the affairs of the State. If we could attach any 
 credit to the estimate made by Fitz- Stephen, who lived at 
 this time, of the population and military establishment of 
 London, we should have little cause to wonder at the 
 haughty posture it assumed. This writer asserts, that the 
 City mustered, according to estimation, no less than sixty 
 thousand foot and twenty thousand horse, in the field; a 
 number so incredible, that it requires little argument to 
 show that it must have been most loosely and preposterously 
 calculated. 2 We may collect, however, from this statement, 
 
 1 William of Malmesbury ; Geiras. this calculation was according to a very 
 
 Tilb. ; Hor. Wig. ; WaT. Annals. ancient and authentic copy of the manu- 
 
 A numerical error may easily hare script kept in the Town Clerk's Office, 
 
 crept into this account, when we con- In the translation of Rtz-Stephen's work 
 
 sider that it existed only in manuscript by an ' antiquary ' (Dr. Pegge), dated 
 
 for upwards of 300 years. It appears 1772, a note, p. 28, mentions that many 
 
 from Strype, the editor of Stowe, that MSB. copies had been consulted in rain
 
 58 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK that the City was possessed of very considerable military 
 ._..,' .. strength, the only efficient source of power in those days ; 
 A t o'ii&9 6 and it is probable that such strength, from the free quality 
 of the civic government, must have been composed of an in- 
 dependent soldiery. More reliance may be placed, perhaps, 
 on the description drawn by this author, a citizen born 
 and bred, of the domestic condition of the City and the 
 manners of the inhabitants in the time of Henry II., 
 under whose able sway the civil government was adminis- 
 tered with comparative regularity, and the nation enjoyed 
 the rare blessing of internal peace. 
 
 According to this author, the City was divided into dis- 
 tinct districts l at this time, in all probability in the same 
 manner as at present into wards ; though it is not easy to 
 determine at what period this latter division specifically and 
 in terms took place. The derivation of the term ' ward ' is 
 from the Saxon paepan, pnpian, custodire, tueri, whence 
 warda* (tutela, custodia), and is called 'garde' in law 
 French ; and we find this term came to be commonly applied 
 in the old records to the districts of London, at least as 
 early as the reign of Henry III., 2 and there is one instance of 
 it even as early as the thirty-first year of Henry II. 3 In 
 each of these wards was held a court-leet, 4 having originally 
 jurisdiction over all crimes and nuisances an institution 
 which is generally considered as old as the time of Alfred. 
 Indeed the court-leet of the hundred, and the wardmote 
 court, were anciently known by the same name that of the 
 Folkmote. 5 From the etymology of the word therefore, and 
 the corresponding purposes of its judicial authority, there 
 can be no doubt that the London ward came to represent the 
 
 to. find a correction of the numbers dictions subsisting anciently in London, 
 
 stated in the text. Lord Lyttelton in 2 Eecords of proclamations in Lib. 
 
 his Life of Henry II., quotes a cotem- Home and Lib. Alb. 
 
 porary letter from the Archdeacon of 3 Mad. Hist. Exch. p. 585. 
 
 London to the Pope, in which it is re- 4 Co. Inst. part. iv. p. 469. Sac and 
 
 ported that the whole population of Soc was also an appendage of these 
 
 London amounted to but 40,000. wards, which signifies a jurisdiction 
 
 1 Literally, ' Hsec similiter illis (Tro- corresponding with that of a court-leet. 
 
 janis sc.) rcgionibus est distincta.' Heywood's Dissertation, p. 145. 
 
 Vide Book II. ch. II. pp. 270 et seq. 5 Vide Lib. Alb. fols. 9, 10 ; Co. 3rd 
 
 289; also supra, pp. 18, 24, 35, for Inst. C. pp. 69, 70. 
 further explanation as to different juris-
 
 CIVIC GOVERNMENT IN TIME OF HENRY II. WARDS. 59 
 
 ancient hundred, and the wardmote court the assembly of 
 the frithbourg, who were identified, according to Spelman, 1 
 with the members of what were called the frithgilds ; into a 
 number of which, as we have seen, the City was in early 
 Saxon times divided; and which were associations for the 
 purpose of preserving the common peace and property, with 
 liberty of Sac and Soc ; or, in other words, a leet jurisdiction. 
 What tends strongly to corroborate this conclusion, is the 
 fact that, in the 26th year of the reign of Henry II., 
 districts called gilds were still existing in London ; for at 
 that period many gilds, some being of a commercial nature, 
 but most of them territorial, were amerced as being ' adulte- 
 rine,' or { constituted without the Icing's authority,' over all 
 of which aldermen presided ; 2 though it cannot be found 
 that aldermen ever presided over mercantile gilds in London, 
 except in these few instances 3 here recorded as of adulterine 
 origin. And we have observed already that Portsoken ward 
 was called Cnighten gild at least to the end of the reign of 
 Henry I., as appears by the charter of that king confirming 
 it to the church and canons of the Holy Trinity indeed, the 
 prior of that church became an alderman of London merely 
 by virtue of his possessing this gild. 4 When the term ivards 
 was first used they were not called by their present names, 
 but as the ward of such and such an alderman, in the same 
 way as the gilds were denominated. 5 In the time of Ed- 
 ward I. they began to be called by their present district 
 names. 6 It would appear, therefore, that the term ward had 
 barely arisen at this period ; though we may safely fix the 
 
 1 Spelman's Glossary : ' Gilda.' None of the gilds of London amerced for 
 
 * Mad. Hist. Exch. p. 562. Bridge- want of the king's warrant of authority 
 
 gild is mentioned by name. are termed ' Merchant gilds.' And 
 
 3 Vide supra, pp. 25, 35 ; Ch. VI. p. further, although all the corporate 
 101 ; Book II. Ch. II. towns in England almost have had a 
 
 4 Strype's Edit, of Stow, lib. 2, p. 5. specific and Merchant gilds granted 
 Another proof that gilds were not all them, yet the citizens of London never 
 originally mercantile, may be inferred have, although gilds have been common 
 from the circumstance, that in ancient enough, as well as a Gild hall, for the 
 records the gilds which are so, are termed assembling of the gilds. Vide supra, 
 ' Merchant gilds ' (Gilda et Hansa Mer- p. 25, and notes. 
 
 catorum) : thus, a fine is recorded of * Records in Madox's Hist. Exch. 
 
 Thomas of Ulivet, paid for his being pp. 562, 708, 709, 738-9. 
 made an alderman of the Merchant gild Madox's Hist. Exch. p. 741. 
 
 of York (Madox's Hist. Reck. p. 397).
 
 60 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK date of that appellation, as commonly applied to the civic 
 
 , ; - divisions, between the latter end of the reign of Henry II. 
 
 A to U89 6 and the ^ginning of that of Edward I. 1 
 
 Fitz- Stephen proceeds to state that the City had its annual 
 sheriffs; that it had its lesser magistrates, and enjoyed a 
 senatorial dignity. The magistracy and senatorial dignity 
 was most probably attached to the alderman or barons of 
 socs or gilds ; by Henry I.'s charter the sheriffwick of 
 Middlesex was freely granted to them, and there are good 
 grounds for believing that the sheriffwick of London (the 
 functions of which were exercised by the chief magistrate 
 under the title of Reve or Portreve, before the creation of 
 the mayoralty), was included in the same grant as an ancient 
 prescriptive right of the citizens ; 2 yet the privilege of 
 choosing the sheriffs for London, if it was previously en- 
 joyed, seems to have been very soon lost again, inasmuch as 
 we find the citizens offering to purchase such privilege of 
 
 1 The name of ' wards ' was used in 
 the time of Henry III. (vide Hist. 
 Exch. pp. 708, 709 ; but they were also 
 occasionally called Aldermanries. Ma- 
 dox's Firma Burgi, p. 92 ; and vide p. 58. 
 
 2 It seems improbable that the citi- 
 zens should have the privilege of electing 
 a sheriff for Middlesex, which they had 
 not for the City itself. Besides, by a 
 record of the reign of Henry I. of an 
 uncertain year, it seems they actually 
 paid for that liberty (Madox's Firma 
 Burgi, p. 165). And as the charter of 
 Henry I. is also of an imcertain year, it 
 is likely that such purchase took place 
 previous to the charter. It is quite 
 certain they enjoyed this privilege 
 throughout thereign of Kichardl. (ibid.), 
 and there is no record of the grant of it. 
 Indeed the terms of the specific grant 
 of it by John's second charter acknow- 
 ledges it as an ancient right ; for it runs, 
 ' Confirmavimus ; ' and the same iden- 
 tical farm rent, viz. 300/., as established 
 by Henry's charter, is reserved for the 
 sheriffwick of both London and Middle- 
 sex, it being, as is therein stated, the 
 ancient form. The grant of the appoint- 
 
 ment of their own justiciar in this 
 charter of Henry I. may be construed 
 into a grant of the sheriffwick of Lon- 
 don ; for the reve, or magistrate of the 
 county court, and all other reves and 
 magistrates, however inferior, were at 
 first termed justiciars by the Normans ; 
 and till the appointment of a mayor in 
 Kichard I.'s or John's time, the only 
 magistrates known in London were 
 sheriffs or bailiffs, and barons or alder- 
 men of socs; and no magistrate was 
 ever known in London by the specific 
 name of a justiciar, except as applied 
 to the reve or portreve. Lib. Custom, 
 de Justit. Strype's Stow, Book v. p. 
 350, quotes Lib. K. in Archiv. in which 
 it id stated that the Shrievalty of London 
 was expressly given by William I. with 
 consent of Parliament. That, however, 
 is at least an inaccurate expression. 
 But that such a grant was in fact made, 
 and that the record did actually exist 
 in the possession of the City of London 
 in the time of Henry VI., seems abun- 
 dantly evident on consulting the Appen- 
 dix to Strype's Stow, p. 18; Harg. MSS. 
 No. 153, p. 149. Brit, Mus.
 
 CIVIC GOVERNMENT IX TIME OF HENRY II. COURTS. 
 
 61 
 
 that monarch ; l and it appears by Madox's extracts 2 from 
 ancient records, that both Stephen and Henry II. appointed 
 the sheriffs quite at their own will and pleasure, sometimes 
 three, four, and five at a time. It is remarkable also, that in 
 the charters granted to the City of London by Henry II., 
 Richard I., and in the first charter of King John, no mention 
 whatever is made of the sheriffwick of London or of Mid- 
 dlesex either. 3 
 
 According to the same author, the City had its courts, 
 both judicial and deliberative, and also its general meetings 
 of citizens on stated days. 4 These judicial courts, there can 
 be no doubt, were the hustings, the portreve's or sheriff's 
 courts, and the gild or ward courts leet of the aldermen ; 5 
 the deliberative, those of the portreve, or sheriff, and alder- 
 men. There is no reason to think that the Court of Common 
 Council, or any other representative body, could be intended 
 either by the deliberative courts or the meetings of the citizens 
 here alluded to. The latter, and perhaps the former also, 
 must have been those general assemblies of the citizens at 
 large, denominated in the ancient City records ' immensa 
 communitas,' or * immensa multitude civium,' or ' Folkmote,' in 
 which elections, and most, if not all, other transactions of a 
 public nature were carried on, till the reign of Edward I. 6 
 At that period, and not before, it seems, these elections 
 began to be carried on by citizens specially summoned for that 
 purpose by the lord mayor, 7 and occasionally, though, as far 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 A.D. 1066 
 to 1189. 
 
 1 Finna Burgi, p. 165 ; Hist. Exch. 
 p. 397. 
 
 * Ibid, yide Hist. Exch. vol. 5. pp. 
 363-4, 397, 686. 
 
 * There was no mayor at this time, 
 nor till the time of Richard I. Lib. 
 Custom. Town Clerk's Office, p. 89 ; 
 Fitz-Stephen, Lib. Alb. fol. 28, a ; Strype's 
 edit, of Stow, vol. ii. pp. 73, 100, 153, 
 370 ; Bohun. 40. Harg. MSS. Brit. Mus. 
 No. 153, fol. 143, quoting a variety of 
 records. The mayoralty was first given 
 in terms to the citizens by a charter 
 of King John. Vide infra, p. 68, note. 
 
 4 Literally ' habet sua diebus statutis 
 Comitia.' 
 
 5 As there was no mayor, there was 
 of course no Mayor's court, the func- 
 tions of that court were performed by 
 that of the sheriff, reve, or portreve. 
 There is reason to think that the Hus- 
 tings court was as well the common 
 assembly of all the citizens for deliber- 
 ative and political purposes, as a judicial 
 court. Vide Bohun. Priv. Lond. p. 239 ; 
 and Strype's Stow, voL ii. p. 370. 
 
 6 Vide post, pp. 74, 85, 115. 
 
 7 No traces are to be found of elections 
 by a select or representative body 
 earlier than the 26th of Edward I., at 
 which time Walleys was chosen mayor 
 by the aldermen and twelve commoners
 
 G2 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK as appears, very seldom, a select number of the discreeter 
 _ ; _^ sort, as they are termed in the ancient City books, were sum- 
 i.D. 1066 mone) j under the same authority to enact ordinances also. 1 
 In .general, however, the great mass of citizens still con- 
 tinued to meet for the purpose of ordinances or general reso- 
 lutions, till the reign of Edward III., 2 when an attempt was 
 first made towards the regular constitution of the Court of 
 Common Council as a legislative and representative body ; 3 
 though it was not, in fact, fully established upon the present 
 representative system till the 7th year of Eichard II. 4 They 
 also persisted in attending at elections in great numbers, with- 
 out any regard to a specific individual summons for that 
 purpose, till the latter end of the reign of Edward II. 5 
 
 Notwithstanding Henry II. exercised something like a 
 despotic authority, so wise and paternal on the whole was 
 the administration of his government, that, though internal 
 disorders were not unfrequent, the City during the progress 
 of his reign made great advancements in splendour and 
 prosperity. 6 Its fame, says Fitz-Stephen, was spread wider 
 
 from each ward (Strype's Stow, Book 
 v. p. 74, quoting Lib. B. fol. 38 & p. 80). 
 According to many records to be seen in 
 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. ii. p. 92, 93, 
 94, the mayor was elected by the cives 
 generally ; and there is one record of 
 the date of 5th Edward I., in which it 
 is said that he was elected by the com- 
 munity (vide ibid. p. 94). In the 29th, 
 31st, and 32nd years of Edward I. the 
 mayor was chosen by a select body, 
 sometimes called the Common Council 
 of the Mayor, sometimes good and law- 
 ful men summoned from each ward 
 (Ibid. p. 75, Lib. C. fols. 62, 111, 112, 
 113). By a proclamation of Edward 
 II.' s reign it is recited, that elections 
 had been accustomed to be in former 
 times by the mayor, aldermen, and such 
 discreet persons who were specially sum- 
 moned for that purpose : and then an 
 order is made that none others interfere. 
 Lib. Home, fol. 332 b. 
 
 1 The earliest ordinance discovered 
 in which any select number of the citi- 
 zens only had a voice, it that of 5th 
 
 Edward I. Lib. Alb. fol. 130. There 
 are, however, but very few of this kind 
 before the 20th Edward III., and these, 
 as well as many subsequent ordinances, 
 are to be considered rather as acts of 
 the Court and Mayor and Aldermen 
 than of the Common Council sum- 
 moned ; for the lord mayor and aldermen 
 summoned just whom they pleased, and 
 the members attending were up to the 
 time of Eichard II. called his (the 
 Mayor's) Common Council, as appears 
 by the City entries. Vide Stow, Book 
 v. p. 74, and note 6, p. 61. 
 
 2 Vide note 6, p. 61 and the preamble 
 to ordinance of 7th Richard II. Lib. H. 
 fol. 173. 
 
 8 Vide Lib. Legum, Town Clerk's 
 Office, Lib. F. ultimo, fol. 5 b ; Hodge's 
 List of Bye-Laws, and note 6, p. 61. 
 
 4 Ibid. Lib. H. fol. 173; Hodge's 
 List of Bye-Laws, and note 6, p. 61. 
 
 6 Vide proclamation of 8th Edward 
 II.; Lib. Home. fol. 332 b.and post, p. 88. 
 
 6 ' Urbs sane bona cum bomim ha- 
 beat dominum,' writes Fitz-Stephen.
 
 TRADE. BUILDINGS. MANNERS. HENRY II. 63 
 
 than that of any city on the earth, its trade extended to the CHAP. 
 
 very borders of the known world, and in it was to be found ^ - 
 
 the produce of China and of Norway. 1 Its wall was strong ^to 1189. 
 and lofty, adorned with seven gates, and having all along 
 the north side turrets at equal distances. Within it and 
 its immediate suburbs were thirteen conventual churches, 
 and one hundred and twenty-six parish churches. The king's 
 palace is described as an incomparable edifice, and connected 
 with the City by suburbs reaching two miles in length. 
 From the specimens of an earlier period still remaining, 
 namely Westminster Hall and Abbey, 2 which were in a 
 manner appendages to this palace, we may judge that the 
 architectural style of the age was far from contemptible. 
 London bridge was also begun at this period, and took 
 thirty- three years in building. 3 
 
 To proceed with Fitz-Stephen's account : Almost all the 
 bishops, abbots, and noblemen of the kingdom resorted 
 thither; living in beautiful houses, and maintaining very 
 magnificent establishments. The citizens seem to have been 
 very early initiated in the luxuries of good fare ; for at 
 this time there was an immense public cookery on the Thames 
 side, at which dainties of all kinds, of a very expensive 
 quality, could be had at any time of day or night. There 
 were also, besides private seminaries, three great public 
 schools of philosophy (if the logic and rhetoric taught in 
 those ages can be justly so called), at which learned dis- 
 putations were carried on in a manner which testified no 
 moderate acquaintance with the belles lettres. Smithfield was 
 at this time a great horse and cattle market ; but part of it 
 was devoted to horse-racing and the very prevalent exercise of 
 warlike manoeuvres and martial sports. Hunting and hawking 
 
 In raising a tax for a Crusade, which can be probably ascribed to an earlier 
 
 was done after a very arbitrary fashion, period than the reign of Henry III., 
 
 London was assessed at twice the sum who built the most ancient part of the 
 
 to that of York, which are the only two structure as it stands at present (vide 
 
 cities named by the historian. Hove- Anderson's Hist. Com. vol. i. p. 215) : 
 
 den, P. II. p. 642, n. 20, 30, 40. and the same may indeed be said of 
 
 1 Silk was imported at this period. Westminster Hall, which was rebuilt 
 
 Madox's Hist. Exch. by Richard II. Ibid. 388. 
 
 * The foundations only of the Abbey * Strype's edit, of Stow, vol. i. p. 53.
 
 64 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1189 
 to 1199. 
 
 were also very fashionable amusements among the citizens ; 
 which accounts for the insertion of that valued privilege 
 of a free chase in most of the earlier charters. 1 The drama 
 too was cultivated according to the taste of the age ; for 
 Fitz-Stephen, who was a monk, applauds the holy exhibition 
 of the miracles and martyrdom of the saints. Such is the 
 description given of London by a cotemporary writer, who, 
 although a professed panegyrist, may perhaps be relied on as 
 authenticating the more particular and leading facts of his 
 account. 2 
 
 In the reign of Richard I. some incidents occur which 
 make it manifest that the indications of the external magni- 
 ficence and political influence of the City related by Fitz- 
 Stephen are not much exaggerated. For in the first year of 
 that prince's reign, in consequence of the frequent fires, it 
 was ordained by the Court of Aldermen that no houses should 
 in future be allowed to be built of wood or to be thatched ; 
 but that all of them should have an outside wall of stone 
 raised sixteen feet from the ground an ordinance which 
 seems to have been at that time carefully carried into 
 effect. 3 
 
 Richard, enthusiastically engaged in the war of the 
 Crusades, passed a very small part of his short reign in his 
 own dominions ; and in his absence John, his successor, then 
 Earl of Moreton, made every effort by flattering attentions to 
 gain the hearts of the citizens, in hopes, through their assist- 
 ance, eventually to acquire the crown in prejudice of the 
 rights of Arthur the son of Geoffrey his elder brother. 
 Accordingly the citizens assumed a prominent influence in 
 
 1 An officer called the Common Hunt 
 exists to this day, whose department 
 has latterly been to attend upon the 
 Lady Mayoress, on State days, as Master 
 of the Ceremonies. 
 
 2 Strype gives a translation of Fitz- 
 Stephen's description ; but it is too free, 
 to say the least of it, to be relied upon 
 as authority. 
 
 * Lib. Constitut. ; Lib. Home ; Lib. 
 Clerkenwell. Twelve aldermen were 
 subsequently chosen at A full hust-ing to 
 
 superintend all City works, and settle 
 disputes about enclosures, party walls, 
 &c. This stability in the structure of 
 houses did not last long ; for according 
 to cotemporary accounts, all houses in 
 London were built of wood down to the 
 reign of James I., at which time they 
 began to be built of brick. Vide 
 Strype's edit, of Stow, book i. p. 7; 
 Hume's Hist. App. to James I. ; and 
 Anderson's Hist, of Commerce, vol. i. 
 p. 215.
 
 RICHARD I. CITY FIRST INCORPORATED. 65 
 
 the affairs of the nation ; and at a meeting held in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, in conjunction with many of the chief nobility, 
 they deposed Longchamp, one of the two guardians of the 
 realm appointed by Richard, and compelled him to fly the 
 kingdom. 1 Upon this occasion, the assembled aristocracy, 
 with John at their head, confirmed all the civic rights and 
 privileges by oaths, and conceded to the citizens the immunity 
 of becoming a body politic or Corporation. 2 But though the 
 City enjoyed what little advantage could be derived from the 
 patronage of a profligate court, the internal state of its police 
 seems to have deeply experienced the effects of an incom- 
 petent administration. Murders, robberies, and the most 
 licentious disorders prevailed to such a degree as to be openly 
 perpetrated in the daytime, and the most avowed defiance 
 was held out to the constituted authorities. One sedition, in 
 particular, was so generally engaged in by the inferior orders 
 of the citizens, that their ringleader, one Fitzosbert, appeared 
 before the Archbishop of Canterbury with so large a retinue 
 of his partisans as to intimidate that prelate from making 
 any order upon him ; and when he was on a subsequent 
 occasion arrested, he with a few followers made a long and 
 desperate resistance, and was secured at last with the utmost 
 difficulty, 'after being burnt out of Bow Church steeple, in 
 which he had taken refuge. 3 
 
 Richard, though a magnanimous and kind-hearted monarch, 
 was so entirely impressed with the chivalrous superstition of 
 the age, that he considered no exactions from his subjects 
 oppressive, when imposed for the purpose of furthering the 
 sacred cause of the Crusades. Heavy taxes were levied from 
 all ranks of people, 4 and offices of the greatest trust, which 
 could easily be made the means of extortion, were openly 
 exposed to sale. 5 
 
 Exorbitant grants of royal lands, revenues, and perquisites 
 were made, 6 and the king went so far as to declare * he would 
 sell London itself if he could find a purchaser.' 7 The royal 
 
 Rog. Hoveden. Fbid. 
 
 Ibid. Brady on Boroughs. T Matth. Paris. Hist. Angl. Ban. 
 
 Matth. Paris. Hist. Ang. Hig. Polyc. After the charters of Wil- 
 
 Hume's Hist. Richard I. liam I. and Henry I. the king could 
 
 Ibid. hare but very little title in I/ondon.
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 demesnes appear to have been the most immediate objects of 
 his rapacity. The king assumed, by his prerogative, to have 
 the sole despotic power over the whole internal and external 
 trade of the kingdom. 1 Accordingly, tolls were levied in all 
 the demesne cities and territories, for attending markets, for 
 passing bridges, and for landing merchandise in any of the 
 ports. 2 Fines, forfeitures, and amerciaments, were other 
 sources of an abundant and arbitrary revenue ; 3 for at this 
 period most crimes were expiated by pecuniary fines ; and 
 the offences against the rigorous clauses of the forest laws 
 were, naturally, very numerous among a people passionately 
 addicted to the sports of the field. 4 But, as if all these 
 ordinary modes of exaction were insufficient to satisfy the 
 craving rapacity of a ruler who made his will the only 
 measure of his power, the Norman invention of talliages was 
 resorted to, by which all demesne lands were bound to provide 
 an arbitrary sum towards the royal necessities, and which 
 became a very fruitful source of extortion. 5 
 
 Although the City of London was by no means exempted 
 from her share in these manifold grievances, and particularly 
 in the article of talliages, it had nevertheless influence enough 
 to gain, at the king's hands, a remission of the more slavish 
 
 However, Kiehard and several of his 
 successors were in the habit of usurping 
 many profits to which they had no right. 
 Vide p. 33, note 4. 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. Appendix 2nd; and 
 vide Madox's Hist. Exch. passim. 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 4 Talliages, in the original significa- 
 tion, mean nothing more than taxes, 
 from French ' tailler,' to cut off: they 
 came afterwards to have a restricted 
 meaning. They were not identically 
 the same as aids : the latter were 
 due as from tenants by knighfs service 
 upon stated occasions ; the former were 
 confined to demesne lands and lands in 
 the king's own hands, and were arbi- 
 trary, being levied on whatever emer- 
 gency the king happened to experience, 
 or rather invite ; such as an expedition 
 
 abroad, and the like. It must be con- 
 fessed, however, that the distinction is 
 very subtle (vide Hist. Exch. p. 712, 
 where the citizens claim to pay as for 
 an aid and not a talliage ; vide also 
 Hume's Hist. 2nd Appendix ; Cotgrave's 
 French and English Dictionary, and 
 Spelm. voce ' Talliage'). Neither were 
 these talliages gifts, or, as the common 
 term was, benevolences, but were assumed 
 to be due as of right demandable by the 
 superior lord (vide Cotgrave's Dic- 
 tionary ; and vide also a record in 
 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 93, of a judg- 
 ment that certain money was payable 
 by the townsmen of Ormsby not as a 
 talliage, but as a gift to the lord. Co. 
 2nd Inst. fo. 532). Sometimes, how- 
 ever, these payments were called dona, 
 which was a common term occasionally 
 applied to aids and scutages as well as 
 talliages. Madox's Hist. Exch. ch. xvii.
 
 REIGX OF JOHN. FIVE CITY CHARTERS GRANTED. 67 
 
 and oppressive part of them. 1 The circumstances of the times 
 will, therefore, sufficiently explain why the citizens were so 
 clamorous and urgent for the repeated confirmation of their 
 charters, as each monarch successively mounted the throne, 
 and will serve to illustrate the franchises and immunities 
 granted by them ; which, though at the present triumphant 
 period of a free constitution, unmeaning and forgotten, were, 
 in the age of which we are writing, the only and genuine 
 fruits of comparative freedom and independence. Though 
 the rest of the nation were evidently in a state of abject 
 poverty, insomuch that 100,000 marks (equal to about 
 200,OOOZ. in sterling silver of our present money) was with 
 difficulty raised towards the - payment of two-thirds of 
 Richard's ransom from his Austrian captivity, 2 we find the 
 City receiving that favourite prince with such a display of 
 wealth and magnificence as to have occasioned a German 
 nobleman to remark, that had the emperor (Henry YI.) known 
 of the immense wealth of England, he would have insisted on 
 a much larger ransom. 3 
 
 The occurrences of John's reign, so glorious to the nation 
 and so disgraceful to himself, are too well known to require 
 particular notice here. Suffice it to say, that proceeding in 
 the arbitrary steps of his predecessors, but possessing neither 
 their capacity to govern, nor their disposition to promote the 
 welfare of his subjects, he pushed his extortions and oppres- 
 sions beyond the verge of endurance, and at the same time 
 both roused the indignation and invited the resistance of an 
 insulted people by his cowardly baseness. As before observed, 
 he was ever assiduous in courting the attachment of the 
 Londoners, seeking to separate their interests from that of 
 the nation at large, and hoping to find in them a firm bulwark 
 against the encroachments of his patriotic barons. The City 
 
 1 Tide Charter of Rich. I. It is re- was not disposed to restore it. John in 
 
 markable that Richard, in enumerating his first charter makes no mention of it ; 
 
 the many liberties and franchises granted but his second was granted for the sole 
 
 by his predecessors, which he confirms, and express purpose of restoring it after 
 
 makes no mention of the Sheriffwick. It long and many usurpations, as may be 
 
 seems that both Stephen and his father collected from the tenor of it. 
 
 Henry II. had usurped the appointment * Hume's Hist. Richard I. 
 
 to that office (ride p. 61), and Richard * Matth. Paris. Hist Augl. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.I>. 1189 
 to 1199. 
 
 received at his hands no less than five charters confirmator j 
 of their former privileges, and memorable for the restoration 
 of the Sheriffwick, as well as for the first specific grant of 
 the Mayoralty ; l rights which had been wrested from the 
 citizens at various periods since the Conquest, and the 
 deprivation of which was the proximate cause of all the 
 wrongs and degradations which they suffered from the 
 Government since that revolution. It would seem, however, 
 that the citizens had too much experience of the fickleness 
 of John's character to entrust themselves to his despotism, 
 or to waive the opportunity of fixing their own rights and 
 those of the whole nation upon a solid constitutional basis. 
 The articles composing the -Great Charter were proposed, 
 resolved upon, and sworn to, at St. Paul's Church ; and upon 
 the first intimation of the noble enterprise for the deliverance 
 of the people from their feudal slavery having been actually 
 undertaken by the barons, the City readily joined in their 
 determination, and received with exulting welcome the army 
 destined to so glorious a conquest. The king in vain endea- 
 voured by delays and dissimulation to thwart the steady 
 resolution of the national band of patriots ; but after many 
 fruitless efforts at accommodation, he was obliged at last, 
 though reluctantly, to fix his signature to that instrument 2 
 which has ever been justly considered, with reference to the 
 times in which it was procured, the standard and palladium of 
 the liberties of England. 
 
 By this famous charter much was accomplished for the 
 aristocracy of the nation, and much for the body of the 
 people. It would be irrelevant to go into the details of the 
 enactments of it; the celebrated 29th chapter has become 
 
 1 The first civic magistrate had begun 
 to be called by the name of ' Mayor ' 
 towards the latter end of Richard's 
 reign. This term may have been 
 originally though remotely derived from 
 the Mayor of the Palace, who was nomi- 
 nally the Chief Governor of Paris, but 
 who in fact held the sovereign power 
 in France; and subsequently indeed 
 usurped the sovereignty itself. It was 
 from a Mayor of the Palace that the 
 
 imperial family of Charlemagne de- 
 scended. Before this period the func- 
 tions of the mayor were executed by the 
 portreve, portgrave, meaning sheriff of 
 the port ; also called provost and bailiff 
 (vide Stow, book v. and the early 
 charters ; ride also authorities quoted 
 p. 61, note 3; and Book II. Ch. III. 
 p. 315). 
 
 2 Vide Blackstone's Introd. to Magna 
 Charht.
 
 MAGXA CHAETA. 69 
 
 the very alphabet of the language of freedom, and prover- CHAP. 
 
 bialised in the mouths of Englishmen. 1 What more essen- ^ - 
 
 tiallj concerns and serves to illustrate the rights and ^Jgg 9 
 privileges of the City of London is the circumstance that 
 now, for the first time since the Conquest, the nation at 
 large began to enjoy a participation in the more important 
 part of them. It is provided by the Charter, that merchants 
 should be allowed to transact their business without being 
 exposed to arbitrary tolls ; that the king's court for common 
 pleas should no longer follow his person, but be stationary in 
 one place ; that circuits should be established and held every 
 year, and that the inferior local courts should be held only at 
 their regular and appointed times, those jurisdictions having 
 been much abused in harassing and extorting from the people ; 
 that the sheriff's should not be allowed in their districts to 
 hold the pleas of the crown ; that no aids should be demanded 
 of the people, except by consent of Parliament, and in the 
 three cases of the king's captivity, the making his son a 
 knight, and the marriage of his daughter, which latter aids 
 were to be in proportion to such reasonable contribution as 
 was levied upon London. And lastly, as an object of national 
 concern, it was expressly provided, that London and all the 
 cities and boroughs of the kingdom should preserve their 
 ancient liberties, immunities, and free customs. 2 
 
 The Charter was scarcely granted, when John prepared to 
 violate it ; and by a sudden and unexpected muster of a 
 large number of his military tenants in capite, made such 
 progress towards the subjugation of the country, that the 
 barons and citizens were compelled to resort to the desperate 
 remedy of inviting over Louis, the son of the French king, to 
 take possession of the throne. Though the death of John, 
 almost as soon as Louis had set his foot on English ground, 
 released the nation from this melancholy resource, yet Louis 
 
 1 'Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel suorum, vel per legem terrae. Nvlli 
 
 imprisonetur, aut disseisietur de libero vendemus, nulli negabimus, out differe- 
 
 tenemento suo, vel libertatibus, vel mus rectum vel justitiam.' 
 
 consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, aut 2 The liberties of London are pro- 
 
 exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur ; tected by one special clause ; those of 
 
 nee super eum ibimus, nee super eum the other cities by another general one, 
 
 mittimus, nisi per legal" judicium parium beginning 'Praeterea volumus,' &c.
 
 i(J HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK was enabled, through the support of the citizens, to maintain 
 
 ^ ' his position in the country for about half a year, against a 
 
 * 0*1 27 2 vei 7 general combination of the barons in favour of the 
 young king Henry III. 
 
 Through the wise and liberal negotiations of the Earl of 
 Pembroke, 1 Henry soon found himself seated on an undis- 
 puted throne ; and the people may have augured well of his 
 reign, when they learned the very first royal act was to con- 
 firm the Great Charter. 2 Pembroke, unfortunately, did not 
 long survive this auspicious settlement, and, from the time 
 of his death, began one continued course of exactions, oppres- 
 sions, and misgovernment, which lasted half a century. 
 When Henry's character began to develop itself, it proved 
 very evident, from the incapacity of his mind and the mean- 
 ness of his disposition, that he was ill calculated to sway 
 the sceptre over a turbulent nobility and a haughty people, 
 who had already tasted the sweets of liberty. He soon 
 gave himself up entirely into the hands of his ministers 
 and favourites; 3 and, unhappily for him and for the nation, his 
 partiality was lavished upon foreigners distinguished by no 
 quality so much as their rapacity. Hubert de Burgh, after 
 the death of Pembroke, had become the chief minister and 
 justiciary, and though an able, and in many respects a virtuous 
 statesman, yet he set the fatal example of some arbitrary 
 measures, contrary to the letter and spirit of Magna Charta ; 
 and particularly in the execution of the ringleader of a popular 
 tumult in London without trial. 4 He even went so far, under 
 pretence of this riot, as to seize the City liberties into his 
 own hands and appoint a custos over it, 5 and afterwards, 
 upon a remonstrance against these infringements of the Grea.t 
 Charter, demanded a fifteenth of all movables for granting 
 a restoration of it. 6 These, however, were but the signals for 
 future grievances. As if to remove at once all obstacles or 
 hesitation in the violation of the Great Charter, it was in the 
 1 1th year of the king's reign formally cancelled by the advice 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. * Matth. Paris. Hist. Angl. 
 
 2 Blackstone's Introd. to Magna 5 Brad. Appendix Hist. Engl. 
 Charta. 6 Matth. West. 
 
 * Hume's Hist.
 
 HENRY III. GRIEVANCES AND WEAK GOVERNMENT. 71 
 
 of Hubert de Burgh : and afterwards, when the king ruled for 
 himself, he strictly forbad any schools of law to be longer 
 kept in the City, where lectures had begun to be read, taking 
 as their theses the clauses of the Great Charter and that of 
 the Forests. 1 
 
 Upon the king's coming of age, Hubert was displaced, and 
 a shoal of Poictevins, with their countryman the bishop of 
 Winchester at their head, took possession of the reins of 
 government. 2 It would be a tedious and useless task to 
 detail all the many exactions and oppressions endured by the 
 nation under the government of this weak and infatuated 
 monarch. They are most amply dwelt upon by Matthew 
 Paris and many other writers of that age, and seem to have 
 comprehended every class and almost every individual capable 
 of contributing to the royal necessities. 3 The fact, however, 
 seems to be, that Henry, either fearing to offend his barons, 
 or conscious that his lavish partiality to favourites gave him 
 but little title to their good-will, seldom dared to propose 
 any general national supply, nor was his authority strong 
 enough to enable him to levy any general tax without the 
 concurrence of the king's Council of State. 4 Indeed, on one 
 or two occasions, when such an appeal to the national council 
 \vas made, it was met with that sort of remonstrance on his 
 measures which rendered him very averse to repeating the 
 attempt. 5 The consequence was, that being continually 
 preyed upon by the exorbitant avarice of those around him, 
 and cajoled into expensive wars and projects, he perpetually 
 found himself loaded with debts and difficulties, from which 
 he had no means of extricating himself but by extortions 
 and every species of abuse of his prerogative. We may 
 judge of the distress to which this miserable ruler was at 
 times reduced, and at the same time of the opulence of the 
 citizens, in spite of the continued extortions they were com- 
 pelled to undergo, from the circumstance that he actually 
 sold his plate and jewels to them. On enquiring where he 
 
 1 Co. 2nd Inst. prooem. Rot. Claus. which the Yarious exactions and abuses 
 anno 19th Hen. III. memb. 22. of power are enumerated. 
 
 2 Hume. 4 Hume's Hist. 
 1 Edinb. Review, No. 69, p. 22, in Ibid.
 
 72 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK could meet a purchaser, it was suggested to him the citizens 
 
 . ^ , of London. ' On my word,' indignantly said the king, with 
 
 A.D. 1199 characteristic ignorance of a monarch's true interests, 'if the 
 1 treasury of Augustus were brought to sale., the citizens are able 
 1 to be the purchasers: these clowns, who assume to themselves the 
 ' name of barons, abound in everything, while we are reduced to 
 ' necessities.' l 
 
 Certainly, however, among those few of Henry's subjects 
 who possessed the means of acquiring wealth, the citizens of 
 London did not suffer the least. False charges were repeatedly 
 made against them, for the purpose of exacting money : 2 
 exorbitant sums were demanded for purchasing the king's 
 ' good- will,' 3 and for the granting of charters, no less than 
 nine of which were, at various times, signed by the king ; 
 though except in a few trivial particulars they are merely 
 confirmatory of ancient rights and privileges which had been 
 conferred and enjoyed before. Indeed, the very fact of 
 these numerous confirmations clearly shows the want of all 
 principles of justice and regular government. It was a 
 government under which, as is justly observed by Hume, 
 ' laws seemed to lose their validity unless often renewed.' 
 On frivolous pretences, the liberties of the City were seized 
 upon by the king's ministers, and a custos appointed ; the 
 citizens all the while protesting against any arbitrary inquisi- 
 tions upon the charges affected te be made against them, and 
 demanding to be tried by jury and the laws and customs of 
 the City. 4 Talliages were levied at discretion, and with 
 or without a pretence ; 5 though this tax was only legally 
 demandable from demesne tenants, which the citizens clearly 
 were not. No occasion was suffered to pass by, however 
 ridiculous, for soliciting presents ; and if any refused, they 
 did not fail to be reminded of the omission. In short, 
 schemes of begging, borrowing, and pillaging, under the cloak 
 
 1 Matth. Paris, p. 501. For an ex- Vide7?mmZ;Madox's Hist.Exch.p.476. 
 
 planation of the title of the citizens to 4 Fabian's Chron. Lib. de Antiquis 
 
 the denomination of barons, vide Book Legibus, fol. 72. Hist. Exch. p. 711. 
 
 - II. Ch. I. . s Matth. Paris. For an explanation 
 
 * Fabian's Chronicle, p. 7. Matth. of talliages, vide p. 66, note 5 ; and 
 
 Paris, passim. post, p. 88, note 2. 
 
 ' ' Pro bona voluntate habenda.'
 
 HENRY III. GRIEVANCES AND WEAK GOVERNMENT. 
 
 73 
 
 of purveyance, 1 were carried on with snch unremitting zeal 
 and assiduity, that the citizens, never cordially affected to 
 Henry's government, at last contracted such a thorough 
 hatred of that monarch and indignation at his measures, 
 that they never ceased, throughout the troubles of his reign, 
 to render the most active assistance to those barons who 
 were leagued against him. 2 
 
 From the various fortunes of the barons' wars, the citizens 
 derived very little advantage ; and when they were finally 
 composed, through the conduct and gallantry of Prince 
 Edward, the citizens lost their liberties, as might be naturally 
 expected. During the time they were in the king's hands 
 ample revenge was taken on the principal men concerned in 
 the barons' insurrections. Their houses were pillaged, and 
 heavy fines set upon them : 3 and the king finally demanded 
 sixty thousand marks as an atonement of past offences ; 
 although afterwards he consented to take twenty thousand. 4 
 The City, however, at length recovered its privileges, though 
 four years elapsed before all its rights were completely 
 restored. 5 Prince Edward, who had in the mean time been 
 governor of the City, and indeed chiefly managed the affairs 
 of the kingdom, soon after departed for Palestine; and the 
 consequence was, that the kingdom, and particularly the 
 City, began to fall into its old distracted state. 6 Riots and 
 disorders multiplied, and robberies were openly avowed ; 
 when at last the nation was released from the heavy burthen 
 of its monarch by his 'death. 
 
 Amidst the distractions of this unfortunate reign, the 
 administration of the law seems to have been arbitrary and 
 uncertain wherever the Crown was concerned ; though, with 
 respect to suits between private individuals, the proceedings 
 in the administration of the general common law began to 
 be methodised into some regularity. 7 The barons' wars will 
 ever be memorable as the epoch of the first establishment 
 
 1 For an explanation of Purveyance, 
 Tide p. 108 ; Book H. Ch. II. p. 28? ; 
 and Ch. V. p. 360. 
 
 2 Matth. West. Flor. Wigorn. Hist. 
 Wike's Chron. 
 
 1 Fabian's Chron. 
 
 4 Ibid. Madox's Hist, Exch. p. 476. 
 
 5 Madox's Hist. Exch. Fabian's 
 Chron. 
 
 Hume's Hist. 
 
 7 Bracton's Treatise gives competent 
 proof of this.
 
 74 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK of the commons house in Parliament ; for it was in con- 
 v_ ' r - sequence of the victory at Lewes that Leicester sent writs 
 A t o'i272 9 to all the counties and chief boroughs in England, sum- 
 moning knights and burgesses to meet and legislate on 
 the affairs of the nation. 1 It was in the beginning also of 
 Henry's reign that the Saxon trial by ordeal was abolished. 2 
 The citizens, we have seen, held a high tone in respect of 
 their laws and privileges, and seem to have been fully aware 
 of the importance of them in respect of their trials for 
 offences. 3 The public affairs of the City were, without 
 question, at this period conducted at what was called the 
 Folkmote ; being a meeting of the whole body of citizens, 4 
 at St. Paul's Cross, convened by the sound of a bell. 
 This mode of assembling continued to the latter end of 
 Edward the Second's reign, 5 if not to that of Edward the 
 Third ; though, as we have seen, the mayor sometimes 
 summoned specially certain individual citizens to elections, 
 and occasionally others, of the discreeter sort, to pass or- 
 dinances as a deliberative assembly. To this folkmote we 
 foid the king continually appealing in his correspondences 
 with the City, and treating with them, as representing the 
 citizens at large. 6 The civic trade, we may gather from a 
 list of customs for foreign merchandise, and of dues for the 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. Doddridge's tract on reign was destroyed on account of its 
 
 Parliaments. antiquity (Lib. H. fol. 132 b.), there is 
 
 * Blacks. Comm. vol. iv. p. 425. reason to believe the statement correct. 
 
 8 Vide p. 72. That the citizens, as a community, used 
 
 4 As called in the ancient City Books, a common seal in the 31st year of 
 
 lib. Leg. &c., ' immensa multitude,' and the reign of Henry III., is proved by 
 
 ' immensa communitas civium ' (vide the charter concerning Queenhithe ; 
 
 p. 61, and post, 85, 115). But that and also in the 54th and 56th years 
 
 which was subsequently, and is now, of Henry III. (vide Lib. de Ant. Leg. 
 
 called the Wardmote, was also at this fol. 122 a. 142. Harg. MSS. Brit, 
 
 time called a Folkmote. Vide Lib. Alb. Mus. 277). The possession of a common 
 
 de Wardmotis. seal may be said to fix the period of its 
 
 8 Pleadings on a quo warranto case becoming, strictly speaking, incorpo- 
 
 14th Edw. II. lib. N. fol. 61, and vide rated in fact, if not in name : for what- 
 
 pp. 77, 78. ever acts, by-laws, and regulations, the 
 
 6 Fabian's Chron. In the 9th year citizens might make as a community 
 
 of this king's reign, a common seal was for the government of the members of 
 
 granted to the City, according to Stow, it ; and so, in one sense, as a legislative 
 
 lib. 5, p. 102 ; though it does not appear body possessing a local jurisdiction, be 
 
 on what authority the assertion is made. entitled to be denominated a Corpora- 
 
 However, as the seal in Richard II.'s tion it is certain they could do no act
 
 HENRY III. JEALOUSIES AGAIXST XOX-FREEMEX. 
 
 75 
 
 privileges of foreign merchant settlers, quoted by Madox, 1 
 must have been very considerable : nor can we doubt of the 
 increasing and comparatively prosperous state of its com- 
 merce, when we reflect on the exactions to which, in conse- 
 quence of their wealth, the citizens were continually exposed. 
 Great jealousies were manifested at this time against foreign- 
 ers to the freedom of the City, who by ancient custom and 
 regulations were not allowed to reside more than forty days ; 2 
 and it was a law well recognised, that if they sold any of 
 their goods to others foreigners in the City, those goods were 
 forfeited. 3 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 A.D. 1199 
 
 to 1272. 
 
 in the management or disposition of 
 property, or institute legal proceedings 
 for the recovery of any rights in the 
 manner of a private person, without a 
 common seal. Indeed it is quite clear 
 that in the 39th year of Henry III. 
 the citizens had no notion of any 
 possessions or property from which a 
 revenue was derived in a. corporate ca- 
 pacity; for at that period the sheriffs 
 themselves were personally answerable 
 for the fee farm, and distrained on any 
 individuals for the payment of it, until 
 such distress was replevied by particular 
 citizens delegated for that purpose. 
 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 183. If the 
 sheriffs could not obtain payment or 
 security for it, they went to prison, or 
 else the liberties were seized. It would 
 seem from a charter of Edward IV. al- 
 lowing purchases by and grants to the 
 City in mortmain, that the corporation 
 did not begin to possess, in a corporate 
 capacity, Any productive private property 
 in land till that period ; though the civic 
 government might, and certainly did, 
 exercise a sort of jurisdiction over com- 
 mon and waste land in and aboiit the 
 City, and other land too for public pur- 
 poses. The earliest traces we find on 
 record of a civic proprietorship of land, 
 is 50th Edw. III. ; when it was recited 
 by way of complaint in an act of the 
 commonalty, That the mayor and alder- 
 men had been used to make grants under 
 
 the City seal of the City lands, without 
 the authority of the commonalty. This 
 was probably common public land, over 
 which the City authorities held a politi- 
 cal jurisdiction, and not land held in a 
 corporate capacity. The tenor of the 
 record, and the nature of the complaint, 
 would seem to testify that even this 
 assumption of proprietorship in land by 
 transfer of it under the City seal was 
 but of recent origin. The oldest private 
 landed property, if indeed it ever was 
 possessed as such by the corporation, is 
 the Forge in St. Clement's, for which a 
 rent of horse shoes and nails is paid to 
 this day in great form at the Exchequer. 
 But this property did not come into the 
 possession of the corporation, at all 
 events, till after the reign of Edward II., 
 and it is quite uncertain when it was 
 first granted. Vide records in Madox's 
 Hist. Exch. vol. ii. p. 100. In truth, 
 this forge has long been altogether lost 
 and unknown a pretty clear proof that 
 it was neither private nor productive. 
 
 1 Hist, Exch. vol. i. pp. 708-9. 
 
 2 Fabian's Chron. 
 
 * Vide record of goods of foreigners 
 forfeited to a very considerable amount, 
 as sold contrary to the laws and customs 
 of the City. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. 
 pp. 708-9. These forfeitures are very 
 numerous throughout the early City 
 records. Vide post, p. 120, and Book II. 
 Ch. VI. p. 371.
 
 76 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDOX. 
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OP EDWARD I. TO THE DEATH OF EDWARD II. 
 
 BOOK THE first care of Edward upon his accession, was to adjust 
 ^ ' _. upon a firm basis the shattered constitution, and thoroughly 
 A - D - J-272 fo re vise the civil administration of the realm. The 
 dominion of the law is of slow growth : its establishment 
 springs not from the effort of one mind, nor even from the 
 concentrated wisdom of an entire nation ; it derives its real 
 origin from arbitrary wrongs and violence, and is first sug- 
 gested for purposes of redress. But though repeated oppres- 
 sions may rouse the spirit of freedom and resistance, the 
 intellect of ages must combine and labour with it, to produce 
 the grand result of a constitutional plan of power, which sets 
 up the law, as the supreme sovereign of a free nation. 
 Gradual, however, as must be the perfect growth of a 
 dominion emanating from such sources, so numerous were 
 the grievances under which the nation suffered during the 
 last reign, and at the same time so prevalent among the 
 people were those yearnings for liberty and justice which 
 Henry had in all his measures defied, that the reign of 
 Edward, whose mind was constantly devoted to the redress 
 of oppressions and the establishment of those great public 
 rights which had now gradually become as well known as 
 valued, became at once, as it were, the epoch of the national 
 law and of the principles of the constitution. Indeed, it is 
 observed by Sir Matthew Hale, that more was done in the first 
 thirteen years of his reign to settle and establish the dis- 
 tributive justice of the kingdom, than in all the ages since 
 that time put together. 1 
 
 1 Hale's Hist, C. L. p. 158.
 
 EDWARD I. REFORMS IX CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 77 
 
 Edward was sensible that most of the disorders and CHAP. 
 
 y 
 
 outrages which prevailed in the kingdom, were as much / . 
 
 owing to the great barons and chief officers of the late king, A **}* 
 as to Henry himself. In order therefore to curb these 
 powerful despots, to ascertain the real complaints of the 
 people, and to dispense an equal measure of justice to all 
 ranks of his subjects, he summoned a parliament, composed 
 of representatives elected by the people from all the counties, 
 as well as of the barons, and subsequently of deputies from 
 all the boroughs. 1 To give a history of the statutes passed 
 in these parliaments would be to give a history of the English 
 law itself. It will be necessary, however, to advert to a few 
 of the most important particulars, in order to convey a 
 just notion of the true meaning and value of many of 
 those peculiar rights and privileges which are the subject 
 matter of the ancient civic charters, and to illustrate the 
 history of the times when those rights and privileges were 
 practically enjoyed. 
 
 From the Conquest to Magna Charta the government of 
 England had been gradually undergoing great and successive 
 alterations. The establishment of the feudal system, 
 cautiously introduced, drew on one by one, and almost 
 imperceptibly, those various and overwhelming oppressions 
 by which its final ascendency was characterised. The power 
 of the king, aided by his barons when they could be kept 
 under his control, became more and more absolute and 
 settled over the people at large, in proportion to the high 
 authority exercised by the barons themselves over their im- 
 mediate inferiors ; and, much as the cause of English freedom 
 is indebted to the liberal views and patriotic principles of 
 those who obtained Magna Charta from King John, there 
 can be little doubt but that the charter itself originated more 
 from the rigour and exactions practised against these petty 
 potentates, and their spirited resistance against them, than 
 out of their regard for the general liberties of the country at 
 
 1 It appears from some records quoted towns, by the king's commissioners, as if 
 
 by Brady on Boroughs, p. 65 at seq. that all were held in demesne. London was 
 
 for some years before the burgesses first applied to, and their grant set an 
 
 were summoned to Parliament, the taxes example to all other cities, burghs, and 
 
 had been imposed on cities, burghs, and towns.
 
 78 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK large, or from the independent exertions of the people for their 
 
 A- -- own emancipation. While the prevalence of absolute prin- 
 
 to 1327! ciples of government increased, those resources which were 
 derived from the continental territories and from the extensive 
 private demesnes of the crown, were wrested from it by con- 
 quest, or lost by improvident alienations to powerful favourites. 
 The revenues, too, which had previously been derived in great 
 abundance from customs and tolls at ports and markets 
 revenues always in themselves of an arbitrary and, conse- 
 quently, of an odious nature experienced a very considerable 
 reduction from the charters of emancipation and peculiar ex- 
 emptions granted to most of the considerable towns of Eng- 
 land, either without any, or for a very inadequate, considera- 
 tion. To supply those royal necessities, which rather increased 
 than diminished by the advancement in civilisation and the 
 temper of the times, recourse was necessarily had to other 
 sources; and the system of judicial administration then esta- 
 blished, unhappily furnished the readiest medium through 
 which the monarch could enforce upon the property of his 
 subjects the assumed and arbitrary powers of his feudal 
 prerogative. 
 
 The Conqueror, we have shown, instituted one judicial 
 court, which very soon engrossed almost the whole legal 
 proceedings of a civil nature in the kingdom ; and the local 
 courts of the county, the hundred, and the manor, over 
 which the king possessed but little influence, gradually fell 
 into decay. The sheriffs, coroners, and barons, however, in 
 their courts leet maintained for some time a sort of exclusive 
 jurisdiction over criminal matters; an authority which, it 
 seems either to satisfy the king for the demands made 
 upon them in respect of the fines, forfeitures, and levies, made 
 in their respective districts, and for which they were per- 
 sonally responsible, 1 or to gratify their own private interests 
 they very much abused. 2 But this power was likewise in 
 
 1 Madox's Eirma Burgi, p. 86, recites p. 22 ; also from Matth. Paris ; and 
 many records to that effect. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i., in which 
 
 2 The abuses may be collected from all the judicial exactions of this period, 
 Coke's reading on the stat. Westm. 1, composing the chief part of the revenue, 
 2nd Inst., and are generally enumerated are detailed and explained. 
 
 in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxiv.
 
 EDWARD I. JUDICIAL ABUSES. REFORMS. 
 
 79 
 
 process of time superseded by the king's justices ; for by a cs ^ e - 
 
 law of Henry I., all jurisdiction was taken from the sheriffs r- " 
 
 of punishing capitally; 1 and in the time of Henry IL ^1327. 
 justices in Eyre, or itinerant, were appointed to traverse the 
 whole kingdom at stated periods, invested with supreme 
 jurisdiction over all pleas criminal or civil, by whose arrival 
 the authority of all other inferior courts was determined. 2 
 And, finally, we we have seen that, by a provision of the 
 Great Charter, sheriffs were forbidden to hold any pleas of 
 the Crown whatever. In the result, therefore, the sole and 
 universal charge of dispensing justice, both criminal and civil, 
 was committed to the hands of judges dependent altogether 
 on the king, and who were, in fact, his more immediate 
 ministers and agents. In the exercise of the vast power 
 delegated to these judges, it is very certain that no 
 object was so zealously prosecuted as that of filling the 
 royal treasury out of those funds from which the revenues 
 were almost solely to be derived ; and the Hers of the justices 
 are known to us at the present day, only by the fines and 
 exactions recorded in the king's exchequer. 3 Many of the 
 oppressions exercised by them under the sanction of the 
 Crown, and particularly with regard to the feudal claims of 
 lords over their tenants, were professed, indeed, to be 
 redressed by Magna Charta : the provisions, however, of that 
 code were continually violated; and where that was not 
 palpably the case, other indirect modes of extortion were 
 resorted to, which were not contemplated or provided against. 
 The check given by the Great Charter to the universal abuse 
 of the royal prerogatives, had perhaps the effect of more 
 especially directing the rapacity of the Crown to the demesne 
 lands, and to the cities and boroughs whose tenure was 
 originally demesne, over which its control was less limited 
 and ascertained. 
 
 The justices in Eyre were armed with commissions contain- 
 
 1 L. L. BL 1. c. 2. WiDdns, p. 146. Justices in Eyre had the same power as 
 
 * Bale's Hist. C. L. 4th lust p. 185. Barons of Exchequer: and accordingly 
 
 Co. Litt. p. 293. Hoveden, part. ii. had the collection of, and jurisdiction 
 
 p. 313. orer, all matters of reTenue. Ibid. 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Excb. passim. The p. 200.
 
 80 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ing articles of enquiry of a multifarious kind, according to 
 *__ v l_^ the circumstances of the times, but which usually amounted 
 A fo'i327 2 to about one hundred and thirty-eight in number. 1 In pur- 
 suance of the authority delegated to them, they imposed 
 talliages on the cities, boroughs, and demesne lands, to an 
 arbitrary amount; 2 they obliged all those who owned franchises 
 and liberties from the Crown to come before them to substan- 
 tiate their claims ; 3 which gave rise to many exactions and 
 much bribery in securing the allowance of them. They 
 amerced arbitrarily individuals, and even whole districts, in 
 common, for offences easily alleged ; and particularly those 
 in misgovernment, or in the abuse of power : 4 and, when all 
 these taxes and penalties were adjudged, the sheriffs and con- 
 stituted authorities of the district assumed and exercised the 
 power of assessing the apportionments among the people 
 at their discretion, and of adopting such mode of exacting 
 them as might best suit their own views s a power most ob- 
 viously liable to every species of mismanagement and abuse. 
 Personal crimes and transgressions of almost every description 
 were also visited by the same system of punishment that of 
 pecuniary mulct ; the unrelenting severity of which seems to 
 have been measured only by the necessities of the king and 
 
 1 Co. 2nd Inst. p. 211. ally, admeasured by the justices, and 
 
 2 Fcedera, vol. i. p. 815. Brady on sometimes by the king himself (Madox's 
 Boroughs, pp. 58, 66, quoting records Ifotf. Exch. ch. xiv.). The earfo and barons 
 to that effect beginning as early as had by a clause in Magna Charta the 
 Henry II. ; and Madox's Hist. Exch. privilege of being amerced only by their 
 passim. peers. It was the legal doctrine, that 
 
 3 Co. 4th Inst, p. 184. Case del for those crimes which were to be pun- 
 Abbot de Strata Marcella Co. Kep. 9, ished by pecuniary amercement, no trial 
 24. Co. 2nd Inst. p. 495. Madox's was allowed; the inquisition or present- 
 Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. xi. and passim. ment of a leet jury or the jury of the 
 And it was common enough to amerce Eyre was sufficient, and such present- 
 these unsuccessful claimants like other ments were not traversable. Only pleas 
 suitors at law as ' pro falso clamore.' of the Crown were traversable, i.e. sub- 
 Ibid, p. 558. jects of trial ; and the distinction be- 
 
 4 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 86, Stat. tween pleas of the Crown and present- 
 West. 1, C. 1, Co. 2nd Inst. p. 196; menta seems to have been, that the 
 and Madox's Hist. Exch. ch. xiii. and former were subject to some fixed or 
 xiv. passim. Amerciaments ought regu- stated punishment, as death, pillory, or 
 larly by law to have been assessed as to fine ; the latter, only to the affeircd 
 amount for offences of which parties amercement (vide Book II. Ch. II. p. 
 might be convicted by a jury; but the 292 ; V. p. 351). 
 
 amerciament was often, and indeed usu- s Vide note 3, p. 83 ; Ch. II. p. 292.
 
 EDWARD I. JUDICIAL ABUSES. EEFOEMS. 81 
 
 the opulence of the culprit. 1 Even the administration of 
 civil justice between man and man was made the subject of 
 open traffic ; the very liberty of suing at law in the king's 
 courts was to be paid for, and that arbitrarily : and nothing 
 was more common than for a suitor to purchase the inter- 
 ference of the Iring in the progress of his suit, by his man- 
 dates to the justices. 9 
 
 In the meanwhile the sheriffs and inferior magistrates were 
 by no means wanting either to the royal interests or their own, 
 as far as regarded the means of extortion which they possessed. 
 Although the judicial authority of the sheriff was greatly 
 eclipsed by the institution of the Eyres, he still retained a 
 formidable power of a fiscal nature, in the district entrusted 
 to his jurisdiction. He was at the head of the finances ; and, 
 in fact, the issues of his office composed, almost the whole of 
 the regular national revenue. 3 But besides the duty of 
 collecting, according to his own discretion, the levies of bis 
 district, he was the conservator of the peace, 4 fulfilling the 
 office of the present committing country justice : and by virtue 
 of that authority, not only decided on the commitment of 
 all malefactors, but levied fines for their escapes, and exercised 
 an arbitrary discretion in bailing those only whom he held in 
 favour. 5 He collected also, on behalf of the king, all tolls in 
 the public markets not let to farm, and on bridges, and ferries ; 
 and, in like manner, the lords of particular franchises and 
 boroughs, and the citizens holding of the king at fee farm, 
 exacted them as of their own right in their demesnes and 
 other territories. 6 This latter right, as well as the ministerial 
 duty of the sheriff, was often made a pretence for exorbitant 
 charges at the arbitrary pleasure of the proprietors, 7 and 
 loudly called for a remedy. And in short, to omit many 
 
 1 Madox s Hist. Exeh. eh. xiv. sect. 6, p. 44. Hawkinson's P. C. voL ii p. 32. 
 and poffim, enumerated in one view in * Westm. 1, caps. 11, 15. Numberless 
 
 Hume's Hist. Appendix IL Foster's were the appeals and payments to the 
 
 Crown Law, p. 287. king for liberty to be out on bail ; and 
 
 * Ibid. Madox's Hist. 1frnli ch. xii. many of the cases were of a civil nature, 
 pasiim, chap. x:ii. or misdemeanours only. Tide Madox's 
 
 * Ibid. p. 354, and ToL ii. p. 128. Hist. Exck. roL i. p. 403. 
 
 Madox'a Firrna Bnrgi, p. 86. Ibid. cap. 31. Co. 2nd Inst. p. 219. 
 
 4 He is said to have been so created T Ibid, 
 
 by West. 1, cap. 15. Bale's P. C. 2nd
 
 82 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1272 
 to 1327. 
 
 other particulars, so universal was the system of appro- 
 priating whatever could with any semblance of pretence be 
 wrested from the owner, that all vessels and merchandise 
 which happened to be wrecked, were instantly seized as 
 lawful plunder to the use of the king. 1 
 
 Much as had been accomplished by Magna Charta for the 
 relief of all orders of the people against national grievances, 
 most, if not all, the oppressions just enumerated, continued to 
 harass the people with more or less severity up to the acces- 
 sion of Edward I. Indeed, there were very few of the pro- 
 visions of the charter itself which were not subjected to open 
 violation or warm contest, when opposed to the craving pecu- 
 niary necessities of the monarch ; and it was far from being 
 considered as comprising the essential and constitutional 
 basis of the law of the land. It is not surprising that such 
 a state of things should occasion disorders of all sorts in the 
 state, and that at last a crisis should arrive when so harsh 
 and tyrannical a course of government could be endured no 
 longer. Edward, whose excellent abilities, swayed by honour- 
 able and liberal feelings, taught him this lesson, soon found 
 how expedient it was to adopt some more constitutional plan 
 of ruling the kingdom, and of supplying those revenues which, 
 however necessary, were no longer to be obtained by unequal 
 and arbitrary extortion. He formed, therefore, at once, the 
 resolution (as already mentioned) of summoning a parliament 
 which should be composed of the freely elected representatives 
 of the people ; and determined to throw himself on their vo- 
 luntary support, for those contributions which the dignity of 
 the crown and the wants of the state required. Having 
 taken this important step, and thereby rendered himself inde- 
 pendent of those arbitrary extortions by which his treasury 
 had before been precariously supplied, and which alone were 
 the sources of all the grievances which the nation suffered, 
 the path of reformation became smooth. The very first 
 parliament convoked, voted him a fifteenth of all movables ; 2 
 and then engaged, under the king's direction, in the great 
 task of correcting the numerous abuses which existed, and of 
 
 1 Ibid. cap. 4. Blacks. Comm. vol. i. 
 p. 291. 
 
 2 Hume's Hist. Statutes at larce.
 
 EDWARD I. JUDICIAL ABUSES. REFORMS. 
 
 putting; the administration of the government and of the 
 laws into a regular and equitable course. The greater part 
 of these reformations were effected in this parliament; 
 though some of the evils which prevailed were remedied 
 more tardily, and by the king's sole authority. However, 
 it will be more convenient and plain to sum up under one 
 view all those measures which we shall have occasion to 
 mention. 
 
 With regard to the justices, it was ordained that talliages 
 should no more be levied upon cities, boroughs, towns, or 
 other of the king's demesnes, without consent of Parliament ; ' 
 that the justices in Eyre should no more amerce counties 
 and districts in common, for the offences of particular 
 individuals : but that such amerciaments should be imposed 
 only upon the parties actually guilty ; and that, wherever a 
 general or common ainerciament might be imposed, the 
 sheriffs should not have authority to assess the proportions 
 of any amerciament at their discretion ; but that the assess- 
 ments, as respected the apportionment, should be made by a 
 jury, and estreated by the justices into the exchequer by 
 parcels; 2 that cities, boroughs, and towns, should no longer 
 be amerced without reasonable cause, nor to a ruinous 
 extent ; 3 that the king should never interfere by his mandates 
 in private causes. 4 With regard to sheriffs and other 
 magistrates holding inferior courts, boundaries were set to 
 
 1 Stat. de Tall. 34. Edw. I. Co. 2nd quency, such as riot, misgovernment, 
 Inst. p. 532. According to Calthorp, not paying their farm, &c. By a pre- 
 who in his Book of Customs, Usages, vions clause they were not to be amerced 
 &c. quotes Lib. Alb. fol. 40, it was in common for the offences of any indi- 
 ordained by charter in the first year of viduals. 
 
 Edward I., that the City should no more ''Blacks. Comm. vol. i. p. 425. 
 
 be talliaged, but pay their aids according Hale's Hist. C. L. Stat, Artie. Sup. 
 
 as the counties did, and not as the cities Chart. It must be confessed, however, 
 
 and boroughs. This is however a mis- that neither Edward nor any of his im- 
 
 take, and Calthorp means the 1st of mediate successors were very strict in 
 
 Edward III., when a charter was granted observing this law (vide Ryley, p. 525). 
 
 to this effect. That is the charter in There were instances of such interfe- 
 
 Liber Albus. rences even down to the time of Eliza- 
 
 2 Stat. West. 1, cap. 18. Co. 2nd Inst. beth. A remarkable letter of Recorder 
 p. 196. For the natxire of amercia- Fleetwood in that reign, complains ofHhe 
 ments, vide Book II. Ch. II. p. 292. bribes and interference of the courtiers 
 
 s Stat. West. 1, cap. 6. Co. 2nd Inst. in regard to convicts. Vide Mait laud's 
 p. 169. That is for any general delin- Hist. vol. i. p. 263. 
 
 62
 
 84 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 their jurisdiction, 1 so that they should set no more penalties 
 upon the mere presentment of juries in their leets, for the 
 escapes of felons, 2 or for offences of any kind which were 
 properly the subjects of trial before the judges ; 3 nor should 
 they exercise a discretionary power in respect to the bailing 
 or detaining in prison persons accused of crimes. 4 It 
 was ordained, that magisterial proprietors, and those holding 
 at fee farm of the king, should no longer take outrageous 
 tolls in mercantile districts; and that if they did, the 
 franchise, on the ground of which such extortionate toll was 
 taken, should be forfeited to the king, whether the district 
 was held of the king at fee farm, or belonged to any private 
 lord ; 5 and with respect to wrecks, it was emphatically pro- 
 vided, that if any thing alive escaped from the vessel, it should 
 not be adjudged a wreck. 6 Lastly, to remove all confusion 
 in the various functions of the king's court, the office of chief 
 justiciary was abolished, and the court itself divided into 
 several branches, with distinct duties prescribed to each : 7 
 although these distinctions, adapted to an earlier stage of our 
 constitution, were, through the invention of some modern 
 fictions very beneficially practised in the enlarged state of 
 private property, in most cases abolished, and have been 
 directly so by recent legislation. Improvements so great as 
 these in the constitution and administration of the laws, 
 have justly gained Edward the title of the English Justinian; 
 
 1 Bale's Hist. C. L. age of Ethelred, enacted that all vessels 
 
 2 Stat. West. 1. cap. 3rd. and their crews, even public enemies, 
 * Ibid. Co. 2nd. Inst. p. 165. Vide which were wrecked and took refuge on 
 
 further on this subject Book II. Ch. the English shores, should be at peace 
 V. pp. 292, 352. and enjoy their own. Vide Selden, Ana- 
 
 4 Stat. West. 1, cap. 12, 15. Co. 2nd lecta Anglo- Britanmca. 
 
 Inst. p. 185. 7 Sellon's Practices. Introd. to Hale's 
 
 5 Stat. West. 1, cap. 31. This law, Hist. C. L. Blacks. Comm. vol. iv. 
 however, did not prevent the king from p . 425. Spelman's Gloss. ' Justiciarius.' 
 regulating the amount of tolls and Gilbert's Hist, of the Exchequer, p. 8 ; 
 customs arbitrarilya practice which and Madox's Hist. Exch. The Common 
 continued for many centuries after- Pleas had been in a manner separated 
 wards - . before by Magna Charta ; but suits at 
 
 1 Ibid. cap. 4. Blacks. Comm. vol.i. law were nevertheless still brought be- 
 
 p. 291. Co. 2nd Inst. p. 166. There fore the Court of Exchequer, and indeed 
 
 is no doubt that such was the old Com- indiscriminately before any of the king's 
 
 mon Law ; though it is plain it was judges. Vide Madox's Hist. Exch. ch. 
 
 little observed. A Saxon law of the xxii.
 
 EDAVARD I. WARD COUNCILS. MAYORS COUNCILS. 
 
 and it has been correctly observed by a philosophic and 
 judicious historian, 1 that Magna Charta could never till 
 now be said to be fully established; and that afterwards, 
 although practices contrary to its true spirit often prevailed, 
 and were even able to establish themselves into settled 
 customs, its validity was never formally disputed. 
 
 To revert to what more immediately relates to the City of 
 London it appears that, in consequence of a general riot 
 which took place immediately after the king's return from 
 Palestine, which was produced by a contested election of a 
 mayor, Edward thought it requisite, by way of showing his 
 determination to repress the disgraceful disorders which had 
 been so common in the preceding reign, instantly to appoint, 
 by a stretch of his authority, a custos over the City. Having 
 manifested by this rigorous measure what his resolution was, 
 upon the election being finally decided, he returned to the 
 citizens their franchise. 2 
 
 At this period, as it has been already observed, the division 
 of the City into Wards began to be known solely under such 
 denomination; 3 the wards chose, in their respective ward- 
 mote courts, or leets of the wards, certain inhabitants to be 
 of council to the aldermen ; not, however, as of right repre- 
 senting the whole community of the corporation, for that 
 * immensa communitas ' still continued to assemble for public 
 purposes. 4 Whatever elections or ordinances were made 
 by select bodies, as to representing the corporate commu- 
 nity, were made by those summoned by the lord mayor ac- 
 cording to his discretion, and called by distinction his 
 common council. It seems reasonable to suppose that they 
 were appointed originally as mere assistants to the aldermen 
 in the government of their respective wards ; though it ap- 
 pears that the lord mayor summoned his council out of the 
 same individuals. 5 The juries of the several wards, taking 
 advantage of the disposition of the king to redress abuses, 
 
 1 Hume. notes. There is an instance, however, 
 
 * Fabian's Chron. 7. of an ' Aldermanry ' mentioned in a 
 
 1 Lib. Alb. fol. 116. Names of the record as late as the 5th Edward I. 
 
 wards as at present denominated, and Vide Firma Burgi, p. 15. 
 
 those of the common councilmen there 4 Vide pp. 61, 74, 115. 
 
 mentioned, and ride supra, p. 59 and s Vide p. 115.
 
 86 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK upon the arrival of the justices in Eyre at the Tower in the 
 L third year of his reign (being the same year in which he 
 A.D. 1272 held }ji s nrs t parliament), presented to them that the mayors 
 and guardians of the City had been used to load them with 
 arbitrary and unauthorised talliages, and unequal assess- 
 ments of such talliages. 1 It does not appear, however, that 
 any particular notice was at that time taken of such delin- 
 quencies, but these complaints may have served to promote 
 that general system of reform which Edward was anxious to 
 put in force. In the 12th year of this reign, the mayor, 
 aldermen, and sheriffs, having been summoned before the 
 justices in Eyre at the Tower, to give an account of the 
 peace of the City, the former, conceiving he was not bound 
 to go out of the City upon such inquest, formally deposed 
 himself before he entered the Tower gates ; and went in as a 
 private citizen, under no magisterial reponsibility. It is 
 probable that this conception arose out of an overstrained 
 construction of ancient usages and of the earlier charters, 
 which grant that the citizens shall appoint whomsoever they 
 please to be justiciar over them, and shall not be compelled 
 to plead in any pleas without the walls of the City immu- 
 nities which may be thought rather to refer to the internal 
 dispensation of justice among the citizens at large, than to 
 any exemption of the magistrates from reponsibility to the 
 Crown. The king was so incensed at this conduct of the 
 magistrates, that he immediately seized the franchise into 
 his own hands, and appointed a custos, who held the autho- 
 rity of the mayor for no less a period than twelve years. 2 
 This seizure of the government seems by no means to have 
 ameliorated the police of the City; for the frequency and 
 boldness of crimes of all kinds, which were openly perpe- 
 trated in the streets, occasioned the passing a statute, 3 by 
 which it was directed, that the aldermen should make strict 
 
 1 Bag. de quaranto London, 3rd of all the iters for the time between 
 Edward I. No. 4 inScaccario. Henry II. and Edward I., London is 
 
 2 Lib. Home, Lib. F. ad. fin. It is to only twice or three times mentioned, 
 be remarked, however, that the citizens Vide Madok's Hist. Exch. ch. iii., and 
 had formerly, though in very few in- ibid. p. 568. 
 
 stances, attended the inquests of the 3 Stat. Civ. Loud. 13th Edward I. 
 
 justices held at the Tower. In the list
 
 EDWARD I. ELECTION OP A MAYOR BY WARD. 
 
 search for offenders, and allow none but freemen to reside in 
 the City a regulation which appears by the ancient City 
 Books to have been very early enforced, as one of the civic 
 privileges in regard to foreign merchants, who were provided 
 with lodgings by the aldermen, and not allowed to remain 
 even there longer than forty days. 1 
 
 In the 26th year of Edward's reign the City liberties were 
 restored ; not, however, without the payment of a large fine 
 for the concession. 2 Upon this the aldermen, with twelve 
 men selected and summoned by them from each ward, chose 
 the new mayor ; 3 and we may collect, both from the special 
 mode of summoning by the aldermen on this occasion and 
 the number summoned, evident proof that the persons sum- 
 moned for the election of the mayor were not the regularly 
 elected body constituting the ward councilmen of the alder- 
 men, since we find that the names of all the common-council- 
 men elected for the wards in the year 1285 (ten years only 
 previous) are recorded ; 4 and they will not allow the pro- 
 portion of two (nor have they ever amounted to the average 
 of twelve) for each ward. 5 This mode of election of the 
 mayor by selected members of the ward was a novelty, and it 
 certainly did not last long. For in the next reign important 
 changes were introduced in the qualifications for the civic 
 freedom, and subsequently in the elective franchises and 
 constitutional government of the City, which will be among 
 the subjects discussed in future chapters. The City was 
 never afterwards in this reign molested in its rights ; and 
 so firmly does the supreme authority of the law appear 
 to have been established, that upon a mandate coming 
 from the king, directed to the mayor and sheriffs, which 
 appeared to infringe on the privileges of the City, they did 
 not hesitate to return for answer that they could not be 
 charged to obey it ; and they actually refused so to do with 
 impunity. 6 
 
 1 Vide Calthorp's Customs, Usages, s Lib. B. fol. 38. 
 &c., p. 11. Lib. Alb. fol. 39, b. c. 4 Lib. Alb. fol. 116. 
 Fabian's Chron. 7. Lib. Home, p. 272. s Vide p. 114. 
 
 Vide supra, p. 75 and post, p. 120 ; and 6 The mandate was to obey the Stat. 
 
 Book II. Ch. II. p. 289. of Winchester in regard to the appre- 
 
 2 Lib. Niger, fol. 24. hending felons, and returning inquisi-
 
 53 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LOXDON. 
 
 BOOK The sceptre was now transmitted from the powerful hand 
 L - of Edward to that of his feeble-minded son Edward II. A 
 
 *to'i327 2 P rev to f avoui> i tes during almost the whole of his reign, and 
 incapable of checking the turbulence of his barons, who re- 
 solved by force of arms to deliver themselves and the nation 
 from such pernicious influence, the country naturally fell 
 again into disorder and confusion. The authority of Parlia- 
 ment seems hardly yet to have been established, and still less 
 the inviolability of its statutes. The king, though con- 
 tinually referring with submission to the principles of Magiia 
 Charta, thought himself at liberty to transgress against many 
 of the other laws enacted in his father's time ; and his 
 measures do not appear to have been remonstrated against 
 as illegal or unconstitutional on that account. Thus the old 
 grievance of talliages, the imposition of which was especially 
 and solemnly prohibited in the late reign, without consent 
 of Parliament, was revived on the ancient arbitrary principles 
 by Edward II. 1 It is remarkable that, although the citizens 
 strongly opposed the tax, yet they grounded such opposition 
 rather upon peculiar privileges of exemption, than upon its 
 inconsistency with the law of the land. 2 At this period, 
 elections of mayor and sheriffs were commonly made by per- 
 sons specially summoned for that purpose, as we have seen 
 was the case in the last reign ; and though the great body of 
 citizens would upon such occasions press in, yet their inter- 
 ference was strictly forbidden. 3 The consequence of this was, 
 that the same persons were elected, or rather held over, for 
 many years successively; and they gradually assumed an 
 
 tions respecting them out of the City. out consent of Parliament; and the farm 
 
 Lib. Home, fol. 314 b. Lib. Major Nig. was not paid instead of talliages, for the 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 185. Vide talliages had always been used to be 
 supra, p. 88, note 1. paid, as well on behalf of towns held at 
 
 2 Lib. Home, fol. 324. The citizens farm as others, the farm being merely 
 said that they were not in demesne; that the substitution for the ancient issues 
 they paid a fee farm in lieu of all talli- and profits from customs, fairs, pleas, 
 ages; and that therefore, though the &c. (Vide Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. 
 king might by right talliage his de- xi., and vide Madox's Hist. Exck. ch. x. 
 mesnes, they were not liable a plea p. 357, where the men of Ipswich are 
 rather ignorantly framed, for the king threatened with the loss of their fee 
 had no right to talliage even his de- farm, if they did not pay their talliages.} 
 mesnes after the statutes ' de talliagio 3 Vide Proclamations of 8th Edward 
 non concedendo ' (24th Edward I.) with- II. to that effect. Lib. Home, fol. 332 b.
 
 EDWARD II. IRREGULAR ELECTIONS AND TAXATIONS. 89 
 
 illegal power in the City which they very soon abused, par- CHAP. 
 
 ticularly in the main article of talliages. Sometimes they ; - 
 
 would raise talliages of their own authority ; sometimes they A t '" 'j^y 2 
 would leave themselves, the aldermen, and a few others, out 
 of the rate, upon some frivolous pretence of exemption ; 
 sometimes, after the talliages had been assessed by the com- 
 petent men in the ward-motes upon the individuals, to be 
 levied by the aldermen, as the practice was, 1 they would 
 heighten the respective sums ; and it is not without reason 
 to be suspected that they embezzled a great part of them. 2 
 Upon the remonstrances of the citizens it was ordained, with 
 the sanction of the king's letters patent of approbation, 3 that 
 the mayor should be elected according to the old charters ; 4 
 and that neither he, nor any alderman, should remain in 
 office more than one year, and that the latter should not be 
 re-elected for the ensuing year. The abuse respecting talli- 
 ages was, for the time, corrected ; and many regulations 
 were passed respecting the commercial privileges of the citi- 
 zens, and the admission of strangers to the freedom, which 
 testify something like a constitutional regularity in the civic 
 government. 
 
 But the government of the king was too weak and un- 
 stable to enforce his commands over the civic magistrates ; 
 who continued the same unjust and illegal practices, in spite 
 of presentments made against them at the Eyres of the 
 judges, the consequences of which presentments in these 
 turbulent times they had power enough to evade. 5 Often as 
 talliages were imposed in this reign, even by royal sanction, 
 they were always met by murmurs and discontent, and an 
 appeal to Parliament for further consideration of the subject 
 was as often contended for, the effect of which usually was a 
 compromise with the king at a smaller sum than what was 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 185. the effect of gaining for the citizens the 
 
 * Vide Ordinances sanctioned by fall right of electing their mayor; for 
 
 letters patent of Edward II. Rec. Tower, until the 49th Edward III. that magis- 
 
 pat. 12th Edward II. p. 2, m. 2. Strype's trate continued to summon at his dis- 
 
 Stow, Tol. ii. p. 364 ; and vide articles cretion those who should attend for 
 
 in the first charter of Edward II. elective purposes. Vide Ordinance of 
 
 3 Ibid. Edward III. Lib. Leg. fol. 25 b. 
 
 4 This ordinance, however, had not * Tho. Wals. Hist. Angl.
 
 90 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK originally demanded. 1 Throughout the troubled fortunes of 
 
 ^ , this unhappy monarch the City seems to have experienced 
 
 A to 'i327 2 *ke most sucl den changes of favour and persecution, according 
 as his moments of fear or exultation predominated ; and if a 
 charter of confirmation or protection was granted at one 
 time, it was sure to be violated at another, if an emergency 
 occurred, when such violation appeared safe or profitable. 
 On the whole, however, we may judge from the circumstance 
 of the City having been, on an occasion of a general con- 
 scription, required to provide five times more men than any 
 other City, that its relative wealth and influence had risen to 
 a very high ascendency. 2 
 
 1 Lib. Home, p. 324 et seq. * Tho. Wals. Hist. Angl.
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ACCOUNT OP THE ORIGINAL QUALIFICATIONS OF THE FREE CITIZENS, 
 AND OF THE FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MERCANTILE QUALITY 
 OF THE CIVIC CORPORATION IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD III. 
 
 IT is in the reign of Edward II. that we discern the first 
 authentic mention of the mercantile constitution of the civic 
 corporation, and of the mercantile qualifications requisite in 
 the candidates for admission to the freedom of the City. By 
 one of a number of articles of regulation ordained by the 
 citizens for their internal government which articles were 
 confirmed by the king, and afterwards incorporated into a 
 charter 1 it was provided, that no person, whether an 
 inhabitant of the City or otherwise, should be admitted into 
 the civic freedom, unless he was a member of one of the trades 
 or mysteries, or unless by the full assent of the whole com- 
 nionalty convened; only, that apprentices might still be 
 admitted according to the accustomed forms. 
 
 Some remarks have, as occasion suggested, already been 
 made with reference to the original nature of the civic com- 
 munity, and the quality of its members ; 2 but the article just 
 noticed induces in this place some further observations, 
 tracing from their origin the present and actual qualifications 
 of a free citizen of London. 
 
 In the Saxon times immediately preceding the Conquest, 
 and certainly for a long time subsequent to that event, 
 which so materially changed the constitution and laws of 
 England, we have seen that the City maintained the same 
 legal polity and constitution which distinguished a county 
 
 1 Vide Book II. Ch. IV. p. 334. 
 
 1 Vide pp. 24 et seq. 61, 74, 243; and Book II. Ch. III. p. 309 et seq.
 
 92 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK under the Saxon government. It wa.s a concentration of leet 
 
 _ / _^ jurisdictions, each comprising 1 a ward, or, as the division was 
 
 A to'i327 2 ^en termed, a gild ; and the whole superintended by one 
 
 magistrate, or by him and the bishop. It was, in fact, a 
 
 county in itself with this important distinction, that it 
 
 contained no villeins or slaves, so numerous in the counties ; 
 
 but all its inhabitants were free men and law-worthy. 1 
 
 As in the counties the districts over which the lords or 
 great landed proprietors possessed a leet jurisdiction were 
 called their sokes or socs, 2 so in the City, the gilds or districts 
 over which the civic magistrates held their leet jurisdictions, 
 were likewise called their sokes. 3 It was a provision of the 
 very earliest City charter granting any privileges in detail, 
 ' that the barons 4 and citizens should have their sokes in 
 peace, and that guests tarrying within any of these sokes 
 should pay custom to those only to whom the soke belonged.' 5 
 The city and county sokes had, in truth, the same origin, and 
 were governed and regulated on the same principles : they 
 were both districts originally held in demesne, or considered 
 so to have been, and in which all or many of the tenants had 
 become emancipated. 6 The tenants in free socage of the 
 counties, and the burghers or tenants in free burgage, were of 
 the same quality ; for the tenure of free burgage, as has been 
 before remarked, was no other than a species of free socage. 
 The proprietary title of the alderman to his soke in London 
 
 1 Vide pp. 17, 29 et seq. 51 ; and ex- and vide Strype's Stow, vol. i. Aldgate 
 press authorities to this effect in Year ward ; and vide Records Hist. Exch. p. 
 Book, Pasch. 7 Hen. 6ti.pl. 36, 42. Do. 693. ' The burgesses and tenants of the 
 Pasch. 4 Edw. 4ti. pi. 32. Vide also soc,' &c. 724, 725, where many other 
 Co. Eep. 9, p. 36 b. town socs are mentioned. Vide also 
 
 2 Sac and Soc were the rights which Lib. Home, fol. 1 30, quoted by Stow, 
 composed the baronial jurisdiction (vide book v. t>. 349.) 
 
 Domesday Book). Ellis's Introd. p. 87. 4 For the meaning of this term as ap- 
 
 Lambard's Archaion. Leges Ed. 21. plied in the earlier times to the citizens 
 
 Spelman's Gloss. Lye's Diet. Hist. and civic magistrates, vide infra, chjir- 
 
 Exch. vol. i. pp. 107, 724, 725, notes. ter of William the Conqueror, Book II. 
 
 Also Selden's Tit. Hon. pp. 478 et seq. Ch. I. 
 
 719, 732. And Heywood's Dissertation 5 Charter of Henry I. ; and vide infra, 
 
 on Saxon Ranks, pp. 145, 218. Book II. Ch. II. 
 
 3 Thus Knightengild was called Port- 6 Vide authorities quoted pp. 94, 96, 
 xoken, and Aldgate ward was called the notes. 
 
 inner soc. (Vide supra, pp. 35, 49 ;
 
 EDWAED II. ORIGINAL QUALIFICATIONS OF CITIZENS. 93 
 
 was certainly of short duration, and perhaps never universal CHAP. 
 
 throughout the City. It probably arose with the introduction ,J - 
 
 of the feudal system, and expired with the grant of those ^'-^j 2 
 exemptions from it secured to the citizens by their early 
 charters, the establishment of a community, and the election 
 of their own magistrates. But that these sokes did at one 
 time actually belong to the aldermen or barons, at least in 
 their magisterial capacity, as heritable property, is too clear 
 to admit of a doubt. 
 
 If we proceed to examine still further, and compare in 
 detail the qualities and internal government of these respec- 
 tive sokes, we shall not only perceive plainly their original 
 identity in principle, but shall also gather clear indications 
 of what were the original qualifications of the free consti- 
 tuent members of both. 
 
 When the proprietor or lord first assumed possession of 
 the soil composing his demesne or solte (such a possession as 
 was taken by the Saxon invaders of Britain), it is probable 
 that all the individuals within it were reduced to a state of 
 absolute dependence, if not slavery. Long, however, before the 
 Norman Conquest, in the gradual approach towards a regular 
 and settled form of government and more reformed social 
 habits, the tenants within those districts had become divided 
 into three distinct classes. The lowest were those whose 
 oppressed condition we have often had occasion to mention, 
 who never emerged from their original bondage, but con- 
 tinued the personal and proprietary slaves or serfs of the lord, 
 employed in whatever occupations he considered most advan- 
 tageous, and subservient entirely to his will. The next were 
 those who, although they had contrived to loose themselves 
 from the more galling links of their chain, had by no means 
 acquired the blessings of a free condition. These were the 
 villeins, 2 who, being for the most part husbandmen, cultivated 
 the soil of their demesne lords, and were for such service re- 
 quited with some small allotment of land. The tenure of 
 
 1 Firma Burgi, p. 14. was kept up, the former being denomi- 
 
 * The term ' villeins,' it seems, was at nated villeins in gross, and the latter 
 
 a later period applied generally as well villeins regardant. Vide Lytt. Sect. 181, 
 
 to serfs or personal slaves, as to the Co. 120 b. 
 
 rostic labourers ; but still the distinction
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 this land was, however, entirely at will ; the occupiers had 
 no power of leaving the soc ; they were themselves, their 
 children, and their possessions, the absolute property of their 
 demesne master ; and they had claim to no personal rights 
 whatever, either legal or political. It has been elsewhere 
 observed, 1 that by gradual usage a fixed interest was attained 
 in the land by such villein tenants, through the benevolent 
 facility of their masters, who considered it hard to strip a 
 deserving tenant of all his possessions without any adequate 
 or reasonable cause ; which interest finally grew up into a 
 right, descendable to their heirs. Many of these villein or 
 demesne tenants did however, in the Saxon times, acquire, 
 from especial favour of their lord, or through purchase, 
 accomplished out of the accumulated savings of successful 
 industry an entire emancipation from servitude, and a free 
 right to their tenements ; 2 and this emancipation gave rise 
 to a third class, of whom we are now to speak. 
 
 This third class was composed of freemen, or free tenants, 
 who, passing under various names, were still tenants, owing 
 certain duties and services within the soc. 3 They were 
 sometimes called Coleberti, 4 and likewise Radmen, from pah 
 or pebe (Sax.) an agreement, compact 5 (because their services 
 were fixed, and by compact), but were all known by the 
 common appellation of sockmen, sokemen, or socmen. 6 They 
 are described as free tenants who ploughed, or fenced, or reaped, 
 or mowed, within the lord's manor. 7 Living within the soc, 
 and subject to the soc jurisdiction, both slaves and villeins 
 might be said indeed, in that sense, to be sockmen : the term, 
 however, was never applied to the former, which may be 
 easily accounted for. They were, in truth, held in very little 
 
 1 Vide p. 49. 
 
 2 Co. Lytt. ' Villenage ' passim. 
 Turner's Hist. Ang. Sax. 4th ed. vol. iii. 
 pp. 181, 182. 
 
 8 Thus we hear in records of 'my 
 men, both servile and free.' Turner's 
 Hist. Ang. Sax. vol. iii. p. 85. 
 
 4 The precise etymon of this word is 
 difficult to ascertain that of Spelman's 
 Gloss, appearing very unsatisfactory. 
 Coke (Lytt. 56) says it is expounded of 
 
 record, and in Domesday Book, to sig- 
 nify tenants in free socage at free rents. 
 Brissonius explains it as 'con liberti,' 
 De Verborum Dig. 
 
 6 Ibid. : but Coke says 'rad' or ' rede' 
 signifies firm or stable; a construction 
 not borne out by Lye's Diet. It is here 
 taken in a more authorised, and perhaps 
 more correct sense. 
 
 8 Ibid. 
 
 7 Ibid.
 
 EDWARD II. CITIZENS ORIGINALLY SOC TENANTS. 
 
 95 
 
 higher estimation than the cattle they tended ; and as on 
 the one hand they possessed no legal rights, so on the other 
 they were not allowed in the smallest degree to participate 
 in the administration of justice. They were not even mem- 
 bers of the tythings, borhoes or decenniaries ; for although 
 they were, together with every other individual, in Frank- 
 pledge, yet they were not themselves free pledgers, but were 
 answered for by their lords or others. 1 Much also as these 
 base tenants subsequently gained ground in legal, in judicial, 
 and in constitutional rights ; yet it is very certain that, in 
 the Saxon times, the free tenants were the only persons who 
 owed suit and service to the lord's court ; 2 they only gave 
 their judgment as the peers of those who resorted thither for 
 justice ; they only had the privilege of access to such juris- 
 diction, as law-worthy men; and they only, together with 
 the presiding lord, composed the court, 3 which was itself 
 sometimes called the soc, and which seems, indeed, to have 
 been its primitive signification; though afterwards, by a 
 metonymy, applied to the district. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, that the original tenants in free 
 socage (although the term came to be applied generally to 
 the common free tenants of a hundred or county who were 
 under the general jurisdiction of the sheriff), were no other 
 than these socmen ; and that they were so called from their 
 belonging to the lord's district, originally demesne, and from 
 their attendance on his court. It is conceived that, at all 
 events, enquirers into this much disputed topic may by thia 
 suggested derivation relieve themselves from the very discre- 
 pant and unsatisfactory explanation of this tenure proffered 
 by Somner and Lyttieton, with which, for want of any other, 
 the learned have been hitherto obliged to rest contented. 4 
 
 CHAP. 
 VI. 
 
 A0>. 1272 
 to 1327, 
 
 1 Mirroir de Justice, 'De viewes de 
 franckpledge,' ch. L sect. 17 ; and 3rd 
 art. of the View. 
 
 1 Ibid. ; and the common mention in 
 Domesday Book of the sockmen and free 
 tenants, who owed suit and service to the 
 lords court. 
 
 The Seda (suit, i.e. the attendant 
 
 odj of freehold peers of the court) is 
 
 given by Lye as the original meaning of 
 
 the soc : so also by an ancient writing 
 drawn np, according to Strype (ride 
 Stow, book iii. p. 107), by some ancient 
 lawyer for the use of St. Martin's 
 liberty. 
 
 4 Wright's Ten. p. 141. Lyttleton 
 derives the tenure in socage from toco, 
 ' a plough ; ' and says it was so called 
 from the tenure being originally by 
 plough Sfrnce. Somner derives it from
 
 96 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK It is curious to observe how, conformably with the impercep- 
 
 - J: - tible gradations towards civil freedom in this country, the 
 
 A ^ 132? 2 soca g e tenant advances into the independent freeholder, on 
 a par and blended almost with the freeholder of a county or 
 hundred ; the villein grows up, under the name of copyholder, 
 into the true original socage tenant ; while the wretched 
 bondman, or slave, disappears altogether from the face of the 
 land ; so that in the reign of Elizabeth not one was to be 
 found throughout the whole realm. But serfs, boors, and 
 slaves, either in name or quality, still subsist in those coun- 
 tries where constitutional rights have not yet overcome the 
 despotism entailed by feudal principles ; and in those coun- 
 tries most where political freedom is least understood. 
 
 As proprietors of the soc, the lords claimed a great number 
 of fees and perquisites, payable by all classes of people, 
 whether free or servile, who negotiated any affairs within the 
 soc, and which no doubt formed in themselves a considerable 
 source of revenue. It is probable that the judicial fines 
 imposed in their courts, and the tolls, composed the chief 
 part of this fiscal revenue. They likewise had the view of 
 frank-pledge, which was the right of assembling the whole 
 male population of the district above the age of twelve years 
 (with the exception of the clergy, earls, barons, knights, and 
 those disabled by infirmity), at the leet or soke court, to take 
 the oath of fealty to the king, and for the capital frank- 
 pledgers to give account of the peace kept by the individuals 
 within their respective tythings. 1 In other words, he had 
 the general superintendence of the conduct and affairs of 
 every individual within the range of his territory. 
 
 When a stranger first came into a soke, the person under 
 
 soc, which he translates a liberty, and soc never was used for the word liberty, 
 
 says it was called socage because it was in the abstract sense of freedom ; 
 
 a. free tenure. With regard to the first although it stood for a franchise of 
 
 etymon, it is not only far from clear that holding a court, &c. According to 
 
 plough service ever was the service of a Somner's derivation, too, tenure in free 
 
 socage tenant, but the word soca never socage would labour with the tautologi- 
 
 appears to have been used in the sense cal meaning of a tenure in. free freedom. 
 of plough, when the plough service is ' Mirroir de Justice, 'Viewes de 
 
 alluded to, but the word syll, as vide Franckpledge,' articles of Wardmote 
 
 record quoted Turner's Angl. Sax. vol. Inquest. Stow, book iii. p. 313 et seq. 
 ii. p. 179. With regard to the latter,
 
 EDWARD II. CITIZENS ORIGINALLY SOC-TENANTS. 97 
 
 whose roof he took his permanent abode was responsible for CHAP. 
 
 his good behaviour. 1 If, however, he lodged but one night, >_ ^ 
 
 he was considered altogether as a person unknown : 2 the A t '" '^l 2 
 second night he was denominated his guest : 3 but by the 
 third night it was conceived that his entertainer had, or 
 ought to have, some certain knowledge of his inmate ; and 
 consequently, the stranger was then set down as the host's 
 own man.* If he stayed forty days, it was incumbent on him 
 to be enrolled in some tything, either as a socman, or capital 
 free-pledger, himself, 5 or else as an inmate in the pledge of 
 some other. He then became a regular resident member of 
 the society into which he had migrated. Thus the owner of 
 the soke became apprised of the number and character of all 
 the inhabitants within his district ; and a system of police 
 surveillance was established upon a principle of mutual pro- 
 tection, which extended to the very threshold of each man's 
 habitation. 6 
 
 As in the county soJces great precautions were observed 
 with regard to the reception of strangers, so in the early ages 
 of the civic constitution, great vigilance was exercised with 
 regard to the access and resiance of new-comers into the city 
 for any purpose. This vigilance, although it was prompted 
 in later times by a virulent jealousy of their participating in 
 the many monopolies and commercial privileges accorded 
 from time to time to the true citizens, yet did not derive its 
 source originally from any such interested feeling. That legal 
 system for the repression, the detection, and the punishment 
 of violence, for mutual protection and mutual responsibility, 
 established under the ancient Saxon polity, prevailed in the 
 fullest force within the City of London. We may trace in 
 those civic regulations of the reign of Athelstan, which we 
 have noticed as passed by the citizens in their gilds or leet 
 jurisdictions, the same principles of administration of the 
 criminal law, as those which characterised the frith gilds and 
 
 1 Lamb. Archaion. LL. Ed. ' De * ' Third nighte, awn hynd." Ibid. 
 
 hospitibus.' Spelman's Gloss, verbo: s Vide pp. 20, 129, note 4. 
 
 ' Third nighte, awn hynd.' ' Upon this subject Granville Sharp 
 
 * ' Uncuth.' Ibid. has commented fully in his desultory 
 
 3 ' Twa nighte, geste. 1 Ibid. work ' On Congregational Courts.' 
 
 H
 
 98 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK leets of the counties. 1 So in Edward the Confessor's laws, 
 ^_ / ^ and in subsequent laws of the Conqueror, it was ordained, 
 A to 132? 2 tn a* a ^ f reemen of the kingdom (without any distinction), 
 whether in cities, boroughs, castles, or hundreds, should pro- 
 vide themselves with arms, according to their means, and 
 according to their fees and tenements, and should produce 
 them at their leets. 2 So by ancient civic ordinances it was 
 required, that strangers should remain no longer within the 
 walls than forty days, without being enrolled in frank-pledge. 3 
 So again, notice was required from those who received 
 strangers, upon their remaining two days. 4 So also, every 
 adult, after a year's residence, was bound to present himself 
 to be sworn to his allegiance in the leet." 5 But these requisi- 
 tions, prescribed by ancient civic ordinances, were the same 
 as those which we have observed were applicable to the 
 whole people at large they were precisely such as qualified 
 the inhabitants of counties, and the members of the soJces or 
 friburghs or frithgilds. 6 
 
 Within the City of London the court leet was held with 
 precisely the same jurisdiction as that of the county soke ; 7 
 and the most prominent part of its duties was to hold the 
 view of frank-pledge. 8 As in the county soke, so in the City 
 ward, all inhabitants were not equally constituent members, 
 exercising the full functions of freemen, and enjoying the 
 political or municipal rights of the association. Neither in 
 the City, any more than in the country soke, did inmates, 
 lodgers, persons under age, or villeins, possess these rights. 9 
 The mere inhabitancy within the walls was, at least after a 
 year and a day, a badge of freedom in one sense ; that is, it 
 conferred an exemption from villeinage or slavery. Tn the 
 
 1 Vide pp. 19, 34, 59. notes 3 and 4. 
 
 * Lib. Eub. in Custod. Rememb. 8 Vide ibid. 
 
 Eegis ;> and vide LL. Wilkins. 'De The authorities are very numerous 
 
 Greve.' to show that only free tenants or digni- 
 
 3 Vide post, 120. taries composed the judicial members of 
 
 4 Articles of Wardmote Inquest. the leet. Vide Mirroir de Justice, ch. 
 Stow, book v. pp. 313-365. i. sec . 3-17, ch. iv. sec. 27; 29th law 
 
 5 Vide ibid. of William the Conqueror ; and Kelham's 
 
 Vide Leges Atheist. Wilkins. Notes : also Lib. Eub. in Custod. 
 Mirroir de Justice, ch. i. sec. 3, ch. v. Eememb. Eegis. Leges Edwardi, 
 * ! Wilkins. 'De Greve.' Co. 4th lust. 
 
 7 Vide Book II. Ch. II. pp. 274, 290, p. 259. Bracton, lib. iii. c. 10.
 
 EDWARD II. CITIZENS ORIGINALLY SOC-TENANTS. 99 
 
 free boroughs and cities, neither villein tenants or serfs had, 
 properly, any place as regular residents. So high were the 
 privileges of such towns estimated, that by an ancient Saxon 
 custom, secured to most of them by charter, the law was, 
 that if a serf or villein fled from his master's soke, and con- 
 tinued unreclaimed for a year and a day within the walls of 
 a free borough, he thereby effected his effranchisenient. l 
 The kind of resiancy, therefore, by which an inhabitant ac- 
 quired thefutt franchises of a citizen, was that which distin- 
 guished the freeholder, free-pledger, or socman in counties ; he 
 who with his peers formed a component and judicial part of 
 the leet : it was the resiance of a person holding a tenement, * 
 or, according to the TIOW long-received appellation, a house- 
 holder. All persons above the age of twelve years were 
 obliged annually to appear at the leet and take the oaths of 
 allegiance, and be enrolled in frank-pledge, as living or resiant 
 with it; but they were not all members of the leet for the 
 purposes of enquiring and adjudicating upon matters occur- 
 ring within the jurisdiction ; they were not all frank-pledgers : 
 but far the greater number were merely in frank-pledge, that 
 is, pledged for by others. The only true and full freemen of 
 the leet were those who had a local stake and free tenure ; 
 either magistrates, free owners of land (terrarum domini), or 
 those holding something which should suffice for their frank- 
 pledge; as dignity, station, or i cities, immovable property : z 
 and as all tenures within London were free in their nature, 
 it followed, that any occupation of a tenement came up to 
 the requisition of holding it freely, which was not necessarily 
 the case in counties. 
 
 In counties, it seems, a freeholder, though conversant and 
 resiant in another county, might still exercise his rights and 
 functions at the leet; 4 but in London, as it was from the 
 
 1 This was a common privilege in of this kofdimg or tenement, or of re- 
 most boroughs. Vide Madox's Firata sianer. Tide p. 243, and Book II. Ch. 
 Btiryi. p. 271 ; also a TCTJ ancient book IV. p. 341. 
 
 of Records in the Town Clerk of London's * 'Sicnt dignitatem, rel ordinem. rel 
 
 office, entitled ' De antiqois legibns,' in in cimfate rrm iatmofuffm' (ride p. 98, 
 
 which this custom is stated as existing note 9). 
 
 long before the Conquest- Stow, book Co. 3rd Inst. 121. on stat. of Marie - 
 
 T. p. 346. bridge. 
 
 * For an explanation of the quality
 
 100 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK earliest times required that the full citizen should be in lot 
 -^ / -> and scot ; l that is, to be ready to sustain leet offices in his turn, 
 *to 132? 2 an< ^ P a y ^ s s ^ are towards the common civic burthens, it 
 may be inferred that resiancy or occupation, or being conver- 
 sant in the leet, was another criterion of his rights. 
 
 It would seem plain, therefore, that during the early 
 period of the civic constitution, resiancy, as a householder, 
 formed the only requisite qualification of a free citizen. But 
 this will appear more distinctly, if we consider the total 
 silence of all charters, legal documents, and records, as to 
 any other civic qualification, down to that period of the reign 
 of Edward II. now under consideration. Inhabitancy as a 
 householder is in fact still termed the common law qualification 
 of burghers. 2 The invasion of the Normans, followed by the 
 change of territorial property, the introduction of the feudal 
 system and Norman customs, overthrew, in great measure, 
 the political rights, and the local laws and government 
 of counties ; but the pride and distinction of the Londoners 
 in early times consisted in the preservation of their ancient 
 common law constitution and franchises, which were preva- 
 lent throughout all England in the days of Edward the 
 Confessor. The Conqueror granted, in few words, that the 
 citizens should continue, as before, to be law-worthy, and 
 should retain the right of heirship ; and the subsequent royal 
 charters, until the reign of John, confer very few new and 
 peculiar privileges, certainly none that might not, in the 
 same language, have been conferred on the inhabitants of 
 any county, or even upon the nation at large. 
 
 From the reign of King John to that of Edward II. we 
 can trace no other qualification than the resiancy of a house- 
 holder, noticed as characterising the free citizen ; no allusion 
 to mercantile distinctions no corporate freeman's oath (the 
 earliest of which bears internal evidence by its phraseology of 
 a date at least as modern as Edward III.) ; nor any reference 
 to a corporate admission to freedom : because, in fact, no 
 
 1 Year Book. 38 Lib. Ass. p. 18. Brit. Mus. Also a record of a City 
 
 45th Edward III. pi. 39. (Vide post, law of 39th Edward III. Lib. G. p. 
 
 pp. 243, 334, 341 and authorities. 173 ; and Lib. Alb. pp. 200, 224.) 
 
 Freeman's oath. Also a record of 38th 2 Serj. Glanville's Eeport. 
 Edward III. Harg. MSS. No. 139, p. 9,
 
 EDWARD II. FULL CITIZENSHIP. 101 
 
 uch political body as a general town corporation, in the CHAP, 
 modern sense of the word, existed until the latter end of the , '_.> 
 reign of Richard I. ' In short, the vigilance exercised in the A t " '^ol 2 
 City with regard to the reception of strangers, was founded 
 011 the same principles as that prevailing in the county leet ; 
 and as the same grounds operated in excluding persons from 
 these political associations, so it may be presumed the same 
 qualifications entitled to admission. 
 
 From the earliest times to the present period, whatever 
 innovations have been made in regard to the characteristics 
 of a citizen, and whatever additional qualifications have 
 been required, it has ever been acknowledged that the only 
 complete and full citizen, enjoying all the privileges as such, is 
 the householder paying scot and bearing lot. 3 Usage, since the 
 incorporation of the City, has established the requisition of 
 enrolment as a citizen : ancient ordinances of the City have 
 added the mercantile qualification : other ordinances and a 
 statute have conferred some elective franchises on enrolled 
 freemen who are not householders, as in the instances when 
 liverymen vote. 3 Still, however, the scot and lot householder, 
 when admitted a freeman, according to civic ordinances and 
 statutes, remains the only true and efficient citizen for all 
 civic purposes. 4 It is to him only that the many chartered 
 rights and immunities were originally applicable, and it is 
 to a portion only (however important) that others not resiant 
 have, under certain civic or mercantile qualifications, been 
 admitted: it is he only that can become, or vote for, a repre- 
 sentative in the great corporate assembly of the common 
 council : it is he only that can vote for the aldermen and 
 conn oil men of wards and ward officers. Such citizens alone, 
 through their representatives in common council, with the 
 aldermen as conjoint members of it superior in rank, and 
 the Lord Mayor as the President, conduct the municipal 
 
 1 Tide pp. 23, 54, 65, 74, note 6 ; and and the numerous authorities there re- 
 Book II. Ch. IV. ferred to. 1 Bos. and Pul. p. 498. Hale 
 
 2 Vide p. 100 and authorities, note 1. concerning Customs, 3rd part, ch. 3. 
 Vide pp. 126, 243, et seq. Vide a Priv. London, p. 148; and the cases 
 
 series of acts of Com. Co. and stat. llth there quoted. Calthrop's Reports, p. 
 Geo. I.e. 18. 34; and post, 243, 276, 281, 334, 
 
 4 Mayor of London v. Lynne Regis ; 341.
 
 102 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1272 
 
 to 1327. 
 
 government of the City in its legislative capacity, and con- 
 stitutionally form the Corporation of the City of London. 
 
 During the absence of Eichard I. in the Holy Land, and 
 under the usurpation of his brother John, the community, or 
 representative and corporate faculty of the citizens of London 
 in general, as one body politic, took its origin. This was an 
 association of a totally different quality from that of the leets. 
 It was an assemblage of all the leets for general municipal 
 purposes. It was endued with a voice, and with a political 
 locality and rank : it became a member of the national coun- 
 cil ; it possessed common political rights ; and regulated, 
 through the medium of municipal representatives, common 
 property and common privileges. It was natural therefore, 
 and indeed almost necessary, that a new form of -admission 
 and enrolment into the fellowship of this grand civic body 
 should now be adopted, and that the civic freedom should 
 take a new and different character from that of the ancient 
 Saxon freedom of the leet. This enrolment into the civic and 
 corporate freedom, it seems evident, was solemnised at the 
 great hustings court, being the highest and most dignified 
 court of record in the City : and as such admissions are occa- 
 sionally referred to as in common course so early as the 
 reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., 1 it may be safely 
 inferred that such course was adopted very soon after, if not 
 immediately upon, the foundation of the Corporation itself. 
 
 Still, however, no mention occurs of any mercantile, or 
 indeed of any other qualification being required to entitle the 
 householder to his admission into the Corporation, until the 
 period of the regulation noticed at the beginning of this 
 chapter : and from the language of some records of a date 
 so recent as the reign of Edward I. and the beginning 
 of that of Edward II., it may be concluded that no such 
 qualification was insisted upon. 2 How this revolution in 
 
 1 As may be seen in the charter of 
 Edward II., an article of which has been 
 quoted at the head of this chapter. Lib. 
 Ordinationum, fol. 143 ct scq. refers to 
 this course of admission as the es- 
 tablished mode in the time of Edward I. 
 
 2 Lib. Ordin. fols. H3, 191, 192, 
 
 where qualifications are spoken of, as 
 by swearing, by apprenticeship, or by 
 admission by full commonalty: and, 
 again, the commons of London are termed 
 ' auxi bien terres tenants que mcoblcrs ' 
 (owners of personal property).
 
 EDWARD II. ORIGIN OF TRADE QUALIFICATIONS. 10 
 
 the quality of civic freedoms a revolution which gradually CHAP, 
 overspread most of the town corporations in England arose, ^_ T ' _ 
 is a subject well deserving of some further consideration and ^'lofl 2 
 enquiry. This revolution appears, in a political point of 
 view, the greatest inroad upon the genuine principles of the 
 English Constitution which has ever been made. Its effects 
 operate to a most important degree at the present hour ; 
 and it has been said that the corporate borough system, as it 
 is called of which the exercise of the elective franchise for 
 members of Parliament by corporation freemen forms a 
 prominent feature, and which this change in the nature of 
 civic freedoms was a main cause of introducing must, if 
 not skilfully attempered, in the gradual progress of corrup- 
 tion, one day overwhelm the British Constitution. 1 
 
 It is obvious that the very essence of any civic association 
 (except where individuals unite for the mere purpose of 
 defence) is trade. The support of citizens must altogether 
 depend on commerce and proficiency in the mechanical arts. 
 It would seem, therefore, but a natural result of the first for- 
 mation of town corporate communities, that the members 
 should approve themselves as sustaining some commercial 
 character. With regard to the City of London and other 
 English town corporations, as the civic qualifications by 
 resiancy were already fixed by law, and notorious, we must 
 look for some more direct and immediate source for that 
 which became the essential characteristic of the citizen ; and 
 enough may be gathered from the early history of civic com- 
 munities, to enable us to trace with some plausibility the 
 origin of this additional requisition. 
 
 The existence of mercantile gilds in England cannot be 
 traced to so early a period as that of the territorial, which 
 were common during the Saxon era. It seems reasonable to 
 believe that the former took their rise from the latter, and 
 that they were introduced from the continent by the Nor- 
 mans. These mercantile gilds were very common long before 
 
 1 By the great Reform Act of 2nd boroughs must be householders paying 
 
 & 3rd William IV. the voters for all rates. The author has not thought fit 
 
 new boroughs then created, are required to alter the original text advocating 
 
 to be occupiers paying rates. By the these constitutional principles. Vide 
 
 recent Act of 1867, the voters for all post, 243 et scq.
 
 L04 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK the reign of Edward II. 1 They were, in truth, combinations 
 
 Jl__ for the purpose of regulating and monopolising the respective 
 
 A to 1327 2 tra d es i n which each society was conversant. It is generally 
 admitted that these associations originated on the continent ; 2 
 of which the term mysteries, by which appellation they were 
 as commonly denominated, gives some assurance. They 
 derived their constitution and monopolous privileges, both in 
 England and abroad, either from the express or implied 
 sanction of those needy princes who, endued with very poli- 
 tical foresight, were open to the temptation of large bribes 
 for such concessions. 3 By degrees, most of the larger towns 
 in Europe, and more especially on the continent, became al- 
 together occupied by these commercial subdivisions : 4 and 
 during the reign of Henry II. these gilds had increased to 
 such an extent in London, that their evil tendency became 
 obvious to that wary prince, and many of them were abo- 
 lished ; 5 though more, it may be presumed, remained. In 
 the end, when entire town corporations were founded, in pro- 
 fessed imitation, as it is said, 6 of the old gildated associations, 
 or territorial gilds, it may be easily concluded that the influ- 
 ence of the mercantile gilds, or, as they are now termed, com- 
 panies (absorbing as they did almost the whole bulk of the civic 
 population), would be powerfully exercised in regulating the 
 constitution of the new civic body. 
 
 The immediate and prominent object of these gildated 
 communities was, the establishment and preservation of their 
 exclusive privileges of trade. Their natural interests directed 
 them to restrain the number of competitors, and enhance the 
 value of their merchandise. Many were the by-laws and 
 regulations by which these interests were secured ; but none 
 were so decisively effectual as those by which long apprentice- 
 skips were ordained. 7 The scion thus grafted upon the stock 
 of monopoly was, like the parent plant itself, originally of 
 foreign growth ; but very soon became in most mercantile 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. i. 5 Vide p. 59. 
 
 2 Ibid.; and Smith's Wealth of 6 Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. i.; and 
 Nations, book i. ch. x. part 2. supra, p. 25, note 2. 
 
 3 Ibid. ; and Eobertson's Charles V. 7 Smith's Wealth of Nations, book i. 
 voL i. p. 36. ch. x. part 2. 
 
 4 Ibid.
 
 EDWAED II. TRADE QUALIFICATIONS. APPRENTICESHIP. 105 
 
 corporations in England the only branch which produced the 
 fruit of civic freedom. It is remarkable, however, that al- 
 though service by apprenticeship became by degrees the 
 regular and more usual path to enfranchisement in London, 
 this burthensome progress was never universally established 
 amongst the trading companies, or as of absolute necessity 
 in the civic corporation itself. Any inhabitant, or even 
 stranger, might, and may still, be admitted a member of 
 many, if not most, of the companies ; and also to the freedom 
 of the City by virtue of his title by birth or patrimony ; or he 
 might become a candidate for admission either by donation 
 or upon a pecuniary payment usually exacted on such occa- 
 sions. 1 In the latter case he became free by what was termed 
 redemption ; an expression implying the purchased acquisi- 
 tion of the more authentic title. 2 
 
 What materially contributed to impose a trading character 
 on the Corporation of London, was the granting so many 
 peculiarly commercial privileges to the citizens by the charters. 
 As these privileges could only be enjoyed by persons engaged 
 in trade, or in other words the members of the companies, 
 the grant of them would naturally lead to the conclusion, 
 that the civic body was to be considered as one concentrated 
 mercantile gild, composed of many gildated subdivisions ; in- 
 stead of a concentration of territorial gilds or leets, which, in 
 a political and more constitutional sense, it really was. 3 The 
 City being engrossed by the members of the various trading 
 companies, it was obviously their joint interest to exclude 
 from the participation of their chartered monopolies those 
 who had not earned or paid for their fellowship in one or 
 other of their associations. By these means not only was the 
 number limited and competition restrained, but the more 
 immediate advantages of the services or purchase-money of 
 the candidates were gained. It is not to be doubted that in 
 these early and unsettled- times, the good government and 
 
 1 Mayor of London v. Lynne. 1 Bos. part 3, ch. ii. ; and Lib. Ordin. fol. 
 
 and PuL p. 496; and the numerous 143. 
 
 cases on that subject Calth. Rep. * Vide last note. 
 
 Prisage case, p. 34. 3 Bulstrode 4 and Vide p. 25, note 2. 
 9. Harg. Law Tracts. Hale on Customs,
 
 106 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 
 A to 1327 2 
 
 well ordering of the whole community formed a more honest 
 inducement on the minds of many ; and it is therefore not 
 sur P ris i n g tnat what good policy and self-interest combined 
 to suggest, the authority and power of those influenced should 
 carry into execution. 
 
 This revolution in the original character of the civic com- 
 munity was neither affected suddenly, nor does it seem to 
 have sprung immediately from the establishment of its cor- 
 porate quality. In the reign of King John, apprenticeship 
 service does not appear to have been common, if indeed it 
 had been introduced at all in England. It is probable it 
 came into general use during the succeeding reign of Henry 
 III., for apprentices both to trades and to the law are 
 noticed in records of the reign of Edward I. It was then 
 the custom to enroll apprentices into the freedom upon the 
 expiration of their service ; though it is plain from the same 
 records which testify this as an approved course, that such 
 service was not the only course of obtaining admission, nor 
 indeed that it conveyed an absolute title to the franchise. 1 
 Enrolment was a positive requisite ; 2 but it seems clear 
 both from the language of the records last noticed, and 
 from that of the article quoted at the beginning of this 
 chapter, that a title to enrolment might, previous to this 
 charter of Edward II., have been gained, not only indepen- 
 dently of any apprenticeship, but independently of any 
 trade ; and it is fair to conclude, as resiancy was the original 
 title to enfranchisement, and as no earlier trace can be found 
 of that additional mercantile qualification required by the 
 express enactment of the article just noticed, that such 
 qualification was neither constitutionally essential, nor of 
 long previous introduction. 
 
 It has been already observed, that those invested with the 
 bare corporate or mercantile freedom are still not complete 
 and full citizens. The only full citizens, capable of exercising 
 every civic function and of enjoying every chartered privilege 
 
 1 Lib. Ordin. fol. 143 ; where titles 
 to admission are spoken of as by birth, 
 or by apprenticeship, or by donation of 
 the full commonalty ; and fols. 191, 192, 
 
 where ' terres tenants' are spoken of as 
 citizens. 
 
 2 Stat. Civit. Lond. Edw. I. cap. 13.
 
 EDWAKD II. BAEE CORPORATION FREEDOM. 107 
 
 and right, is he that is clothed with the ancient and original 
 common law qualification as a resiant householder, 1 as well 
 as the corporate or mercantile franchise. A word, therefore, 
 may be added as to the nature of the bare corporate freeman's 
 franchise. Apart from the privilege of engaging in trade, 
 within the civic limits (a privilege which he could hardly 
 exercise without becoming a householder), it is in fact a 
 mere inchoate right. Some few other unimportant privileges, 
 not of a political character, but purely of an internal and 
 municipal nature, he might legally enjoy ; but in other re- 
 spects, until the freeman became a householder, and paid 
 scot and bore lot, mere freemanship was but a nominal dis- 
 tinction, and conferred no positive advantage. There was, 
 accordingly, always an acknowledged difference between those 
 citizens who were dotati (endowed), or even inquilini (mere 
 inhabitants), though not admitted to the corporate franchise, 
 and those who were citizens re et nomine* (both in fact and 
 in name) ; and although from the uncertainty which prevailed 
 in early times as to the constitutional quality of a free citizen, 
 it is probable that the bare corporation admission may have 
 been considered, for a season, as co-extensive with the civic 
 franchise of the actual residents, when admitted to the cor- 
 poration freedom, it is certain that such impression must 
 have been very soon corrected ; and that neither elective nor 
 chartered franchises have ever been successfully claimed, 
 under that corporate title alone, since the reign of Edward 
 III. The statute of llth Geo. I. cap. 18, bestowed on the 
 corporate freeman, though not a resiant householder upon 
 taking up his company's livery, all those important elective 
 franchises exercised in Common Hall : but, originating as 
 that Act did, in times of dispute and turbulence, and hastily 
 and inconsiderately carried by a party, it evinced a most 
 manifest violation, in that respect, of the original and 
 genuine political constitution of the City. 3 There will be 
 occasion to revert to this topic in a subsequent page. 4 
 
 1 Vide pp. 99, 100; and authorities this bill, vide 1 Maitland, p. 534ctseq.; 
 quoted in notes. also the City Journals of disputed 
 
 2 Vide ibid. elections from 1718 to 1724. 
 
 * For the discussions and progress of 4 Vide Ch. XII. p. 243 et seq.
 
 108 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THAT OF HENRY VII. 
 
 BOOK THE reign of Edward III. began with, the most auspicious 
 r indications of royal regard and protection ; for in the very 
 
 to 1377! nrs * J ear an important charter was granted, not only 
 confirming in the most ample manner those of his pre- 
 decessors, but adding many immunities of peculiar value to 
 the citizens. Of these we shall have occasion to speak here- 
 after. It will be pertinent, however, to notice, that talliages 
 were again by this charter prohibited, and the numerous 
 abuses of purveyance strictly denounced. This grievance of 
 purveyance had arisen out of the circumstances of the times ; 
 and as it was a subject of perpetual complaint in the City, it 
 may be as well perhaps to give some account of the practice. 
 Originally, the royal household was supplied with all articles 
 of consumption from, those extensive demesnes which long 
 before and subsequent to the time of the Conqueror belonged 
 to the Crown. 1 Afterwards, when, in consequence of the 
 large alienations of the Crown property, provisions from the 
 demesnes began to fall short, while in the meantime money 
 became more common, a market was held at the palace gate, 
 under the regulation of an officer of the king, for the purchase 
 of whatever articles might be requisite. 2 In the many royal 
 progresses, however, which were made with a very numerous 
 retinue, 3 this mode of supply by an attendant market gradu- 
 
 1 Co. 2nd Inst. pp. 542, 543. ancient book of the Liberties of London 
 
 2 Ibid. called Lib. Home, which was written in 
 
 3 This retinue, it would seem, claimed the time of Edward II. after noticing 
 to be entertained at their discretion (fol. 230) the privilege (which is amply 
 in the houses adjacent to the place confirmed by charter) that none of the 
 wherever the king might be for in an king's court should take lodgings by
 
 EDWARD III. PURVEYANCES. PARLIAMENTARY POWER. 109 
 
 ally became defective, and officers called purveyors started 
 up who ranged about, levying contributions from all parts 
 adjacent to the king's domicile, wherever it might happen 
 to be l a practice soon imitated by the powerful barons. 2 
 Still, by law, the king's prerogative in this particular was so 
 far restrained, that he had no right to take anything without 
 first agreeing with the proprietor for the price, or, otherwise, 
 paying the current price of the market. 3 As may naturally 
 be surmised, in violent and tyrannical times this privilege 
 was exercised in a most grievous and oppressive manner. 4 
 Sometimes purveyors paid nothing for the property seized ; 5 
 sometimes they paid too little; 6 they constantly made a 
 profit of their authority, by embezzlement, 7 or by the sale of 
 their protection; and it was by no means uncommon for 
 persons to act as purveyors without any warrant. 8 The regu- 
 lation and restriction of this vexatious prerogative became 
 a constant object of anxiety with the people, and it formed 
 an important feature in the Great Charter itself. In subse- 
 quent reigns many statutes passed with the same views, 
 amounting to no less than forty-eight in number ; the chief 
 of which was that of 36th Edward III. cap. 2 : but the 
 practice was not finally and completely abolished till the 
 restoration of Charles II., when this tyrannical right was 
 purchased from the Crown by Parliament. 
 
 England enjoyed under the government of Edward a 
 longer period of domestic tranquillity than it had been blest 
 with at any former period. Throughout his reign parlia- 
 ments were frequently summoned, and he affected to consult 
 them upon all important occasions : at the latter end of his 
 life, this assembly took upon itself to remonstrate with him 
 
 force, or without the host's permission ; * Vide the list of statutes passed in 
 
 it is added, that if any person were consequence of complaints and remon- 
 
 killed in the attempt, the host might strances on this topic under the heads 
 
 clear himself, by the oath of any six, ' Protections,' ' Purveyance,' Cotton's 
 
 that he slew him for such cause. A Abr. Index. 
 
 curious illustration both of the state of * Artie. Sup. Chart, cap. 2. Co. 2nd 
 
 the law, and the manners of the times. Inst. pp. 542, 543. 
 Vide infra, Book II. Ch. II. p. 287. 6 Ibid. 
 
 1 Co. 2nd Inst. pp. 542, 543. Ibid. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 33, 170. 8 Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 543, Artie. Sup.Chart. cap. 2.
 
 110 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK about a mistress he kept, and lie was obliged to remove her 
 ^_ /. _^ from Court. 1 The authority of Parliament, however, was by 
 A t D 137? 7 no mearis settled 011 a firm and certain basis ; for on one oc- 
 casion when it passed an act, 2 even sanctioned by the king's 
 dissembled consent, by which he was to be put in a great 
 measure under the tutelage of a council, Edward, as soon as 
 he had procured a vote of money, at once annulled it of his 
 own authority, as contrary to the law of the land and his 
 prerogative. But afterwards, when freed from his necessi- 
 ties, he obtained from another parliament a legal repeal of 
 this obnoxious statute. 3 It must be confessed that, in re- 
 spect of pecuniary supplies also, many arbitrary impositions 
 were resorted to, contrary to the known law of the land, 4 
 from which, under the pressure of urgent necessity, the king 
 still thought himself authorised to deviate. 5 
 
 Nevertheless, taxes were for the most part furnished by 
 regular parliamentary grants ; and in a war so successful 
 and glorious to the national arms as that by which France 
 was overrun, they were cheerfully supplied to a very enor- 
 mous amount. 6 Amongst other modes of raising supplies for 
 this war, the king issued a writ to the sheriffs of London, 
 commanding them to require every citizen possessed of tene- 
 ments of the value of 401. per annum to take upon himself 
 the order of knighthood a ceremony which the king well 
 knew would be compromised for by a fine. The citizens 
 resisted the order, on the ground of their tenure being by 
 free burgage, and not by knight's-service ; a plea which 
 seems to have been too well founded and clear not to be ac- 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. Thos. Wals. p. 189. who, it may be presumed, contributed a 
 
 * 15th Edward III. great share of both, were held. Edward 
 
 3 Cotton's Abridgment, pp. 38, 39. the Black Prince wrote a letter to the 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 38, 39, where many Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty, 
 instances are collected together with informing them of his heroic victory 
 remonstrances of the Parliament upon and describing the battle of Poictiers. 
 the subject. It is inserted among the City Records, 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 138. Lib. G. fol. 53 b. [This interesting 
 
 6 Statutes at Large : Edward III. A document is printed amongst the Illus- 
 singular testimony . exists on record, trations to ' A Chronicle of London 
 both of the popularity of the French from 1089 to 1483,' 4to. 1827, p. 204, 
 wars, in which so much of the nation's published by the Editor, Mr. Tyrrell, 
 blood and treasure was expended, and who, in the absence of the author, edited 
 of the estimation in which the citizens, the first edition.]
 
 EDWARD III. PROGRESS OF PARLIAMENTARY POWER. Ill 
 
 quiesced in. 1 It would therefore be a great mistake to sup- 
 pose that in thia reign, productive as it was of many enact- 
 ments calculated to protect the rights and liberties of the 
 subject, the constitution and the administration of the go- 
 vernment had arrived at any such stage of perfection as has 
 been often alleged : and, if any further proof were wanting to 
 justify a contrary conclusion, it may be obviously inferred 
 from the circumstance of the Great Charter having been 
 confirmed no less than twenty times; 2 which could hardly 
 have happened but in consequence of occasional and palpable 
 infringements. 
 
 The dispensation of criminal justice was conducted 
 throughout this reign comparatively upon a regular system ; 
 and upon the same principles as at the present day. Inquisi- 
 tions were taken by jury in most cases which affected the 
 life or liberty of the subject, before trial ; 3 and though, with 
 respect to the punishment of offences and the jurisdictions 
 under which they were enquired into, great changes have 
 since been made, yet every man could at least be sure of 
 having all accusations against him duly heard and decided 
 upon by his peers ; and the iniquitous system of punishing 
 by amercement upon the mere inquisition or presentment 
 of a leet or Eyre jury without trial, was seldom resorted to 
 except in respect of the most trivial offences of a public 
 character, or in cases of abuse of power in magistrates. 4 
 Even the attainder of Mortimer, which had been sanctioned 
 by Parliament, and whose violent usurpations of the royal 
 prerogatives were notorious, was nevertheless in the twentieth 
 year of Edward's reign solemnly repealed, as having taken pkce 
 
 1 The writ and the return are qnoted taken are directed to be tried and 
 
 at length in Maitland, voL i. p. 127, but determined. The jurisdiction of the 
 
 he does not mention his authority. Star Chamber, and the power of in- 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. Edward UL stituting ex officio informations, seem 
 
 * This appears evident from a variety hardly to have been known, much less 
 
 of commissions directed to the judges acted upon, in these times ; though 
 
 and the civic authorities, to enquire into said to be as old as the common law 
 
 offences by oath of jury, and to detain itself. Vide Shower's Rep. vol. i. p. 
 
 or try those accused by them according 106 ; Blacks. Comm. voL iv. p. 309. 
 
 to the king's further direction. Rec. * Vide p. 80 and notes ; and post, 
 
 Turr. Pat. 2nd Edward IIL p. 2, TO. 1 1. 292, 351. 
 Ibid. t' dorso, where the inquisitions
 
 112 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK without his being regularly arraigned. The citizens seem 
 - r . to have been engaged in continual disputes with the king's 
 A to'i377 7 J ustices respecting their authority to take inquisitions within 
 the walls of the City, and to summon the citizens without the 
 walls to any inquisition : and for the most part the citizens 
 prevailed in obtaining the royal sanction of their exclusive 
 privileges in that respect. Their rights were now better as- 
 certained, in regard to their own criminal jurisdiction, than 
 at the time when the institution of justices in Eyre was a 
 matter of novelty ; for, whether from the continual disorders 
 which prevailed in London, or from a desire on the part of 
 the king to show respect to the civic authorities, or from a 
 deference to the chartered rights of the citizens to a specific 
 criminal jurisdiction, the lord mayor was by charter consti- 
 tuted one of the judges of Oyer and Terminer and gaol-deli- 
 very for the gaol of Newgate. 3 During the king's absence 
 in France, the lord mayor together with the aldermen were 
 commissioned specially to enquire into and speedily punish 
 those who had been guilty of some flagrant riots : 4 an au- 
 thority which the mayor exercised with such promptitude 
 and rigour, as to try in a very summary manner and imme- 
 diately behead two of the principal offenders. But, however 
 well justified this magistrate might have conceived himself 
 in such a measure from the urgent necessity of the case, it is 
 evident that it was considered an unwarrantable stretch of 
 power; for the king thought it incumbent on him, in ap- 
 proving the act, to grant an indemnity to the mayor from the 
 consequences which might arise from it. 5 Many statutes 
 
 1 Cotton's Abridgment, pp. 85, 86. without the walls of the City. This 
 
 2 Hollinshed's Chron. A.D. 1341, and privilege seems to be confirmed, rather 
 Lib. Home, fol. 302 ; in which is than granted, by charter of Henry I. ; 
 recorded a petition to the king, upon but it must be considered as a private 
 the subject of the steward of his house- and personal privilege of individuals, 
 hold drawing citizens out of the City to be 3 Edward III.'s charter, anno primo. 
 impleaded before him; which was ac- This may be rather looked upon as 
 cordingly forbidden, and inquisitions a compromise than a grant ; for, strictly 
 directed to be always taken within the speaking, the right of the citizens to 
 City for facts arising there. It is also a criminal jurisdiction is by charter 
 stated in Lib. Home, fol. 230 (written of Hen. I. exclusive. Vide Book II. 
 in the time of Edward II.), that it was an Ch. II. 
 
 ancient privilege of the citizens, that 4 Eymer's Fcedera. 
 
 they should not be bound to answer the s Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 126. Rec. 
 
 king or any other by him appointed, Turr.
 
 EDWARD III. INTERNAL TRADE ADVANCED. NOT EXPORT. 113 
 
 afterwards passed, in which the systematic mode for taking 
 inquisitions for offences was regulated; and in particular 
 that of 18th Edw. HI. cap. 1, enacted that no commissions 
 of new enquiries should issue. 1 
 
 It has been generally supposed that during the reign of 
 Edward III. foreign commerce made rapid advances in 
 England ; but there is little foundation for that belief. It is 
 true that Edward passed many laws for the encouragement 
 of manufactures and trade, and particularly that of woollen 
 cloths, 2 which in all probability had a very considerable effect 
 in extending the internal commerce of the kingdom. Many 
 of these laws, however, were of a very injudicious tendency 
 as far as regarded foreign commerce ; and among the most 
 prominent of them are to be reckoned those fixing the staples 
 or established markets to which all goods of a particular 
 class were to be brought. One law was made to prohibit all 
 woollen goods, leather, and felts, being brought to any other 
 staple than that of Calais ; 3 a measure which, however well 
 adapted to the prosperity of that single city, was a manifest 
 hindrance to the advancement of the general export commerce 
 of the kingdom. At the commencement of the reign of 
 Richard II. a complaint was made in Parliament, that the 
 shipping had so grievously decayed during this reign, that, 
 in consequence of the continual seizure of vessels, the whole 
 kingdom did not contain the number formerly to be seen in 
 one sea-port. 4 It was the policy of Edward to excite a manu- 
 facturing spirit amongst his own subjects, and to direct their 
 attention to learn the arts and manufactures carried on in 
 neighbouring countries ; a policy which, although highly 
 beneficial to the progress of the national trade eventually, 
 
 1 Statutes at Large. Fcedera, vol. vii. p. 116. 
 
 * llth Edward III. cap. 5.; Rymer's 4 Cotton's Abridgment of the Records, 
 
 Fcedera, vol. iv. p. 723; llth Edward pp. 155, 164. Edward III. had such 
 
 III. cap. 2 ; Acts passed to encourage success in establishing woollen manu- 
 
 the settlement of foreign weavers, and factures in England, that it became no 
 
 to prevent the wearing of any cloth longer necessary either to export the 
 
 but of English fabric ; and many others raw wool or to import it when manu- 
 
 in the Statutes at Large. factured, which till his time was the 
 
 1 By 27th Edward HI. cap. 7. Another constant course. To a certain extent, 
 
 grant of a monopolising staple was ex- therefore, foreign commerce would de- 
 
 pressly bestowed in consideration of the crease in proportion to the increase of 
 
 declining state of that town. Rymer's the internal trade.
 
 114 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK would in its immediate effects, by reducing the exports of the 
 . L . raw material and the imports of the same when converted 
 A.D. 1327 i n to manufactures, have a tendency to diminish rather than 
 increase foreign trade. The people would thus be rendered 
 more independent of foreign supplies, but it would require 
 some time to rival established manufactories in a general 
 course of trade. With a view to this policy, Edward gave the 
 greatest possible encouragement to the settlement of foreign 
 artificers ; and this measure was carried to such an extent, 
 and so suddenly, as to occasion the most melancholy decay of 
 some of the cities in which they were previously established. 
 Many complaints were made by the City of London, 1 whose 
 ancient privileges were violated by the introduction of these 
 merchant strangers. 2 But, though the privileges were ac- 
 knowledged, and in one charter expressly reserved from the 
 operation of the statutes allowing the free trade and residence 
 of foreigners in all parts of the kingdom, 8 complete restrictions 
 against the invasion of them were not obtained till the sub- 
 sequent reign, when all dealings carried on between foreigner 
 and foreigner within the City of London were emphatically 
 prohibited. 4 
 
 The reign of Richard II. is a remarkable era in the annals 
 of the Corporation, as we must refer to this period the con- 
 stitution of the City government as at present established 
 in the Commonalty in Common Council assembled. Many 
 abortive efforts had been made from time to time in and 
 since the reign of Edward I. for the election, or selection, of 
 particular citizens to act for the whole body, and for con- 
 vening them for the purpose of conducting the legislative 
 and municipal government of the City. In the 20th year of 
 Edward III. a representative plan of government was more 
 formally attempted through an ordinance passed in the 
 assembly of the citizens at large, by which it was enacted, 
 that each ward, at the annual wardmote, should choose a 
 certain number, eight, six, or four, according to its size, who 
 were to be summoned, as occasion required, to deliberate con- 
 
 1 Charter of 50th Edward III. Cot- vol. viii. p. 254. 
 
 ton's Abridgment of the Eecords,p. 141. 3 Charter of 1 1th Edward III. 
 
 Cottonian MSS. App. 11, Brit. Mus. Charters of 1st and 7th Kichard 
 
 And 1st Charter of Richard II. II. Cottonian MSS. Eecords, Appendix 
 
 2 City of London Case, Coke's Rep. 11, fols. 294, 466. Brit. Mus.
 
 RICHARD II. FIRST COMMON COUNCIL. ELECTIONS. 115 
 
 cerning the common interest of the City. 1 By the same ordi- 
 nance it was provided, that a certain number only, twelve, 
 eight, or six, from each ward, according to its size, should come 
 to the respective assemblies for electing the Lord Mayor, the 
 sheriffs, various other corporate officers, and members to 
 serve in Parliament; and that none but those especially 
 summoned for that purpose should attend. From which it 
 may be collected, that the elections to such corporate offices 
 and of representatives in Parliament were to be made by a 
 different body from that which was summoned to meet as a 
 Common Council on behalf of the Citizens at large for de- 
 liberative purposes. 2 This arrangement seems to have occa- 
 sioned some abuses ; for, in the 49th year of Edward's reign, 
 a special meeting of a great number of the chief citizens was 
 called together, who passed an ordinance, by which, after no- 
 ticing the many complaints made of the discretionary power 
 assumed by the lord mayor and aldermen, in selecting out of 
 those chosen and delegated at the wardmote to be Common 
 Councilmen, those who were to be in fact summoned to Common 
 Councils, 3 it was ordained, that the members of Common 
 Council should be nominated in future by the trading companies 
 instead of the wards ; and that the same persons, so nominated 
 as Common Councilmen, and none others, should be summoned 
 to attend both at Common Councils and at elections. 4 Great 
 confusion, however, and irregularity seems still to have pre- 
 vailed, both at the meeting of Common Council and at 
 elections, at which the citizens at large still persisted in 
 interfering. At length, after many consultations on the 
 subject, the deliberative assembly was again detached from 
 that convened for elections to the above mentioned corporate 
 offices and of parliamentary representatives; and it was finally 
 arranged in the 7th year of the reign of Richard II., by an 
 
 1 Lib. Leg. F. ultimo fol. 5 b. Town the exercise of this discretion in regard 
 
 Clerk's Office. to the summoning particular Common 
 
 * Vide p. 88, where it may be seen Councilmen, as representatives of the 
 
 that this was in all probability the case rest of the community, however illegal 
 
 before. in its commencement, was considered 
 
 1 This had been the usual course for irregular, or was meant to be circum- 
 
 a great number of years ; and there is scribed. 
 
 nothing in the ordinance of 20th Edward * Vide Ordinance in Lib. Leg. fol. 
 
 in. from which it may be collected that 25 b. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 IIISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ordinance of the whole community, or ' immensa communitas,' 
 ._ L _ , specially called together for that purpose, that, in regard to the 
 A to H22 7 fo rmer > the election of Common Councilmen should be again 
 restored to the wards; and that four persons should be annu- 
 ally elected at the wardmote for each ward (since increased 
 to larger numbers, according to the growing population of the 
 respective wards), who should be the regular standing repre- 
 sentatives of the whole body of citizens upon all common and 
 corporate occasions of a deliberative nature. 1 Since this 
 ordinance, the "citizens at large have entirely ceased to meet 
 in a legislative, and also in a corporate capacity, except with 
 respect to their several assemblies in Common Hall for elec- 
 tions to corporate offices and to sc rve in Parliament ; which 
 latter assemblies, not being affected by the ordinance of 
 the 7th Richard II., continued to be convened under that of 
 49th Edward III. for eighty-four years longer, according to 
 the special summons of the lord mayor, out of those nominated 
 for such purpose by the trading companies.* This course of 
 specially summoning out of those nominated as electors by 
 the trading companies, conflicts with this ordinance of 49th 
 Edward III., which provides that the same persons as thus 
 nominated for attendance at Common Councils, should attend 
 at elections in the Common Hall. But such course more or 
 less prevailed from the time of Edward I. till the Act of 
 Common Council of 15th Edward IY. appointed specifically 
 the liverymen only of the companies to attend. 
 
 Although the whole kingdom, during the greater part of 
 the reign of Richard II. was a scene of turbulence and mis- 
 government the latter occasioned chiefly by the disputes 
 between him and his barons, who appear on each side to 
 have been guilty of unconstitutional oppressions yet the 
 citizens of London had no cause to complain that their 
 rights and privileges were not duly respected. The charters 
 granted by this monarch were peculiarly liberal; and we 
 may judge of the consideration in which the citizens were 
 held, from the circumstance, that in the assessment of the 
 famous poll tax which gave rise to Wat Tyler's rebellion, the 
 
 1 Lib. Leg. H. fol. 173. 98 ; also that of 15th Edward IV. Lib. 
 
 2 Acts of Common Council, 7th and Leg. L. fol. 1 13. And vide infra, p. 
 15th Edward IV. Lib. Leg. L. 53, fol. 126.
 
 RICHARD II. WAT TYLER'S REBELLION. 117 
 
 lord mayor ranked as an earl and the aldermen as barons. 1 It CHAP, 
 is related of one of the latter, by name Philpot, that he, at - ^ 
 his own private expense, fitted out a fleet of vessels contain- ^"j].^ 7 
 ing a thousand men, and sailed with them, for the purpose 
 of attacking a pirate who had long infested the coast and 
 had made very numerous captures. The gallant citizen was 
 completely successful in his expedition, and returned to the 
 City in triumph after taking or destroying the whole of the 
 enemy's ships. 2 He was afterwards questioned by the 
 King's Council on the subject : but it nevertheless affords a 
 striking proof both of the wealth and personal importance of 
 an individual in undertaking and executing an enterprise of 
 so national a character. 
 
 The part which the citizens acted on the occasion of Wat 
 Tyler's insurrection, and the exploit of the lord mayor Wai- 
 worth in killing, or at least assisting in the destruction of 
 the rebel chief, in the very presence of his army, are too well 
 known to need repetition here. 3 But it may be remarked, 
 that the walls and military strength of the City were at this 
 time of such a description as to be capable of resisting even 
 the overwhelming force which Tyler commanded, and which 
 is estimated at 100,000 men. His first efforts failed to give 
 him an entrance ; and he succeeded at last in gaining a 
 peaceable admission only by threatening to ravage with fire 
 and sword the adjacent suburbs. 4 It may also be noticed, 
 that one of the main articles which the rebels insisted upon 
 was, that all people, whether strangers or not, should be at 
 liberty to sell and buy freely in all cities and boroughs; 5 
 which shows that the exclusive privileges of the citizens in 
 this particular were at this time notorious and ascertained. 
 
 The reign of Richard H. is particularly distinguished by 
 his having refrained from any attempt to levy direct taxes 
 on the people without the consent of Parliament. 6 But the 
 
 ' Cotton's Abridgment of the Re- these principles of free internal trade, 
 
 cords. as advocated by Tyler and his followers, 
 
 1 Thos. Wals. Hist. Angl. have been recognised by the citizens 
 
 * Vide note p. 366 as to the mode of themselves, and their exclusive trading 
 Wai worth's exploit in killing Wat Tyler. privileges almost altogether abandoned 
 
 * Thos. Wals. Hist. Angl. Froissart's voluntarily by the Corporation. Vide 
 Chronicle. post, p. 194. 
 
 * Ibid. It will be seen hereafter how " Hume.
 
 118 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 Parliament being then much tinder the influence of a nobi- 
 lity bent on circumscribing the king's authority, were little 
 disposed to encourage the king's lavish expenditure, and he 
 was accordingly reduced to employ such indirect means of 
 obtaining supplies, as tended ultimately to deprive him of 
 his crown. The citizens of London had been often applied 
 to by the king for loans of money ; and such was the inde- 
 pendent tone which the state of the government enabled 
 them to assume, that in one or two instances they refused 
 compliance. 1 The king, in great indignation, took measures 
 for seizing the liberties of the City, as forfeited in conse- 
 quence, as was pretended, of some riot, and, according to the 
 usual practice, proceeded to exact large sums of money by 
 way of ransom. 2 In many instances afterwards, on one pre- 
 tence or other, gross expedients of extortion were resorted 
 to ; and particularly on one occasion, he compelled many of 
 the principal citizens to sign and seal blank grants of money, 
 which he filled up at his discretion. 3 This arbitrary conduct 
 so completely lost Richard the affection of the Londoners, 
 that upon the landing of the Duke of Hereford (afterwards 
 Henry IV.) in Yorkshire, he was instantly invited to the 
 City ; and was consequently enabled to present so formidable 
 an aspect to Richard, that the latter had no other resource 
 than to resign his crown 4 a resignation which was soon 
 followed by his death. 
 
 Richard was the last monarch who assumed, for the indi- 
 vidual ofiences of the magistrates or others, to seize into his 
 own hands the liberties of the City ; 5 for the well known 
 forfeiture in Charles II.'s time was grounded 011 cor- 
 porate acts of the whole body of citizens. It had been ex- 
 pressly provided by the 1st charter of Edward III., that no 
 forfeiture should be incurred by any individual misconduct, 
 and that the parties offending, only, should be responsible 
 for their respective acts ; but it had been so long the prac- 
 tice of preceding kings to seize on the City liberties at their 
 
 1 Walsing. Hist, Argl. 
 
 2 Ibid. Fabian's Chron. p. 7. Rymer's 
 Fccdcra, Madox's Firma Burgi. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 4 Tyrrell's Gen. Hist, Eng. MSS. in 
 bib. Lamb. Froissart's Chron. 
 
 5 Pollexfcn's Argument in the Quo 
 AYarranto case.
 
 RICHARD II. HENRY IV. 119 
 
 own discretion, that Richard had the less hesitation in fol- 
 lowing their example. They were, however, on this occasion 
 immediately restored ; ' though not without the usual compro- 
 mise of a sum of money, which was indeed the real, though not 
 the ostensible cause of such frequent invasions of the corpo- 
 rate privileges. There can be no doubt that most, if not all, 
 of these seizures of the civic liberties were contrary to the 
 principles of law even as then established. At first, upon 
 these occasions of forfeiture, the kings of England seem to 
 have appointed governors over the City, and to have levied 
 contributions in the way of fine arbitrarily ; and though, 
 afterwards, there was usually the form of a judicial trial ob- 
 served, and a judgment recorded of the cause of forfeiture 
 (more particularly by the justices in Eyre), yet it seems to 
 have been assumed as a right vested in the king's preroga- 
 tive, to decide what should amount to such forfeiture of the 
 franchise 2 a prerogative which the king certainly never 
 had a right to exercise. 3 Indeed, it is powerfully urged in 
 the argument of Pollexfen in the Quo Warranto case, that 
 these seizures took place in times of trouble and confusion, 
 and can never be drawn into precedent as legal authorities. 
 
 In the many troubles which attended the usurpation of 
 Henry IV., the citizens continued faithfully to adhere to his 
 interests ; and we may form no incompetent judgment of the 
 important influence their attachment had in securing his 
 throne, when we learn that in the beginning of his reign, a 
 most powerful insurrection, headed by the first noblemen of 
 the kingdom, was suppressed almost solely by the citizens, 
 who, at a moment's warning, furnished Henry with the major 
 part of 20,000 men. From the suddenness with which 6,000 
 men were supplied at the very first intimation of the king's 
 impending danger, it would appear that such was the con- 
 stant force kept up at this time by the civic authorities. 4 In 
 return for such timely and valuable support, the king granted 
 the City, both in and out of Parliament, some very indulgent 
 
 1 Rymer's Feeders. ' London,' Henry II. 
 
 2 Vide the records of the various s Bex v. Amery. Term Reports, vol. 
 appointments of custodes of the City, ii. p. 515. 
 
 and the various forfeitures of the li- 4 De Word, ad Polvc. Wals. Hist, 
 
 berties. Madox's Firma Burgi, Index Hall. Chron.
 
 120 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK charters; and testified an anxious desire to preserve their 
 . L . privileges inviolate. 1 In particular, with regard to merchant 
 A.D. 1377 strangers, their liberty of free trade by wholesale with other 
 strangers which had been conferred on them first by Edward 
 III., and which, as contrary to the civic rights and customs, 
 had occasioned continual jealousies and disputes, was in the 
 9th year of his reign finally taken away, and such whole- 
 sale trading restricted to that between them and citizens. 2 
 Nevertheless, Henry seems to have been disposed to en- 
 courage the settlement of foreign traders, as far as he could 
 consistently with the welfare, or claims, of the Londoners ; 
 for an act was passed in the 7th year of his reign, by 
 virtue of which Italian merchants were allowed to provide 
 lodgings for themselves at their own discretion, instead of 
 being billeted out by the citizens themselves. 3 This cus- 
 tom of providing all merchant strangers with lodgings, 
 as well as that of limiting their residence to forty days, 
 appears by the old corporation books to have been of long 
 standing, and till the reign of Edward III. constantly ex- 
 ercised. 4 After that period, in consequence of the free trade 
 opened by him throughout the City, the merchants gradually 
 acquired a firmer footing within the walls ; especially as some 
 foreign companies, who by royal charters and the concession 
 of the citizens themselves, had been long previously settled, 
 began at that time to exercise a very considerable traffic. 5 But 
 the custom of billeting out the merchant strangers did not 
 
 1 Charter 1st Henry IV. Act of 9th land above forty days without being 
 Henry IV. cap. 1. Eot. Turr. Cotton's enrolled in some tithing or decenniary 
 Abridgment. (Blacks. Comm. vol. i. p. 114; Mirroir 
 
 2 Ibid. de Justice, cap. 1. sec. 3, cap. 5, sec. 1). 
 8 This Act is quoted in Anderson's And that no foreign merchant should 
 
 Hist, of Commerce; vol. i. p. 383, and stay in the land beyond forty days (ibid. 
 
 in Maitland, vol. i. p. 184. And vide LL. Atheist, cap. ii.; and vide siyra, 
 
 infra, Book II. Ch. II. 20, and notes). 
 
 4 Liber Albus. Lib. Home. Petitions s The Hanse, French, Italian, and 
 
 in parliaments Edward HI., Richard II., other foreign merchants, who had, some 
 
 jind Henry IV. Statuta de Civitate of them, settled and been incorporated 
 
 Lond. 1 3th Edward I. Calthorpe' sUsages, as early as Henry III.'s reign. Ander- 
 
 &c. &c. The true origin of this re- son's History of Commerce, passim; Nor- 
 
 striction in regard to the residence of thouck's History of London; Rymor's 
 
 strangers is to be traced perhaps to the Fcedera, vol. v. p. 105 ; and vide infra, 
 
 laws of Alfred, who ordained that no Ch. IX. p. 159 et scq. 
 man should be suffered to reside in Eng-
 
 HENRY IV. AND V. GUILDHALL REBUILT. STREETS, GATES. 121 
 
 entirely cease for some time after this period; as we find seve- CHAP. 
 
 ral acts passed from the reign of Henry IV. to that of Henry - T '.^- 
 
 VII., by which this practice was directed to be observed ^ittiZ 
 throughout all the towns in England. 1 It is to be under- 
 stood that, at this period and for many subsequent' reigns, 
 all wholesale dealing was carried on in the public open mar- 
 kets, and was not allowed to be conducted elsewhere. 2 
 
 In the time of Henry IV. and of his son Henry V., we 
 trace many indications of the prosperous and improving 
 condition of the metropolis. So valuable, indeed, were the 
 privileges enjoyed by citizens, and so much had the interests 
 of trade advanced, that Henry IV. passed a law to repress 
 the avidity of the inferior classes to become apprentices. 
 The statute, after complaining of the want of husbandry 
 labourers, by reason of the peasants becoming bound to 
 learn trades in the cities and boroughs, and the consequent 
 impoverishment of the nobility, enacts, that none shall so 
 put their children out as apprentices who are not possessed 
 of land to the amount of 20s. per annum. 3 At this period 
 Guildhall was built ; 4 which building, though it has in sub- 
 sequent times been frequently beautified by external and in- 
 ternal decorations, and more particularly after the great fire 
 of London, still rests on the same ancient foundation. The 
 walls of the City were kept in a regular and complete state 
 of repair ; and care was taken to preserve a wide and clear 
 ditch round the whole area, so as to render the fortifications 
 the more complete 5 an object which we may believe at this 
 period was of some consequence, as we find that a new gate 
 
 1 Stat. 5th Henry IV. cap. 9. And should be sold in London. Player and 
 Stow, book v. p. 295. Hutchins, Harg. MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 
 
 2 This is sufficiently apparent from 56, p. 26, in which Sir 0. Bridgman 
 the many acts of Common Council says that the public open markets were 
 against forestalling goods coming to the only places for strangers to sell 
 market; those establishing public ware- in; also Stat. 1st and 2nd Phil, and 
 houses, which expressly state that all Mary, cap. 7 ; and Anderson's History 
 goods of merchant strangers had been of Commerce, passim. 
 
 used to be sold openly in markets ; the 8 Stat. 7th Hen. IV. cap. 17. This sta- 
 
 many statutes passed beginning in the tute was repealed as regards the citizens 
 
 time of Edward III., fixing the staples ; of London by 8th Henry VI. cap. 1 1 . 
 a proclamation of Elizabeth (Rymer's 4 Fabian's Chronicle. Mait. vol. i. 
 
 Fcedera, vol. xvi. p. 213,), regulating p. 185. 
 in which markets the various goods * Ibid. p. 186. Stow's Survey,
 
 122 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK was built in the reign of Henry V. 1 The streets were now, 
 
 , * ^ for the first time, under the direction of the lord mayor, 
 
 A.D. 1422 lifted at night by public lanterns ; 2 from whence we may 
 
 justly infer that the internal police of the City was under 
 
 tolerably good regulation. 
 
 It is remarked by Hume, that during the reigns of the Lan- 
 castrian princes, the authority of Parliament seems to have 
 been more confirmed, and the privileges of the people more 
 regarded, than during any former period: an observation 
 which appears justified by the history of the times. Nothing, 
 indeed, could more contribute to such influence than a 
 doubtful title to the throne, while occupied by men of spirit 
 and abilities, or the minority and personal weakness of a 
 subsequent monarch who claimed by a more regular succes- 
 sion. Accordingly, we find that, from the accession of 
 Henry VI., the Parliament assumed almost the whole pre- 
 rogatives of government ; and throughout the contests 
 between the Lancastrian dynasty and that of the House of 
 York, its concurrence was courted and appealed to by both 
 parties. Upon the death of Henry V., totally disregarding 
 that monarch's own destination, it gave a new arrangement 
 to the whole administration. 3 The policy pursued by Parlia- 
 ment during the progress of the ensuing reign was directed, 
 still more decidedly, to weaken the king's authority, and 
 to detract from his dignity and predominance. Although 
 vast sums were necessarily required in the French wars, and 
 in keeping possession of those conquered countries which the 
 nation were as little disposed as the Court to resign ; yet the 
 Parliament were neither willing to aid, in the first instance, 
 the very inadequate resources of the royal treasury in main- 
 taining those wars, nor, subsequently, to relieve the king 
 from the load of debt unavoidably contracted during the con- 
 tinuance of them. 4 The consequence was, that the king's 
 ministers were forced to recur to many old abuses, and par- 
 ticularly to the arbitrary practice of purveyance ; 5 till by 
 
 1 Moorgate. Fabian's Chron. Mait. fol. 83. Monstrelet, vol. ii. p. 27. 
 vol. i. p. 186. Stow's Survey. * Hume's Hist. 
 
 2 Ibid. s Ibid. ; and Petition of Commons 
 4 Rymer's Focdera, vol. x. p. 261 presented to the king, Parl. Hist. vol. ii. 
 
 Cotton's Abridgment, p. 564. Hall, p. 263.
 
 HENRY vi. CADE'S REBELLION. 123 
 
 degrees, not only the allegiance of Parliament was withdrawn, 
 bnt the affections of the people greatly estranged, both from 
 the king and his government. 
 
 This was very seriously and plainly manifested by Cade's 
 rebellion ; who, although a man of low condition and bad 
 character, had inflnence enough, by the bare assumption of 
 the name of Mortimer, and by holding out the prospect of a 
 redress of grievances, to collect about him a body so numerous 
 and strong as nearly to overturn the government. Advancing 
 from Kent^ he and his followers were, after some hesitation, 
 admitted within the City gates, where, at first, they con- 
 ducted themselves with comparative moderation. Their first 
 measure, however atrocious in itself, nevertheless affords 
 some illustration of the settled notions entertained of the 
 sovereign dominion of the law, and the universal reverence 
 paid to the regular forms observed in the administration of 
 justice ; especially as regarded the legal institutions in the 
 City of London. Cade, having apprehended Lord Say the 
 high treasurer, had him arraigned for his political conduct 
 before the lord mayor. That nobleman refused to plead 
 before a jurisdiction so constituted and so convened ; and by 
 these means avoided that judicial trial which the rebels had 
 conceived themselves, under any circumstances, bound to con- 
 cede to him. Accordingly, Cade had him taken from the 
 bar and instantly beheaded. 1 This violence was very soon 
 followed by other indications of bloodshed and plunder ; and 
 the citizens, at last roused to a due sense of their danger, 
 during a temporary absence shut their gates against the in- 
 surgents. The next day a severe battle was fought : the 
 citizens successfully defended the bridge against their intru- 
 sion ; * and so much were the rebels dispirited by the loss 
 they sustained on this occasion, that, upon a promise of 
 pardon, they ail dispersed. Cade made the best of his way 
 alone towards the coast, but was soon detected and killed by 
 a private gentleman in the county of Sussex. 3 
 
 The general discontent, however, at the measures of the 
 king's ministers, by no means diminished. Parliamentary 
 
 > Stow. HalL Chron. Fabian's Chron. * HalL Cliron. 
 * Hist. Croyland. Contin. p. 526.
 
 124 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK remonstrances grew bold, and demands were made which 
 J- seemed to arrogate little short of supreme authority. 1 In 
 
 to 1485 2 ^is state of things a competitor for the throne appeared in 
 the person of the Duke of York, whose interests were very 
 warmly espoused by a large class of the people, and particu- 
 larly by the citizens. Independent of the general grievances 
 which the City, in common with the rest of the nation, may 
 be well supposed to have undergone^ a personal and commo'ii 
 hatred was conceived against the leaders of the Lancastrian, 
 or royal party, who with the queen were strongly suspected 
 of the assassination of the Duke of Gloucester, the king's 
 uncle ; a prince who had rendered himself, by his many 
 amiable qualities, a great favourite with the people. 2 That 
 the oppressions of which the nation and the Parliament com- 
 plained were real, and their complaints not the result of a 
 factious support of a popular nobleman, we may justly infer 
 from the circumstance, that after the first battle fought 
 between the two parties, when the Duke of York had the mani- 
 fest advantage, and had, indeed, reduced the king entirely 
 under his power, 3 the Parliament contented themselves with 
 passing some few regulations of government, and renewed their 
 oaths of fealty to Henry. 4 The Duke of York saw how expe- 
 dient it was to have his claim recognised by the Parliament, 
 which, in consequence of some desperate battles terminating 
 in favour of the Yorkists, was soon afterwards formally done; 5 
 subject to the possession of the crown by Henry during his life. 
 An arrangement so incompatible with the feelings and views of 
 the two contending parties could hardly long continue. The 
 civil war soon raged again with its wonted fury. The duke was 
 killed in battle, and his son immediately hastened to London, 
 where he was cordially received, and had confidence enough 
 openly to assume the sceptre under the title of Edward IV. 
 
 Amidst these violent transactions the progressive influence 
 gained by the Parliament and the people in the Constitution 
 is obvious. During the struggle for dominion, the Yorkists, 
 having to contend against the established order of govern- 
 
 1 Parliatn. Hist. vol. ii. p. 263. 4 Hume's Hist. 
 
 2 Hume's Hist. * Cotton's Abridgment, p. GG6. 
 
 3 Stow, pp. 388, 389. Hollingslied, Grafton, p. 647. 
 p. 633.
 
 EDWARD IV. CONTESTS FOR THE CROWN. 125 
 
 ment, would naturally find their interest, not only in foment- CHAP. 
 
 ing discontent, but in promoting all popular interference for , r ^__, 
 
 reformation and redress. Accordingly, we find that scarce a A - D - ! ^ 2 
 step was taken, either by the Duke of York or his son 
 Edward IV., without first warily sounding the disposition of 
 the people. They uniformly professed, as their prominent 
 object, emancipation from arbitrary and tyrannical measures, 
 and endeavoured to identify their cause with that of an 
 oppressed and suffering nation. 1 Even the assumption of 
 the crown by Edward was speciously grounded on national 
 consent ; 2 and, while every art was employed by the Yorkists 
 to cultivate the good opinion of the inferior orders, on the 
 part of the Lancastrians the usual licentiousness which 
 prevails among mercenary troops, suddenly raised to be as 
 suddenly dispersed, was from necessity indulged. 3 It is no 
 wonder, therefore, that in a contest which so long and so 
 doubtfully divided the whole kingdom, the City of London 
 should exemplify as conspicuous an attachment to the House 
 of York as an aversion to that of Lancaster. 4 In truth, the 
 goodwill of the citizens was thought by Edward to be so 
 main a bulwark of his throne, that he never failed, during 
 the course of his reign, to use every means of preserving it. 
 Besides securing to them in the most ample manner their 
 ancient privileges, he increased them by the grant of several 
 very beneficial charters; and even condescended to live 
 among them on terms of convivial familiarity. 6 
 
 It may be doubted whether the City of London ever stood 
 so high in national influence and consideration, as during 
 the reign of Edward IY. The decided expression of its sup- 
 port may be said more than once to have conferred the crown. 
 For, not only did the first reception of Edward after the 
 death of his father, under very untoward circumstances, 
 enable him successfully to assert his claim to the throne ; 6 
 
 1 Stow, p. 394. De Word. ad. Poly- ticularly many proofs of the citizens' 
 chron. Fab. Chron. pp. 7, 14, 50. attachment to the House of York. 
 
 2 Account of Edward's election in 5 Hume quoting Polyd. Virg. p. 513, 
 London, in Stow, p. 415. Hollingshed, and Biondi. 
 
 p. 661. Grafton, p. 653. ' Stow, p. 415. Hollingshed, p. 661. 
 
 3 Hume's Hist. Grafton, p. 653. Fabian's Chron. and 
 
 4 Maitland and Northouck in their Hall's Chron. ann. 1460. 
 Histories of London detail very par-
 
 126 HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON". 
 
 BOOK but afterwards, when, in the strange vicissitudes of the times, 
 
 >__i , he was compelled rather to seek refuge in the City as an 
 
 A to'i485 2 ex ^ e > tnan * resort thither as the leader of a formidable 
 party, the unabated zeal and support of the citizens at once 
 elevated him again to the situation of a conqueror and a 
 monarch. 1 Nor was the City unqualified from its local 
 strength to take a prominent part in settling the govern- 
 ment. Its fortifications were in so complete a state, and so 
 well guarded, as to defy the attacks of a potent army ; and 
 nothing tended more directly to the ruin of the Lancastrians 
 than the steady refusal of the Londoners to admit them 
 within the walls. 2 They were consequently twice subjected to 
 furious assaults ; once by Lord Scales, who, having posses- 
 sion of the Tower, incessantly for several days, though in 
 vain, plied the City with ordnance ; 3 and again by the Bas- 
 tard Falconbridge, who, at the head of 1 7,000 men, attempted 
 to storm the City in two places at the same time, but was 
 repulsed with great slaughter by the citizens with very little 
 extraneous assistance. 4 
 
 It was in the reign of Edward IV. that the liverymen at 
 large of the trading companies were first associated with the 
 electors at the Common Hall. We have noticed, 5 that, in the 
 49th year of Edward III., these electors, who were originally 
 summoned by the lord mayor out of the men chosen by the 
 wards, were ordained by a regulation of that date to be nomi- 
 nated as delegates by the whole number of the trading com- 
 panies for the exercise of the elective franchises, out of whom 
 the lord mayor summoned the actual electors ; and so they 
 continued to be till this period. But, as neither a fixed number 
 nor a fixed class was .settled by this ordinance, it seems that 
 much irregularity ensued, both with respect to the mode and 
 authority of summoning them to elections, and in the number 
 of persons summoned. It was accordingly enacted in the 
 7th year of Edward IV., that the election of the mayor and 
 sheriffs should be in the Common Council, together with the 
 
 1 Comines, lib. 3, ch. vii. Grafton, 3 Ibid. * Ibid, 
 p. 702. 5 Vide p. 115. 
 
 2 Fabian and Hall's Chron. ann. 6 Acts of Com. Co. 7th and 15th 
 1460. Edward IV.
 
 EDWARD IV. COMMON HALL ELECTIONS REGULATED. 127 
 
 masters and wardens of each mystery. The number, however, 
 of voters appearing by this regulation to be too much nar- 
 rowed, it was at last established by act of Common Council 
 of the loth of Edward IV., that the masters and wardens 
 should associate with themselves the honest men of their myste- 
 ries, and come in their last liveries (or clothings) to the elec- 
 tions by the several assemblies of the citizens in Common 
 Hall of corporate officers and members to serve in Parliament ; 
 and that none other, but themselves and the members of the 
 Common Council, should be present. 1 This is the first origin 
 of the elective franchise of the liverymen, as a distinct class of 
 those admitted to the freedom of the trading companies. By 
 the operation of the previous ordinances of the City, the nomi- 
 nation to the right of electing these functionaries in Common 
 Hall was, in a manner, shared between the companies and the 
 mayor the companies selecting the particular electors, and 
 the mayor selecting (if he pleased) the actual electors out of 
 them. Under this act of Edward IV., the undivided nomina- 
 tion was transferred finally to the companies, who might, and 
 do, grant liveries according to such rules and terms as they 
 prescribe to such of their members who may be considered to 
 deserve the denomination of ' honest men, 1 or * of the discreeter 
 sort,' or of ' probi homines.' 
 
 On the death of Edward, the reins of government were 
 committed into the hands of his brother, Kichard Duke of 
 Gloucester, as protector during the minority of his infant 
 son, Edward V. In tracing with hasty steps, and for an 
 ulterior object, the thread of English History, the adult 
 reader must be again informed, though succinctly, that 
 Richard, who from his childhood had been bred in the midst 
 of carnage and violence, and who had given many proofs of 
 a ferocious disposition, as well as of great talents for govern- 
 ment, instantly determined to usurp the throne. The many 
 obstacles which stood in the way of his elevation, and which 
 would at once have disheartened a man of moderate courage, 
 or one imbued with any natural feelings of humanity, had no 
 
 1 The City elections were farther and Acts of 1832 and 1867. The subject 
 
 finally regulated by Stat. llth Geo. L will be again reTerted to. Vide Ch. 
 
 cap. 18, by an act of Common Council XIL p. 243, et seq. 
 passed in 1 834, and by the Great Beform
 
 128 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK influence on a heart hardened by long experience in blood- 
 v- ; - shed and disorder. His first step was to murder those 
 A t'o H85 2 noblemen, who, from their personal influence as well as im- 
 pregnable attachment to the issue of Edward IV., he knew 
 would make a powerful and warlike opposition to his claims. 1 
 Among these, Lord Hastings, whom Eichard by well dis- 
 sembled familiarity had inveigled within his grasp, was sud- 
 denly seized at the Council table in the presence of the 
 Protector, and at his command, upon a most extraordinary 
 and absurd charge of witchcraft ; and was as suddenly be- 
 headed on Tower Hill. 2 An apology for this summary out- 
 rage was instantly read throughout the City of London in 
 the form of a proclamation ; but in such haste was it got up, 
 that, as was sarcastically observed by a citizen, it certainly 
 seemed penned in the spirit of prophecy.* 
 
 Eichard appears to have founded his chief hopes of success 
 in his ambitious project, on the concurrence of the citizens. 
 Aware of the important effects of their allegiance during the 
 reign of his brother, and of the influence acquired by their 
 united strength in a nation divided throughout by many 
 contending interests, he judged that, if his authority was 
 once established in London, he had little to fear or expect 
 from opposition in any other quarter. Accordingly, he bent 
 his most artful attention to gain over the City to his inte- 
 rest ; and, mindful of that election which first seated his 
 brother on the throne, he resolved, if possible, to have his 
 own title recognised in a similar manner. For this purpose 
 Shaw, the lord mayor, who had become a creature of 
 Eichard, and privy to all his designs, was employed to 
 entrap the citizens into a kind of popular expression in 
 favour of the Protector's title. 3 His first attempt, however, 
 which was to raise the semblance of a public acclamation 
 through the medium of a popular appeal introduced into a 
 sermon preached by his brother at St. Paul's, most awkwardly 
 and entirely failed of the concerted object. 4 The lord mayor 
 then summoned a general assembly of the citizens, at which 
 the Duke of Buckingham, who is said to have possessed 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. Edward V. 3 Fabian's Chron. 
 
 2 Sir Thos. More's Life of Edward V. Ibid.
 
 EICHAKD III. 129 
 
 great oratorical powers, attended. 1 At this meeting the duke 
 harangued the citizens, at great length, on the pretensions 
 of Richard ; but the assembly, either through astonishment 
 at the impudence of such claims, or through a steady resolu- 
 tion to oppose them, maintained a perfect silence. The 
 Recorder was then instructed to address them to the same 
 effect ; but, speaking cautiously and with some equivocation, 
 he had no better success. At last the duke peremptorily 
 required an opinion one way or the other ; and, on some few 
 voices being feebly raised, he, with formal solemnity, an- 
 nounced that he had heard the sentiments of the nation suf- 
 ficiently declared. 2 Richard accordingly, with ill-disguised 
 alacrity, accepted the crown ; and the first act of his supreme 
 authority was the murder of the two young princes, the sons 
 of Edward IV. 3 
 
 The citizens attended the usurper's coronation, with the 
 lord mayor as cupbearer, in great pomp ; and their claim in 
 this particular was formally allowed, and still remains on 
 record, 4 Richard showed a continual anxiety to conciliate 
 all ranks of the people to his government, and as soon as 
 he deemed himself securely settled on his throne, passed in 
 Parliament several popular laws. He likewise intended to 
 strengthen his title to the crown by marrying Elizabeth, the 
 daughter of Edward IV. ; and although he had murdered 
 her two brothers, he met with no opposition to his addresses 
 either from herself or her mother. Everything, therefore, 
 seemed to promise a triumphant issue to all his crimes, and 
 an eventual stability to his throne. 5 
 
 The nation, however, was incapable of enduring so baleful 
 
 1 This appears to have been a meeting special order of Parliament), such meet- 
 quite out of the common course, and ings hare always been regularly re- 
 neither a meeting of the Common Hall corded. All the other acts of Richard 
 under the regulation of the loth Ed- ILI.'s time are duly entered, 
 ward IV. or of the established Common ' Sir T. More's Life of Edward V. 
 Council, but a general assembly of the Fabian's Chronicle, 
 citizens at large. No entry is made in * Ibid.; and vide note Q. 2 to Hume's 
 the City Books of this meeting ; although Hist. 
 
 in the few instances in which Common Lib. L. fol. 191 a & b. Town Clerk's 
 
 Halls have been held for other than Office, 
 
 elective purposes (as to have a proclama- * Hume's Hist, 
 tion or a royal letter read, or under a
 
 330 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDO> r . 
 
 a prospect. Henry, Earl of Eichmond, who stood nearly 
 related to the throne, and an exile in Brittany, was strenu- 
 ously urged from all quarters to appear in England ; and, by 
 placing himself at the head of an indignant people, at once to 
 save them from impending tyranny, and prevent a marriage 
 which would prove as fatal to his own hopes as to those of 
 the whole nation. He accordingly hastened over ; but, such 
 was the activity of his able adversary, that, before he could 
 call together more than a handful of partisans, he found 
 himself compelled to contend in a bloody battle for a crown 
 and for his life. In the memorable field of Bosworth, how- 
 ever, Henry proved victorious. Richard found in the field a 
 death too honourable for so execrable a man : and his com- 
 petitor, by marrying Elizabeth, the true heir to the throne, 
 succeeded to the undisputed possession of the royal autho- 
 rity. 1 
 
 1 The author gives all due credit to formed from the usual sources of his- 
 
 the ingenious reasoning of Walpole torical information, on the character of 
 
 in his Historic Doubts; but he has Richard III. 
 not been induced to alter his opinion,
 
 131 
 
 bin, - 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VII. TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH ; 
 OF THE CIVIC PROCESSIONS AND PAGEANTS ; OF THE INTERIOR CON- 
 DITION, POPULATION, STYLE OF BOTLDING, AND MANNER OF LIVING 
 WITHIN THE CITY AT THIS PERIOD. 
 
 WE have now traced the progress of the City of London 
 through a series of barbarous ages to a period when the 
 better features of modern civilisation may be said to have 
 become general throughout the nation, and many, though 
 certainly not all, of the great principles of its government 
 had attained a settled foundation. The issue by Henry's 
 marriage with Elizabeth put a final close to those contests 
 which had so long attended a disputed succession. The laws 
 of the land began to be reduced to a system, and to become 
 a favourite study among the better orders, who consequently 
 felt a peculiar and personal interest in the maintenance of 
 them. 1 The constitution and prerogatives of Parliament 
 began to be better known and appreciated, and it became 
 universally considered as the organ and arbiter of the national 
 legislation. It is true that, in the reign of Henry VII. , as 
 well as in those of several of his successors, many arbitrary 
 practices prevailed, evincing rather the despotic power than 
 the controlling influence of the monarch ; the laws, too, were 
 occasionally strained to effect illegal and tyrannical objects ; 
 and many royal prerogatives, totally incompatible with the 
 supremacy of the law, were exercised, the assumption of which 
 by Charles I. brought that ill-fated monarch in bolder times 
 to the scaffold. It is difficult to specify precisely any period 
 
 1 Fortescue writes, that in the reign 2,000 students, most of them men of 
 of Henry VI. the Inns of Court contained honourable birth. 
 
 K2
 
 132 
 
 H1STOEICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 in the English history in which our own genuine constitution 
 can be said to have existed, free from the tinge of autocracy 
 on *ke one h an< l or t na/ k f corruption 011 the other; and 
 nothing is more certain, than that he who attempts, by looking 
 back to former ages, to affix any point of time for a truly 
 constitutional plan of power, will be scared by the irregu- 
 larities or enormities of each age as he recedes, till at last 
 he takes refuge in that entangled wilderness of our early 
 history, where he may just descry the primitive efforts at 
 government which barbarians adopt in associating together 
 by bands for mutual protection. Still, however, from the 
 accession of Henry VII., most of the fundamental maxims of 
 the English constitution were at least acknowledged, and the 
 common rights and liberties of the people ascertained. The 
 administration of government and of the laws proceeded for 
 the most part in one and the same course, in spite of tem- 
 porary checks and convulsions, and extended an uniform 
 influence over all classes of the people ; there will therefore 
 be the less reason for any detailed reference to it for the 
 purpose of illustrating any distinguishing privileges of the 
 citizens. The history of London becomes more local ; and 
 ceases in great measure to be involved in that of the times, 
 and of the nation at large. 
 
 The frequent rebellions which mark the progress of this 
 king's reign, gave many occasions for the irregular exercise 
 of his authority. But, in most instances, Henry, whose 
 ruling passion was the accumulation of wealth, was satisfied 
 with the exaction of ruinous fines and forfeitures, which, 
 while they strengthened his own power, at the same time 
 depressed that of his enemies. The whole policy of Henry's 
 government seems to have been the amassing treasure ; a 
 policy which we may conceive to have been as much suggested 
 by the difficulties into which former kings had been placed, 
 through the loss of their private demesnes and their conse- 
 quent dependence on the will of Parliament, as by a natural 
 disposition to avarice. But, although this was, directly or 
 indirectly, the chief object of all Henry's cares, he knew 
 too well the temper of his people to resort to those bare- 
 faced extortions which marked the reigns of his earlier
 
 HEXRY VII. EXTORTIONATE LAWS AXD PRACTICES. 133 
 
 predecessors. On one occasion, only, he ventured to levy 
 a benevolence of his own authority, 1 to which the citizens of 
 London were, as nsnal, obliged very largely to contribute; 8 
 but he had the prudence to obtain from the first Parliament 
 which met afterwards a sanction to this measure. 3 Sensible 
 of the dangers and disorders attending a direct and general 
 taxation of his subjects, Henry devised a safer mode of 
 attaining his ends, by craftily framing new laws, which tended 
 to multiply and facilitate the forfeiture of estates, and by 
 rigidly enforcing, and even perverting, those laws by which 
 fines and forfeitures were incurred. For this purpose he 
 employed, as his ministers, the notorious Empson and Dudley, 
 lawyers of great learning and experience, who devoted, 
 throughout the whole of Henry's reign, the most industrious 
 sagacity in contriving specious methods of oppressing the 
 people under the forms of law. Under his sole authority 
 they new modelled the Court of Star Chamber, and supplied 
 it with jurisdiction to try offences without jury, and with 
 power almost unlimited over the persons and properties of 
 subjects. 4 They directed crown informations instead of 
 indictments to b^e at once received, without the intervention 
 of grand juries, not only at assizes, but even at sessions of 
 the peace, for the purpose of levying heavy penalties. 5 They 
 issued new and strange commissions for the trial of offen- 
 ders. 5 They raked up old and long forgotten penal statutes, 
 on which prosecutions were directed against persons totally 
 unconscious of offence. 5 And whatever remained of the oppres- 
 sive system of the feudal law was wrested to the harassing and 
 plundering of all those who could in any shape be brought 
 under the king's authority as his tenants. 6 
 
 Henry commenced his exactions from the citizens of London 
 
 1 Bymer's Feeders, vol. xii. p. 486. ment. It was ventured upon, however, 
 * According to Fabian, to the amount both by Henry VJI. and his successor, 
 of lo,OOOJ. a sum equal to at least and was altogether arbitrary in amount 
 100,000/. in the present times. Chron. and mode of collection- 
 part vii. This species of tax, for such it * Parliament held 1495. The bene- 
 was in reality, is first mentioned in the Tolence was levied in 1491. 
 time of Richard H. (vide Hume's Hut. * Bacon's Life of Henry VII. Black- 
 ch. xvii. ad fin.), and was occasionally stone's Comm. vol. iv. p. 429. 
 levied till the 1st year of Richard IIL, s Hol'.ingshed, p. 504. Polydor*} 
 when it was abolished l.y Act of Parlia- Virg. pp. 51 3, 515. Ibid.
 
 134 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK in the mild form of borrowing ; ' but, though supplies to a 
 
 > r moderate extent, and more than sufficient to meet his very 
 
 A IO 1509 lifted necessities, were cheerfully advanced, the king's 
 rapacity was not of such a quality as to be satisfied with 
 such slender acquisitions. Under the pretext of having 
 transgressed against an old penal statute, Alderman Capel 
 was fined 2,700Z. ; and this case formed the precedent for 
 the numerous extortions which followed. Five thousand 
 pounds were paid by the Corporation for a confirmation of 
 their charter ; principally with regard to their right to the 
 forfeiture of all goods bought within the City by strangers 
 from strangers (i.e. others than citizens) or sold there by 
 strangers to such strangers ; 3 the charter, however, contained 
 no grant of any new privileges or franchises. Every effort 
 seems to have been exerted by the citizens to conciliate the 
 king's favour, both by the lavish magnificence displayed by 
 them in their attendance on his person, and in the reception 
 of his family in the City, and also by their zealous alacrity 
 in defending his interests against the continual attacks of 
 rebels. 4 But these attentions and services had no effect on 
 his cold and calculating temper ; and his reign finished, as 
 it had begun, by cruel impositions on the wealthier citizens, 
 many of whom, and among the rest Capel, were liberated 
 from prison at his death, where they were confined for 
 non-payment of heavy fines. 5 
 
 Almost the first act of Henry VIII. after his accession, 
 was to gratify his subjects by beheading Ernpson and Dudley 
 who had so justly drawn upon themselves the unqualified 
 hatred of the whole nation. The wealth accumulated by his 
 father furnished the young monarch with ample means to 
 indulge that fondness for magnificent revelry which charac- 
 terised his natural disposition ; and the unbounded display 
 of his liberality as well as of his accomplishments in the 
 numerous tournaments and carousals which succeeded each 
 other, it may be believed, contributed in no small degree to 
 
 1 Fabian, part vii. Charles II. 
 
 2 Bacon's Life of Henry VII. Ibid. 
 
 3 Fabian, part vii. Charter of 20th 8 Bacon's Life of Henry VII. Hall's 
 Henry VII. Inspeximns charter of Chron, Fabian, pt. vii. Stow, An. Engl.
 
 HEXBT VIII. CIVIC PAGEAXTRY. 135 
 
 attract the affections of Henry's new subjects, who had been CHAP. 
 so long both oppressed and disgusted by the sullen qualities ^_ . . 
 of the late king. Most of this dissipation was carried on in ^"j^ 9 
 the City ; * and it is impossible to read without surprise the 
 splendid accounts, given with so much solemnity of detail by 
 contemporary chroniclers, of the magnificent feasts, proces- 
 jinnn, and public spectacles, which mark a period when do- 
 mestic arts and luxuries were so little known or appreciated. 
 
 The citizens appear from very early times to hare evinced , 
 a strong propensity for expensive and pompous shows. Xot 
 to mention the entry of Richard L after his captivity, which 
 may be considered as a great national occasion of display, 
 we are told that on the reception of Edward I. from the Holy 
 Land, the walls of the houses were hung with silks and 
 tapestries ; the conduits ran with rich wines ; and the 
 wealthier citizens threw gold and silver among the people.* 
 After the battle of Poictiers, John, king of France, with his 
 illustrious captor Edward the Black Prince, were ushei-ed 
 through the City in a procession so numerous as to last from 
 three in the morning till noon. On this occasion there was 
 a most profuse display of pageants, rich tapestries, plate, silks, 
 and every species of warlike accoutrements. Richard EL 
 was twice pnblicly received in the City, with still greater 
 splendour; when the citizens who lined the streets vied 
 with each other in the richness of their apparel and the 
 display of their individual wealth. The conduits ran with 
 wine; pageants, in the form of castles fancifully adorned, 
 were erected; a boy, habited like an angel, presented the 
 king with a gorgeous crown set with jewels, and another to 
 the queen ; while four young ladies scattered leaves of gold 
 over the king's head. 3 In the reign of Henry V. a similar 
 procession took place attended with equal magnificence ; on 
 which occasion tapestries embroidered with a representation 
 of that monarch's exploits in France were suspended from 
 the houses. 4 
 
 1 StoT,An.EogL AJJ. 1510. Stew's * Tho. Wals. Hist. Aug. I 
 
 Starrer. Knight's Chran. Fabian, part rii. 
 
 3 Holtingshed, AOK 1274. Xic. Trir. * De Woide ad Poljehron. 1 
 
 Annals. ~ Wais. Hist. Ang.
 
 36 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK In the several successive reigns there was no diminution 
 L either in the number or in the splendour of these public 
 
 A to 1558 9 ^ 8 P la y s : ^ ut in ^ at f Henry VIII. the magnificence of 
 them rose to such a height as to be almost incredible, did 
 we not know from incontestible authorities the pompous 
 habits of that age. Upon the ceremony of mustering the 
 nightly watch, the king with his royal consort attended as 
 spectators. No less than 2,000 men, on foot and on stately 
 ^ horses, all dressed or armed in a very costly manner, and 
 marching in several divisions, with bands of musicians, pages, 
 dancers, and pageants interspersed, made up the procession. 
 The lord mayor himself, mounted on a charger richly trapped, 
 and attended by a large retinue of servants, together with 
 the sheriffs, also composed part of this spectacle. This cere- 
 mony of mustering the nightly watch was afterwards pro- 
 hibited by Henry, on account of its great expense. The 
 citizens, however, seemed resolved to seize every opportunity 
 throughout this reign which could enable them to exhibit 
 the exuberance of their wealth. Whenever a crowned head, 
 or even an ambassador, approached the walls, he was sure 
 to be welcomed by a public reception. But the manner in 
 which Anne Boleyn made her public entry into the City pre- 
 paratory to her coronation may well serve as an example 
 which it would be difficult to surpass, in point of splendour, 
 even in the present age; and which proves the enormous 
 riches at that time individually possessed by the chief citizens. 
 The full account of this ceremony is to be found minutely 
 detailed in Stow's English Annals, to which the curious reader 
 is referred suffice it to say, that with respect to the pro- 
 fusion of gold and silver, silks and embroidered tapestries, 
 gorgeous dresses, and stately pageantry, this appears to have 
 thrown all other public exhibitions completely into the shade. 
 These magnificent shows continued to be exhibited with 
 their accustomed splendour, and to characterise the taste of 
 the age for several reigns subsequent. The entry of Queen 
 Elizabeth into London before her coronation, was particularly 
 remarkable for this mode of expressing the national exulta- 
 tion at her accession. 1 The reign of James afforded few 
 
 1 Hollingshed. 'Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 266.
 
 CIVIC PAGEANTRY AND PROCESSIONS. 
 
 137 
 
 occasions for similar parade ; but nothing can more clearly 
 evince the early and general attachment of the people towards 
 his ill-fated successor, than the manner in which he was 
 conducted into the City upon his return from a long absence 
 in the North, and the extravagant magnificence displayed at 
 a civic entertainment given him upon that occasion. 1 The 
 austere habits which prevailed during the Puritan times of 
 the Commonwealth, indisposed the people to maintain, or 
 partake in, festal solemnities of this nature ; and though, 
 upon the restoration, the ancient style of receiving and wel- 
 coming the monarch was once more revived, 2 the frequency 
 as well as splendour of these shows and processions rapidly 
 declined from that period. 3 
 
 CHAP. 
 VIII. 
 
 A.D. 1509 
 to 1558. 
 
 1 Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 340. 
 Stew's Survey. 
 
 Echard's Hist. Eng. Cook's Life 
 of Charles II. 
 
 3 The estimation of shows and pa- 
 geantry did not begin to decline until 
 the latter end of the sixteenth century ; 
 for the great Midsummer night watch 
 which was put down by Henry VIII. 
 was revived again, and not finally 
 abolished till the year 1569 ; and it was 
 long after referred to in the City with 
 every mark of admiration. In a bur- 
 lesque play of the year 1613, a young 
 citizen is made to exclaim : 
 ' My valiant love will batter down 
 Millions of constables, and put to flight 
 t'' tn that great watch of Midsummer 
 day at night.' 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher : The 
 Knight of the Burning Pestle. 
 Towards the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century, the dramatic poets re- 
 garded the civic mummery as a very 
 fruitful source of ridicule ; and the 
 solemn descriptions of them by the 
 chroniclers Hollingshed, Baker, Stow, 
 and others, were equally derided. The 
 following scenes will at once exemplify 
 the strange nature of these shows, the 
 estimation in which they were held by 
 the citizens, and the growing contempt 
 of them arising among the higher 
 orders. In the play last quoted, a citi- 
 
 zen grocer is made to say, addressing a 
 kind of stage messenger 
 
 ' Citizen. Let Ralph come out on a 
 May day in the morning, and speak upon 
 a conduit, with all his scarfs about him, 
 and his feathers and his rings and his 
 
 knacks. I'll have him come out, or 
 
 I'll fetch him out myself. I'll have 
 something done in honour of the City. 
 
 Bring him out quickly ; or, if I come 
 
 in amongst you 
 
 ' Boy. Well, sir, he shall come out. 
 
 ' Citizen. Bring him away then ! 
 
 ' Citizen's Wife. This will be brave, 
 'faith. George, shall he not dance the 
 morris too, for the credit of the Strand ? 
 
 ' Citizen. No, sweetheart, it will be 
 too much for the boy. Oh ! there he 
 is, Nell ! he's reasonable well in re- 
 parrel ; but he has not rings enough,' 
 
 [Ralph is here exhibited in a fancy 
 costume at the top of one of the City 
 conduits ; and he spouts some wretched 
 doggrel in honour of the City, and of 
 Mayday.] 
 
 In another play of the same date, 
 Spendall, a young citizen, thus expresses 
 himself: 
 
 'By this light, I do not think but to 
 be lord mayor of London before I die, 
 and have three pageants carried before 
 me, besides a ship and an unicorn.' 
 Green's Tu guogue, 1614. 
 
 In a play of the year 1633, the unex-
 
 138 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK We should be much deceived, however, if from these in- 
 I- stances of public parade we should draw an inference favour- 
 ^0 the general state of refinement, either in the arts 
 and luxuries of life or in the domestic comforts enjoyed by 
 the people in the age of which we are now writing. It is 
 true that great wealth was accumulated in the metropolis ; 
 but we may gather that it was engrossed by comparatively a 
 very few individuals, when we consider the enormous posses- 
 sions acquired by some of the citizens of this period. The 
 whole of the foreign and wholesale trade was confined to the 
 hands of a few great capitalists ; and a London merchant 
 has been the origin of some of the most illustrious families 
 in the kingdom, not to mention that which gave to England 
 one of its greatest monarchs. 1 The trading companies, both 
 foreign and English, under which all the citizens of London 
 are classed, were not only opulent in a corporate capacity ; 
 but interfering with and regulating, as they did in these 
 times, the dealing of all those of the same trade, they com- 
 manded in no small degree the resources of their respective 
 members. The City companies divided the citizens into so 
 many clans, professing one common interest and feeling. In 
 imitation of the Court and more powerful of the nobility, the 
 Corporation of London, who had the superintendence of these 
 associations, assigned to several of them a peculiar costume, 
 denominated a Livery, and required of such Livery companies, 
 that they should attend in that garb at all civic solemnities. 2 
 
 pected means which a young spendthrift exercised the right of authorising corn- 
 acquires of paying his debts is thus panics to wear liveries and admit livory- 
 referred to. men, and in most cases it has expressly 
 ' Tapwell. He has found out such a granted the liveries in the first instance 
 new way (vide further on this subject, Book II. 
 To pay old debts as 'tis very like, Ch. III. p. 313). Assigning liveries to 
 He shall be chronicled for it. dependants and followers was very com- 
 ' Froth. He deserves it. mon in England from the time of the 
 More than ten pageants: Conquest. The providing them for the 
 Massinger: New Way to Pay king's family, servants, judges, military 
 Old Debts. 1633. officers, and retainers of all classes, was 
 
 1 Queen Elizabeth's great-great- a common subject of the rent of farmers 
 grandfather by her mother's side was of demesnes and cities, and of the farm 
 Geoffrey Boleyn, a mercer living in the of sheriffs (vido Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 
 Old Jewry, and lord-mayor an. 1457. 204, 220). The nobility and the most 
 Stow, book iii. p. 44 ; book v. p. 175. powerful subjects used to clothe so 
 
 2 The court of aldermen has always many of their followers, about the time
 
 CIVIC PAGEANTRY AND SPECTACLES. 139 
 
 At a time, therefore, when the middle classes of society, CHAP. 
 who now form the great mass of the independent portion of ^ '* 
 the community, could hardly be said to exist ; when the ^'^g 9 
 whole people were divided into the rich and powerful, and 
 those who were their dependants and retainers ; when most 
 of those numerous luxuries which are now considered as 
 necessaries in private life, were but little, if at all, known 
 we may easily account for that large expenditure which was 
 devoted to public spectacles and festivities. In fact, it was 
 an expenditure which formed almost the only channel through 
 which the exorbitant wealth of the higher orders could flow, 
 and to direct which the public spirit of associated bodies 
 combined with the prevalent taste of the age. Less in- 
 dependent than in the present times, both in their persons 
 and their circumstances, the inferior orders regarded public 
 spectacles and revelry as their only solace and sources of 
 amusement. They considered such indulgences as no more 
 than what they had a right to expect from their superiors, and 
 as the only possible return for their services and dependence. 
 But when, through the gradual improvement of the consti- 
 tution, the lower orders became more and more emancipated 
 from the control of those above them ; when, in consequence 
 of such independence, the aggregate wealth and resources of 
 the nation became more equally diffused among all classes of 
 the people a corresponding change was produced in their 
 tastes and habits : every man, as he acquired substance, 
 wished to appropriate to his private interests and enjoyments 
 the fruits of his own industry; the elegancies and refine- 
 ments of art grew up with the ability and disposition of the 
 people to relish them ; and as, on the one hand, the taste for 
 pomp and grandeur decreased, so, on the other, the private 
 means of individuals to administer to it diminished. So 
 that we may consider it as a criterion of the general pros- 
 perity and state of civilisation in a country, when the people, 
 
 of Richard II., for the purpose of main- reigns (vide Anderson's Hist. Com. vol. 
 
 taining their state and their quarrels, i. p. 365, vol. ii. p, 17). Numerous 
 
 that they began then to be denounced also were the City ordinances limiting 
 
 by statutes under the name of Main- the number of liveries to be granted by 
 
 tenances. Other statutes to the same the mayor, sheriffs, and others, 
 effect passed in several subsequent
 
 140 IIISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK instead of regarding with universal and fond delight splendid 
 
 s ,1 - but extravagant public pageantries, place their ideas of 
 
 A to'i558 9 comfort an( i felicity in the more refined luxuries of private 
 life. 
 
 It is certain that in the time of Henry VIII. the 
 manner of living in London among the generality of the 
 people was, according to modern notions, wretched in the 
 highest degree. Erasmus, in a letter to Dr. Francis, says, 
 ' The floors are commonly of clay strewed with rushes ; 
 * under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, 
 'grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and 
 ' cats, and everything that is nasty.' He attributes the 
 frequent plagues which ravaged the City to the crowded 
 manner of building and the almost total exclusion of light 
 and air from the houses. The suburbs of London were at 
 this period almost totally void of buildings. From an 
 ancient map, dated about the year 1560, 1 and which is per- 
 haps the oldest map of London extant in print, it appears, 
 that almost the whole of the metropolis was confined at 
 that time within the City wall. There were a few straggling 
 houses leading up the Strand, and a few more round about 
 Smithfield. The open fields came close up to the City wall 
 throughout almost the whole northern and eastern circum- 
 ference ; and those houses which stood without them were for 
 the most part detached, and accommodated with gardens. 
 Charing Cross appears in some degree to have been connected 
 with the City by an irregular train of houses. The village of 
 St. Giles lay entirely isolated, across the open country. A 
 single street led up Holborn about as far as the Bars ; between 
 that point and Somerset House the space was entirely 
 occupied by fields and gardens. There were also many 
 gardens and open spaces within the City, and more par- 
 ticularly in the immediate vicinity of the wall, within which 
 a considerable space was kept clear round the whole circuit. 
 The largest area occupied by gardens was immediately 
 behind Lothbury, where several acres seem to have been so 
 laid out. In the eastern and south-eastern parts of the 
 
 1 By Ralph Aggas. ' Circiter A.D. 1560 ' is printed on the map.
 
 HENRY VIII. SOCIAL LIFE. CITY POPULATION. 
 
 City there were likewise a great many spots similarly appro- 
 priated. 1 
 
 Within this very limited compass of inhabited ground was 
 crowded a population of constant residents amounting to not 
 less than 130,000. The estimate, however, of the popula- 
 tion at this period must be made on very different principles 
 from one formed of the present. Owing to the enormous 
 increase of the trade of the metropolis, one half of the City 
 at least may now be calculated to be occupied by warehouses 
 and counting-houses. Public offices and buildings of that 
 nature also take up a very considerable space. Much even 
 of the retail trade and handicraft occupation is carried on in 
 houses in no part devoted to regular family residence. Add 
 to this, that the great change in domestic habits and man- 
 ners has engendered a love of privacy and retirement, which 
 prompts many persons, even at some sacrifice of pecuniary 
 interest, to withdraw themselves as much as possible from 
 the bustle of business, to a neighbourhood where they may 
 enjoy better air and more cheerful society. The consequence 
 of this is, that, out of the vast numbers who resort daily to 
 the City to pursue their regular avocations, not one twentieth 
 proportion of them are to be reckoned among the constant 
 inhabitants ; and that proportion is for the most part, though 
 certainly not entirely, composed of the inferior orders. The 
 tide of population flows in large streams into the City every 
 morning, and is again disgorged at the close of the day. 
 The City properly so called may now be considered rather as 
 a vast mercantile emporium or factory, than as a place of 
 general habitation. When we speak, therefore, of the pre- 
 sent population of London, we must be careful to distinguish 
 between those who pursue their daily employments and 
 occupy tenements within the City for the purpose of trade 
 merely, and those who are strictly to be accounted inhabitants. 
 
 1 Gardens seem to have been common ' Will you walk a while in the garden, 
 
 throughout the City, to the beginning and gather a pink or a gilliflower ? ' 
 of the seventeenth century. In 'The One part of the plot in the same play 
 
 Puritan,' a play written about 1607, the is to hide a citizen's chain of three 
 
 first scene is laid in a garden behind thousand links among the shrubs in this 
 
 the widow's hovse in Watling Street. garden. 
 The widow in another part says :
 
 142 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK If we calculate the population on the latter basis, the City 
 v, ;' ._ - must be considered, even with reference to the present liberal 
 A to 'i558 9 st ^ le of house-keeping, as half deserted : if on the former, 
 we shall readily conclude that but a small proportion, pro- 
 bably not more than a twentieth part, could by possibility 
 become inhabitants, if any regard be had, not merely to that 
 luxurious ease which the circumstances of many of them can 
 command, but to what, at the present day, are considered the 
 common comforts and necessaries of life. 
 
 But at the time of which we are writing, not only did all 
 those who employed themselves in their daily occupations 
 within the City reside there with their families as constant 
 inhabitants, but it may even be doubted whether the City did 
 not contain within its walls a larger population by night than 
 by day. From the earliest period of the civic history, down 
 to that under present notice, the City gates and the bank of 
 the river were strictly guarded at night by armed men ; 1 and 
 we have seen with what ceremony the watch of citizens was 
 set to parade the streets and to take their stations at the 
 gates. None were allowed to wander about the City be- 
 tween dark and light. Night-walkers and riotous persons 2 
 were instantly arrested, and promptly tried and punished. 
 There were scarcely any suburbs ; and it is not to be sup- 
 posed that many of the common people would come from any 
 distance to their employments within the City, and return 
 to their families by night : and at this time country-houses 
 and villas were altogether unknown and unsought for by the 
 trading citizens. The daily influx of non-residents would be, 
 therefore, for the most part confined to those who attended 
 the markets for the sale of provisions ; and it is reasonable 
 to think that they would be far exceeded in number by those 
 who passed out of the City to their labours in the neigh- 
 bourhood immediately adjoining. 
 
 If, however, we are to compute the population of the City 
 only at 130,000 in the reign of Henry VIII., it must neces- 
 sarily follow, not only that the general style of living amongst 
 the citizens must have been, according to our present notions, 
 
 1 Lib. Albus, passim. An old and licentious play in Elizabeth's 
 
 z Termed ' roarers ' in the City books. reign is entitled ' The Roaring Girl.'
 
 HENRY VIII. SOCIAL LIFE. BUILDINGS. 143 
 
 very wretched, but that the general aspect of the City must CHAP. 
 
 have been mean and unsightly. The private houses for the r -^ - 
 
 most part were built of wood, 1 were much lower in altitude, ^o'jggg 
 and capable of containing fewer inhabitants than the present 
 buildings. Taking these circumstances into our considera- 
 tion, and likewise that much of the area within the walls was 
 left open, we must naturally conclude, to account for the 
 existence of so large a population, that several families must 
 have resided in the same house and ' in a sort smothered ; ' 2 
 that the houses were comparatively small ; that they were 
 crowded very much one upon another ; and that the streets 
 were much narrower than at present. This conclusion is 
 completely corroborated by the ancient maps, and more par- 
 ticularly by that already referred to ; by which it appears 
 that, formerly, the streets were much more numerous than 
 since the fire of London ; and that alleys, courts, and by- 
 paths abounded in every direction. The almost total absence 
 of wheel-carriages no doubt conduced very much to this in- 
 commodious and confined arrangement of the streets. The 
 only vehicles of this nature known in London were carts : 
 and those which plied for hire were restricted to the number 
 of four hundred and twenty. 3 There appears to have been 
 but one commodious and regular street, which led through 
 the heart of the City, from Aldersgate to Ludgate ; and the 
 breadth of way throughout the course of Cheapside was 
 much greater than at the present day. This street, which 
 was the scene of all processions and civic grandeur, was justly 
 esteemed the most beautiful part of the City ; and much 
 attention on the part of the civic authorities, as well as of the 
 
 1 Brick houses were not built until Dissertation, Appendix, 
 
 the reign of Henry VIII. in any part of * Vide Act of Common Council, 1661, 
 
 the kingdom (Hume's Hist. ch. xxxvii. Brown mayor. Queen Elizabeth was 
 
 note L.); and such houses were not the first who made general use of a 
 
 begun in London till James I.'s coach ; the fashion was introduced in 
 
 reign, before which time they were in- the year 1580 by the Earl of Arundel 
 
 variably built of wood. Hume's Hist. (Anderson's Hist. Com. vol. i. p. 424). 
 
 Appendix to James I. note 41 ; Strype's No doubt the common use of coaches 
 
 Stow, book i. p. 7- very much impaired the splendour of, 
 
 - Words of a proclamation of James I. as well as the taste for, processional 
 
 against increase of buildings and divid- shows, 
 ing of tenements in London. Vide
 
 44 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK government, was bestowed to preserve its uniformity. It was 
 _, r chiefly occupied by goldsmiths' shops, and care was taken to 
 
 all trades of a less splendid appearance. 1 
 No inference, therefore, can be drawn of the relative ad- 
 vancement in the arts and elegancies of life, or of society, 
 from the splendour displayed in civic processions, or from 
 the cumbrous though magnificent style of hospitality dis- 
 played by the comparatively few individuals who engrossed 
 the wealth and resources of the kingdom. It may even be 
 doubted whether the manner of living in these times among 
 the very lowest artisans does not evince more comfort and 
 cleanliness, though not more plenty, than was to be witnessed 
 in the houses of the most opulent tradesmen in the time of 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 The progress of Henry's reign was marked by bold and 
 continual efforts for the establishment of absolute power, 
 and the gradual extinction of those constitutional rights and 
 privileges which had begun to gain ground during the reign 
 of his predecessor. Able in capacity, and imperious in dis- 
 position, he was but too successful in triumphing over the 
 remonstrances and murmurs of his people at each encroach- 
 ment on their liberties ; which served only to indicate that 
 the spirit and principles of freedom existed in the nation, 
 though held in subjection ; and that the legal rights of the 
 subject were not altogether unknown or abandoned. Nothing 
 can more strongly testify the almost uncontrollable authority 
 of the king's will, than the arbitrary and fanciful innovations 
 Avhich he introduced into the system of national faith in- 
 novations so frequent and inconsistent with each other, that 
 it is not too much to say, the established doctrines of the 
 English Church were made to depend, as far as regarded the 
 outward conformity of the people, upon the royal interests 
 and passions, and even caprices. Indeed Hume does not 
 scruple to declare, that no prince in Europe was possessed of 
 such absolute authority as Henry. 2 
 
 The practice of imposing taxes without the consent of 
 
 1 Vide Orders, Proclamations, &c. ' Cheapside.' 
 
 upon this subject, collected passim in 2 Hume's Hist. ch. xxxi. and note 
 
 Maitland's Hist, of London, Index, title Y Y.
 
 HEXRY VIII. ILLEGAL TAXATION. 145 
 
 Parliament, that most dangerous stretch of the royal pre- 
 rogative, was again revived during this reign. These impo- 
 sitions were disguised under the names of loans and benevo- 
 lences ; but such were the demonstrations of discontent and 
 impatience on the part of the people, that the king ventured on 
 these invasions of their rights with the utmost caution. The 
 Parliament, however, of this period was too subservient to 
 complain of these infringements on the constitution; and 
 even the judges are said to have gone so far as to pronounce 
 the legality of the king's commissions to levy these taxes ;' 
 although by an Act of 1st Richard III. they were expressly 
 abolished. The only check, therefore, to the entire over- 
 throw of the liberties of the nation, was the opposition to 
 these measures which was manifested by the people them- 
 selves. The City of London was the first to evince a deter- 
 mination to resist these illegal demands. In 1525 a com- 
 mission was issued to levy a benevolence to enable the king 
 to carry on the war in France. The mayor and aldermen 
 were called before Wolsey, and directed by him to make the 
 necessary assessments. The recorder, upon this, intimated 
 it was contrary to the statute of Richard III. ; but this 
 objection was treated with the highest contempt by the 
 cardinal. The citizens then craved to consult the Common 
 Council upon the subject ; and that court, upon hearing all 
 the particulars, rejected the payment of this imposition with 
 indignation. This opposition of the City was so implicitly 
 followed by the country at large, that on this occasion the 
 king derived scarcely any other consequence from his attempt, 
 than that of raising the indignation of his subjects. 2 
 
 At the latter end of Henry's reign, when his authority was 
 more firmly established, an alderman of London absolutely 
 refused to comply with a similar demand : but such was the 
 power of prerogative assumed at this time, that for this 
 disobedience to the king's will the citizen was immediately 
 enrolled as a foot-soldier and sent off to the Scottish wars. 3 
 Another, who showed himself equally refractory, was cast 
 
 1 Hume : but he refers to no au- 1525. Hall's Chron. 
 thority. s Hall's Chron. A.D. 1545. 
 
 J Herbert's Life of Henry VTIL A.D. 
 
 L
 
 146 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK into prison, and compelled to ransom himself by a heavy 
 
 > r composition. 1 
 
 A to 1558 9 ^ *kis period the greatest possible animosity prevailed 
 against the foreign merchants and artisans ; who were very 
 numerous in London throughout this reign. 2 The citizens 
 eonceived the pursuing their occupations within the walls to 
 be not only prejudicial to their individual interests, but in 
 direct violation of their customs and charters which gave 
 them the privilege of exclusive trade. This privilege had, 
 indeed, been asserted time out of mind, and secured by the 
 authority of Parliament as well as by charter ; but, by the 
 introduction of various chartered companies of foreigners, 
 the various practices resorted to by others, and the frequent 
 grants of monopolies by the king, this privilege had from 
 time to time been very much encroached upon. 3 At last, so 
 great was the indignation of the citizens against foreigners, 
 that in the beginning of this reign a furious insurrection 
 broke out against them. Many of them were murdered, and 
 their houses plundered. It was with some difficulty that 
 this riot was eventually quelled. Upwards of 400 rioters 
 were taken prisoners, thirteen of whom were condemned for 
 high treason and executed : the rest, with ropes about their 
 necks, fell down on their knees before the king, who, as Hume 
 says, knew at that time how to pardon, and were dismissed 
 without punishment. 4 
 
 1 Goodwin's Annals. Hume's Hist. treat of City affairs and manners. It 
 h. xxxiii. was almost a proverbial allusion down 
 
 2 Fifteen thousand Flemings were to the reign of Charles II. May-day 
 obliged to leave London at one time by was for ages a kind of Saturnalian 
 order of Council. Le Grand, vol. iii. jubilee among the citizens, who used to 
 p. 232. collect in bands, according to their com- 
 
 3 An exposition of the privileges of panics and wards, and sally out, headed 
 the City of London in regard to exclusive by a mock nobility and mock officers, 
 .trade was published in 1821 by the into the adjacent fields to bring home 
 author, iu which the subject of the garlands for the City May-poles and to 
 encroachments of foreigners is fully practise sportschiefly archery. This 
 discussed. Vide also p. 188 et seq. and was called going a Maying. It was on 
 Book II. Ch. IV. pp. 334, 341. one of these occasions that the citizens 
 
 4 Fab. Chron. Hall's Chron. A.D. more than usually incited by the ' amor 
 1517. The day of this riot was long dapis atque pugnEe,' gave loose to their 
 known in the City by the name of Evil vengeance against the hapless foreigners. 
 May-day, and is constantly alluded to Maitland and Stow give a long account 
 by the older poets and others, who of this catas'.ropho. A ludicrous scene
 
 MAT-DAY REVELLIXGS. 
 
 147 
 
 It was in this reign that the Court of Conscience, or, as 
 it is now called, of Requests, was first established in London ; 
 
 in an old play of the year 1613, the 
 main drift of -which is to ridicule the 
 manners of the citizens and their pro- 
 pensity to mummery and shows, will 
 perhaps amuse the reader in its illustra- 
 tion of this custom of ^faying. 
 
 ' Citizen (addressing his apprentice, 
 RALPH). Come hither, Ralph; come 
 to thy mistress, boy. 
 
 ' Wife, Ralph, I would have thee call 
 all the youths together in battle-ray, 
 with drums, and guns, and flags, and 
 march to Mile-end in pompous fashion, 
 and there exhort your soldiers to be 
 merry and wise, and to keep their beards 
 from burning, Ralph ; and then skirmish 
 and let your flags fly, and cry " Kill, kill, 
 kill!" My husband shall lend you his 
 jerkin, Ralph, and there's a scarf; for 
 the rest, the house shall furnish you, 
 and we'll pay for't. Do it bravely, 
 Ralph; and think before whom you 
 perform, and what person you represent. 
 
 'Ralph. I warrant you, mistress; if 
 I do it not, for the honour of the City, 
 and the credit of my master, let me 
 never hope for freedom! 
 
 ' Wife. Tis well spoken, i' faith ! Go 
 thy ways ; thou art a spark indeed. 
 
 ' Cit. Ralph, Ralph, double your files 
 bravely, Ralph! 
 
 ' Ralph. I warrant you, sir. [Exit. 
 
 ' Cit. Let him look narrowly to his 
 service ; I shall take him else. I was 
 there myself a pikeman once, in the 
 hottest of the day, wench ; had my 
 feather shot sheer away, the fringe of 
 my pike burnt off with powder, my pate 
 broken with a scouring stick, and yet, I 
 thank God, I am here. [Drums within. 
 
 ' Wife. Hark, George, the drums ! 
 
 ' Cit. Ran, tan, tan, tan, ran, tan ! 
 Oh, wench, an thou hadst but seen little 
 Ned of Aldgate, drum Ned, how h made 
 it roar again, and laid on like a tyrant, 
 and then struck softly till the ward came 
 up, and then thundered again, and 
 tog ether we go ! sa, sa, sa, " bounce,' 
 
 quoth the guns ! " courage, my hearts ! " 
 quoth the captains! "Saint George," 
 quoth the pikemen! and withal, here 
 they lay and there they lay ! and yet for 
 all this I am here, wench. 
 
 ' Wife. Be thankful for it, George ; 
 for indeed 'tis wonderful. 
 (Enter RALPH and his company, with 
 drums and colours.) 
 
 ' Ralph. March fair, my hearts ! lieu- 
 tenant, beat the rear up. Ancient, let 
 your colours fly ; but have a great care 
 of the butchers' hooks at Whiteehapel ; 
 thej have been the death of many a fair 
 ancient. Open your files that I may 
 take a view both of your persons and 
 'munition. Serjeant, call a muster. 
 
 ' Serf. A stand! William Hamerton, 
 pewterer! 
 
 'Ham. Here, captain. 
 
 'Ralph. A croslet and a Spanish 
 pike ! 'tis well Can you shake it with 
 a terror? 
 
 ' Ham. I hope so, captain. 
 
 ' Ralph. Charge upon me. 'Tis with 
 the weakest. Put more strength, Wil- 
 liam Hamerton, more strength. As you 
 were again. Proceed, serjeant. 
 
 ' Serj. George Greengoose, poulterer ! 
 
 ' Green. Here ! 
 
 ' Ralph. Let me see your piece, neigh- 
 bour Greengoose ; when was she shot in ? 
 
 ' Green. An't like you, master cap- 
 tain, I made a shot even now, partly to 
 scour her, and partly for audacitv. 
 
 4 Ralph. It should seem so, certainly ; 
 for her breath is yet inflamed. Besides, 
 there is a main fault in the touch-hole, 
 it runs and srinketh : and I tell you, 
 moreover, and believe it, ten such touch- 
 holes would breed the pox i' th' army. 
 Get you a feather, neighbour, get you a 
 feather, sweet oil, and paper, and your 
 piece may do well enough yet. Where's 
 your powder? 
 
 ' Green. Here. 
 
 ' Ralph. What, in a paper ? As I'm 
 a soldier and a gentleman it craves a
 
 148 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 :BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1509 
 
 to i5i>a. 
 
 which originally had jurisdiction to the amount only of 40s. 1 
 In the 10th year of the same reign, the taking of inquisitions 
 
 martial court ! You ought to die for 't. 
 Where's your horn ? Answer me to that. 
 
 ' Green. An't like you, sir, I was 
 oblivious. 
 
 ' Ralph. It likes me not you should 
 be so ; 'tis a shame for you, and a scan- 
 dal to all our neighbours, being a man 
 of worth and estimation, to leave your 
 horn behind you : I'm afraid 'twill breed 
 example. But let me tell you no more 
 on't. Stand till I view you all. What's 
 become o' th' nose of your flask ? 
 
 ' 1st Sold. Indeed-la, captain, 'twas 
 blown away with powder. 
 
 ' Ralph. Put on a new one at the 
 City's charge. Where's the stone of 
 this piece? 
 
 ' 2nd Sold. The drummer took it out to 
 light tobacco. 
 
 ' Ralph. 'Tis a fault, my friend ; put 
 it in again. You want a nose, and you 
 a stone ; Serjeant, take a note on't, for 
 I mean to stop it in the pay. Eemove 
 and march! [They march."] Soft and 
 fair, gentlemen, soft and fair ! Double 
 your files ; as you were ! faces about ! 
 Now, you .with the sodden face, keep in 
 there ! Look to your match, sirrah, it 
 will be in your fellow's flask anon. So ; 
 make a crescent now; advance your 
 pikes ; stand and give .ear.! Gentlemen, 
 countrymen, friends, and my fellow- 
 soldiers, I have brought you .this day 
 from the shops of sscurity, and the 
 counters of content, to measure out in 
 these furious fields, honour by the ell, 
 and prowess by the pound. Let it not, 
 oh ! let it not, I say, be told hereafter, 
 the noble issue of this City fainted ; but 
 bear yourselves in this fair action like 
 men, valiant men, and free men ! Fear 
 not the face of the enemy, nor the noise 
 jof the guns ; for believe me, brethren, 
 the rude rumbling of a brewer's cart is 
 far more terrible, of which you have a 
 daily experience : neither let the stink 
 of the powder offend you, since a more 
 valiant stink is nightly with you. 
 ' To a resolved mind, his home is every- 
 where : 
 
 I speak not this to take away 
 
 The hope of your return ; for you shall 
 
 (I do not doubt it), and that very 
 
 shortly, 
 Your loving wives again, and your 
 
 sweet children, 
 Whose care doth bear you company in 
 
 baskets. 
 Kemember then whose cause you have 
 
 in hand, 
 
 And, like a sort of true-born scavengers, 
 Scour me this famous realm of enemies. 
 
 ' I have no more to say but this : stand 
 to your tacklings, lads, and show to th' 
 world you can as well brandish a sword 
 as shake an apron. Saint George, and 
 on, my hearts ! 
 
 ' All. St. George ! St. George ! 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 ' Wife. 'Twas well done, Ealph ! I'll 
 send thee a cold capon a-field, and a 
 bottle of March beer ; and, it may be, 
 come myself to see thee. 
 
 ' Cit. Nell, the boy hath deceived me 
 much! I did not think it had been in 
 him. He has performed such a matter, 
 wench, that if I live, next year I'll have 
 him captain of the gallifoist, or I'll 
 want my will.' 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher : Knight of 
 the Burning Pestle. 
 
 Afterwards .Ralph, in a kind of bur- 
 lesque dying speech, says, giving an 
 account of his exploits : 
 'I then returned home, and thrust 
 
 myself 
 
 In action, and by all men chosen was 
 The Lord of May ; where I did flourish it 
 With scarfs aad rings and poesy in my 
 
 hand. 
 
 After this action I preferred was 
 And chosen City Captain at Mile-end, 
 With hat and feather and with leading 
 
 staff, 
 And trained my men and brought them 
 
 all off clear, 
 Save one man, that bewrayed him with 
 
 the noise, &c.' Ibid. 
 
 1 It was first established by Act of
 
 EDWARD VI. PROTECTOR SOMERSET. MARY. 149 
 
 by the king's justices, which by a charter of Edward III. was CHAP. 
 
 directed to be taken at St. Martin's-le-Grand, was granted , x. 
 
 to be taken at Guildhall instead, St. Martin's-le-Grand being \"\ l ff 
 oat of the civic jurisdiction. Another charter was also 
 granted in the 22nd year of this reign, but which was only 
 confirmatory of former grants in respect to the right of 
 weighing all merchandise imported. 1 
 
 The reign of Edward VI. and of his sister Mary may be 
 passed over with slight notice ; it being no part of the design 
 of this work to characterise either the qualities or measures 
 of the English princes, except so far as they may bear upon 
 the history of the civic constitution. It is plain that the 
 City still maintained the highest influence amidst the 
 political divisions of the government. The Duke of Somerset, 
 as Protector, had acquired at the beginning of Edward's, 
 reign almost the whole regal authority in his own person. 
 The lords associated with him in the administration were- 
 resolved to overthrow his ascendency, which had become- 
 generally unpopular. Their first precaution was to coalesce 
 with the City magistrates; who, at their instance > called, 
 together a Court of Common Council, in which it was pro- 
 posed to levy a force to be at the disposal of the lords, through, 
 whose assistance, it was hoped, the Protector would be 
 brought to account. This bold measure, though introduced 
 by the recorder, was, nevertheless, with some hesitation,, 
 rejected ; but the lord mayor and aldermen, with the cordial, 
 sanction of the court of Common Council, deputed one ofi 
 their members to represent their complaints to the king.. 
 The alderman executed his trust so emphatically in the 
 presence of the Protector himself, that he was fain to yield* 
 to the powerful combination against him, and was soon after 
 committed by his opponents to the Tower ; to which place 
 he was conducted by the citizens in a manner savouring very 
 much of a triumph. 2 
 
 Common council, 9th Hen. VIII., and years, largely extended on the model 
 
 afterwards by Act of 3rd James I. cap. of the general County Court Acts. 
 
 15. By later acts the jurisdiction has- ' Yide^osi, ' Charters.' 
 
 been increased to ol. The jurisdiction 2 Grafton's Chron. Engl. A.D. 1549. 
 
 of the Civic Courts over causes of Hayward's Life of Edward VI. Mait- 
 
 limited amount has been, in recent land, p. 240. Hollingshed, p. 1057.
 
 150 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LO3SDOJT. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1558 
 to 1603. 
 
 In the progress of Wyatt's rebellion, the particulars of 
 which can only be here made a matter of reference, Queen 
 Mary had great reason to apprehend the entire defection of 
 the City. This occasioned her such alarm, that, on the news 
 of Wyatt's approach, she suddenly repaired to the Guildhall ; 
 where she was met by the lord mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, 
 and the chief of the City companies. She then addressed 
 the citizens in a very conciliatory harangue which had the 
 good effect of preserving their allegiance ; on which at this 
 crisis it appeared very evident that the stability of her throne 
 altogether depended. 1 
 
 It was for a long time the fashion, in defiance of the most 
 palpable historical evidence, to extol the reign of Elizabeth 
 as a period in which the genuine principles of the English 
 Constitution prevailed in the highest purity, and characterised 
 all the measures of government. But we have only to refer 
 to the pages of Hume for an ample exposure of such un- 
 founded paneygric : and, although that historian may be 
 charged with an intention to propagate his own political 
 opinions, the records and authorities he refers to speak a 
 plain tale. The administration of justice had become, through 
 the various though partial enactments of Edward I. and 
 Edward III., comparatively regular and uniform : legis- 
 lative forms, when laws were professed to be enacted, were 
 duly observed ; but an obvious opinion must be inferred of 
 the spirit of that government, in which the powers of the 
 royal prerogative were neither ascertained or controlled ; and 
 in which Parliament had scarcely acquired the freedom of 
 debate. The unlimited authority which Henry VIII. had on 
 so many important occasions exercised was fresh in the 
 recollection of Elizabeth and of her submissive people ; and 
 she possessed too haughty a nature to resign more of it than 
 
 1 Stow, Ann. Eng. Speed's Hist. Brit, 
 It may be argued from this passage, that 
 the Livery, or meeting in Common Hall, 
 was considered the general representa- 
 tive assembly of the genuine citizens. 
 But this meeting must be considered as 
 called very suddenly together on a pecu- 
 liar emergency ; and it will be seen, in 
 
 examining into the origin and functions 
 of the assembly in Common Hall, that 
 it cannot be considered as entitled to 
 such regard. This meeting is not re- 
 corded even among those of the Com- 
 mon Hal], as in such case it would have 
 been.
 
 ELIZABETH. ASSUMPTIONS OF ROYAL PREROGATIVES; 151 
 
 the circumstances of the times were calculated to wrest CHAP. 
 
 VTTT 
 
 gradually from her hands. Throughout her reign she . 1^_ 1^ 
 laboured to rule rather by prerogative than by law ; and was A t ' " 16 0sf 
 notoriously disinclined to parliaments. She endeawured 
 to restrict the functions of that assembly within limits which 
 would have implied that its members were merely her dis- 
 cretionary advisers. All state affairs, she informed them,, 
 were not there to lie meddled with. 1 She even proceeded so far 
 as expressly to forbid certain discussions ; though involving 
 the most important considerations which could possibly 
 occupy the attention of a legislature ; namely, those concern- 
 ing the national religion, and the succession to the Crown. 2 
 From this formidable assumption of prerogative, however,, 
 she had the prudence decently to retire;, and it must be 
 confessed, that in spite of the prevalent subserviency of" 
 Parliament, many indications of independence in that house 
 may be discovered in the speeches of some of the members. 
 
 The prerogatives which, as exercised throughout this reign,, 
 were most hostile to the just liberty of the subject may be 
 shortly summed up. Elizabeth had continual recourse to the 
 jurisdiction of the Star Chamber a jurisdiction altogether 
 unlimited and undefined in its extent, its process, its mode of 
 trial, and its judgments. The Court of High Commission, 
 established on her sole authority for the trial of all offences 
 in matters of religion,, that is-, all aberrations in faith from 
 one arbitrary standard, as well as many moral transgressions 
 deemed of ecclesiastical cognisance,, was an Inquisition in. 
 its worst sense. It was discretionary in all its powers, both 
 f investigation and of punishment. Martial law was fre- 
 quently ordered to be put in force upon all offenders whom 
 the queen determined to consider as- promoting disorders or 
 mutiny in the government. But of all the privileges assumed 
 by the Crown in this age, none were more prejudicial to the 
 national interests or more offensive to the body of the people, 
 than the power of dispensing with, and even of indirectly 
 enacting, laws by royal proclamations, and that of granting- 
 exclusive monopolies to favourites and purchasers by royal 
 
 1 Hume, ch-xl. . 2 Hume, chaps, xxxix, xli.xlu.
 
 .02 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK patents. By the latter, the Crown arrogated no less a right 
 
 , ; . than that of circumscribing at discretion the private wealth 
 
 to 160? of a ^ tne industrious individuals of the kingdom, by absolute 
 interference with the profits of their labour : by the former, it 
 is plain that the engrossment of the whole authority of the 
 legislature was despotically aimed at. 
 
 Under such a dynasty it is apparent that the condition of 
 the people must have depended altogether on the accidental 
 qualities of the ruler ; and these, it must be acknowledged, 
 were, in regard to Elizabeth, of a description eminently 
 successful in promoting her own prosperity and that of her 
 subjects. Frugal in the highest degree in all her expenditure, 
 both public and private, and cautiously abstaining from all 
 unnecessary wars, she avoided that common stumbling-block 
 to the authority of monarchs occasioned by burthensome tax- 
 ation. Sagacious in the choice of wise ministers, she 
 maintained, through their agency, that just equilibrium, 
 between popular concession and coercive severity, as to 
 ensure the greatest deference to all her measures. By a 
 sedulous attention to the ports and shipping, she may be 
 said to have restored the naval glory of England ; and by 
 the promotion of commercial speculations (however ignorantly 
 and imperfectly regulated) she diffused a vast increase of 
 wealth and industry amongst her people. Her success in 
 effectually humbling her powerful enemies, while it flattered 
 the high spirit of the nation, at the same time preserved it 
 from the degradation and disasters of foreign conquest. But 
 above all, generous and intrepid in her disposition, she 
 ever manifested that personal confidence in the attachment 
 of her peojl3, with which it is a quality in human nature 
 itself under any circumstances to be fascinated. It is to 
 these peculiarities in the character of Elizabeth, and in that 
 of the times, rather than to the forms of government which 
 prevailed, or the enjoyment of anything like pure constitu- 
 tional liberty by the people, that we must attribute the 
 universal popularity which attended this glorious reign 
 
 1 It was a saying of Queen Elizabeth's of her private demesnes and even her 
 that 'her purse was the pockets of her crown jewels, to support a necessary 
 people.' On one occasion she sold many war.
 
 ELIZABETH. ASSUMPTIONS OF PREROGATIVES. 153~ 
 
 a popularity which, being faithfully handed down to pos- CHAP. 
 
 terity, has served to blind those who are not careful to ,~^ 
 
 distinguish between the qualities of the governor and those \^\ 1 6 Q ^ 
 of the government itself. 
 
 No class of her subjects were more cordially attached to 
 Elizabeth than the citizens of London. It was this attach- 
 ment, perhaps, as well as reverence for her administration, 
 which induced them cheerfully to submit to several measures 
 interfering not a little with their chartered rights. Indeed, 
 it is not to be denied, but that some of the proceedings of 
 the civic authorities themselves were hardly to be justified 
 in point of law, a consideration which might reasonably 
 render them less inquisitive into those emanating from a 
 higher source. 
 
 Elizabeth exercised the prerogative of impressment as well 
 for land as for sea service. In the assertion of this power, the 
 lord mayor was directed by her letters to keep within the 
 City a standing body of select citizens always well instructed 
 in military discipline. In obedience to this command, that 
 magistrate issued his precept to the respective companies to 
 furnish the required quota, to which they duly attended. 1 
 On the first intelligence of the Spanish invasion, she required 
 a body of troops to be instantly raised, which demand was 
 readily complied with by the companies, who sent 5,000 men 
 into encampment. 2 She subsequently demanded 1 0,000 more 
 troops by a letter to the lord mayor ; upon which it was 
 resolved in Common Council that the aldermen should raise 
 these soldiers by impressment in their respective wards. 3 In 
 the same way, 38 ships were supplied. 4 Illegal and uncon- 
 stitutional as these acts were, particularly with reference to 
 the chartered privileges of the citizens, it must be confessed 
 that the occasion furnished an excuse for the measures ; and 
 at all events, whatever blame may belong to them, must be 
 shared between the queen and those who put her commands 
 into execution. 5 
 
 1 Hollingshed, A.D. 1572. was but a prelude to many other similar 
 
 * Maitland, vol. i. p. 269. demands. 
 
 3 Act of Common Council, an. 1587. * The practice of impressment both 
 
 4 Maitland, vol i.pp. 274,282. This for land and sea sen-ice was exercised
 
 154 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 T. 
 
 A.D. 1558 
 to 1603. 
 
 The riots in the streets of London, which from various 
 causes, but more particularly from jealousy against foreign 
 settlers, had become common throughout many preceding 
 reigns, grew to a great height in this ; and were chiefly 
 fomented by the apprentices. 1 In the early part of it, 
 
 as a prerogative right from the most 
 ancient periods of the English history. 
 The latter right, though often disputed 
 as unconstitutional, has been clearly 
 established by many decisions, as 
 founded on immemorial usage and the 
 necessities of the state. The right of 
 impressment for land service, though 
 it may be equally vindicated on the 
 ground of immemorial usage, can hardly 
 be said ever to have been sanctioned by 
 law, except in the cases of civil wars, 
 on which emergencies the state necessity 
 must supersede every other considera- 
 tion. These emergencies having happily 
 long ceased to arise, and the military 
 establishment of the nation having been 
 long placed under legislative regula- 
 tions, all questions upon the subject of 
 land impressments may be considered as 
 practically closed. Both laud and sea 
 service are excluded from the obliga- 
 tions of the London citizens, who by 
 their charter are not compellable to 
 war out of the City (vide Book II. Ch. 
 IV. p. 344). Neither usage or any other 
 principle of English law, however, gave 
 the sovereign a right to demand a supply 
 of ships, soldiers, or armaments from 
 any class of the people. Vide Blacks. 
 Comm. vol. i. p. 240, and authorities ; 
 Christian's edition. 
 
 1 No subject of allusion is more com- 
 mon, or more depictive of the riotous 
 state of the City in these times, than 
 that of the disorderly manners of the 
 citizens, and more particularly of the 
 apprentices, on festival days, by the 
 dramatists of the day. It appears that 
 the apprentices formed a sort of con- 
 federacy among themselves to resent 
 attacks upon them, or any real or im- 
 aginary affronts, and were all provided 
 witii clubs; armed with which, upon any 
 sudden call from their fellows in the 
 
 streets, they leaped from their open 
 penthouse shops and rushed to the fray. 
 Thus Shakespeare, in his 'Henry the 
 Eighth,' puts the following words into 
 the mouths of a porter and his man who 
 are defending the palace gate against 
 the influx of the rabble. 
 
 'Man. There is a fellow somewhat 
 near the door, he should be a brazier. 
 
 That firedrakedid I hit three times 
 
 on the head. There was a haber- 
 dasher's wife, of small wit, near him, 
 that railed upon me till her pinked 
 
 porringer fell off her head. 1 missed 
 
 the meteor once, and hit that woman, 
 who cried out clubs ! when I might see 
 from far some forty truncheoneers draw 
 to her succour, which were the hope of 
 the Strand, where she was quartered. 
 They fell on, &c. 
 
 'Porter. These are the youths that 
 thunder at a playhouse, and fight for 
 bitten apples.' 
 
 Again, in a play of the date 1604, a 
 mercer being struck, his servant ex- 
 claims 
 
 ' George. 'Sfoot. Clubs ! Clubs ! 
 
 Prentices, down with 'em ! 
 Ah, you rogues, strike a citizen in his 
 
 shop ! ' 
 
 Deckar: Honest Whore, 1604. 
 
 In another play of the same period, 
 Staines (a young gallant) addresses a 
 citizen thus : 
 
 ' Staines. Sirrah, by your outside yci* 
 
 seem a citizen, 
 "Whose coxcomb I were apt enough to 
 
 break 
 But for the law. Go, you're a prating 
 
 Jack. 
 Nor is't your hope of crying out for 
 
 dubs. 
 Can save you.' 
 
 Cook: Green's Tu qnoq/tc, 1611.
 
 ELIZABETH. STREET RIOTS. APPRENTICES. CLUBS. 
 
 155^ 
 
 Elizabeth had found it expedient to issue a joint commission 
 to the lord mayor and several of the courtiers, who were ' to 
 ' devise by all good means to prevent and stay disorders ' l 
 (such was the undefined quality of their powers). This 
 assumption of jurisdiction was apparently neither complained 
 of nor disputed by the civic authorities. Afterwards, how- 
 ever, the queen ventured upon a much more formidable 
 exercise of prerogative. She issued a commission empowering 
 Sir Thomas Wilford, as provost marshal, to execute martial 
 law instantly upon any persons marked out as disorderly by 
 any justice of peace in London, after examination, by hang- 
 ing them on the gibbet nearest to their supposed offences. 2 
 What, in these times, may perhaps excite the highest surprise 
 is, that the lord mayor himself, not unadvisedly it may be 
 presumed, sent to the lord treasurer a letter, distinctly 
 
 Again, Gazet (a citizen) is struck, and 
 is made to exclaim 
 
 Gazet. The devil knaw off his fingers. 
 
 If he were 
 In London among the dubs, up went his 
 
 heels 
 For striking an apprentice' 
 
 Massinger: Rentgado, 1624. 
 
 And a young gentleman, quarrelling 
 in the street, thus addresses himself to 
 his antagonist : 
 
 ' Ptenfy. Walk into Moorfields, 
 
 I dare look upon your Toledo. Do not 
 
 show 
 A foolish Talour in the streets, to 
 
 make 
 
 Work for shopkeepers and their clubs' 
 Massinger: City Madam, 1632. 
 
 In allusion to similar kinds of boister- 
 ous merriment, Ralph, a City apprentice, 
 who has been figuring away in the bur- 
 lesque style in a variety of civic doings, 
 is made to express himself in a sort of 
 dying speech thus: 
 
 'Ralph. Farewell, all you good boys 
 
 of merry London ! 
 Ne'er shall we more upon Shrove 
 
 Tuesday meet 
 
 And pluck down houses of iniquity. 
 1 shall never more 
 
 Hold open, while another pumps, both 
 
 legs; 
 
 Nor daub a satin gown with rotten 
 eggs-' 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher: Knight of 
 
 the Burning P stle, 1613. 
 In the same vein. Spendall, a young 
 City gallant, exclaims : 
 
 * Spendall. I do not think but to be 
 lord mayor. Prentices may pray for 
 that time ; for whenever it happens, I 
 will make another Shrove Tuesday for 
 them.' Cook: Green's Tuqitoque, 1614. 
 
 One, speaking of a morose citizen, a 
 lover of silence, says of him : 
 
 ' Gerimant. He (Morose) would have 
 hanged apewterer's prentice on a Shrove 
 Tuesdays riot, for being o' that trade, 
 when the rest were quit.' 
 
 Jonson: Epicene, 1699. 
 
 And this morose gentleman himself 
 thus apostrophises some persons quar- 
 relling in the streets : 
 
 ' Morose. Rogues, Hell-hounds, Sten- 
 tors, out of my doors, begot on an ill 
 May day.' Ibid. 
 
 1 Maitland, vol. i. p. 262. City 
 Records, passim. 
 
 * Stow. An. Engl.
 
 156 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK requesting the grant of this extraordinary commission ; in 
 
 ' r pursuance of which no fewer than five persons were executed. 1 
 
 A to 1603 8 -"- n an ther attempt of the queen to interfere with the civic 
 government, the citizens evinced a much better feeling, and 
 no small degree of spirit, considering the temper of the times. 
 Elizabeth had lately promoted the recorder, on which occa- 
 sion she directed the lord keeper to apprise the court of 
 aldermen of her wish to have the names of several lawyers 
 sent to her by them, in order that she might approve one out 
 of them as a successor. The proceeding was, on the whole, 
 insidiously and delicately managed ; but the object of engross- 
 ing within her own influence the appointment was too plain 
 to be mistaken. Some members of the Common Council 
 having by rumour become acquainted with what was going 
 forward, a Court was on their request suddenly summoned, 
 and an earnest entreaty made to the aldermen, independently, 
 to choose one man only, according to ancient custom ; which 
 was accordingly done. A submissive letter was then sent to 
 the lord treasurer, stating the name of the person chosen, 
 with an account of the proceedings of the Common Council ; 
 and at the same time vindicating this their important and 
 most undoubted privilege. 2 Elizabeth did not deem it con- 
 sistent with her prudence to insist any further on her pre- 
 tension ; but silently acquiesced in the nomination. 
 
 Sumptuary proclamations were not unfrequently made at 
 this time against luxurious extravagance in apparel ; 3 and 
 frequent Acts of Common Council passed, deploring in 
 lamentable terms and denouncing the same sinful excess 
 amongst the inferior orders and the apprentices. 4 One, which 
 passed in the year 1582, on this subject, specifies in detail 
 the garments, composed of the coarsest and plainest materials, 
 to be worn by the apprentices ; and all others were fprbidden 
 upon pain of whipping, fine, and imprisonment. 
 
 1 Maitland, voL i. p. 278. Stow, An. 3 Camden, p. 452. 
 
 Engl. 4 Hodge's By-laws of the City of 
 
 2 Stow's Surrey. Maitland, vol. i. London, 
 p. 279.
 
 157 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF TRADE GENERALLY IN ENGLAND 
 AND IN THE CUT. 
 
 THE encouragement of trade has been alluded to as one of CHAP, 
 the main objects of Elizabeth's measures. Indeed, such im- ^_ r '_^ 
 portant advances were made during her reign in this ex- A t ' D ' 16 Q3 8 
 tensive department of national prosperity, that it may be 
 considered an era in the commercial history of the country. 
 Some particulars on this subject have already been men- 
 tioned : but it may not be inexpedient to institute a more 
 general though succinct review of our mercantile advance- 
 ment, in which the civic history and privileges are so mate- 
 rially involved. It is to be observed, however, that such 
 an examination is conducted in reference only to the effects 
 produced on the trade of the City of London; nor can it, 
 indeed, otherwise apply in a work professedly confined to 
 the consideration of its local constitution, privileges, and 
 customs. 
 
 Whatever commerce may have been carried on in the earlier 
 ages of British history by foreigners visiting the English 
 shores, it may safely be pronounced, that the natives engaged 
 no further in it, than by supplying raw materials to their 
 customers. This may even be gathered from the language of 
 those ancient writers who are lavish in panegyrising the 
 trade of London at various periods under the British, Roman, 
 and Saxon dynasties. They invariably speak of London 
 merely as the frequent resort of merchants from distant 
 nations. 
 
 According to Anderson, the English did not begin to build 
 ships until Alfred engaged them in that art for the purpose
 
 158 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1558 
 to 1603. 
 
 of opposing the Danes. 1 Afterwards, when the kingdom 
 became tranquil, he let vessels to foreign merchants ; 2 a plain 
 proof how little of the spirit of mercantile enterprise, in the 
 sense of commerce with foreign nations, existed among his 
 own subjects. This inference is still further corroborated by 
 that remarkable law already alluded to, 3 as enacted by his 
 grandson Athelstan by which any merchant who made 
 three sea voyages was to be ennobled. Edgar is said to have 
 possessed a most enormous navy ; 4 but the exaggerations of 
 the monks (the only historians of the age), to whom this 
 prince had endeared himself by his lavish grants, have been 
 sufficiently confuted as well in this as in many other 
 instances. 5 Not a word, however, is mentioned by any of 
 them, in regard to English commerce. A list of tolls paid 
 by foreign vessels and merchandise in the reign of Ethel- 
 red II. is preserved by Howell, which shows that the im- 
 ports were considerable ; but a clause inserted that ' the 
 ' Emperor's men, 6 who might buy in their ships, were not to 
 f forestall the markets from the burghers of London ' evi- 
 dently implies that their trading was not to interfere with 
 the more local and internal dealings by retail of the 
 Londoners, 7 which appear entirely to have occupied the 
 attention of the latter. 
 
 The system of feudal tenures established at the Conquest 
 was peculiarly unfavourable to mercantile pursuits. The 
 whole community, with the exception of a few towns, may be 
 said under that polity to have consisted of landed proprietors 
 and their slaves, or villeins. It is not to be supposed that 
 men, while subjected to the latter dependent condition, would 
 feel any interest or inclination to embark in commercial avo- 
 cations ; especially while the accumulation of property was 
 likely to serve only as an allurement to plunder. The first 
 step towards improvement in the national trade and manu- 
 
 1 Anderson's Hist. Comm. Introd. 
 p. 80. 
 
 Ibid. p. 83. 
 
 Page 21. 
 
 Four thousand ships, say some of 
 
 th 
 
 monks. 
 
 Hume, Appendix II. : and note C. 
 
 Anderson's Hist. Comm. 95. 
 
 6 The merchants of the Steelyard, as 
 is well conjectured. Anderson's Hist. 
 Comm. pp. 98, 99 ; vide Ch. IX. 
 
 7 Anderson's Hist. Comm. p. 98. 
 Howell's Londinopolis.
 
 SLOW PROGRESS IN MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. 159 
 
 factures was the emancipation of the greater towns from the CHAP. 
 thraldom of a tenure strictly in demesne, and the acquisition _^_- 
 of those local privileges conferred from time to time by which ^'jg^ 8 
 their independence, in arbitrary times, was mainly sustained. 
 
 Under these circumstances it is not a matter for surprise 
 that even the exportation of raw materials, as well as the 
 importation of merchandise, had gradually passed into the 
 hands of foreigners and foreign settlers. It is equally certain 
 that the people of England did not, until the reign of Edward 
 I., cultivate any manufactures for the purpose of wholesale 
 trade. 1 Most of the manufactured articles, even the woollen 
 (which was the earliest they engaged in), were imported ; 
 and it appears that the internal trade in these articles was 
 very largely shared by foreigners. 2 It is true, that many of 
 the useful arts of life were practised, and necessarily so, by 
 the English. "We have notice of the existence of the Weavers' 
 Guild or Company as early as the reign of Henry I. ; 3 and 
 there is reason to think there were many others at that 
 period. 4 We have had occasion to observe, that the division 
 of different classes of the people into guilds or associations 
 for various objects, was common in early times. 5 But it does 
 not appear that any of them ever carried on any particular, 
 and much less any joint, wholesale trade. The members of 
 such as were associated for the purposes of trade, it may be 
 believed, confined themselves, for the most part, to the supply 
 of the manufactures required by the immediate necessities of 
 those around them. And during the periods of the Barons' 
 wars, such manufactures were almost altogether superseded 
 by those of foreigners. 6 
 
 In the year 1169 was first formed, as near as can be ascer- 
 tained, 7 that association so long famous under the name of 
 the Hanseatic league, a name derived from the Gothic Hansa, 
 
 1 Hall on Customs. HargraTe's privileges under Henry L 
 
 Tracts, part iii. c. 5, 6. Vide p. 25, note 2 ; and p. 59 ; post, 
 
 * Stat. Merchant of Winchester. 313. 
 
 Edward L which speaks of them as * Ibid, 
 
 settled in London, York, and Bristol. Hale's Origination of Mankind. 
 
 1 HowelTs Londinop. p. 123, quoting And. Hist. Comm. vol. i. p. 132. 
 
 a charter of Henry II. which refers to T And. Hist. Comm. TO!, i. p. 161. 
 the Weavers' Company as enjoying
 
 160 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 signifying a multitude or convention. 1 It was composed 
 originally of the number of twelve towns situate on the Baltic 
 shores, at the head of which was Lubeck ; but it subsequently 
 comprised sixty-four, some say seventy-two, others eighty, of 
 the noblest towns and cities in Germany, Sweden, and the 
 Netherlands. 2 This confederacy, about the year 1200, chose 
 for their protector the Grand Master of the German Knights 
 of the Cross or of the Teutonic Order, the governor of a very 
 powerful republican body settled in Livonia under that appel- 
 lation ; and which subsisted in full strength until the yen* 
 1525. The foundation of this association was suggested by 
 an anxiety for mutual protection against pirates ; but in pro- 
 cess of time, after their gradual accumulation of riches, the 
 confederated towns assumed in a great measure independent 
 governments, and contrived, by the politic employment of 
 funds raised by common contributions, to gain a firm footing 
 in most of the nations of Europe. They, at the same time, 
 acquired such valuable and distinguishing privileges, as to 
 enable them to engross nearly the whole trade of the countries 
 in which they were settled. 
 
 In the time of Henry III. they obtained a charter, by 
 which their settlement in England was distinctly authorised. 3 
 There is reason to believe, however, that they were settled in 
 London before his reign at a place called the Steelyard, from 
 the nature of the traffic carried on there, and from which 
 place they derived their denomination of the Merchants of 
 the Steelyard. 3 It is certain that either he or his son Edward 
 I., not only granted them the liberty of constant residence, 
 but also the privilege of exemption from any but a specific 
 and very moderate custom ; some say one per cent, others 
 only a quarter. 3 The custom, whatever it might be, was 
 lower than that subsequently paid by the English themselves, 
 which was a peculiar distinction in their favour ; and so con- 
 tinued until these merchants were finally deprived of such 
 unjust advantages by Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. 4 It 
 is universally agreed amongst the German writers, that the 
 
 1 Spelm. Gloss. Lye's Gothic Diet. s Ibid. vol. i. pp.211, 227, ami 
 
 2 And. Hist. Comm. vol. i. p. 344 ; authorities. 
 
 vol. ii. pp. 35, 134. Ibid. vol. i. pp. 421, 422.
 
 COMPANIES OP FOREIGN MERCHANTS. 161 
 
 grants so obtained were in consideration of services rendered 
 in war by the Hanseatic ships. 1 These confederates were no 
 sooner established, than they drew to themselves almost the 
 -whole of the foreign trade of England ; the English neither 
 having then, nor for a very long time afterwards, any vessels 
 of their own.* 
 
 There existed at this period another society, composed also 
 entirely of foreigners (who may, however, have been likewise 
 merchants of the Steelyard), called the Merchants of the 
 Staple. 3 They were so named, from their dealing in parti- 
 cular commodities termed the Staples of England. These 
 staple commodities were the raw produce of the kingdom, as 
 lead, tin, wool, &c., 4 but the term came to be applied at last 
 almost solely to wool, which was the chief of them. The 
 reason of such commodities being denominated staples was, 
 that fairs and markets were established in particular towns 
 and ports from time to time for the sale of these articles, 
 either as the most convenient for intercourse, or for the 
 collection of the king's customs. 5 In these early times, almost 
 every species of sale, wholesale as well as retail, was conducted 
 in open markets ; 6 which may have given rise to the legal 
 position, that all London is a market overt ; though for 
 several subsequent centuries, and until late years, the area of 
 it was almost entirely occupied by private retail shops. All 
 wholesale trade continued to be so conducted until the reign 
 of Charles II.; the prevalence of which course of traffic, 
 whether by wholesale or retail, may be attributed, not 
 so much perhaps to an anxiety for the accommodation of 
 the dealers, as to the ancient practice of the great barons, 
 as well as the kings, in exacting arbitrary duties on the 
 
 1 And. Hist. Com. voL i. pp. 211, 227. Exposition of the Privileges of the City 
 
 * Ibid. Yol. i. p. 232. Vide a list of London. This was a pamphlet pul> 
 of customs paid by the Londoners for lished in the year 1821, upon the ex- 
 half a year amounting only to 76/.; but elusive privileges of trading within the 
 whether paid by English or settlers does City of London and of course long ago 
 not appear. out of print. The authorities referred 
 
 * Ibid. vol. i. pp. 216, 231. to are Acts of Com. Council, temp. 
 4 Ibid, quoting Malyne's Lei Merca- Elizabeth, James L and Charles I. 
 
 toria. 5 Coke's Rep. 62. Hutchins v. Player, 
 
 * Ibid, and vol. i. p. 315. Sir S. Bridgman's Rep. by Bannister, 
 
 * Authorities collected in Norton's p. 274.
 
 162 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK transit of goods amongst their dependent tenants in 
 
 r - demesne. 1 
 
 A to'i603 8 Besides these two bodies of foreign merchants, who were 
 regularly associated, as incorporated companies, many others, 
 chiefly Lombards, were settled in different parts of England, 
 and carried on a very considerable trade both external and 
 internal. 2 The English, and more particularly the Lon- 
 doners, instead of profiting by the instruction to be derived 
 from these strangers in the arts of manufacture and of com- 
 merce, and endeavouring to compete with them, cherished 
 feelings of the most rancorous jealousy and hatred against 
 them. Envious of their wealth, and regardless of the bene- 
 ficial methods by which it was obtained, they believed that 
 the prosperity of these foreigners was acquired entirely at 
 the expense of the citizens, and, not content with de- 
 nouncing the special and unjust privileges granted in their 
 favour, they for some centuries endeavoured to procure the 
 most iniquitous and persecuting laws against them. 
 
 Edward I. appears to have had in view the encouragement 
 of commerce and manufactures amongst his subjects, though 
 it is too much to say that his mercantile laws were passed 
 for that sole object. In his reign the first statute was passed 
 for the repair of highways, 3 the greatest of all steps towards 
 progress of internal commerce. Several statutes also passed 
 to facilitate the internal traffic of foreign merchants of all 
 nations settled in England, particularly in respect to the 
 recovery of debts, 4 in spite of the remonstrance of the citizens 
 of London and other places. The English company of 
 Merchant Adventurers was formed in London towards the 
 close of his reign, and first attempted the commencement of 
 a woollen manufacture in England. They had a staple allowed 
 them at Antwerp 5 for raw produce, particularly of wool, to 
 which cloths were also admitted. 
 
 It was not, however, till the reign of Edward III. that the 
 woollen manufactures of England arrived at such perfection 
 
 1 Mad. Hist. Exch. passim. * Stats, of Acton Burnell, and of 
 
 * And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. pp. 236, Winchester 2nd. 
 
 253, 295 ; and quotation from the Charta s And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. pp. 253, 
 
 Mercatoria, p. 258. 466. 
 3 Stat. 13th Edward I. cap. 5.
 
 PROGRESS OP HOME MANUFACTURES. 163 
 
 as to produce cloths in any considerable quantity for exporta- 
 tion. 1 At this period the English company of merchant 
 adventurers began in a great degree to supersede the foreign 
 merchants of the staple, by buying up large quantities of 
 wool for their own factories, instead of leaving it for the 
 latter to purchase for the supply of the continent. 2 The 
 trades with Bruges in English-made cloths largely increased. 3 
 This improvement and increase of our manufactures must 
 be entirely attributed to the great encouragement given by 
 Edward HL to foreign weavers and artificers, great numbers 
 of whom settled in many parts of England, and particularly 
 in London, Norwich, and Worsted a place in Norfolk, of 
 which not a. vestige now remains, but which gave the name 
 to the manufacture of Worsted. 4 They were opposed and 
 insulted by the Londoners with great animosity ; but found 
 ample protection in their royal patron. 5 
 
 Notwithstanding these efforts for the extension of com- 
 merce, the restraints arising from the assumed and latent 
 powers of the king's prerogative tended to confine it within 
 very narrow limits. The arbitrary authority of the great 
 barons over the property and pursuits of their dependants 
 was somewhat curbed; but still enough remained in the 
 king, at this period and long subsequently, and was so exer- 
 cised, from motives of caprice and private favour, from 
 mistaken policy, or from motives of extortion, as to occasion 
 the greatest uncertainty and insecurity in all commercial 
 avocations. 6 He assumed an unlimited discretion in the 
 regulation of all trade, both internal and external. 6 Per- 
 mission to engage in it was to be sought at his hands, and 
 usually to be paid for. 6 He erected what companies and 
 associations he pleased with exclusive privileges of trade, not 
 only with certain places, but in particular articles : 6 and it 
 was by no means unusual for these companies to be composed 
 
 1 And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. pp. 305, staples. Ibid. p. 479. 
 323, 326. * Ibid. vol. i. p. 342. 
 
 * Ibid. vol. i. p. 342. The merchants * Ibid. vol. i. pp. 297, 298, 305, 320, 
 
 of the staple, however, subsequently et passim. 
 claimed to compete with the merchant 5 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 317, 355. 
 adventurers in the sale of cloths, as well Hume's App. 2nd ; and Madox 
 
 as the commodities properly termed Hist. Exch. ch. saii passim.
 
 164 . HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK entirely of foreigners. 1 Tolls 011 bridges were fixed at 
 ^_ / _^ pleasure ; customs and duties 011 exports and imports were 
 A IO 1603 8 ar bitrary ; l as well as those which were levied at markets 
 and fairs, until most of the boroughs purchased the liberty of 
 farming them at a fixed rent. 2 There can be no doubt 
 whatever may be thought of the policy in regard to the 
 majority of the exclusive privileges granted to many cities 
 that those which conferred liberties and exemptions from 
 these effects of arbitrary power, which form such conspicuous 
 features in many of their early charters, must have very 
 essentially conduced to commercial improvement. It will also 
 appear that the mercantile prosperity of the nation at large 
 increased, as the exercise of these royal prerogatives abated. 
 
 Many of the statutes passed for the regulation of trade in 
 these times, and many even of those passed ostensibly for its 
 encouragement, were but little calculated for its benefit. In 
 particular several clauses may be mentioned in the Statutes 
 Staple, 3 as they are called, which provided for the sole trade 
 in staple commodities at fixed places, instead of leaving it to 
 that vent which the convenience of those concerned would 
 naturally suggest. These measures were often adopted as 
 means of corrupt favour to particular towns, and sometimes 
 of oppression to others the private emolument of the king 
 being usually the chief inducement. 4 With this view a staple 
 for the port of London was erected by Edward III. at West- 
 minster, to the great advantage of the latter and proportionate 
 detriment of the former. 5 This mart, however, continued 
 there but a few years. 6 
 
 Another statute 7 was framed, to oblige foreigners to receive 
 staple goods in exchange for their manufactures. Nothing 
 could be more prejudicial than this enactment to the ad- 
 vancement of our own trade, or more partial in its policy. 
 But on the whole, the manufactures of cloth continued 
 gradually to improve and increase ; the clothing trade was, 
 at first, chiefly carried on in London ; but in the reign of 
 
 1 Hume's App. 2nd ; and Madox 4 And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. pp. 326, 
 Hist. Exch. ch. ^.in. passim. 497. 
 
 2 Ibid. ; and Mad. Firm. Burg. Vide s Ibid. TO!, i. pp. 333, 334. 
 also supra, pp. 43, 44, Ibid. vol. i. p. 367. 
 
 3 Particularly those of Edward III. Stat. 14th Richard II. cap. 9.
 
 INCREASE OF ENGLISH MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 165 
 
 Richard II. it had removed to the adjacent counties, and CHAP, 
 subsequently to those more remote. 1 , 
 
 At this period we find some English merchants had settled A ^ jeos" 8 
 themselves in the Prussian Hans Towns ; 8 and by a statute 
 passed in the reign of Richard II., 3 which provided that 
 English merchants should ship only in English bottoms, we 
 may observe that some attention began to be directed to the 
 shipping trade. It is certain, however, from other authentic 
 records, that this statute could have had but very little 
 operation 4 in promoting a spirit of foreign commerce amongst 
 the English, and that they had scarcely yet ventured with 
 their ships into the Mediterranean. 5 Throughout the reigns 
 of Henry IV. and Henry V. mention is made of English 
 vessels trading to France ; and as the only ships used in 
 these times for naval warfare 5 were those belonging to mer- 
 chants, this circumstance alone may sufficiently explain why 
 the employment of English bottoms should have become a 
 subject of national policy. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VI. the list of manufactures had 
 very much increased, particularly in respect to the variety of 
 woollens, which began to be more valued as articles of export 
 commerce. 6 The merchants of the staple alone paid for 
 customs in one year 68,OOOZ., according to the valuation of 
 that period, 7 though their share of the trade in staple articles 
 and woollens can hardly have equalled that of the merchant 
 adventurers, and merchants of the Steelyard. In the next 
 reign we find a statute passed, in furtherance of the old 
 mercantile theories presently to be noticed, to prohibit the 
 importation of a vast number of foreign manufactures 8 as 
 obstructing the sale of our own. 
 
 It had been provided by the Statutes Merchant (as they 
 
 And. Hist, of Com. voL i. p. 404. mention of any English trading to 
 
 Ibid. vol. i. p. 384. Venice. And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. p. 
 
 loth Richard II. cap. 6. 375. The first English vessel which 
 
 Vide the following notes. visited Morocco, was in Henry IV.'s 
 
 The doge of Venice at this time time. Ibid. vol. i. pp. 421, 530. 
 
 requested permission for Venetian ves- Ibid. vol. i. p. 445. 
 
 sels to trade to London, and promised ' Ibid. vol. i. p. 479, quoting a record 
 
 in return to receive well English noble- in the Exchequer. 
 
 men and travellers : he mates no * 3rd Edward IV. cap. 4.
 
 166 niSTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK were termed) of Edward I., that the mayor of the cities in 
 
 __ r ; , which foreigners were settled should have exclusive juris- 
 
 A to'i603 8 diction in tlie recovery of their debts. The merchants of 
 the Steelyard had long enjoyed the privilege of having civil 
 justice administered to them by an alderman of London, 
 appointed by the corporation. In what manner the proceed- 
 ings before this tribunal were carried on does not appear ; but 
 it seems the mode adopted gave much satisfaction; for we 
 find these merchants petitioning the king and Parliament 
 in the time of Henry VI., in consequence of a neglect for 
 some years in the appointment of an alderman for that 
 purpose. 
 
 It appears from a statute of Richard III., 1 passed for the 
 expulsion of foreigners from London, and, in all probability, 
 by way of ingratiating himself into the favour of the citizens, 
 that not only vast numbers of foreigners traded by wholesale 
 and retail as constant settlers, but that the artisans were 
 chiefly composed of the same class. This ill-advised measure 
 was not pursued to any considerable extent; and the policy 
 of Henry VII. imported great numbers of Flemish woollen 
 manufacturers, who were much superior to our own, and 
 settled them at Leeds, Wakefield, and Halifax. Many of 
 the measures of that sagacious prince were directed to the 
 encouragement of trade in his kingdom, though by no means 
 characterised by equal wisdom. One, which enjoined all 
 merchants trading to particular towns to become members 
 of the company of merchant adventurers, which company 
 was in the habit of exacting heavy fines for admission, 2 can 
 hardly be defended on any principle. 
 
 Henry VIII. scarcely interfered in the affairs of commerce, 
 except by the exercise of his prerogative in granting mono- 
 polies and patents. He did not, however, carry them to 
 such an extent as materially to impede its gradual progress. 
 English vessels began to reach as far as the Levant and 
 Smyrna, 3 and even as far as Guinea. 4 And although the 
 clothing manufacture flourished in a considerable degree, the 
 export of raw wool still continued enormous. Sixty vessels 
 
 1 1st Eichard III. cap. 8. " Ibid. vol. ii. p. 27. 
 
 3 And. Hist, of Com. vol. i. p. 550. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 62.
 
 HEXRY VIII. INCREASE OP FOREIGN TRADE. 167 
 
 laden with that staple, sailed in one year from Southampton 
 for the Netherlands. 1 The English merchant adventurers, 
 neglecting the home manufactures in which they had origi- 
 nally embarked, had directed their trade in that channel for 
 many years, and are said to have maintained 20,000 cloth 
 manufacturers in Antwerp alone. 2 The policy of giving en- 
 couragement to our home manufactures by retaining, instead 
 of forcing abroad, the materials of our manufactures had not 
 hitherto been broached. Henry VIII. was the first founder 
 of a royal navy. 3 
 
 The time, however, had now arrived, in which the many 
 corporated companies of foreigners, which had from time to 
 time established themselves in London with all their various 
 and distinguishing privileges, were obliged to yield to the 
 universal animosity expressed against them. They had, in 
 the progress of some centuries, dispensed the most important 
 benefits throughout the nation, by the communication of the 
 arts and comforts of civilisation ; by the introduction of 
 manufactures of every kind ; by their commercial example 
 and instruction ; and by their promotion of naval enterprise. 
 The English commercialists had insensibly availed themselves 
 of all these advantages ; and, as far as an acquaintance with 
 these arts could conduce thereto, had acquired the full ability 
 of competing with their preceptors. In other respects, in 
 spite of the many partial efforts we have noticed to obtain an 
 equal share, they found the foreigners more than a match 
 for them. Not to mention the many unfair advantages which 
 the foreigners derived from special exemptions in regard 
 to customs and duties, which were long and unwisely con- 
 tinued to them by our monarchs, and which they perverted 
 to fraudulent purposes, 4 they were almost always enabled, 
 by their superior experience, by their long standing credit in 
 the markets, by the superior management as associated bodies 
 of their mercantile concerns, and, above all, by the adroit 
 employment of their immense capital, to monopolise the 
 markets, to undersell their opponents, 5 and to stifle all com- 
 
 1 And. Hist, of Com. vol. ii. p. 87. * And. Hist, of Com. vol. ii. p. 25. 
 
 Sheridan's Commentaries, lib. 22. 4 Ibid. vol. i. p. 497; ii. pp. 90, 91. 
 
 8 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 89. 5 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 90. By colouring
 
 108 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.n. 1558 
 to 1603. 
 
 petition. These were substantial grievances, which seemed 
 insurmountable while the system was upheld ; and the 
 national policy though narrow when carried to excess or 
 to subserve partial interests in deference to which these 
 establishments with all their unfair and monopolous - privi- 
 leges were originally founded, had completely effected the 
 object proposed, as appeared manifest in the spirit of trade 
 and navigation which prevailed. 1 
 
 Accordingly, in the reign of Edward VI. all the privileges 
 of the company of the Hanseatic merchants of the Steelyard, 
 which comprised by far the greatest proportion of the 
 foreigners, were declared void, their franchises forfeited, and 
 the corporation dissolved. 2 Ail over-zealous pursuit of the 
 same policy subsequently dictated a high duty on all their 
 exports. 3 Their trade had become at this time so immensely 
 disproportionate to that of the English, in cloths alone, that 
 they exported in foreign bottoms no less than 44,000 pieces 
 in one year, and in the same year the English exported but 
 1,000. The good effects of this measure were so immediately 
 apparent, that in the very next year, the English exported 
 40,000 pieces of cloth. 4 And notwithstanding this large ex- 
 portation of cloth, raw wool continued to be supplied to 
 Bruges in vast quantities. 5 The most strenuous efforts were 
 made to induce Elizabeth to restore to these foreign asso- 
 ciated companies their privileges ; but she knew too well the 
 interests of her subjects to comply, 6 and the more strongly 
 opposed them. Owing, however, to these struggles, the 
 company of the merchants of the Steelyard was not in fact 
 finally extinguished till the latter end of her reign. 7 
 
 other traders' goods ; that is, passing 
 them as their own. 
 
 1 The inconsistency with which An- 
 derson, and indeed many other writers 
 on commerce, sometimes blame and at 
 other times applaud the exclusion of 
 foreign settlers, occasions great confu- 
 sion in their works. It seems to arise 
 from their not reflecting on the distinc- 
 tion between the introduction of them 
 through the medium of artificial siipport 
 for the sake of instruction and example, 
 and the retention of their foreign suc- 
 
 cessors with the same superior advan- 
 tages after the purposes of the original 
 introduction are fully answered. True 
 policy, however, rejects all artificial 
 support, as well as forcible exclusion, 
 for either purpose. 
 
 And. Hist, of Com. vol. ii. pp. 90,91. 
 
 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 93. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 108. 
 
 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 155. 
 
 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 192.
 
 ELIZABETH. ABOLITION OF FOREIGN COMPANIES. 
 
 169 
 
 The great impulse given to trade in all its departments by 
 this measure, which forms so distinguishing a feature in the 
 commercial history of London, was not sensibly counteracted 
 by the profuse grants of monopolies and trade patents which 
 marked Elizabeth's government ; although they were preju- 
 dicial as far as they went. 1 The spirit of commercial enter- 
 prise was thoroughly roused, and the very nattering counte- 
 nance which that queen personally gave to it tended to 
 increase it. It would occasion too much digression to trace 
 the many wise measures by which she cherished and improved 
 this grand source of our national wealth ; as their application 
 was for the most part general to the whole kingdom, and not 
 peculiar to the City of London. We may remark, however, 
 that the colonisation of America, which was carried in this 
 reign to a large extent, produced a most powerful excitement 
 to every species of mercantile speculation. 
 
 The great and continual accession of foreigners for so 
 many ages, had a considerable effect, both on the commer- 
 cial habits of the Londoners and on the internal administra- 
 tion of the civic government. The rights and customs of 
 the latter, in respect to exclusive trade, were more ancient 
 than the foundation of the earliest of the foreign chartered 
 companies. Those individuals whose introduction into the 
 City they had not the power to prevent, and which comprised 
 the greater portion of their numerous rivals, they never 
 ceased to complain against. Accordingly, until the time of 
 Elizabeth, and for a long period subsequently, the City 
 authorities were chiefly occupied in devising modes of pre- 
 venting these encroachments. In the earlier ages, as we have 
 seen, 1 foreigners were not allowed to reside in the City more 
 than forty days : they were delivered by magistrates, appointed 
 specifically for that purpose, to particular hosts, who were 
 responsible for their conduct : strict injunctions were laid on 
 their selling their goods within the forty days, by wholesale 
 only, and to none but citizens. The most severe penalties 
 forbade the evasion of these regulations, by the interception 
 
 CHAP. 
 IX. 
 
 A.D. 1558. 
 to 1603. 
 
 1 For the vast increase of exports and 
 imports during this reign, ride And. 
 Hist. Com., and particularly vol. ii. pp. 
 
 159, 160, 195, 196. 
 
 * Vide supra, pp. 20, 75, 120, 159, 
 And post, 371.
 
 170 HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK of goods on their road to the London markets ; afterwards 
 . I- _^ brokers were sworn, and put under rigid control for the due 
 A.D. 1558 management of all foreign dealing. The seizure of goods 
 foreign bought and sold, according to one of the ancient 
 City customs, was frequently resorted to by the citizens. 
 Officers called foreign takers superintended the traffic in 
 the markets for the same object. Nor can there be a doubt 
 that the depots of Blackwell Hall and Leadenhall were 
 kept up long after the decline of regular staples, more for 
 the purpose of preventing illicit trading between foreigners 
 than for any other, either connected with the requisite fabri- 
 cation of the manufactures, or the payment of duties upon 
 them. 1 
 
 Nothing contributed so much to allay, and finally to quell 
 altogether, this jealousy against the settlement of trading 
 foreigners in the City, than the persecution of the Huguenots 
 in France and of their Protestant brethren in the Netherlands. 
 The refugees in thousands and comprising the most indus- 
 trious and skilful artisans in Europe were received with 
 sympathetic welcome throughout England, and more parti- 
 cularly in London. They sought no monopolous or distin- 
 guishing privileges, they asked no more than protection in 
 common with the people of the land in the pursuit of their 
 beneficial labours. They aimed only at enjoying the condition 
 of fellow-subjects, and gradually they became absorbed as a 
 component part of the English nation, competing for the 
 same national honours, and sharing in all national and local 
 duties. They soon became adopted as amongst the most loyal 
 in the national family ; and with them was adopted their 
 superior ingenuity in the arts, and that commercial spirit 
 which was rapidly diffused throughout the country. 
 
 The increase of trade had its corresponding effect in in- 
 creasing the suburbs of London, which Elizabeth and her 
 successor James I. both vainly endeavoured by frequent pro- 
 clamations to prevent. It is strange that this necessary 
 consequence of the extension of its manufactures as well as 
 trade was not perceived. London, it appears from a list of 
 
 1 Norton's Exposition of the Privi- authorities are collected, and the subject 
 leges of the City of London: where the discussed in detail. Vide note, p. 1G1
 
 JAMES I. ABOLITION OF MONOPOLIES. 171 
 
 Customs, exported at this period three times as much as all 
 the rest of England together. 1 
 
 In the reign of James L the exportation of wool, which 
 had been denied to foreigners by Elizabeth, was, in direct 
 contrast to the policy of our early ancestors, forbidden alto- 
 gether ; a a policy which has been implicitly followed until late 
 years, with results more than duly advantageous to the ad- 
 vancement of our woollen manufactures and the interests of 
 the woollen manufacturers. The capricious interference of 
 this king in monopolies, licenses, and arbitrary tolls, began 
 now to be not only seriously but successfully remonstrated 
 against as illegal ; and many monopolies were abolished by 
 statute. Incorporated companies with exclusive rights of 
 trade fell very much into decay, and we hear the last of the 
 merchants of the staple. The company of Merchant Adven- 
 turers continued a short time longer with various fortunes ; 
 until at last the facility of admission into it appeased all 
 jealousy against its existence, and, by distributing in all 
 directions, reduced to nothing that strength which could 
 subsist only by combination. We find, in the reign of 
 Charles II., the establishment of them by royal prerogative 
 expressly adjudged contrary to law as monopolous. 3 
 
 It is well known how far the assumption and exercise of 
 the royal prerogatives, in levying arbitrary duties on com- 
 merce and in granting monopolies and licenses, by which 
 Charles I. endeavoured to supply his exchequer in defiance 
 of Parliament, tended (among other arbitrary acts) to that 
 civil war which in the result cost that unfortunate monarch 
 his crown and life. The English, and particularly the Lon- 
 doners, according to Clarendon, made the most lamentable 
 and continual complaints of the ruinous effects of these 
 measures upon their trade ; though it is evident, both from 
 the assertions of that author and the concurrent testimony 
 of records and public documents, that commerce progressively 
 advanced thoughout the whole of his reign. 1 
 
 ' And. Hist, of Com. voL ii. p. 260. P- 390- The citizens of London in the 
 
 * Ibid. voL ii. pp. 146, 340. civil war agreed to pay 520.000/. per 
 
 1 Ibid. Tol. ii. p. 260. annum a proof of great wealth, con- 
 
 4 The Customs of England in 1640 sidrring the time. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 401. 
 amounted to 500,000*. Ibid. vol. ii.
 
 172 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK The exertions which characterised the Dutch naval wars 
 ^ _^ with England during the period of the Commonwealth, are 
 A to 160? sumc i ent indications of the progress of trade and navigation, 
 and of the importance each nation attached to the dominion 
 of the sea. In one of their earliest engagements no less 
 than a hundred sail of the line fought on each side. 1 To the 
 Parliament of the Commonwealth the nation is indebted for 
 the first establishment of a regular system of maritime po- 
 licy, which was afterwards brought into full operation under 
 the celebrated Navigation Act. 2 The prejudicial effects pro- 
 duced by this act in destroying the commerce of other na- 
 tions and advancing the partial benefit of our own commer- 
 cialists, will be discussed and exposed in a future page ; but 
 that all those advantages, which during an age of perpetual 
 warfare attended our nautical superiority, were accomplished 
 by this act, is abundantly testified by the great increase of 
 English shipping and of commercial enterprise which imme- 
 diately followed it. In the short space of twenty years, it is 
 said by a very competent judge, that the number of ships 
 and merchants were doubled. 3 The Dutch felt so severely 
 the consequences of this policy, that at the treaty of Breda 
 in 1667, they laboured with the utmost anxiety to procure the 
 repeal of the Navigation Act, as entirely destructive of their 
 commerce. They succeeded, however, no further than in 
 obtaining the admission into English ports of all Dutch 
 vessels bringing Ehenish merchandise by way of Dort. 
 
 From the expulsion of the foreign associated companies in 
 the reign of Edward VI., as already noticed, to the passing 
 of the Navigation Act, and from that time to the close of the 
 reign of Charles II., the commerce of England, and more 
 particularly that of the City of London, advanced with a ra- 
 pidity unexampled in the history of the world during those 
 times. Pensionary de Witt, in his work entitled * The In- 
 * terest of Holland,' after summing up the causes which had 
 powerfully contributed to the commercial glory of England, 
 at the latter period, uses this remarkable and prophetic laii- 
 
 1 And. Hist, of Com. vol. ii. p. 422. Trade : preface. 
 
 3 ViAepost, pp. 186, 187. " Anderson's Hist, of Com. vol. ii. 
 
 3 Sir Joseph Child's Discourses on p. 493.
 
 VAST PROGRESS OF TRADE FROM TIME OF ELIZABETH. 173 
 
 guage : * So that this mighty island, seated in the midst of 
 
 * Europe, having a clear deep coast, and good havens and 
 ' bays, united with Ireland under one king, and now by its 
 
 * conjunction with Scotland, being much increased in strength, 
 
 * as well by manufactures as by a great navigation, will in all 
 
 * respects be formidable to Europe. For according to the 
 
 * proverb, a master at sea is a lord on land.' 
 
 It would be foreign to the subject of this work to pursue 
 this examination through all those changes and measures 
 which have so wonderfully advanced our commercial pro- 
 sperity throughout the last two centuries. This is a topic 
 which rather belongs to the History of England, than to 
 that of the City of London. We have seen that in the 
 earliest ages foreign merchants, who occasionally resorted to 
 our coasts from the rising taste for those articles of comfort 
 and elegance which they communicated, were courted to 
 continue such intercourse. We have traced the origin of 
 internal trade and manufactures in the emancipation of the 
 greater cities from feudal thraldom, and in the free privileges 
 conferred on them. We have observed the effect of that 
 policy by which foreign merchants and artisans were en- 
 couraged not only to circulate trade throughout the country 
 by transient visits, but to establish permanent settlements in 
 all parts of it, and the gradual progress of our countrymen 
 in the arts and spirit of commerce, in consequence of the 
 example and instruction thus afforded, impeded as it was by 
 ignorant jealousies, by impolitic laws, by pernicious preroga- 
 tives, and by overbearing rivalry, until a new impulse was 
 given to trade by the suppression of all these restraints. 
 There remains, however, a consideration connected with this 
 topic, which seems to merit a separate and scrutinous dis- 
 cussion.
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 ENQTJIRr INTO THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OP THE EXCLUSIVE 
 TRADING PRIVILEGES OF THE CITY OF LONDON. 1 
 
 BOOK rp HE q ueg ti on about to be examined is one of important con- 
 *- r- cern to the interests of the City of London ; namely, how 
 to 1608. far any franchises of the Corporation judicial or adminis- 
 trative for regulating or controlling trade, or any exclusive 
 privileges in its exercise within the limits of the City, may still 
 be deemed beneficial or otherwise, in a public point of view, or 
 even defensible. 
 
 This subject has been one of frequent discussion among 
 the more modern and liberal political economists ; and the 
 consideration of the quality and influence of these privileges 
 has led to a denunciation from some of them against even 
 the existence of all civic corporations, as maintained from 
 such sources. 
 
 It is a question, therefore, which deserves, if it does not 
 call for, some amplitude of examination. Nor will a preli- 
 minary enquiry into the origin, the nature, and the effect of 
 exclusive privileges of trade, be thought irrelevant in a work 
 which aims at elucidating the constitution of a corporation, 
 whose prosperity was mainly founded, and must still in a 
 great degree be upheld by them, under due and enlightened 
 regulation, adapted to the spirit of the times. 
 
 1 It should be premised that this national free trade) in many enlightened 
 
 chapter first written in 1823 and pub- nations. The doctrines, as advocated 
 
 lished in 1829 was composed at a time in this chapter, are hardly, if at all, at 
 
 when the present doctrines of 'Free variance with those which, not only 
 
 trade' now (in 1868) become familiar, theoretically but practically, prevail 
 
 were by no means fully recognised, nationally in England ; and the author 
 
 even in England, and are but partially has not found it necessary to revise this 
 
 adopted (particularly as regards inter- dissertation materially.
 
 MODERN PRINCIPLES OF FREE TRADE. 175 
 
 The true principles of commerce, both internal and exter- 
 nal, have become so clearly established and developed by 
 those great English philosophers who have of late years en- 
 lightened the world by their works on political economy, 
 that it would argue both ignorance and folly to contest their 
 doctrines. We may consider the position that all artificial 
 interference in regulating, directly or indirectly, the course of 
 trade by restrictions, monopolies, or by bounties is in itself 
 detrimental to the public weal, and prejudicial to the ad- 
 vancement of trade as founded on the imperishable basis 
 of truth and reason. This principle, which had faintly 
 emerged into light under the auspices of some eminent Eng- 
 lish merchants during the last two centuries, has been 
 placed in the fullest and most conspicuous view by Smith 
 and his able successors ; and has been finally adopted as a 
 political maxim by the statesman-like genius of Huskisson 
 and Grant. 1 The fallacy of the old mercantile system, for 
 the support of which mainly these restrictions were imposed, 
 and in defence of which they were advocated, has been ex- 
 posed almost to demonstration. The liberality of the new 
 doctrines has combined, perhaps, with the credit of the 
 authors of them, to induce an inconsiderate adoption of the 
 proposition of free trade in all its relative applications. It 
 should, however, be recollected that the most liberal of the 
 economists reason upon general principles only ; they con- 
 template the universal condition of mankind on the scale of 
 empires and nations as bound together in one social compact 
 of brotherly love and good-will : but they make no allow- 
 ances for the artificial divisions into separate nations and 
 societies, and the necessary sacrifices which the preservation 
 of national independence or internal liberty from arbitrary 
 usurpation must, under particular circumstances, require. 
 Were all men actuated by sentiments of justice, of hu- 
 manity, or even of enlightened self-interest, the truths 
 which prompt a free intercourse and a free interchange of 
 the benefits of industry amongst mankind would have uni- 
 versal application ; but while human nature exists as it is, 
 
 1 It should be remarked that Cobden was a school-boy when this was written.
 
 176 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK wrong and violence must be anticipated ; and societies must 
 ^ ...-_.,' _- unite, and sacrifice many of the advantages which an uni- 
 A to 1603 8 versa l f ree intercourse would produce, for the purposes of 
 security and self-defence. There may, therefore, be ulterior 
 objects in the contemplation of a government (as in the case 
 of the navigation laws and the charters granted to the 
 East India Company), which may dictate a devious course in 
 the pursuit of the public welfare. The partial advancement 
 of the few, to the detriment of the many, may, with a view 
 to the general result, be beneficial to all. The restrictions, 
 the impediments, and the exclusions, through the medium of 
 which those partial interests are artificially promoted, may, 
 under certain circumstances, be defensible ; and, with refer- 
 ence to those circumstances, the subject of unlimited com- 
 merce has not, perhaps, even yet been duly considered under 
 all its bearings. 
 
 The two great objects which the mistaken policy of our 
 Government had for a long period in view, when it intro- 
 duced restriction and monopolies in commerce, were ; first, 
 the supply of royal or national revenue ; and, secondly, the 
 support of the ancient mercantile system. Both these objects 
 of policy were founded on a mistaken theory, and were both 
 mischievous in their effects. 
 
 With regard to the supply of revenue it may easily be 
 imagined that our early kings, ignorant and unlettered as 
 they were, and bigoted in their attachment to feudal power, 
 would be readily disposed to receive the palpable and pre- 
 sent benefit of a bribe from the wealthy classes of their 
 subjects, in remuneration for a mere liberty or privilege 
 granted, which apparently cost the donor nothing. The 
 monopolists would appeal to their exclusive privilege in sell- 
 ing their merchandise, or of acquiring from their neigh- 
 bours, at a lower rate than the natural market price, the 
 materials for producing their manufactures, as the only source 
 from which they could raise the munificent perquisite they 
 pofessed to pay to their conceding patron. They would re- 
 present then* merchandise as the source of the Customs, and 
 that without artificial support they must resign their trade, 
 so lucrative to the state, and so necessary for the support of
 
 MONOPOLIES FOR REVENUE. OLD MERCANTILE THEORIES. 
 
 the expenditure directed to the public weal. But, without 
 referring to the futility of enhancing the price of one com- 
 modity at the cost of another equally desirable to the public, 
 can anything be more manifest, upon reflection, than that 
 the whole excess of the artificial or enhanced price beyond 
 the natural and regular price, was drained from the public 
 generally; that the monopolising merchants who received 
 this extra price paid but a part, and that a very small one, to 
 the state who protected them, and the rest they put into their 
 own pockets ? The enhanced price was therefore, in effect, 
 a tax on the subject, which, instead of being appropriated, 
 as all revenue derived from the people ought to be, to the 
 purposes of the state, was directed into the purses of some 
 few overgrown commercialists ; and the king or the nation 
 gained by his grant but a small portion of the sum which 
 lie enabled the monopolists to extort from his subjects. 1 
 
 The old mercantile system, which subsisted for ages, and 
 still indeed gasps for life under its death-blow, had a still 
 more prejudicial tendency ; because through its influence the 
 public suffered for the benefit of the few, and the state gained 
 not even a partial share in the plunder. This system was 
 founded upon two doctrines the acquisition of the precious 
 metals, instead of merchandise; and the rivalry, or rather 
 the destruction, of the commerce of foreign nations. 
 
 It is almost a superfluous task at the present day to urge 
 the utter absurdity of the proposition, that the possession of 
 gold and silver is of the smallest advantage for the sake of 
 ike metals themselves; and yet there have been writers, of 
 clear and noble intellect, who have advocated such a 
 principle 2 whole nations have acquiesced in it ; and even 
 now, the sun of science, which has gilded the summits of the 
 intellectual hemisphere, is but faintly descried from its levels 
 
 1 The American government still act few commercialists. 
 
 upon this perniciously absurd system * During the sixteenth century, this 
 
 and with this result, the impoverish- principle was strongly advocated by 
 
 ment and privation of the bulk of the Mun, Digges, Hisselden, and others ; 
 
 people as well as of the government, all men of genius, and what is perhaps 
 
 which is utterly perplexed how to raise more surprising, men of practical mer- 
 
 an adequate revenue without defrauding cantile experience. Their self-interest, 
 
 the public creditors in favour of the it is likely, may have infused some bias.
 
 178 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK and depths. So strong was the impression that the precious 
 
 ^ metals constituted wealth, that all the exertions of com- 
 
 A to'i603 8 m ercialists were directed to the accumulation and retention 
 of them in this country ; every incitement was held out by 
 precept and by popular clamour to the same end : and, lest 
 the natural reason of the people, and their own conviction of 
 what was their interest, should not be a sufficient security 
 for the advancement of the principle, the arm of power was 
 extended to force what was theoretically considered so 
 desirable upon the people ; and previous statutes passed to 
 prevent exportation of bullion, and to impede, in its favour, 
 the importation of many other products. We have hardly 
 yet ceased to exult in the triumphant excess of our exports 
 over our imports, and to be conscious of the visionary ad- 
 vantage of a, favourable balance of trade. 
 
 To the credit of philosophy, so far back as two centuries 
 ago, the fallacy of this dogma was perceived in England, and 
 attempted to be exposed. l It was asked, of what use was 
 the money, but as a medium through which to procure real 
 commodities ? It became a matter of enquiry and reflection, 
 as to what became of those hoards which a policy so long 
 pursued must have amassed? Nor could it be for ever a 
 secret, that the money did but represent those very com- 
 modities which were so strenuously denounced ; and that 
 it did, in. fact, go at last to procure them. Those who 
 possessed the glittering wealth, it was observed, kept it but 
 for a moment, and hastened to dispose of it in exchange for 
 stock or consumable products. The real trade, it was plain, 
 consisted in the exchange of the commodities ; and the gold 
 and silver was either a mere ware in itself, or the circu- 
 lating medium to facilitate exchanges. There never was 
 a deficiency of the circulating medium, and more than a 
 sufficiency no force could create. It was found that paper 
 was just as valuable as money in effect ; and that its value 
 depended altogether upon its credit, or, in other words, its 
 power of producing something else. In the result, therefore, 
 
 1 First, and mainly, by Sir Dudley reign of Charles II.) ; and afterwards 
 North (whose name and actions in the by Sir Josiah Child, Sir William Potty, 
 City will be further noticed under the and Barbon.
 
 INJURIOUS RESTRICTIONS ON FOREIGN COMMERCE; 179 
 
 all these efforts for the acquisition of the precious rnetals, by CHAP, 
 preventing the exportation and encouraging the importation . V . 
 of them, accomplished nothing but a delay and difficulty in ^'jgyg 8 
 procuring those acquisitions which were desirable for tJieir 
 own saJces, in consequence of a cumbrous increase of the 
 representative medium through which at last they were to 
 be obtained. 
 
 But the destruction of the commerce of other nations, and 
 the engrossment of the whole market of the world free from 
 all competition, was a still more popular scheme for the 
 advancement of our commercial interests, and a still more 
 marked characteristic of the old mercantile theory. The 
 most obvious course which suggested itself to many an 
 ignorant and unprincipled Government, was to plunder the 
 property of mercantile countries, and to put the merchants 
 to death. What else, it may be asked, has been the origin 
 and the effects of the many wars waged between commercial 
 nations ? L More honourable, but not less futile, expedients 
 have been, either to force, at the expense of tJie public at large, 
 so abundant a supply of the manufactures which are the 
 subjects of competition, as to enable the class of merchants 
 dealing in them nominally to undersell their rivals ; or to 
 punish ourselves by the self-denial of those commodities 
 which the industry of our neighbours may have produced, for 
 the purpose of impoverishing them. 
 
 Before, however, we observe upon the means by which, at 
 so much cost to ourselves, we have laboured to injure our 
 natural friends, let us examine for a moment into the effects 
 produced by our success; to see if any advantage was in 
 truth obtained. The mere destruction of the trade, or of some 
 of the benefits of it, whatever loss it might occasion to others, 
 could no way benefit the spoilers. If the preparation of 
 gunpowder, or the secret of preparing the mariner's compass, 
 were lucrative sources of our neighbours' trade, and we should 
 endeavour to effect the abolition of both the rest of the 
 world would lose much ; but what should we gain ? It has 
 been urged, that although havoc and waste without some 
 
 1 Particularly the Dutch wars of Charles II. 
 N 2
 
 180 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 ulterior motive cannot be defended, it is for the purposes of 
 individual self-interest we lend ourselves to so odious an 
 enterprise; it is for the sake of supporting our own in- 
 dustrious manufacturers and merchants, who, dealing in 
 inferior articles, must resign their occupations, if driven from 
 the market by the more beneficial supply of foreigners. But 
 such an argument cannot change the nature of the question. 
 We may substitute bows and arrows for the use of gunpowder, 
 or destroy the mariner's compass for the sake of planetary 
 charts. There is, in fact, no species of useful or agreeable 
 acquisition, for the absence of which we may not console 
 ourselves with an inferior substitute : and if the principle of 
 destroying one article of commerce for the sake of another 
 could hold, we might at last raze the imperial palace for the 
 sake of inhabiting the hut of the Esquimaux. 
 
 Clear as the proposition may appear that the loss of one 
 country can never form the profit of another, many specious 
 suggestions have been, and perhaps are still, advanced in 
 support of a contrary doctrine. It has been imagined that 
 the destruction of a foreign country's trade would open it to 
 our own ; that the profits to be derived from it would then 
 encourage conpetition among ourselves ; until, by industry 
 and talent, we became capable of underselling and thereby 
 engrossing the branch of commerce wrested from the first 
 possessor. Let these notions be examined. 
 
 That rivalry in producing the commodities of life tends, in 
 its result, to increase and disseminate them, and being depen- 
 dent for its reward upon natural and voluntary demand, is 
 beneficial to a nation is a truth sufficiently obvious : but 
 that such rivalry is, in the aggregate, either promoted by, or 
 is a consequence of, the destruction of some part of the trade, 
 is contradicted by the very terms of the proposition. The 
 only beneficial rivalry is the free competition of all. It is 
 plain, therefore, that so far as such rivalry and competition is 
 destroyed in the aggregate, by so much are the products and 
 the quality of them impaired, to the aggregate loss. That the 
 general interest and prosperity of the world, or even of one 
 particular nation, is promoted by the withdrawing all foreign 
 competition, is an idea equally fallacious. When the supply
 
 INJURIOUS RESTRICTIONS OX FOREIGN COMMERCE. 
 
 of commodities has decreased, by the forcible rejection of 
 that part of them which would be brought from the foreign 
 source, the price is of course enhanced in favour of those who 
 produce them at home. The enhanced price is, in fact, paid 
 for something that is not wanted, in favour of industry which, 
 to the extent of such enhanced price, is totally useless ; and 
 which, but for this fostering, would be directed to another and 
 a more useful channel. The public suffer ; and the few, whose 
 claims are preposterously preferred to those of the many, 
 have no real, or, at least, no permanent gain. When by dint 
 of partial and internal competition the price is reduced to 
 its former level, nothing is gained, at the expense of time 
 and industry which might have been profitably applied in 
 different pursuits, beyond the original advantage : and when, 
 at last, ingenious inventions and public sacrifices have re- 
 duced the price below the original standard, the nation will 
 but have arrived by a tedious and impeded path at that 
 increase of supply which might have been tenfold more 
 valuable, both in quantity and quality, by the effect of a 
 wider competition. Xor is this alL Insomuch as we im- 
 poverish our neighbours by rejecting their merchandise, by 
 so much shall we incapacitate them from receiving or paying 
 for our own manufactures. They may, indeed, direct their 
 attention to other objects of labour or production; but 
 according to this maxim of engrossing their trade, we should 
 but commence our ruinous devastations upon them again, till 
 we left them nothing but the bare earth and the natural gifts 
 of providence peculiar to the climate of their country. This 
 would be the final result of attempting to engross more of the 
 trade of the world than naturally falls to our share. In short, 
 devastation and havoc can never be defended but upon one 
 principle ; namely, that which dictates the endurance and the 
 infliction of all the accumulated disasters of war, in prefer- 
 ence to the greatest of all evils which can visit a nation its 
 subjugation to tyranny ajid selfish ambition. 
 
 Such have been the commercial objects the influence of 
 which has darkly tinged the stream of ages, and which were 
 long maintained by the councils and policy of the most en- 
 lightened country in the world. These were the objects for
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 which so many monopolotis and exclusive privileges were 
 created in favour of corporations, and of none more than that 
 of the City of London. It is far from our intention to rank 
 among these injurious privileges, the many chartered grants, 
 the effects of which were to exempt the citizens from feudal 
 oppressions and arbitrary laws, and to emancipate them from 
 that state of vassalage under which so large a proportion of 
 the commons of England have formerly groaned. Those 
 grants did but secure to them those unalienable rights of 
 liberty under a free government which ought to have been 
 the common property of all. They did but confer the power 
 of enjoying freedom themselves, and not that of imposing 
 oppression and restraint on others. The exclusive privileges 
 about to be noticed, are those by which mere commercial 
 associations were cemented together, from a vain desire to 
 improve the revenue or to uphold the mercantile theory. 
 Vain and illusory as the end was, the means were hardly 
 less extravagant. 
 
 To force the supply of manufactures, by which bullion 
 might be acquired and foreign rival establishments destroyed, 
 expedients were devised, and rewards were held out to indi- 
 viduals to unite and employ their capital and labour in the 
 manufacture of them. They alone were to have the privilege 
 of selling cloth, or leather, or tin, or wool. They were to 
 have the sole right of trading with foreigners or for export- 
 ation, in particular places, or admitting others so to trade ; 
 and yet the towns where these associations existed were 
 erected into staples, at which, only, certain branches of com- 
 merce could be carried on. Thus even home competition was 
 paralysed, and the negligence and idleness of our own few 
 overgrown merchants furnished ample incitement to the 
 emulative industry of other countries. Exportation of the 
 raw materials (as they were termed) of the manufactures 
 conducted by these associations was prohibited that is, in 
 other words, one class of manufacturers (for all exchangeable 
 produce whatever is more or less a manufacture) were obliged 
 to sell to another class of manufacturers their merchandise 
 at a cheaper rate than they could obtain in the natural or 
 general market, for the advantage of the one class over the
 
 INJURIOUS EFFORTS TO ACCUMULATE PRECIOUS METALS. 
 
 other. But perhaps the most absnrd of all the plans for the 
 advancement of our manufactures was that suggesting the 
 numerous regulations under which the fabric and preparation 
 of them were placed, and the interference of local authorities 
 in conducting the mode of transfer. The public were not 
 supposed to be capable of understanding their own interest, 
 in supplying the most valuable commodities, or in protect- 
 ing themselves against fraud; and accordingly, weighers, 
 searchers, surveyors, and stampers, were appointed, to the 
 emolument of a few local associations, and to the annoyance 
 and detriment of those whose benefit was professed to be 
 sought. The duty of these officers was to control the breadth, 
 the texture, and the fashion of merchandise. And, lest the 
 demand for commodities which under a free course of trade 
 would be utterly useless, should decrease, the whole popula- 
 tion were enjoined to bury a large portion of their manufac- 
 tures along with their dead. 1 
 
 Of the restrictions on importations and on their effects 
 enough has perhaps been said. We may consider them, 
 however, as effecting an exclusive privilege or monopoly in 
 favour of particular individuals or associations. Foreign 
 manufactures were chiefly denounced ; and yet sometimes we 
 were inconsistent enough to denounce natural products. Thus 
 cattle, beef, fish, and butter have been prohibited, in favour 
 of the limited number of dealers in those articles : and when 
 the national policy rushed into this eccentricity, Ireland was 
 classed among the foreign proscribed nations. In reference 
 to these measures, an able and celebrated financier asked, 
 200 years ago, 2 ( If it be good for England to keep Ireland a 
 ' distinct kingdom, why do not the predominant party in 
 * Parliament (suppose the western members) make England 
 ' beyond Trent another kingdom ? And why may not Eng- 
 ' land be further cantonised for the benefit of all parties ? ' 
 But the full force of this query has been barely acknowledged 
 by Government within these forty years. 3 
 
 1 By the statutes which enjoined the * The rigid proscription of foreign 
 burying of the dead in wodfen. manufactures was not, however, always 
 
 2 Sir W. Petty, in his Political Ana- extended to the manufacturers. From 
 tomy of Ireland. the time of Edward I. to that of Alra s
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 Lastly, we may mention bounties on exportation, or for 
 the encouragement of manufactures ; which are raised by 
 taxation from the public, to be given to a few individuals, 
 who have either already engaged in unprofitable labours, or 
 who are thereby to be induced so to employ themselves. To 
 remunerate those who, deceived by public errors, have been 
 led into misfortune, may, indeed, be just enough ; but to 
 enable them to persist in the same erroneous course, with 
 advantage to themselves and loss to the community, is a very 
 different consideration. If a particular branch of industry 
 is too unprofitable to induce persons voluntarily to engage in 
 it either from the articles to be produced by it being already 
 sufficiently plentiful, or else from their being utterly useless, 
 or, which is the same thing, not wanted, like the woollen 
 cloths, which were made solely for the purpose of being 
 buried together with the useless clay of dead bodies it is 
 evident, that a tax levied on the people for such an object is 
 oppression. To aim at overstocking a plentiful market, in 
 order to occasion still greater cheapness, is a mere absurdity : 
 for it never can be an object to effect cheapness to foreigners 
 at our own expense ; and while the home market is left to be 
 stocked by the free admission of merchandise from every 
 quarter, to make that merchandise cheaper to our own people 
 by taxing them first for the production of it, is, in truth, to 
 make them pay dearer for it in the end. The public demand 
 as it is the natural, so it is the most beneficial promoter of 
 the supply. 
 
 It has sometimes been argued, that there are many com- 
 mercial speculations which would be highly advantageous to 
 the public, but which persons are unwilling to undertake 
 because the enterprise carries with it too much risk and too 
 large a capital. And these, it is said, are speculations which 
 a wise and liberal Government should encourage by bounties. 
 Such a course will appear, however, upon consideration to be 
 
 persecution in the Netherlands, and facturing refugees ; and many eulogiums 
 
 from thonce to the Eevocation of the have been justly passed upon the good 
 
 Edict of Nantes, our wisest kings and effects of that policy resulting in the 
 
 our most sagacious ministers did not introduction of their manufactures into 
 
 scruple to harbour and encourage manu- this country.
 
 1XJURIOUS EFFECTS OF TRADE BOUNTIES. 185 
 
 a kind of joint-trading by Government in conjunction with 
 the individual merchants. As far as the bounties go, the Go- 
 vernment is speculating for the benefit of the people, and 
 with their funds : it is a kind of state commerce. But ex- 
 perience has abundantly shown, that the worst of all mer- 
 chants, both in management and projects, are political powers. 
 The self-interest of those personally concerned, when left to 
 its free operation, is by far the most active and effectual agent 
 in ascertaining the most profitable sources of wealth. And, 
 in a natural and free state of things, the profit of one class 
 of traders must always produce a correspondent profit to 
 others. 
 
 What then ! it may be demanded, are the arts and 
 sciences no longer to be encouraged ? Are all associations 
 for the reward of useful genius to be abolished? Are all 
 patents and monopolies to be denounced ? Is the invention 
 of the steam-engine, by which millions are enriched, to bring 
 down ruin and neglect upon its individual author only, who 
 has devoted wealth, time, labour, and talent to achieve its 
 construction ? Shall the safety-lamp, by which the lives of 
 so many men are saved, and the property of others enormously 
 increased, be an unrequited gift from needy genius ? Such 
 a result would, indeed, be a painful sacrifice at the shrine of 
 principle, should it be required at our hands. This is an 
 inference, however, which does not arise out of the positions 
 we have advanced. 
 
 The distinction is this. To incite by artificial bounties 
 the future exertions of the public in general in one specific 
 branch of labour, is to speculate in one kind of commodity 
 at the expense of the rest ; to remunerate individuals for 
 services performed, is to secure them a proportionate share of 
 the profit actually produced. The latter have accomplished 
 their services, and have actually benefited mankind: they 
 have devoted the labour of mind or of body for the introduc- 
 tion or increase of those productions of which the public are 
 in need. The public do, in fact, pay for it, and are contented 
 so to do : the only question is, whether they should pay the 
 ignorant rivals who have possessed themselves of the secret, 
 or those to whom the remuneration is first due. The labourer
 
 186 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK is worthy of his hire. Nor can those who, in association or 
 
 ^_ ,'- - otherwise, voluntarily devote a portion of their wealth to the 
 
 tlTieos 8 encouragement of arts, be considered otherwise than as bene- 
 factors of mankind : they withdraw their contribution from 
 public circulation, which is but little ; and they return to the 
 public, through the advancement of the arts, much. The 
 only apprehension is, that one comparatively inferior branch 
 of industry may be advanced by an erroneous direction of 
 labour, to the detriment of another ; so that, here also, the 
 principle of open competition should be the guide. Mere 
 reward, therefore, whether through the medium of patents 
 or otherwise, is not inconsistent with those free principles 
 of political economy which have suggested the impolicy 
 of all artificial restraints and bounties in commerce. It 
 may, indeed, be misdirected ; it may be over-estimated. The 
 authors of the sublimest inventions must derive the greater 
 part of their remuneration in the consciousness of having 
 benefited mankind. It is this universal love towards man- 
 kind which is the genuine source of all our happiness, as well 
 as of all our virtues. 1 
 
 There may be, however, cases where, for the sake of some 
 ulterior object, the maintenance of such privileges might be 
 justified; but it is certain that such cases must form exceptions 
 to a rule sound in its general principle, and be founded on 
 extrinsic circumstances ; for all exclusions of competition in 
 trade, either to a small or large extent, are prejudicial in 
 themselves. Whether these exceptions should in justice be 
 allowed, must depend on the nature of the exclusions and 
 the object of them. The object must be useful ; the exclu- 
 sive privileges must be necessary ; and not so excessive as to 
 supersede the benefit contemplated. 
 
 The purport of one branch of the much-celebrated naviga- 
 tion laws is to provide, that all goods exported from any 
 
 1 The author has no wish to disguise he has advanced, because he has adopted 
 
 that he has borrowed from the writings an arrangement of the subject for the 
 
 of Smith, Eicardo, McCulloch, and purposes of the present work, which has 
 
 others, in this attempted exposition of not only blended together the scattered 
 
 the false and true principles of commer- doctrines of these writers, but likewise 
 
 cial policy ; but he has not quoted his incorporated with them some observa- 
 
 specific authority for all the positions tions for which he is alone responsible.
 
 EXCEPTIONS TO UNIVERSAL FREE TRADE. 
 
 foreign country, except those of the growth of such country, 
 shall only be imported into Great Britain in British bottoms. 
 The effect of such " a law is most unquestionably to create 
 exclusive privileges : first in favour of the class of ship- 
 builders and mariners ; and secondly, in favour of certain 
 commercialists in England. The general advancement of 
 navigation throughout the world, and the general diffusion 
 of all the benefits to be derived, even to our own nation, from 
 an universal free trade has been by no means attained, though 
 the latter object may have been aimed at by this law. But 
 that by the policy and operation of this statute in retarding 
 the advance of other nations, our own relative nautical superi- 
 ority has been established, if it cannot be absolutely asserted, 
 at least should not be hastily or inconsiderately denied. On 
 our nautical superiority depends our national independence, 
 not too dearly purchased at any cost ; and for this extrinsic 
 object we injure by restrictions against foreign nations both 
 them and ourselves. Whether our naval establishment is 
 already too far advanced to fear foreign rivalry, or our liber- 
 ties too firmly secured to fear foreign opposition so that 
 some relaxation in the system may now be expedient is a 
 question which the vital interests of our country require to 
 be deeply considered before a practical decision is made. 1 
 
 The old charters of the East India Company conceded to 
 them the monopoly of an exclusive trade in the Indian seas 
 their charter of 1813 preserved the monopoly of the China 
 trade only. Both the Chinese and the English suffered by 
 this system, as the eastern nations and England did formerly. 
 It was a monopoly, because, but for its existence, others 
 would find their advantage in competing with the Company. 
 The effect of such competition is to increase the quantity of 
 commodities both imported and exported in exchange, to 
 the reciprocal advantage of the two countries. In short, it 
 has been calculated from some official statements of the sales 
 of teas in foreign markets, compared with those effected in 
 our own by the East India Company, that the English pay 
 upwards of two millions sterling per annum for tea beyond 
 the natural market price. 2 This is, in truth, therefore, a 
 
 1 Vide next page, note. 2 Edin. Rev. vol. xxxix. p. 403 ; vide next page, note. 
 
 187
 
 188 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK bounty to that extent, raised from the people for the benefit 
 L . of this association. The object, however, of these exclusive 
 A D 603 8 privil 6 !? 68 was 5 originally, to reward the first speculators, who 
 at great cost and risk had introduced new wealth into the 
 country. That object has been long satisfied. But the 
 monopoly has been continued, partly in consequence of the 
 peculiar and jealous character of the nations with whom the 
 trade is carried on, which renders it expedient, for securing 
 that branch of commerce, that it should be conducted by an 
 organised body and under statutable regulations ; and mainly 
 for the purpose of strengthening the hands of that associa- 
 tion of merchants which, by a wonderful application of their 
 means, have founded and preserved one of the largest empires 
 in the world. Whether the original objects of the monopoly 
 granted to this Company have at the present day been so 
 sufficiently accomplished as to render it no longer expedient 
 to support its strength through that medium, it is by no 
 means pertinent to the subject of the present work to con- 
 sider. It may, however, be safely pronounced, that the 
 preservation of associations like these by exclusive commer- 
 cial rights can no longer be defended than while they con- 
 duce to those ulterior purposes, whether of territorial govern- 
 ment, competent management, or of remuneration, for ac- 
 complishing which the existence of such institutions were 
 originally deemed politic. 1 
 
 We now proceed to examine those exclusive commercial 
 privileges which have distinguished the Corporation of 
 London. That it possessed many of those which we have 
 endeavoured to prove were prejudicial in their operation, 
 need but be observed. We must refer to the charters to 
 show the number and the nature of them. There can be no 
 doubt that such privileges produced in the City of London, 
 and indeed generally, the effect of aggrandising a few civic 
 commercialists at the expense of the larger body of the citi- 
 zens, and of the interests of the public at large ; and we may 
 trace these effects in that wasteful magnificence which we 
 
 1 The abolition of the Navigation written, has fully vindicated the corn- 
 Laws, and of the exclusive trade of the mercial principles advocated in the text 
 East India Company (and indeed of the forty years ago. 
 Company itself) since this chapter was
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES IX LOXDON. 189 
 
 have already noticed as characterising the expenditure of 
 the superior citizens. Granted, however, as these privileges 
 were in times of such arbitrary power, to a free and potent 
 body, who continually asserted their own political rights to 
 the advancement of those of the people, it would be wrong 
 to conclude that these means of exalting the few to the 
 debasement of the many, evil as they were in principle, may 
 not, by promoting in those times the relative prosperity of 
 the citizens, have ultimately contributed to the common 
 benefit of all. A new and powerful interest was thereby 
 created among the body of the people that of the com- 
 mercialists, whose main care it was to oppose lawless and 
 unconstitutional attacks on private rights and public liber- 
 ties. The progress in wealth of the great traders tended 
 to diffuse the spirit of commerce more generally. The wider 
 that diffusion, the better were the benefits of free trade 
 understood, and the greater became the resistance to undue 
 advantages to be enjoyed by any special classes. It was thus 
 that these privileges acquired in times of a more arbitrary 
 government, and in the infancy of trade have themselves 
 contributed to a beneficial reaction. Monopolies and ex- 
 clusive trading privileges have long ceased to be conferred, 
 or to be maintained, with the exploded view of promoting 
 the public weal. The advance of constitutional rights and 
 liberties, and the development of the true principles of com- 
 merce, have effected the proportional retirement of the Corpo- 
 ration of London from the exercise of its more obnoxious 
 mercantile privileges, which, in feet, were never in them- 
 selves essential to its maintenance as a political or associated 
 body ; and there are few (if any) of this class, which can now 
 be specified as burthensome to the public. The privileges 
 we are about to advert to as still prevailing, will be found 
 to rest on a distinct basis from that which supported the 
 system of commercial restraints, and directed to a different 
 object. 
 
 The privilege to which we refer, is that which has suggested 
 the present digression ; namely, that non-freemen can only 
 deal by wholesale with citizens, and not in any manner by re- 
 tail, within the jurisdiction of the City. Before we consider
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK the effects of this exclusive franchise of the citizens, it may 
 
 ' r be as well to enquire shortly into its nature. 
 
 to D i603. 8 That it is a restraint upon competition in trade is not 
 more obvious than its prejudicial quality in the abstract. 
 To exclude the public from that participation in the trade 
 carried on by others, through which participation the general 
 market may be more plentifully supplied, unless payment is 
 made, or a burthen is undertaken, for the liberty of trading, 
 is to tax the majority of the people for the benefit of the 
 privileged class, as far as such restraint extends. This re- 
 straint is, however, by no means so extensive as is commonly 
 imagined, or, indeed, such as to produce any sensible effect 
 on the interests of the public. It is not only local, but con- 
 fined within very narrow limits : neither does it exclude 
 competition in any particular branch of industry within 
 London or without. The City of London is no longer a 
 staple town, through which the trade in particular articles 
 must of necessity pass. Its exemptions from vassalage and 
 arbitrary power are no longer so peculiar, as to draw the 
 commerce away from districts less favoured in regard to 
 constitutional rights. All other ports are equally competent 
 to emulate its means and its success ; nor can the prosperity 
 of the national commerce ever again depend on that of a 
 single city. Whatever may be the tax or the burthen im- 
 posed on the participation of civic rights of trade, it is certain 
 they are not such as to arrest the circulation, or to cramp 
 the energy, of commercial enterprise amongst the public 
 in general. Whatever advantages London may hold out to 
 those who trade within it, they are all derived from inherent 
 sources; and the price at which they are purchased, and 
 which may be requisite for maintaining them, is the voluntary 
 tribute of a free judgment exercised in a free country. 
 
 If the local advantages of the City of London, as an em- 
 porium of trade (independently of those derived through 
 political rights and self-government), were such as would 
 induce heavy sacrifices for the purpose of participation in 
 them, it would be hard to defend the exaction of such sacri- 
 fices for no other object than to uphold the emolument and 
 arbitrary authority of a few incorporated individuals. But
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES IX LONDOX. 191 
 
 neither are the local advantages such in their nature, nor CHAP, 
 are snch heavy sacrifices required. The Corporation does, ^ ^ - 
 indeed, possess the power of imposing terms for the admission ^"jl^t 8 
 of new members (not entitled by birth or apprenticeship) to 
 the privileges of citizenship but numerical strength is fax 
 more essential to the maintenance of the corporate interests 
 than the contributions, or even the quality of new members. 
 Those interests, therefore, suggest what justice demands 
 namely, that the admission of all applicants for citizenship 
 should be as wide as is consistent with the individuality of 
 the association as a distinct body politic ; and, thus, all 
 arbitrary authority in the selection of persons is reduced to 
 a mere shade. Should large payments for full liberty of 
 trade within the City be demanded, and as freely paid, still, 
 as such payments would go to increase a corporate fund to 
 be administered for the common benefit of all the members 
 of the Corporation, it would be but an impolitic and un- 
 necessary expenditure, affecting themselves as members only, 
 while the general advancement of commerce would not be 
 retarded thereby. If, however, having reference to the free- 
 dom and facility of commerce throughout the kingdom, such 
 payments were too high to be freely paid, the demand of 
 them would but detach strangers to trade in other places. 
 At the same time it would diminish proportionably the 
 trading of citizens in their own port. 
 
 In truth, so liberal is the admission of all candidates for 
 civic freedom, that the exclusion of strangers from the full 
 enjoyment of citizenship, unless they will earn it by service 
 or payment, amounts to little more, in effect (at least with 
 regard to English subjects), than a requisition that all who 
 live within its walls, or exercise municipal rights, should be 
 subservient to its internal regulations, and ancillary to its 
 good government. 1 Moderate, however, as may be the tax 
 upon, or requisitions for this admission, and reasonable as 
 may be the duties which such admission imposes, the justifi- 
 cation of their existence must still depend on their efficacy 
 
 1 Since the publication of the first March 17, 1835, reduced the fee for 
 edition of this work, the Conrt of Com- admission to the freedom of the Citj 
 mon Council has, by a resolution passed from twenty-fire pounds to fire pounds.
 
 192 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK in promoting a beneficial object. The question to be considered 
 - _ Jl _ - is, whether a body politic in which such exclusive privileges 
 
 prevail, is a useful establishment in a state and if 
 so, whether it can subsist without them. 
 
 But few words are necessary to establish the first proposi- 
 tion. It is the very foundation of all society and civil govern- 
 ment, that men should unite for the purpose of ascertaining 
 their common interests, and of effecting their common de- 
 signs. The same principle which attracts individuals of every 
 class and quality into community for the universal object 
 of mutual protection, dictates the distinct association of all 
 those subdivisions of society which possess their own peculiar 
 and subordinate interests to defend or to advance. If we 
 should consider the citizens of London as a mere assemblage 
 of commercialists, it would be impossible not to perceive the 
 advantages of their union into one organised body. 
 
 The consolidated existence, and the efficient action, of such 
 a union can only be secured, in a free country, by some 
 form of representation, and no system of representation can 
 be stable and beneficial, in all its just amplitude, unless the 
 representatives are freely elected by those having common 
 interests to be advanced. Now the Corporation of London, 
 acting as the representatives of the citizens at large, is not 
 composed of, and does not emanate from, any one or more 
 classes of the commercial community. .If so, it might be 
 concluded that the interests of some classes would be advo- 
 cated at the expense of the others : but comprising, as it 
 does, in a greater degree than any other in the world, the 
 members of every trading occupation which can be pursued, 
 either within the City or without, the Corporation may be 
 truly said to represent, not only the commercial interests of 
 the City, but, as far as its influence extends, those of the 
 nation itself. Stripped of those monopolous privileges which 
 once separated its own prosperity from that of other cities, 
 it can never advocate its individual interests without ad- 
 vancing those of the mercantile public. It can no longer be 
 urged that the commercial community might, by its selfish 
 influence, become more than a match for the general com- 
 munity of the nation. That apprehension must vanish with 
 the absence of such a cause for it. The public are sufficiently
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES IS LONDON. 19 
 
 enlightened to know, that the landed or agricultural interest CHAP. 
 
 and the commercial interest are, in truth, all one ; and de- . ^ 
 
 pend on their reciprocal prosperity. The distinction between A t ' \ 1 6 
 the manufacturer of bread and the manufacturer of cloth is 
 in kind and not in principle. The political influence of great 
 cities, wealthy only by the relative adversity and slavery of 
 other districts, has now sunk to the common level to which, 
 under a constitutional government, all classes may approach, 
 according to their intrinsic merits, in a free state. It is a 
 vain fear to suppose that the owners and occupiers of the 
 soil of a free country will not always possess the real dominion 
 in the end. Their greater reason to fear is, that, by impair- 
 ing or destroying the representative influence of the coin- 
 mercialists, they may in the result possess but little else than 
 a barren dominion. 
 
 That the contribution towards the support of corporate 
 establishments, or the performance of duties imposed by 
 them is obligatory, while the concession to the requisitions 
 of other associations is voluntary, is obviously an illusory 
 objection. It is impossible that any association can be 
 supported without sacrifices of some sort, either personal 
 or pecuniary. They are none of them absolutely voluntary. 
 All are submitted to for the sake of some ulterior advantage. 
 No combination for the most contracted or private object can 
 be more voluntary on the part of its members, than that 
 which constitutes the Corporation of London. To those 
 who are not members the whole kingdom is open ; the par- 
 ticipation in the advantages of the civic trade and the civic 
 association, only, is denied. To open that trade to all, with- 
 out imposing such obligation, is to confer such advantages, 
 without exacting those fair and necessary returns, by which 
 the association itself, and all the benefits to be derived from 
 it, can alone be sustained. No more is demanded, in prin- 
 ciple, than the duty which every nation must exact of its 
 subjects who voluntarily place themselves under its govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Whether the maintenance of this great corporation in all 
 its ancient vigour and splendour is a just object of the public 
 care, may, perhaps, be best decided by attaining a knowledge
 
 94 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK of the true principles of civil liberty. All the real privileges 
 ',. enjoyed by the citizens at the present day are those only, 
 
 ? under one modification or another, the free residents 
 of every district in the kingdom ought to possess in a free 
 country. As residents of London, they possess the highest 
 constitutional franchises which can characterise any class of 
 the common people : internally, self-government ; externally, 
 a voice in the state. As traders, they are endowed with the 
 power of ascertaining and of advocating, as well as in some 
 degree of administering, those regulations by which mercan- 
 tile intercourse may be best sustained. These are privileges 
 which if they are honourable to the citizens, are certainly not 
 detrimental to the public ; and if they are envied by any, are 
 not denied to their participation upon the most easy and 
 reasonable terms. 
 
 Of the political use and benefit derived from the existence 
 of the Corporation of London it has been, in some degree, 
 the endeavour of this work to afford proofs, by stating many 
 facts and particulars in the progressive history of our national 
 constitution, the beneficial effects of which are incontestible ; 
 and which may serve to instruct the successors of the citizens 
 of London. Should it be intimated, that many restrictions 
 on commerce have from time to time been sanctioned or 
 imposed by it, for its own partial benefit; let it be re- 
 membered also, how many arbitrary laws and regulations it 
 has removed for the perpetual advantage of all. Let it be 
 observed, that it is of great importance in a free state to 
 have a regular constituted society, representing the most 
 valuable and vital interests of a country all the indus- 
 trious and middling classes of the people ; a society, inde- 
 pendent enough to maintain the right to an unshackled 
 discussion of political measures, which can claim not only 
 free access to the legislature, but to the throne itself; 
 and which preserves within itself the franchises of self- 
 government, the very seeds of liberty. A serious attention 
 to the distinguishing phenomena of English history, will 
 discover from other events as well as from the seizure of the 
 City charter by Charles II., and its restoration by his suc- 
 cessor, that, whenever the rights and liberties of the City of
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES IN LONDON. 195 
 
 London are destroyed, those of the nation itself are in no 
 small danger. 
 
 This basis of public utility, it is conceived, is that on 
 which the possession of the exclusive civic privileges, as sup- 
 porting the corporate capacity of the City, may more properly 
 and securely rest, than upon the common plea of a full right 
 of inheritance in the citizens, which has been so favourite a 
 topic of argument with judges and lawyers ; as if the rights 
 of an imaginary and artificial essence were indefeasible b} r 
 the powers which created it, or that private advantages 
 should be fostered, which are inconsistent with the public 
 welfare. 
 
 That exclusive privileges of trading are absolutely neces- 
 sary for the preservation of the Corporation as an active 
 representative body, is so obvious as to require little illustra- 
 tion. The City of London can exist only by its trade ; the mass 
 of its useful and productive inhabitants must ever be com- 
 posed of traders ; and it is out of these individuals that the 
 corporators must mainly be chosen, if they are to represent 
 the real interests of the City. The local advantages which 
 distinguish it as a place of commerce, are sufficient to attract 
 inhabitants in vast numbers ; and such local advantages will 
 in all probability ever exist. If, however, strangers, who may 
 find emolument in carrying on trade there, are allowed so to 
 do at their discretion, without incurring the expense or bur- 
 then incident to the assumption of the civic freedom, the 
 number of non-freemen will go on increasing in proportion 
 to the superior local or natural advantages afforded to com- 
 mercial pursuits, until the original freemen are nearly, or 
 altogether, supplanted. The Corporation may then still 
 exist, but no longer as the Corporation of London, except 
 in name. It will represent no common interests ; still less 
 those of the mercantile population of England. The most 
 honourable distinction it can then enjoy will be that of an 
 association of proprietors, or of being a medium of police 
 government. The great City companies have become such 
 associations of proprietors. They have their use. They are 
 supporters of many excellent charitable and scholastic insti- 
 tutions. They are gatherings through whom political senti- 
 
 o 2
 
 196 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 ments may be circulated, and political influences be brought to 
 bear to say nothing of the genial enjoyments of good fellow- 
 ship. But they cannot aspire to the honours, the dignity, the 
 national importance and the public estimation which a great 
 civic corporation is entitled to. It is therefore necessary not 
 only that the London Corporation should possess these exclu- 
 sive trading privileges on which its organisation rests, but 
 that they should be constantly enforced. The a.pathy of the 
 citizens in this respect has already produced consequences, in 
 regard to the number and quality of the corporate members, 
 which will deserve their attention. 1 
 
 1 It must candidly be acknowledged, 
 that the views here expressed by the 
 author, as to the expediency of main- 
 taining the exclusive rights of freemen 
 to deal by retail in the City, have been 
 repudiated by the Court of Common 
 Council, in 1856. By an act of the 
 court of that date, this unquestioned 
 privilege has been voluntarily aban- 
 doned. 
 
 The act (after reciting that this 
 exclusive right was plain and un- 
 doubted, and confirmed by sundry Acts 
 of Parliament) provides ' that any per- 
 son, whether free of the City ornot, may 
 sell by retail, or keep any shop,' &c., 
 ' within the City of London, notwith- 
 standing any custom or privilege to the 
 contrary.' It may, however, be fairly 
 doubted how far the citizens at large 
 really were, or can be legally considered, 
 parties to the surrender of this right, and 
 whether, indeed, anything, short of an 
 Act of Parliament, can annul this, or 
 any other, right or privilege of the citi- 
 zens, resting on the faith of imperial 
 statutes which have explicitly confii-med 
 them. It may be thought that the re- 
 presentatives of the citizens in Common 
 Council were rather entrusted with the 
 duty of supporting their statutable 
 rights, than with any discretionary sub- 
 ordinate power of abolish ing them : and 
 it would be too much to infer that, by., 
 remaining passive, the constituency of 
 the citizens have acquiesced in the mea- 
 
 sure, even if they were competent to 
 forego, through their representatives, the 
 rights of their successors. The Charter 
 of Edward III., confirmed by Act of Par- 
 liament (which is recited in the act of 
 Common Council), has allowed the 
 corporate authority the liberty ' of 
 amending any customs which might in 
 any part be hard or defective, by or- 
 daining any remedy, so that such 
 ordinance be profitable to the king, 
 and to the citizens, and to all liige 
 subjects resorting to the City;' which last 
 expressions may be taken to mean, the 
 non-freeman wholesale dealers coming to 
 the public market, where (as has been 
 shown) all wholesale dealing was at this 
 time carried on. It may, however, admit 
 of question, whether such a power of 
 applying a remedy for ' amending a cus- 
 tom hard or defective in any part,' and 
 with such qualification in the exercise, 
 of it, extends to the abolition of a valu- 
 able and statutable privilege alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Upon the point of expediency, it may 
 be added to the argument in the text, 
 that it must be obvious, that the admis- 
 sion of all comers to the privileges of 
 citizenship, without any requisition to 
 be incorporated as a member of the body 
 politic, must sensibly weaken the chain 
 that binds that community together. If, 
 one by one, all or most of the civic 
 franchises - that of free liberty of trading 
 without being freemen that of electing
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES IN LOXDOX. 
 
 197 
 
 But as, on the one hand, the citizens should be rigid in CHAP, 
 enforcing these essential rights ; so, on the other, if they ^_ . _^ 
 would preserve their corporate existence in full vigour, they AD ',g^ 
 must reduce the price and burthens of the civic franchise to 
 the lowest possible scale, 1 and by no means to allow them to 
 outweigh the local advantages to be derived from it : for on 
 them, after all, must depend the commercial prosperity of the 
 metropolis. These local advantages are such, and so in all 
 probability they must long continue, as to reconcile any in- 
 terested mind to make considerable sacrifices to acquire. 
 With regard to such as accompany the due discharge 
 of the more dignified offices, no curtailment may appear 
 perhaps to be demanded. Human pride will, in most in- 
 stances, make such sacrifices agreeable. These offices, as 
 well as those of a mere ministerial quality, become lighter 
 in their effects, as the due proportion of freemen is kept 
 up, who are bound to share them. The terms of admission, 
 every policy seems to suggest, should be as liberal and un- 
 restricted as is compatible with the respectability of the new 
 members. 
 
 Thus much it has been thought important to advance 
 upon a topic so necessarily and so seriously affecting the in- 
 terest of the City of London. Whether these sentiments 
 are just and sound, must perhaps be left to experience alone 
 to determine. One conclusion will at least meet with univer- 
 
 members of the representative body of 
 the City in Common Council (as con- 
 ferred l.y Act of 30 Viet.), without 
 being freemen) that of electing the 
 City representatives in Parliament (as 
 already conferred on those who may. or 
 may not, be the true citizens of London 
 by occupation, or even by trading there- 
 in) and that of becoming magistrates 
 or common councilman, as well as mem- 
 bers in Parliament of the City be 
 opened to all the world, without any 
 corporate tie or local interest, the corpo- 
 ration would become a caput mortuum. 
 It would become a mere association of 
 individuals, possessing property in com- 
 mon, with or without local or public 
 trusts, as it may happen, and its prin- 
 
 ciple of self-government would, more or 
 less, if not altogether, lose its vitality. 
 A different consideration would be ad- 
 missible, if the pecuniary tax on the 
 acquisition of the civic freedom was 
 burthensome, and consequently of a 
 monopolous tendency. But this is not 
 the case. The freedom of the City is 
 open to all who are willing to accept the 
 ordinary duties of citizens, in support- 
 ing the administration of the civic 
 government, for the performance of 
 which duties the honour which attends 
 public services is, and ought to be, the 
 sufficient and appropriate reward. 
 
 1 The price of admission has been 
 reduced to 5/. from 25/. Vide p. 191.
 
 198 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDOX. 
 
 sal concurrence ; namely, that all restrictions imposed on free 
 commercial competition by taxes, tolls, monopolies, and 
 arbitrary laws, having for their object, professedly, to contri- 
 bute to mere individual or class emolument, or tending by 
 unforeseen consequences to that result must not only retard 
 national prosperity, but, if instituted in favour of a king or of 
 a government, must in the end prove subversive of national 
 liberties also.
 
 199 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION O JAKES I. TO THAT OF CHARLES n. 
 
 THE maxim of government, that the king possessed within CH\P. 
 
 himself an inherent absolute authority, which from the time - L, .'. 
 
 of Magna Charta had become gradually weakened, seemed ^'^l 
 to lie revived again by the Tudors, and was maintained with 
 almost unremitting success by Elizabeth. It is manifest that 
 James was disposed to tread in the same paths as his imme- 
 diate predecessors, and that he conceived his own authority 
 to be despotic and above the law. This may be gathered 
 from the almost uniform language held by him in his own 
 published works, in his speeches to Parliament, and indeed in 
 all his public addresses. His ministers frequently upheld 
 the same doctrine : and it is evident that too much ignorance 
 prevailed on the nature of the Constitution, and of the line 
 requisite to be drawn between the royal prerogative and the 
 rights of the people, to allow of its denial or refutation. 
 What tended, it may be presumed, in no small degree to 
 prevent an actual breach with the monarch on this interest- 
 ing topic, when the eyes of his subjects were opened to the 
 natural qualities of government, were his constant declara- 
 tions, not ill-supported by his conduct, that whatever notions 
 he himself entertained of his own inherent authority, his in- 
 tentions, as well as his inclinations, were to govern according 
 to the law of the land, and the duly ascertained will of his 
 subjects. 
 
 The principle of parliamentary independence, which had 
 plainly dawned in the last reign, began fully to shine forth 
 and display itself in this. It had been the practice in pre- 
 ceding reigns for the Crown to assume the privilege of issu-
 
 200 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ing new writs to supply the vacancies of members occasioned 
 ^ / _- by deaths or sickness; and, at last, even by incapabilities 
 A to'i660 3 ad J ud g ed at the discretion of the Crown itself. This had 
 been remonstrated against in the reign of Elizabeth, though 
 with but partial success. James, in summoning his first 
 parliament, issued a proclamation, threatening to fine and 
 imprison anyone who should take on himself the place of 
 a member not elected according to the laws in force, and 
 according to the tenor of that proclamation. His chancellor 
 actually proceeded to displace one member, on the ground of 
 his being an outlaw. The Commons, however, not only saw 
 the direct tendency of such an attempt to enslave the House, 
 but so severely remonstrated against it, that the king readily 
 withdrew this alarming claim of jurisdiction. 1 
 
 Such was the first parliamentary step in this reign. In 
 the progress of it, the House testified an anxious resolution 
 to circumscribe the exercise of the royal prerogatives within 
 such limits as to leave the king no longer independent of his 
 parliament, and to relieve his subjects from their dependence 
 on his will for the enjoyment of their common rights and 
 property. Accordingly all monopolies, compulsive loans and 
 benevolences, arbitrary imposts, and rates upon merchandise, 
 were denounced as illegal. Monopolies were finally and in 
 terms abolished by statute ; and if all other modes of arbitrary 
 taxation were not expressly abolished, it was only because it 
 was considered every one would be justified in resisting them 
 of his own authority. 
 
 The law of proclamations began to be scrutinised with an 
 inquisitive eye ; and it was observed that, while such a mode 
 of promulgating laws prevailed, there could be but little 
 security in the constitutional rights of the people, especially 
 while the courts of High Commission and the Star Chamber 
 existed, with powers sufficient to enforce these royal decrees. 
 This was altogether a reign of proclamations. The king de- 
 lighted in displaying to his people his profound political 
 wisdom, and was never so much himself as when with fond 
 garrulity he was inculcating in the first person his much 
 prized maxims of government. Fortunately for himself, if 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. ch. xlv.
 
 JAMBS I. CLAIMS OP PREROGATIVE. PARLRLIAME5T. 201 
 
 not for his subjects, this ruling passion expended itself for CHAP, 
 the most part upon trivial objects. 1 To interfere with this , 
 dearly-loved branch of his prerogative, was to wonnd him in ^J^JJJJ 
 the most sensitive part. He defended it strenuously, though 
 with more sophistry than effect;* but succeeded in warding 
 off for a season the discussion of the subject, by candidly 
 acknowledging that his proclamations had no title to be 
 considered on a parity with regular statutes. 
 
 At length a rupture took place between the king and his 
 parliament;, arising from the claim of the latter, urged with 
 some symptoms of asperity, to discuss freely all matters of 
 state, however personally affecting the former, which drew 
 the attention of the whole nation to the state of their politi- 
 cal rights. 3 It may readily be concluded that the free privi- 
 leges of parliament became more and more strengthened by 
 such disputes ; and the king must have found, at the close of 
 his reign, that, whatever ostensible concession was tacitly 
 made to his own speculative doctrines in regard to the abso- 
 lute power of the monarch, he had been gradually deprived 
 of all the substantial means of exercising it. It is of conse- 
 quence to notice these political proceedings and the feelings 
 which gave rise to them, especially with respect to proclama- 
 tions ; because otherwise it would be impossible to understand 
 or appreciate the constant intermeddling of the king in the 
 civic concerns, and indeed in what might very justly be con- 
 sidered the chartered rights of the citizens. 
 
 The courts of High Commission and of the Star Chamber 
 continued to exercise their jurisdiction throughout this reign ; 
 the former certainly with mitigated severity, in deference to 
 the king's disinclination to all kinds of religious persecution. 
 It is to be remarked, that the sect of Puritans, which subse- 
 
 1 Proclamations against new bnild- restrain and prevent such mischiefs and 
 
 ings, against the use of tobacco, for inconveniences as he saw growing on the 
 
 mil noblemen to live at their country state, against which no certain law was 
 
 houses at Christmas, prescribing rules extant.' King James's Worts, p. 259. 
 
 for preaching, &c- &e. ed. 1613. It is plain, however, that 
 
 * He acknowledged,' he told the Com- proclamations must either have the 
 
 mons, that proclamations were not of force of laws or be altogether nugatory, 
 
 equal force with laws ; yet he thought it 'The Commons presented a petition 
 
 a duty incumbent on him, and a- power against the Spanish match, which gave 
 
 inseparably annexed to the Crown, to great offence.
 
 202 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK quently occasioned such convulsions in the government, 
 . L ^ began to increase at this period : they rendered themselves 
 A t' D 1660 3 no t r i lls a t first by their intolerance of popery ; and such 
 is the effect of religious fanaticism on the human mind, that 
 this class of persons, who were at all times the most forward 
 assertors of constitutional liberty, did not hesitate to call 
 into aid the king's most tyrannical powers, as exercised by 
 the arbitrary court of High Commission, towards the sup- 
 pression of difference in religious opinion. 1 The jurisdiction 
 of the Star Chamber was enforced with less scruple : and 
 we hear of many persons being censured for their disobe- 
 dience to the king's ridiculous proclamations against the in- 
 crease of the London suburbs. 2 While such a prerogative as 
 this prevailed, of establishing arbitrary courts and commis- 
 sions of enquiry, there is little cause for surprise that the 
 citizens of London experienced such continual difficulty in 
 vindicating their chartered privileges in regard to exclusive 
 jurisdiction within the City. 
 
 The citizens were but once called upon by James to furnish 
 their quota of soldiers towards a projected war; on which 
 occasion they supplied only two thousand men ; and that, it 
 would seem, more out of good will than from anything like 
 compulsion. 3 In an attempt, however, to raise a benevo- 
 lence, the citizens evinced a more refractory spirit. Twenty 
 thousand pounds were demanded, but they refused to advance 
 more than half that sum ; 4 a plain indication of the know- 
 ledge they had acquired of their own rights in regard to tax- 
 ation. One citizen upon application refused to contribute 
 anything ; but on its being intimated to him that the king 
 might require his services to carry a despatch to Ireland, he 
 deemed it an easier task to comply than to assert his own 
 rights against the claims of the monarch. 5 
 
 A circumstance which happened in the City at this period 
 is not undeserving of notice, as illustrating in a remarkable 
 
 1 Remonstrance presented to the king land, vol. i. p. 298. 
 by his last parliament but one against 4 Ibid. 
 
 Catholics. Hume's Hist. ch. xlviii. * Hume's Hist. ch. xlix. note 29, 
 
 2 Maitland, vol. i. p. 289, quoting quoting Johnstone's Rerum Britanui- 
 Stow's Survey. carum Historia. 
 
 * Stow's Chronicle, A.D. 1624. Mait-
 
 JAMES I. BOOK OF SPORTS. IRISH SOCIETY. 20 
 
 manner the relative pretensions of the king and his people. CHAP. 
 James had written a work, entitled 'The Book of Sports ; ' ^J^l 
 in which he laboured to prove the lawfulness of games of ^'"'^gJJ 
 amusement on the Sabbath-day. This book, at the request 
 of some bishops, he ordered by proclamation to be read in all 
 churches ; an injunction which gave much offence in the 
 City. The lord mayor, in defiance of the paternal recom- 
 mendations contained in the royal volume, ventured to stop 
 the king's carriages while passing through the City in time 
 of Divine service. The king was in great wrath, and imme- 
 diately sent his lordship a warrant to allow them to pass. 
 The lord mayor obeyed ; observing, that ' while he possessed 
 ' his power he had done his duty ; but that being taken away 
 ' by a higher power, he had done his duty in obeying.' ' 
 
 King James conferred on the City of London those posses- 
 sions in Ireland which became the occasion of founding what 
 is called the Irish Society. It is foreign to the object of this 
 work to detail the nature of these possessions, or to examine 
 the functions of the society in consequence of this grant. 
 It will be sufficient to mention, that the province of Ulster, 
 having become depopulated and for the most part forfeited 
 to the Crown through frequent rebellions, it was judged ex- 
 pedient to colonise it with a body of Protestants. That pro- 
 vince, comprising the city of Londonderry and the town of 
 Coleraine, was accordingly granted by charter to the Corpora- 
 tion, who immediately formed a committee (afterwards in- 
 corporated into the Irish Society), with powers to raise a sum 
 of money, and to take measures for the plantation of it. For 
 this purpose all the land was divided into thirteen lots : the 
 first, containing the city and town, with the public fisheries, 
 was reserved in the hands of the society ; the other lots were 
 disposed of, in conformity with the king's charter of license, 
 to the twelve great livery companies in perpetuity. 2 
 
 A good understanding generally prevailed between the 
 citizens and James, who took pleasure in associating with 
 them. He granted them three valuable charters, the 
 substance and tenor of which sufficiently testified his good- 
 
 1 Wilson's Life of King James. stitution, and Proceedings of tie Irish 
 
 - A Concise View of the Origin, Con- Society. Svo. 1822.
 
 204 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 will to the Corporation, and his anxiety to support its privi- 
 leges. 1 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 
 to 1660. ' It may not be thought, perhaps, an 
 unjustifiable use of the license of a note 
 to enquire into the long debated subject 
 of the rank and quality of London 
 citizens, as such, in the scale of society 
 a subject upon which so much amusing 
 authority is to be found in the scenes of 
 our older dramatists. The term Barons, 
 as applied to citizens in very early times, 
 will be the subject of enquiry in con- 
 sidering the charter of William I. We 
 have seen that the citizens assumed 
 much upon that title, at a period so 
 early as the reign of Henry III. ; and 
 the great influence which the civic com- 
 munity possessed in the state for ages 
 afterwards, was calculated to foster high 
 notions of their own personal dignity, 
 although their first magistrates never 
 seem to have arrogated any claim to the 
 rank of nobles. We may trace, however, 
 plain indications of a spirit amongst the 
 citizens corresponding with the advance- 
 ment of the age in civilisation ; and as 
 soon as gentility became an acknowledged 
 grade in society, they resolutely laid 
 claims to it. As trade was the criterion 
 of the citizen, so the civic freedom came 
 to be considered, in their own estimation 
 at least, one of the badges of a Gentle- 
 man. Thus in a play of the year 1607, 
 a City serjeatit is introduced with his 
 prisoner just arrested, who sustains the 
 character of a scholar. 
 
 ' Scholar. Nay, use me like a Gentle- 
 man ; I'm little less. 
 
 ' Serjeant. You a Gentleman ! that's 
 a good jest i'faith. Can a scholar be a 
 Gentleman, when a Gentleman will not 
 be a scholar ? Look upon your wealthy 
 citizens' sons, that are Gentlemen by 
 their fathers' trades. A scholar a Gen- 
 tleman!' Puritan. Anon. 1607. 
 
 Of a rank so vague and so little 
 capable of definition as that of Gentle- 
 man, comprising as well those who have 
 a superior specific station by birth, as 
 those who, if they possess any at all, 
 possess no other, it is impossible to give 
 
 a precise idea at any period of English 
 society. For ages after the Norman 
 invasion, and during the period that the 
 feudal principles prevailed in any strict- 
 ness, the term Gentleman was altogether 
 unknown ; and the characteristic of 
 g< ntleness was first employed to express 
 the courteous demeanour of nobles and 
 knights, whose profession was arma 
 and the service of the ladies. The only 
 other acknowledged rank of society be- 
 sides that of nobles, knights, and their 
 esquires, was that of freemen. At first 
 the body of independent freemen who 
 did not hold by chivalry tenure, was 
 but small, and was probably almost 
 entirely confined to the residents of the 
 few chief cities which were privileged 
 from demesne tenure ; for even the socw n 
 or tenants in free socage, were in some 
 degree subjected to the control of pro- 
 prietary lords. As, however, govern- 
 ment improved, and the feudal principles 
 of tenure gave way, through the nume- 
 rous sub-infeudations and the advance- 
 ment of the socage tenants to indepen- 
 dence, the increase of free proprietors 
 of land, who lived on their own means, 
 but who neither directly or indirectly 
 assumed the profession of arms, was 
 proportionably great. The establish- 
 ment of a constitutional frame of polity, 
 and the progress of civilisation, served 
 at once to enlarge their number and to 
 confirm their independence. As they 
 were neither nobles, knights, or esquires, 
 they naturally acquired some other de- 
 nomination in society, to distinguish 
 them from the general mass of the 
 people, who from the period of Edward 
 III. to that of Henry VII. had gradually, 
 down to the lowest mechanic or labourer, 
 acquired the title of Freeman, which 
 had once been a privileged distinction. 
 As nobles and knights possessed a 
 nominal dignity, as well as a real rank, 
 which could emanate from the king 
 only, these independent proprietors at- 
 tained the conventional appellation of
 
 CLAIM OP CITIZENS TO RANK AS GENTLEMEN. 
 
 All classes of the people were now animated with feelings 
 of liberty, and a spirit of determination to establish rights 
 
 Gentleman or Esquire; though at first 
 the former term, as it was the most ap- 
 propriate, so it was also the more com- 
 mon. The same cognisance was perhaps 
 as soon assumed by, or accorded to, the 
 members of the three learned or liberal 
 professions of divinity, law, and physic. 
 
 The freemen of London, who origin- 
 ally had held a rank equal to any class 
 in the kingdom short of the nobility, 
 and who were proud of their own pri- 
 vileged importance, were not slow to 
 vindicate their claim to any new dignity 
 to which their original fellow-freemen 
 had arrived. 
 
 By the time of Henry VHI. and 
 Elizabeth, the members of every city 
 and of the meanest boroughs had become, 
 in point of mere constitutional freedom, 
 on a perfect equality with the London 
 citizens. At the same time the citi- 
 zens could hardly contemplate their 
 many chartered privileges, the political 
 influence of the Corporation, the opu- 
 lence of many of their great merchants, 
 and the legendary splendour of others, 
 without assuming to themselves a deci- 
 sive superiority over the burghers of 
 other places, who were at the same 
 period almost all engaged in the more 
 mechanical branches of trade. As the 
 wealthiest merchant and the most 
 subordinate shopkeeper equally held 
 their constant residence within the walls 
 of the City, and acquired both the 
 liberty of trading and of such residence 
 by his civic freedom ; and as service by 
 apprenticeship was in these times the 
 regular course of earning the freedom 
 by every das* of citizens it was natural 
 enough that the citizenship should be 
 regarded by the inferior citizens, if not 
 indiscriminately by all, as the common 
 badge of their rank. The civic freedom 
 was in fact gloried in by the very first 
 merchants; and the customs and fran- 
 chises to which their copies of admission 
 entitled them and their families, were so 
 much a matter of boast, as to form a 
 
 notorious topic of allusion; although 
 perhaps at the present day such allusions 
 would not be understood in many parts of 
 the City itself. Thus in a play of Mas- 
 singer's of the year 1632, Lady Frugal, 
 an eminent merchant's wife, is claiming 
 in the presence of her husband and the 
 suitors of her two daughters, the arrange- 
 ments of the weddings. She says 
 
 ' Even so, my Lord, 
 In these affairs /govern. 
 
 'Lord Lacy. Give .you way to 't? 
 [To Frugal.] 
 
 ' Sir J. Frugal. I must, my Lord. 
 
 'Lady Frugal. 'Tis fit he should, and 
 
 shall. ' 
 You may consult of something else ; this 
 
 province 
 Is wholly mine. 
 
 Sir M. Lacy. By the City Custom, 
 madam? 
 
 'Lady Frugal. Yes, my young sir, 
 and both must look my daughters 
 will hold it by my Copy. 
 
 'Plenty. Brave i'faith.' City Jtfadam : 
 1632. 
 
 But whatever respect the London 
 merchants may have enjoyed in public 
 opinion at the period of Elizabeth and 
 James I. (which, after all, must be the 
 only source of conventional rank), it is 
 certain that the Gentlemen of that day 
 were very little disposed to concede any 
 superiority to the mechanical tradesman 
 in deference to their civic freedom, over 
 those of any other district in the king- 
 dom. Even the citizens themselves seem 
 gradually to have become conscious of 
 some difference in the degree of their 
 respective claims to gentility. For in 
 the same play which has just been quoted, 
 we find a brother of Sir J. Frugal thus 
 apostrophising his two apprentices. 
 
 Luke. Are you Gentlemen born, yet 
 
 have no gallant tincture 
 Of gentry in you? You are no mechanics, 
 Nor serve some needy shopkeeper, who 
 
 surveys 
 His every day takings.
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 which could only prevail under a free form of government ; 
 when, in an evil hour and with evil counsels, Charles mounted 
 
 I blush for you 
 
 Blush at your poverty of spirit. You,, 
 The brave sparks of the City ! ' 
 
 In early times Gentlemen had no 
 hesitation in binding their younger song 
 apprentices to London citizens of almost 
 every quality, both merchants and re- 
 tailers ; and they consoled themselves 
 with the conviction, that although they 
 might not thereby enhance their charac- 
 ters as Gentlemen, they certainly did 
 not debase them. Thus, in the same 
 play, Tradewell, one of the apprentices, 
 speaking of his master, says 
 
 ' 'Tis great pity 
 Such a Gentleman as my master (for 
 
 that title 
 His being a citizen cannot take from 
 
 him).' 
 
 And again in a play of an earlier 
 date, upon the marriage of a goldsmith's 
 apprentice with his master's daughter. 
 
 ' Golding. I confess myself far un- 
 worthy such a worthy wife, being in 
 part her servant, as I am your 'pren- 
 tice; yet (since I may say it without 
 boasting) I am born a Gentleman, and 
 by the trade I have learn'd of my 
 master (which, I trust, taints not my 
 blood), able with mine own industry and 
 portion to maintain your daughter. 
 
 ' Touchstone. Master me no more, son, 
 if thou think'st mo worthy to be thy 
 father. 
 
 ' Girtred. Sun ? Now, good lord, how 
 he shines ; and, you mark him ! he's a 
 Gentleman ! 
 
 ' Gold. I indeed, madam, a Gentleman 
 born. 
 
 ' Sir Petroncl. Never stand o' your 
 gentry, Mr. Bridegroom ; if your legs be 
 no better than your arms, you'll be able 
 to stand on neither shortly. 
 
 1 Touch. An't please your good 
 worship, there are two sorts of Gentle- 
 men: there is a Gentleman artificial, 
 and a Gentleman natural : now, though 
 your worship be a Gentleman natural 
 work upon that, now.' Eastward Hoe. 
 
 About beginning of James I. 
 
 From this we may gather, however, 
 that some suspicion began to be enter- 
 tained whether a mechanical trade did 
 not, so far from conferring, positively 
 debase the rank of a Gentleman. That 
 this suspicion was not confined to the 
 gallants of the day and the superior 
 classes, but was commonly prevalent 
 within the City also, appears obvious 
 from other extracts. Thus in a play of 
 the date of 1637, an old citizen thus 
 expresses himself: 
 
 ' Barnacle We that had 
 
 Our breeding from a trade ; Cits as you 
 
 call us, 
 Though we hate Gentlemen ourselves, 
 
 yet are 
 Ambitious to make all our children 
 
 Gentlemen. 
 
 In three generations they return again. 
 We for our children purchase land ; they 
 
 brave it 
 I' the country ; beget children, and they 
 
 sell; 
 Grow poor, and send their sons up to be 
 
 'prentices. 
 There is a whirl in fate. The courtiers 
 
 make 
 Us cuckolds; mark, we wriggle into 
 
 their 
 Estates : Poverty makes their children 
 
 citizens ; 
 Our sons cuckold them. A circular 
 
 justice.' 
 
 The Gamester. Anon. 1637. 
 
 And a still stronger instance occurs 
 in a scene of a play already quoted. 
 Touchstone, the Goldsmith, is remon- 
 strating with his apprentice, and ex- 
 claims 
 
 ' Thou shameless varlet ! do'st thou 
 jest at thy lawful master, contrary to thy 
 indentures ? 
 
 ' Quicksilver. S' blood, sir, my mother's 
 a Gentlewoman, and my father a Justice 
 of Peace and of Quorum ; and though 
 I'm a younger brother and a 'prentice, 
 yet I hope I'm my father's son ; and
 
 CLAIM OF CITIZENS TO BANK AS GENTLEMEN. 
 
 207 
 
 the English throne. A concurrence of various circumstances CHAP, 
 had contributed to foster despotic principles in the mind of ^- - 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 dered it no part of his dnty to collect or to 1660. 
 
 by God'slid 'tis for TOUT worship and 
 for your commodity that I keep com- 
 pany. 
 
 ' Jbuch. (Pointing to his fellow ap- 
 prentice.) There's a youth of another 
 piece, there's thy fellow 'prentice, as 
 good a Gentleman born as thon art, &c, 
 
 [Exit Touchstone. 
 
 ' Quick. Marry, pho, goodman Flat- 
 cap. 'Sfoot, though Fm a 'prentice, I 
 can give arms. My father's a justice o' 
 peace by descent.' 
 
 Addressing himself to Golding, his 
 fellow apprentice, he continues : 
 
 Wilt thou cry, " What is't you lack ? " 
 stand with a bare pate and a dropping 
 nose under a wooden penthouse, and art 
 a Gentleman "i Wilt thou bear tankards 
 and may's t bear arms? Be ruled, turn 
 gallant.' 
 
 It must be acknowledged that the 
 screaming for customers from under a 
 penthouse, the practice of all sorts of 
 petty chaffering artifices, the drawing 
 water from the public conduits, the per- 
 forming pursuivant to the mistress of 
 the house, and other servile offices 
 which were formerly imposed upon ap- 
 prentices, were hardly compatible with 
 the nice bearing and sense of honour 
 characteristic of the true Gentleman. 
 Indeed so decided, as well as general, 
 had become this unfavourable opinion 
 of the gentility of mechanical appren- 
 tices, that we read in Stow (Strype's ed. 
 book v. p. 330) an account of the terror 
 of an old gentleman in the country, who, 
 in the year 1628, having bound a 
 younger son as an apprentice in London, 
 learned that he had thereby absolutely 
 tainttd his blond. His apprehensions 
 were at last pacified by John Philpot, 
 Somerset herald, who proved in a very 
 learned and elaborate treatise, called 
 The Cities Advocate, in this case or 
 question of honour and arms, whether 
 apprenticeship extinguished gentry,' 
 that his fears were unfounded. The 
 herald, however, seems to have consi- 
 
 refer to public opinion on the subject. 
 
 But what marked most plainly the 
 line of demarcation between the mere 
 citizen and the Gentleman, from the 
 period at which the distinctive appella- 
 tion of freeman dropt, to that when the 
 title of Gentleman became an acknow- 
 ledged grade in society, was the almost 
 exclusive separation of the citizens from 
 all other classes. They lived almost 
 entirely within the walls ; they were 
 governed and guided by their own 
 peculiar customs; they were engaged 
 exclusively in trade; their education, 
 manners, and social habits, were all pe- 
 culiarly civic. Even the lawyers kept 
 themselves in their inns of court as dis- 
 tinct as the divines in their universities. 
 The only other class living near the City 
 were the noblemen and courtiers about 
 the palace. As the buildings of the 
 whole metropolis were not, as at present, 
 blended in one continuous mass, without 
 any distinction between the City and 
 the suburbs, so neither was there the 
 same general diffusion of education, and 
 what may be denominated fashionable 
 manners, which readers it difficult to 
 distinguish the separate links of the 
 social chain which unites the peer and 
 the shopkeeper. The whole society of 
 the metropolis was, in fact, in those 
 times divided into two separate classes 
 the courtiers and the citizens ; and the 
 great criterion of the advancement of 
 the citizens amongst his own class, was 
 his introduction into that of the Court. 
 Numerous are the allusions in the 
 dramas of the day. and in other works 
 depictive of manners, to the visits of 
 nobles and gentlemen ' coming from the 
 Court' to the City, and to the ambi- 
 tions desire of the more opulent- citizens 
 to get introduced ' to the Court,' which 
 will account for the profusion of civic 
 knighthoods bestowed more particu- 
 larly by James I. Thus, in 'The 
 Puritan,' which has been quoted before
 
 208 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 to 1660. 
 
 a prince neither imperious nor violent in his natural dispo- 
 sition. His father had carefully instilled into him those 
 
 a nobleman who is persuading a City 
 widow and her daughter to marry them- 
 selves to two wealthy City suitors, uses 
 this argument : 
 
 ' Come, lady, and you, virgin ; bestow 
 your eyes and purest affections upon 
 men of estimation, both at Court and in 
 the City. 
 
 ' Sir Godfrey. Do, good sister, sweet 
 little Frank ; these are men of reputa- 
 tion. You shall be welcome at Court 
 a great credit for a citizen.' 
 
 Such being the state of feeling, we 
 may be the less surprised, that, as in 
 France (where citizens never attained, 
 as such, the rank of freemen or Gentle- 
 men in any sense), the Bourgeois- GentU- 
 hommc became a term of reproach, so in 
 England the courtiers and wits would 
 feel pleasure as well as policy in de- 
 grading the mere citizenship into a 
 forfeiture of the title of Gentleman, 
 rather than in exalting it into a claim 
 for such rank ; though certainly they 
 were no more justified in doing the one 
 than the other. Towards the latter 
 end of the sixteenth century, the gran- 
 deur, the exploits, the opulence, and 
 the good deeds of the citizens became a 
 very fruitful source of ribaldry and 
 the bitterness of the citizens at these 
 jests served to nourish them. In a 
 burlesque prologue to a play of the 
 year 1613, we have the following dia- 
 logue. 
 
 Enter speaker of the Prologue, and a 
 Citizen. 
 
 ' Cit. Hold your peace. Goodman, 
 boy. 
 
 ' Prol. What do you mean, sir ? 
 
 1 Cit. That you have no good meaning. 
 This seven years there have been plays 
 at this house, I have observed you still 
 have girds at the citizens : and now you 
 call your play "The London Merchant." 
 Down with your title, boy, down with 
 your title. 
 
 ' Prol. We intend no abuse of the 
 City. 
 
 ' Cit. No, sir? Yes, sir if you were 
 not resolved to play the Jacks, what need 
 you study for new subjects purposely to 
 abuse your betters ? Why could you not 
 be contented, as well as others, with the 
 legend of Whittington, or the life and 
 death of Sir Thomas Gresham, with the 
 building of the Eoyal Exchange, or the 
 story of Queen Eleanor with the rearing 
 of London Bridge upon woolsacks.' 
 
 Citizens of the more mechanical sort 
 are thus spoken of. Girtred, a gold- 
 smith's daughter, is coquetting herself 
 into a marriage with a needy knight : 
 she exclaims 
 
 ' Girt. For the passion of patience, 
 look if Sir Petronel approach. That 
 sweet, that fine, &c. Oh ! sister Mill, 
 though my father be a lowcapt trades- 
 man, yet I must be a lady, and I praise 
 God my mother must call me Madam. 
 Does he come ? Off with this gown for 
 shame's sake, off with this gown ! Let 
 not my knight take me in the City cut.' 
 Afterwards Touchstone, the father, 
 addressing the knight, says 
 
 'Sir, respect my daughter: she has 
 refused for you wealthy and honest 
 matches, known good men, &c. 
 
 ' Girt. Body o' truth, citizens ! citi- 
 zens ! sweet knight, as soon as ever we 
 are married, take me to thy mercy out 
 of this miserable City, presently, &c.' 
 
 Again, Pallantine, a young gallant, 
 in great pecuniary difficulties, is address- 
 ing his betrothed, and says 
 ' A foundress thou shalt be, of 
 A nunnery, Luce, where all the female 
 
 issue 
 
 Of our decayed nobility shall live 
 Thy pensioners : it will preserve them 
 
 from 
 Such want as makes them quarter 
 
 arms with the City, 
 And match with saucy Haberdashers' 
 
 sons, 
 
 Whose fathers lived in alleys and dark 
 lanes' 
 
 Davenant: The Wits, 1636.
 
 CHARLES I. CITIZENS AS GENTLEMEN. 
 
 209 
 
 maxims of divine right and absolute power, which, he himself 
 had not the courage or capacity to act upon. Remarkable 
 
 It may be reasonably supposed that 
 the dramatists in referring to the City 
 Merchants have greatly exaggerated, for 
 the purposes of ridicule, the contempt 
 entertained of them: but we cannot 
 determine, however, that they violated 
 altogether the common sentiments of 
 the times. A humorous scene of the 
 year 1639 will exhibit some traits of 
 the manner in which young Templars 
 presumed to speak and think of the 
 more opulent merchants. 
 
 Enter WAREHOUSE, a City Merchant, 
 and PLOTWELL, his nephew, a young 
 gentleman of the temple, 
 
 (The uncle is endeavouring to per- 
 suade the nephew to engage in his 
 trade.) 
 
 ' Warehouse. Think, man, how it may 
 In time make thee of the City senate, 
 
 and raise thee 
 To the sword and cap of maintenance. 
 
 ' Plotwell (aside). Yes, and make me 
 Sentence light bread and pounds of 
 butter on horseback. 
 
 ' Ware. Have gates and conduits 
 
 dated from thy year : 
 Eide to the Spittle on thy free beast. 
 
 ' Plot, (aside). Yes, free of your com- 
 pany. 
 
 ' Ware. Have the people vail 
 As low to his trappings, as if he thrice 
 
 had fined 
 For that good time's employment. 
 
 ' Plot, (aside.) Or as if 
 He had his rider's wisdom. 
 
 4 Ware. When the words 
 And good deeds of the City go before 
 
 thee; 
 Besides a troop of varlets. 
 
 Plot, (aside). Yes, and I 
 To sleep the sermon in my chain and 
 
 scarlet. 
 
 ' Ware. How say you? Let's hear that. 
 
 4 Plot, (aloud). I say, sir, 
 To sit at sermon in my chain and 
 
 scarlet. 
 
 ' Ware. 'Tis right; and be remem- 
 bered at the cross. 
 
 ' Plot. And then at sessions, sir, and 
 
 all times else, 
 
 Master Recorder to save me the trouble, 
 And understand things for me. 
 
 ' Ware. All this is possible, &c." 
 After the exit of WAREHOUSE, enter, to 
 PLOTWELL, BRIGHT and NEWCUT (two 
 
 Templars'). 
 
 'Bright. Save you, Merchant Plot- 
 well. 
 'New. Mr. Plotwell, Citizen and 
 
 Merchant, save you. 
 ' Bright. Is thy uncle 
 Gone the wished voyage ? &c. 
 what, take thee from the Temple 
 To make thee an old Jewryman, a 
 Whittington ! 
 ' New. To transform thy plush to 
 
 pennystone ; and scarlet 
 Into a velvet jacket, which has seen 
 
 Aleppo twice, &c. In Ovid 
 
 There is not such a metamorphosis 
 As thou art now. To be turned into a 
 
 tree, 
 Or some handsome beast, is courtly to 
 
 this; 
 
 But for thee, Frank Oh! trans- 
 mutation ! 
 
 Of satin changed to kersey hose I sing. 
 'Slid ! his shoes shine too. 
 
 'Bright. They have the Gh-esham 
 
 CHAP. 
 XI. 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 to 1660. 
 
 ' Plot. Very pleasant, gentlemen. 
 
 ' Bright. And faith, for how many 
 years art thou bound ? 
 
 ' Plot. Do you take me for a 'prentice ? 
 
 ' New. Why then, what office 
 Dost thou bear in the parish this year ? 
 
 Let's feel : 
 
 No batteries in thy head, to signify 
 Thou'rt constable ? 
 
 ' Bright. No furious jug broke on it, 
 In the king's name, &c.' 
 
 Afterwards Warehouse is cajoled into 
 the idea of being sought in marriage by 
 an 7mA Baroness, at which he assumes 
 vast self-importance. Upon being, 
 however, introduced to the lady, the 
 dialogue proceeds thus :
 
 210 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 throughout his life for too great a bias towards his advisers, 
 Charles at his accession was entirely swayed, not to say 
 
 ' Baneswright. I am instructed, 
 I was mistaken, sir ; indeed the lady 
 Spoke to me for her gentlewoman. How 
 Do you affect her, sir ? her birth 
 Not being so high, she will more size 
 
 with you. 
 
 ' Ware. I say, I like her best. Her 
 
 lady has 
 Too much great house with her.' 
 
 Mayne : The City Match, 1639. 
 
 The following scenes from Massinger's 
 celebrated play of A New Way to Pay 
 Old Debts, acted in 1638, may perhaps 
 be considered more genuine samples of 
 the real sentiments entertained of the 
 rank and credit of citizens. 
 
 ' Overreach. 'Tis my glory, tho' I came 
 
 from the City, 
 To have their issue whom I have undone 
 
 To kneel to mine as bondslaves 
 
 there having ever been 
 
 More than a feud a strange antipathy 
 Between us and true gentry' 
 
 And again, addressing his daughter, 
 he says 
 ' How like you your new woman 
 
 The lady Downf alien 
 
 Is she humble, Meg, 
 And careful too, her ladyship forgotten ? 
 
 ' Margaret. You know your own 
 
 ways ; but for me, I blush 
 "When I command her, that was once 
 
 attended 
 
 With persons not inferior to myself 
 In birth.' 
 
 A nobleman is rallied on his having 
 proffered himself to Overreach's daugh- 
 ter, and he replies with indignation 
 'Were Overreach's estates thrice cen- 
 tupled, his daughter 
 Millions of degrees much fairer than 
 
 she is, 
 Howe'er I might urge precedents to 
 
 excuse me, 
 
 I would not so adulterate my blood 
 By marrying Margaret, and to leave 
 
 my issiie 
 Made up of several pieces, one part 
 
 scarlet, 
 
 The other London blue.' 
 
 In another play of the year 1614, we 
 have the following dialogue : 
 STAINES (<z young gallant, addressing 
 himself to SPENDAIJL, a young citizen, in 
 a broil). 
 
 'Darest thou resist ? thou art no 
 citizen. 
 
 ' Spend. I am a citizen. 
 
 ' Staines. Say thou'rt a gentleman, 
 
 and I am satisfied ; 
 For then I know thou 'It answer me in 
 
 the field. 
 
 ' Spend. I say directly, I am a citizen, 
 And I will meet thee in tho field, as 
 
 fairly 
 As the best Gentleman that wears a 
 
 sword, &c.' 
 
 It is plain from the dramas of the 
 reign of James I., that the manners of 
 the gentry and of the Court were ex- 
 tremely gross and profligate ; and it 
 was equally the fashion amongst them to 
 violate the decencies of private life in 
 the City, as to deride the pretensions of 
 the citizens. The wits took their cue 
 from the temper of the gentry ; and, 
 not satisfied with exploding the claim 
 of the inferior orders of tradesmen to 
 the rank of Gentlemen by mere virtue 
 of their civic freedom, they were willing 
 to degrade all indiscriminately, while 
 all indiscriminately were the objects of 
 the loosest insults to the courtiers. In 
 the ensuing reign of Charles I., the 
 citizens, by their spirit and their influ- 
 ence, made themselves of important 
 consideration in the state ; but it may 
 well be surmised, that, among the cava- 
 liers, or genteel ranks of the community, 
 they contracted much more hatred than 
 respect. With the return of Charles II. 
 and his suite from their long French 
 banishment, that animosity broke forth 
 with great violence. Foreign habits 
 had inculcated a contempt for the rank 
 and qualities of their ancient enemies, 
 and the most profligate course of exem- 
 plifying it. A feud may be said to
 
 CHARLES I. CITIZEXS AS GENTLEMEN. 
 
 211 
 
 governed, bj his minister, the Duke of Buckingham one of 
 the most presumptuous and self-willed men that ever existed. 
 Dignified, and perhaps haughty, in all his opinions, the king 
 was apt to conceive that the language of complaint and re- 
 monstrance from, his people savoured of insolence, if not 
 rebellion. Having acquired no small degree of political 
 knowledge in the aflairs of his kingdom, he had formed his 
 ideas of the nature of the English constitution, rather from 
 the precedents and practice of his immediate predecessors, 
 
 CHAP. 
 XI. 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 to 1660. 
 
 hare subsisted between the Court and 
 the City throughout the whole of Charles 
 LL's reign. It is not possible to refer 
 without a violation of decency to the 
 specimens of the intercourse between 
 the courtiers and the citizens by which 
 their feelings towards each other could 
 be best displayed. The most dis- 
 gusting profligacy in the invasion of 
 family peace, which passed as a stand- 
 ing joke in the reign of James I., was a 
 fashionable amusement in the reign of 
 Charles IL 
 
 These animosities hare long passed 
 away; nor does there any longer exist 
 that decided difference in manners and 
 habits which formerly conduced, as 
 much as party spirit, to separate the 
 cits and the gentry. With the diffusion 
 of wealth and commerce, that of liberal 
 education and high feeling has kept 
 pace. The City merchant and the City 
 magistrate mingles with the first cour- 
 tiers and the highest circles of society, 
 upon the same terms and upon the same 
 pretensions. Whatever difference in 
 their relative station, public honour, 
 or influence, or right of precedence, may 
 sanction towards one another as Gf*- 
 Uenun they acknowledge, or affect to 
 acknowledge, an equality. The qualities 
 of mind and of avocation alone furnish 
 the data upon which social rank is to be 
 accorded. The title of free citizen 
 neither increases or detracts from the 
 personal estimation of its possessors. 
 The laws of society recognise a distinc- 
 tion between the claims of the shop- 
 
 keeper and those of the merchant to 
 the rank of gentility; although the 
 variety of commercial employment may 
 prevent that distinction being very 
 strongly marked : but we may consider 
 it one proof of the advance of refine- 
 ment in this age, that as, on the one 
 hand, no civic qualification can ever 
 raise to die rank of a Gentleman the 
 person engaged in base or menial offices, 
 so, on the other, the same qualification 
 will not deprive any individual of such 
 rank, if it has been acquired from other 
 sources. 
 
 It is certainly worthy of observation, 
 that the same depreciation of the quality 
 of the citizens, was the fashion with the 
 wits and courtiers of these early times 
 when many of the dignitaries and 
 merchants of the City ranked among 
 the first statesmen and the most influ- 
 ential men of the day, and became the 
 founders of many of the noblest families 
 of the kingdom as it since became 
 among wits and gentry of far less con- 
 sideration. With as little justice, too, 
 in the latter as in the former period ; as 
 shown in the forcible evidence of the 
 Hon. Stuart Wortley, the Recorder of 
 London, before the Parliamentary Com- 
 missioners who sat in 1861. It has 
 become notorious that most of the 
 greater merchants of London even affect 
 to disdain civic honours, and prefer to 
 seek public and social distinction through 
 other paths. But whether they do not 
 rather lose than follow the surest road, 
 must be left to their own sagacity. 
 
 P 2
 
 212 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK than from its true principles, or the enlightened political 
 -_-.' - opinions universally entertained amongst his people, 
 ^to 166Q 3 Unhappily for this monarch, there flourished at this crisis 
 in the House of Commons men who possessed the most ex- 
 alted capacities, and who were actuated at the same time by 
 the most generous and patriotic views. These men could 
 not but perceive how dependent the king had become upon 
 Parliament for those supplies, which the alteration of times 
 and circumstances required every year to be more liberal, 
 while the resources of the prerogative had gradually dimin- 
 ished. They resolved to convert the power thus acquired into 
 the means of settling for ever the boundaries between the 
 respective rights of the king and his subjects, and leave no 
 longer in doubt the nature of that free constitution, which 
 they looked to restore, if not to found. - With this view the 
 House was induced to pause in the submissive course which 
 had been usual in their grants. The commands of the king 
 nay, his representations and entreaties on this subject 
 were met with parsimonious indifference. Remonstrances 
 against grievances and arbitrary measures alone occupied 
 their counsels. Parliament after Parliament was dissolved, 
 in disgust ; while Charles in vain endeavoured by the exer- 
 cise of his prerogative to maintain his absolute independence, 
 until, as he flattered himself, he should collect more sub- 
 servient members of his legislature. He still, however, found 
 himself doomed to confront the same steady patriots ; and 
 these gradually were joined by more turbulent spirits. The 
 list of grievances increased ; remonstrances grew bolder. At 
 length, the king conceived that the design of the Parliament 
 was to rob him of all those undoubted royal privileges, with- 
 out which he could never support the dignity of his crown, if 
 not to overthrow the government altogether. He determined 
 to proceed by what he termed new counsels, 1 and to rule inde- 
 pendently, as well of Parliament as of every other control but 
 his own will. If, however, we reflect on the characters of 
 the men who composed the first Parliament of Charles ; when 
 we see Wentworth, Falkland, and Hyde, joining with Pym, 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. ch. 1., quoting the vice- chamberlain's speech upon it, as in 
 language of the king's message and the Rushworth and Whitelocke.
 
 CHARLES L HIS NEW COUNSELS AND OPPRESSIONS. 213 
 
 Hampden, and Hollis in the same objects who can doubt CHAP. 
 but that this infatuated monarch was as jnuch mistaken in ^ , ' ^ 
 the views of his opponents, as he was in his own power to AD ' 1 gg? ) 3 
 resist them ? Few of the measures taken at this period by 
 the Commons were dictated by any other than the wisest 
 and the most patriotic policy ; and, if the example set by 
 them to the nation subsequently led to the subversion, not 
 only of monarchy, but of all just principles of government, 
 we must attribute such consequences, not to those great 
 spirits to whom we have alluded, but to that sinister alloy of 
 faction, which but too often is poured into the purest sources 
 of national emancipation and freedom. 
 
 To refer, in detail, to the various modes adopted by Charles 
 in prosecution of his new counsels would be to recapitulate 
 most of those obnoxious oppressions which spring from the 
 exercise of arbitrary power employed in taxation oppres- 
 sions which had all been from time to time denounced; 
 many of which had been actually abolished, and others sunk 
 into oblivion. In the twelve years during which the king 
 persisted in refusing to call a Parliament, it is not too much 
 to say that no measure likely to prove successful in extorting 
 money was left unattempted. At the same time the most 
 odious functions of the Star Chamber were exhausted in 
 avenging the unlicensed ebullitions of popular indignation. 
 The great weight of these sudden and irregular measures 
 fell upon the cities and towns, where capital is chiefly con- 
 centrated. London was the emporium of the kingdom ; and 
 that City, accordingly, became the chief scene of the royal 
 exactions. Clarendon himself acknowledges that it was too 
 much looked upon as a common stock not easily to be ex- 
 hausted, and as a body not to be grieved by ordinary acts of 
 injustice ; J nor had the king yet learned from reason, or been 
 taught by experience, the danger of inflicting injuries on a 
 public body capable of meeting together to promulgate their 
 opinions and discuss their wrongs. 
 
 Charles applied to the citizens, in the very first instance, 
 for a loan of 100,OOOZ. They well knew the slender nature 
 
 1 VoL i. p. 372.
 
 214 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1603 
 to 1660. 
 
 of the security offered for the repayment of it, 1 and declined 
 to provide so large a sum ; having no power, as they inti- 
 mated, to enforce advances from individuals. 2 The king did 
 not hesitate to imprison twenty of the principal citizens for 
 this refusal, 2 and peremptorily obliged the City to provide 
 twenty ships, although an abatement of the number was 
 solicited in a very submissive manner. 3 On a riot occurring 
 in the City, the lord mayor and aldermen were summoned 
 before the king's Council, and threatened with a seizure of 
 the Charter ; they were finally amerced in the sum of 6,OOOZ. ; 
 and yet it has been doubted whether this was a pretence for 
 extortion. 4 Further, warrants were issued for levying ship- 
 money : the citizens referred to their charter : 4 they petitioned 
 for abatement ; 4 they appealed to the courts of law : 5 but all 
 was in vain ; and they were expressly told by one of the 
 judges, * that there was one rule of law, and another of 
 ' government, which latter was not to be controverted.' 5 
 Four aldermen were imprisoned by the Privy Council for not 
 disclosing the names of citizens who had money, but who 
 refused to advance it to the king. 6 Prosecutions were carried 
 on in the Star Chamber against the Corporation for pretended 
 abuses in the management of the province of Ulster; the 
 City was, after many invitations to compound, condemned to 
 lose its possessions, ; and fined 50,OOOL 6 This sentence was 
 condemned at the very first meeting of the next Parliament, 
 as contrary to the fundamental rights of the people. 6 No 
 limits were set to proclamations ; and they were all enforced 
 by scandalous sentences in the Star Chamber. Finally, as if 
 to convince the citizens that the king designed nothing short 
 of completing their degradation and slavery, he forbad their 
 preparing any petition to him for the redress of grievances. 7 
 Under these circumstances no apology is requisite, on 
 behalf of the City of London, for their having joined with the 
 famous Long Parliament in a strenuous endeavour to with- 
 
 1 Securities for money borrowed of 
 the citizens, it was the practice to avoid 
 on any specious pretences. Clarendon, 
 vol. i. p. 372. 
 
 2 Eushworth, vol. i. pp. 415, 419. 
 Franklyn, p. 207. 
 
 Ibid. Maitland, vol. i. p. 299. 
 Ibid. Kennett's Life of Charles I. 
 Kennett's Life of Charles I. 
 Ibid. vol. iii. 1640. 
 Ibid. vol. ii.
 
 CHARLES I. ORIGINAL LOYALTY OF THE CITY. 215 
 
 stand the despotic authority of the king, and redress the 
 evils of his government. What man, however prejudiced, 
 could contemplate such a list of oppressions, and at the same 
 time preach submission ? Even Lord Clarendon, though he 
 will not justify any of the measures of the citizens, says quite 
 enough to excuse their disaffection to the Court party. 1 
 There is, however, no reason to believe that, at the com- 
 mencement of the civil troubles, any party in the Corpora- 
 tion encouraged revolutionary views, or any other than for 
 redress, which would naturally result from a just sense of 
 their wrongs. The king and the citizens long maintained 
 towards each other sentiments of personal good- will ; nor 
 were these sentiments confined to professions merely. 
 Charles, in the fourteenth year of his reign, granted them a 
 most ample charter. It confirms all former privileges en- 
 joyed under prior grants, and it confers several additional 
 and important immunities. Parliamentary opposition, if at 
 this crisis it may not with more propriety be termed faction, 
 had already run high, and was fast advancing in the career 
 of disloyalty, when, upon the king's arrival in London after 
 a long absence in Scotland, he was received with a magnifi 
 cence and universal cordiality which could leave little doubt 
 how personally dear he still continued to the citizens. The 
 Recorder, in the name of the Corporation, pronounced an 
 address full of fervent affection ; and Charles, in terms of 
 much sensibility, expressed the contentment he felt in finding 
 that the late tumults and disorders had only arisen from the 
 meaner sort, and that the City had ever been loyal and 
 affectionate to his person and government. The king, after 
 dining in public with the lord mayor, embraced him on 
 taking leave ; and desired him to attend with his brethren 
 the aldermen at "Whitehall the following day, that he might 
 convince them of his determination to fulfil all those pro- 
 mises of protection in their civic rights, which he had pro- 
 mised in his public address to them. 2 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 372. p. 340, quoting Stows Survey ; Eush- 
 
 * All the circumstances attending the worth's Col. vol. iii. ; and Nals. Col. 
 
 king's reception and entertainment in vol. ii. 
 
 the City are detailed in Maitland, vol. i.
 
 lib HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK Flattering as these loyal indications were, they were of 
 
 r short duration. It is true that the king assented to many 
 
 *to'l660? just and popular bills, by which the Courts of High Commis- 
 sion and Star Chamber were abolished, and the more oppres- 
 sive exercises of his prerogative denounced ; but the indiscreet 
 reluctance which he seemed to feel in sanctioning such 
 measures, added continually to the strength and zeal of the 
 republican party in the government ; while he gained but few 
 to his side, and those slowly, from "amongst the partisans of 
 more moderate counsels. The zealots in the House were un- 
 ceasing in their efforts to attach the citizens to their cause ; 
 and Charles, by his personal animosity and injudicious attacks 
 on the most powerful asserters of the liberties of the people, 
 seemed labouring to estrange them. He attempted, in per- 
 son, to seize on five of the most popular members of the 
 House of Commons, whom, for their bold conduct in Parlia- 
 ment, he had accused of high treason. The people were 
 generally alarmed ; the members threw themselves into the 
 arms of the citizens, and found in them determined protectors. 
 The king in vain presented himself in the Court of Common 
 Council, demanding their surrender in conciliatory terms. 
 A step had now been taken too decisive to be retracted : there 
 was no want of exertion in fomenting the disposition which 
 had shown itself, by every representation that could throw 
 an unfavourable light on the measures of the Court. Former 
 oppressions were not suffered to be forgotten. Parliament 
 denounced the king, as resolved to overthrow the constitu- 
 tion ; it declared war against him; and the citizens joined 
 themselves heartily to that cause, for which they saw Essex, 
 Hampden, and Pym, and many of the greatest worthies in 
 England were prepared to shed their blood. 
 
 Whoever examines into the nature of these civil disputes, 
 cannot fail to discover that in the prosecution of them there 
 was, as well in the City as throughout the country, as much 
 theological as political acrimony. The progress of the 
 Lutheran reformation had inculcated much reflection and 
 discussion, as well as faith, in religious affairs ; and had, 
 consequently, given birth to a variety of sects and opinions. 
 That inseparable union between free sentiments in religion
 
 CHARLES I. RELIGIOUS DISSEXSIOXS. 21 
 
 and free sentiments in government, acting with reciprocal CHAP, 
 effect, drew the attention of the people at the same time to I/ 
 the consideration, as well of their spiritual as of their tern- ^'jggj 
 poral welfare ; and the sect, so long distinguished under the 
 name of Puritans, were the first who roused the long dormant 
 spirit of liberty in England. While a large portion, if not 
 the majority, of the people were still wavering in their 
 deference to the hierarchy, the bigotry and superstitious 
 practices of the primate Laud, backed by the vindictive in- 
 quisition of the Star Chamber and court of High Commission, 
 served to instigate still further that defection, which tyranny 
 never fails to convert into abhorrence. Loud invectives were 
 poured forth against popery and popish ceremonies, to which 
 the primate was accused as more than addicted. Episcopa- 
 lian government was next attacked, as supported by the 
 same medium. The doctrine of equality in religion, and the 
 reasonableness of lay pretensions to inspiration, began to be 
 relished. Some members of the Presbyterian persuasion 
 arrived in London on a political mission from Scotland : all 
 the enthusiasm of the self-inspired votaries of the kirk was 
 poured forth in the City, to the amazement and delight of 
 their new auditors. The churches were left desolate ; and 
 happy was he who by timely exertion in obtaining a seat in 
 the Scotch congregation, was at length blest with the edifica- 
 tion bestowed in a ranting sermon of three hours' length. 1 
 The reign of fanaticism began, and was characterised by the 
 usual blindness and zeal which actuates religious faction. 
 The City abounded in schismatical congregations. With- 
 out any standard of faith to which common allegiance was 
 attracted, every man not only followed, but was anxious to 
 preach his own system. Some proposed a religious com- 
 munity of goods, others declaimed against tithes and law- 
 yers ; some laboured to establish a dominion of saints, others 
 expected the second coming of Jesus Christ to govern the 
 world in person. 2 The great majority of the people were 
 united in one feeling of hatred to episcopacy and church 
 government; and as Charles was not only religiously but 
 
 1 Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. pp. 189, 2 Hume, ch. he. et passim: Reign of 
 190. Charles L
 
 218 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK politically attached to the principles of the Church, he shared 
 ^_ . / ^ but too largely the prevalent detestation of them. 
 A {o i860 3 Such were the circumstances which concurred in arming 
 the citizens against their sovereign. Throughout the civil 
 war their influence was great, indeed almost decisive ; and 
 the troops they contributed proved the best and bravest in 
 the field. Both sides used the most anxious exertions, the 
 one to acquire, the other to retain, their support. Numerous 
 were the delegations by the Parliament of their most pro- 
 minent members to address them on their successes, and on 
 the hopes entertained of 'finally accomplishing their views. 1 
 And as frequent were the messages of the king, expostulating 
 with them and appealing to their loyalty. 2 The Corporation, 
 however, continued true to the parliamentary interest, 
 until very near the end of the war and the destruction of 
 the king. 
 
 Before that period a radical change had taken place in the 
 quality and objects of those at the head of government. It 
 is needless to specify the series of arts by which Cromwell 
 had arrived at a complete command of a powerful and vic- 
 torious army, or the mano3uvres by which he had lulled the 
 suspicions of that Parliament by whose support he had risen, 
 and which he was at length able to overthrow. As soon as 
 the House perceived the loss of their authority with the army, 
 it made a fruitless eifort to oppose these views of regal 
 authority, at which it then became notorious Cromwell aimed. 
 The City sided openly with the Parliament. 3 That assembly, 
 however, could make but a feeble stand against the force under 
 which the nation was about to fall. It already abounded with 
 many partisans of Cromwell ; and on the arrival of that 
 general in London, those who opposed his views were, un- 
 ceremoniously ejected by that clearance of the House of 
 Commons by Colonel Pride, which commonly passed by the 
 name of Pride's Purge. The House then submitted to the 
 government of Cromwell and his generals. 
 
 This was a state of things on which the citizens had never 
 calculated; and they made no hesitation in breaking both 
 
 1 Maitland, vol. i. p. 358. 3 Hume, ch. lix. Maitland. vol. i. p. 
 
 3 Clarendon's Hist. 390.
 
 CROMWELL. CITY BECOMES DISAFFECTED. 219 
 
 with Cromwell and the newly packed Parliament. 1 The 
 former, however, prevailed. At the trial of Charles several 
 of the citizens were appointed as the king's judges; 2 and the 
 autocrat was by no means deficient in paying court to his 
 ancient freinds. Yet, although he succeeded in great measure 
 in apparently attaching the Corporation to his interests, he 
 never truly secured their good-will. Several of the aldermen 
 absolutely refused to proclaim a commonwealth; 3 and during 
 the many subsequent civil dissensions, the City juries, by 
 their acquittals of public offenders, more than once taught 
 the Protector on what a precarious foundation his interests 
 rested amongst the citizens. At his death the citizens were 
 early in their defection from his son Eichard ; and some of 
 them complained, not without reason, that the good old cause 
 had been long entirely neglected. 4 When Monk applied 
 to the Common Council to join him in restoring king 
 Charles II., nothing could exceed the universal joy with 
 which his invitation was accepted ; and Charles was received 
 by the citizens with such abundant marks of cordial wel- 
 come, that he wondered ' where his enemies were concealed, 
 ' and why he had delayed so long in repairing to his friends.' 
 
 1 Hume, ch. lix. Maitland, vol. i. p. 3 Maitland, vol. i. pp. 347, 355, 419. 
 390. 4 Hume, ch. Lxii. 
 
 a Hume.
 
 220 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES II. TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF 
 GEORGE II. SURVEY OF THE MEASURES OF CHARLES II. SEIZURE 
 OF THE CITY FRANCHISES BY A WRIT OF QUO WARRANTO SURVEY 
 OF THE MEASURES OF JAMES II. CONFIRMATION OF THE CITY'S 
 CORPORATE RIGHTS, FRANCHISES, AND PRIVILEGES BY THE STATUTE 
 OF 2 WILLIAM IH. NATURE AND EFFECT OF THE STATUTE OF 11 
 GEORGE I. FOR REGULATING THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISES SUMMARY 
 OF SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AND OF THE CIVIC ELECTIVE FRAN- 
 CHISES AT THE PRESENT TIME CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST BOOK. 
 
 BOOK IT had been well for the ill-fated family of the Stuarts, if 
 ^ ._ / ^ those constitutional doctrines comprised in the Bill of Rights, 
 A t D 'i725 an< ^ wn i cn have at once served to confirm the dignity of 
 subsequent monarchs and the liberties of the people, had been 
 openly asserted at the Restoration ; at such a crisis Charles II. 
 would not have been able, nor perhaps disposed, to have dis- 
 puted their establishment. But such was the headlong zeal 
 of the people, and the triumphant loyalty of the victorious 
 party, that although the Convention Parliament, on whom 
 this important task fell, was chiefly composed of the liberal 
 party, yet it was deemed either no longer prudent or safe 
 ostensibly to profess any such design. 1 That national party, 
 however, resolved to accomplish, by covert and indirect means, 
 the great scheme of liberty to which the eyes of the people 
 had been gradually opened. Charles, neither nurtured in the 
 free principles of a limited monarchy, nor fairly apprised of 
 the prevalence of them among his people, may be said in some 
 degree to have been unwarily led into those arbitrary measures 
 which have rendered the events of his reign too remarkable 
 
 1 Lenthal, a member, declared in the resented, and Lenthal was reprimanded 
 
 House his opinion, that those who first by the Speaker. Parl. Journ. vol. viii. 
 
 took up arms against the late king were p. 24. This, however, was the only 
 
 equally guilty with those who condemned open indication of the assertion of free 
 
 him to death. This declaration was principles.
 
 CHAKLES H. EAELY PARLIAMENTARY DISPUTES. 221 
 
 in the annals of the City to be passed over slightly ; the pro- 
 secution of which, in the end, mainly conduced to expel his 
 family from the English throne. 
 
 The first Parliament summoned by Charles contented them- 
 selves with not restoring any of the most obnoxious royal 
 prerogatives ; and it must be confessed that the In Tig did not 
 in his early measures evince any design of assuming them 
 contrary to the inclination of his subjects, or of exerting any 
 independent power of taxation. A charter granted in the 
 year 1663 to the City of London, which confirmed in the most 
 ample terms, by name and by recital, their preceding charters, 
 as well as their ancient privileges and customs, sufficiently 
 exemplified his deference to popular rights. 1 Subsequent 
 Parliaments, however, manifested no disposition to encourage 
 in the king a confident reliance on their financial support, by 
 granting supplies adequate to the reasonable necessities of the 
 monarch ; and Charles may be at least excused, if not justified, 
 in harbouring the disgust such conduct was calculated to 
 raise. He began to suspect, not without cause, that the 
 Parliament designed to render his political measures subser- 
 vient to their views : but to what extent that design might 
 be carried, and what was the ultimate object of the popular 
 party, he had no means of ascertaining. 
 
 Notwithstanding the untoward suspicions generated by 
 this backwardness in regard to supplies, it is clear, from the 
 conduct of Parliament, that in reality it intended neither to 
 intrench on the just authority of the king, nor to deprive hint 
 of any of his requisite and constitutional prerogatives. Tn 
 all other respects every indication of loyalty, .and even of 
 subserviency, was manifested. Although the republican army 
 was disbanded, a body of about one thousand horse and five 
 thousand foot was suffered to be retained without reproach ;* 
 and this was the first establishment of a regular standing 
 army in the nation. Many acts were passed calculated to 
 crush the smallest seeds of rebellion ; all legislative power in 
 
 This darter, dated June 24, 1663, text of the City charters. It does not, 
 
 contains almost all the previous charters however, contain the whole of them, 
 
 recited at large in the way of Inspexi- * Home, ch. Lriii. James's Memoirs. 
 mm*, and is usually referred to as the
 
 222 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK the Houses alone was specifically renounced. A commission 
 r ' was authorised for the expulsion from corporations of all 
 
 to 1 725. magistrates who held principles dangerous to the constitution ; 
 that is, who did not disclaim the Scotch covenant, and abhor 
 the position that the king could on any pretence be resisted 
 by force of arms 1 a position which it was subsequently 
 found impossible altogether to explode. Even two or three 
 proclamations, which assumed the character of statutes, were 
 allowed to pass without any direct remonstrance against their 
 validity. 2 It is but reasonable, therefore, to suppose that this 
 Parliament, like the earlier ones of the preceding reign, 
 meant no more by such parsimony than to establish a check 
 on the conduct of the king, and to ground the government on 
 a constitutional basis : nor can there be any doubt that if 
 Charles had persisted in a just and liberal course of adminis- 
 tration, and in appealing to his Parliament or to his people 
 for the requisite financial support to his government, he must 
 have eventually succeeded, both in strengthening his own 
 power and in obtaining the reverence and love of his subjects. 
 Several causes contributed to recommend more impolitic and 
 disgraceful measures. 
 
 One of these causes, and that not the least, arose from the 
 state of religious parties. At the Restoration the majority 
 of the sectarians, if not of the people, were Presbyterians ; 
 and as few besides the Royalists were high-churchmen, the 
 nation at large was far from zealous in returning to epi- 
 scopacy. 3 As, however, the high-church party, which com- 
 prised the king's ministers, were at the head of affairs, there 
 was no hesitation, on the part of government, in establishing 
 the prelatical rights and forms of ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment; and as soon as the Royalists had found their exer- 
 tions successful in acquiring a considerable majority in 
 
 1 Corporation Act. in which he pays the Presbyterian 
 
 2 Such as those regulating the na- party the utmost deference, but also 
 tional worship, issued at the commence- from the conferences at the Savoy, in 
 ment of the reign ; and one or two in which both Presbyterians and Episco- 
 respect of the buildings after the great palians stoutly maintained their respec- 
 fire of London. tive dogmas, but -without making any 
 
 * This is apparent, not only from the progress towards convincing their oppo- 
 king's early ecclesiastical proclamations, nents.
 
 CHAELES n. RELIGIOUS PABTIES. 6&3 
 
 the House of Commons, 1 they endeavoured to fix the exercise CHAP. 
 
 of the national religion according to those tenets which , ' 
 
 they conceived most primitive and correct. The Presby- ^'1725. 
 terians, in the meanwhile, partly attracted by the love of 
 power, and partly impelled by distaste to any coalition with 
 the other sectarians, declined in nnmber ; the Independents 
 and others, who were distinguished by their republican 
 principles, were not averse to any severities inflicted on the 
 Presbyterians, by whom they conceived the national interests 
 had been betrayed. The Catholics, who although powerful 
 at court had very little influence in the country, were dis- 
 posed to encourage any schemes for dividing the Protestants; 
 so that it was with something like a general concurrence that 
 the Royalists in Parliament were enabled, in the early part of 
 the reign, to pass the famous Act of Uniformity, by which all 
 dissenters from the Church of England were forbidden, under 
 heavy penalties, the exercise of congregational worship. 8 As 
 the differences which divided the various Protestant sectarians 
 were rather in mere forms than in their fundamental tenets, 
 they soon began, as the force of enthusiasm expended itself, 
 to draw again towards each other, and their animosities 
 gradually subsided into the ancient and united detestation 
 of Popery ; the principles of which they were disposed, as 
 much politically as religiously, to abjure. The tenets of this 
 faith the king unhappily both believed and patronised in 
 secret : 3 while his brother James, duke of York, on whom 
 most of the cares of government fell, as well as the apparent 
 succession, did the same openly; and the people became, 
 
 1 There were but fifty-six Presby- * This point was formerly much 
 
 terian members in the first Parliament disputed; bat after the publication of 
 
 afterthe convention, says Hume, quoting James's Memoirs, who, in stating the 
 
 Carte's Answer to the Bystander, p. 79. projects of the king in the French alli- 
 
 This account of the circumstances ance, declares that Charlts wptforjoy 
 which led to the passing the Act of at the prospect of re-uniting his kingdom 
 Uniformity, is taken from Hume. It to the Catholic Church, no reasonable 
 seems not only to tally with the party doubt can be entertained on the subject, 
 pamphlets of the day, but is the only He died in the presence of Catholic 
 consistent explanation of the great and priests ; and James published two post- 
 sudden change which then took place in humous papers in his brother's own 
 the religious principles of the great handwriting, wherein he argues in fa- 
 majority of the nation. TOUT of the Catholic faith.
 
 224 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK accordingly, the more united and resolute by the conscious- 
 
 > / _^ ness of a common cause. 
 
 to D i725 -^ was a con fli c t f religious zeal which occasioned the first 
 breach between Charles and his Parliament ; a breach that 
 was never afterwards entirely closed. He saw that a con- 
 siderable body of his subjects were scandalised by the Act of 
 Uniformity ; and he fondly hoped that, by evincing a deference 
 to their conscientious scruples, he might open the path for 
 the admission of the Catholic religion. He published a 
 declaration of Indulgence, as it was called, by which he claimed 
 the power of dispensing with the penalties against dissenting 
 congregations. The people were alarmed, not only at this 
 assumption of prerogative, but at the object of it. The secret 
 intention of introducing Popery by these means did not elude 
 the vigilance of Parliament. The Houses passed no express 
 remonstrance against the declaration itself, but made their 
 sentiments sufficiently apparent by a concurrent denunciation 
 a.gainst all Catholics. 
 
 With this experience of the opinions of his people be- 
 coming more and more bigoted to the Popish faith and princi- 
 ples straitened in his circumstances (which were not likely 
 to improve under his indulgent habits of life) Charles had 
 recourse to an entirely new plan of administration. He dis- 
 charged all his old and honourable advisers, and took to his 
 counsels a set of men long known under the appellation of the 
 Cabal, who possessed neither honourable principles or the 
 credit of them ; by whose suggestion he proceeded upon as 
 scandalous a course of government as ever disgraced the ruler 
 of any nation in the world. 
 
 Louis XIY. of France, a man bigoted to the Catholic re- 
 ligion, of considerable talents and of unbounded ambition, 
 and commanding in men and money enormous resources, 
 openly aimed at the dominion of Europe. Charles was cajoled 
 into the chimerical hope of establishing, through his assis- 
 tance, an independent and absolute power over his own 
 subjects in England, and of overturning for ever the faith of 
 ninety-nine hundredths of his people. 1 Actuated by these 
 
 1 Hume, chaps. Ixv. Ixvi., quoting Appendix. D'Estrade's, July 21, 1667. 
 James's Memoirs. Sir J. Dalrymplo's Temple, vol. ii. p. 179.
 
 CHARLES II. SHAMEFUL MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT. 225 
 
 views, he secretly sold himself to the interests of France for 
 a paltry annual pension ; and engaged by every measure in 
 his power to promote her schemes of conquest, and to pro- 
 secute her aggrandisement, although at the sacrifice of every 
 dictate of sound policy, of many engagements of honour, and 
 even at the imminent risk of eventual ruin to his kingdom. 1 
 
 The first measures taken in the advancement of this wild 
 and shameful enterprise, was a coalition to subdue the 
 Dutch a valuable and easy prey, as it was presumed ; against 
 whom, however, there not only existed no cause of complaint, 
 but with whom there subsisted a treaty of the closest alliance. 
 The people of England received the intimation of this war 
 with equal amazement and indignation: insomuch that it 
 was suspected the sailors were ashamed to do their duty 
 in battle. The king, fearing that his Parliament might 
 scrutinise his measures, and perhaps by its interference render 
 them abortive, had recourse to continual prorogations ; in the 
 meanwhile he encouraged the vain hope either of finding 
 that assembly more subservient, or of ruling in defiance of it. 
 To obtain those supplies which no foreign resources could 
 sufficiently afford, various devices were put in force. An 
 effort was made, though unsuccessful, to intercept a Dutch 
 fleet of valuable merchandise, before that nation was fairly 
 apprised of the intended hostilities. The merchants, bankers, 
 and goldsmiths of London, with whom it was the practice to 
 lodge capital, had been invited to deposit these funds in the 
 king- s exchequer at interest, from which the principal could 
 be withdrawn as might be convenient. This practice had 
 become habitual, when on a sudden, Charles was advised to 
 shut up the exchequer and seize on the deposited capital for 
 his private use ; and this measure was carried into effect, to 
 the dismay and ruin of thousands. 3 
 
 Not content with these direct efforts at establishing an 
 
 1 Hume, chaps. Ixv., Ixvi., quoting for some expedient among his courtiers, 
 
 James's Memoirs. Sir J. Dalrymple's at the price of the treasurer's staff; 
 
 Appendix. D'Estrade's 21st Jnly, 1667- that Shaftesbury dropped the hint to Clif- 
 
 Temple, vol. ii. p. 179. ford (both members of the Cabal), and 
 
 * Hume, ch. Irv. that the latter at once proposed it, and 
 
 * Anderson's Hist, of Com. vol. ii. p. gained his reward. Ch. Ixv. 
 519. Hume says the king advertised 
 
 Q
 
 226 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK independent power, Charles proceeded to issue arbitrary 
 
 > ' T proclamations, dispensing with the statutes of the realm a 
 
 ^1726 P rer g a ti ve which, thus exercised, it was easy to foresee would 
 draw after it all other absolute authority. One of these for- 
 bade, under bitter menaces, all undutiful expressions against 
 the king's measures ; 1 another gave unwonted facilities to 
 impressments ; 2 another announced martial law among the 
 troops, although not in actual service ; 3 and another sus- 
 pended the Navigation Act. 4 
 
 What might have been the eventual success of such pro- 
 ceedings on the part of government is a subject of some 
 doubt, so prepossessed were the people in favour of a monarch 
 gifted with the most winning and agreeable manners. But 
 an attack on the religious prejudices of his subjects served at 
 last to deprive Charles of all prospect of enslaving them. He 
 made a second declaration of indulgence to all Dissenters. 
 The apprehensions of the nation had been before warmly 
 excited ; the people viewed this stretch of prerogative as a 
 direct introduction to a forcible change in the national re- 
 ligion, and it was resented with the most violent animosity. 
 
 When the king was at last obliged to summon a Parliament, 
 he found in it a steady determination to oppose his -counsels 
 a determination which continued to actuate every Parlia- 
 ment to the end of his reign. It was in vain that he employed 
 the arts of corruption, which now first began 5 to smooth the 
 way to that sinister influence of the crown in Parliament which 
 its most strenuous advocates can only defend as practically 
 useful, though theoretically injurious. In vain he pretended 
 deference to their opinions ; and laboured to obtain the means 
 of carrying on his views, and indulging his extravagances, by 
 entreaties, and even by passing his royal word to employ the 
 sums voted according to their intentions fi a promise which 
 at the very time of making he fully intended to break. 7 
 Parliament had become altogether distrustful of his designs. 
 
 Hume's Hist. ch. Ixv. Message to Parliament. Session 
 
 Ibid. 1677. 
 
 Ibid. ' Temple's Memoirs. Dalrymple: Ap- 
 
 Ibid. pendix, p. 103. 
 
 Ibid., ch. Ixvi. Temple's Memoirs.
 
 CHARLES II. POPISH PLOT. CITY S ALARM. >. 
 
 Every proceeding which emanated from the Court party CHAP, 
 seemed fraught with Popery. Popular hatred was directed - ~^ 
 with unremitting virulence to this point of dissension ; and it ^"'j-^ 
 became a complete mania. The king was obliged to annul 
 the declaration of indulgence. 1 The Test Act was passed, 
 which closed the doors to all public offices against Papists ; 
 and it was soon after attempted to pass the Exclusion bill, by 
 which the succession of the Duke of York, who had the credit 
 of governing the king, was to be set aside. The kingdom 
 was divided into the Court and Country parties. The latter 
 acquired the name of Tfhigs, and the former that of Tories. 
 There was much political, but more religious, zeal on both 
 sides. 
 
 Just at this crisis of public feeling broke out the rumour 
 of the famous Popish Plot. It is not intended here to discuss 
 the merits of this much disputed question of treason. It is 
 certain that, whether there ever was any real foundation for 
 the charge or not, many designing men were found base 
 enough to make a political use of it, and to convert it to the 
 distruction of their opponents. The belief of its genuineness 
 and of its horrible malignity was industriously fomented, and 
 there were villains who laboured to gain wealth and credit by 
 administering in the most scandalous manner to the public 
 credulity. Accusations, supported by the grossest perjuries, 
 were levelled at many members of the Court party. A 
 universal alarm prevailed amongst the people that a general 
 massacre of the Protestants, and the establishment of Popeiy 
 and despotism, was intended ; and the design was without 
 scruple fixed on the partisans of the king and the Duke of 
 York. 
 
 Of all the believers and propagators of this alarm, none 
 were so conspicuous as the citizens of London. And hence 
 began a course of memorable proceedings in the City, which, 
 though disgraceful to them in the beginning, carried much 
 more of injustice towards them in the end. The citizens were 
 the least disposed to submit to the baneful policy of Charles, 
 the effects of which, in the stagnation of trade and in the 
 
 1 Hume's Hist. ch. Ixv. 
 02
 
 228 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1660 
 to 1725. 
 
 pressure of taxation, weighed most heavily upon them. The 
 shutting up of the exchequer, and the many arbitrary procla- 
 mations, had excited in them no small disgust. The favour 
 shown to Catholics was particularly unpopular in a district 
 where religious zeal had long been conspicuous, when the 
 infatuation produced by the terror of the Popish Plot trans- 
 ported the citizens beyond all bounds. Many victims had 
 already fallen before this bloody idol : the appetite of the 
 people for sacrifices of this nature began to grow satiated ; 
 and the king thought he might venture to exert some influence 
 in arresting the fearful course which marked the administra- 
 tion of justice. Two or three acquittals took place, to the 
 great disappointment of the citizens ; who attributed them 
 solely to court intrigues, for the purpose of preventing the full 
 detection of the much dreaded plot. 
 
 At this period the administration of justice in the courts of 
 law was a disgrace to the age. It is impossible to peruse the 
 State Trials without indignation at the venality and party 
 zeal of many of the judges, 1 and at the pusillanimous bigotry 
 of the juries. Much discretion was improvidently left in the 
 hands of sheriffs in regard to their returns of jurors ; and the 
 courtiers had not been inattentive to the importance of having 
 these officers firm in their interests. The Whig party among 
 the citizens, not less alive to the same advantage, resolved to 
 elect such persons for their sheriffs as they could rely upon 
 for their distaste to the Court and their abhorrence of the 
 plot, in order that by their means juries might be secured 
 thoroughly inoculated with the prevailing prejudices. 2 
 Accordingly, two gentlemen, by name Bethel and Cornish, 
 distinguished for their zeal against Catholics and the plot, 3 
 
 1 There is no topic on which English- 
 men dwell with greater pride and admi- 
 ration than the sacred integrity of their 
 judges. It is indeed a justtribute which 
 they pay to qualities which form one of 
 the firmest bulwarks of their right both 
 political and private. Let us not ascribe, 
 however, to mere human nature those 
 principles of upright justice in the judi- 
 cial character which are preserved at 
 
 least, if not caused, by the unrelaxing 
 control of a free government and a free 
 press. 
 
 2 Maitland, vol. i. p. 468. Burnet's 
 History of His Own Time. 
 
 8 These sheriffs, when the innocent 
 and venerable Lord Stafford, convicted 
 by Oates's perjury of participation in 
 the Popish Plot, was to be brought 
 to the block, sent to the Houses of
 
 CHARLES II. CONTESTS IN APPOINTING SHERIFFS. 229 
 
 were set up against two others of the Court interest ; and 
 their election was carried by a large majority, with great 
 acclamations of triumph. 1 The king evinced the utmost dis- 
 satisfaction ; 2 and the sheriffs were not backward in mani- 
 festing their animosity against the Court. 3 The following 
 year two others of the same political character were elected, 
 in spite of great efforts made against them ; and the king 
 went so far as personally to declare to the citizens how unwel- 
 come to him that election was. 4 
 
 It was now plain that, whatever confidence might be re- 
 posed in the time-serving activity of judges like Scroggs, 
 North, and others, an insurmountable bar was placed against 
 all further progress in quelling the spirit whether of liberty 
 or of faction in the City, through the prostitution of legal 
 forms. The Whig party had gained a complete, though a 
 dishonourable, ascendency ; and Charles was determined iu 
 his turn to make another struggle to acquire judicial dominion. 
 The conduct of one party may perhaps be in some degree ex- 
 cused, as the effect of an unhappy infatuation, partly justified 
 by the apprehension of unconstitutional designs ; but that of 
 the other can be considered in no other light than arising 
 from a deliberate resolution to overthrow the liberties of the 
 people, in open defiance of law, justice, and humanity. The 
 means adopted were as illegal as the end was disgraceful. 
 The king resolved to trample on the ancient right of free 
 election in the City, and to nominate a sheriff devoted to his 
 own will. 
 
 The right of choosing sheriffs from among themselves is 
 one of those as clearly appertaining to the citizens at large, 
 as the language of a charter and long subsequent usage can 
 demonstrate. 5 It seems, however, that a practice had origi- 
 nated as early, according to the best authorities, as the reign 
 of Edward III., for the lord mayor, and occasionally the court 
 
 Parliament to know whether the king ' Burnet's Hist. Ken. Eng. Hist. 
 
 had authority by his prerogative to insist Maitland, vol. i. p. 467. 
 
 on their executing that nobleman by de- 2 Ibid. Each. Hist. Eng. 
 
 capitation, instead of hanging and quar- * Vide note 2, p. 227. 
 
 tering, as usual in cases of high treason. 4 Ken. Eng. Hist. Each. Hist. Eng. 
 
 Hume's Hist. ch. Ixviii. ; Ken. Eng. Maitland, vol. i. p. 473. 
 
 Hist. * Charter of Henry I.
 
 230 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 I. 
 
 A.D. 1660 
 to 1725. 
 
 of aldermen, to nominate., usually one citizen, but sometimes 
 more, to the office of sheriff; and tender such nominee to the 
 Common Hall for election. This mode of nomination began 
 in the reign of Elizabeth to be exercised by the ceremony of 
 the lord mayor's drinking to some person at a festival, which 
 took place a few weeks before the day of election ; and it was 
 then first held, that the person so drank to was not merely 
 nominated., but ipso facto elected. This opinion had crept in 
 during times when magisterial authority had almost undis- 
 puted sway, and elective franchises were but little valued. 
 But in the year 1641 this usurpation was stoutly disputed ; 
 and though no final decision was formerly made by authority, 
 the Common Hall succeeded in tacitly regaining the privilege 
 of at least exercising their discretion in regard to confirming 
 the person drank to, and latterly, on the election of Bethel 
 and Cornish, of choosing whomever they thought proper. It is 
 unnecessary to pursue in detail the merits of this controversy, 
 especially as, upon a, thorough enquiry and discussion, the free 
 and full right of election in the citizens was completely esta- 
 blished ; but whoever has the curiosity to investigate the 
 nature and progress of the dispute, will find ample materials 
 in the authorities quoted. 1 
 
 It was under these circumstances that the lord mayor, Sir 
 John Moore, was induced by the court to exercise the claim 
 of an absolute choice of one of the sheriffs by the ceremony 
 of drinking to him. Sir Dudley North, more honourably 
 known at the present day for his able tracts on the true prin- 
 ciples of trade, and the enlightened and liberal views with 
 which he explained and advocated them, was prevailed on by 
 his brother the lord keeper 2 to undertake the office so to be 
 
 taking office are detailed in the Life of 
 Lord Keeper North, by whom that mea- 
 sure was suggested. It is impossible to 
 refer to a more correct portrait of a low- 
 minded and cunning lawyer than is drawn 
 in the above work ; and it is not a little 
 curious, that the character is drawn in 
 panegyrical traits, by a near relation. 
 The lord keeper died in retirement of 
 chagrin ; which Burnet (no very re- 
 liable authority) explains by saying he 
 was at last universally despised. 
 
 1 Lib. P. & S. Town Clerk's Office. 
 Harg. MSS. Nos. 135, 140. Brit. Mus. 
 Acts of Common Council, 30 Hen. VIII., 
 24 Eliz. Strype's Stow, vol. ii. pp. 76, 
 90, 439. Maitland's Hist. vol. i. pp. 
 208, 229, 268, 473. And Northouck's 
 Hist, of London, pp. 168, 247, 251. Also 
 an excellent pamphlet published in the 
 year 1683-4, called The Modest Enquiry, 
 in which the subject is fully discussed, 
 and the authorities collected. 
 
 2 The circumstances of Dudley North's
 
 CHARLES II. CONTESTS IN APPOINTING SHERIFFS. 
 
 conferred. Accordingly, previous to the election, instead of 
 the usual precept being issued to the livery, requiring their 
 attendance for choosing sheriff's, they were called on to attend 
 for the confirmation of one, who had been chosen, and the elec- 
 tion of another. 1 What the nature of the right of confirming 
 a person already appointed could be, if the lord mayor's choice 
 was absolute, it is not easy to comprehend. The citizens fully 
 understood the design, and assembling in great numbers on 
 the day of election, insisted on putting up as candidates two 
 of the Country party, Papillion and Dubois. The show of 
 hands being decisively in their favour, a poll was demanded 
 on behalf of North and Box, the latter being also a Court 
 candidate. Great confusion ensued; some few of the Court 
 party insisting on a distinct poll book for those who chose to 
 vote for a confirmation of one candidate as well as the election 
 of another ; but as the design of that was obviously to furnish 
 the lord mayor with a pretext for declaring the legal election 
 to have fallen on North at least, if not on both North and 
 Box, the demand was rejected as unusual and preposterous. 
 The polling had proceeded for some time, when the lord 
 mayor, clearly foreseeing the result, first endeavoured in 
 vain to stop the polling, and then adjourned the Hall. The 
 sheriffs, however, continued the poll until very late at night, 
 and then adjourned the Hall, of their own authority, to 
 the same day to which the lord mayor had previously ad- 
 journed it. 
 
 In the meantime the two sheriffs who had managed the 
 election were summoned before the Privy Council, and sent 
 to the Tower ; but on being bailed, they attended the next 
 Common Hall held by adjournment. The lord mayor imme- 
 diately sent to adjourn the Hall again ; but the sheriffs dis- 
 regarded the message, and the poll having finished, declared 
 Papillion and Dubois duly elected. It is to be observed that, 
 on reference to the Recorder upon this occasion by the 
 court of aldermen, he declared, without hesitation, that the 
 full right of election was in the livery. The mode of taking 
 
 1 ilaitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 474. For Each. Hist. Eiig ; and Burnet's Hist, of 
 a detailed account of the proceedings at His Own Time, 
 this election, vide Ken. Eng. Hist.;
 
 232 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 the poll and of adjournment by the sheriffs was strictly eon- 
 sonant to ancient usage. 
 
 ^" n or ^ er f ^ ne ki n g' s council was produced on the next 
 adjournment day appointed by the lord mayor, by which he 
 was required to begin the proceedings de novo, the last elec- 
 tion being alleged to be altogether irregular. In professed 
 obedience to this order, the lord mayor declared to the Com- 
 mon Hall that North was elected (in other words, appointed by 
 himself), and he proceeded to take votes for Box. No opposi- 
 tion was made on behalf of Papillion and Dubois, as no one 
 was disposed, by voting for candidates assumed to be already 
 elected, to depreciate the regularity of such election : the lord 
 mayor, accordingly, declared North and Box to be sheriffs. 
 The latter fining, Mr. Rich was substituted, and elected after 
 the same fashion. Papillion and Dubois in vain petitioned 
 to be sworn into office ; and by this barefaced outrage on the 
 civic rights, the Court eventually succeeded in their object. 
 
 The effects of this triumph soon became apparent. Juries 
 were found who gave a verdict with 100,000?. damages against 
 Alderman Pilkington, one of the late sheriffs, for scandal 
 against the Duke of York ; and convicted Sir Patience Ward, 
 a late lord mayor, of perjury, for swearing that, although he 
 was present at the time of the alleged uttering of the scandal, 
 lie did not hear it. He was sentenced to the pillory. 
 
 The Court party, however, conscious that to accomplish 
 their purpose a fresh struggle was to be encountered every 
 year, resolved to strike a blow that should at once obviate all 
 future disturbance in their progress, that should prostrate 
 Parliament altogether, and leave the lives and liberties of the 
 subject entirely at the mercy of the Crown. Their project was 
 to seize the charters of all the corporate boroughs in England. 
 Sawyer, the attorney-general, with a previous understanding 
 in the proper legal quarters, intimated that he could undertake 
 to prove a forfeiture of the City charters and liberties. 1 A 
 writ of quo warranto was authorised to be prosecuted ; and 
 Charles well knew that a victory over this stronghold of 
 liberty would be followed by the implicit surrender of all other 
 
 1 Maitland, rol. i. p. 477. Burnct's Hist, of His Own Time.
 
 CHARLES II. SEIZURE OF THE CITY CHARTERS. 233 
 
 corporations, where the establishment of the Court influence 
 might be thought necessary. The pretence of forfeiture was, 
 first, an act of Common Council, passed nine years previous, 
 by virtue of which a new rate of tolls had been levied on per- 
 sons using the public markets which had been rebuilt after 
 the great fire ; secondly, a petition presented to the king two 
 years before, in which it was alleged, that, by the king's pro- 
 rogation of Parliament, public justice had been interrupted, 
 and which petition the court of Common Council had 
 caused to be printed. 1 Whether any corporation could forfeit 
 its existence, as a corporation, by any abuse of its powers, or 
 even by voluntary surrender, was not at this time clearly set- 
 tled, nor indeed is it now. 2 Whether the representatives of a 
 corporation, such as the court of Common Council, could effect 
 a forfeiture of the rights of their constituents (which would 
 imply that they could, by an act of their own, defeat the trust 
 reposed in them, and alter the essential constitution of the body 
 at large), may be still more reasonably doubted; and ample 
 authorities may be referred to, showing that it cannot. 3 But 
 that a by-law, if bad or doubtful, or a disrespectful address 
 to the king, however reprehensible, could legally produce any 
 such effect, is a position hardly requiring to be confuted ; es- 
 pecially when it is known, that by one of the City charters it 
 is specifically provided, that none of its liberties or franchises 
 are to be forfeited by any abuse of them whatever. 4 The case 
 was argued at great length, and with peculiar ability, on both 
 sides. The Crown lawyers were forcible in their appeals to 
 precedents sought out from troublesome and tyrannous times ; 
 the City advocates were more successful in their references 1o 
 reason and principle. The judges, however, who were parti- 
 sans in the cause, and some of them thought, with good reason, 
 
 1 Quo warranto case. (Vide 3 Burr. 1827 ; Term. Kep. vol. iii. 
 1 Kyd, on Corporations, voL ii p. 196 ; Term. Rep. voL iv. p. 810 ; & 
 The cases of Dr. Bonham, Co. Rep. Harg. MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 1 35. p. 209 ; 
 roL viii. p. 118 ; Calvin, Co. Rep. vol. Tide also Kyd, vol. i. p. 259, & Cowp. 
 vii. p. 17 ; and Co. 4th Inst. p. 42, in Rep. p. 26-29.) From which it may 
 which this principle is discussed. And be gathered that the corporation at 
 Coke lays it down that even an Act of large is not the same as the delegated re- 
 Parliament against natural equity and presentation of it by a selected number, 
 the rights of the subject would be invalid. * Charter 7th Richard IL
 
 234 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK to have been raised to the bench for the express purpose, 1 
 . _ / _^ gave judgment against the Citj. This decision seems to have 
 A t' D 'i725 exc ^ e ^ ^ U ^ one opinion ; namely, that whether we consider the 
 conduct or the object of this proceeding, it deserves to be de- 
 nounced as one of the most scandalous acts of this reign. 
 
 This violent act of power was followed, as was expected, by 
 the surrender of the charters of most of the corporations in 
 England, who could entertain but little hope of retaining their 
 privileges after such an example. In London, all the ob- 
 noxious aldermen were displaced, and others appointed in 
 their room by royal commission. A new lord mayor and re- 
 corder, and new sheriffs were appointed, in the same manner, 
 to act during pleasure. 2 Secured against failure, the Court 
 seemed now disposed to set no bounds to judicial iniquities. 
 The juries selected were completely subservient. All who had 
 evinced a spirit of opposition, and particularly the chief citi- 
 zens engaged in the late elections, were convicted of seditious 
 or libellous offences, in most instances on extremely frivolous 
 evidence, and heavily fined. Amongst these was Gates, the 
 infamous suborner of the Popish Plot, who was sued for scan- 
 dal against the Duke of York : but the satisfaction that would 
 naturally spring from his conviction is marred by the consider- 
 ation of the vindictive nature of the verdict, in reference to his 
 offence, which was to pay 100,OOOZ. damages. No proceeding, 
 however, raised such general and lasting indignation as the 
 trial and execution of Russel and Sydney. There is no doubt 
 that these noble persons, with no dishonourable or selfish 
 design, were participators, to some extent, in a conspiracy to 
 alter the course of government, or at least to change the king's 
 scandalous measures. There is reason likewise to believe, that 
 some understanding existed between them and a much more 
 guilty party, who had amongst themselves gonf so far as to 
 discuss the subject of assassination. The general and just 
 hatred of the Court measures the illegal and tyrannical 
 modes adopted to procure a conviction not warranted by the 
 evidence on the trial the many virtues and great qualities of 
 the individuals, and their popularity throughout the nation 
 
 1 Burnet's Hist, of His Own Time. 2 Ken. Eng. Hist. Each. Hist. Eng.
 
 GREAT FIEE OF LOXDOX. 235 
 
 have combined to sanctify their memory to posterity ; and 
 even to acquire for them, amongst many, the credit of martyrs 
 to a good cause. Russel, in his dying words, attributes his 
 destruction to the means used in packing his jury. 1 
 
 Having succeeded thus far in crushing his domestic enemies, 
 Charles was enabled to look round on a temporary, though 
 delusive, appearance of popularity. 2 It is said, 3 with some 
 degree of probability, that he had resolved to make an effort 
 substantially to secure it, by relaxing in that cruel and vindic- 
 tive course which, it must be allowed, was not consonant to 
 his natural disposition; by dismissing his unpopular ministers ; 
 by summoning a free Parliament ; and by throwing himself 
 entirely on the good-will of his subjects. If such were his 
 genuine intentions, it is to be regretted that an unexpected 
 death should have prevented his thus clearing in some degree 
 the stains on his memory. As it was, he left a fatal example 
 of an apparently successful issue of arbitrary counsels to a 
 successor every way disposed to follow it. 
 
 It has not been judged expedient to break the thread 
 of the narrative by alluding to the great Fire of London, 
 which happened at the beginning of this reign. By this 
 conflagration the whole of the City was consumed, except 
 a narrow circle round its boundaries. Although many ac- 
 cidental sources of this calamity were apparent and natural, 
 in the closeness of the streets, the wooden structure of the 
 houses, the accumulation of families in the same tenement, 
 and in the common use of wood for fuel yet they were all 
 overlooked in the greedy anxiety to fix the charge of it on 
 some unpopular party, which prompted the public to confide 
 in accounts teeming with the greatest improbabilities. It 
 was first attributed to a republican party; 4 then to the 
 Dutch, 5 with whom we were then at war ; without a shadow 
 of proof in either case, except that some Republican coii- 
 
 1 Burnet's Hist, of His Oven Time. 4 Ken. Eng. Hist. Each. Hist, Eng. 
 
 Maitland, vol. i. p. 476. Maitland, vol. i.' p. 433, quoting the 
 
 - Addresses came from all parts, fall Gazette of April 1666, containing an 
 
 of loyal and submissive expressions. account of the trial of the republican 
 
 Hume's Hist. ch. Ixix. conspirators, published with that view. 
 
 3 James's Memoirs. D'Avaux's Xe- Ibid. 
 
 t itiations, Dec. 14, 1684.
 
 236 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK spirators had been hanged for treason the same year, and 
 -- ' r - that a Dutch boy of ten years old had declared himself, his 
 A toi725 father, and his uncle, to have been the authors of the fire; 
 not a word of which the lord chief justice, upon further in- 
 vestigation, believed. But lastly it was fixed with zealous 
 acrimony on the Papists, upon no other evidence than the 
 single confession of Hubert, a poor mad Frenchman, who 
 related a story of himself and some Popish conspirators, so 
 ridiculous in itself, and so inconsistent in its several parts, 
 that it must have required an uncommon degree of credulity, 
 which nothing but the temper of the times can explain, to 
 have gained any belief. 1 The miserable creature was, how- 
 ever, executed upon this confession. It is remarkable, that 
 in a case of such importance no corroboration was ever sub- 
 stantiated of this man's story : though most of the particulars 
 were abundantly capable of it, had they been true ; and in 
 the main instance he was positively contradicted, it being 
 proved by one witness that Hubert was on board a ship at 
 the time of his own alleged activity in raising the fire. 2 
 Burnet, indeed, relates a corroborative circumstance, as told 
 to him, 3 but that has been since satisfactorily disproved. 4 
 Notwithstanding which, the record of this slander was sought 
 to be perpetuated by an inscription on the monument erected 
 in memory of this fire. 6 
 
 In the rebuilding of the City, which was entirely com- 
 pleted in the space of seven years, many inconveniences 
 arising from narrow streets and wooden houses were avoided : 
 considering, however, the immense traffic carried on, which 
 
 1 Ken. Eng. Hist. Each. Hist. Eng. pipes on the night of the fire, to prevent 
 Maitland, vol. i. p. 433, quoting the its being used in quenching it. 
 
 Gazette of April 1666, containing an 5 This inscription had outlived its 
 
 account of the trial of the republican credit as early as the time of Pope's 
 
 conspirators, published with that view ; Epistles, who writes : 
 
 and Jour. Ho. Com. 1666. 'Where London's column pointing to 
 
 2 Maitland, vol. i. p. 437. Each. the skies, 
 
 Hist. Eng. Like a tall bully, lifts its head and 
 
 3 Hist, of His Own Time. lies.' 
 
 4 Maitland, vol. i. p. 436. Mr. John It was erased when James came to 
 Graunt, supposed to be a Papist, who, the throne, but placed up again after 
 it is said, designedly got himself made the Kevolution. It was finally erased 
 manager of the New River waterworks, again. 
 
 stopped the water from flowing into the
 
 JAMES II. HIS VENGEANCE AGAINST THE CITY. 237 
 
 was then rapidly increasing, and the prevalence of all sorts 
 of vehicles, the City was not so much improved as it might 
 have been. Two plans of a very superior description were 
 proposed, by the great architect Wren, 1 and by Evelyn ;* both 
 of them of snch beauty and convenience, that it has been a 
 subject of great regret that the interested opposition of those 
 citizens who owned the sites of the houses and buildings 
 destroyed should have defeated their accomplishment. 3 It 
 was provided by statute, 4 that a quay of forty feet breadth 
 should be left vacant from the Tower to the Temple ; but this 
 provision was very soon neglected, and much of this land was 
 built on. This statute was repealed by that of 1 Geo. IT. 
 ch. xl. 5 
 
 For settling all disputes which might arise on the subject 
 of the new sites, a commission was issued to the twelve 
 judges, 6 who in seven years 7 completed their task with 
 singular success, and gave general satisfaction. The Court 
 of Common Council were empowered by Acts of Parliament 
 to make the requisite regulations in laving out the streets 
 and markets. 8 The management of paving and cleansing 
 the City was, by the same statutes, first entrusted to a 
 commission of citizens denominated the Commissioners of 
 Sewers. 
 
 The counsels which disgraced the reign of Charles ceased 
 not at the accession of his brother, whose immediate 
 conduct confirmed the justice of those suspicions, which 
 attributed their former prevalence to his influence. Almost 
 his first act was to wreak his vengeance on Alderman 
 Cornish, who was with Bethel appointed sheriff in opposition 
 to the intrigues of the Court, and who had shown himself a 
 zealous supporter of the Exclusion Bill. The proceedings 
 which marked the trial of Alderman Cornish were such as to 
 shock every feeling of justice and humanity. He was sud- 
 
 1 Parentalia. style this original design, which forms 
 
 Evelyn's London Restored. one of the glories of the reign of Victoria. 
 
 J Parentalia. * 19 Charles IL cap. ii. 
 
 4 19 Charles IL cap. iii. 8. 35. 22 * 25 Charles H. cap. ii. & x. 
 
 Charles H. cap. xi. 19 Charles H. cap. ii 22 & 23 
 
 The Thames Embankment Acts hare Charles IL cap. xvii. 25 Charles II. 
 
 at last carried out in the most magnificent cap. z.
 
 238 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDOX. 
 
 BOOK deiily thrown into prison, and after lying there a few days 
 
 . "t! - was apprised on Saturday, at noon, that an indictment for 
 
 A to'i72S high treason was prepared against him, and that his trial 
 would take place on Monday. His children applied to the 
 king for time to prepare his defence, and for a copy of the 
 indictment (for the nature of the treason of which he was 
 accused was perfectly undisclosed to the prisoner) . It was 
 urged, that his witnesses were at a distance, and that he was 
 therefore altogether incapacitated from proving his innocence. 
 The crafty tyrant referred his petition to his venal judges, 
 who rejected it. He was accordingly tried on the Monday, 
 and convicted on the sole evidence of two pardoned traitors ; 
 one of whom saved himself from prosecution for a second 
 treason by the merit of this very accusation. He was 
 executed within a week after his first imprisonment ; and a 
 few days after, his innocence and the perjury of the Crown 
 witnesses were made so abundantly clear, that James was 
 constrained by a sense of shame to return his forfeited 
 estates to his injured family. 1 
 
 This execution following immediately upon the bloody 
 career of the infamous Jefferies in trying the rebels concerned 
 in Monmouth's invasion, was sufficient alone to alienate for 
 ever the minds of his subjects, never cordially well affected 
 to his person. But James lost no time in evincing that he 
 was determined to overthrow the liberties of the people, and 
 to govern altogether by force of prerogative. His bigotry 
 led him to apply these political maxims in a manner the most 
 offensive which could be adopted to the sentiments of the 
 nation ; almost all his measures being pointedly directed to 
 encourage the exercise of the Popish religion, contrary to the 
 then existing laws, if not to restore it to its ancient pre- 
 eminence. He had, before his first summons of a Parliament, 
 levied by prerogative authority the duty of excise, 2 which 
 passed without complaint. He now levied forces at dis- 
 cretion, 3 and demanded, rather than requested, from Parlia- 
 ment supplies to maintain them. 4 He dispensed with the 
 
 1 Ken. Eng. Hist. Each. Hist. 2 Hume's Hist. eh. lix. 
 Eng. And Burnet's Hist, of His Own Ibid. 
 Time. 4 Ibid.
 
 JAMES II. PR1XCE OP ORANGE INVITED. 
 
 operation of the Test Act, and, in defiance of the laws as 
 as the sentiments of the people, promoted several Catholics 
 to public appointments. 1 This last assumption of prerogative 
 caused some discussion in the House, and a submissive 
 address was presented against it. 2 The king gave an im- 
 perious and violent answer ; 3 but finding he had still some 
 spirit to contend against in that assembly, he first prorogued, 
 afterwards dissolved it, and never called another. 
 
 Freed from this ungrateful control, James gave full scope 
 to his designs. He arrogated the right of dispensing with 
 all statutes at discretion, 4 and actually did dispense witli 
 many; among which were the penal statutes against 
 Catholics. 5 He issued compulsory directions with regard to 
 preaching in churches. 6 The Court of High Commission 
 was re-established, in which he tried and suspended those 
 who disobeyed his mandates. 7 He published a declaration of 
 indulgence, which he ordered to be read in all churches. 8 
 Seven bishops presented a remonstrance against it ; and 
 their trial for this offence (called a libel), and acquittal, so 
 famous in English history, served to detach the whole body 
 of the people from the interests of James, and suggested the 
 resolution of expelling him from the throne by inviting the 
 Prince of Orange to come over and head the nation. 
 
 No sooner was the king apprised of his danger and of the 
 landing of the Prince of Orange, than he sent for the mayor 
 and aldermen, and informed them of his determination to 
 restore the City charter and privileges. 9 His great legal 
 adviser, Jefferies, accordingly came to Guildhall and delivered 
 the charter with two grants of restoration to the court of 
 aldermen. 10 The king had hardly left London with an 
 intention of encountering his opponents, when the lords of 
 Parliament assembled at Guildhall, and in the court of 
 aldermen made a solemn declaration in favour of the Prince 
 
 1 James's Speech to Parliament. 6 Ibid. 
 
 Hume's Hist. ch. bcx. T Ibid. 
 
 1 Ibid. State Trials. Case of Seven Bishops. 
 
 Ibid. ' Each. Hist. Eng. 
 
 4 Hume's Hist. ch. IXL. Sir Edward > Repertorium, 1688. Town Clerk's 
 Hales case. Sir Robert Atkyns, p. 41. Office. Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 485. 
 
 5 Hume's Hist. ch. LK.
 
 240 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 
 i"25 
 
 of Orange. 1 This declaration was followed by an address from 
 the Court of Common Council, in which they implored that 
 pri 1106 ' 8 protection, and promised him a welcome reception. 2 
 James, finding himself universally deserted, fled the kingdom, 
 and the Prince of Orange shortly afterwards arrived in 
 London; when the Corporation waited upon him with an 
 ardent address of congratulation delivered by the Recorder. 3 
 
 The Prince issued a proclamation, desiring a convention 
 composed of the House of Peers, and of all the members of 
 the House of Commons who had served during the reign 
 of Charles II., together with the lord mayor, aldermen, and 
 a committee of fifty of the Common Council, to meet as a 
 Parliament for the purpose of settling the nation. 4 From 
 this convention proceeded the declaration, that James had 
 abdicated the throne : and by it the crown was settled on the 
 Prince and Princess of Orange, under the title of William 
 III. and Mary ; and, in default of their issue, on Anne Prin- 
 cess of Denmark and her issue. It is well known that 
 during the reign of the latter princess, Queen Anne, the 
 crown was settled on the House of Brunswick. 
 
 The nation, having completely succeeded in emancipating 
 itself from tyranny, resolved to perpetuate, at this oppor- 
 tunity, that free form of government and those constitutional 
 maxims which had so long and so passionately been sought, 
 and which have since distinguished it above all the empires 
 of the earth. This was accomplished by that memorable 
 statute which passes under the name of the Bill of Eights. 
 It was conceived that the security of the City of London, in 
 all its rights and privileges, was an integral ingredient in the 
 national welfare. With an intent, therefore, to secure for 
 ever the prosperous existence of this great Corporation, it 
 was declared by statute, 5 that the judgment obtained upon 
 the late quo warranto, and all the proceedings thereupon, 
 were illegal and arbitrary ; and it was enacted, not only that 
 such judgment should be reversed, annulled, and made void, 
 but that the mayor, commonalty and citizens should for ever 
 
 1 Ken. Eng. Hist. 
 vol. i. p. 487. 
 
 2 Each. Hist. Eng. 
 vol. i. p. 488. 
 
 Maitland's Hist. 
 Maitland's Hist. 
 
 * Ibid. vol. i. p. 489. 
 
 " Ibid. vol. i. p. 490. K 
 Hist. 
 
 2 Will. & M. sess. 1. c. 8. 
 
 Eng.
 
 GEOBGE I. DISPUTES IX REFORMING THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 241 
 
 thereafter remain a body corporate and politic, without any CHAP. 
 seizure or forejudger, or being thereof excluded or ousted, v- ^ 
 upon any pretence of forfeiture, or misdemeanour, whatsoever, *'$? 
 theretofore or thereafter to be done, committed, or suffered. 
 
 The citizens now, fully impressed with the importance and 
 value of their political rights, began to be more than ever 
 desirous of attaining civic distinctions ; and their elective 
 franchises, accordingly, occupied an increased proportion of 
 their attention. The rights and forms of election by the 
 common hall and by the wardmote, were not at this period 
 so clearly ascertained as such constitutional privileges should 
 have been. The ancient customs in this respect had, in early 
 times, been often invaded ; the law had been several times 
 altered by the citizens themselves ; and contradictory enact- 
 ments had from time to time been made. The seizure of the 
 charter, by which so many corporate dignitaries and officers 
 had been displaced, and its sudden restoration, together with 
 some provisionary clauses in the Act of William, tended, still 
 further, to increase the confusion. Disputes arose almost 
 immediately after the passing this Act ; and severe contests 
 for office, continually occurring, served to enhance them. 
 The Court of Aldermen exercised the right of adjudicating, in 
 the first instance, on the election of their fellows, subject to 
 the jurisdiction of the Court of King's Bench ; the Court of 
 Common Council assumed that of deciding contests in re- 
 gard to their own members, and even in regard to the returns 
 of aldermen a right which they certainly did not possess in 
 either instance. Several acts of Common Council passed 
 from time to time declaratory of the rights of voting, and 
 regulating the modes of proceeding at elections. The dis- 
 putes, however, were by no means allayed, and appeals were 
 made to the courts of Jaw both in the cases of aldermen and 
 in those of common councilmen, one of which was carried up 
 to the House of Lords. 1 
 
 1 For a detailed account of these dis- pp. 3, 5, 22. Town Clerk's Office. Harg. 
 
 putes and contests, and the many opi- MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 1305, pp. 209 et 
 
 nions in regard to the elective qualifica- seq., 286 ; No. 139, pp. 485, 557, 599 ; 
 
 tions, vide Maitland, vol. i. pp. 494, No. 142, pp. 353. 354; No. 309, pp.285, 
 
 495, 499, 521, 522, Journals. Stampe, 290. 
 pp. 1 44, 21 1 . Stainer, p. 2 1 9. Lewen,
 
 242 HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK To settle these controversies, to regulate the order of 
 
 J- election at wardmotes, and finally to decide upon the qualifi- 
 
 A to 17">5 ca tions of the voters and candidates, a committee of the Court 
 of Common Council was formed, who were instructed to draw 
 up an act for that purpose. 1 They were proceeding to 
 eifect this object, when, in the year 1725, an enquiry having 
 been instituted in the House of Lords relative to the pro- 
 ceedings on disputed elections in the City of London, a bill 
 was brought into the House of Commons calculated to super- 
 sede their labours, and to provide a legislative decision on 
 these much contested points. The citizens were naturally 
 jealous of this interference, and the Court of Common Council 
 petitioned strenuously against it. 2 Notwithstanding which, 
 the Bill (11 George I. ch. 18) passed, after considerable 
 opposition and many protests ; 3 but certainly without a due 
 consideration of the original and genuine constitution of the 
 Corporation. One proviso of this Act, however, which con- 
 firmed a privilege claimed by the aldermen of negativing any 
 question carried in the Common Council, the citizens still 
 persistently resisted; and after much contest, both in the Com- 
 mon Council and the Common Hall, the clause was at length 
 repealed by the Act of 19 George II. ch. 19. 
 
 Under the statute of 11 George I., ch. 18, combined with 
 the previous ordinances and ancient customs of the City 
 unaffected by it the elective franchises of the citizens con- 
 tinued to be exercised, without any modification, for the 
 space of one hundred and seven years ; that is, until the 
 great parliamentary Reform Act of 1832. They continue, 
 indeed, to be so exercised to the present day as regards the 
 elections in Common Hall of the lord mayor, sheriffs, chamber- 
 lain, and some other minor officers, by electors possessing the 
 mere title of liverymen of companies and being freemen of the 
 Corporation, with the proviso of residence within twenty-five 
 miles of the City. Under subsequent statutes and an act of 
 Common Council beginning with the great parliamentary 
 
 1 Journal, Lewen. Town Clerk's Office, sequent journals. 
 
 p. 22, which contains the appointment 2 Ibid. Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 
 
 of the committee, whose proceedings are 534. 
 
 continued from time to time in the sub- * Ibid.
 
 REVIEW OF THE CIVIC ELECTIVE FRANCHISES. 243 
 
 Reform Act of 2 William IV. ch. 45 modifications have CHAP, 
 been introduced with respect to the qualifications of the . XIL ^ 
 other two classes of civic electors, namely, those for electing 
 members of Parliament in the Common Hall, and those for 
 electing aldermen, common councilmen, and ward officers at 
 wardmotes. 
 
 These are the last legislative interferences with the political 
 privileges and the constitutional government of the City. It 
 may be expedient, therefore, at the close of this historical 
 account of the City, to bring under a summary review the 
 rules which govern the qualifications for citizenship and for 
 the exercise of the elective franchise, as modified from time to 
 time by custom and by the civic ordinances (noticed in pre- 
 ceding pages according to periodical sequence) and by sub- 
 sequent acts of the imperial legislature. In this review, the 
 bearings of the statute of George I. superseding the legisla- 
 tive powers of the Common Council, and serving to perpetuate 
 the right of election to corporate magistracies and offices by 
 the liverymen of companies in Common Hall will have to be 
 examined. It will, further, be requisite to advert to the more 
 recent imperial acts which have conferred 011 others these 
 elective franchises in Common Hall for choosing representa- 
 tives of the City in Parliament, and for choosing aldermen 
 and common councilmen at wardmotes, in respect of mere 
 occupation in some capacity, which statutes have superimposed 
 residence also within certain limits as an additional qualifica- 
 tion for voting for the former. 
 
 We have seen that usage, from the earliest periods of the 
 civic history, required only residence or occupation and pay- 
 ment of scot and lot, as a qualification for the enjoyment of all 
 the rights and privileges of citizenship. Under this only 
 qualification, and according to the same ancient usage, the 
 citizens, as soon as they obtained the liberty of appointing 
 their own magistrates, elected the aldermen and their coun- 
 cillors and officers of the various socs, or leet gilds (afterwards 
 called wards), which had theretofore been held in propriety, or 
 from grant of the crown, by the owners of these socs ; and also 
 elected the chief magistrates bearing rule over the whole
 
 244 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LOXDON. 
 
 BOOK City generally. Subsequently, in the reign of Richard L, upon 
 >__4l - the incorporation of the City as one associated body, enrol- 
 ment as a freeman, or member of the Corporation, was 
 further prescribed. In the reign of Edward II. an ordinance 
 was passed which required, in addition to this qualification of 
 residence and enrolment, that each citizen should become 
 a freeman, or member of one of the misteries., or (as these 
 misteries were afterwards more commonly termed) companies. 
 The citizens thus qualified as residents paying scot and 
 bearing lot, and freemen both of the Corporation and of the 
 trading companies, continued, as theretofore, to meet at large 
 both at the Common Hall, or Hustings court, as a deliberative 
 body for legislative and administrative purposes, and also as 
 electors for the purpose of choosing corporate magistrates and 
 officers and representatives in Parliament. But the confusion 
 arising from the great increase of numbers assembling on 
 these occasions, led to two new ordinances by the general 
 body of citizens, passed one on the 20th and the other in the 
 49th year of the reign of Edward III. for separating the 
 meetings of the citizens into two classes, and regulating who 
 only should attend as a deliberative body, or Council,of the City 
 and who should nominate them, and also regulating who only 
 should attend as voters at elections for the lord mayor, sheriffs, 
 chamberlain, and other minor officers and representatives in 
 Parliament at the Common Hall. These ordinances proved un- 
 satisfactory as regards the constitution of the representative 
 or deliberative body ; and, accordingly, in the 7th year of the 
 reign of Richard II., another ordinance was enacted by the 
 * immensa communitas' of the citizens, by which the court of 
 Common Council was instituted specifically under that designa- 
 tion as the representative body of the citizens ; and by which it 
 was provided that the members of it should consist of citizens 
 elected by the wards at their wardmotes that is, by the same 
 electors who in their wards, according to ancient usage, 
 elected the aldermen and their councillors and officers : namely, 
 by the freemen occupiers paying scot and bearing lot. On this 
 basis the government of tlie City,in its legislative and adminis- 
 trative capacity, rests at the present day (except that, under the 
 statute of 30 Viet. ch. 1, presently to be noticed, the voter need
 
 ELECTIVE FRANCHISE OF LIVERYMES. 
 
 not be a freeman of the Corporation) ; and this representative 
 body, together with the aldermen, and the lord mayor as presi- 
 dent, alone represent the Corporation of the City of London. 
 
 The last of these ordinances of Edward 111., however (that 
 of the 49th year, which declared what citizens should be en- 
 titled to attend at the corporate elections in Common Hall of the 
 lord mayor, the sheriffs, the officers of the Corporation, and 
 the members to serve in Parliament), remained, in that parti- 
 cular, unrepealed and unaffected by that of 7th Richard II. 
 By this ordinance of 49th Edward III., it has been shown 
 that the trading companies were to nominate the persons who 
 only (being freemen of the City) should vote for these admi- 
 nistrative functionaries. An usage had, however, grown up for 
 the lord mayor to summon, out of these so nominated by the 
 companies, only those whom he pleased to come to those 
 elections, and that usage of selection still continued to prevail 
 for eighty years longer. The irregularities and abuses arising 
 out of this usage probably suggested an ordinance, passed in 
 the 15th year of Edward IV., by which the nomination of 
 these voters at Common Hall was transferred altogether to the 
 companies ; and it was provided that the liverymen of the 
 companies (that is, those freemen of the companies to whom 
 a particular distinctive clothing was assigned by them) should 
 alone (being freemen of the City) possess this elective franchise 
 in the Common Hall. 
 
 Under these two purely civic ordinances of 7th Richard II. 
 and loth Edward IV.; the constituent and the elective fran- 
 chises of the citizens at their wardmotes and at the Common 
 Hall, were regulated up to the period of the statute of 
 llth George I. ch. 18 (1725) ; the effect of which we proceed 
 to consider. 
 
 It is plain to account for the controversies which arose 
 upon the restoration by James II., previous to his abdication, 
 of the chartered rights which had been seized into the king's 
 hands by the judgment in the quo warranto case at the 
 close of the reign of Charles H., and upon the reversal of 
 that judgment by the statute of 2nd William and Mary. 
 Those controversies have already been adverted to. Had 
 the Corporation, however, been left to introduce reforms by
 
 246 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK exercising their chartered and customary rights in self-go verii- 
 ~_ w ' _^ ment through their legislative powers in Common Council ac- 
 cording to the ancient custom of the City, it may be assumed 
 that the elective franchises would not have been allowed to 
 remain on the then existing basis, at least as regards the 
 elections in Common Hall, and on which they were then 
 fixed by the Imperial Legislature. The basis settled by the 
 old ordinances, as respects elections in the Common Hall, 
 did not, at the time of their enactment, materially conflict 
 with the constitutional and customary rights of the citizens, 
 any more than the basis on which the election of members 
 for the Common Council was settled did, or now does. But 
 this was no longer the case. 
 
 Up to the time of Edward IV., and long after, the members 
 of the City companies were all traders, and they could 
 hardly carry on their trades in the City without being house- 
 holders paying scot and bearing lot. Very few hardly any, 
 it may be said of the freemen of the City or of the com- 
 panies, whether traders or not, had their residences beyond 
 the City walls. The City was almost isolated from the west, 
 or court end, of the general metropolis, and from the 
 villages round about. The City gates and bank of the river 
 were closed at night, and rigorously guarded against both 
 egress and entrance. The delegation, therefore, to the com- 
 panies (over whom the Corporation used to exercise an almost 
 unlimited authority of regulation and of conferring the 
 power of granting liveries) of the choice of electors to 
 attend at common hall, amounted to little more than en- 
 trusting them with the charge of selecting from the trading 
 householders those to whom, as being the superior class of 
 the freemen of such companies, those bodies had granted 
 liveries citizens who for these purposes were termed, and 
 were therefore summoned, as the 'probi homines ' or ' of the 
 'discreeter sort.' The same class were probably designated 
 in Athenian history under the term kalokagathoi, which 
 may perhaps be best translated as the aristocratical party. 1 
 
 1 No two translators would be likely o\oJ may be thought to apply mainly 
 
 to agree in construing the term KaAo- to men of high birth, and especially if 
 
 ita.-ya.8oi, and least likely perhaps those combined with personal beauty, which 
 
 who studied the subject most. The word always throughout Greece attracted
 
 ELECTIVE FRANCHISE OP LIVERYMES. 247 
 
 But long before the reign of George I., not only the CHAP. 
 municipal authorities of the City had ceased to interfere ~_ ' . '_- 
 much in regulating the companies, but the companies also 
 had ceased to interfere in regulating the mode of trading 
 within the City. The companies admitted to the freedom of 
 such associations, and eventually to the rank of a liveryman, 
 whomever they . thought fit, without regard to his being 
 either a tradesman or a householder either within the City or 
 elsewhere ; and, upon such admission, the chamberlain, with 
 the sanction of the Corporation, admitted any such freeman, 
 whether householder or trader or not, to the civic freedom, 
 as entitled to it by purchase, or redemption, as it was termed. 
 The consequence was that a large bulk of the freemen and 
 liverymen of the companies no longer represented the true 
 citizens as householders within the City paying scot and 
 bearing lot, or often even as traders. In the mere capacity 
 of liverymen of a company and freemen of the City, without 
 being householders or occupying as traders, they had no 
 more real connection with the City of London than with that 
 of Liverpool or any other city. It is obvious that those who 
 were neither householders nor traders in London derived no 
 better qualification as citizens of London through their 
 admission into the City companies as liverymen (which is 
 usually by purchase) than if they had purchased with the 
 same money so much Government stock. 
 
 This result has become still more conspicuous in these 
 later times. The companies having altogether ceased to 
 concern themselves about any trading avocations of their 
 members, it may be questioned whether a majority of their 
 number are householders, or carry on trade, either in the 
 City or elsewhere. The companies, as such, have ceased to 
 be much concerned with the City's municipal affairs, further 
 than by contributing their quota of men to. parade in civic 
 processions, and by attending at civic feasts. They are still 
 
 peculiar admiration. Alcibiades gained men of influence through -wealth and 
 
 his influence as much by this latter political ascendency, combined with high 
 
 quality, as by bis soaring spirit and moral sense. Vide two instructive 
 
 mental abilities. The term ayafftA had notes in Grate's History of Greece, voL 
 
 also a double meaning, as applied to ii. p. 88 ; and voL iii. p. 62.
 
 248 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK influential associated bodies, but only as possessors of much 
 v- ' f corporate property, and as governors of many noble scholas- 
 tic and charitable institutions, and from the social position 
 of many of their members. 
 
 It is not within the author's province, or that of this 
 treatise, to discuss the question whether this mode of ex- 
 ercising the elective franchise in Common Hall adverse, as 
 it certainly is, to the chartered rights and ancient customs 
 of the City should be permanently acquiesced in, as most 
 expedient on public grounds. The object of the various 
 ordinances and regulations of the City was, that house- 
 holders, or occupiers, only and out of them those only who 
 had the most interest in the good government of the City, 
 and best qualified to select those dignitaries and function- 
 aries who could best assist towards that end should be the 
 electors ; at first through the summons of the lord mayor, 
 and afterwards by delegating the choice of such electors to 
 the companies. The Act of George I., passed after inhabitancy 
 had, through the change of times and of the habits of the 
 people, ceased to be a necessary qualification, and had be- 
 come only partially so, still maintained the right of the 
 companies to decide who should be the ( probi homines ' as 
 electors, without regard to their be ing inhabitants, or traders, 
 or not. 
 
 The subsequent policy of the Imperial Legislature and, it 
 may be added, of the Corporation itself in regulating the 
 elective franchises in and for the City, has certainly taken a 
 different tendency, and one more in conformity with the 
 original constitution of the City government, than that so 
 heedlessly adopted by the statute of George I. None of the 
 subsequent acts have, indeed, interfered with the important 
 right of the liverymen of the City companies, being also free- 
 men of London, of electing on such bare title the corporate 
 magistrates and officers in Common Hall. But, as regards 
 the election of representatives in Parliament, the first Reform 
 Act of William IV. ch. 45, has provided against the manu- 
 facture of voters, by requiring that no freeman of London (or 
 of any other city or borough) shall possess the elective 
 franchise unless his title to the civic freedom has accrued
 
 ELECTIVE FRANCHISES UNDER THE REFORM ACTS. 249 
 
 through servitude, or through birth derived from an original CHAP. 
 
 freeman by servitude. Next, it has provided that every such . , ', 
 
 elector for members of Parliament shall reside within seven 
 miles (subsequently by Act of 30 and 31 Viet. ch. 102, ex- 
 tended to twenty-five miles) of the City boundaries. These, 
 it must be acknowledged, were steps in the right direction, 
 although the thread connecting such voter with the City and its 
 interests by residence within twenty-five miles is but slender. 
 In reality, such residence, though coupled with mere enrol- 
 ment on the books of the Corporation and of a City company, 
 but without any connection with the City by occupation as an 
 inhabitant, or trader, or in any other capacity, can supply no 
 more rational qualification for electing parliamentary repre- 
 sentatives for the City, than for those of Windsor, or any of 
 the great parliamentary metropolitan divisions around the 
 City of London. But, further, this Act of William IV. intro- 
 duced another large body of electors for members of Parlia- 
 ment who, in truth and in fact, were, and still ought to be, 
 the real citizens of London, before artificial qualifications, 
 founded on other considerations than connection by interest, 
 or trade, or habitancy, were introduced. Electors under this 
 Act are the sole occupiers of separate tenements of any quality 
 of 10L annual value, or joint occupiers of the annual value of 
 as many sums of 10?. as there are occupiers such occupiers 
 paying scot and bearing lot, and residing within seven miles 
 without any reference to their freedom of any company, or 
 even of the Corporation itself. By the recent parliamentary 
 Eeform Act of 1867 (30 & 31 Viet. ch. 102), this elective 
 franchise is still further extended, and comprises, in addition 
 to the above classes of electors, every male person, being the 
 sole occupier inhabiting any separate dwelling-house, rated to 
 the poor, and having paid his rate, and also every male 
 lodger in part of a dwelling-house whose lodging is of the 
 annual value of 10Z., unfurnished. 
 
 Next, with regard to the election of aldermen and com- 
 mon councilmen as a representative body of the citizens in 
 Common Council, and the ward officers in the wardmotes of 
 the several wards. The Act of 12 & 13 Viet. ch. 94, conferred 
 the right of voting upon every sole occupier (being a freeman
 
 250 HISTORICAL ACCOUOT OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK, of the City) of any house, warehouse, office, chamber, counting- 
 -_ ,' - house, or shop rated to the annual value of WL, and upon all 
 joint occupiers of such premises so rated to as many amounts 
 of that sum as there are occupiers ; and the Act further es- 
 tablished the same qualification for a common councilman. 
 The Act of 30 Viet. ch. 1, has conferred the elective franchise 
 upon all such occupiers, without any requisition for their 
 being freemen of the City. The same Act confers this elec- 
 tive franchise upon all occupiers entitled to vote for represen- 
 tatives of the City in Parliament, and therefore comprises, 
 additionally, inhabitants of dwelling-houses rated to the poor, 
 to any amount, having paid such rate ; and also lodgers of a 
 part of a dwelling-house of 10Z. annual value, unfurnished, as 
 above stated. It must be observed, however, of these recent 
 Acts exempting the occupiers in the City, in the capacity of 
 inhabitants or traders, from the qualification of the civic 
 freedom, as one important and perhaps the most appropriate 
 title of citizenship, that they have (like that of the exemp- 
 tion of the retail trader from any such requisition, which 
 has been heretofore noticed) still further weakened the chain 
 which binds the City community together as a body politic 
 while, at the same time, it may be considered as the natural 
 consequence of the concession by the Common Council of 
 this essential privilege of trading to a numerous class of 
 occupiers declining to have any connection with the Corpora- 
 tion as a body politic, that the Imperial Legislature should 
 adopt the precedent in further granting to the same persons 
 the franchise of electing members of the municipal govern- 
 ment of the City under which they live and trade, without 
 requiring that these electors should themselves become 
 citizens, and pay scot and bear lot in that capacity. The 
 question still remains whether, by these measures of ad- 
 mitting to the most valuable of the civic chartered rights and 
 privileges, those who are under no common bond in pro- 
 tecting the interests of the Corporation, the difficulties of the 
 citizens in maintaining the influence and constitutional rights 
 of the Corporation or even its existence are not greatly 
 increased, should those rights, and even its existence, be 
 again and again assailed. But on this subject of upholding
 
 SOQXA$Y OF TOE CIVIC ELECTITE FRANCHISES. 251 
 
 the right, under due modification, of exclusive trade, and of CHAP, 
 the necessity of preserving it, too much discussion perhaps -_ . _- 
 has already heen expended in previous pages. The question, 
 however, is a national one. 
 
 It ma j give the reader a clearer view of the various elective 
 franchises exercised in or for the City of London, if summa- 
 rised under distinct heads, omitting prescribed particulars as 
 to registration, time of possessing the qualifications, &c., 
 and other minor details. 
 
 Election of the Corporate Offices of Lord Mayor, Sheriff, 
 Chamberlain, or other Minor Offices in Common Hail. 
 
 The qualification of electors under this head, is that of 
 being barely a liveryman of a livery company, and an en- 
 rolled, freeman of London, without any requisition of re- 
 sidence, or of occupation for the purpose of trade or other- 
 wise, either within the City or any limited distance. 
 
 Election of Bepresentatives m Parliament for the City of London 
 in Common HftlL 
 
 Under this head there are four distinct classes of qualifica- 
 tions for electors : 1. The first qualification is that of being a 
 liveryman and freeman of London by birth or servitude, with 
 the additional proviso of residing within twenty-five miles of 
 the City. 2. The second qualification is that of occupying 'any 
 * building ' of 10L annual value, paying scot and bearing lot. 
 3. The third qualification is that of being a male person and 
 sole occupier, inhabiting a dwelling-house, rated to the poor- 
 rate to any amount, and having paid such rate ; with an 
 equivalent provision in favour of joint occupiers. 4. The 
 fourth qualification is that of being a male lodger in part of 
 a dwelling-house, whose lodging is of the value of 10/., un- 
 furnished. For neither of these last three classes of voters 
 is civic freedom requisite. 
 
 Election of Aldermen, Common CouncUmen, and Ward Officer* 
 in the Wardmotes. 
 
 Under this head there are three classes of qualified electors : 
 1. The first qualification is that of being a sole occupier of
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LONDON. 
 
 any house or other premises (though not a dwelling-house) 
 rated to the annual value of 10L, with an equivalent provision 
 in favour of joint occupiers. 2. The second qualification is 
 that of inhabiting a dwelling-house rated to the poor at any 
 amount, the rate having been paid. 3. The third qualifica- 
 tion is that of being a lodger of part of a dwelling-house of 
 10L annual value, unfurnished. 
 
 None of these electors (except those voting for the corporate 
 magistrates and minor officers and for representatives in 
 Parliament in Common Hall upon the bare title of liverymen 
 as well as freemen) are required to be freemen of the City. 
 
 Between the reign of George I. and the passing of these 
 Acts regulating the elective franchises of the occupiers and 
 freemen of the City, no memorable event or measure affecting 
 the civic rights or constitution has occurred ; except that the 
 Court of Common Council has, by a resolution carried March 
 17, 1835, exempted applicants for the civic freedom from the 
 necessity of becoming previously free of one of the City 
 companies, and that an act of Common Council of 1856 has 
 authorised retail trading by non-freemen upon which act so 
 much comment has been made. It is true that many events, 
 exciting intense temporary interest of a political nature, have 
 from time to time, within the last century and a half, agitated 
 the City ; but, as none of these (with the exception of the 
 measures just detailed) have produced any lasting effect, if 
 any, on its corporate rights and constitution, or on its system 
 of municipal government, it is conceived the history of them 
 may be properly left to those volumes which have treated of 
 them at large. 1 
 
 This historical account of London is therefore here brought 
 to a conclusion. In dismissing a subject which long ago, and 
 for many years, engaged the author's labours and reflections, 
 he cannot but invite the reader, who may have followed his 
 researches and acquired any resulting information, to share 
 also with him the conviction that the Corporation of London 
 has fairly done its duties by the state, and earned its position 
 as a serviceable national institution. Whoever may be at 
 
 1 They are to be found in Maitland and Nortlionck's Histories of London.
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST BOOK. 253 
 
 the pains of tracing its history though its thousand eventful CHAP, 
 years, whether as superficially treated of in these pages, or >,/ , '_, 
 more scrutinously examined in many voluminous chronicles, 
 or in the City archives, will be, it is believed, the more dis- 
 posed to acknowledge its honourable career as the chief of our 
 subordinate bodies politic. It has supplied to the service of 
 our country a long list of able statesmen and distinguished poli- 
 ticians, intelligent financiers, eminent judges, and the greatest 
 of merchants ; to say nothing of those citizens who have been 
 the founders of many of the noblest families of Great Britain 
 and Ireland. Among them may be named Gresham, Bernard, 
 Sir William Petty, Sir Dudley North, Lord Chancellor Sir 
 Thomas More, Lord Chief Justice Coke, Lord Chancellor King, 
 and other names, as well of ancient as of more modern dis- 
 tinction names of men ever to be honoured, if they are never 
 to be emulated. The citizens of London have always been 
 on the side of our constitutional liberties, and have often been 
 foremost in the triumphant vindication of them. If they 
 have been strenuous in asserting their own municipal rights, 
 they have always been liberal in admitting their fellow- 
 subjects to share in them. They may have often erred in 
 judgment never in patriotism.
 
 BOOK IL 
 
 OF THE CHABTEBS OF LOXDOX 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 CHARTER OP KTLLXAM THE COSTQCEROR THE PORTRETE THE 
 BOROrGH-BAKOXS CITIZENS TO BE IAW- WORTHY RIGHT OF HEIR- 
 
 IT wiH be the attempt of this hook to detail and explain the 
 charters of London 1 a task which obviously comprises a 
 considerable discussion of the legal and constitutional rights 
 of the citizens. A full dissertation on this subject would 
 involve nearly all that concerns the civic rights and privileges, 
 
 1 It has not escaped attention, that 
 
 ters of London mar, on a superficial 
 consideration, be liable to objections; 
 as compromising by possibility the pri- 
 vaie rights and privileges of individuals 
 as citizens. With respect to any aHur 
 Corporation this objection might be 
 entitled to some weight ; but with re- 
 gard to that of London, it is confidently 
 submitted that the following obserra- 
 to refute any swch 
 1st. The rights and privilege of 
 the citizens of London are hardly to be 
 considered of a private nature: the 
 public have a general and a national 
 interest in them, and the preserration 
 of them is, or ought to be, a national 
 object. 2nd. The charters have been 
 already published by various hands; 
 and the substance of them has become 
 easily accessible and notorious. 3rd. 
 The erroneous translations of then, to- 
 gether with the barren and ignorant 
 
 commentaries? of all who have hitherto 
 undertaken the task, hare done the 
 City all tic karm which could possibly 
 an* from the publication of them, 
 while tke good has beat hitherto unaJ- 
 tained. Under these circumstances it 
 will be readily acknowledged that the 
 chartered rights of the citizens cannot 
 be endangered by being fully and pro- 
 periy understood. The author is unable 
 to furnish an accurate or corrected trans- 
 lationrf the City charters, as none at pre- 
 seat exists; bat he may be justified in 
 mentioning that, as such a labour would 
 be both extensive and responsible, the 
 Corporation would consult their real in- 
 terest by undertaking, as a public object, 
 to acquire one, for their own use. The 
 following abridgments are taken from 
 the common printed translations, but 
 have 
 
 recorded in the Town Clerk's Office, or 
 in the British Museum.
 
 256 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK and occupy several volumes. It would therefore exceed the 
 
 . ^ general scope and object of this work, to examine all the 
 
 minute details of the charters ; although few points will be 
 left altogether unnoticed. One object will be more peculiarly 
 kept in view, which is, to explain those terms and passages 
 which are likely to be least understood or most liable to 
 misconstruction. 
 
 The use of sealed charters, and indeed the term itself as 
 applied to seignorial grants, though not absolutely unknown 
 to the Anglo-Saxons, may be said to have been introduced 
 into England by the Normans. 1 The original nature of a 
 charter amongst those nations who first adopted the term was, 
 in all probability, nothing more than the grant of such lands 
 or other property, as the grantor might claim a proprietary 
 control over ; or of privileges to individuals who were subject 
 to the almost absolute dominion of their lord. But in the 
 progress of regal assumptions, a royal charter came to have 
 a much more extensive operation ; and in England, from the 
 time of the Conquest until the establishment of a Parliament 
 on its present constitutional basis, in the reign of the first 
 Edwards, a charter of the king was considered as declaratory 
 at least, and often dictatory, of the law of the land. Thus we 
 find Magna Charta at the head of our statute-book : and in 
 the earlier charters, and particularly those of London, many 
 clauses are introduced which the present system of our con- 
 stitution will not allow to be conferred, except by legislative 
 authority ; and many privileges granted would not at present 
 be considered valid, unless they had been confirmed in a 
 Parliament, or that such confirmation could be implied from 
 immemorial prescriptive usage. The learned antiquary may 
 perhaps reconcile charter grants of this extensive kind, con- 
 ferred in early times, with that legislative stamp of validity, 
 which at present the law of the land requires, by a reference 
 to the attestations usually affixed to them ; and which appear 
 to have been so affixed by those who might be considered as 
 members of the great national council ; without whose con- 
 currence, it has been argued, the king could not make laws : 
 
 1 Spelman's Gloss.: 'Charta.' Ma- Seld. Janus Angl. lib. 2, s. 2, quoting 
 dox's Hist. Excli. pref. p. 15 ct seq. Ingulphus.
 
 TEXT OP WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S CHARTER. 257 
 
 but the distinction in quality between charters strictly pro- CHAP. 
 
 prietary in their nature, and those which may be termed ^ , 
 
 legislative, is certainly very evanescent. 1 The nature and 
 operation of a royal charter, as at present settled after the 
 full establishment of the principles of the constitution, may 
 be succinctly described as the grant of such powers and 
 privileges, only, as specifically emanate from the royal pre- 
 rogative. 
 
 The first of the City charters was granted by William the 
 Conqueror very soon after his accession, and is an obvious 
 illustration of the preceding remarks. It runs, according to 
 the Saxon dialect, in these words : 2 
 
 Wittm. kynj jpee Wilhn bifceop ~j JofjqiejS popcipepan, ~y 
 ealle pa buphpapu binnan lonbone jqiencifce -j en^lifce 
 fpeonbhce. 3 ic kySe eop fy ic pylle $ get beon eallpa psepa 
 laja peojvSe pe jyc psepan on eabpepbef baeje kynjef. 3 ic 
 pylle paet selc cylb beo hif psebep ypprame aefteji hif psebep 
 bae^e. 3 ic nelle jepolian j> aemj man eop aenij ppanj beobe. 
 job eop jehealbe. 
 
 The literal translation is as follows : 
 
 ' William the King greets William the Bishop and Godfrey 
 
 * the Portreve, and all the Burghers within London, French 
 
 * and English, friendly. And I make known to you that I 
 
 * will, that ye be law-worthy, as ye were in the days of King 
 
 * Edward. And I will, that each child be his father's heir 
 ' after his father's days. And I will not suffer that any man 
 ' command you any wrong. God keep you.' 3 
 
 1 Lands were often granted in the * There is another charter of the 
 
 Saxon times vcith the consent of the tci- Conqueror preserved in the same box 
 
 tfnagemofe. Turner's Anglo-Sax, vol. with the above. It is without date ; and 
 
 ii. p. 183. it does not mention to whom the grant 
 
 * It is preserved with great care in an is made. It is directed to the Bishop 
 oaken box amongst the archives of the and Sweyn the Sheriff of East Saxony, 
 City. This charter is likewise copied and merely states that he has granted 
 into Liber Albus, and is recognised in to his dear man or men (friends) a cer- 
 the Inspeximus Charter of Charles IL tain piece of land at Gyddesdon, accord- 
 
 [The Saxon charter above has been ing to his agreement ; and that he will 
 collated with the original in the Town not suffer the French or the English to 
 Clerk's Office. Edit.] hurt them in anything. 
 
 * Editor of the first edition, Mr. Edward Tyrrell, Barrister-at-law and after- 
 wards Remembrancer.
 
 258 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK The import of this short charter has been already, to some 
 N ^ , extent, explained. 1 It grants nothing new, nor does it con- 
 fer any specific or distinguishing privileges. It merely de- 
 clares that the Conqueror will not reduce the citizens to a 
 state of dependent and slavish vassalage. It is granted to 
 French and English indiscriminately, in their simple quality 
 of residents within the City. The terms of it are such as 
 rather characterise a law made by an absolute prince, than a 
 grant made with relation to private property ; they refer to 
 rights strictly constitutional. At the same time they imply 
 at least a claim of proprietary title in the donor ; and, simple 
 as these conceded rights may appear to us at the present 
 day, the remission of the exercise of the power to reduce the 
 City to the condition of a demesne appanage of the crown, 
 must, at the time of granting this charter, have been appre- 
 ciated by the citizens as an invaluable boon. In making 
 the citizens freemen, or rather free tenants, this charter forms 
 the appropriate and stable basis of all the subsequently ac- 
 quired franchises of the citizens, whether political, corporate, 
 or private. 
 
 POETEEVE. The Gerefa, or governor of the port, to whom, 
 with the bishop, this charter is addressed, was an officer 
 whose functions and authority it is now impossible accurately 
 to define. As, on the one hand, it is probable he possessed 
 some powers beyond that of the sheriff of a county ; so, on 
 the other, it is certain the sheriff exercised functions in his 
 district which the portreve did not. As governor of the port, 
 and of the metropolis in which the king himself resided, it 
 may be reasonably conjectured he possessed a fiscal, as well 
 as magisterial, authority of larger extent than the sheriffs : 
 and perhaps as the head of all the London wards, or guilds, 
 when assembled in the general folkmote, or grand hustings 
 court, he might exercise some municipal prerogatives beyond 
 those of the sheriff in his folkmote or shiremote. But neither 
 the City folkmote or the hustings court were ever known to 
 exercise the judicial functions of a criminal court, as con- 
 ducted by the shiremote; nor had the portreve any juris- 
 diction in the separate City leets, as the sheriff had in each 
 
 1 Vide supra, pp. 17, 41. 100.
 
 PORTBEVE OP LO3TDON. 259 
 
 hundred in turn : but leet courts were always held distinctly CHAP. 
 
 and independently by the reve or alderman of each ward or , ^ . 
 
 guild. Indeed, in the time of Athelstan there does not seem 
 to have been any such municipial chief as the portreve, or 
 any magistrate executing his functions ; for in that prince's 
 reign we find the great legislative assembly of the citizens 
 composed of a congregation of reves, eorles, and ceorles, to- 
 gether with the bishop. 
 
 The term gerefa is of Gothic origin, and was applied 
 throughout Europe to dignitaries of various distinctions ; such 
 as landgrave, margrave, palsgrave, shirereve, borough-reve ; 
 the prefix (Ire) being merely expletory in this and many other 
 Gothic words. Literally, the word signifies a companion, or 
 attendant, and, no doubt, was originally applied to those 
 noble youths who, as we learn from Tacitus, allied themselves 
 in peace and in war to the persons of the ancient Germanic 
 princes, and formed the main support of their dignity and 
 authority. 1 
 
 When this officer was appointed to preside over a whole 
 county in England, he seems originally to have borne the 
 same rank and duties as an earl or ealderman. In the early 
 Saxon times, and perhaps still earlier, all governors of coun- 
 ties and provinces were termed ealdermen, or aldermen 
 quasi, the olderman. And the title of reve seems to have 
 been subsequently applied by the Saxons as another appel- 
 lation for the same person. 2 Thus we find Alfred appoint- 
 ing an alderman over all London. 3 In the time of Knut, and 
 not before, eorles came also to be called ealdermen or alder- 
 men ; though, according to Selden, the eorle or earl was, ori- 
 ginally, a higher dignitary than the ealderman, and literally 
 signified etheling, or noble. 4 It was at this period that the 
 term eorle was first translated by cames, in Latin, and thus 
 became synonymous with the term reve. Accordingly we 
 learn from Selden, that, when the term vice-comes was first 
 used as the Latin translation of ' sheriff,' in the Saxon times, 
 
 1 Tac.de Mor. Germ, caps. 13, 14. land. 
 
 The historian terms them ' comites ; ' * Seld. Tit. Hon. p. 639 et seq. 
 
 which is precisely the Latin name ap- J Ibid. p. 650. 
 
 plied to the earls who succeeded the * Ibid. p. 639 et seq. 
 original reres in their authority in Eng-
 
 260 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK it did not signify deputy -eaxl., but rather one invested with 
 *_ ,' the functions of an earl, in a district where there was no earl 
 appointed by the crown as one 'vicem comitis supplens.'^ 
 
 There is no reason to think that the reves, or the aldermen, 
 were in the earlier Saxon times appointed by the king ; al- 
 though he had, unquestionably, the power to displace them 
 for misconduct ; but it rather seems that they were elected 
 by the people of the county or the district over which they 
 presided. 2 The appointment of earls over counties, when 
 that term first came to be applied to governors of that de- 
 scription, although it probably sprung from the king's autho- 
 rity, yet seems neither to have been general throughout all 
 counties, or to have superseded the ordinary functions of the 
 more ancient reve. At the same time it is certain that, when 
 by degrees a distinction arose between the titles of earls 
 and reves of counties, the latter held a rank considerably 
 inferior : for we find that the were (or price) of an earl's head 
 was 8,000 thrymsas, and that of a high-reve or sheriff was 
 but 4,000. 3 
 
 These changes in the relative rank of earls and reves ap- 
 pear never to have been applied to London ; for the reve of 
 London, passing under the various denominations of port- 
 reve, provost, bailiff, and custos, not only always appears to 
 have held the same authority and functions as the earl of 
 a county ; 4 but in the time of Richard II. we find the lord 
 mayor taxed as an earl : 5 and it is difficult to discover any 
 principle upon which this magistrate ought to have an 
 inferior rank assigned to him at the present day. 
 
 BURGHERS. Literally, burhwaru, i.e. boroughmen ; from 
 
 1 Seld. Tit. Hon. p. 645 et seq. the sheriff or of any other inferior ma- 
 
 2 Blacks. Comm. vol. iv. p. 413 ; and gistrates being so appointed. So Hey- 
 Robertson's Charles V. vol. i. note 16 wood (on Borough Elections, p. 10) calls 
 ad fin., and the authorities there quoted. the head officers of boroughs, who hold 
 Blackstone insists that all magistrates by prescriptive election, the Common Law 
 were in the Saxon times elected by the officers, as their notorious denomina- 
 people themselves. However, towards tion. 
 
 the latter end of the Saxon dynasty, the Turner's Anglo-Sax, vol. ii. pp. 232, 
 
 earls of counties, and even an officer 234. 
 
 called the alderman of all England, * Vide infra, Ch. III. p. 315 et seq. 
 
 seem to have taken their authority under 5 Northouck, p. 76. Maitland, vol. 
 
 the crown (vide Turner's Anglo-Sax, vol. i. p. 128. Gough's Lond. Triumph, p. 
 
 i. pp. 93, 94). There are no traces of 347.
 
 BURGHERS, OR BARONS OF LONDON. 261 
 
 bur, burg, or burgh (Sax.), a city or fort, and war or wara, CHAP. 
 
 a man. 1 This Gothic term war, it is considered by Spelman, r 
 
 was the original etymon from which that of&aronwas de- ^o'i725. 
 rived, 2 the letters 6 and u being very capriciously and in- 
 discriminately used by the Saxons. 3 The word baron, in 
 its original import, signified no more than a man ; 4 as we say 
 to this day, in legal language, baron smdfemme, for man and 
 wife; and as the Scotch still term a child a bairn or barn, 
 which expression originally meant any man child, and pro- 
 bably sprang from the same derivation. 5 So also ' varoii' is 
 the Spanish for a man. In denominating the citizens, there- 
 fore, burhwaru, although the term is equivalent to tha't of 
 boroughbarons, or, in more modern language, barons of London, 
 yet nothing more is meant than the appellative men, or citi- 
 zens, of London. 
 
 As applied to a particular class of subjects, the denomina- 
 tion of barones seems first to have been adopted in the 
 earlier ages of the German Empire, as the Latin translation 
 of the appellative frey en orfreon, signifying freeman simply ; 
 and in progress of time, as the translation of that of frey- 
 herren and fterren, signifying, more especially, lord of a district. 6 
 The word was introduced into England, in the latter sense at 
 least (if indeed it was ever previously known in any other), 
 by William the Conqueror ; and by him it was appropriated 
 to designate, according to the doctrines of feudal law, those 
 who held lands immediately from himself as his tenants in 
 
 1 Lye's Gothic Diet. : ' Burgh.' India they were called Topee-wallahs, 
 
 * Spelm. Gloss. : ' Baro ; ' and Hist. men of the hat. Latterly the civil ser- 
 
 Exch. voL i. pp. 197, 198. It is pos- vants selected upon literary competition, 
 
 sible that the earliest etymon of the were called ' competition-wallahs.' 
 word is to be found amongst the Ori- * Lye's Gothic Diet Let. 'B.' 
 
 ental languages, the acknowledged roots * Spelman's Gloss. : ' Baro.' Hist, 
 
 of the Gothic and Scandinavian tongues. Exch. pp. 1197, 1198. Seld. Tit. Hon. 
 
 Thus wa, u-a!la, wans, and tear, all p. 481. So vxregild means the price of 
 
 signify ' man,' and sometimes ' lord,' in a man ; that is, the compensation to be 
 
 the Sanskrit and modern languages of made by way of fine for his murder. 
 
 Hindostan. From these words we draw Vide infra, ch. ii. Turners Anglo-Sax. 
 
 the derivatives ' pesh-wa,' the foreman, chapter on weres ; Spelman on Feuds, 
 
 guik-war,' the man of the cow (the most p. 15. 
 
 sacred of animals among the Hindoos), * Lye's Gothic Diet. : ' Bam.' 
 
 which are titles of royalty in the East. * Spelman's Gloss. : ' Baron.' Seld. 
 
 When Europeans first came to settle in Tit. Hon. pp. 478, 479 et seq.
 
 262 OP THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK capite, possessing at the same time the rights of criminal 
 
 r^ ' jurisdiction within their respective domains. 1 These tenants 
 
 were often distinguished by the name of barones regis.* 
 
 It was in this capacity of tenants of the king in capite in 
 free burgage, that burgesses of that quality acquired the title 
 of barons ; and the term was not confined to the citizens of 
 London in particiilar, but those of many other boroughs 
 were greeted with the same style, in deference to the same 
 right. 3 These barons, or king's tenants, as the persons most 
 concerned in the political interests of the state, were sum- 
 moned by the king to form the great or parliamentary coun- 
 cil of the nation ; 4 and this is sufficient to account for the 
 constant attendance of some of the citizens of London in that 
 
 In consequence of the gradual transfer of estates and the 
 parcelling out of the royal demesnes, the number of barons 
 under the Norman dynasty greatly increased ; and included 
 amongst them many chief tenants whose property was, com- 
 paratively, very insignificant. 5 The practice likewise of sub- 
 infeudation produced many other free tenants of estates, who, 
 possessing in virtue of their property the right of criminal 
 and civil jurisdiction, or of holding courts leet and courts 
 baron, which was deemed the distinguishing qualification of 
 a baron, 6 attained by custom the same denomination, though 
 improperly ; for, according to feudal tenures, this secondary 
 class of free tenants was composed of such as were anciently 
 termed vavasours, 7 and had not any claim to be summoned to 
 the king's great council. 8 This increase in the number of 
 barons gave occasion to the division of them, by some ordi- 
 nance now unknown, into the two classes of greater and 
 lesser barons, about the latter end of the reign of King John, 9 
 
 1 Selden, Tit. Hon. pp. 478, 479etseq.; Gloss. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 
 and 719, 732. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. 198. 
 
 i. p. 107. Heywood's Dissert, p. 218. Selden's Tit. Hon. p. 729 et seq. 
 
 The rights of sac and soc composed the s Ibid. pp. 738, 739 et seq. 
 
 baronial jurisdiction. Vide Domesday Lambard's Archaion. LL. Edw. and 
 
 Book; Ellis's Introd. p. 87; Lombard's vide note 1 . 
 
 Archaion. LL. Ed. 21. Selden's Tit. Hon. p. 743 ; and 
 
 2 Domesday Book. Ellis's Introd. p. Spelm. Gloss. : Vavasours.' 
 14 - " Selden's Tit, Hon. p. 743. 
 
 3 Selden's Tit Hon. p 717. Spelm. Ibid. p. 739 ct seq.
 
 BARONS OF LONDON. 263 
 
 not with reference to the quantity of their estates or knights* CHAP. 
 
 fees (as was once commonly but erroneously supposed 1 ), but * ; , 
 
 rather, as it is conjectured by Selden, in consequence of the 
 opposition of the more ancient and powerful barons to the 
 introduction of so numerous a body of newly-erected free 
 tenants to an equal dignity with themselves. The former 
 class included all those tenants in capite who were summoned 
 to the great council, singulatim, by the king's own letter, 
 and who were to pay a certain sum of one hundred marks for 
 their whole barony, however numerous the knight's fees 
 might be within it. 2 The latter comprised, not only all the 
 other tenants in capite who were directed to be summoned to 
 the council by the sheriff, and who paid, as anciently vavasours 
 did, 61. for every knight's fee, but also those who merely held 
 manors, and were termed barons in virtue of their juridical 
 franchises. 3 In the higher class of this subdivision it would 
 seem that the barons of boroughs, or at least those who repre- 
 sented them in state aflairs, were anciently entitled to be 
 ranked ; unless we are to suppose that the common borough- 
 barons formed a distinct class among themselves. The 
 aldermen of London, however, would at all events, in respect 
 of their jurisdiction in wardmotes, be entitled to at least an 
 equal rank with the barons of manors ; 4 but it does not 
 appear that they ever changed their earlier title, whether it 
 was reve or alderman, for the specific appellation of baron. 
 They were buried with the same ceremonials as were cus- 
 tomary at the funeral of barons of the highest order ; 5 and 
 in the time of Richard II. they were assessed at the same 
 amount. 6 
 
 After this distinction of the greater and lesser barons, the 
 name, as applied to the latter, grew gradually into disuse ; 
 and it is to be gathered that, by the reign of Richard II., it 
 had altogether ceased, and the title was used as the general 
 designation of the greater barons only. The citizens of 
 
 1 Selden's Tit. Hon. p. 766. socs in Henry I.'s charter. Vide supra, 
 
 - Ibid. p. 739. p. 92 ; and infra, p. 339. 
 
 * Spelm. Gloss. Selden's Tit Hon. * Strype's Stow, book v. p. 138. 
 
 p. 739. ' Northouck, p. 76. Maitlaud, vol. 
 
 1 Lambard's Aichaion. LL. Edw. i. p. 138. 
 Thus we find they arc termed baronf of
 
 264 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK London were commonly termed barons, in charters and other 
 v_^L_ public documents, down to the reign of Ed ward I. ; but there 
 is no trace of such distinction in subsequent reigns. Eichard 
 II. first created barons by letters patent j 1 and the title then, 
 and not before, became a name of dignity ; 2 for previous to 
 that period, a baron could not plead or be impleaded by that 
 addition, but simply by that of a knight or esquire ; 3 nor, 
 indeed, were they permitted to wear coronets till the reign 
 of Charles II. 4 After the creation of barons by letters 
 patent had raised the term to a title of dignity, all lesser 
 barons of course lost every real pretension to that name ; 
 and finally, by the abolition of chivalry tenures in the reign 
 of Charles II., every vestige of claim to that denomination, 
 in any sense, became obliterated. It has been thought 
 pertinent to enter into some detail in explanation of this 
 term, as its ancient application to citizens of London has 
 sometimes occasioned a mistaken conception of their dignity. 5 
 LAW-WOETHY. That is, the citizens were to enjoy the 
 privileges of freemen in courts of justice ; for by the Saxon 
 as well as the feudal system of law, none lout freemen were 
 entitled to the privileges of trial according to any recognised 
 judicial form, either in civil or criminal suits. 6 It has been 
 remarked that the administration of criminal law during the 
 Saxon dynasty was very imperfect and irregular. 7 There 
 were various modes of trial, however, recognised amongst 
 them for the investigation of public and private wrongs, the 
 adoption of which, in each particular instance, seems to have 
 
 1 Selden's Tit. Hon. p. 774. Lord not only doubts, but palpable errors 
 Eaymond's Sep. vol. ii. p. 859. among several learned men. The sug- 
 
 2 Selden's Tit, Hon. p. 774. Davis's gestions of Sir William Temple with 
 Rep. p. 60. Bro. Ab. ' Amercement,' pi. reference to the German and Italian 
 52. 8 Henry VI. 9, 22. Jenk. Rep. p. 209. boiarons seem very fanciful, and unsup- 
 
 3 Selden's Tit. Hon. p. 774. ported by authority. Vide his Treatise 
 
 4 Ibid. on Heroic Virtue. 
 
 5 Although in this explication of the Selden's Janus Angl. 1025. Ibid, 
 quality and dignity of ancient barons Notes upon Fortescue, 1895. Spel. Glosr. 
 some confidence of opinion may have liber ' Lagamannus.' This was the law 
 been expressed, yet the best authorities amongst all the ancient nations of 
 have been studiously consulted on the Northern Europe. Vide Edin. Review, 
 subject. At the same time it is acknow- vol. xxxiv. p. 196. 
 
 ledged that the subject is one of con- 7 Vide supra, p. 35 et seq. 
 
 siderable difficulty ; and has occasioned
 
 CITIZENS TO BE LAW- WORTHY.' 265 
 
 depended, sometimes on the caprice of the defendant, and, at CHAP. 
 others, on the custom of the place. Among these, appeals to ^_ / _^ 
 the interposition of the Deity, so general among all barbar- 
 ous nations, by some ceremonial such as the ordeal, thecors- 
 ned, and many other devices were by no means uncommon. 
 But the most frequent modes of trial seem to have been that 
 by jury, and that by wager of law, or purgation, i. e. by the 
 oath of the party denying the act, together with that of 
 some prefixed number of men, termed compurgators, who 
 swore they believed in such oath of the defendant. 1 To these 
 forms of trial, the Normans added that by wager of battle. 
 A person entitled to appeal to any of these forms of trial 
 was declared to be * rectus in curia,' and was called ' liber et 
 legalis homo; 9 terms which were deemed synonymous, and 
 were used indiscriminately. 2 But villeins, and those who 
 were not free tenants, or at all events those composing the 
 numerous class of slaves or bondmen amongst the Saxons, 
 had no right to appeal to any of these acknowledged modes 
 of trial, and their oaths were in no respect to be taken. 3 So a 
 person attainted of perjury was adjudged to lose his law or 
 his free law ; or, as Glanvill expresses it, loses the law of tJie 
 land, and was to be no longer oath-worthy. 4 
 
 HEIESHIP. Literally, beo yrf-nume, be the taker of his 
 inheritance. The right of heirship amongst free tenants was 
 a general common-law right during the Saxon times, 5 and is 
 plainly derived from their ancestors the Germans. 6 The right, 
 although not strictly consistent with pure feudal principles, 
 
 1 Selden's Notes upon Fortescne, 1895. duction of the murderer (Dial.) Scac. 
 
 Spelm. Gloss. : ' Jurata,' ' Lada,' legem lib. i. a. 11). He could hardly be more 
 
 ' vadiaree.' It is by no means clear completely out of the pale of the law's 
 
 whether the trial by jury, and by wager protection. 
 
 of law, was not originally the same. But * Selden's Notes upon Fortescue, 1895, 
 
 certainly trial by jury was during the and authorities quoted. So according 
 
 Saxon period in a most crude and im- to the laws of the Scandinavian nations, 
 
 perfect state. Vide Turner's Anglo- which may be said to be almost iden- 
 
 Sax. voL ii. ch. ix. ; and infra, ch. ii. tified with those of our Saxon anees- 
 
 * Spelm. : ' Legalis,' ' Liber.' tore, a person disgracing himself in a 
 
 * Seld. Janus Ang. 1025. Wright's court of justice lost his law, and could 
 Tenures, p. 215 etstq.; and Robertson's no longer be a witness. Edin. Rev. voL 
 Hist, of Charles V. ch. i. note 9. The xxxiv. p. 196. 
 
 district was not liable to the usual fine * LL. Edw. Lombard's Archaion. 
 
 in case of his murder and the non-pro- Tac. de Mor. German.
 
 266 OF THE CHARTEES OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK seems to have been engrafted into that system before the 
 ^_. T ' _^ arrival of the Conqueror in England. 1 The law of descent, 
 however, in regard to real property, was different amongst 
 the Saxons and the Normans. The latter introduced into 
 England the feudal rule of primogeniture ; though it appears 
 that, by the ancient common law, all the males shared alike. 2 
 Whether the latter was the rule or not amongst the citizens 
 of London cannot now be distinctly ascertained ; but it is 
 reasonable to conclude that in the Saxon times the rule of 
 descent in London was in conformity with that which 
 governed other free tenures in England. This rule of descent 
 by partition very soon gave way to that by primogeniture 
 throughout all the free socage tenures, with very few excep- 
 tions, 3 as well as throughout those which had been converted 
 into military feuds ; and the change might have taken place 
 with greater facility amongst the citizens, as they retained 
 the ancient Saxon privilege 4 of devising their lands by will 
 according to their own pleasure. 5 With regard to their personal 
 estate, the customary law of London would not allow of a 
 bequest of more than one-third ; one of the other two-thirds 
 being the property of the widow, as her dower, and the other 
 that of the children in equal shares by right of inheritance." 
 Villeins, or strict tenants in demesne, having neither estates 
 real nor personal, but belonging, themselves, their children, 
 and their effects, to the lord of the soil, like the rest of the 
 stock or cattle upon it, could have no heritable rights what- 
 ever. 7 
 
 1 Wright's Tenures, pp. 73, 74, in 6 Priv. Lond. Index ' Custom,' ' Hotch- 
 not. pot.' Calthrop's Eep. pp. 36, 155 etseq. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 174 et seq. This is now altered by 11 Geo. I. c. 18, 
 
 3 Such as gavelkind, and borough and the citizens have the free disposal 
 English. Ibid. pp. 176, 177. by will of all their effects. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 171 et seq. Seld. vol. vi. p. 'Wright's Tenures, p. 215 et seq. 
 1666. Turner's Anglo-Sax, vol. ii. p. 96 ct seq. 
 
 Seld. vol. vi.pp. 1666, 1667, 1914.
 
 267 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY I. 1 HOLDING MIDDLESEX TO FARM CITIZENS 
 TO APPOINT THEIR OWN JUSTICIAR NOT TO PLEAD WITHOUT THE 
 WALLS EXEMPTIONS FROM SCOT, DANEGELD, AND MURDER, AND FROM 
 WAGING BATTLE COMPURGATTON LODGINGS FOR THE KING'S HOUSE- 
 HOLD TOLL, PASSAGE, AND LESTAGE CITY SOCS AMERCIAMENTS 
 AND WERES MISKENNINGS AT THE HUSTINGS ATTACHMENTS FOR 
 ILLEGAL TOLL-TAKING, AND FOR DEBTS. 
 
 THE king directs this charter to the dignitaries composing CHAP, 
 the Great National Council nominatim, and to all his sub- ^_ / _. 
 jects generally. By it he grants that the citizens shall have 
 Middlesex to farm of him and his heirs for 300Z. yearly rent ; 
 and that they shall appoint their own sheriff for Middlesex : 2 
 that they shall appoint their own justiciar to keep the pleas 
 of the crown, and none other shall be justice over them : that 
 they shall not plead without the City walls in any plea : that 
 they shall be exempt from scot, danegeld, and murder ; and 
 that they shall not wage battle : that they shall have the privi- 
 lege of purging themselves by oath : that they shall not be 
 compellable to receive the members of the king's household 
 or others into lodgings within the walls, as guests : that they 
 and their goods shall be free from all manner of customs, tolls, 
 passage, and lestage, throughout all England and the sea- 
 ports : that the church, the barons, and the citizens shall have 
 their socs in peace ; so that no guest tarrying in any soc shall 
 pay custom to any other than him to whom the soc belongs : 
 that they shall not be mulcted or amerced, in pleas appertain- 
 ing to money, beyond their respective weres, i. e. one hundred 
 shillings : that miskennings shall no longer be suffered in the 
 
 1 This charter has no date. It is to be and sheriffvdck of London, also, or at 
 found at large in the Inspeximus Charter least that such franchise was held as of 
 of Charles II., and in Liber Albus. right by the citizens, vide supra, p. 60, 
 
 2 That this grant included the farm note 2.
 
 268 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDOX. 
 
 BOOK hustings, or in the folkmote, or in other pleas within the City: 
 
 * ,.'. _^ that the hustings court shall sit every Monday : that the 
 
 king will cause the citizens to have their lands and their 
 debts, both within the City and without. He also grants, 
 that they shall have right adjudged to them in respect of 
 lands, which they shall have put in suit before the king, ac- 
 cording to the law of the City : that, if toll or custom be taken 
 from a citizen in any borough, that citizen shall take as much 
 from such borough, as will compensate the damage received : 
 that they shall have the right to take the goods of any debtor, 
 who will not pay or appear to disprove the alleged debt, which 
 may be in the city or in the county where such debtor lives 
 as pledge : that they shall have their huntings as their an- 
 cestors had, to wit, in Chiltern, in Middlesex, and in Surrey. 
 MIDDLESEX TO PAEM. That is, the citizens are to exercise 
 the shrieval custody and power over Middlesex, and to have 
 the collection of the king's demesne revenues arising within 
 it : but this right should not be confounded with the tenure 
 by which the citizens held freely their private landed posses- 
 sions in their borough. The royal revenues derived from 
 counties, cities, and demesne districts were extremely numer- 
 ous ; and the farming of them was a very honourable and, it 
 may be believed, a very lucrative grant. 1 It was sometimes 
 bestowed 011 favoured individuals of the court at a stated 
 sum ; though ordinarily, in the counties and larger cities, it 
 was the proper duty of the sheriff to collect and account for 
 them in the king's court, according to his actual receipts. 2 
 In the Saxon times the royal revenues were chiefly derived 
 from the demesne lands of the king ; and the free tenants at 
 large of counties and other districts were very little burthened 
 by demands for fiscal contributions. But, upon the introduc- 
 tion of the feudal system by the Normans, the whole common- 
 wealth had not only to submit to the various exactions incident 
 to feudal tenure, but likewise to many of the modes of taxation 
 which had previously been enforced only against demesne 
 tenants of the king. These taxes, or issues, the king claimed 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. passim ; and were paid by individuals for the office of 
 Firma Burgi, ch. xi. ss. 3, 6. From Gustos or Farmer, 
 many records it appears that large sums 2 Finna Burgi, ch. xi. ss. 3, 6.
 
 MIDDLESEX TO BE HELD IN FEE FARM. 269 
 
 as by seignorial title to the whole kingdom ; and they con- CHAP, 
 sisted of a great variety of tolls, customs, and duties at >._ . ^ , 
 bridges, ferries, markets, towns, ports, &c., which constituted 
 the issues let to farm ; besides the numberless fines, amercia- 
 ments, and forfeitures which accrued to him from the penal 
 provisions of the forest laws, and from the extension of the 
 jurisdiction of the royal courts throughout his dominions. 1 
 The fiscal powers of the sheriff became, therefore, in the ag- 
 gregate, of vast interest to the crown; and the king no longer 
 intrusted the appointment of so responsible an officer to the 
 people, 2 who would of course be anxious to evade as much as 
 possible the burthen of his exactions. At the same time it is 
 easy to conceive, that, besides the anxiety which all sheriffs 
 appointed by the crown would naturally feel to acquit them- 
 selves to the satisfaction of their master, many would be 
 actuated also by motives of self-interest and views of pecula- 
 tion in the collection of the royal revenue. If, however, these 
 public and accountable officers of the crown were urged to ex- 
 tortion by such obvious inducements, the individual farmer 
 of these regular demesne issues of a district at a stated sum 
 could regard his appointment in no other light than as a 
 license for rapacity ; and, indeed, such grants were commonly 
 made for the purpose of enriching those on whom they were 
 bestowed. 3 We have seen that the exactions and abuses of 
 all kinds practised by the sheriifs formed some of the heaviest 
 charges in the people's complaints when Edward I. began his 
 work of reformation ; and were amongst those which were 
 first to be redressed. 4 
 
 In the meanwhile, all those cities and towns which possessed 
 any influence with the crown, exerted it with great zeal to 
 have their farmer, or bailiff, appointed from amongst them- 
 selves ; and to account for the more regular demesne issues 
 at a stipulated farm rent. 8 The applications for such valuable 
 grants are very numerous in ancient records ; and there are 
 frequent instances of very large sums being paid for them. 
 
 1 Firma Burgi, ch. xi. ss. 3, 6. Comm. vol. i. p. 339 : and stat. 28 
 
 2 Ibid. ss. 5, 6, et passim ; Hist. Edward I. cap. 8. 
 
 Exch. voL i. p. 17. * Madox's Hist. Exch. p. 397 et seq. 
 
 * Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. xi. ss. 3, 6. et passim. Firma Burgi, ch. xi. et passim. 
 4 Vide supra, p. 78 et seq. Blacks.
 
 270 OF THE CHAETERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK This privilege of a bailiff holding the shrieval authority over 
 
 ,-L-^ cities and towns, and of accounting for the demesne revenues 
 
 arising therein at a stipulated farm, became common to most 
 of the great cities and towns before the time of Edward I.: 1 
 but, although it was not unusual for the king, as a special 
 favour, to choose a sheriff over counties, and occasionally over 
 towns, from amongst the inhabitants, there is scarcely an in- 
 stance to be found of his delegating the former appointment 
 to their own election. 2 Still less can any instance be adduced 
 of the king granting to one district the privilege of appointing 
 so high an officer over another ; although a notorious one 
 exists of the shrievalty in fee over a county having been 
 granted to a particular individual. 3 The franchise bestowed 
 on the citizens of London, of farming the sheriffwick of the 
 county of Middlesex at a stipulated rent, must, therefore, be 
 considered as a very distinguished mark of the royal favour. 
 It is probable that the many interests which the citizens pos- 
 sessed throughout the county of Middlesex, in the detection 
 and arrest of malefactors, in lands, in goods, in the fairs and 
 markets, in their privilege of hunting, and in their continual 
 trading occupations, as well as in the dispensation of justice 
 in the county court, would render the shrieval authority over 
 that district, not only of intrinsic value to them in itself, but 
 almost a necessary adjunct to the secure enjoyment of their 
 more peculiar civic franchises circumstances quite sufficient 
 to account for their zealous importunity in obtaining and pre- 
 serving this singular privilege : and for those unceasing com- 
 plaints whenever the king, for arbitrary purposes, seized the 
 shrieval authority into his own hands by appointing a custos 
 or farmer over the City. 
 
 APPOINT THEIR OWN JUSTICIAR TO KEEP THE PLEAS OF 
 
 THE CROWN. This was a privilege of the utmost importance. 
 We have had occasion to remark that, in the Saxon times, all 
 criminal suits proceeded in the courts leet, which were held by 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, passim. cap. 2, and, apparently, but little re- 
 
 2 Except the statute of 28 Edward I. garded in the interim. 
 
 cap. 8, enacting that the men of each 3 The shrievalty of the county of 
 
 county should elect their own sheriffs, Westmoreland was hereditary in Lord 
 
 being siwh as would not burthen them ; Thanet. 
 but it was repealed by 9 Edward II.
 
 CITIZENS TO APPOINT THEIR OWN JUSTICAR. 271 
 
 the sheriff or other officer in his hundred, or by the lord over CHAP. 
 
 his demesne district. 1 Very few of the mulcts and forfei- ^ ' 
 
 tares arising from such suits then belonged to the king, but 
 generally to the owner of the jurisdiction, or soc, as it was 
 called, or else to the people of the district for specific purposes 
 of their own ; 2 the king interfered very little in any other legal 
 proceedings than those arising between such nobles as owed 
 deference to no other authority. 3 Amongst the continental 
 nations also the great proprietors of estates and the barons 
 under the feudal system possessed, and long preserved, both 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction over their vassal tenants. 4 
 
 It had been the policy of the foreign feudal powers, before 
 the arrival of the Conqueror in England, to curtail these juri- 
 dical privileges of the barons, and to engross into their own 
 hands as much as possible such important prerogatives ; 5 and 
 an instance occurred of the appointment of a royal officer in 
 this country holding the title of alderman of all England du- 
 ring the Anglo-Saxon period. 6 But, whatever may have been 
 the extent and quality of that officer's functions, and whatever 
 indications might have been manifested in the latter years of 
 the Saxon dynasty of the crown's assuming a general juris- 
 diction, it appears certain that the Conqueror was the first 
 monarch who introduced into this kingdom the officer so long 
 afterwards known by the name of the capital justiciar of all 
 England. 7 In the establishment of this judicial authority, it- 
 may be easily believed that the king was not so much actuated 
 by a desire to curb the independence of his barons, as by an 
 anxiety to establish the feudal system of policy, to appropriate 
 
 1 Tide supra, p. 34 et stq. passim. 
 
 * Robertson's Hist, of Charles V. vol. * Turner's Anglo.-Sax. vol. ii. p. 212. 
 
 1. Illustrations, note 23. That many of Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 92, 93. 
 
 the mulcts and forfeitures were to be * Robertson's Hist, of Charles V. vol. 
 
 paid to the king, may be gathered from L Illustrations, note 23. 
 
 several of the Saxon laws (LL. Sax, pp. * Ibid. 
 
 2, 12). At the same time, in many of Doddridge on Parliaments, quo- 
 the gilds, the mulcts were by their own ting Ingnlphus. Spelm. Gloss. ' Alder- 
 regulations paid to others, and often to mannns.' 
 
 the lord of the district (Turner's Angle- Spelm. Gloss : Justieiarius.' Ma- 
 
 tr. vol. ii. pp. 104, 105, 214. 240). Tie dox's Hist. Exch. vol. L pp. 36, 37, 
 
 lords, too, had the forfeitures incurred 92. The office was an ancient one in 
 
 within their own respective toes. Ibid. Normandy. Ibid, 
 and p. 181 ; Madox's Firma B*rgi,
 
 272 
 
 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK to his own revenue the numerous fruits arising out of the 
 
 ^ - new tenures ; and to secure to himself the valuable proceeds 
 
 which were made to spring from the administration of the law. 
 
 Originally, the term justiciar was often applied by the 
 Normans indiscriminately to any inferior magistrate who 
 held a court. 1 After the establishment of the aula regis , the 
 functions of all inferior courts began rapidly to decline, and 
 were superseded by those of the royal court : the consequence 
 of which was, that the chief justiciar, who officiated in that 
 court with regal authority, became eventually the only 
 magistrate recognised by that name. The aula regis was, in 
 fact, the king's supreme council of the realm, known pre- 
 viously under the name of the witenagemote. 2 But in the 
 Saxon times this court was only appealed to as the last resort 
 by the common people, and decided, as an original court, the 
 claims of the nobles only. 3 The Conqueror laboured with suc- 
 cessful anxiety to render it the common source of law and 
 justice throughout the whole kingdom. The chief justiciar 
 sat in it as his representative and viceroy. 4 It followed the 
 person of the king wherever he might go; and instantly 
 suspended the jurisdictions of all the inferior courts in the 
 district in which he might happen to be. 5 As early as the 
 reign of Stephen, if not before, it was the custom for the 
 chief justiciar to send judges into the different counties to try 
 causes arising within them, to receive appeals from the judg- 
 ments of other courts, to punish crimes, and to exact the for- 
 feitures of every kind which had been incurred. 6 And, finally, 
 Henry II. appointed certain persons to be regular justices 
 itinerant. 7 So that the aula regis became by degrees a court, 
 not only of general authority, but, in actual practice, the first 
 and last resort in almost all cases both criminal and civil. 
 
 The evils arising to the body of the people from these in- 
 novations were neither few nor inconsiderable. The burdens 
 
 Spelm. Gloss. : ' Justiciarius.' 1785, when the statute 25 George III. 
 
 Turner's Hist. Anglo-Sax, vol. ii. cap. 18, was passed to remedy the in- 
 
 pp. 229, 261. Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 12. convenience. Edit.* 
 
 Vide supra, p. 41. Ibid. pp. 18, 35, 36, 93, 103, 146. 
 
 Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 31, 32, 36. 7 Ibid. 
 
 This was the case in London until 
 
 * Mr. Tyrrell, who edited the first edition.
 
 CITIZENS TO APPOINT THEIR OWN JCSTICIAR. 273 
 
 arising out of the feudal tenures, if not the tenures them- CHAP. 
 
 selves, were as novel as they were slavish and oppressive. The ._ ,' 
 
 laws, under which justice ought to have been administered, 
 were neither understood in principle nor practice. Ancient 
 customs, both general and local, and the ancient forms of 
 judicial trial, were for the most part either disregarded or un- 
 intelligible to judges of foreign extraction and habits. Delay 
 and uncertainty began to pervade the whole system of the 
 judicature. The appeal to legal justice was made the subject 
 of a pecuniary fine to the king. 1 Grievous as these oppres- 
 sions were, they were easier to be endured than the practices 
 of exaction introduced into the dispensation of the criminal 
 law. The judges being entirely dependent, and mere crea- 
 tures of the crown, strove, with great zeal, to collect for 
 the royal treasury a rich harvest of mulcts and forfeitures. 
 This it was, in the language of the day, to keep the pleas of 
 the crown, or rather to exact the fines and forfeitures arising 
 out of pleas of the crown ; 2 and this kind of jurisdiction 
 was easily converted, as we have before had occasion to 
 remark, 3 to the most oppressive purposes. 
 
 It became, therefore, a great immunity to be exempted 
 from these new, uncertain, and arbitrary jurisdictions. Thus, 
 it was a privilege confirmed to the nobility by Magna Charta, 
 that they should be amerced only by their peers in the great 
 council or parliament. 4 The barons and officers of the king's 
 exchequer were privileged likewise from the judicial inter- 
 ference of any other court ; 5 and some few counties and 
 districts, under the denomination of palatine, preserve to 
 this day all the royal rights of judicature. 
 
 It was also a privilege granted to the citizens of some 
 favoured cities to elect their own judges, and to be exempted 
 from any other judicial authority. The value of such an im- 
 munity was very soon appreciated by them. It preserved the 
 benefits of their ancient laws and customs, and secured, in 
 some degree, talent and integrity upon the judgment-seat : 
 it relieved them from that system of peculation and bribery 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 455 Vide p. 77 et seq. 
 
 et passim. * Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 529. 
 
 1 Dial. Scac. lib. 2, cap. 12. Hist. * Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 13, 18, 19. 
 
 Exch. vol. i. p. 210.
 
 274 OF THE CHA.RTEKS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK which, under the name of fines, poisoned the very sources of 
 
 ^ . ' _^ justice ; but, above all, it prevented the numerous extortions 
 
 for which corrupt motives could always invent a pretext as 
 
 long as judicial penalties formed the most productive branch 
 
 of the royal revenue. 
 
 In the City of London, in which so large a portion of the 
 personal wealth of the whole nation was concentrated, 
 independent courts of judicature were most desirable ; for as, 
 on the one hand, the subdivision of property, both real and 
 personal, and the general distribution of it through various 
 ranks, would render their legal rights and liabilities more 
 various and difficult of adjudication ; so, on the other, greater 
 facilities and temptations would be held out to the cravings 
 of arbitrary rapacity. The numerous seizures of the civic 
 franchises, in early times, were resorted to as the readiest 
 means to effect that which was on such occasions invariably 
 accomplished namely, the supply of the royal coffers by the 
 exactions of the custos, or other magistrate, into whose 
 hands the government of the City was entrusted. It is pro- 
 bable that, for many years after the Norman Conquest, all 
 criminal trials were held in the wardmote or alderman's court 
 leet, in each respective soc or gild within the City of London, 
 as they had been during the Anglo-Saxon period in the other 
 courts leet. 1 The practice of superseding these petty local 
 courts by the general jurisdiction of the chief justiciar, 
 throughout whatever district he might happen to sit in, or 
 by that of the king's commissioned justices, naturally led to 
 the establishment of different and superior courts of judi- 
 cature, as well in the City as elsewhere : and we may accord- 
 ingly trace to the period of this charter the gradual con- 
 version of the wardmote court leet into a mere court of inquest, 
 as far as respects the purposes of criminal proceedings. At the 
 same time we have no certain grounds for asserting that the 
 soc or leet courts of the aldermen were absolutely and at once 
 superseded in this branch of their functions by the grant of 
 the justiciarship ; but it is probable that the justiciar at first 
 exercised his authority only by superintending and control- 
 
 1 Vide supra, pp. 34 et seq. &ndipost, 289, in this charter as to Socs, or Sokes, 
 and the quality of those jurisdictions.
 
 CITIZENS TO APPOINT THEIR OWN" JUSTICIAR. 275 
 
 ling the proceedings of the leets. By Magna Charta, the leet CHAP. 
 courts were deprived of all jurisdiction over pleas of the crown ; , ' _- 
 and, as long as their jurisdiction continued in practice after- 
 wards, it was confined to those petty offences which were the 
 subjects of amercement upon the leet jury presentment^ 
 without any trial. 
 
 The person alluded to as the justiciar in this charter, 
 there is every reason to believe, was the portreve, or whoever at 
 this period held the highest authority within the City : for 
 there never was any officer known by the specific denomination 
 of justiciar for London ; and it has already been mentioned 
 that the Normans originally applied that term to magistrates 
 of every quality. 
 
 The charter proceeds, in this grant of the justiciarship, 
 to add, that * none other shall be justiciar over the citizens.' 
 These exclusive words seem to imply, that the king has no 
 authority to issue commissions to other justices to hold pleas 
 of the crown within the City ; and yet we find, in practice, 
 that such authority is constantly and regularly exercised by 
 the crown with respect to all offences committed within the 
 liberties. The state of the law, and of the constitutional rights 
 of the people, have been long so much changed, that it has 
 become a principle in the supreme courts of judicature to dis- 
 courage as much as possible all exclusive jurisdictions, as 
 endangering impartiality and correctness in the administra- 
 tion of justice. 1 In conformity to this maxim, as well as to 
 the rule of law which inculcates the utmost caution in depriv- 
 ing the king of any of his constitutional prerogatives, 2 it 
 would no doubt be now held that the grant in question must 
 be construed most strictly ; and that the office of justiciar, 
 and the pleas of the crown submitted to his jurisdiction, 
 must refer to that particular magisterial authority and those 
 identical pleas of the crown subsisting at the time of the 
 grant, and would not include various other powers, and vari- 
 ous other offences, since created by royal and legislative ordi- 
 nances 3 as the statute of 5 Elizabeth, cap. 4, which disables 
 
 1 Willes's Reports, p. 223. Wilson's * Black. Com. roL ii. p. 346. 
 
 Rep. voL ii. p. 410. Bar. Rep. voL v. * 14 Henry IV. cap. 20. 
 
 p. 5820. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK persons from exercising trades without first serving an appren- 
 
 ^ ticeship, has been scrupulously restricted to such trades as at 
 
 that time were pursued. 1 There is also reason to believe, that 
 the privilege granted would be deemed merely personal to the 
 citizens ; and therefore an exclusive cognizance over pleas of 
 the crown, like that which is granted specifically to certain 
 authorities in the universities, could not be claimed by the 
 Corporation, which did not then in fact exist, either as one 
 united mercantile guild, or as a representative community. 
 The consequence would be, that, to take advantage of this 
 privilege, the citizen must personally plead it, and show him- 
 self to be a citizen, re, facto, et nomine that is, a householder 
 paying scot and lot, commonly resident, and admitted to his 
 corporate freedom. 2 And, after all, such a plea could avail 
 him nothing, as being merely productive of a short delay and 
 a more unsatisfactory trial. 
 
 In truth, however, as the courts of criminal law are at 
 present constituted within the City, there seems every reason 
 to conclude that such a plea would be invalid ; and that such 
 courts have an indispiitable authority, under the commissions 
 creating them, to try offences arising within the City, of every 
 description. According to the better opinions, although by 
 a grant to citizens to hold pleas of the crown, and to appoint 
 their own judges for such purpose, all other courts are ex- 
 cluded from any concurrent jurisdiction ; 3 yet the court is still 
 the king's court, and the judges, when so appointed, become 
 the king's judges ; 4 and it by no means follows that the king 
 may not have occasion to issue his commission to such judges 
 confirmatory of their functions and authority. So, in the two 
 universities, although the members are not only privileged, 
 individually, from the jurisdiction of the ordinary criminal 
 courts, but an exclusive cognizance is granted by statute to 
 particular individuals on behalf of the whole society; yet, when 
 offences are to be tried under such special jurisdiction, the 
 
 1 Saund. Rep. vol. i. p. 312, n. I. Regis, Bos. & Pul. Rep. vol. i. p. 496. 
 
 * Case of prisage of Wine-Calth. " Hardres. Rep. p. 509. Palmer's 
 
 cases, p. 34 ; and the numerous cases Rep. p. 456. 
 
 quoted in Mayor of London v. Liverpool ; * 20 Henry VII. 6. a. 
 in note to Mayor of London v. Lynn
 
 NOT TO BE D1PLEADED WITHOUT THE WALLS. 277 
 
 king not only exercises a right of approval of the appointed CHAP. 
 
 judge, but issues his commission to invest him with the dele- . ^J , 
 
 gated functions. 1 So likewise, in case any indictment is re- 
 moved out of the City court into the King's Bench by writ of 
 certiorari* a commission necessarily issues, if it is to be tried 
 by the latter court, appointing the judges who are to try it. 
 But when the king issues his commission for the trial of offen- 
 ces, although he cannot change the court as established by law 
 or statute, unless for some special reason, such as partiality in 
 the mayor or constituted judges, yet he may add and associate 
 whomever he thinks fit in the same commission to be judges : 3 
 and he may further give authority in the same or another 
 commission to any number of them to proceed without their 
 fellows. 4 Accordingly, all that appears necessary for the due 
 establishment of the City court^ according to the charters, 
 is that the justiciar should at least be of the quorum ; 5 and so 
 it is with regard to the Admiralty jurisdiction, which properly 
 is under the administration of the Lord High Admiral, or his 
 deputed judge ; yet the court is always composed, in fact, of 
 various dignitaries, at the head of whom is placed the Judge 
 of the Admiralty. 6 And in like manner the Mayor of London 
 is still always placed at the head of the commissions which 
 create the criminal jurisdictions in London. 7 
 
 SHALL NOT PLEAD WITHOUT THE WALLS ix AXT PLEA. This 
 is the same immunity granted to the citizens, with reference 
 to civil suits, which had been secured to them by the preced- 
 ing clause in respect of criminal prosecutions ; and although, 
 under the present pure administration of the law, it happily 
 no longer confers any advantage, except in regard to the 
 prompt and cheap adjudication of small causes, yet, in ancient 
 times, it was a privilege highly and justly appreciated. The 
 circumstance of the aula regis being ambulatory, and fol- 
 lowing the king's person, until, by Magna Charta, it became 
 stationary, was, in itself, a perpetual source of annoyance, 
 
 1 Black. Com. vol. iv. p. 277. et seq. 
 
 * Chitty on Criminal Pleadings, roL Ibid. Ibid, 
 
 i. p. 374, and authorities quoted. Ibid. Ibid. p. 32. 
 
 ' Fitz. Nat. Brer. ' Writ of Over Black. Com. Tol. iv. p. 269. 
 
 and Terminer.' Bale's PL Cr. pp. 2, 23 ' Ibid.
 
 278 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK particularly to the inhabitants of cities ; who were, conse- 
 
 - ,J quently, obliged to leave their avocations for an indefinite 
 
 period, and often at grievous expense, delay, danger, and 
 difficulties, to assert their rights in the midst of strangers. 
 Nor were these the only grievances to be endured. They had 
 to plead their causes before judges who neither knew nor re- 
 garded their laws or peculiar customs, nor even their language. 
 They were compelled to pay fines, exacted with shameful 
 rapacity, even for permission to litigate : * and, in case of 
 failure, were amerced, at almost an arbitrary discretion, as 
 for a false complaint. 2 
 
 The evils thus enumerated were probably never sustained 
 by the citizens of London. But that they oppressed the in- 
 habitants of most other towns may be collected from the fre- 
 quent applications for this internal and exclusive jurisdiction, 
 and the sums of money paid for the grant of it. 3 If the citi- 
 zens of London escaped the exactions of the king's supreme 
 court, they owed it altogether to their early charters, which 
 secured to them their ancient independence. So sensible 
 were they of the advantages derived from this immunity, that 
 they took great care to have it repeated in many subsequent 
 charters, for which they often paid considerable sums of 
 money. In their jealousy of judicial encroachments under 
 royal authority, they were often involved in obstinate disputes 
 with the Crown ; and, although they as often suffered in con- 
 sequence, they still maintained their claims with the same 
 resolution. They interdicted all pleas between citizen and 
 citizen out of the jurisdiction, under pain of fine and dis- 
 franchiseinent ; 4 they inserted a clause in the freeman's oath, 
 that he would not so plead ; 5 and even to this day, part of the 
 oath of their common pleaders, or City counsel, is ' to plead 
 ' no foreign plea, whereby the City should be ousted of its 
 'jurisdiction.' 6 
 
 1 Mad. Hist. Exch. passim ; and vide p. 4 et seq. 
 
 vol. i. C. II. pp. 396, 429. s This clause in the freeman's oath 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 529. was annulled by stat. 11 Geo. I. cap. 18. 
 8 Ibid. p. 397, passim. " A foreign plea is one which alleges, 
 4 Order of Com. Coun. 1 7 Henry by way of defence, some fact of a heal 
 
 VIII. cap. 21 . Hodges's Bye Laws. Cal- nature occurring out of the jurisdiction ; 
 thorp's Rep. p. 170. Calthorp's Usages, that is, a fact which cannot be tried but
 
 XOT TO BE IMPLEADED WITHOUT THE WALLS. 279 
 
 But in the progress of legal reformation, both the grounds CHAP. 
 
 and reasons for the City's peculiar exclusive cognisance of , . 
 
 suits between citizens have long ceased to operate. Judicial 
 corruption and extortion are unknown the civil courts have 
 long been stationary the language of the law and the modes 
 of trial have become uniform all issues of fact have been 
 rendered detenninable twice a year at the suitors own doors ;' 
 and the customary rights of the citizens are better ascer- 
 tained in the supreme courts than even amongst themselves. 
 In former times, the pleas of a personal kind between citizens 
 for debts or damages were neither many nor important. 
 Most of the suits were of the quality called real actions, 
 affecting the tenures, property, and possession of lands and 
 houses, and which were local in regard to the jurisdiction of 
 trial. But with the decline of the feudal system, the cum- 
 brous forms of litigating in real actions were gradually dis- 
 used, and new and more commodious processes were devised 
 by legal ingenuity for the adjudication of real property 
 questions, until at last the ancient methods of suing by 
 real action have altogether ceased. It would now be as 
 useless as laborious to explain in detail the variety of real 
 suit* formerly used in the hustings court, as distinguishing 
 the judicial rights of the citizens from those of common 
 feudal suitors. Those who may take the pains to inquire 
 concerning them in the meagre dissertations, ancient and 
 
 in another county in -which it is alleged these foreign pleas the court was ousted 
 
 to have taken place : as, for instance, a of its jurisdiction, as the limited court 
 
 plea of judgment recovered in the Court could not try facts of a local nature like 
 
 of King's Bench, by way of a justification those arising out of its bounds; cense 
 
 of an assault charged, and a plea of quently, they were often resorted to for 
 
 acting in the alleged assault under au- mere purposes of delay and vexation. 
 
 thority of process issuing upon that To restrain such practices the defendant 
 
 judgment and extending through a was obliged to swear to the truth of his 
 
 particular county, with a denial of any plea ; but it does not appear how early 
 
 assault t tke cotmty alleged by plaimtiff. the date of that requisition is. Another 
 
 Such foreign pleas, however, were com- method, adopted for the same purpose 
 
 mon in real actions ; as where the within the City, seems to hare been that 
 
 tenant, being sued for land in an inferior mentioned in the text ; but it must be 
 
 court, Touched a foreigner to the juris- understood to refer to such foreign pleas 
 
 diction to warrant his title ; which, in as were pleaded falsely, and merely for 
 
 case he was the vendor to the tenant, he delay. 
 
 was bound to do, at the peril of assign- ' Four times a year in the City of 
 
 ing land of equal value instead. By London, viz., in and after every term.
 
 280 
 
 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK modern, which have been produced about the obsolete writs 
 
 - r - of right patent, ex gravi querela, of dower, of gavelet, of ivaste, 
 
 &G., will be convinced that the writers did not themselves 
 
 understand their subject, and that they have succeeded only 
 
 in making- themselves incomprehensible. 
 
 With regard to personal actions, it was held by very early 
 authorities, that the exclusive jurisdiction of the City does 
 not extend to them when they are in their nature transitory ; l 
 that is, where the cause of action may be laid as arising in 
 any place, at the will of the plaintiff, as in actions of debts 
 and contracts : the maxim of law being that debt and con- 
 tract are of no place, but that the liability follows the person, 
 and raises an implied stipulation of payment, wherever the 
 debtor may be. 2 The consequence is that the Corporation 
 cannot, in such cases, itself claim to have cognisance of the 
 suit ; although, if the plaintiff alleges in the body of his de- 
 claration, or plaint, that the cause of action did actually arise 
 in London, the defendant may, in his personal right, plead 
 to the jurisdiction. 3 If, however, the defendant should so 
 plead, he must aver that he dwells within the City, or has 
 some local property therein, whereby he may be distrained to 
 appear, and to answer for the judgment recovered. 4 In 
 analogy with other similar cases in principle, it would 
 probably be held, that he must aver himself to be such a 
 citizen as is contemplated in the charters, viz., one by 
 residence. It has been likewise ruled, that the plea would 
 not be allowed, if it should by any means appear that a 
 failure of justice would follow ; 6 as in cases of personal 
 interest or prejudice. And, further, that the privilege is to 
 be considered as altogether personal to the defendant and 
 that, consequently, he may waive it, if he thinks fit, and re- 
 move his suit into the superior court. 6 An Act of Parliament 
 has also passed whereby the clause as to pleading a citizen 
 
 1 Tidd's Practice and Authorities, vol. 4 Ibid. pp. 432, 433. Tidd, vol. i. p. 
 i. p. 634. 633. 
 
 2 Chitty on Pleading, p. 373 ; and au- Ibid. Ibid. 
 
 thorities. Salk. Rep. p. 148. Lord Raymond, 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 431 ; and authorities. Rep. vol. ii. p. 836.
 
 EXEMPTION FROM SCOT. 281 
 
 out of the jurisdiction has been expunged from the freeman's CHAP. 
 
 oath; 1 and it- may be reasonably inferred, that so to plead ^ - 
 
 can no longer amount to a civic offence. 
 
 Any claims by which it is sought to deprive the superior 
 courts of their jurisdiction, are extremely disfavoured; 2 
 and the party attempting to avail himself of his privilege 
 will be found to establish it strictissimo jure. The courts 
 have with a laudable object somewhat strained the law, 
 perhaps, to establish this doctrine. But as they scrupulously 
 preserve to the citizens an exclusive jurisdiction in all 
 customary legal proceedings and in all customary rights 3 
 which are peculiar to them, it would be mere cavilling to 
 dispute upon what is clearly for their own as well as for 
 the general advantage. At the same time it may be allowed, 
 with reference to the great delays and expenses attending 
 suits in the superior courts, that a most valuable benefit 
 would be secured to the poorer citizens, by strictly confining 
 all causes of a trivial amount to the City courts ; supplied as 
 they are, and ever must be, by learned and experienced 
 judges, and by intelligent juries, as well as by an efficient 
 bar. They would thereby obtain cheap, prompt, and satis- 
 factory justice; the beneficial effects of which would be 
 experienced in establishing credit, in encouraging industry, 
 in extending the tradesman's dealings and prosperity, and in 
 repressing dishonesty and dissipation. 4 
 
 SHALL BE EXEMPT FKOM SCOT. Great uncertainty has 
 prevailed amongst the learned with respect to the precise 
 import of this word. 5 In its etymology it seems to signify a 
 rateable contribution : and it is plain that the term was 
 applied as well to taxes of a general and national quality, 
 as to those of a peculiar and limited nature. 6 In the present 
 charter it no doubt refers to taxes of the former description, 
 and in all probability to those levied by royal, or, in other 
 
 1 11 George I. cap. 18. 4 This reform has been established 
 
 2 "Willes's Rep. p. 233. Wilson's since the text was written. 
 
 Rep. rol. ii. p. 410. Burr. Rep. vol. v. * Douglas on Elections, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
 p. 5820. Tidd. vol. i. pp. 635, 638, Male on Elections, pp. 16, 204. 
 
 639. * Spelman's Gloss. Douglas on Elec- 
 
 3 Tidd, pp. 469, 470 ; and authorities. tions, vol. iii. p. 126.
 
 282 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK words, arbitrary authority, for public purposes. 1 The ancient 
 v_ r '. - Chronicles testify sufficiently the unjust and burthensome 
 effect of these levies. 2 
 
 But the contributions under the denomination of scot, to 
 which townsmen were more especially liable, were those 
 which were levied by their internal authorities, for the com- 
 mon purposes of the borough ; and the citizens were so far 
 from being able to withdraw themselves from such liability, 
 that the paying scot became, and continues to this day 
 (except where usurpations have intervened), the distinguish- 
 ing criterion of a full and complete citizen. 3 In London it 
 was a very early requisition, ' that all who pretended to 
 * enjoy the privileges of free citizens should be in scot and lot, 
 ' and participant in all burthens according to their means.' 4 
 So their oath prescribes that ' they shall be contributory to all 
 e manner of charges within the City, as summons, watches, con- 
 ' tributions, taxes, talliages, lot and scot, and all other charges.' 
 And the records are very numerous which prove that the 
 paying scot was the distinguishing characteristic of a genuine 
 and complete citizen. 5 
 
 What these ancient scot rates in cities specifically were it 
 would now be in vain to inquire : for when, in the reign of 
 James I. and in subsequent reigns, the nature of these rates 
 first began to be a question, in order to establish the common 
 law rights of voting, Parliament could not discover their 
 precise meaning. 6 Lord Glenbervie, in his valuable work 
 
 1 Spelman's Gloss. Douglas on Elec- ward III. lib. Dunthorne Rot. Parl. 11 
 tions, vol. iii. p. 126. Henry IV. vol. iii. p. 646. Bos. & 
 
 2 Ibid. ' Omne injustum Scottum in- Pul. Rep. vol. i. p. 498, as to what citi- 
 terdixit' (scil. William II.). zens are exempt from tolls, lib. K. fol. 
 
 8 Mad. Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 422, in 125, and vide ibid. fol. 64. Jorn. Stock- 
 notes : and vide Heywood, Male. Doug. ton, fol. 14. lib. M. fol. 175. lib. Q. 
 on Elections, Index, ' Scot.' The usur- fol. 138. "Waller's cases quoted in Bos. 
 pations alluded to are those of Corpora- & Pul. vol. i. p. 498. Vide also Lord 
 tion claims derived from parliamentary Hale's ' Preparatory Notes touching 
 decisions and statutes; and vide Book Rights of the Crown ;' and many records 
 I. Ch. XII. to the same effectin Town Clerk's Office, 
 
 4 Articles of Edward II. Rec. Tow. as per indices, ' Scot ;' and vide Book L 
 
 Pat. 12 Edward II. p. 2, M. 2. Ch. I. 
 
 s Harg. MSS. No. 159, p. 99. Rec. Douglas on Elections, vol. iii. p. 
 
 of Reign Edward III. lib. G. fol. 173. 126. 
 Lib. Alb. fol. 200, 224. Rec. of 39 Ed-
 
 EXEMPTION FROM SCOT, DANEGELD, AXD MURDER. 283 
 
 on Elections, 1 states it as his opinion that no such specific CHAP. 
 
 rate existed ; bnt that the scot meant all sorts of contributions , . 
 
 to which citizens were liable.* And it has been long settled 
 in parliamentary committees on contested elections, that 
 paying the poor rate, thongh that tax originated so late as 
 the reign of Elizabeth, came within the meaning of paying 
 scot ; 3 and not only so, but that it was the criterion of the 
 scot-man. This decision can only be accounted for from the 
 circumstance of all other rates having become obsolete, or 
 from this tax being, in fact, the chief local one paid in the 
 district. In the City of London many other local or scot 
 taxes still continue to be paid ; in reference to which, the 
 statute of 11 George I. cap. 18, s. 9, in enacting who, as paring 
 scot> shall be entitled to vote as a corporate elector, declares 
 the scot to be ' rates to the church, to the poor, to the 
 
 * scavenger, to the orphans, to the rates in lieu of watch and 
 'ward, and to such other annual rates as the citizens of 
 
 * London, inhabiting therein, shall hereafter be liable unto, 
 
 * other than and except annual aids granted by Parlia- 
 'ment.' 
 
 DAXEGELD. This was a well-known tax, originating in the 
 demand of a national contribution for the purpose of expelling 
 and resisting the continual invasions of the Danes. 4 It con- 
 tinued long after the occasion for which it was created had 
 ceased, and became a kind of regular revenue, so common as 
 to pass by the general name of geld ; nor was it, in feet, 
 abolished until the reign of Henry LL 5 It was levied from 
 lands and tenements, being fixed at a proportion of so much 
 per hide. 6 
 
 MURDER. This was likewise, in effect, a tax, and a general 
 and very burthensome one. 7 By the ancient Saxon laws, all 
 who were in frankpledge were sureties for each other's good 
 behaviour ; and were bound to produce every malefactor, or 
 
 1 Douglas on Elections. voL iiL p. DiaL Scac. lib. 1. s. 11. 
 
 126. * Madox's Hist. F.wh roL L p. 685 
 
 * So, Scviak, Romexof, &c. were con- et teq. Spelm. Gloss. ' Geldum.' 
 tributioas of the same genus. * A hide of land contained, it is 
 
 * Heywood on Elections, p. 184. thought, 100 acres. Spelm. Gloss. 
 Hale, p. 204. Doug. TO! iii. p. 129. Madox's Hist Exch. voL i. p. 543.
 
 284 OP THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK pay his were, as a compensation to the person wronged. 1 By 
 
 . T ' many other Saxon ordinances, districts were also compelled 
 
 to pay a fine for the escape of malefactors, 2 and particularly 
 murderers ; and the mulct so paid by them was termed the 
 murder. According to Gervase of Tilbury, 3 the assassination 
 of the Normans immediately after the Conquest, occasioned 
 by the violent hatred which the Anglo-Saxons bore towards 
 them, was very frequent. To remedy this, the Conqueror 
 levied from the hundred in which such assassinations took 
 place, a fine, according to the circumstances, in case the 
 malefactor was not produced. This custom soon became a 
 general law, applicable to all the king's subjects, except the 
 villeins or slaves. This ancient author is, however, mistaken 
 if he means to suggest, which appears to be the case, that 
 this fine first originated with the Normans, although it is 
 probable that they carried the ancient laws in this respect 
 more systematically into effect. 
 
 Whatever may have been the real origin of this fine, as 
 levied by the Normans, it became a regular source of revenue, 
 and was accounted for at the king's exchequer with the other 
 fruits of the criminal courts. 4 These fines were extremely 
 numerous, 8 and in all probability the source of injustice and 
 oppression. At all events, they must have been a real hard- 
 ship upon populous and prosperous towns, where the offenders 
 were often strangers, and had so many facilities of escape. 
 It became, accordingly, a common privilege in towns to be 
 exempt from this penalty. 6 
 
 THAT THEY SHALL NOT WAGE BATTLE. 7 Of the trial by 
 combat, or judicial duel, the learned Selden has treated at 
 large in an express treatise on the subject. 8 The Lombards, 
 who are said originally to have migrated from Scandinavia, 
 first introduced this mode of trial into Italy, from whence it 
 spread throughout most parts of Europe. It was introduced 
 into England by the Normans, and it was resorted to both 
 
 1 Lambard, Archaion, LL. Edward. et seq. 
 The were was the estimated price of a * Ibid, 
 man, to be paid as a mulct or com- ' Ibid, 
 pensation. * Vide supra, p. 20. 
 
 2 Ibid. ' The Duello,' from which the fol- 
 8 Dial. Scac. lib. 1. s. 10. lowing account is extracted. 
 
 4 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 539
 
 EXEMPTION FKOM TKIAL BY BATTLE. 285 
 
 in criminal and civil suits. In the former, if anyone charged CHAP. 
 
 another with any treason, or if the party injured, or his rela- s_ ,J _^ 
 
 tions, charged another with murder, felony, or other capital 
 offence, he was said to appeal him, and was termed an 
 appellant ; and the party charged was at liberty either to put 
 himself upon his country for trial, or to defend himself by his 
 body. If the defendant chose the latter mode of defence, the 
 appellant was bound to meet him on an appointed day, in 
 marshalled lists ; and the parties fought armed with sticks 
 shod with horn. The party vanquished was adjudged to 
 death, either as a false accuser, or as guilty of the charge. If 
 the defendant could maintain his ground until the stars 
 appeared, the appellant was deemed vanquished : if the 
 defendant called for quarter, or was slain, judgment of death 
 was equally passed upon him. In civil suits, the judicial 
 combat took place in real actions only, wherein the mere 
 right to land was sought to be established ; and was con- 
 ducted on somewhat different principles. For the parties, 
 demandant and tenant, as they were called, substituted their 
 champions to fight for them who fought with plain sticks ; 
 and the party vanquished was adjudged to perpetual infamy, 
 not doomed to death. 
 
 It does not appear that these trials were, in fact, of fre- 
 quent occurrence, 1 although there are several instances of 
 them reported with much particularity in the Year Books. 
 Ridiculous and barbarous as they were, they were not totally 
 abolished until the Act of 59 George 111. cap. 46, which re- 
 pealed both appeals and trials by battle, and which passed 
 in consequence of a memorable attempt to appeal a man of a 
 murder of which he had been previously acquitted by jury.* 
 
 MAT PTJEGE HIMSELF BY OATH IN PLEAS OP THE CBOWN 
 THAT IS, IN LEGAL LANGUAGE, BY WAGER OP LAW. 3 The 
 
 trial by purgation on oath was of a very ancient origin, and 
 was very common throughout Europe, being expressly 
 established by the ancient laws of various nations. 4 In 
 England we find it distinctly recognised by the laws of 
 
 1 The Duello. Vide tupra, p. 264-5. 
 
 * Case of Ashford and Thornton : * Vide Spelm. Gloss. ' Jurata.' 
 
 Barn. & Aid. Rep. vol. i. p. 405.
 
 286 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK Ina. 1 The manner of this purgation was for the accused to 
 
 . ^ present himself, with certain others called his compurgators, 
 
 before the court ; in which the former, on oath, denied his 
 guilt, and the latter swore they believed in his innocence. 2 
 
 None, however, but those who were free and law-worthy 
 were admitted to this purgation. 3 The number of compurga- 
 tors varied according to the quality, or rather wealth, of the 
 accused party ; 4 for it was a maxim, that the richer the 
 person, the more credit was to be given to his oath : 5 the 
 usual number, however, was twelve. 6 
 
 From this rude semblance of a judicial trial, it has been 
 aptly conjectured, the trial by jury was derived. 7 For, in 
 fact, it is only the appointment of compurgators by the sheriff, 
 instead of their being produced by the party, who are to 
 deliver a verdict upon oath, according to the testimony of 
 others, instead of by the oath of the party ; 8 a reformation 
 which the obvious inducements to perjury in purgation trials 
 would naturally suggest. 
 
 Under whatever modifications the trial by jury might pre- 
 vail among the Anglo-Saxons and under the first Norman 
 kings, it seems clear that this mode of judicial investigation 
 was not generally adopted on its present established prin- 
 ciples until the time of Henry II. 9 Before that period trials 
 by battle, by various ordeals, and by wager of law, were the 
 most frequent : and the latter appears in some cases to have 
 been a matter of indulgence ; for we find, so late as the reign 
 of Stephen, a record of a fine paid to the king by an indivi- 
 dual for liberty to purge himself from a criminal charge by 
 oath, instead of by judgment of the hot iron. 10 It is probable, 
 
 1 Lamb. Archaion. LL. Inse. fol. 11. It appears from an ancient tract, in 
 
 2 Ibid. Remm et Verbor. Explic. Latin, entered in the Liber Albus, ex- 
 voce 'Vades.' Spelm. Gloss. ' Jurata,' plaining how the citizens were to demean 
 ' Lex.' themselves at the eyre held by the king's 
 
 8 Lamb. Arch. ibid. justices at the Tower, that down to the 
 
 4 Ibid, etfol. 11, 42. Spelm. Gloss. reign of Edward I. (if not later) the 
 
 ' Jurata,' ' Lex.' citizens, when presented individually 
 
 * Lamb. Arch. Rer. et Verb. Explic. before the court for any crimes commit- 
 
 Toce ' Vades.' ted, always purged themselves by their 
 
 6 Ibid, et Spelm. Gloss. 'Jurata.' jury of compurgators, varying in num- 
 
 T Ibid, videsupra, p. 36, note; 265, note. ber according to the quality of the crime 
 
 8 Ibid. charged the highest number being 36. 
 
 9 Glanville, lib. 2, cap. vii. et ibid. 10 Mad. Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 497.
 
 KING'S HOUSEHOLD TOLL, PASSAGE, LESTAGE. 287 
 
 therefore, that this ancient customary privilege, granted, or CHAP, 
 rather confirmed, to the citizens by the present charter, was an _ ^ 
 object of no small consequence. It is singular that defendants 
 in actions of debts, detinne, and account, are still at liberty, 
 both in the City and in the supreme courts, to wage their 
 law ; though, as these actions are almost entirely superseded 
 by others of more convenient nature, tbia kind of defence 
 has fallen into disuse. 
 
 SHALL NOT BE COMPELLABLE TO EECEITE THE ME^EEES OF 
 THE KIXG'S HOUSEHOLD, OB OTHEBS, LSTO LODGIXGS AS 
 GUESTS.' So in several other charters it is expressed that 
 ' none shall take lodgings within the City by force, or by 
 
 * delivery of the marshal.' The king's marshal was a great 
 officer of state, one of whose duties was to provide lodgings for 
 the king's household on his journeys. 8 In early times the 
 king was constantly attended by an enormous retinue, for 
 whom, in his various progresses, he was unable to provide by 
 any establishments of his own. The accommodation of him- 
 self and his household was accomplished by the system of 
 purveyance which has elsewhere been alluded to. 3 The 
 marshal presided over a court, denominated f The marshal sea 
 
 * court of the king's household,' in which all discussions 
 appertaining to these matters were decided. 4 The abuses to 
 which this system of providing for the royal necessities gave 
 rise, became a continual topic of complaint from the people 
 for several reigns. 5 
 
 TOLL, PASSAGE, AJTD LESTAGE. Toll is the generic term, of 
 Gothic derivation, 6 for every species of tribute levied upon the 
 transit of commodities or persons throughout the realm. 
 That of passage was for passing over ferries. 7 That of lestage 
 was a custom, of variable amount, levied to the king's use, 
 upon every last of leather exported. 8 In ancient times these 
 tolls were very numerous : such as, toll thorough, toll traverse, 
 
 1 Vide pp. 108, 355, and in notes. causes. 
 
 * Spelm. Gloss. ' Mareschallus.' Mad. * Coke's 2nd. Inst. pp. 33, 170, 542. 
 Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 48. And. Hist. Com. TO!, i. pp. 256, 364. 
 
 * Tide supra, p. 108. Lye's Saxon Dictionary. 
 
 * Coke's 3rd Inst, pp. 132, 165. A T Co. Kep. part vii5. Webb's Case, 
 particular Court was afterwards estab- Mad. Hist. Eich. vol. i. p. 783. 
 lished by stat. 36 Edward in. for these
 
 288 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK tolls for markets, those of passage and lestage, stallage, pick- 
 
 f ! . age, wharfage, pavage, tronage, cranage, package, murage, &c. 
 
 &c., many of which, still remain in market towns. They are all 
 payable on the principle of some consideration, expressed or 
 implied, such as the establishing and maintaining a market, a 
 wharf, a beam (trone or scale) for weighing, erection of stalls, 
 walls, &C. 1 With regard to toll thorough and toll traverse, some 
 consideration must be expressly shown ; such as, in the former 
 case, repair of the street or highway over which the people 
 pass, and in the latter, that the land was originally private 
 property. 2 Most of these tolls were collected in the king's 
 towns and demesnes, ports and markets. 3 To many cities 
 and towns, however, as well as to individual lords, the king 
 granted the right of collecting toll ; and such a grant is 
 always implied to such as claim them from prescriptive usage. 
 The privilege of exemption from toll was occasionally granted 
 to particular individuals, 4 and in some few instances to whole 
 cities. But it is said that such grant of exemption extends 
 only to tolls taken on the king's property, 5 and not to tolls 
 granted to others; though an exemption throughout all 
 England, as conferred in the present instance, would no doubt 
 be valid by a charter in parliament. It has, however, been 
 finally settled, after much discussion, that such a privilege 
 cannot be claimed by or on behalf of non-resident citizens ; 6 
 nor can it be claimed against any tolls created by statute for 
 new purposes, such as turnpike tolls. The effect of this pri- 
 vilege of exemption was unquestionably of important value in 
 a commercial point of view ; for the abuses in collecting tolls 
 had become so notorious and oppressive in the time of 
 Edward I., that they were expressly restrained under the 
 severest penalties by statute. 7 
 
 1 Co. Eep. part viii. Webb's Case. * Vide supra, pp. 65, 66 in note. 
 Term Rep. vol. iv. p. 520. Ibid. vol. i. 4 Hist. Excn. vol. ii. p. 19. 
 
 p. 660. Cowp. Rep. p. 48. The reason * Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 221. 
 
 of weighing seems to have been to secure * Mayor of London v. Liverpool, 
 
 the king's and other customs (Madox's quoted in notes to Mayor of London v. 
 
 Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. xviii.) as well as Lynn Regis. Bos. & Pul. Rep. vol. i. 
 for securing just dealing between mer- 7 Stat. West. Prim. cap. 31. Coke's 
 
 chant and merchant. 2nd Inst. p. 219. 
 
 2 Comyn's Dig. ' Toll.'
 
 BABONS AXD CITIZEN'S TO HAVE THEIR SOCS. 289 
 
 THE CHUBCH, BABON S, AND CITIZENS TO HAVE THEIR SOCS IN CHAP. 
 PEACE GUESTS TO PAY CUSTOM ONLY TO THE OWNEK OF THE >., / _*> 
 
 soc. The subject of this clause of the charter has already 
 been fully discussed. 1 The soc or soke was that district in 
 the demesne of the lord over which he possessed judicial 
 authority, both criminal and civil. 2 And in boroughs and 
 cities, those departments over which the citizens or their dele- 
 gated magistrates exercised the same functions, received the 
 same denomination. Thus the districts under the government 
 of aldermen were termed socs or sokes ; gilds were another, 
 and perhaps the more ancient title of them ; and both these 
 denominations afterwards gave way to that of ward. The 
 soc was, in fact, the modern manor, 3 in which the court leet 
 was held; and we find the wardmote y which is a City court leet 
 to all intents and purposes, 4 now held at stated periods by 
 the aldermen; though most of the numerous subjects of 
 criminal enquiry in this court have, in the progress of time, 
 been transferred to the judicial control of other tribunals. 
 
 Of the dominion of the lord over his soke, and of the profits 
 and services exacted from the tenants living within it, 
 according to their quality of tenure, we have before treated. 5 
 It remains merely to add a few observations with regard to 
 the customs here spoken of, as payable to the owner of the 
 City soke. 
 
 In country sokes, it is probable that the lords or their 
 officers did not interfere much, if at all, in regulating 
 the reception or lodging of strangers. They came in most 
 instances for purposes of traffic ; and could hardly appear in 
 the soke without incurring some toll or duty payable to the 
 lord, who was satisfied with the receipt of his customs, and 
 the knowledge of the quality and objects of the parties paying 
 them. But in populous cities it was more necessary to observe 
 restrictive roles, with regard to the reception of strangers. 
 They were liable to become the continual and convenient 
 
 Vide supra, Book I. Ch. vi. Spelm. Gloss. 
 
 * Lye's Saxon Diet. Heywood's Dis- 4 Vide the exact corresponding arti- 
 
 sert. p. 145. Vide also pp. 358, 359, cles of Leet inquiry. Strype's Stow, book 
 
 notf 1. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. v. p. 313. 
 724, 725. Spelm. Gloss. * Book I. Ch. vi.
 
 290 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON'. 
 
 BOOK refuge, not only of runaway slaves and malefactors 1 of all 
 
 s ^ kinds, but also for those who, in these times, were regarded 
 
 with even still greater hatred and jealousy the foreign 
 traders, 2 whether aliens or denizens ; who, migrating from 
 various manufacturing districts, had become, by superior 
 industry, talent, or education, more than able to compete with 
 the regular scot-and-lot men of the boroughs into which they 
 intruded, and at the same time contrived to avoid any partici- 
 pation in the civic burthens required for the public welfare. 
 For the purpose of detecting and repressing such offenders, 
 it was provided, that the names and occupations of every 
 individual within the soke should be noted by the constable : 3 
 every host was to give notice within three days of the guests 
 staying with him ; 4 the guests were to appear before the 
 aldermen for their sanction to such residence ; 5 they were 
 required also to give sureties for their good behaviour, 6 and 
 to put themselves in frankpledge. 7 It was likewise a custom, 
 and apparently a very ancient one, for the aldermen or 
 magistrates to assign lodgings for all newcomers ; 8 and this 
 custom seems to have been prevalent throughout all the 
 towns in England, with reference to merchant strangers, as 
 late at least as the reign of Henry YIT. 9 
 
 It is reasonable fco infer and, indeed, it may be in some 
 degree substantiated, as well by the present charter as by 
 other authorities that strangers paid to the lords of the civic 
 soke not only the tolls and duties levied on their traffic, but 
 likewise other customs, in consideration of liberty to reside 
 within the soke, and of the lodgings assigned to them; 
 although it is perhaps impossible at this period to specify 
 
 [V 
 
 1 Articles of Edward I. Lib. Home, s Ibid. p. 36o, quoting Articles of 
 
 fol. 272. Strype's Stow, book v. p. 365. Edward I. Lib. Home, fol. 272. 
 
 Vide also Letter of Edward II. to the Articles of Wardmote Inquest. 
 
 mayor, quoted by Stow, book v. p. 314. Strype's Stow, book v. p. 313. 
 
 8 Ibid, and ch. xix. and xx. passim. * Ibid. 
 
 And numerous records quoted in Nor- 8 Vide supra, p. 120 and notes; and 
 
 ton's Exposition of Laws relative to authorities referred to. And. Hist. Com. 
 
 Wholesale Dealers in the City ; long ago passim. 
 
 out of print, 9 Stats. 5 Henry IV. cap. 9; 4 Henry 
 
 3 Articles of Wardmote Inquest, V. cap. 5; 18 Henry VI. cap. 4: 17 
 
 Strype's Stow, book v. p. 313. Edward IV. cap. 1 ; and 3 Henry VII. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 cap.
 
 BARONS AND CITIZENS TO HAVE THEIR SOCS. 291 
 
 what these particular payments were. 1 We may collect CHAP, 
 also from the same sources, that the jurisdiction exercised ._ / . 
 by the City magistrates was often encroached upon and dis- 
 turbed by the intrusion of the royal prerogative. 8 
 
 The charter alludes to sokes belonging to the church and 
 to barons. In fact, several of the City sokes belonged at 
 this period to religious establishments ; of which the ward of 
 Portsoken and the soke of Aldgate, which belonged to the 
 priory of Holy Trinity, 3 and the liberty of St. Martin 's-le- 
 Grand, which appertains to this day to the abbey of West- 
 minster, are instances. By the barons are meant the alder- 
 men, who were so styled in virtue of their ward or leet 
 jurisdictions, when such jurisdictions were expressly alluded 
 to, although they never permanently changed their ancient 
 title of aldermen. 
 
 The system of national police, exercised through the me- 
 dium of frankpledge and the soke court, has, in the lapse of 
 many ages, entirely disappeared. The practice of providing 
 lodgings for strangers, and of deriving customs for their 
 liberty of residence and traffic, has, with that system, long 
 since ceased also. Payments of this description were, upon 
 the establishment of a Corporation in the City of London, 
 transferred from the ward to the Corporation fund ; and many 
 compositions, paid on the credit of such customary duties to 
 the Corporation, may be still traced in their early records. 4 
 But in the progress of civilisation great changes have gradu- 
 ally appeared, both in the quality of our commerce and in 
 the arrangements of mercantile intercourse. The ancient 
 jealousies against foreigners have given way to more liberal 
 policy ; they have long had full and free liberty of residence 
 for their commercial pursuits, and the City has become the 
 
 1 Northouck's Hist, of London, p. * Strype's Stow, book v. p. 394,quot- 
 
 59. Rymer's Feed. vol. v. p. 105. And. ing from Lib. Home, fol. 230. And vide 
 
 Hist. Com. vol. i. pp. 291, 502, et passim. supra, under the heads of this charter, 
 
 Maitl. Hist. vol. i. pp. 83, 184. From referring to the exclusive jurisdiction of 
 
 which it appears that many payments the City in civil and criminal suits, 
 were made to the City by foreign mer- s Vide supra, pp. 25. 35 ; and Strjpe** 
 
 chants for liberty to reside and trade ; Stow, vol. i. ' Aldgate Ward.' 
 and that all non-freemen, whether aliens 4 Vide authorities quoted in note 1 
 
 or denizens, were, and still are, equally supra. 
 termed foreigners.
 
 292 OF THE CHARTERS OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK greatest emporium of the whole world. The Corporation 
 
 , v .' , gradually resigned these customs, which they had derived 
 
 from the aldermen's sokes; and so completely have these 
 claims become antiquated, that the precise quality of them 
 can no longer be specified, and it would now be impossible 
 to revive them. 
 
 NOT TO BE AMERCED OR MULCTED BEYOND THEIR WERES.- 
 
 It has been before observed, 1 that all crimes, of whatever 
 magnitude, were in the Saxon period to be expiated by pe3u- 
 niary compensation ; and in default of payment, only, the 
 punishment of death was awarded. The estimated price at 
 which wrongs, such as robbery or murder, were computed, 
 by way of compensation to the party injured, or to his rela- 
 tives in case of his murder, was denominated the party's were 
 or weregild 1 in other words, the price of his head : and this 
 were varied according to the rank of the criminal. The price 
 fixed by this charter of one hundred shillings seems very 
 moderate ; for it was something less than that of a ceorl, who 
 was of the inferior order of husbandmen ; and it was probably 
 deemed a privilege for a citizen to have his were estimated 
 at this low sum, as the admeasurement of the extent at 
 which he should be liable to amerciament in courts of justice. 
 The amerciament was the pecuniary penalty imposed for 
 offences, and also for those kinds of inferior delinquencies of 
 which the courts of record took summary cognisance, consi- 
 dering them in the light of contempts of court such as, 
 making false complaints, defaults, non-appearances in the 
 progress of suits, neglect of duties by ministerial officers, 3 &c. 
 The term has long given way to that of fine, except as 
 applied to defaults in civil suits ; though the fines originally 
 signified the stipulated sum agreed to be paid to the king for 
 ending, or settling by his interference, subjects of litigation, 
 both criminal and civil. 4 It was no 'uncommon thing to pay 
 afine for the remission of an amerciament. 6 When the party 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 37, and notes pp. * Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. 
 283, 351 et seq. xi., xii., xiii. and record, vol. ii. pp. 293, 
 
 2 Vide supra, p. 261, note 4, and 291, in which accounts are- given ' tam 
 authorities quoted. fofinibus quam de amerciament is.' 
 
 3 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. xiv. * Ibid. vol. i. p. 527 et seq. 
 Black. Com. vol. iv. p. 397.
 
 NOT TO BE AMERCED BEYOND THEIR WE RES. 293 
 
 delinquent was subjected to amerciament, he was said to be CHAP. 
 amerce or amerche (in the original Latin,, amerciatus, and s_ ,J . 
 sometimes adm&nsuratus), 1 which term was in process of time 
 confounded with the term in mercy (latinized in misericordia}, 
 though the misericordia, or being in mercy, was altogether a 
 distinct thing. 2 The true derivation of the word amercia- 
 ment seems to be from merces^ and not from misericordia (the 
 application of which appears peculiarly inappropriate to a 
 mulct actually levied) ; and its genuine signification is, some 
 mulct admeasured, 3 or, as the expression was, affeered against 
 the party, which it always was ; and ought to have been so in 
 all cases, except where the court amerced as for a contempt, 
 upon oath of the freeman doing service at the court, though 
 often, in fact, affeered by the king's justices, commissioners, 
 and others. 4 
 
 The charter adds, by way of explanation to this clause, ' I 
 * speak of pleas appertaining to money.' But it is to be 
 understood that although plea, in its primitive sense, meant 
 a suit or action (pleoh, Sax.), yet it was in very early times 
 used to signify the pecuniary mulct arising out of pleas of all 
 sorts. 5 In fact, it signified precisely the same as amercia- 
 ment, and so is to be taken here, and does mot merely refer 
 to pleas of personal actions. 
 
 The system of punishment by pecuniary amerciament 
 began after the Norman Conquest gradually to grow into 
 disuse, with reference to the more atrocious offences ; but in 
 regard to all those for which they continued to be imposed, 
 and particularly to what may be called civil delinquencies, 
 they were made the means of great oppression and abuse.** 
 It was accordingly provided by Magna Charta, upon the 
 same principle which suggested the clause now under dis- 
 cussion, that no man should be amerced but according to his 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 526, 65, 66. 
 
 527. * Dial. Scac. lib. ii. cap. 12. ' Placita 
 
 2 Ibid. Individuals were often said au tem dicimus pcenas pecuniarias in 
 to be in mercy, and to be subject to a qnas incidunt delinquentes.' Madox s 
 misericordia, which misericordia was Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 210. 
 afterwards aiiurccd, and so became an e Madox's Hist. Exch. particularly the 
 amerciament. chapters on Fines and Amerciaments ; 
 
 3 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 526, 527. and supra, p. 102 et seq. 
 
 4 Ibid. vol. i. p. 61 ; and vol. ii. pp.
 
 294 OF THE CHAKTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK offence, and not so as to deprive him of his land or of his stock 
 v._ , ' _.. in husbandry or trade. 1 
 
 By another clause in Magna Charta, 2 all offences, except 
 those of common nuisances, 3 over which the leets still re- 
 tained jurisdiction, were remitted to trial before the king's 
 judges, instead of the sheriffs and lords of courts leet ; and 
 the affeerment of amerciaments in those courts almost en- 
 tirely ceased. Amerciaments were reduced by subsequent 
 provisions to 100L for an earl, 100 marks for a baron ; and, 
 lastly, to 10Z. for a duke, and 5Z. for an earl. 4 We may trace 
 by records that, by the time of Edward I., the term fine was 
 used to signify the pecuniary penalty imposed by the king's 
 judges, instead of by the affeerment of the jury, for the pun- 
 ishment of particular crimes passing under the denomi- 
 nation of misdemeanours ; 5 and it is said by Coke, with regard 
 to such newly-introduced mode of punishment by judicial 
 sentence, that the law of amerciaments does not apply. 
 These impositions, however, lingered some time longer, as 
 penalties imposed in courts leet for nuisances, and for de- 
 faults, &c. in the superior civil courts; but they have now 
 become merely nominal, and the practice of levying them has 
 long ceased. 
 
 MlSKENNlNGS TO BE NO LONGER SUFFERED IN THE HUSTINGS 
 
 OR FOLKMOTE. MisJcenning is a very ancient word, of rare 
 occurrence, and now totally obsolete. It seems to have been 
 derived from ken (Sax.), which is a term precisely synonymous 
 with con (Sax.), to know, to commit to memory.' From con ap- 
 pears to spring the French word conte, a narration or account ; 
 and it is certain that from this word is derived our expression 
 count, as applied to pleadings and indictments; 8 those who 
 pleaded professionally at the bar of the superior courts were, 
 in early times, denominated countors and serjeant countors. 9 
 Miskenning, therefore, appears to have the same signification 
 
 1 Cap. 14: and Coke's 2nd Inst. p. pp. 65, 66. 
 
 27 ct scq. s Coke's 2nd lust. p. 27. 
 
 2 Cap. 17. ' Lye's Sax. Diet, 
 
 3 Bro. ' Leet,' 26. Dyer, p. 234. Fitzh. 8 Doct. Plac. 83 ; Coke Litt. 17. a. 
 
 ' Torn,' 1.4. Mirror des Just. lib. 2. Cap. ' des 
 
 < Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 27 ct scq. loiere ' ; Coke's 2nd Inst. pp. 213, 214. 
 
 4 Madox's Hist. Exchequer, vol. ii.
 
 MISKENNINGS IN T PLEADINGS PROHIBITED. 295 
 
 as miscounting, and it has always been taken in the sensa of CHAP. 
 
 false or mispleading. 1 - ,_ - 
 
 Anciently, all pleadings, both civil and criminal, were de- 
 livered, ore tenus, at the bar of the court, and taken down by 
 clerks, who at more convenient leisure reduced them into a 
 formal record. 2 This was a practice well suited to the sim- 
 plicity of the times. 3 It is obvious, however, that by such a, 
 course, an unlimited, and in many cases a most pernicious, 
 power might be assumed by the court which made up the 
 records ; and that the litigant parties were always reduced, 
 not only to depend altogether on the court's integrity, 4 but 
 also on the impartiality, accuracy, and skill of its officers. 
 The skill and correctness of the officers became more heavily 
 taxed as the law became a professional and scientific pursuit ; 
 and it is well known that the Normans imported with them 
 into England a considerable proficiency in jurisprudence, and 
 a mischievous dexterity in special pleadings, by which the 
 rights of suitors were often made to depend on the ingenuity 
 of the cow ntors, rather than on the real merits of the case. 5 
 A practice, therefore, soon arose of granting to the suitors, 
 under the name of an imparlance, time to consider of the 
 nature and purport of the opposite party's pleading, and of the 
 form to be adopted in reply. This concession naturally led, 
 as the art of writing grew more and more diffused, to the 
 filing complete pleadings, written out by the party's own 
 legal advisers, instead of by oral delivery at the bar of the 
 court ; and, finally, to the service of copies to the respective 
 litigants ; 6 though it is remarkable that, in the City courts of 
 London, the service of copies is dispensed with, and the parties 
 are 'required to search at the record office, at the expiration 
 of the time limited for filing the several pleadings. 
 
 The practice of reducing the pleadings to writing by the 
 
 1 So in the charterof 26th Her. (52nd * That the integrity of the judges was 
 
 Henry III.) Miskenning is explained often sacrificed for private and sinister 
 
 as meaning ' not having declared well.' purposes in these early times, may be 
 
 * Black. Com. vol. iii. p. 293. Com. plainly seen in Britton, Proem 2, 3. 
 Dig. 'Pleader,' a. * Coke's 2ndlnst. p. 213. Stat. West. 
 
 * This course is pursued in India, in prim. cap. 29. Stat. Gloster. cap. 11. 
 the Adawluts, or Native Courts, super- Stat. West. seen. cap. 36. 
 
 intended by British judges. Black. Com. voL iii. p. 293.
 
 296 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK pleaders themselves, may certainly have relieved the suitors 
 . IL _. from those evils which resulted from the errors and corruptions 
 prevalent in the court itself; but, at the same time, by introduc- 
 ing a much wider scope for the refined chicanery of the law- 
 yers, it probably tended, on the whole, to pervert in a greater 
 degree the administration of justice. One of the most common 
 subtleties was, to plead some matter which, although apparent- 
 ly a valid answer, did in truth involve some fact immaterial 
 to the real question, in order to ensnare the opposite party 
 into joining issue upon some irrelevant subject. 1 The conse- 
 quence of this was an award of a repleader, and of course a 
 harassing delay and expense. But this abuse was of trifling 
 importance when compared with those arising from false and 
 foreign pleas ; a great* number of which are noticed with 
 indignation by Lord Coke, as defrauding the people of their 
 property, and as scandalizing the legal proceedings, before the 
 age of Edward I., and particularly those which prevailed in 
 the London courts. 2 
 
 The prohibition contained in the present charter is of a 
 general character, and seems to suggest no other coercion 
 than that which might spring from the authority of the courts 
 themselves, exercised by fine and amerciameiit, or by penal 
 regulations. By the time of Edward I. these grievances had 
 arrived at such a height, that several severe statutes were 
 passed for the express purpose of repressing them. 3 In 
 furtherance of this object, the pleaders, on their admission to 
 practice in the City courts, were required to swear < that they 
 ' would change no quarrel out of its nature, according to their 
 ' understanding ; and that they would neither plead, nor suffer 
 ' to be pleaded, any foreign matter, to put the courts out of 
 ' its jurisdiction ; nor any other matter but such as they might 
 'find rightful and true by the information of their clients, whose 
 
 * information upon their oath and conscience they should be- 
 
 * lieve to be true ; and that they would neither inform nor in- 
 ' force any man to sue falsely against any person by a false or 
 ' forged action.' And so late as the reign of Elizabeth, ' for 
 
 1 Black. Com. vol. iii. pp. 294, 395. West. secu. cap. 36. Vide supra, p. 278, 
 
 2 Coke's 2nd Inst. Stat. West. prim. note 6. 
 
 cap. 29; Stat. Gloster, cap. 11 ; Stat. 3 Stat. Marlebridge, cap. 11.
 
 MISKEXXIXGS IX PLEADINGS PROHIBITED. 297 
 
 ' the purpose/ as it is declared, ' of avoiding foreign and 
 ' dilatory pleas/ it was ordained by the conrt of aldermen, 
 * that no special pleas should be received, unless signed by a 
 ' common pleader.' 1 As the administration of justice improved, 
 special pleading grew more and more discountenanced ; and 
 many matters of defence were allowed to be given in evidence 
 by the courts, without being specially pleaded, and many more 
 by particular statutes ; while in the meantime all formal and 
 clerical errors were cured by various other statutes.* It is 
 often made a subject of reproach against the English law, at 
 this day, that the refinement and prolixity of the pleadings 
 serve very much to delay and enhance the price of justice. 
 It will be found, however, upon a more intimat? acquaintance 
 with that branch of the law, that although many unnecessary 
 forms are still suffered to remain, the system of judicial 
 pleadings, as established on its present principles, is, on the 
 whole, admirably calculated to secure correctness of decision 
 upon the rights of the suitors. 
 
 By the Hustings and the Folkmote we are to understand 
 all the judicial courts in London. The former court has been 
 already slightly alluded to: 3 it was and still is the highest 
 civil court in London, in which were held all pleas which con- 
 cerned lands or real property, which pleas were the chief sub- 
 jects of litigation in early times. The ancient and tedious 
 modes for suing in what were termed real actions has long been 
 disused, in favour of the more expeditious course by personal 
 actions : but though the jurisdiction still subsists in law, the 
 legal practice in the husting court has nearly expired ; except 
 that wills are sometimes, by custom, proved jja this court, fines 
 levied, and recoveries suffered, for the sake of cheapness and 
 facility. The Folkmote or Assembly (literally, Consultation 
 of the People) was the general name for all kinds of courts, 
 judicial and otherwise ; and was applied in common to the 
 husting court, the general or common assembly of citizens, 
 the county courts, the leets, and the wardmotes. 4 
 
 ! Lib. Y. foL 192, City Records, To\rn 4 Coke's 2nd Inst. pp. 69, "0. 4th Inst. 
 
 Clerk's office. cap. 50 ; Bohun's Pririlegia Loudini. p. 
 
 - The Statutes of Jeofails. 239; Freeman's Comp. p. 37; City 
 
 Vide supra, p. 38. Liberties, p. 58 ; Emerson on City
 
 298 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK THAT IF TOLL BE TAKEN or ANT CITIZEN IN ANY BOROUGH, 
 
 -_-J THAT CITIZEN SHALL TAKE AS MUCH FROM SUCH BOROUGH AS 
 
 WILL COMPENSATE THE DAMAGE RECEIVED; AND THAT THE 
 CITIZEN SHALL TAKE THE GOODS OP ANT DEBTOR, WHO WILL 
 NOT PAT OR DISPROVE HIS DEBT, WHICH MAT BE IN THE 
 CITT, OR IN THE COUNTT WHERE SUCH DEBTOR LIVES. Both 
 
 these clauses must be construed to refer to the seizure of goods 
 by process of law. With regard to the seizure of goods within 
 a borough for illegal toll there taken, it must be understood 
 that, both before and after the incorporation of towns, the 
 property of the inhabitants sometimes that of particular in- 
 dividuals who answered for the rest, and sometimes that of 
 all or any of the inhabitants indiscriminately was liable to 
 the king or superior lord for the common debt, such as the 
 farm or talliage of the town. 1 The illegal taking of toll in the 
 name of the lord of the borough, or in right of the borough 
 itself, which might pretend to that franchise, would be a 
 common liability of the borough, and in most instances it 
 would be vain to seek redress from the party by whose im- 
 mediate hand such illegal toll was levied. It would seem, 
 therefore, that by special favour of the crown the citizens were 
 supplied with the same remedy against boroughs as were 
 exercised by superior lords. When towns came to be repre- 
 sented by a community or corporation holding distinct cor- 
 porate property, and the individual inhabitants became more 
 independent in their persons and possessions, the process was 
 naturally directed against the specific effects of the party 
 actually committing, or authorising the commission of, the 
 wrong complained of. The seizure, however, was made only 
 as a distress, in order to compel an appearance in court ; which 
 was the sole process allowed by the ancient law for this pur- 
 pose, in cases of civil injury without force ; and so the law 
 remains to this day, in all suits against corporations. 2 But 
 this difference is to be observed, that by the usual process in 
 common cases, a certain small portion only of the debtor's 
 
 Courts, p. 1 ; Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. chaion, ' Explicatio,' &c. ' County Turn.' 
 
 29 ; Northouck's Hist. p. 49 ; Strype's ' Madox's Firma Burgi, Contents of 
 
 Stow, vol. ii. p. 378 ; Lib. Alb. fol. 9, 10 ; chapters. 
 
 LL. Ed. ' De Heretochiis ;' Lambard Ar * Kidd on Corporations, vol. i. p. 272.
 
 LAW OF FOREIGN ATTACHMENT. 299 
 
 goods could be distrained ; and further distresses were to be CHAP 
 
 made from time to time, which upon eventual default were to r - ' 
 
 be forfeited to the king. 1 In the cases in question the whole 
 amount of the damage sustained might be taken at once, and 
 condemned eventually to the use of the party aggrieved. 
 
 The latter clause has an evident allusion to the very ancient 
 custom of foreign attachment, which is nothing more, in 
 principle, than a law providing, by distress, for the appearance 
 of debtors in court to answer legal demands ; 2 comprising, 
 likewise, provisions for the condemnation of property so dis- 
 trained in satisfaction of the debt. The clause may be pro- 
 perly said to allude to the custom of foreign attachment ; for 
 it does not profess to set it out, nor does it, in fact, set it out 
 fully or correctly. The custom did not originate with this 
 charter, nor does it in any degree depend upon it ; but what- 
 ever effect might at this day be legally grounded on the terms 
 and language of the clause (which it is impossible, perhaps, 
 now to decide), it is certain that this customary proceeding 
 by attachment was never held to operate, except in respect of 
 debts and effects existing within the civic jurisdiction ; and not 
 in respect of debts which could never be said to have arisen 
 within it, or to effects existing altogether within some other 
 city or county. 
 
 To explain the law as applicable to this custom would occupy 
 too much space for the present work. The origin of it is so 
 completely buried in antiquity, that its legal operation can 
 only be deduced from tradition and usage. All customs in 
 the City of London are to be certified, when in dispute, by the 
 mouth of the recorder ; and this custom, valuable as it is to 
 the citizens, has been many times so certified to the superior 
 courts. 3 These certificates, though not inconsistent with each 
 other, are not equally precise, nor do any of them state the 
 nature and effect of the custom in full detail ; which is to be 
 learned only in the practice pursued in the lord mayor's and 
 sheriffs' courts, sanctioned as it is in every particular by re- 
 corded decisions of the superior courts. Without affecting a 
 
 1 Black. Comm. vol. iii. p. 280. Chief Justice King's Commonplace Book 
 
 8 Jones's Reports, vol. ii. p. 222. (who was a recorder of London) ; Harg. 
 
 * Bohun's Priv. Lond. p. 254 ; Lord MSS. Brit. Mils. No. 135, p. 1 et s:q.,
 
 300 OF THE CHAKTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK complete definition, which can hardly be relied upon, except 
 ^_ / ^ as proceeding from the mouth of the recorder, the nature and 
 quality of this custom, as resting upon the authority of reports 
 and accustomed practice, may be attempted to be described 
 to the following effect : That, if a plaint is filed against any 
 debtor for any debt,, which can be legally deemed to have arisen 
 within the City,, and such debtor cannot be found within the 
 City, and the officer returns that he has nothing within the 
 City by which he can summon him ; then, upon suggestion of 
 the plaintiff that any person within the City has chattel effects 
 of, or owes any debt to, such debtor such effects or debt (if a 
 liquidated one) may be attached in his hands ; and in case such 
 debt or effects are proved in court, upon issue joined, to be in 
 the hands of such person due to the defendant ; or, in case 
 such person will not appear and deny it ; or, in case the defen- 
 dant himself does not appear in court to answer the plaint 
 the debt or effects may be condemned to the use of the plain- 
 tiff, provided he gives security to refund to the defendant 
 the money condemned, in case, within a year and a day, he 
 appears and disproves the debt alleged by the plaint against 
 him. 11 The beneficial effect of this custom in a city of such a 
 commercial character as London, which enables the citizens 
 to recover their debts against fugitive and fraudulent debtors, 
 is very obvious, and can be amply testified by those at all ex- 
 perienced in the City courts ; and many thousands of pounds 
 are annually recovered, which, but for this cheap and easy 
 process^ would be irremediably lost to the creditors. 2 
 
 quoting Praxis Utriusque, Banci, p. 164 2 For the outline of the law relative 
 
 et al. ; Year Book, 22 Edward IV, 30. to foreign attachments, vide Barn. & 
 1 Koll. 554. Aid. Rep. vol. iv. p. 649.
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY II. 301 
 
 CHAPTEE IH. 
 
 CHARTER OP HENRY n. PLEAS OF FOREIGN TENURES THE KING'S 
 
 MONEYERS PORTSOKEN WARD BRIDTOLL CHILDWITE JERESGIVE 
 
 SCOTALE FIRST CHARTER OF RICHARD I. SECOND CHARTER OF 
 
 RICHARD I. WEARS TO BE REMOVED PROM THE THAMES FIRST 
 CHARTER OF JOSS SECOND CHARTER OF JOHN SHERIFFWICK OF 
 LONDON AND MIDDLESEX BLANK MONEY REMOVAL OF SHERIFFS 
 PRESENTATION OF SHERIFFS SHERIFFS' ACCOUNTS SHERIFFS' 
 AMERCIAMENTS THIRD CHARTER OF JOHN FOURTH CHARTER OF 
 
 JOHN WEAVERS' GILD EXPELLED FIFTH CHARTER OF JOHN THE 
 
 MAYORALTY PRESENTATION OF THE MAYOR CHAMBERLAINSHIP 
 RESERVED TO THE KING. 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY IL 
 
 THIS charter is directed nearly in the same manner as the CHAP. 
 
 Ill 
 last. It is likewise almost to the same purport. With ._ . ' 
 
 regard to the exemption of the citizens from pleading with- 
 out the City walls, an exception is added of ' pleas of foreign 
 
 * tenures, and also of the king's officers and moneyers.' To 
 the clause of acquittal from murder within the City, it is 
 added, * and in the portsoken thereof.' The citizens are 
 privileged to discharge themselves of pleas of the crown 
 
 * according to the old usage of the City.' With respect to 
 the taking of illegal toll from the citizens, it is provided, in 
 more accurate terms, that ' after the party so taking it shall 
 'fail of right, the sheriff of London may take goods thereof at 
 
 * London.' 
 
 This charter farther grants that the citizens shall be free 
 from Bridtoll, Childwite, Jeresgive, and Scotale-, so as the 
 sheriff shall no longer levy scotale. It concludes with a 
 general confirmation of all the ancient customs and liberties 
 enjoyed in the time of Henry L, when the citizens might 
 have held them more freely and advantageously ; and declares 
 
 1 This charter is without date, and may be found at large in Lib. Alb. and 
 in the Inspeximus charter of Charles IL
 
 U2 OF THE CHARTERS OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK that such liberties and customs are to be held as of inheritance 
 
 ^ . from the king and his heirs. 
 
 EXCEPTING PLEAS IN FOREIGN TENURES. By 'foreign 
 ' tenures J are meant lands held without the jurisdiction of 
 the City : a ad it is a maxim in law that, in all pleas which 
 affect real property, the cause of action shall be alleged to 
 have arisen within the county in which the land is actually 
 situate ; and that it shall be there also tried. Therefore no 
 pleas in foreign tenures could, by the ancient law, have been 
 held in London ; which may be inferred from what has been 
 already noticed in regard to foreign and false pleading : l and 
 the clause to that effect in the present charter must be con- 
 sidered as merely explanatory. With respect to his foreign 
 tenure, the citizen would be considered as a tenant in the 
 manor or district in which such land lay, and as owing 
 suit and service either to the local or king's general court. 
 
 EXCEPTING ALSO THE KING'S OFFICERS AND MONEYERS. 
 The personal privilege of the king's servants and officers, 
 to be sued in the king's courts only, has been already men- 
 tioned. 2 There were special royal courts established for cog- 
 nisance of all matters in which the king's immediate officers 
 were concerned, according to their respective characters and 
 employments ; the chief of which seems to have been the 
 Court of the Marshalsea. 3 These officers, and particularly 
 the moneyers or officers of the Mint, were continually 
 engaged in their duties within local jurisdictions ; 4 and some 
 misunderstandings with regard to their liabilities may 
 probably have led to this express exception of their persons 
 from such judicial control. 
 
 AND IN THE PORTSOKEN THEREOF. The portsoken of the 
 City was a certain district without the walls appended 111 
 very early times to the civic jurisdiction, and in all proba- 
 bility was the same as that which is now called Portsoken 
 Ward. This ward was anciently called Cnightengild, as 
 belonging to certain knights and their successors, burgesses 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 278 note. treated of in Coke's 4th Inst. 
 
 Vide supra, pp. 41, 272. Madox's Hist. Exch. Index, ' Money- 
 
 1 The nature, prerogatives, and juris- ours.' 
 diction of the various special courts arc
 
 PORTSOKEX WARD. CHILDWITE. JERESG1TE. 
 
 of London, by gift from the crown. 1 After possessing this 
 territory, or soke, for several generations, they conferred it, 
 in the reign of Henry I., with all its appurtenances, on the 
 priory of the Holy Trinity of Aldgate ; which priory had 
 been fonnded abont seventeen years previously by Matilda, 
 qneen of Henry L, and who had endowed it with the adjoin- 
 ing soke of Aldgate, which she possessed, as it is said, as of 
 demesne. 2 The priory thus becoming lord of two sokes, that 
 of Aldgate (which was within the walls) was occasionally 
 termed the inner soc or soie;* and that of Cnigh ten gild 
 changed its name to the Portsoke, one extremity of it being, 
 in fact, part of the port of London which was situate without 
 the walls. The recent change of the name, and a possibility 
 of doubt under the circumstances as to whether this district 
 still formed part of the civic jurisdiction, may have occa- 
 sioned the express mention of it in this and several sub- 
 sequent charters. It appears that some contention formerly 
 took place on the subject, which however was entirely 
 and finally allayed in the reign of Edward III. 4 
 
 BRIDTOLL. Toll for passing bridges, called also pontage.* 
 CHILDWITE. The wite (Sax.) was, under the Saxon system, 
 the forfeiture payable to the king or magistrate for offences, 
 as the were was that paid in compensation to the party 
 injured.* It was a discretionary fine, and, unlike the were, 
 imposed only on the lighter class of offences. 7 There were a 
 great number of irites, which took their distinguishing names 
 from the respective offences for which they were inflicted. 
 This of childwite seems to have been the penalty for begetting 
 a bastard on a lord's female bondslave. 8 
 
 JEKESGITE, a word of very doubtful signification. 9 As no 
 
 1 Strype*s Stow, book ii. eh. i. 4. wite,' 
 
 * Ibid. ' In ' The City charters ' and EohnnVi 
 Ibid. 'Priv. Lond." the same explanation of 
 Ibid. this word is adopted ; and it is stated 
 
 * Vide p. 287 ft seq. to mean, ' A toll or fine taken by the 
 
 Turner's Ang.-Sax. Tol. ii- p. 240. king's officers on a person entering into 
 Index, ' Wite.' his office ; or rather a fiun or bribe girfu 
 
 1 Spebn. Gloss - to tkfm to "" * extortion in tim 
 
 Strype's Stow, book ii. p. 107. tkat gives U.' No authority is quoted 
 So I. ectencite was the ..penalty for adul- for this strange position; and it is 
 tery or fornication. Spelm. Gloss. "Laire- difficult to conceive how payments of
 
 304 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON". 
 
 BOOK sufficient authority can be discovered, either for the word 
 , r itself or its meaning, it probably has been miswritten or mis- 
 printed for heregeat or heregeld (for both terms were in use), 
 a tax common amongst the Danes and Saxons, and being in 
 fact the well-known heriot. 1 The heriot is derived from here, 
 an army, and geatten or geldan, to pay or contribute ; and the 
 tax was, in its origin, a stated contribution of military stores 
 such as horses, spears, armour, &c. by the vassal, according 
 to his rank, on occasion of a war. In process of time it 
 became a regular and customary fine, on the death of every 
 tenant, out of his goods usually the best beast ; and so it 
 continues to this day in most copyhold manors. The heriot 
 was not, however, properly a feudal or a demesne burthen, 
 though usiially so considered. 
 
 SCOT ALE. Whether this was a general and national tax, 
 and signified no more than the scot ; or whether it had a 
 more specific sense, referring to some tax upon ale, is doubt- 
 ful. It is certain that the Saxons had their convivial meet- 
 ings, called beorscipes or beerships ; 2 and, in imitation of their 
 German ancestors, 3 it appears that at such meetings subjects 
 of a public and political nature were discussed. 4 But that any 
 common scot was levied in shape of a tax, or arose out 
 of such original contribution to the beership, cannot now be 
 ascertained. Manwood says that the scotale was an extortion 
 demanded by certain forest officers living in the king's forests, 
 and who there kept alehouses, by forcing the people of the 
 neighbourhood to attend them, for fear of their displeasure : 5 
 but such sort of scotales (if there really were any, which is 
 doubted by Spelman) 6 could hardly be the scotale mentioned 
 in the present charter, which was a public tax levied by the 
 sheriff. That the king's foresters levied a tax called scotales 
 is certain, for we find it forbidden by the twelfth clause of 
 the Forest charter. It is equally certain that they demanded 
 
 this kind could ever be recognised as a Hist. lib. 4, cap. 24. Csedmon. 74, 18. 
 
 regular toll with a specific name, or Lye's Saxon Diet, 
 that an acknowledged offence should be * Tacit. De Mor. Germ. cap. 22, 23. 
 
 expressly legalised. * Ibid, and LL. Inae. Lamb. Ar- 
 
 1 Spelni. Gloss, and Spelm. Feuds, chaion. 
 
 ch. xvii. xviii: and Lye's Sax. Diet. * Spelm. Gloss. 
 
 2 LL. Inse. Lamb. Archaion. Bede. 6 Ibid.
 
 SCOTALE. WEARS IN THE THAMES PROHIBITED. 305 
 
 for themselves, until forbidden by express statute, 1 a supply CHAP. 
 
 of provisions and liquor when on their forest eyres, which < ,_! * 
 
 passed by the name of potura or putura ; 2 but it is by no 
 means clear that this toll was the same as the scotale men- 
 tioned by Manwood ; or, if it was, that the scotale here 
 spoken of, which the London sheriff is prohibited from 
 levying, was the same. Spelman considers the word scotale 
 as a general term for all sorts of taxes payable under the 
 name of scot, and grounds that conjecture on the various 
 modes in which scotale was spelt. It is remarkable that the 
 word is never spelt scoteale, though the English ale seems to 
 have been only known to the Saxons by the term eale? 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF RICHARD I. 
 
 This charter is merely a recapitulation of the charter of 
 Henry II. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF RICHABD I * 
 
 This charter is directed to the same dignitaries as the several 
 preceding charters ; but amongst them are also enumerated 
 all * stewards, castle-keepers, constables, and bailiffs.' It 
 grants, that all wears shall be removed from the Thames ; and 
 a remission of the claim of the king for any annual proceeds 
 received on account of such wears by the constable of the 
 Tower. And it adds that this charter is granted on sufficient 
 advice of such wears being greatly detrimental to the City of 
 London and to the whole realm. 
 
 ALL WEARS SHALL BE REMOVED. The wears, called in 
 Latin kidelli, were obstructions in the Thames formed by 
 damming up the river on each side, so as to leave a narrow 
 outlet only for the passage of the water, across which a net 
 
 ' 25 Edward HI. reign of Richard I. 
 
 * Coke's 4th Inst. p. 307. 5 This second charter is to be found 
 
 1 Lye's Sax. Diet. at large in the Inspeximus of Charles 
 
 4 This charter is to be found at large II., and also in Liber Albus : it is dated 
 
 in the Inspeximus of Charles II., and in the eighth year of Richard's reign. 
 
 was grantpd in the fifth year of the 
 X
 
 >0b OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK was extended to intercept the fish. 1 The extreme nuisance 
 _^ thereby occasioned, both to the navigation and to the fishery, 
 it is quite unnecessary to dwell upon. Of such public detri- 
 ment were these obstructions, that their removal was ex- 
 pressly provided for by Magna Charta, 2 and by many of the 
 City charters. The reason of their continuance for any 
 period may be plainly gathered from the fact alluded to 
 in the present charter that payments were levied for keeping 
 them by the constable of the Tower, on behalf of the king. 
 The constable claimed and enjoyed, formerly, many personal 
 privileges in the waters of the Thames ; 3 and, indeed, the 
 jurisdiction over them was sometimes claimed by him, and 
 sometimes by the Lord High Admiral. 4 After several con- 
 troversies on the subject, the jurisdiction (or conservancy, as it 
 is termed), of the Thames was finally decided, in the reign of 
 James I., to belong by immemorial prescription 5 to the City ; 
 and for the purpose of settling all further doubts on the 
 subject, such conservancy was confirmed in express terms by a 
 charter of that king, as extending from Staines to Yenleet, 
 and in the river Medway, since which period it has never been 
 called in question. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF JOHN. 8 
 
 This charter is precisely in the same words as that of 
 Henry II. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF JOHN.' 
 
 This charter has a similar direction to the last. It grants 
 and confirms to the citizens the sheriffwick of London and 
 Middlesex, with all customs thereunto belonging, both with- 
 in the City and without, at the rent or farm of 3001 
 blank sterling money that they shall make amongst them- 
 selves sheriffs whom they will, and amove them when 
 
 1 Spelra. Gloss. * Ibid. Calth. Rep. p. 167. 
 
 * Coke's 2nd Inst. cap. 23, p. 38.Strype's 8 This charter is to be found in Lib. 
 Sto-w, book i. pp. 33, 34, 70 et seq. Alb., and in the Inspeximus of Charles 
 
 * Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 58 et seq. ; II. It is dated the 1 1th of Juno in the 
 Howel, p. 1 4 ; Calthorpe's Usages, pp. 8, 9. first year of John's reign. 
 
 4 Ibid. Ibid,
 
 SHERIFFWICK. BLANK MONEY. 307 
 
 they will that they shall present such sheriffs to the CHAP. 
 
 justices of the Exchequer, to answer for those things apper- 2L - 
 
 taming to the sheriffwick for which they ought there to 
 answer ; and unless they shall answer and satisfy, the 
 citizens themselves shall answer and satisfy the amercia- 
 ments and farm that if the sheriffs shall commit any offence 
 whereby they incur any amerciament, they shall not be 
 condemned at more than 20/., and that without damage to 
 the other citizens, in case the sheriffs are not able to pay 
 such their amerciaments ; bnt if the sheriffs commit any 
 offence, whereby they incur the loss of life or limb, they 
 shall be adjudged according to the law of the City. It then 
 declares that this grant and confirmation was made for the 
 amendment of the City, and because it was in ancient times 
 farmed for 300/., and confirms the grant of the sheriffwick in 
 general words. 
 
 SHEBIFFWICK OF LONDON AND MIDDLESEX. Sufficient has 
 already been said in explanation of the meaning and effect 
 of this clause ; J but it may be observed, that this is the first 
 grant or recognition of the right of the citizens to the sheriff- 
 wick of London. That such franchise was the ancient and 
 prescriptive right of the citizens, may not only be collected 
 from circumstances already noted,* but from the express 
 language itself of the present charter. It says that the 
 king confirms the sheriffwick of London ; and in a subsequent 
 clause, it declares that such confirmation and grant is made, 
 because it was in ancient times held by the citizens ; and 
 further, that the accustomed farm of 300J. was paid for both 
 sherifFwicks. 
 
 BLANK STEELING MONET. Blank money was silver melted 
 down, or blanched, in order to ascertain its fineness, and 
 freedom from alloy. So that a payment in blank money meant 
 a payment of so many pounds of tried and genuine silver. 
 This mode of insuring the just payment of accounts existed 
 while coin was scarce and of rude manufacture. 3 
 
 AND AMOVE THEM WHEN THEY WILL. Doubts have been 
 entertained, whether any authority exists within the City for 
 
 1 Vide stijrni. p. 268 et seq. ' Middle- * Vide supra, pp. 23, 79. 
 
 sex to farm." * Madox's Hist, Exeh. vol. i. p. 27*
 
 308 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK the removal of sheriffs without cause j 1 and it must be con- 
 ^ / ^ fessed that the extreme rarity of such a measure tends to 
 countenance, in some degree, such a supposition. The charter, 
 however, is express to the point ; and many City records can 
 be quoted, which recognise the existence of such an authority. 2 
 There are, indeed, several instances of the actual removal of 
 the sheriffs ; 3 but they took place at such early periods and 
 under such circumstances, as hardly, perhaps, to furnish a de- 
 cisive precedent on the subject. Express legal decisions with 
 regard to the amotion of sheriffs by corporations, from the 
 extreme rarity of such an occurrence, cannot be found ; but 
 it may be sufficient for the purpose to refer to cases of town- 
 clerks, recorders, aldermen, common-councilmen, and others. 
 In the case of a town-clerk, a distinction has been taken 
 between the power of amoving, under the authority of a 
 charter giving a right of appointment durante bene placito, 
 and one giving authority to remove at will : and Justice 
 Twisden hazards the position that, in the latter case, a re- 
 moval could not be, except for sufficient cause. 4 Another 
 distinction taken has been, that where the office was judicial, 
 or concerned the administration of justice, there could not 
 be a removal without cause, under either of such chartered 
 authorities. 8 A third distinction, taken to the same effect, 
 has been, where the office was a fee, 6 or the officer was a 
 component part of a corporation. 7 Now it is certain that the 
 two first objections will apply to the amotion of the sheriffs 
 of London. The first distinction, however, certainly seems 
 nice ; and the second does not seem borne out by the case 
 itself then under discussion, which was that of a town-clerk, 
 whose office not only concerns the administration of justice, 
 but is in many corporations judicial, and anciently was so in 
 London ; and yet the simple return of amotion without cause 
 
 1 Strype, in his edition of Stow (book * In John's reign, Northouck's Hist. 
 v. p. 95), states that after they are Lond. p. 38 ; also in Edward I.'s reign, 
 sworn they cannot be removed; but Lib. C. fol. 70; and in Richard II.'s 
 quotes no authority. reign, Lib. H. fol. 92. 
 
 2 Ordinances and Acts of Common 4 Dighton's Case: Ventris's Rep. p. 
 Council, quoted in Strype's Stow, book 82. 
 
 v. p. 95 ; and Lib. D. fol. 146, Lib. Leg. & Ibid. p. 77. 
 
 fol. 70 ; Lib. G. fol. 54 ; Lib. H. fol. 92, Ibid. p. 302 : Jay's Case. 
 
 Town Clerk's office. Ibid. p. 82 : Dighton's Case.
 
 REMOVAL OF SHERIFFS. 309 
 
 shown, was held to be sufficient. 1 In an earlier case, the CHAP. 
 
 steward of Beading, who had been removed, applied in vain, !JL , 
 
 nnder the circnntstances of a similar charter, for restoration ;* 
 and in a still stronger and later case, the recorder of Cambridge 
 was held to be bonnd by a mere return of amotion, without 
 cause alleged, where the charter gave authority to appoint 
 ad voluntatem.* 
 
 It must be recollected that the sheriffwick of the City of 
 London does not belong to the sheriffs, but to the City, who 
 execute the office through the medium of these two officers : 
 but the City is liable for the account to be rendered by their 
 sheriffs; and the goods of the citizens, or at least of the 
 Corporation, are liable to be seized for their default : 4 and 
 great opposition was formerly made to their being sworn to 
 the king, before the justices of the Exchequer, duly to fulfil 
 their office. The power of appointment is the same as. or 
 rather substituted for, that of the king ; and it would natu- 
 rally seem to follow, that the citizens possess the same 
 authority to discharge from office. The reasonableness of 
 the power may also be considered as rather a favourable 
 argument for its existence ; for it would appear strange 
 that, possessing and exercising the office, and being bound 
 by the conduct of their appointees, the citizens should not 
 hare an unlimited discretion as to the persons by whom they 
 wifl think fit to officiate. In fact, the Corporation has not 
 only constantly exercised from the earliest times a perfect 
 authority over the election, the duties, the conduct, the 
 courts, and the officers of the sheriffs, and the appointment 
 of them, 5 but has actually proceeded to the length of dis- 
 missing them, without any resistance having been made to 
 such prerogative.* 
 
 A more doubtful question seems to remain, as to what 
 
 * & C. Sderfin'sRep. p. 461. 
 
 Dad. Blagrare s Case, p. 49. The earlier records of the City are 
 
 Pepiss Case: Ventris s Rep. p. 342. fnU of ordinances on these points ; by 
 
 There are many City ordinances which it maybe seen, that the Corpora- 
 
 direetins and regolatingin what manner tion continually exercised many of the 
 
 the office of sheriff shall be conducted ordinary functions of the sherifls. Vide 
 
 in London ; and some of the regulations Letter Books, Indices, title ' Sherifis/ 
 
 are ordained on pain of dismissal in ' Vide p. 307 and preceding note o.
 
 310 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK branch of the Corporation possessed the authority in question. 
 
 v_ r l , By the language of the charter, it appears to have been the 
 
 original intention to delegate both the power of election and 
 that of removal to the same body viz., the commonalty of 
 the citizens of London. Tt is well known, however, that 
 both the original and the present representative commonalty 
 of the citizens are quite a different body from that which at 
 this day exercises the elective franchises in Common Hall. 
 The original commonalty were the whole body of borough 
 residents. 1 The system of selecting at discretion a representa- 
 tive body from the respective wards, by the lord mayor or. 
 aldermen, first began to prevail in the reign of Edward I.; 
 and so continued, without any distinct enactment or regu- 
 lated plan, until the reign of Edward III. In the 20th year 
 of the reign of that monarch, the system of election by the 
 medium of ward representatives, or, in other words, by the 
 Common Council, was established by a specific law made by 
 the whole commonalty. 2 
 
 Until this period, and for some years after, the sheriffs 
 and all other dignitaries of the City, including members of 
 parliament, 3 were elected either by the original full com- 
 monalty of citizens, or by their ward representatives ; 4 all of 
 whom, both representatives and represented, were required 
 to be scot-and-lot men. 5 But in the 49th year of Edward 
 III., an enactment of the whole assembled commonalty 
 passed, by which the right of election was transferred from 
 the ward representatives to the trading companies, a few 
 members of which were directed to be selected by the masters 
 or wardens to come to the hall for election purposes. 6 In 
 them it has in fact continued ever since only that, by an 
 Act of Common Council, the right of election was opened to 
 
 1 Vide supra, Book I. Ch. vi. and or rather occupants or householders ; 
 p. 276. in other words, scot-and-lot men. (Vide 
 
 2 Vide supra, pp. 114, 126. supra, Book I. Ch. vi.) The general 
 8 Lib. C. fol. 23; Lib. E. fol. 22, 137; meetings of citizens to elect, were 
 
 Lib. L. fol. 287 b ; Lib. M. fol. 164 b. nothing more than the meeting of the 
 
 4 Ibid. citizens at the hustings or folkmote, 
 
 5 All who voted for, or who could be instead of in their wards. Elections by 
 elected into, corporate offices at ward- the Common Council were, of course, 
 motes, were, according to ancient and, . elections by householders. 
 
 indeed, general common law, free tenants, " Vide supra, pp. 114, 126.
 
 REMOVAL OF SHERIFFS. 31 
 
 all the liverymen of Companies, generally ; and that right CHAP, 
 has been finally confirmed to such liverymen, being freemen . III- 
 of the Corporation of London, by statute 11 George I. c. 18. 
 For the purpose of exercising this elective franchise, it is 
 not required of the elector that he should be a resident within 
 the City, nor indeed was it required of him that he should 
 be a freeman of the Corporation, until the statute of George 
 I. But even as a freeman of the Corporation, he is not that 
 full and genuine free citizen, contemplated by the original 
 charters as entitled to the many immunities thereby conferred, 
 or as a component member of the true and original com- 
 monalty of the City of London. 1 
 
 The true commonalty of the City are the resident house- 
 holders, represented by their mayor, aldermen, and common- 
 councilmen in common council assembled, 2 all of whom 
 must have passed the ordeal of an election by the house- 
 holders of the several wards. The constitution of this 
 assembly has never, from the time of its first establishment 
 by the common assent and law of the whole body of genuine 
 free citizens, been changed, except for the short space 
 between the 49th of Edward in. and the 7th of Kichard II. 
 
 1 Vide supra, Book I. Ch. vi. and pp. inquest ; and the alderman of the ward, 
 
 276, 288 in notes. Vide also p. 243 et wherein I dwell, to appoint me his 
 
 seq., explaining how these elective fran- deputy, 
 
 chises have been changed and regulated Touchstone. How! 
 
 by the Legislature as regards Members Golding. In the which place I have 
 
 of Parliament for the City, and alder- had an oath ministered to me since I 
 
 men, and \vard officers. went. 
 
 1 In early times, and down to a com- Touchstone Now, my dear and happy 
 
 paratively modern period, the Common son ! let me kiss thy new worship, and 
 
 Councilmen, as representing the Com- a little boast mine own happiness in thee. 
 
 monalty, -were called the Commoners of "What a fortune was it (or rather my 
 
 the City; and were the persons who pre- judgement indeed) for me first to see 
 
 sentfd, by the wardmote, or leet at its that in his disposition, which a whole 
 
 inquest, which always was the duty of the city conspires to second! Ta'en into 
 
 resident scot-and-lot members of the dis- the Livery of his Company the first day 
 
 trick Thus, in an old play of the year of his freedom ! how ! (not a week 
 
 1605, founded expressly on City manners married), chosen commoner and alder- 
 
 and customs, the following dialogue man's deputy in a day ! nought but the 
 
 occurs between a tradesman and his son- reward of a thrifty course the wonder 
 
 in-law, who had lately been his appren- of his time ! Well, I will honour Mr. 
 
 tiee : Alderman for this act as becomes me ; 
 
 Golding. It hath pleased the worship- and shall think the better of the Com- 
 
 ful commoners of the city to take me mon Council's wisdom and worship 
 
 i' their number at presentation of the while I live. Eastward Ho.
 
 312 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK As representing the entire body of full and perfect citizens, 
 ^ - to whom the appointment and removal of sheriffs was origi- 
 nally granted, it is to this assembly, it might at first appear, 
 we should look for that power of removing them : but as 
 neither the Common Council nor the Livery in Common Hall 
 assembled are courts of record, the cause for amotion cannot 
 legally be enquired into by either of these bodies ; and it is 
 therefore probable that this power can only be exercised by 
 the mayor and aldermen in the Court of Hustings, being a 
 court of record before which the sheriffs are sworn and ad- 
 mitted into office. 
 
 THEY SHALL PEESENT THE SHERIFFS TO THE JUSTICES OP 
 THE EXCHEQUER, TO ANSWER, &c. It has been for many 
 ages the custom to present the sheriffs at the Exchequer, as 
 persons whom the citizens have elected into that office, and 
 for whom they will be answerable. 
 
 It may seem unnecessary for the sheriffs of London to 
 present themselves at the Exchequer to render any account, 
 as the sheriffwick is farmed at a stipulated sum. It is to be 
 observed, however, that the farm is paid in lieu of, and arose 
 entirely from, certain regular and well-known issues, or 
 locata r 1 but there are likewise many other irregular and 
 uncertain levies and receipts coming to the hands of the 
 sheriffs, for which they have to account, and which were not 
 included in the farm such as talliages and assessments, 
 escheats, debts to the king or estreats, amerciaments, cus- 
 toms paid by foreigners, waifs, treasure trove, royal fish, &c. 2 
 
 AND UNLESS THE SHERIFFS SHALL ANSWER AND SATISFY, 
 
 THE CITIZENS THEMSELVES SHALL. This was perfectly con- 
 sistent with ancient usage, both before the date of this 
 charter and afterwards. For in case the sheriffs could not 
 make up their accounts of the proceeds of any privileged 
 town, the king resorted to the principals ; and either seized 
 the liberties of the City into his own hands, and levied 
 indiscriminately upon the goods of any of the towns- 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. ii. ch. xi. ; and p. 162. The sheriffs often made 
 
 and vide supra, pp. 43, 44, 69. payments by order of the king, which 
 
 * Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. ii. ch. x. were to be allowed on account. Ibid. 
 
 passim*, and p. 385. Vide also ch. xxiii. p. 385.
 
 SHERIFF'S DEFALCATIONS. 313 
 
 men ; or he authorised the sheriff to seize any property of CHAP, 
 the inhabitants, by way of distress, until the dues were ._ m " . 
 forthcoming ; and sometimes imprisoned the sheriffs for not 
 having enforced payment. 1 
 
 WITHOUT DAMAGE TO THE OTHER CITIZENS, nr CASE THE 
 
 SHERIFFS SHALL KOT BE ABLE TO PAY THE AMERCIAMEXTS 
 
 INCURRED BY THEM. That is, the citizens are not to be 
 punished, or amerced, for the personal offences of their 
 sheriffs, but that the sheriffs shall bear the penalty of their 
 own misconduct. It has elsewhere been noticed as a great 
 abuse, that whole districts were amerced in common for the 
 offences of individuals 2 an abuse which, in these times, 
 seems to have required the special clause of a charter to 
 abolish. It became at length the express subject of one of 
 the reforming statutes of Edward I. 3 
 
 THIKD CHARTER OF JOHN. 4 
 
 This charter is precisely in the same words as the second 
 charter of Richard L 
 
 FOURTH CHARTER OF JOHN. 
 
 This charter 5 is directed as the last. It states that at the 
 request of the mayor 6 and citizens of London, the king grants 
 that the gild of weavers shall no longer be in the City ; but 
 that, as that gild was accustomed to pay the ting eighteen 
 marks per annum, the citizens shall pay twenty marks in 
 lieu. 
 
 This charter in some degree explains and proves that 
 the gildated or incorporated companies of tradesmen neither 
 
 1 Madox's Firm. Burg, ch. x. and Inspex. Chas. H. Lib. Alb. Date 
 
 3d. ; and vide Mad. Hist. Exch. voL i. 20th March, third year of John's reign, 
 
 pp. 708-9. " Mention is here made of the mayor; 
 
 * Vide supra, p. 79 ft teq. although the privilege of electing a 
 
 * Vide supra, ibid. mayor, eo nomine, was not granted until 
 This charter is to be found at large the sixteenth year of John. The name, if 
 
 in the Inspeximns of Charles II., and in not the office, of mayor of London was 
 the Liber Albas. Date 17th of Jane, known in the reign of Richard I. 
 first year of John's reign.
 
 314 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK became, by virtue of such incorporation, the true original 
 ^_ * _. citizens, nor could claim the rights and privileges of citizens. 
 These mercantile associations were created, or, if not originally 
 created, certainly subsisted, by royal prerogative alone, and 
 they usually paid a fine or rent to the king for their liberties. 
 So far from becoming incorporated citizens, or even bearing 
 an affinity to them in character, their existence was at 
 variance with the rights of the latter. Their trade was usually 
 a monopoly ; 1 although it is well known that by ancient right 
 the citizens of London may change their trade, as far as respects 
 buying and selling, at will ; 2 but even the trading of such 
 associated companies at all, without being regular enrolled 
 citizens, was an encroachment. This will sufficiently account 
 for the request of the citizens for the abolition of this gild. 3 
 From very early times, and probably soon after the estab- 
 lishment of the oldest of the City merchant gilds or companies, 
 the City authorities claimed and exercised a kind of visiting 
 jurisdiction over them. 4 They compelled the companies to 
 bring then* charters to be enrolled amongst the City records ; 
 they exercised a discretion as to admitting the members to 
 the civic freedom ; and in later times this jurisdiction has 
 been testified by their conferring on companies the liberty of 
 granting a livery, in effect, the rights of liverymen. But it 
 is plain that the authorised participation of any of the members 
 of these companies, whether liverymen or not, in any of the 
 civic franchises, has arisen from those laws and regulations 
 of the Common Council conferring the privilege of election, to 
 which allusion has already been made. 5 Nor can it be 
 
 1 For an account of the farms paid by fically to the very numerous authorities 
 gilds, videMadox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. on this subject, than to the City Records 
 337 et seq., and p. 399 et seq. generally, and the returns of the various 
 
 2 Calthorp's Rep. pp. 9, 48; Rolls Companies to orders of the House of 
 Abridg. vol. ii. p. 573 ; Burr. Rep. Commons of the dates 1724, 1725, from 
 Harrison v. Cro. Car. pp. 371, 372, 516. which returns and records the positions 
 This point was lately clearly decided on in the text abundantly appear. Vide 
 in the Mayor's Court. The author was Northouck's History of London ; Mait- 
 of counsel. land's Hist. vol. i. p. 486 ; stat. 3 Henry 
 
 8 The citizens paid 60 marks for this V. Cotton's Abridgm. p. 545; Hodge's 
 
 charter. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. Bye Laws of London, passim ; and Riley's 
 
 405. Memorials of London, passim. 
 
 4 It is impossible to refer more speci- * Plumbe's case. Ever since the de-
 
 MAYORALTY GRANTED IN TERMS. 315 
 
 doubted that such regulations, for the purpose of so transfer- CHAP. 
 
 ring the rights of election, were originally in contradiction to > r - 
 
 ancient custom, and that such transfer owes its permanent 
 validity at the present day to the statute of 11 Geo. I. c. 18. 
 
 FIFTH CHARTER OF JOHN. 
 
 This charter * is directed as the last. It declares that the king 
 has granted and confirmed 2 to the barons 3 of London the right 
 of choosing a mayor every year, and at the end of the year 4 of 
 amoving him and substituting another, if they will, or elect- 
 ing the same again. He is to be presented to the king, or 
 his justice, in his absence, and is to swear to be faithful to 
 the king. The charter proceeds to confirm to the said barons 
 all their liberties generally, ' as well in the City as without, 
 and as well by water as by land saving to the king his 
 chamberlainship.' 
 
 To CHOOSE A MAYOE. Some uncertainty has prevailed with 
 regard to the first creation of this magistrate. It seems clear 
 that a magistrate over London did exist under that title during 
 the reign of Eichard I., for we find Fitzalwyn recognised by 
 that name at the period in question. 5 Before that reign, the 
 only lay magistrates bearing rule in the City from the time 
 of Athelstan, who are to be found mentioned in records, are 
 the reve, ihe portreve, the sheriff, the provost, the custos, and 
 the bailiff. 6 
 
 cision in this case, several companies * This grant to the barons to choose a 
 
 have uniformly used to refuse to attend mayor, sufficiently shows that the alder- 
 
 at any meetings of Common Hall, except men were not meant by the term, as 
 
 for elective purposes ; and the wardens some have supposed ; for the aldermen 
 
 used not to issue precepts for any atten- have never had the exclusive right of 
 
 dance for other purposes. But since electing the mayor, 
 
 the new regulations of the elective fran- 4 There is a material difference in 
 
 chises (detailed in pp. 243 et seq.) this this clause of the charter, with reference 
 
 usage has, of course, changed. to the removal of the mayor, and that 
 
 1 Dated 9th May, 16th year of his in the charter conferring the sheriffwick, 
 reign, to be found at large in the Inspex- with regard to the removal of the 
 imus of Charles II., and in Lib. Alb. sheriffs. 
 
 2 This word shows that the right was s Spelm. Closs. 'Maior;' Tract by 
 not now originally conferred, but existed Petyt ; Appendix to Stry pe's Stow, p. 1 3 ; 
 before both in name and functions. Strype's Stow, vol. ii. p. 100. 
 
 This, indeed, is made clear by a MS. in Ibid. ; and Maitland's Hist, Index, 
 
 Brit. Mus. Harg. MSS. 153, foL 143. ' Mayor.'
 
 316 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK The denomination of mayor can be traced as of very early 
 . antiquity amongst many nations of the Continent, and 
 particularly the German and French, where that magis- 
 trate was well known. 1 He seems originally to have presided 
 over a small associated body, and answered to our Saxon 
 borsholder, or more properly, perhaps, the alderman ; 2 for 
 as our Saxon ancestors used to entitle the president of a 
 society the olderman, so it seems the German and Gallic 
 mayor was thus termed, as being the major natu. When, in 
 the eleventh century, town communities first arose in France, 3 
 the chief governor of such civic bodies was likewise denomi- 
 nated the mayor. 4 Town communities did not commence 
 quite so early in England ; and as the Normans did not bring 
 with them any political devices of erecting town communities, 
 so had they no occasion to change the titular denominations 
 of the ancient common-law functionaries. 
 
 In the reign of Richard I. and towards the latter end of the 
 twelfth century, we find the first mention of the citizens of 
 London as a community. 5 Indeed, an express grant is made 
 that it should have a community. The citizens had for ages 
 before that period been used to assemble together for common 
 purposes in the husting assemblies ; 6 and they had likewise 
 their separate soke, or gild jurisdictions, over which the reves 
 or aldermen respectively presided. To act however in concert, 
 and for any specific object, without any head or representa- 
 tive body, must, as the population increased, have presented 
 almost insurmountable difficulty. The independent jurisdic- 
 tion of each alderman in his soke would likewise occasion 
 much confusion, unless the control of some superior should 
 be supplied for the purpose of uniting their authority. Under 
 these circumstances it was that John, who governed the 
 kingdom as regent in the absence of his brother Richard 
 in the Holy Land, and who in fact designed to usurp 
 his throne, knowing the nature of the French town commu- 
 nities, and their influence in resisting constituted autho- 
 
 1 Spelm. Gloss. ' Maior.' * Vide supra, p. 27. 
 
 4 Ibid. Vide supra, pp. 19, 61, 74; Bohun's 
 
 Vide supra, p. 27. Priv. Lond. p. 239 ; Strype's Stow, vol. 
 
 4 Spelm. Gloss. 'Maior.' ii. p. 370.
 
 PRESENTMENT OF MAYOR TO THE JUDGES. 
 
 rities, and labouring by every machination to increase his 
 power and popularity in the kingdom, first established the 
 commonalty of the City of London, as a corporate body, by 
 express grant ; though in so doing he did but confirm many 
 corporate privileges which had been prescriptively exercised 
 by the citizens before. 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE KING'S JUSTICE. This clause is an- 
 nexed as a condition of the grant of the mayoralty. The 
 justice here meant probably was the chief justiciar ; though 
 all the king's judges of the aula regis were occasionally 
 denominated his justices, in whatever branch of its jurisdic- 
 tion they might sit. 1 The presentment was for the purpose 
 of admission, and of being sworn into office before the king ; 2 
 the former deference to the royal prerogative seems rather 
 to rest on an implied construction of the language of this 
 charter, than on any express stipulation. It is certain that 
 from the date of the present charter the mayor was constantly 
 presented, as well for admission and for the royal assent, as 
 for the purpose of taking his oath of office : 3 and in a charter 
 of the 37th of Henry III., it is further explained that the 
 mayor is to be presented, that he may be admitted. Very few 
 instances can be adduced of an absolute rejection of the 
 mayor chosen ; yet there are repeated indications, both of 
 assumption on the one hand, and of acknowledgment on the 
 other, that the king possessed the prerogative both of ad- 
 mission and rejection. 4 This presentation of the mayor was 
 directed, by charter of the 37th of Henry III., to be made 
 before the barons of the Exchequer, in case of the king's 
 absence from London or Westminster ; but that he should be 
 presented again before the king upon his return, and so ad- 
 mitted ; and thus it has continued to be ever since, for the 
 purpose of the mayor being sworn in : but a custom has of 
 late prevailed of presenting the mayor for the royal approba- 
 tion to the Lord Chancellor, who signifies on that occasion, that 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. ii. p. 312 ; 4 In early and unsettled times there 
 also John's second charter, ' Justices of have been some instances of rejection 
 the Exch.' on presentation, and particularly in the 
 
 2 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. ii. p. 92 reign of Henry III. Fabian's Chron. 
 et seq. part 7. 
 
 * Ibid.
 
 318 OF THE CHARTERS OP LONDON. 
 
 BOOK he has it in command from His Majesty to intimate his ap- 
 v_fjl_^ probation. An old book entitled * City Liberties,' of an 
 uncertain date, declares this to be a new practice, and asks 
 by what authority it was introduced. 1 However, there seems 
 nothing really objectionable, either in law or reason, that 
 the king should express his approbation of the choice of the 
 citizens through the highest judicial dignitary in the king- 
 dom. 
 
 SAVING TO THE KING HIS CHAMBERLAINSHIP. It needs 
 not the testimony of this charter to prove that in ancient 
 times the chamberlain of London was an officer of the king ; 
 that the chamberlain's treasury belonged to the king ; and 
 that payments made to the chamberlain were made on behalf 
 of the king, until the greater portion of them by subsequent 
 charters were granted to the corporation. The records are 
 very numerous which explain the nature of the receipts 
 of the chamberlain of London, and that they were all 
 accounted for at the Exchequer. 2 He collected all mari- 
 time customs from foreign merchants coining to London ; all 
 fines for liberty granted to them and others to trade in 
 specified articles, and to export or import them ; prisage of 
 wines ; produce of the sale of captures from enemies ; of for- 
 feitures for contraband trading, and of escheats also in many 
 instances. 3 He also took to the king's use the duties on 
 tronage, scavage, tolls for passing through the City gates, and 
 even, on some occasions, the forfeitures incurred for breaches 
 of the City liberties 4 such as for goods foreign bought and 
 foreign sold, all of which are now appropriated to the chamber 
 of the City of London for the use of the corporation. Entries 
 of these accounts may be found in the Rolls of the Exchequer 
 down to the reign of Edward I., and perhaps much later ; and 
 there is certain proof of the king's prisage of wines being 
 collected by the chamberlain during the reign of Edward III. 5 
 
 1 Page 107 in that work. goods foreign bought and sold, seem , 
 
 2 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 765, however, to have been paid by the king's 
 766, 776 et scq. ; vide post, p. 377. officers, as custodes ; consequently it may 
 
 * Ibid, and Lib. B. fol. 38, City be inferred that, of right, they belonged 
 
 Records. to the commonalty. 
 
 4 Madox's Hist. Exch. Ibid. The s Hargrave's Tracts (British Mus.), 
 
 duty of scavage, and the forfeitures for p. 118.
 
 319 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF HKXRT ITL SECOND CHARTER OF HENRY ITI. 
 THIRD CHARTER OF HENRT m. FOURTH CHARTER OF HENRY III. 
 FIFTH CHARTER OF HENRY ITI. WARREN OF STATNUS SIXTH 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY HI. QUEENHXTHE GRAFTED SEVENTH CHARTER 
 
 OF HENRY III. ALLOWANCE IN THE SHERIFF'S ACCOUNT FOR THE 
 LIBERTY OF ST. PAUL'S EIGHTH CHARTER OF HENRY m. NINTH 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY HI. PLEADING WITHOUT THE WALLS SWEAR- 
 
 IKG OX GRATES PRISAGB OF WINES 31AKTSG ATTORNEYS FOR 
 
 PLEADING Uf THE COURTS DEBTS OF CTOZEXS ENROLLED FIRST 
 
 CHARTER OF EDWARD I. SECOND CHARTER OF EDWAED I. FIRST 
 
 CHARTER OF EDWARD H. ARTICLES FOR THE BETTER GOTXRXilEST 
 OP THE CUT, A3TD FOR REGULATING THE CTTT COXSTITUTIOXAL 
 FRANCHISES, COXFIRjrED SECOND CHARTER OF EDWARD EL 
 
 THE FOIST CHAETER OF HEXRY TTT. 
 
 THIS charter is a recapitulation of the second charter of CHAP. 
 John, to which it refers as granting the sherifrwick. 
 
 THE SECOND CHASTER OF HEXRY ILL* 
 
 This charter grants the mayoralty in the same words as 
 the fifth charter of John, to which it refers. 
 
 THE THIBD CHARTER OF HENRY ILL 1 
 
 This charter prohibits wears in the Thames, and is the 
 same as the second of Richard I. and the third of John, to 
 which it refers. 
 
 1 Dated 18th of February, 1 1th year. * Dated as the last. To be found in 
 
 To be found in the Inspexhnus of the Inspeximus of Charles LT and in 
 
 Charles LL, and in Ub. Albas; also in Lib. Alb. 
 
 the Inspeximus of 7th Richard II. * Dated, and to be found as the last.
 
 320 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 
 THE FOURTH CHARTER OF HENRY III. 1 
 
 This charter is in the same language as those of Henry II. 
 and the first charter of John, to which it refers. 
 
 THE FIFTH CHARTER OF HENRY HI.* 
 
 This charter is directed in the same manner as those pre- 
 ceding, except that, in addition to the other authorities, ' the 
 ' king's Foresters ' are named. It can hardly be considered as 
 one of the charters of London ; for it is granted to all the free 
 tenants of the county of Middlesex of every rank, and does not 
 specify the citizens of London by name, though they were 
 much interested in the immunity conferred. It declares, that 
 the Warren of Staines, in Middlesex, is unwarrened and dis- 
 afforested for ever ; so that all such free tenants may have 
 liberty of warren and forest therein, and to till lands, cut 
 their woods, and dispose of them at their will, without view 
 or contradiction of any warreners or foresters ; and that 
 neither they nor any justice of the Forest shall meddle with 
 their lands or woods, nor with their herbage, or hunting, or 
 corn ; nor shall by any summons or distress, cause such free 
 tenants to come before such justices of the Forest in respect 
 of their tenements situate within the warren; but that they 
 shall be free and quit from all exactions whatever in regard 
 to forests. 
 
 It is foreign to the object of this work to enter into an 
 account of the oppressions of the ancient forest laws. They 
 may be fully ascertained by consulting the many excellent 
 works on the History of England and of the English Consti- 
 tution ; and are particularly adverted to in Blackstone's 
 Commentaries and in the Institutes of Lord Coke. The dis- 
 afforesting of the royal forests was one of the great national 
 objects of the barons' wars ; and the Charter of Forests, as it 
 is called, was scarcely less esteemed than Magna Charta 
 
 1 Dated 12th March, llth year. To " Dated 18th August, llth year. To 
 
 be found as the last ; and also in the be found as the last. 
 Inspeximus of 7th Richard II.
 
 STAIXES DISAFFORESTED. QUEENHITHE GRANTED. 321 
 
 itself. The invasions of private property and of personal CHAP. 
 
 liberty, to which the forest laws gave rise, are in some degree ijj - 
 
 shown by the present charter. The citizens by this charter 
 secured their liberty of hunting so long a favourite pas- 
 time which was granted to them by many charters over 
 Middlesex, and which they took especial care to have often 
 confirmed. 1 The great and obvious interests the citizens had 
 in the subject-matter of thig charter no doubt occasioned its 
 having been included amongst the charters of London. 
 
 SIXTH CHARTER OF HENRY III.* 
 
 This charter is directed in the same manner as the preceding. 
 It is the first charter which mentions the mayor and common- 
 alty of the City of London, and recognises their corporate 
 acts under their common seal. This charter is a confir- 
 mation by the king of a certain covenant, to which it refers 
 as having been executed between the mayor and commonalty 
 on the one part, and Richard earl of Cornwall, the king's 
 brother, on the other. It appears that this prince was the 
 proprietor of the petty port or landing-place of Queenhithe, 3 
 and in virtue of that proprietorship claimed certain tolls and 
 customs. For the consideration of a farm-rent of 601. per 
 annum, Eichard granted it in fee to the commonalty of 
 London by a deed of indenture ; to one part of which the earl 
 set his seal, and to the other of which the mayor and common- 
 alty affixed the City seal. 
 
 By the possession of this property the citizens gained a 
 right to all the customary duties or tolls payable by those 
 who used the quay : and these payments were probably dedi- 
 cated by them, together with the other common locata from 
 which profits were derived, to the satisfaction of their farm 
 rents. 4 These duties during the occupation of the king and 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 64. Gloss. ' Heda.') Thus we find Rother- 
 1 Dated 26th February, 31st year. kit he QueenAtffo, LambA#A (Lam- 
 To be found in the Inspeximus of beth), and many others. 
 Charles II., and in Lib. Alb. * After being thus granted to the 
 * Hith (Sax.) signifies a small port or citizens, the issues were collected by the 
 quay, such as are formed in rivers. (Spelm. sheriff. So fines and amerciaments 
 
 Y
 
 322 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK earl appear to have been numerous and strictly enforced ; 
 
 x_ ^ and no doubt must have much impeded the commerce and 
 
 supply of the City, and have greatly harassed the citizens. 
 By this transfer to the citizens, the duties were not only 
 adjusted upon a certain and fixed scale, and the public and 
 merchants secured against arbitrary extortions, but the quay 
 itself, it is probable, was better maintained for the general 
 accommodation, which was the legal consideration for which 
 the duties were paid. 
 
 The king by the feudal law had the prerogative property 
 of all ports, quays, and havens, both on the sea shore and in 
 navigable rivers. 1 By virtue of that title, he assigned at dis- 
 cretion what particular spots should be used as ports and 
 quays, and received his customs there, by way of compensation 
 for his care in maintaining them. 2 This quay had been in 
 the continual occupation of the king or his grantees. 3 It had 
 been assigned by Henry III. to his queen (whence the hithe 
 derived its name), and subsequently to several other grantees, 
 before it finally came into the possession of Richard earl 
 of Cornwall, who granted it with the king's consent to the 
 citizens. 4 
 
 Queenhithe was anciently much resorted to as a quay both 
 from below and from above London bridge, which formerly 
 had a drawbridge over the centre arch, for the purpose of 
 giving passage to vessels. 8 The citizens, who were themselves 
 exempt from all duties and tolls, derived a very considerable 
 income from the issues of Queenhithe. It appears that by 
 ancient custom all corn was, under penalties, to be landed 
 there, whether it came from the east or the west, 6 and also a 
 proportion of vessels with fish : but the resort to this quay 
 had so much diminished, or the tolls were so remissly 
 gathered, that in Henry VII.'s reign, Fabian says, they amoun- 
 ted barely to 15?. per annum. 7 This may be attributed partly 
 
 collected by the sheriff were granted to 3 Strype's Stow, vol. i. b. iii. p. 214 ct 
 
 the City, for the purpose of assisting in seq. 
 
 the payment of the farm rent. Vide 4 Ibid. 
 
 Charter of Edward III. post. * Ibid. 
 
 1 Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. 6 Ibid, divers inquisitions. 
 p. 264 et seq. Ibid. 
 
 2 Ibid.
 
 SEVENTH CHARTER OF HENRY III. 323 
 
 to the inconveniences in passing London bridge from the CHAP. 
 
 eastward, and partly to the many more convenient wharfs, ^ . 
 
 both private and public (particularly that of Billingsgate), 
 which from time to time had been constructed in various 
 situations on the river. 1 
 
 SEVENTH CHARTER OF HENRY HI. 
 
 This charter is directed to the same parties as the last. It 
 confirms, in general words, ' to the mayor and citizens,' all 
 former liberties and customs, as they had them in the time of 
 Henry II., and as granted by former charters. It also grants, 
 that the citizens may present their mayor for admission to 
 the barons of the exchequer, in the absence of the king from 
 London or Westminster, so as notwithstanding, he shall be 
 presented to the king again for admission, upon his return. 
 It further grants, that 71. per annum shall be allowed, in 
 deduction upon the sheriffs account of the City farm, in 
 regard to the liberty of St. Paul's. And, lastly, it confirms 
 the civic exemption from tolls and customs throughout all 
 the king's dominions. 
 
 ALLOWANCE IN THE SHERIFF'S ACCOMPT FOE THE LIBERTY OF 
 ST. PAUL'S. The soc, or liberty, vested in the deanery of 
 St. Paul's is one of the most ancient in the kingdom. We 
 find it confirmed in the usual terms of sac and soc, thol and 
 theame, infanghthefe and outfanghthefe, by William the Con- 
 queror. 3 All the issues of this soc would belong to the 
 Church, and not to the City; and the deduction in the 
 sheriff's accompt is an indulgence granted, accordingly, in 
 respect of this privileged exemption from his jurisdiction. 4 
 
 1 Strype's Stow, divers inquisitions, and formerly belonging to the city, and then 
 book i. p. 2 1 , book ii. p. 49, book T. p. 281 . lately annexed to St. Paul's ; aud quotes 
 
 2 Dated 18th of June, 37th year. To Fabian, page 7. Fabian, however, vouches 
 be found as the last, and also in the only as stated in the text. But supposing 
 Inspeximus of 7th Richard II. the citizens did possess this piece of land, 
 
 3 Strype's Stow, book iii. p. 142. what could the transfer of it to the 
 * Maitland (Hist. vol. i. p. 88) states Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's have to 
 
 this deduction from the sheriff's accompt do with the king's farm rent, paid upon 
 to be in consideration of a piece of land an entirely different consideration? 
 
 Y 2
 
 324. OP THE CHAKTEES OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 ^_ EIGHTH CHARTER OF HENRY III. 1 
 
 This charter grants that the citizens may traffic with 
 their commodities and merchandise throughout the king's 
 dominions, without interruption and exempt from tolls and 
 customs ; and that they may abide, for purposes of trade, 
 wherever they will : adding, however, ' until such times as it 
 ' may be more fully ordered by the king's council, touching the 
 1 state of the City.' 
 
 The immunities granted by this charter are only such as 
 the citizens clearly possessed before under former charters; 
 and the origin of such a charter can only be accounted for 
 by the supposition, that some of the many aggressions on the 
 chartered rights of the people, which characterised this reign, 
 had been committed against the citizens. The last clause is 
 an assumption of an illegal authority to deprive the citizens 
 of their vested rights, which it does not appear the king sub- 
 sequently attempted to enforce. 
 
 NINTH CHARTER OF HENRY III. 2 
 
 This charter was granted by way of remission after a seizure 
 of the City liberties. It is directed as the preceding charters, 
 and contains, with considerable variation of language, a 
 recapitulation of most of the particulars comprised in them, 
 together with some few additional and explanatory clauses. 
 
 Reference is first made to the king's pardon of trespasses 
 and forfeitures. It then proceeds to grant, that the citizens 
 shall not plead without the walls ; but adds two more ex- 
 ceptions to those specified in the former charters : viz. 1st, 
 for things done against the king's peace ; and 2nd, the 
 pleas concerning merchandise ; which, it says, were wont to 
 be decided by law merchant in the boroughs and fairs, by 
 four or five of the citizens there present. It expressly re- 
 
 1 Dated 11 th January, 50th year. To to be found in the Inspeximus of 
 be found in the Inspeximus of Charles Charles II. ; in that of 7th Richard II.; 
 II., and in Liber Albus. and in Liber Albus. 
 
 2 Dated 26th March, 52nd year ; and
 
 ABSTRACT OF NINTH CHARTER OP HENRY III. 32 
 
 serves to the king the amerciarnents arising out of these pleas. CHAP. 
 It then proceeds to grant acquittal of murder ; exemption >-_Jl_ 
 from trial by battle ; and the liberty of discharging themselves 
 from pleas of the Crown, according to the ancient custom of 
 the City : but adds this remarkable exception, ' that the 
 ' citizens shall not be allowed to swear upon tlie graves of the 
 
 * dead, precisely to what such deceased would have declared 
 ' had they been living : but that, in the stead of such deceased 
 ' who might have been selected to discharge those who had 
 ' been appealed or arraigned on pleas of the Crown, other free 
 ' and lawful men should be selected, who without delay should 
 
 * perform what the persons defunct would have been called 
 ' upon to perform in case they had lived.' 
 
 With reference to the exemption of the citizens from all 
 tolls and customs, an exception is introduced of the prisage of 
 wines ; viz. one tun before, and another behind the mast. 
 
 It grants, that the hustings shall be held but one day in the 
 week, or at furthest its sitting should not be protracted be- 
 yond the following morning, in case any causes should remain 
 undetermined as of the preceding day ; that right should be 
 done, in regard to lands and tenures within the City, accord- 
 ing to the custom of the City ; so, nevertheless, that foreigners 
 as well as all others may make their attorneys to plead and 
 defend, as elsewhere in the king's courts ; and that they 
 are not to be questioned for miskenning, ' that is to say, if 
 ' they had not counted or declared altogether well.' 
 
 It is then granted, that for debts and promises the pleas 
 are to be held according to the ancient custom of the 
 City ; also an exemption from child wit e, heargeat, 1 and 
 scotale : and further, that no merchant shall meet another 
 coming towards the City and buy his merchandise to sell 
 again, upon pain of forfeiture and severe imprisonment ; and 
 that no merchant shall expose his merchandise for sale before 
 due customs are levied ; or buy or sell the same before they are 
 weighed by the king's trone, or beam (in case they are such as 
 ought to be troned), under the same penalty. 
 
 Further it is granted, that debts due to the citizens may 
 be enrolled in the king's exchequer for their greater surety 
 
 1 Called Jeresgice in the usual translations. Vide supra, p. 303.
 
 326 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK upon recognizance of those who shall stand bound to them ; 
 - _. ,' -_^ so that no such recognizances shall be taken of any persons 
 who may not be themselves known at the Exchequer, for the 
 purpose of enrolling them as debtors, unless six or four law- 
 ful men make it manifest by their testimony concerning the 
 identity of the persons so enrolled upon such recognizance, 
 and which lawful men shall be sufficient to answer any 
 damages received by any persons, in case of such recognizance 
 being entered against them falsely : and that a penny in the 
 pound shall be paid for enrolling debts. 
 
 It proceeds to confirm, in general terms, all just and reason- 
 able customs, not contrary to right and justice. It reserves 
 the liberty of the Church of Westminster, as granted by the 
 king's predecessors and himself; and declares, that with re- 
 gard to Jews and merchant-strangers, and other particulars 
 not included in that charter, which may concern the king 
 or the City, he and his heirs will provide as may seem ex- 
 pedient. 
 
 NOT LIABLE TO PLEAD WITHOUT THE WALLS, EXCEPT FOR 
 THINGS DONE AGAINST THE KING'S PEACE. It IS a Well known 
 
 maxim in the English law, that all criminal matters must be 
 tried in the county in which they arose. This exception in 
 regard to the exclusive jurisdiction of the City courts over the 
 citizens not having been particularised in former charters, 
 may, perhaps, have occasioned some doubts as to the extent 
 of the civic judicial powers ; especially as strong contests 
 prevailed, in the early periods of English history, on the sub- 
 ject of local jurisdictions. 
 
 EXCEPT FOE PLEAS OF MERCHANDISE, WHICH ARE WONT TO BE 
 DECIDED BY LAW MERCHANT IN THE BOROUGHS AND FAIRS BY 
 FOUR OR FIVE OF THE CITIZENS THERE PRESENT. This clause 
 
 adverts to a very ancient custom, under which law merchant, 
 as it was called, or the law according to the usages of mer- 
 chants, was administered throughout all the boroughs of Eng- 
 land (in which places alone, by an ancient law, mercantile 
 gales or dealing by wholesale could take place), 1 amongst 
 foreigners to the borough jurisdiction who might happen to 
 
 1 LL. Gul. Emend. Lamb. Archaion. Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 58 ; and vide supra, 
 pp. 161, 170.
 
 SWEARING UPON GRATES OF THE DEAD. 32 
 
 be trading within it. The judges in these mercantile courts CHAP, 
 were ordained by statute 1 Edward I. to be the mayor, bailiff, ^_ T '_ 
 or chief municipal authority : but, with regard to London, the 
 citizens exercised of old the privilege recognised in the pre- 
 sent charter, of appointing certain wardens of their own to 
 adjudicate on all litigated points. 1 Thus we find, also, that 
 the citizens were used to appoint one of the aldermen to 
 administer law merchant to the merchants of the Steelyard. 2 
 These commercial jurisdictions have long ceased to exist; but 
 the law merchant, incorporated as it has ever been with the 
 Common Law, and considered indeed a part of it, has been 
 dispensed through the medium of the king's supreme courts. 
 CITIZENS SHALL NOT BE ALLOWED TO SWEAR UPON THE 
 GEAVES OF THE DEAD, &c. To understand this clause we 
 must refer to the ancient mode of trial by compurgation 3 of 
 which so much has already been said. The citizen was at 
 liberty to discharge himself from all pleas of the crown by the 
 wager of law, or, in other words, by the oath of his jury 
 of compurgators. As, however, in the progress of such crimi- 
 nal plea, some of his selected compurgators might die, a 
 custom (which, as far as can be collected from the language 
 of Selden, 4 seems to have been peculiar) prevailed in the City 
 of London, for the accused party, or perhaps others, to testify 
 solemnly on oath upon the graves of the deceased, who had 
 been summoned as compurgators, precisely as to their inten- 
 ded verdict. 5 From the language of the common translations 
 of the City charters it is by no means easy to deduce this 
 explanation, or indeed any meaning at all : it would appear 
 from them, that the subject matter testified was rather the 
 evidence of the deceased in the character of a witness, than 
 that of a compurgator's verdict. Upon reference, however, 
 to the original Latin charter, 6 illustrated as it is by the 
 characteristics of a compurgation trial, it is evident that the 
 latter species of testimony is the one alluded to. The charter 
 speaks of the liberty granted to the citizens of discharging, 
 
 1 Calthorpe's Usages, pp. 12, 13. 4 Selden, Mann. Arund. Ad Smyrn. 
 
 Liber Albus, fol. 40. Fcadus, vol. ii. torn. 2, p. 1550. 
 
 * Vide supra, p. 166. s Ibid. 
 
 s Vide supra, pp. 36, 265, 285 et seq. Ibid.
 
 328 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK or acquitting (disrationare] themselves, according to the ancient 
 -. ,_' - custom of the City : it then refers to these deceased indivi- 
 duals as chosen (electi) to discharge or acquit (disrationare) 
 those arraigned (rectati) or appealed ; and provides that other 
 free and lawful men shall be chosen (eligantur), who shall do 
 that without delay, which, &c. All these phrases apply per- 
 fectly well to the oath or verdict of the compurgators, accord- 
 ing to the ancient and accustomed trial by purgation, but are 
 utterly inconsistent with the testimony of witnesses, which could 
 not by possibility be supplied by any choice of other freemen, 
 as is suggested. 
 
 EXCEPT PEISAGE OF WINES.' Prisage of wines was an 
 ancient prerogative appanage of the crown, and formed one 
 of its chief flowers. It was a custom of one tun before and 
 one behind the mast, payable as a duty from all vessels 
 coming into an English port laden with wines, and was one 
 of what were called the great customs. 2 It has been seen 
 that by a series of charters the citizens were exempted from 
 all tolls and customs ; but it is to be understood that there 
 were two sorts of customs, the great and the petty customs ; 3 
 the latter of which, as Lord Hale says, though commonly so 
 called, were not so much to be considered customs, as tolls 
 or dues in regard to territorial propriety. 4 Consequently it 
 has been ruled, that the citizens were not by these charters 
 exempted from the great prerogative customs, but only from 
 those of a petty nature, which were originally due as upon a 
 proprietary title, 5 and the exemption from which might be 
 claimed by prescription ; which is not the case with regard 
 to the greater customs. 6 This charter does not therefore 
 contravene former grants ; though, as will be subsequently 
 observed, an exemption from this custom also was granted 
 by a charter of Edward III. 
 
 FOREIGNERS AS WELL AS ALL OTHERS MAT MAKE THEIR 
 ATTORNEYS TO PLEAD AND DEPEND, AS ELSEWHERE IN THE 
 KING'S COURTS. Originally the plaintiffs and defendants 
 
 1 Vide post, Ch. V. p. 3. r )7. < Ibid. 
 
 2 Hale's Dissertation concerning the s Ibid. ch. iv. 
 Customs Harg. Tracts. Ibid. 
 
 Ibid.
 
 KING'S TRONE. ENROLLMENT ON RECORD OP DEBTS. 329 
 
 were bound to appear personally at the bar of a court of CHAP. 
 justice in all suits, whether criminal or civil. 1 This rule, _ ^ 
 which began to be relaxed by a clause in the statute of Merton, 
 20th Henry HE., was altogether abrogated by the subsequent 
 statutes of Westminster 1st (3rd Edward I.) and of Glouces- 
 ter (6th Edward L), and attornies were admitted to represent 
 the parties in all civil suits. 2 The practice of appearing by 
 attorney, it is evident, had crept in before such direct sanction 
 by the legislature, since this clause in the charter under con- 
 sideration seems to have no other object than to extend the 
 privilege to such individuals as by the custom of the City 
 had been previously excluded. 
 
 WEIGHED BY THE KING'S TEOKE. Of the toll or duty of 
 tronage we shall have hereafter occasion to speak. 3 It may 
 be sufficient here to observe, that the word trone literally 
 means a scale, from which we derive our term troy weight,* 
 sometimes spelt trone weight. For the purpose of ensuring 
 the just weight of the chief staples of the kingdom, and good 
 faith among merchants, the king erected his trone in all the 
 staple towns of the kingdom, by which the respective weight 
 of these goods was adjusted, and a duty paid by way of com- 
 pensation for the trouble incurred. 
 
 DEBTS ^ OF THE CITIZENS MAT BE ENROLLED IN THE KING'S 
 EXCHEQUER. The practice of entering acknowledgments of 
 debts upon the records of the king's supreme courts, under 
 the denomination of recognizances, was of a very early date, 
 and prevailed at common law before any statute. 5 The court 
 of exchequer was that department of the aula regis in which 
 these enrollments were the most common; and so it con- 
 tinued long after the separation of the different jurisdictions 
 of that supreme tribunal, 6 although recognizances might be 
 enrolled in any of the other courts. 7 No doubt the object of 
 this practice was to secure the most conclusive evidence of 
 the existence and justness of these debts ; and a considerable 
 
 1 Tidd's Practice, voL L pp. 51, 52. * Barrington on Statutes. 
 
 Co. Litt. 128*. s Tidd's Practice, chap. xL 
 
 Coke's 2nd lust. pp. 99, 224, 249, Madox's Hist. Exch.ToL ii. p. 86 et 
 
 312. tfq. 
 
 Vide post, chap. ri. p. 376. Tidd's Practice, chap. xL
 
 330 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK advantage accrued to the creditor in obtaining, through the 
 . _ medium of these enrolled recognizances, a more immediate 
 and effectual process for compelling payment in case of 
 default. 
 
 It is to be remarked, that at the period of the present 
 charter, parties who obtained judgments in any inferior 
 courts could not take out execution on the property of his 
 debtor, except in the way of distress, to compel payment ; but 
 a recorded judgment in the king's supreme court would 
 support an execution at once for the whole money recovered. 1 
 Accordingly it became of obvious advantage to have debts as 
 of record in a superior court, rather than that they should be 
 left to the ineffectual jurisdiction of local courts. 
 
 At common law no execution could issue against the lands 
 or the body of the debtor in case of contract, except where 
 the king was a party, or by virtue of an express recognizance 
 enrolled of record in a supreme court ; 2 in which cases the 
 sheriff might, under a writ called the levari, take into his 
 hands the party's lands, until he had levied out of the profits 
 of them the whole amount of the judgment. 3 It was not 
 until the statute of Westminster 2nd (13th Edward I.), that 
 this mode of seizing the lands was altered by the introduction 
 of the more commodious writ of elegit ; under which writ of 
 execution the recoverer of any debt, or the recognizee of a 
 recognizance, was at liberty to elect, to take into his own 
 hands the moiety of the lands of his debtor until he should 
 have paid himself his debt. 
 
 The advantage of a recognizance consisted not only in its 
 affording a more effectual, but likewise a more immediate, 
 process : for the debt being made by this course a debt of re- 
 cord, execution could be taken out at any time within a year 
 and a day, without further litigation ; and as was subsequently 
 provided by statute Westminster 2nd, by process of scire facias 
 after the lapse of that period. 4 The prevalence, therefore, of 
 the practice of recording debts is sufficiently accounted for. 
 But as this right subsisted at common law, it may possibly 
 
 1 Gilb. Law of Exec. p. 1 et scq. Comm. vol. iii. p. 417 et seq. 
 
 3 Ibid- 4 Tidd's Practice, ch. xl. 
 
 1 Gilb. Law of Exec, and Blacks.
 
 ENROLLMENT OX KECORD OF DEBTS. 331 
 
 excite some surprise whj it should be inserted as a special CHAP. 
 
 privilege to the citizens of London in a royal charter. The ^ , 
 
 truth is, that at this period many plain common law rights, 
 from the frequent violation of them, grew to he considered 
 fnmJ9n when actually exercised and respected : and none 
 were so fundamentally secured as not to be deemed fortified 
 l-y the expr-ss aeknowl-rd^inenr of the monarch. I: may be 
 also noticed, that the taking recognizances by the chief 
 judicial magistrates was a privilege in the City of London by 
 custom ;* and although the process and security acquired by 
 such enrollments in London might not be so available (which 
 in iact they were not) as those registered in the king's courts, 
 yet it might have been held that such customary enrollments 
 only were open to the citizens. 
 
 This common law recognizance grew almost immediately 
 after the passing this charter into general disuse. The bene- 
 ficial results of the improved method of securing debts became 
 so obviously important to the trading part of the community, 
 that so early as the llth and 13th years of Edward I. f statutes 
 passed, by which, in favour of merchants, these recognizances 
 were made available against the body as well as against the 
 lands and goods of a debtor. These recognizances were to be 
 taken by the chief authorities in most of the cities and towns 
 in England, and were called statutes merchant. Other recog- 
 nizances were by statute 2nd of 27th Edward HL c. 9, or- 
 dained for similar objects to be taken in staple towns only, 
 and came thence to be termed statutes staple. The benefits 
 of these statutes were still further extended by 23rd Henry 
 Y1JJL c. 6 (amended by 8th Geo. I. c. 25), by which any 
 person, though not a merchant, may secure his debts by recog- 
 nizance in the nature of statute staple ; which recognizances 
 were directed to be taken by the Chief Justice of the King's 
 Bench or Common Pleas, or in their absence from town by 
 the Lord Mayor and Eecorder of London jointly. The 
 practice of enrolling debts upon recognizance, though still 
 subsisting, has become almost obsolete ; and has been super- 
 seded by the security of a warrant of attorney to enter up 
 
 i Ibid, and Authorities. * Statutes of Acton Buroel and De Meicatoribos.
 
 332 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK judgment ; which from the extension of the process of execu- 
 ^_ T ' _. tion to the body on judgments in debt, as well as to goods and 
 half of the lands, has become in most cases equally efficacious ; 
 and requiring no process by scire facias after the lapse of a 
 year and a day to revive its effects and, being a transaction 
 altogether between private individuals, it has become an easier 
 and cheaper resource. 
 
 The precaution against personation and collusion in en- 
 rolling a recognizance in the name of an unconscious person, 
 which is provided in this clause of the charter, forms no 
 ingredient in the subsequent statutes by which the original 
 common law recognizances were superseded by those of 
 statute merchant and statute staple. That such omission 
 gave rise to occasional frauds, the special writ prepared for 
 such cases by process of audita querela sufficiently shows j 1 
 but it may be reasonably concluded, that the gradual amend- 
 ments in the administration of the criminal law, and the facili- 
 ties given to remedy such injustice by summary application 
 to the courts, as well as by the writ of audita querela, may 
 have been sufficient to check any very general prevalence of 
 such malpractices. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF EDWARD I.* 
 
 This charter grants, that for the greater convenience of the 
 citizens, they shall present the mayor and sheriffs to the con- 
 stable of the Tower, in case neither the king or the barons 
 of the exchequer should be at Westminster or in London. 
 It also grants, that the citizens shall be free from passage, 
 pontage, and murage, 3 throughout all the king's dominions. 
 Also that the sheriffs, when they shall happen to be amerced 
 
 'Gilb. Law of Exec. p. 103. Black- the City Charters, which was a sum 
 
 stone's Commentaries, vol. iii. p. 406, paid for liberty of depasturing hogs. 
 
 Fitz. Nat. Brev. The author has preferred the more ob- 
 
 2 To be found as the last. Dated 18th vious reading, passage, the exemption 
 
 April, 26th of reign. from which toll was an ancient immu- 
 
 s Of these tolls some explanation has nity. Pontage was a contribution or 
 
 been already given, vide p. 364 et scq. tax for building or repairing bridges, 
 
 The first mentioned is usually termed and levied on the passengers. 
 pasnage or pannage in translations of
 
 CHARTERED ARTICLES FOR CIVIC GOVERNMENT. 66 
 
 in any of the king's courts, shall be amerced according to the CHAP. 
 
 measure and quantity of their offence. 1 And lastly, it ^ 
 
 confirms former free customs in general terms. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF EDWARD I. 
 
 This charter contains a recital by Inspeximus of the last of 
 Henry III., which it confirms, together with all free customs, 
 in the same general terms as expressed in the last clause of 
 the former charter of Edward I. 
 
 FIRST CHAKTER OF EDWARD II. 
 
 This charter first refers to certain articles agreed upon by 
 the citizens, and submitted to the king for confirmation ; out 
 of which he had been pleased to ratify the following : 
 
 1st. ' That the mayor and sheriffs be elected by the citizens, 
 * according to charters granted.' 
 
 2nd. * That the mayor remain but one year in office.' 
 
 3rd. ' That the sheriffs have but two clerks and two ser- 
 ' jeants, for whom they will be responsible.' 
 
 4th. * That the mayor hold no other civic office besides the 
 ' mayoralty. Nor draw suits irregularly before him from the 
 ' sheriffs' courts, or otherwise beyond his jurisdiction.' 
 
 5th. ( That the aldermen serve but for one year.' 
 
 6th. ' That the tallages after being assessed in the several 
 ' wards by those deputed for such purpose, be not afterwards 
 ' increased at the discretion of the mayor and commonalty ; 
 f and that the sums raised be delivered into the hands of four 
 ' of the commonalty, who shall account for the disposal of 
 1 them.' 
 
 1 Vide p. 292 and notes. and subsequently in that of 7th Richard 
 
 2 To be found in Liber Albus, and in II. ; it is also referred to as a charter 
 the Inspeximus of 7th Richard II. Dated by the 3rd charter of Henry VIII. It 
 17th April, 27th year. is to be found in the Tower Kecords, 
 
 1 This is a confirmation of certain Pat. 12 Edward II. p. 2. m. 2., and 
 
 articles originally prepared by the citi- was granted 18th June, 12th year. The 
 
 zens for their better internal govern- articles are to be found at large in 
 
 ment, rather than a charter. It was, Strype's Stow, book v. p. 363, and 
 
 however, incorporated in the general Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 115. 
 luspeximus charter of loth Edward III.
 
 334 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 7th. 'That no stranger be admitted into the freedom of the 
 
 - ^ - ' City at the hustings court. That inhabitants to be admitted 
 
 ' shall be of some mystery or trade, six members of which 
 ' shall be sureties to indemnify the City in respect of them. 
 ' That strangers 1 who are members of any trade or mystery 
 
 * shall, upon being admitted at the hustings court, give the 
 ' same security ; if they are members of no trade or mystery 
 ' they shall then only be admitted by full assent of the com- 
 ' monalty assembled. That all who have been admitted con- 
 
 * trary to these forms, as well as they who have acted in such 
 ' admission contrary to their oaths and the law of the City, 
 
 * shall, on lawful conviction thereof, lose their freedom. This 
 
 * clause, however, is not to affect the admissions of apprentices, 
 f who are to be admitted according to ancient form.' 2 
 
 8th. * That every year, if need be, inquiry shall be made if 
 ' any freeman exercise merchandize of the goods of others 
 ' not being freemen, by calling them his own, contrary to his 
 ' oath. And upon conviction thereof, such freeman shall lose 
 ' his freedom.' 
 
 9th. ' That all who are of the Liberty of the City, who 
 'would enjoy the liberties and free customs of the City, 
 ' should be in scot and lot, and partake of all civic burthens 
 'according to their oath, under penalty of disfranchise- 
 ' ment.' 
 
 10th. 'That all who are of the Liberty of the City, but 
 'who, living without it, exercise by themselves or their 
 ' servants merchandize within it, be in scot and lot for their 
 ' merchandize, like the commoners, under pain of disfranchise- 
 ' ment.' 
 
 llth, ' That the City seal shall be put under the custody 
 ' of two aldermen and two commoners, to be chosen by the 
 ' commoners. That the use of the seal be not denied to those 
 
 * who may have just occasion for it, and that nothing be taken 
 ' for putting to of the seal. That judgments, especially on 
 ' verdicts after inquisitions taken, be not unnecessarily de- 
 
 1 Strangers are here spoken of as were to be admitted only at the general 
 contradistinguished from inhabitants ; folkmote, and not at the hustings court, 
 not as in the preceding sentence, entire 2 For a full explanation of the mean- 
 strangers both with regard to resianey ing and effect of this article, vide supra, 
 and a trading company. Entire strangers pp. 91 et seq,
 
 CHARTERED ARTICLES FOR CIVIC' GOVERNMENT. 33; 
 
 * ferred ; and if difficulties arise npon the judgments, that CHAP. 
 ' still they be not deferred beyond the third court.' - T l 
 
 12th. 'That the weights and scales of merchandize to be 
 
 * weighed between merchant and merchant, the issues of 
 
 * which belong to the commonalty, be in the custody of honest 
 ' men expert in the office of weighing, who are to be chosen 
 ' by the commonalty.' l 
 
 13th. 'That the sheriff shall commit the charge of collecting 
 
 * toll and customs belonging to their farm, to competent per- 
 ' sons, for whom they will be responsible. And that any such 
 
 * persons collecting undue custom, or otherwise misconducting 
 
 * themselves, shall be removed.' 
 
 14th. * That non-freemen shall not sell, by retail, wines or 
 ' other wares within the City or its suburbs.' 
 
 15th. ' That there shall be no brokers but those chosen by 
 
 * the merchants of the mysteries, in which the brokers may 
 
 * exercise their office ; and that all brokers shall be sworn to 
 ' this effect before the mayor.' 
 
 16th. 'That common harbourers within the City and 
 ' suburbs, though they may not be citizens, shall neverthe- 
 
 * less be subject to the civic burdens for maintaining its state, 
 ' like other inhabitants, in respect of their dwellings. Except 
 ' the merchants of Gascoigne and other foreign parts.' 
 
 1 7th. ' That the keeping of the bridge be intrusted to others 
 ' of the City than aldermen ; and be chosen by the common- 
 ' alty, to whom they shall be responsible.' 
 
 18th. ' That no serjeant of the chamber of Guildhall take 
 ' a fee, or do execution on the citizens, except he be elected 
 c by the commonalty ; that the chamberlain, the common 
 
 * (town) clerk, and the common serjeant be chosen by the 
 ' commonalty.' 
 
 19th. ' That the mayor, recorder, chamberlain, and com- 
 ' mon clerk, be content with their just and ancient accustomed 
 'fees.' 
 
 20th. ' That the property of the aldermen be taxed in aids, 
 ' tallages, and other contributions, by the men of their wards, 
 ' as the property of all other citizens.' 
 
 1 Vide first charter of Henry IT. ; second charter of Edward IV.; and the first 
 and third charters of Henry VIII. post.
 
 336 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK These articles the king confirms for perpetual observance. 
 . IL * He further grants, that the mayor, aldermen and common- 
 alty, may by common consent, for the common necessities 
 and profit of the City, assess tallages upon their own goods 
 and rents, and upon the mysteries ; and levy the same with- 
 out impeachment. And that the money so levied shall re- 
 main in the hands of certain commoners, to be chosen by the 
 commonalty, to be laid out for the common benefit of the City, 
 and not otherwise. 
 
 Articles 1 and 2. It has been already noticed that, from 
 the early part of the reign of Edward I. down to the Act of 
 Common Council of 20th Edward III., great confusion and 
 irregularity prevailed in the elections of the mayor and 
 sheriifs, and much uncertainty with regard to the elective 
 rights of the citizens at large. 1 This may be obviously attri- 
 buted to the gradual increase of the civic population and the 
 diffusion of independence. For as, on the one hand, the 
 zealous exercise of these important franchises was calculated 
 to introduce popular tumult and disturbance, so, on the other, 
 the repressing and regulating such occasions of violence by 
 the civic authorities would naturally lead to usurpation and 
 contests. In fact, the whole period alluded to was occupied 
 in continual struggles between the citizens at large and their 
 municipal governors, upon the subject of their municipal elec- 
 tive rights. 2 It appears that the general community could 
 hardly maintain their just rights without disorders and ex- 
 cesses, nor could the higher powers refrain from making en- 
 croachments on the popular franchises, which they appear at 
 times almost to have established as legal. The proclamations 
 against the attendance of electors not specially summoned by 
 the mayor were counteracted by popular resolutions against 
 illegal usurpation of the civic dignities, until the acts of 20th 
 and 49th Edward III., by raising qualifications and a system 
 of election by the representatives of the whole civic body, 
 first laid a basis for reconciling the exercise of a general 
 elective right with the preservation of peace and good order. 
 The first two articles of this charter advert to both subjects 
 
 ' Vide supra, pp. 61, 74, 115. 2 Ibid, and Strype's Stow, book v. pp. 
 
 74, 363.
 
 ELECTIONS. ABUSES BY PEOCESS OFFICERS. 337 
 
 of complaint. In the former, the ancient mode of election CHAP. 
 
 according to the charters is enjoined; which, although it , ' 
 
 would appear to suggest the general election by the commu- 
 nity at large, yet had for its object the election by a select 
 body, specially summoned, and the prevention of the tumults 
 of a popular election : for the election by the select body had, 
 only four years before the passing of this charter, been pro- 
 claimed by royal authority to be the genuine ancient and 
 customary mode ; l and that practice, though continually in- 
 terrupted by the citizens asserting their original independent 
 claims, had been recognised by numerous entries on record, 
 both before and after the charter under present consideration. 
 In the second article the unauthorized usurpation of office 
 by the mayor, either without any election or by a factitious 
 one, is forbidden. The language of the charter seems, liter- 
 ally, to imply that the same mayor was not to be elected 
 two years successively ; but the repeated instances of such 
 successive elections from the earliest period, has sanctioned 
 the more legitimate construction, that it was the practice 
 of holding over, without a regular election, which was pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 Article 3. The clerks here spoken of were probably the 
 chief or only officers in these early times for conducting the 
 proceedings in the sheriffs' courts ; although since, and at 
 present, these officers are much more numerous, and pass 
 under various other titles, as Secondaries, Prothonotaries, &c. 
 The Serjeants (servientes ad clavam) are only another, and 
 the original, denomination of bailiffs, or officers who were 
 appointed to carry into execution the process of the courts. 2 
 The abuses practised by these officers, and more particularly 
 by the Serjeants, seem to have been frequent and various. 
 At a time when bailable process could be taken out for the 
 most trivial debts, it may easily be conceived that it became 
 a ready means, in the hands of the inferior orders of trades- 
 men, and of these officers, to harass and oppress the humble 
 and the distressed. It must be confessed that the citizens, 
 by their ready employment of these people against their 
 debtors, and their jealousy of all interference with the 
 
 1 Strype's Stow, book v. pp. 7*, 363. Spelm. Gloss.
 
 338 
 
 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK exclusive legal jurisdiction in the City, fostered these abuses, 
 _ r - . as well as a spirit of self-importance in those who might 
 commit them almost with impunity. 1 It is certain the 
 sheriffs formerly made their account in the delegation of 
 this odious branch of their authority ; and equally so, 
 that the citizens suffered much grievance by the unrestricted 
 and indiscreet appointment of such officers. 2 An Act of 
 Common Council of the reign of Edward III. provides 
 that the sheriffs retain but three or four Serjeants at the 
 most, that the people "be not oppressed? And many similar 
 civic ordinances passed from time to time, to regulate the 
 conduct and restrict the number of these and all other sheriffs' 
 officers. 4 
 
 1 In allusion to this topic, a gallant 
 of the year 1636, in a play of that date, 
 making answer to a proposition started, 
 exclaims : 
 
 Til sooner kill a Serjeant, choose 
 my jury in the City, and be hang'd for 
 a tavern bush ! ' The Wits : Lavenant. 
 
 2 As specimens of the City Serjeant's 
 estimation and character, taken from 
 genuine sources of the manners of the 
 age, we give the following quotation 
 from old plays: 
 
 A Cyprian sees a person with whom 
 she has made an appointment, and thus 
 expresses herself: 
 
 Enter MOLL (like a man), 
 
 ' Moll. Oh! here's my gentleman : if 
 they would keep their days as well with 
 their mercers as their hours with their 
 harlots, no bankrupt would give three- 
 score pounds for a Serjeant's place ; for, 
 would you know, a catchpole rightly de- 
 rived, the corruption of a Citizen, is the 
 generation of a Serjeant.' The Roaring 
 Girl : Middleton. (About the beginning 
 of James I.) 
 
 In another play, a lady of the same 
 vocation is under arrest ; whereupon the 
 scene thus proceeds : 
 
 FRANCES under arrest, SERJEANT, and 
 DRAWER. 
 
 Draw. These Serjeants feed on very 
 
 good reversions, 
 On capons, teals, and sometimes on a 
 
 woodcock, 
 Hot from the shrieve's own table ; the 
 
 knaves feed well. 
 
 Fran. Come, let's pay and be gone ; 
 
 the arrest, you know, 
 Was but a trick. 
 
 Serj. True ; but I have an action 
 At suit of Mistress Smellsmock your 
 
 quondam bawd : 
 The suit is eight good pound, for six 
 
 weeks' board, 
 And five weeks' loan of a red taffata, 
 
 gown 
 Bound with a silver lace. 
 
 Fran. I do protest, 
 I got her in that gown in six weeks' 
 
 space 
 
 Four pound 
 
 But, honest Serjeant, 
 Let me go, and say thou didst not see 
 
 me ; 
 I'll do thee as great a pleasure shortly. 
 
 Ram Alley : Barry, 1611. 
 
 1 Hodges's Bye Laws, p. 5. So sheriffs 
 of counties swore that they would have 
 but a needful number of Serjeants. 
 Vide Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 
 147. 
 
 4 Ibid, passim. The ordinances them- 
 selves are to be found at large in Lib. 
 Legum. Lib. H. fol. 286. Lib. I. fol. 32. 
 Lib. K fol. 257. Lib. L. fol. 221. Lib. 
 M. fol. 180, 196. Lib. N. fol. 245. 
 
 The following ludicrous scene from
 
 REGTTLATIOXS CONCERNING ALDERMEX. 
 
 339 
 
 Article 5. There is no trace when the term Alderman was 
 first applied to the presidents of the London gilds or wards ; 
 the probability is, that it was introduced after the Conquest. 
 The denomination was common in the Saxon times to 
 various judicial dignities and officers, from the highest to the 
 lowest rank, 1 but there is no record of it as applied to the 
 
 CHAP. 
 IV. 
 
 an old play of the date of 1607 will 
 best illustrate the subject of this ar- 
 ticle : 
 
 Puttock (arresting Pyeboard, a scho- 
 lar). They say you're a scholar. You'll 
 rail against Serjeants ! you'll tickle their 
 vices ! 
 
 Pyeb. Pray do not handle me cruelly. 
 I'll go whither you please. Pray give 
 me so much time as to knit my garter. 
 
 Putt. Well, we must be paid for this 
 
 waiting upon you. 's foot, how 
 
 many yards are in thy garters, that 
 thou'rt so long tying them? Come away, 
 Sir. 
 
 Pyeb. Troth, Serjeant, I protest you 
 could never have took me at a worse 
 time ; for now at this instant I have no 
 lawful picture about me. 
 
 Putt. 'Slid, how shall we come by our 
 fees then ? 
 
 Eavenshaw. We must have fees, 
 sirrah. 
 
 The prisoner here proposes to go to 
 some gentleman in the neighbourhood 
 on whom he has a claim for the five 
 pounds, for part of which sum he is ar- 
 rested. 
 
 Putt. Why, how far hence dwells 
 that gentleman ? 
 
 Bav. Ay, well said, Serjeant; 'tis good 
 to cast about for money. 
 
 Pyeb. The next street. 
 
 Putt. 'Slid, we have waited upon you 
 grievously already. If you say you'll 
 be liberal, and give us double fees and 
 spend upon us, why we will show you 
 that kindness. 
 
 Pyeb. Troth it shall be all among you. 
 My hostess shall have her four pounds 
 five shillings, and the other fifteen 
 shillings I'll spend upon you. 
 
 Bar. Why, now thou arta good scholar. 
 
 Putt. I'faith, 'has behaved very 
 
 well of late. 
 
 While Pyeboard withdraws with the 
 gentleman to receive his 5/. the officers 
 proceed : 
 
 Bav. Where shall us sup to-night? 
 Five pounds received let's talk of that. 
 I've a trick worth all. You shall bear 
 him to the tavern, whilst I go close with 
 his hostess, and work out of her. I 
 know she would be glad of the sum to 
 finger money, because she knows 'tis 
 but a desperate debt. What will you 
 say, if I bring it to pass, that the hos- 
 tess shall be content with one half for 
 all, and we share f other 50 shillings'! 
 
 Putt. Why, thou should' st be king 
 of Serjeants : but I think he receives 
 more money, he stays so long. 
 
 Bav. That would be rare, we'll search 
 him. 
 
 Putt. Nay be sure of it, we'll search 
 him ; and make him light enough. 
 
 The prisoner escapes by the assistance 
 of the gentleman, while thus the dia- 
 logue proceeds : 
 
 Bav. Vengeance dog him ! 
 
 Putt. But if e'er we clutch him again 
 the Counter shall charm him. 
 
 Bav. The Hole shall rot him. 
 
 [Exeunt Serjeants. 
 
 Gent. So ; vex your lungs without 
 
 doors. 
 Alas, poor wretch! I could not blame 
 
 his brain 
 
 To labour his delivery, to be free 
 From their unpitying fangs. Puritan 
 Anon. 1607. 
 
 1 Heywood's Dissertation, pp. 53, 54, 
 57. Doddridge, quoting Ingulphus, p. 
 50. Spelm. Gloss. ' Aldermannus,' 
 ' Maior.' 
 
 z2
 
 340 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK heads of particular districts in London during that period ; 
 
 v. ,J - and there is reason to believe that the appellation was not 
 
 used in that sense until the reign of Henry II. 1 Alfred, we 
 have noticed, appointed one alderman over all London : 2 in 
 Athelstane's reign, the aldermen are not mentioned amongst 
 the civic authorities who met for the purpose of passing 
 penal regulations for the good government of the City. 3 
 Neither the Conqueror nor any of his immediate successors 
 mention them in the early charters ; but we find the 
 presidents of socs (an ancient name for the ward jurisdiction) 
 called in Henry I.'s charter barons. Aldermen of London are 
 first mentioned in the reign of Henry II. as presiding over 
 gilds, some of which were territorial and others mercantile. 4 
 In the reign of Henry III. aldermanries had become a 
 common term for a civic district comprised within a leet 
 jurisdiction, as well in London as in other cities. 5 
 
 Until the time of the Conqueror, there is every reason to 
 conclude that the president of the soc or gild, under what- 
 ever name he exercised his authority, held his office by 
 election, like most other of the Saxon dignitaries. 6 It is 
 certain, however, that by the time of Henry III. the alder- 
 manries in London and other cities had become property in 
 fee, and hereditary 7 most probably in consequence of the 
 introduction of the feudal system. The ordinances of the 
 charter under consideration show that they did not long con- 
 tinue so, and that such proprietary titles were usurpations 
 on the genuine constitutional rights of the citizens. The 
 aldermen continued to be annually elective until the 28th 
 year of Edward III., when an ordinance was passed by the 
 king in council to render them irremoveable without cause ; 8 
 a regulation which was afterwards established on a more legal 
 basis by a statute passed in the 17th year of Richard II., and 
 which has ever since continued. 9 
 
 1 Fabian asserts that they were first Vide supra, p. 259 in notis. 
 chosen in the twenty-fifth year of Henry ' Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 14. Vide 
 III. (part 7). supra, p. 93. 
 
 2 Vide supra, p. 19 and notes. 8 Bohun's Priv. Lond. p. 57. Howel's 
 ' Vide supra, p. 19. Londin. p. 35. Strype's Stow, book v. 
 * Madox's Firma Burgi, p. 26 ; and p. 81. Lib. Cust. fol. 192. 
 
 vide supra, p. 76 et seq. Noorthouck.p. 84. Mai tland's Hist. 
 
 8 Madox's Firma Burgi, book xir. vol. i. p. 181. Strype's Stow.bookv. p. 81.
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADING. CITIZENS BY OCCUPATION. 341 
 
 Article 8. This and the 14th and 15th Articles relate to CHAP. 
 
 TV 
 
 the ancient privilege of exclusive trade in the City, which -_ , ' ^ 
 has always been justly considered as a prescriptive right. It 
 is referred to in the most ancient books of collections of the 
 laws, privileges, and customs of the City of London, and ex- 
 isted in the reign of Henry III. 1 This privilege did not 
 originate from any charter, or out of the commercial character 
 of the civic community; but from the Saxon principles of 
 municipal polity, which prohibited the residence of strangers, 
 for any purpose, without their becoming enrolled in frank- 
 pledge which was, in fact, to become a freeman in the 
 primitive sense. The right of exclusive trade, considered as 
 a distinct and specific privilege, was rather an emanation 
 from the chartered mercantile privileges of the citizens, 
 than a positive and distinct original law of the civic consti- 
 tution. 2 
 
 The colouring or falsifying the ownership of non-freeman's 
 goods has always been a subject of great jealousy within 
 the City ; and the regulations for the purpose of preventing 
 this fraud are the most numerous, and amongst the most 
 ancient of the Corporation. 3 This is the oldest recorded 
 allusion to the subject ; and although the freeman's oath is 
 referred to as previously forbidding the practice, we may in- 
 fer, from the express penal prohibition here ordained, that 
 both the oath and the practice itself were matters of recent 
 occurrence. 
 
 Article 10. This clause establishes a most important point 
 namely, that by the ancient law of the City it was not ne- 
 cessary that the householder, who, paying scot and bearing lot, 
 represented the full citizen, should continually reside, sleep, 
 and diet within the walls (a qualification which has been 
 sometimes insisted on), but that any residence as a personal 
 
 . ' Lib. Home, fol. 60, 230. v. Hutchins, MSS. Harg. MSS. Brit. 
 
 * Vide swpra.pp. 75, 120 et seq. 169. Mus. No. 56, fol. 26. The whole subject 
 
 * It is almost impossible to enumerate has been drawn into one view in Norton's 
 the many laws and bye-laws directed to Exposition of Privileges of the City of 
 this object ; they maybe traced in nearly London in regard to wholesale dealing, 
 every page of Hodges's Bye Laws of the Besides an invasion of the civic right 
 Corporation, and their nature and mean- of exclusive trade by colouring strangers' 
 ing are ably discussed in Sir 0. Bridg- goods, the king's customs on aliens' and 
 man's judgment in the case of Player non-freemen's goods were defrauded.
 
 342 
 
 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK 
 II. 
 
 occupier, by day or night, was as much as could be required. 1 
 A contrary doctrine, as much at variance with the ancient 
 common law principles of the civic freedom as with the 
 direct corporation ordinances, could not fail, by disfran- 
 chising the great body of wholesale merchants and the higher 
 orders of retail shopkeepers, to entail the most disastrous 
 consequences on the interests of the City and on its political 
 influence. 
 
 Article 11. Corporate bodies can act only by their seal; 
 and it need not be here explained on how many important 
 occasions individuals have a private interest in its testi- 
 mony. 2 The history of these times sufficiently shows the 
 unjust bargains and extortions which from time to time were 
 ratified through the medium of the public seal. 3 The as- 
 sured and responsible custody of it became absolutely neces- 
 sary, as well for the repression of public fraud as for the 
 security of private title. The City Seal is seldom now affixed 
 to any other documents than those for the transfer or assur- 
 ance of proprietary rights ; but there can be little doubt that, 
 in earlier times, its testimony was often required to 'certify 
 many other particulars, which were of the utmost moment 
 to the citizens in questions which concerned their tenures, 
 
 1 Some late cases go far to establish 
 distinctly this proposition. Vide Eex 
 v. Hall, Barn and Ores. Reports, vol. 
 i. p. 123 ; Rex v. Poynder, ibid. p. 
 178. 
 
 The author had once occasion to 
 draw up an exposition, in the shape of a 
 legal opinion, on the qualifications of 
 citizens as wardmote electors ; and the 
 result of a laborious search into the 
 authorities on the point was, that the 
 position in the text was sanctioned by 
 the principles of Common Law, by uni- 
 form usage in the City, by the City Re- 
 cords, by the consentaneous opinion of 
 many great lawyers taken expressly on 
 the point, and by the language of the 
 statute (llth George I. c. 18) regulating 
 wardmote elections. The cases quoted 
 above were decided soon after that ex- 
 position was drawn up, and appear fully 
 to corroborate the same principle. Vide 
 supra, pp. 281 et seq. 334, art. 9; and also 
 
 supra, p. 98 et seq. Vide also stipra, 
 pp. 243 et seq., reviewing the various 
 recent Reform Statutes which have 
 restored and confirmed the ancient 
 elective franchises, in virtue of occu- 
 pation, 
 
 2 Kyd. on Corporations, vol. i. s. 2, 
 parts 2 and 3. 
 
 3 Most of the bargains for relief from 
 toll for assent to royal ordinances, 
 pardons, fines, &c. passed under the 
 sanction of the City Seal, and seem to 
 have been numerous. Vide Fabian 
 passim, and under title 'London,' Index. 
 The Commons also continually com- 
 plained of the City Seal being placed to 
 grants of City lands, without due autho- 
 rity, by the mayor and aldermen. Vide 
 Ordinances of 14th Edward III. Lib. F. 
 fol. 34 b ; 50th Edward III. Lib. H. fol. 
 45 ; 3rd Edward II. Lib. D. fol. 145 ; and 
 also supra, p. 7-i, note 6.
 
 CHAMBERLAIN HOW ELECTED. 343 
 
 their legal proceedings, their privileges, and their exemptions CHAP. 
 before the king's courts and throughout various parts of the ^ ^' . 
 kingdom. 
 
 Article 18. By this clause we find that the chamberlain, 
 who is the City treasurer, and who has many other important 
 functions to sustain, was in ancient times elected by the com- 
 monalty in Common Council, in the same manner as the Com- 
 mon-Serjeant and Town-clerk. The latter officers continue to 
 be elected by the Common Council to this day, but it is well 
 known that the former is now elected by the free liverymen in 
 .-the common hall. Xor is it surprising that the same mercan- 
 tile influence of the companies which established the trading 
 qualification of the freemen, should also be povrerful enough 
 to remodify their elective franchises, as far as regarded the 
 chief civic dignitaries. With respect to the mayor and 
 sheriffe, we have already traced the course of usurpation on 
 the ancient franchises of the commonalty. 1 It even became 
 a common impression, that the former must belong to one of 
 the twelve great companies, as they are called, though it 
 would be difficult to assign any ground for such a dogma. 2 
 The transfer of the elective franchise from the commonalty 
 to the liverymen, in regard to the appointment of chamber- 
 lain, was perhaps of more modern origin. Whether it ori- 
 ginated in some Act of Common Council, or was obtained by 
 gradual custom, is not very apparent ; it is probable, however, 
 that the election of chamberlain, though not mentioned in 
 those various ordinances which, beginning in the reign of 
 Edward I., finally established the elective claims of the 
 liverymen in that of Edward IV., soon followed the course 
 observed in that of the mayor and sheriffs. That the Com- 
 mon Council should retain the right of electing their Common - 
 serjeant and Town-clerk may be easily accounted for from the 
 nature of the duties of these officers ; which were chiefly con- 
 nected with the proceedings of that assembly, and were, in 
 these times, for the most part of a ministerial nature. But 
 those of the chamberlain being not only of a magisterial 
 
 * Vide utpra, pp. 74, 114. 126, 243 elected from the Coopers' Company. 
 et seq. which is not one of the twelre chief com- 
 
 * Strvpe's Stow, book T. p. 173 ; panics, as early as 17*2. Maitlauds 
 Bowel's Londin. p. 41. There is a pre- Hist. ToL L p. 629. 
 
 eedent, however, of the lord mayor being
 
 344 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK quality, but of infinitely greater importance to the citizens 
 
 ' ^ - (particularly in regard to his control over apprentices, and 
 
 his admission of freemen), the companies would be propor- 
 tionably anxious to secure his appointment by themselves. 
 It seems certain that he was elected by the livery so early as 
 the 7th of Henry VII., when an Act of Common Council passed, 
 enabling the mayor and aldermen to nominate two, out of 
 whom the commonalty should elect one ; which Act was re- 
 pealed in 1643, 1 and the election was ordained to proceed ac- 
 cording to the ancient custom. It is remarkable that the 
 election of the chamberlain by the livery was never expressly 
 sanctioned until the statute of llth Geo. I. c. 18, as far as 
 can be discovered, even by Act of Common Council ; it being 
 clear, supposing it had, that the regulations of the Court of 
 Common Council cannot legally change the constitutional 
 rights of those whom they represent ; but although no real 
 distinction was originally intended, or ought, strictly speak- 
 ing, to exist between the election of this officer and that of 
 the common-serjeant and town-clerk, such distinction has 
 now perhaps become too firmly established, both by long 
 usage and the statute above referred to, ever to be shaken. 
 
 SECOND CHAKTER OF EDWAED II. 2 
 
 This charter recites the military services of the citizens in 
 besieging the castle of Leeds in Kent, and in divers other 
 parts of the kingdom ; and grants that such military service 
 shall not be drawn into precedent. 3 
 
 1 Hodge's Bye Laws ; Strype's Stow, Judge Foster, in his Discourse on Crown 
 book v. p. 375. Law, shows that the king in all suck 
 
 2 Dated 15th December, 12th year. cases has a prerogative right to im- 
 To be found in the Inspeximus of Charles press. But the supply of soldiers is 
 II. and Liber Albus. now systematically provided for by 
 
 3 Because it was an ancient privilege the Mutiny Acts. 
 
 that the citizens should not go to war The real origin, however, of this ex- 
 out of the City. This privilege was of emption from warring out of the City 
 no small importance in an age when was, that by the condition of burgage 
 wars and warlike disturbances were but tenure, the citizens were, according to 
 too common, both within England and the feudal system, bound only to defend 
 the king's continental dominions, and their own walls. Vide Wright's Tenures, 
 when almost every individual was p. 205 ; Bacon's Hist, of English Go- 
 compellable in such cases to bear arms. vernment, p. 298.
 
 345 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 FIRST CHARTEB OP EDWARD TIL. TNFANGTHEFT AND OUTFANGTHEFT 
 BEQUEATHING IX MORTMAIN AMERCIAMRNTS OF SHERIFFS FOR 
 
 ESCAPES FIXED CUSTODY OF THOSE ESCAPING TO SANCTUARIES THE 
 
 KING'S CLERKS OF THE MARKET TO HAVE NO JURISDICTION IN THE 
 CITY THE MAYOR TO BE ESCHEATOR CITIZENS TO BE EXEMPT FROM 
 PRISES OF VICTUALS TAKEN BY THE CONSTABLE OF THE TOWER 
 RECORDING OF CHARTERS IN THE KING'S COURTS CITIZENS TO BE 
 TAXED AS A COMMONALTY, AND NOT INDIVIDUALLY KING'S OFFICERS 
 HOT TO TRADE IN THE CITY LANDS OF CITIZENS WITHOUT THE 
 
 CITY AS WELL AS WITHIN LIABLE FOR CITY OFFICER'S DEFAULTS 
 
 CRIMINAL INQUISITIONS TO BE HELD ONLY AT ST. MARTIN*S-LE- 
 GRAND, BESIDES THOSE AT THE TOWER, AND AT THE GAOL DELIVERY 
 AT NEWGATE SECOND CHARTER OF EDWARD IH. GRANT OF SOUTH- 
 
 WARK THIRD CHARTER OF EDWARD ILL EXCLUSIVE TRADE 
 
 FOURTH CHARTER OF EDWARD m. POWER OF MAKING BYE-LAWS 
 FIFTH CHARTER OF EDWARD HL CITY MACES. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF FJ)WARD HI. 1 
 
 THIS most important charter, which is directed nvminatim to CHAP. 
 all dignitaries and magistrates of the realm, and to all the \' _ 
 king's subjects generally, begins by declaring, that the 
 liberties referred to and enumerated in it have been then 
 lately confirmed by the king in parliament. It proceeds to 
 state, that the citizens possessed many ancient liberties both 
 by custom and by express charter, all of which were confirmed 
 by Magna Charta ; but that these liberties had been occa- 
 sionally invaded : it accordingly annuls all statutes and 
 judgments contrary to their liberties, and confirms them as 
 secured by the Great Charter of England. It then grants, 
 That the mayor for the time being shall be one of the justices 
 at the gaol delivery at Newgate ; That the citizens shall 
 have infangtheft and outfangtJieft, and chattels of felons 
 attainted at Newgate ; Also that no more than the legal farm 
 
 ' Dated 6th March, 1st year. To be and that of 7th Richard II., and in Liber 
 found in the Inspeiimns of Charles II. Albas.
 
 346 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK rent for the sheriffwick of London (viz. 300Z.) shall be taken 
 ~_ - at the Exchequer. Further, That the citizens may bequeath 
 their tenements in mortmain or otherwise, as of ancient time. 
 Keferring then to the charter of Edward II., by which it 
 was granted that the sheriffs of London should only be 
 amerced, according to their offence, like other sheriffs, and 
 reciting that other sheriffs on this side Trent were used 
 to be amerced but 100s. for the escape of thieves, it declares 
 that the City sheriffs shall not be otherwise amerced ; and 
 also, that the City shall be charged only as of old was accus- 
 tomed for the custody of those who fly to the churches for sanc- 
 tuary. Further, that they may remove wears in the Thames 
 and Medway, and have the fines for conviction of offenders. 
 It further grants, That all foreign merchants shall sell 
 their merchandise within 40 days, and shall lodge with free- 
 hosts appointed for them, and not in societies of their own; 1 
 that the marshal, or clerk, or steward of the market of the 
 king's household, shall exercise no official jurisdiction in the 
 City, nor draw the citizens without the City to plead. 2 That 
 none other but the mayor shall be escheator within the City, 
 who shall be sworn duly to execute that office ; that the 
 citizens shall neither do nor provide for military service beyond 
 the City ; that the constable of the Tower shall take no prises 
 by land or by water of the citizens' victuals or other like goods 
 coming to the City, rlor shall he arrest ships or boats laden 
 therewith ; and that their ancient custom to hold pleas con- 
 cerning the citizens at fairs is confirmed. 
 
 It proceeds to grant, That the sheriffs shall only be required 
 to be sworn on yielding their accounts. 3 Alluding then to 
 some question pending before the judges regarding the 
 liberties and^ free customs of the City which, contrary to 
 their privileges, the citizens had been compelled to claim at 
 the eyre held at the Tower in the last reign, it confirms all 
 such liberties, and allows of their being recorded as was of 
 old accustomed, notwithstanding any judgments or statutes 
 to the contrary ; and that for the future but one writ shall, be 
 required for the allowance of the charters in each reign. 
 
 1 Vide supra, pp. 20, 97, 290, and 2 Vide supra, pp. 108, 287. 
 
 notes. 3 Vidosupra, p. 312.
 
 ABSTRACT OF FIRST CHARTER OF EDWARD III. 347 
 
 It then grants, That process shall be executed in the City by CHAP. 
 
 the City officers only ; That the sheriffs shall, according to the ^_ ,' 
 
 tenor of the charters, have all forfeitures incurred towards 
 payment of their farm ; That the citizens shall be dealt with, 
 at the eyres held at the Tower, by the same laws and customs 
 which prevailed in the times of King John and King Henry, 
 and that nothing done at the more recent eyres shall preju- 
 dice them. 
 
 It further grants, That the citizens shall contribute to all 
 taxes and subsidies like the commonalty of the realm, and not 
 as men of a city, and that they shall be quit of all other tall- 
 ages ; that the liberties shall not be seized or a custos 
 appointed for the delinquency of any minister of the City, 
 but that such minister shall suffer individually for his indi- 
 vidual offence ; that purveyors shall not seize the goods of 
 the citizens against their will; 1 that they shall be quit from 
 prisage of wines ; that the king's officers shall not trade in 
 the City in the merchandise about which their offices are 
 concerned ; that the lands of the City magistrates lying with- 
 out the City, as well as their tenements within it, shall be 
 liable to the king for matters concerning their offices ; that 
 no market be held within seven miles in circuit of the City ; 
 that all inquisitions of the City taken by the king's justices 
 and ministers, shall be held at St. Martin's-le-Grand, except 
 those at the Tower and those of gaol delivery at Newgate ; 
 and, lastly, it grants that the citizens shall not be irnpleaded, 
 at the Exchequer or elsewhere, except in matters which con- 
 cern the king or his heirs. 
 
 INFANGTHEFT AND OUTFANGTHEFT. Great doubts and diffe- 
 rences of opinion exist with regard to the precise meajaing of 
 these terms. Some explain them as meaning a criminal 
 jurisdiction over thieves arrested within the liberty, and also 
 over those who, being originally members of the liberty, are 
 seized witlwut it. But this construction seems far too wide 
 to be consistent with the best authorities on this particular 
 subject, and on that of ancient criminal jurisdictions. The 
 words literally signify, jurisdiction over a thief taken both with- 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 109, as to Purveyors and their practices.
 
 348 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK in and without. It appears clear from all authority, as well as 
 
 . ,1 from principle, that this jurisdiccion never extended to those 
 
 offending, as well as seized, out of the district ; and we must 
 consequently understand it as extending only to those who 
 belonging to the district were seized within it, and to those also 
 who might happen to be so seized, though belonging to 
 another district. Later authorities, with much probability, 
 limit the nature of the jurisdiction still further, and restrict 
 it to a course of criminal proceeding peculiar to the circum- 
 stances of the times. 1 
 
 It is well known how vague and unsettled the administra- 
 tion of criminal law was during the Saxon era. The infliction 
 of summary punishment without any formal trial, in certain 
 cases of offenders seized by means of hue and cry, upon their 
 flight, by the members of the gild and borhoes in which the 
 offence was committed, may be clearly traced in the older 
 Saxon laws ; 2 and such a course does not seem inconsistent 
 with the simplicity of those ages, nor with that principle of 
 rendering pecuniary satisfaction for crimes, which was either 
 to be made by the party himself, or by the borhoe in failure 
 of detection. This summary mode of conviction is particu- 
 larly recognised by the laws of all Northern nations with 
 regard to offenders taken in the mainour, that is, in the actual 
 possession of the plunder. 3 The term Fanj does not signify, as 
 has been supposed, 4 ' plunder in hand ;' but merely something 
 seized, or a capture, that is, of the offender. Yet we have the 
 most decisive authority, not only that a summary course 
 of convicting persons seized in the actual possession of goods 
 stolen, or in the mainour, was taken throughout England, 
 but also that such course was the characteristic of the juris- 
 diction of the infangtheffc and outfangtheft, 5 although the 
 etymology of the word does not sua vi imply so much. 
 Bracton says, that by common law summary justice was done 
 on those thieves taken ftonbhabenb (hand-having), and those 
 Bacbepenb (back-bearing), upon their being pursued and 
 
 1 Spelm. Gloss. s Barrington on Stat. Index, 'Manner.' 
 
 * LL. Athelstane. Wilk. Jud. Civ. 4 By Barrington, ibid. 
 
 Lond. Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 172. 4 Spelm. Gloss.
 
 IXFAXGTHEFT. BEQUEATHING IX MORTMAIN. 349 
 
 seized by the Saccaboji (inhabitants of the leet 1 ), withont any CHAP, 
 judicial trial : he adds, that this was the peculiar jurisdiction ^ ^ - 
 of the infangtheft ; but that, if there was no such seizure of 
 the offender in actual possession of the plunder, the party was 
 to be indicted formally in the king's court. 8 
 
 The exercise of this jurisdiction, there is reason to believe, 
 had altogether ceased before the time of the present charter. 
 The mention of the privilege in conjunction with the grant 
 of chattels of felons convict, would imply that these ancient 
 terms, like that of pitas, had been adopted as signifying the 
 forfeiture and fruits of the criminal jurisdiction. 
 
 MAT BEQUEATH IN MORTMAIN, that is, to a body corporate, 
 which, rendering no services of a personal kind to any superior 
 lord, and not being liable to forfeiture or escheats, held its 
 possessions, as it were, in a dead hand. 3 The bodies corporate 
 here referred to, were ecclesiastical and not civic ; for it is 
 worthy of remark, that all the earlier statutes forbidding 
 alienations in mortmain to this period, solely respected eccle- 
 siastical corporations and the devices of the religious frater- 
 nities to accumulate landed property, and did not relate to 
 lay or town corporations. 4 By the ancient law of the land, 
 and that which prevailed in the City, alienations of land were 
 unrestricted ; and though it is said that a licence from the king 
 was necessary in the Saxon times 5 for any transfer to an ec- 
 clesiastical body, that position does not seem very clearly 
 made out, 6 and can hardly be said to apply to the citizens of 
 London^ who owed to the king none of those personal ser- 
 vices from which, if they could be demanded, this prerogative 
 control over alienations arose. The licence in question seems 
 rather to be of a pure feudal origin, and prevailed for the 
 purpose of securing to the lord of the fee whether ultimate 
 as the king, or immediate as the person holding as feudal 
 
 1 This translation is but conjectural. is plainly erroneous. 
 
 The express explication of this word * Bracton, lib. 3. Tract. 2. Ca. 32, 35. 
 
 has puzzled the most learned. Selden. * Kyd. on Corporations, vol. i. p. 95. 
 
 (Tit. Hon. add. 999) explains the Sacca- 4 Or. according to Biackstone, being 
 
 bor as the accuser or appellant of the composed of monks, who were dead men 
 
 leet jurisdiction. The literal meaning in law. 
 
 of the word is, baron or man of the sac. . * Selden. Jan. Ang. 1,2,8. 452. 
 
 Lord Coke's derivation (3rd Inst. p. 69) Kyd. on Corp. voL i. p. 88.
 
 loO OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK tenant to another, and subinfeudating to a third the military 
 ^ and many other personal services which could not be ren- 
 dered by a corporate body. This licence, though never abso- 
 lutely resigned by the Crown, was gradually, by the contriv- 
 ances of the monks, almost superseded in effect ; and entirely 
 so, as far as regarded the mesne lord of the fee : so that, in 
 the time of King John, there was scarcely any other restric- 
 tion from alienating to a corporate body than to a private 
 person. 1 
 
 The evils which flowed from thus withdrawing the personal 
 services of tenants from national calls, from the stagnation 
 of property, and from the overgrown influence of the clergy, 2 
 became in the reign of King John so apparent, that a clause 
 in Magna Charta was provided for the purpose of prevent- 
 ing these mortmain appropriations. But so great was the 
 ingenuity of the monks, that it required the force of several 
 statutes, passed in the reign of Edward I., to defeat the many 
 fraudulent devices by which they contrived, notwithstanding 
 the statutory restrictions, to get landed property into their 
 hands ; and by their invention of uses, under the sanction of 
 which lands were conveyed to trustees for their use, they still 
 managed to acquire almost all the benefits of estates not ab- 
 solutely conveyed to them in fee ; until by the statute taking 
 away all superstitious uses, 3 and that regulating the disposal 
 of property to charitable uses, 4 the mischief consequent upon 
 alienations in mortmain was at length prevented. 
 
 The citizens of London holding, by free burgage tenure, a 
 tenancy equally distinct from feudal as from a demesne te- 
 nure, were neither within the letter nor spirit of the statutes of 
 mortmain. As far as respected personal services, and every 
 other seignorial interest, except that of forfeiture, which was 
 not of feudal origin, 5 the City, with its rights, privileges, and 
 property, was, by ancient exemptions, already in a dead 
 hand ; and no alienation could in a further degree deprive 
 the lord of his rights. The king was, indeed, still immediate 
 lord of the fee, but not according to feudal principles ; and 
 
 1 Kyd. on Corp. vol. i. p. 88. * 9th George II. c. 36. 
 
 1 IJarrington O n Statutes, pp. 25, 78. * Vido post, p. 3o6. 
 
 8 1st Edward VI. c. 14.
 
 SHERIFFS AMERCIAMEST FOB ESCAPES. 
 
 as he could claim no feudal services, he could claim no feudal 
 right of licence. The nature of the civic constitution and 
 the liberties enjoyed hy the citizens will sufficiently explain, 
 therefore, the origin of that which has been considered an 
 ancient custom l viz., that they should be free to bequeath 
 in mortmain ; a privilege confirmed by this charter, as of an- 
 cient right, though probably in some degree impeached by 
 the construction of the then recently enacted statutes of 
 mortmain. 
 
 That this privilege should have been considered of any 
 value in these times, still more that it should be prized so 
 much as to become the subject of this charter, may serve to 
 show the influence of superstition and of a rapacious clergy 
 on the minds of the people. With the abominations of the 
 Catholic hierarchy, the monastic establishments have long 
 since perished ; every trace of the feudal system has been 
 obliterated ; charitable and religious donations and bequests 
 have been put by the legislature under regulations as favour- 
 able to the pious feelings of individuals of all classes, as to 
 the advancement of the general welfare ; 2 so that the statutes 
 of mortmain, and the civic privilege here discussed, have be- 
 come, in practice, almost a dead letter. 
 
 SHERIFFS TO BE AMERCED FOR THE ESCAPE OF THIEVES AT 
 ONE HUNDRED SHILLINGS. Something has already been said 
 in explanation of the nature of amerciaments ; 3 but this pas- 
 sage of the present charter suggests some further observations 
 on a topic of such universal importance in the administration 
 of justice throughout this kingdom during every reign of the 
 Plantagenets. 
 
 Under the Saxon dynasty, when all crimes might be expi- 
 ated by a pecuniary ransom, which was fixed, except in a few 
 instances, it is probable that an amerciament, or mulct ad- 
 measured by the suitors of the leet, was inflicted in cases of 
 crimes for which no fines were settled by positive law under 
 an express name such as weregild, bloodwite, childwite, 
 danegild, &c., which were only different denominations of the 
 same kind of punishment. As by degrees the specific punish- 
 
 1 Bulst. Kep. voL ii. p. 187. and 9th George H. c. 36. 
 
 * By statutes 1st Edward VI. c. 14 Vide supra, pp. 292 e**?. and p 32.
 
 352 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ments of death, of mutilation, of scourging, of exposure, of 
 v.. ,' _ imprisonment, of forfeitures and of fines, came to be assigned 
 to various offences respectively, amerciaments became less 
 generally applicable ; and we find, by a long current of autho- 
 rities, 1 that after the Conquest they were applied only to that 
 class off offences and defaults which were deemed too trivial 
 to have express punishments provided for them, and which 
 were sometimes termed parva delicta. 2 
 
 According to modern principles of law, every illegal act of 
 commission or omission of a public nature, not coming within 
 the special construction of a contempt of court, amounts at 
 least to a misdemeanour, subject to a judicial sentence ; and no 
 man can be convicted of any misdemeanour without a regular 
 trial. But, according to earlier doctrines and practice, a 
 remarkable distinction was observed between great and small 
 offences (in which latter class were comprehended several 
 offences now commonly punished as misdemeanours), both in 
 respect of the conviction and mode of punishment. All the 
 greater offences were, or ought to have been, regularly tried 
 upon an issue between the king and the party of ' guilty ' or 
 ' not guilty; ' and upon conviction, the presiding judge passed 
 a sentence, which, when pecuniary, came to be called a, fine : 3 
 the smaller offences were reserved, according to ancient 
 practice, for punishment by the offeered amerciament of the 
 suitors ; and the party was convicted without any trial upon 
 an issue joined, upon the mere presentment of an inquest jury. 4 
 The greater offences were all ranged under the class of pleas 
 of the Crown ; and the smaller under a class of charges, or 
 more properly convictions, especially designated by the term 
 presentments. 5 Thus by Magna Charta the jurisdiction over 
 
 1 Coke's 2nd Inst. Index. ' Amercia- herent authority, as for contempts by 
 
 ment," ' Eyre.' Bale's Pleas of the officers, or by suitors in their pleadings, 
 
 Crown, vol. i. ch. 52; vol. ii. ch. 19. were also called amerciaments origi- 
 
 a Magna Charta, ch. xiv. nally. 
 
 * Fines are d'stinguished, as imposed 4 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. 
 
 by the court, or by force of some statute ; ch. 52 ; vol. ii. ch. 19. Hill's edition of 
 
 amerciaments, as imposed arbitrarily Coke's Eep. 21st Edward III. 5th Henry 
 
 by the country. (Termes de la Leg. VII. fol. 9. 45th Edward III. fol. 8. 
 
 Kitchin's Jurisdictions, p. 214. Coke's Dyer's Rep. fol. 13. 
 Rep.partviii. pp. 39, 41,60a). Thefines * Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. ii. 
 
 imposed by the court of their own in- chap. 19; Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 738.
 
 AMERCIAMENTS NATURE OF. 
 
 pleas of the crown was taken away from all courts leet ; but 
 those courts still continued to punish, by disgraceful exposure 
 and by amerciament, for a variety of petty offences, upon pre- 
 sentments by the leet inquest : l and towns, hundreds, and 
 frankpledges continued to be amerced by the king's justices 
 in eyre, although these bodies seldom, if ever, in the earlier 
 times, traversed or pleaded to the presentments. 2 It is scarcely 
 possible to draw the line between what at any one period 
 were considered the greater, and what the smaller offences ; 
 but there is no doubt that during the period in which the 
 punishment by amerciament prevailed, many misdemeanours, 
 which ought to have been prosecuted by way of indictment 
 before a petty jury, were treated either as contempts of 
 court, and fined at the discretion of the judge, or as of the 
 smaller kind of offence, and amerced by affeerment of a 
 jury. 3 
 
 The crimes punishable by amerciament were, or ought to 
 have been, of the most trivial sort ; as such a course of con- 
 viction for this class of offences, during the latter period of 
 its existence, was tolerated only upon the legal maxim of de 
 minimis non curat Zex: 4 yet, as we have had occasion to 
 notice, owing to the nature of the royal revenue, the punish- 
 ment by amerciament formed, in the earlier ages of our 
 history, one of the most fruitful sources of oppression. 5 
 Not only were these exactions numerous and severe through- 
 out all the petty courts of the kingdom ; but the king's 
 judges, and more particularly the justices in eyre, levied 
 amerciaments with unsparing zeal, to supply the royal neces- 
 sitiesimposing them for every possible default in public 
 duty or in private litigation. 6 A particular sort of amercia- 
 ments passed by the name of royal ; arising chiefly from the 
 defaults of magistrates, public officers, and chief tenants, 
 
 1 Greenwood on Courts : charge to 4 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. 
 
 leet jury. Strype's Stow, book v. Coke's ch. lii. 
 
 2nd Inst. p. 738. 5 Vide supra, pp. 32, 77 et seq. and 
 
 * For the variety of amerciaments, 292 et seq.; and Hadox's Hist. Exch. 
 see Madox's Hist. Exch., chapter on passim, and particularly the chapter on 
 Fines and Amerciaments. Fines and Amerciaments. 
 
 * Ibid. The numerous subjects of 6 Ibid, 
 amerciament. 
 
 A A
 
 354 OP THE CHARTERS OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK who, subject to no other superior control, were visited by the 
 
 r f king's judges, and more especially by the justices in eyre, 1 
 
 whose commissions were sometimes solely issued for that 
 object. 2 It was under this jurisdiction that sheriffs were 
 amerced for escapes : for although any escape, whether neg- 
 ligent or voluntary, was perhaps from the time of the Con- 
 quest an indictable offence, subject to punishment by the 
 sentence of the court, and consequently, as Lord Hale ob- 
 serves, the charge was traversable, 3 and ought to be substan- 
 tiated by trial, yet that position of the learned judge must 
 be rather understood to relate to the law as it stood in his 
 own time, and not to the practice, or perhaps the law, as 
 it stood before the reign of Edward III. ; for the present 
 charter and many other records and authorities sufficiently 
 testify, that the king constantly levied his amerciaments for 
 escapes 4 such offences being treated either as contempts, or 
 as of the smaller kind of offences, and sufficiently substan- 
 tiated by mere presentment. 
 
 How these amerciaments were restrained, until, under new 
 principles in the dispensation of criminal justice, they have at 
 length entirely sunk into neglect, has been noticed in a 
 former part of this work. 5 
 
 CHAEGED ONLY AS OP OLD ACCUSTOMED FOE THE CUSTODY OP 
 THOSE WHO FLY TO SANCTUAEY. The old law of sanctuary 
 was, that any person guilty of felony might fly to a church 
 or consecrated place, and there remain in security for forty 
 days, after which he was to be allowed no food. "Within the 
 forty days he was at liberty to abjure the realm ; which was 
 to submit to perpetual banishment by forswearing the king- 
 dom, upon a public confession of guilt before the king's 
 coroner or bailiff at the church-door. 6 Sanctuaries have 
 long since been abolished by statute. 7 
 
 1 Termes de la Leg. ; and also the ject to amerciament for escapes, 
 
 first charter of Charles I., where issues * Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. 
 
 royal for the misconduct of magistrates ch. lii.; andMadox's Hist. Exch., chapter 
 
 are spoken of. on Amerciaments. 
 
 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. pp. 140, s Vide supra, p. 292. 
 
 141. 6 Termes de la Leg. Blacks. Comm. 
 
 3 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. vol. iv. p. 332. Coke's 3rd Inst. p. 
 
 ch. lii., and Coke's 2nd lust. p. 165; 216. 
 
 and also p. 28, where judicial and minis- " 21st James I. ch. xxviii. 
 teriul authorities are shown to be sub-
 
 SANCTUARIES. CLERK OF THE MARKET. 355 
 
 Wlien any person fled to a sanctuary, tlie vill in which it CHAP, 
 was situated was charged with the custody of such person ^_-/-_^ 
 until he left the kingdom under adjuration, or was brought 
 to justice. 1 The old reports and authorities refer so often 
 to amerciaments levied for escapes of felons from sanctuary, 
 that we may plainly gather this privilege of sanctuary gave 
 frequent occasion to extortion and abuse. 
 
 MARSHAL OB CLERK OF THE MARKET OP THE KING'S HOUSE- 
 HOLD TO EXERCISE NO JURISDICTION WITHIN THE CITY, NOR 
 DRAW OUT THE CITIZENS TO PLEAD BEFORE HIM. The king's 
 
 market, held at his palace gate, we have already noticed. 2 
 This market of the king's household had been disused for ages ; 
 but a similar jurisdiction to that which the clerk of the 
 market of the king's household possessed was exercised by 
 him. at most other markets throughout the kingdom, as in- 
 cident to the market itself ; 3 and it subsists with diminished 
 authority to this day. His office was to punish deceit in false 
 weights and measures ; and for that purpose he held a court, 
 and tried by jury. 4 His power being continually abused for the 
 purpose of extorting fines, in which he was interested as a 
 shaver, this jurisdiction became a constant subject of com- 
 plaint and of legislative restriction. 5 So late as 1607, Lord 
 Coke, in his charge to a grand jury of Norwich, says : ' The 
 ' clerk of the market will come down and call before him all 
 
 * weights and measures : if there is a fault, he and the informer 
 
 * share the penalty, but never redress the abuse. It was once 
 ' my hap to take a clerk of the market in these tricks ; but T 
 
 * advanced him higher than his father's son by so much as from 
 { the ground to the top of the pillory. If you of the jury, there- 
 ' fore, will present these offences, by God's grace they shall not 
 ' go unpunished ; for we have a coif, which signifies a skull, 
 'whereby in the execution of justice we are defended against 
 ' all oppositions.' 6 
 
 The clerk of the market of the king's household, and the 
 
 1 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. and Blacks. Comm. vol. iv. p. 275. 
 p. 605. Ibid. 
 
 2 Vide supra, pp. 108, 112, note 2. s Ibid, and Barrington on Statutes, 
 
 3 Coke's 2nd Inst. Articuli super p. 340. 
 
 Chartas, pp. 541, 542, 3rd lust. p. 273 ; Barrington on Statutes, p. 340. 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 OF THE CHAETEES OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK other king's officers who held courts at Westminster, were 
 ^_ / ^ continually harassing the citizens by assuming a jurisdiction 
 over them, contrary to their chartered privileges : l and we 
 have sufficiently explained how obnoxious such authority 
 was. By Edward IV.'s first charter, the clerkship of the 
 market in London was conferred upon the City. 
 
 THAT THE MAYOE SHALL BE ESCHEATOE. Escheats are of 
 feudal origin. The term signifies something fallen* and is 
 applied to lands fallen, or reverting into the hands of the lord 
 or original owner, for want of heirs of the tenant. The term 
 was applied generally, after the Norman Conquest, as well to 
 all lands and tenements coming to the king's hands under 
 the ancient Saxon law, whether accruing to him by way of 
 forfeiture for offences or as belonging to him when there was 
 no other owner, as to lands reverting to the king as lord 
 of the fee, under the feudal system, for want of heirs ; which 
 want of heirs might occur either by natural or legal defect, 
 as corruption of blood in consequence of treason or felony 
 committed by the tenant. 3 There was this difference, how- 
 ever, between forfeitures under the Saxon law and es- 
 cheats under the feudal law that in cases of treason only, the 
 lands vested by way of forfeiture to the king for ever ; and in 
 cases of felony, the king only enjoyed the profits of the land 
 during the felon's life, and for one year after his death : but as 
 by the feudal law any felony worked corruption of blood, and 
 consequently a failure of heirs, the Norman kings claimed, by 
 way of escheat, an absolute right to the land of convicted felons 
 for ever, as ultimate lord of the fee. 4 This latter kind of 
 escheat, properly so called, can hardly be considered as 
 legally arising in the City of London ; the citizens being, by 
 their ancient customs and charters, lawworthy as they were 
 in King Edward the Confessor's days, and consequently ex- 
 empt from all feudal burthens, and enjoying their property 
 under the Saxon or common-law tenure. It is probable, 
 however, that the king did, in fact, as considering himself 
 chief lord of the fee, assume lands and tenements forfeited 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 112, note 2. Pleas of the Crown, TO!, ii. ch. xxiii. 
 
 2 From Eschoire Fr., excidere. * Coke's 4th Inst, ch. xliii. ; and 
 
 3 Coke's 4th Inst. ch. xliii. Hale's Blackst. Comm. vol. iv. p. 381 et seq.
 
 MAYOR TO BE ESCHEATOR. 357 
 
 by the citizens, as well for felony as for treason, as coming to CHAP, 
 him by way of escheat for want of legal heirs. ^ ' 
 
 These escheats, arising to the king both in his regal capa- 
 city, and as lord of his various fees, were most extensive 
 throughout England in the earlier Norman times. 1 Those 
 which arose by way of forfeiture were held to apply as well to 
 interests in land as to the land itself; nor were they confined 
 at all times to cases of treason and felony, but sometimes 
 included trespasses and misdemeanours. 2 For the purpose of 
 ascertaining and securing these royal rights, officers called 
 escheators were commissioned, whose duty it was to manage 
 and account for the proceeds of escheats, and to adjudicate, 
 by the intervention of a jury, upon the title of the crown 
 in respect of them ; though, with regard to smaller escheats, 
 the sheriffs occasionally exercised both these official capa- 
 cities, particularly where estates escheated by forfeiture. 3 
 Sometimes the king constituted courts by especial commission 
 to enquire into escheats ; but it became, like all other pre- 
 rogative claims, more prominently a subject of the inquisi- 
 tions by the justices in eyre. 4 
 
 When it is recollected with what rigour and zeal all claims 
 of the crown were enforced, we shall be at no loss to appreciate 
 the importance of the office of escheator, or the value of that 
 privilege by which the citizens, for their greater security from 
 oppression, executed that office by their own appointed magis- 
 trate. 5 
 
 CONSTABLE OP THE TOWER TO TAKE NO PEISES OP VICTUALS, 
 &c. Prisage was a term applied to various maritime and 
 port customs ; but it was usually intended to signify custom 
 levied upon wine, 6 from which the citizens were not exempted 
 by the ninth charter of Henry HE., but are exempted by 
 a subsequent clause in this charter. As prisage of wine was 
 called a great custom, the mere general exemption from sea- 
 customs granted by previous charters would not include that, 7 
 but was understood merely to comprise all other prisages, 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. x. * Charter of Edward IV. post. 
 
 * Ibid. Hargrave's Tracts. Hale concern- 
 
 * Ibid, and Coke's 4thlnst. ch. xliii.; ing Customs, chaps, i., ii., & iii. 
 
 and Bale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. ' Ibid, and vide 9th Charter of Henry 
 ch. xxiii. ' III. Prisage of Wines, p. 328. 
 
 4 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. ch. x.
 
 358 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK such as those taken by the constable of the Tower upon 
 
 . ^J - victuals coming up the river in the smaller craft, which were 
 
 considered as petty customs, or, more properly speaking, 
 tolls. 1 Accordingly, this charter does not profess to grant, 
 but rather to confirm, the exemption from prises or customs 
 of the inferior kind. In respect to the prisage of wine, or pri- 
 sage absolutely so called, the charter declares in a distinct 
 clause that they shall be quit of it. So highly was the prisage 
 of wine considered, that a grant in general terms of prises, 
 even by name, would not convey the former custom ; because, 
 there being many smaller sorts of prises or customs, they were 
 rather considered to be intended by such general grant than 
 this more important prerogative duty. 2 
 
 The smaller prises were levied upon every sort of provision 
 coming by water to London, by the constable of the Tower, 3 
 either for the king's use or that of the king's grantee ; and 
 the places for levying them were at Billingsgate and Queen- 
 hithe, which were at one time almost the only quays in 
 London. 4 It is probable that such customs became due only 
 in respect of the quay, for the constable is forbidden to take 
 any prises ; but the citizens after the purchase of Queenhithe 
 certainly did take them from foreigners down to a very late 
 period. If these customs were due in any other right than 
 by way of toll at the quay, the exemption of the citizens from 
 petty customs would not interfere with the constable's 
 authority to levy them from others ; but if they were due 
 in right of the quay, the prohibition to the constable from 
 levying them from all persons, strangers as well as citizens, 
 would be consistent with the chartered transfer of this quay, 
 which we have already mentioned. 
 
 It was the practice of the constable of the Tower to arrest 
 ships and boats coming to London, when he suspected any 
 attempt to avoid the quay customs. 5 Afterwards, although 
 the right may perhaps have ceased, yet it would seem the 
 practice was still continued of taking prises, and arresting the 
 vessels for the purpose of enforcing payment. 6 
 
 1 Hale concerning Customs, ch. iii. 4 Ibid, and vide supra, p. 321 et seq. 
 
 * Ibid. s Ibid. Fabian, part vii. fol. 33. 
 
 * Strype's Stow, vol. i. book iii. p. 214 8 Ibid. 
 et seq.
 
 PRISAGES FORBIDDEN. REGISTRY OF CHARTERS. 359 
 
 Whatever may have been the justice of the claim, the in- CHAP, 
 jurious effects of it in lawless times must have been most - 7 t ' 
 serious upon the prosperity and traffic of the City, whether 
 such claim was enforced upon the citizens or only upon 
 strangers. This clause in the present charter must, there- 
 fore, have been of great importance, though without doubt 
 the peculiar exemption from so heavy a duty as that of 
 prisage of wine, being at the rate of one-fifteenth of the 
 whole cargo, 1 was rated much higher. This latter privilege, 
 however, great as it was formerly, 2 has now become of very 
 inconsiderable importance, since the national revenue has 
 become almost altogether statutable, and made to bear with 
 more equal pressure on all classes of the community. 
 
 ONE WEIT TO SUFFICE FOE ALLOWANCE OF CHARTEES IN 
 
 EACH KING'S EEIGN. The justices in eyre were used to 
 require all who claimed any franchises or chartered privileges 
 to present such claims before them for allowance and registry 
 of record, whenever they came ; and, notwithstanding the 
 charters had been solemnly granted and registered before, 
 still the same ceremonies of claims and registry were exacted. 3 
 The palpable object of this practice was to extort money ; 4 
 for not only did the justices levy a fine upon the registry, 
 but they sought every means of disallowing the claims, and 
 imposing heavy mulcts, by way of redemption for pretended 
 forfeitures. 5 This was continually remonstrated against as 
 a heavy grievance throughout the kingdom, 6 and was in all 
 probability the main reason for the opposition so often mani- 
 fested by the citizens to attend the inquisitions held by the 
 justices in eyre at the Tower. 
 
 CITIZENS TO BE TAXED AS THE COMMONALTY, AND NOT AS 
 MEN OF A CITY. That is, the citizens claimed exemption 
 from tallages, which were arbitrary levies upon demesnes, and 
 claimed to be considered in regard to taxation on the same 
 
 1 Hargrave's Tracts. Hale concern- Coke's 2nd Inst. p. 493. Termes de la 
 
 ing Customs, ch. ii. Leg. ' Claim.' 
 
 * The old Reports abound in cases of * Ibid, and the numerous fines for 
 
 this claim by the citizens. liberties. Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. 
 
 3 Vide supra, p. 80, note 4, and ch. xi. 
 
 authorities; and Stat. de quo Warr. * Ibid. Ibid.
 
 360 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK footing "as the freemen of counties. Tallages and demesne 
 .... .,' burthens we have already sufficiently considered. 1 
 
 KING'S OFFICERS NOT TO TEADE IN GOODS BELONGING TO 
 
 THEIR OFFICES. When we consider that not only the wants 
 of the king's immensely numerous household, but a very great 
 part of the national revenue, was in these times collected by 
 inland tolls and customs on the goods and merchandise of the 
 people, we may form some conjecture of the number and 
 powers of the king's officers spread over the whole kingdom. 
 The purveyors, the king's clerk of the market, the officers of 
 the royal household, the king's butler, were all armed with 
 powers which enabled them to get into their hands 
 merchandise and provision to an almost unlimited extent, 
 professedly for the king's use, at rates and prices much in- 
 ferior to their real value. It may be easily inferred, therefore 
 what means they would possess of extortion, and what interest 
 in exercising them, if they were allowed to trade in the 
 merchandise in which their offices were concerned. It was 
 to curb these abuses that the present clause of this charter 
 was framed ; and for the citizens' more complete security, as 
 well as that of the people at large, it was provided that 
 these officers should trade neither within nor without the 
 City. 2 
 
 LANDS OF CITIZENS LYING WITHOUT THE CITY TO BE 
 LIABLE TO KEEP THE ClTY HARMLESS IN MATTERS CONCERN- 
 ING THEIR OFFICES, AS WELL AS THOSE "WITHIN. Previous 
 
 charters had provided that the citizens should be liable to 
 satisfy the ferm and things appertaining to the sheriffwick 
 (though not amerciaments imposed personally on the sheriff), 
 in case of the sheriff's default. 3 And it had been especially 
 provided by statute, that whole districts should not be fined 
 in common for the particular offence of any individual. 4 
 Still, however, when any ministerial officer, other than the 
 
 1 Vide supra, pp. 30 et seq. 51, 88, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Inst. Index ' Officers,' 
 note 2 ; and Sullivan's Lectures, Lect. ' Purveyors,' ' Counting-house ;' and 4th 
 16. Inst, Articles against Cardinal Wolsey, 
 
 2 For a more detailed proof and ex- p. 89 et seq. Vide pp. 108, 122, note 5. 
 planation of positions in the text, vide * Vide supra, p. 312, and notes. 
 Barrington on Statutes, p. 42; Coke's 4 Vide supra, p. 110.
 
 INQUISITIONS IN ST. MARTIN'S LE GRAND. 361 
 
 sheriff, was amerced and could not pay, or when lie or any CHAP. 
 
 other civic authority could not discharge his accounts, it was ,' 
 
 the practice, according to ancient usage, to distrain for such 
 amerciament or debts upon the citizens at large i 1 and as the 
 king looked to the City for these payments by the hands of 
 the City sheriff, whose jurisdiction was bounded by the 
 district, it might have been conceived that there was some 
 irregularity, if not illegality, in resorting to lands or 
 tenements of the citizens situate elsewhere. It was usual, if 
 the citizens did not immediately pay, in a case of default, to 
 seize the whole city into the king's hands, and appoint a 
 custos. 2 The exemption of the citizens from such conse- 
 quences, while the defaulters had the means of satisfying 
 their debts, will explain the nature and reasons of this clause. 
 ALL INQUISITIONS BY THE KING'S JUSTICES AND MINISTERS 
 (EXCEPT THOSE AT THE TOWER AND AT THE GAOL-DELIVERY 
 AT NEWGATE) TO BE TAKEN AT ST. MARTIN'S-LE~GRAND. 
 The City of London possessed by ancient prescription a right, 
 confirmed by charter, of exclusive jurisdiction in pleas of the 
 crown. 3 This, however, did not prevent the king from exer- 
 cising, by his commissioned judges and others, various judi- 
 cial functions over the citizens both within and without the 
 walls. Many of these functions were no doubt legal, though 
 others would be hard to reconcile with the chartered privi- 
 leges of the citizens. The king's coroner, his escheator, and 
 probably some other of his judicial officers, possessed a clear 
 right of jurisdiction within the City, 4 until their functions 
 were transferred to the civic authorities. The king's judges 
 would likewise sit with legal powers at the gaol-delivery at 
 Newgate, associated with the lord mayor ; and over the lord 
 mayor and all other citizens at the eyres held at the Tower, 
 
 1 Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. ix. & x. ; merly much more extensive than at 
 
 and vide supra, p. 307. present. Besides his inquisitions upon 
 
 * This system of levying the king's violent deaths, -which so often led to 
 
 debts and amerciaments due by minis- those forfeitures called deodands, he en- 
 
 terial officers is fully explained and quired of waifs, treasure-trove, &c., and 
 
 detailed in Madox's Firma Burgi, ch. abjurations. The king's collectors of 
 
 ix. and x. Vide also supra, p. 307. customs also held their inquisitions. 
 
 1 Charter of Henry I., and notes on Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 784; and 
 
 the passage. vide First Charter of Richard II. 
 
 4 The coroner's jurisdiction was for-
 
 362 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK for adjudicating upon claims of franchises and the defaults 
 
 > ^ and misconduct of the civic magistrates. It was not unusual, 
 
 however, for the king's judges to liold inquisitions in criminal 
 matters, and also to try pleas of the crown within the City a 
 practice always remonstrated against by the citizens as con- 
 trary to law. 1 
 
 By the old common law no inquisitions in criminal matters 
 were held, or pleas of the crown tried, except at the sheriffs' 
 and the barons' leets, or by the king's sworn judges specially 
 assigned. The trial of pleas of the crown was taken away 
 from the leets by Magna Charta ; but inquisitions, in the sense 
 of charges presented by a grand or rather leet jury, were still 
 taken by the sheriffs and lords of the leet, though more com- 
 monly by the grand jury before the king's judges, who like- 
 wise tried them. Frequently, however, the king sent judges 
 merely to take criminal inquisitions, which were to be tried 
 by a subsequently constituted tribunal, 2 of which there is a 
 remarkable instance in the second year of this reign ; when 
 such a commission of inquisition was issued to the lord 
 mayor, who with his associated justices was afterwards com- 
 missioned to try the inquisitions taken. 3 
 
 In the first year of the present reign justices of the peace 
 were established. Their original jurisdiction was merely to 
 keep or preserve the peace by their individual authority, 
 which was, in fact, to exercise the authority of the sheriff in 
 that particular. But afterwards they were empowered to 
 take inquisitions, and also to hear and determine them ; and 
 thus the jurisdiction, so well known, of the sessions of the 
 peace came to be founded throughout the realm. 4 This juris- 
 diction was not specifically conferred on the civic authorities 
 until the reign of Edward IV. 
 
 Thus we find a very considerable judicial authority was 
 exercised within the City walls, at this period, both of a civil 
 and criminal kind, calculated to excite jealousy in the minds 
 of the citizens. That the inquisitions here mentioned, when 
 
 1 Fabian, pp. 440, 444 ; and vide * Ibid. 
 
 supra, pp. 86, 112, and notes. 4 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. ii. 
 
 2 Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 140 p. 41. 
 et seq. Maitland's Hist. vol. i. p. 123.
 
 SECOND AKD THIRD CHARTERS OF EDWARD III. 363 
 
 taken of criminal matters, were more than mere inquisitions, CHAP, 
 and not pleas of the crown, or criminal trials, the instance _ ,1 
 above referred to would incline us to disbelieve. That they 
 afterwards gradually became actual sessions of the peace for 
 trials may be reasonably conjectured : for after the coroner- 
 ship was granted to the commonalty, and the lord mayor and 
 aldermen came to be justices of the peace in the modern 
 sense of the word, it was an object to the citizens to have 
 this court (which we find by the present charter is granted, 
 as a special privilege, to be held without the City jurisdiction, 
 which St. Martin's-le-Grand was), held within it again; and 
 it was so allowed by the charter of Henry VIIL, and the lord 
 mayor and aldermen have held their sessions of the peace ac- 
 cordingly at Guildhall ever since. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF EDWARD III.' 
 
 This charter is directed, 'To all to whom these presents 
 * should come.' It recites a petition of the citizens to the 
 king in parliament, complaining that malefactors escaped 
 into the village of South wark, out of the jurisdiction of the 
 City, and praying that such village may be granted to them. 
 The charter, with the consent of parliament, grants the village 
 at feefarm. 52 
 
 THIRD CHARTER OF EDWARD HL 
 
 This charter (which was granted in parliament) recites the 
 statute of 9th Edward III. c. 1, by which it was enacted, that 
 all merchants, strangers and English, might trade freely in all 
 
 1 Dated March 6, 1st year. To be was in most respects merely ministerial, 
 found in the Inspeximus charters of All judicial and seignorial rights, though 
 7th Richard II. and of Charles II. often contended for by the citizens in 
 
 2 The farm-rent was 10Z. per annum this and subsequent reigns under this 
 (Strype's Stow, vol. ii. p. 2 ; and First charter, were not granted to them until 
 Charter Edward IV.) All that was the reign of Edward IV. 
 
 intended by this grant of Southwark * Dated March 26, llth year. To be 
 
 was the shrieval or rather bailiff's found and directed as the last, 
 jurisdiction over it, which at this time
 
 364 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK kinds of wares 1 and merchandise in all cities and privileged 
 . _ ^ . , towns, notwithstanding their charters or customs to the con- 
 trary. It then quotes Magna Charta, by which the liberties 
 and customs of London are confirmed, and testifies the king's 
 desire that the articles of the Great Charter should be ob- 
 served, and disclaims any intention to infringe them by the 
 late statute. It grants that the citizens shall enjoy all their 
 liberties and customs notwithstanding the aforesaid statute. 
 
 The policy of Edward, in encouraging the introduction 
 of foreign merchants and artificers into this kingdom, has 
 been before alluded to. 2 The infringement upon the civic 
 right of exclusive trade by the statute of 9th Edward III. c.l 
 was too palpable to be overlooked : and its effects, no doubt, 
 were immediately and severely felt ; for we find that it was 
 promptly remonstrated against, and remedied. Clear as the 
 language of this charter is, yet, as far as regards wholesale 
 dealing by foreigners with foreigners, its provisions seem to 
 have been continually violated, either in open defiance, or by 
 a strained construction as to their extent. Petitions and re- 
 monstrances were continually presented and made to the 
 crown, until the civic exclusive rights of trade, both quali- 
 fied wholesale and retail, were finally established by repeated 
 statutes passed from time to time down to the reign of 
 Henry VII. 3 
 
 FOURTH CHARTER OF EDWARD HI.* 
 
 This charter, which was granted June 3, in the 15th year 
 of Edward IIL's reign, is an Inspeximus charter confirming 
 
 1 Powder able wares they are called 2 Vide supra, p. 113. 
 
 in the translations of the City charters ; As to the nature of these rights, 
 
 but the term should be pounderable, i.e. and the difference between that by 
 
 liable to poundage, a duty per pound wholesale and that by retail, vide 
 
 taken from goods imported. This duty supra, pp. 120, 194 note, 341 note. Vide 
 
 began in Edward I.'s reign, but was also Petition 50th Edward III. ; Cotton's 
 
 established more specifically in the Records, Appendix 11 ; Rot. Parl. 1st 
 
 reign of Edward III. by statute Carta Richard II., Nos. 52, 156 ; Calthorpe's 
 
 Mercatoria, and 47th Edward III. (Hale Usages, p. 1 ; Stat. 9th Henry IV. ; 
 
 concerning Customs, part iii. p. 173 Coke's Reports, part viii. pp. 254, 256 ; 
 
 et seq.) This poundage duty first occa- and 20th Henry VII. 
 
 sioned the troubles of Charles I.'s reign. 4 This charter is to be found in Lib.
 
 POWER TO MAKE ORDINANCES. 365 
 
 all the preceding charters. It further confirms a privilege CHAP. 
 
 as existing by ancient custom, that if any customs in 'the >-,'. _^ 
 
 * said City, before that time obtained and used, were in any 
 
 ' part hard and defective, or any things in the same City 
 
 ' newly arising, in which no remedy had been ordained, 
 
 ' should need amendment, the mayor and aldermen, with 
 
 ' the assent of the commonalty, might ordain thereunto a fit 
 
 ' remedy, as often as it should seem expedient to them ; so 
 
 ' that such ordinance should be profitable to the king and to 
 
 1 the citizens in general, and all other liege subjects resorting 
 
 ' to the City, and also consonant to reason and good faith.' 
 
 The charter concludes by granting and conferring as ' of more 
 
 ' abundant favour, that although the citizens may not have 
 
 'used some of their liberties, exemptions, articles, or free 
 
 ' customs in their charters contained, on some occasions, they 
 
 ' nevertheless may still fully enjoy them for ever.' 
 
 FIFTH CHARTER OF EDWARD in.' 
 
 This charter grants, ' for increase of the honour of the City,' 
 that the Serjeants may, within the civic jurisdiction and with- 
 out, when in the execution of their office, and on occasions of 
 ceremony when the civic magistrates go out to meet the king 
 or any of his family, bear maces of gold or silver, with the 
 king's arms or others thereon. 
 
 The bearing of the City mace of gold or silver granted by 
 this charter is a distinction of some peculiarity. The mean- 
 ing of the word mace seems to be no more than club (massa) ; 
 and the Serjeants at mace, as they are called, were originally 
 
 Alb., and is referred to in the Inspex- found in the Inspeximus charters of 
 
 imus charter of 7th Richard II. It is Richard II. and Charles II., and also 
 
 quoted in Wagoner's case, Coke's Re- in the Lib. Alb. There is a record of a 
 
 ports, part viii. p. 241 ; and by Mait- petition to the king in parliament from 
 
 land, vol. i. p. 126. As it is not to be Nottingham, in Cotton's Abridgment, 
 
 found in Cotton's Abridgment, it may 8th Edward III , that no City Serjeants 
 
 be presumed that it was not a charter or any but king's Serjeants should bear 
 
 in parliament. The first clause is a maces of other metal than of copper, 
 
 confirmation of an ancient custom of which is granted with an exception in 
 
 the City to make bye-laws. favour of London. 
 1 Dated June 10, 28th year. To be
 
 366 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK only the summoners or executors of legal process, who were 
 v_ , ' _.. usually termed in Latin servientes ad clavam, and who, accord- 
 ing to the ancient forms of law amongst all the northern 
 nations of Europe, always performed their office by the exhi- 
 bition of some wand or club. 1 The more ancient name 
 however of these officers in England was that of beadle 
 (Beobel, Goth.) from Beob, to bid. 2 These officers, though 
 probably of some consideration in ancient times, had long 
 before the date of the present charter sunk to the lowest 
 station amongst the retainers of the law : but the macebearer, 
 who at this period occupied what was perhaps the beadle's 
 original station, seems to have sprung from a different origin, 
 had different functions to fulfil, and enjoyed a higher rank in 
 society. In fact, he seems to have been originally the 
 ancient esquire ; for, according to ancient records, the persons 
 who ranked next to knights were sometimes termed servientes 
 ad arma. 3 Accordingly we find the king's macebearer is 
 called his serjeant at arms ; as are also the macebearers of 
 the two houses of parliament and of the lord chancellor : and 
 the macebearers of the two Universities are still called the 
 esquire beadles. The macebearer, as well as the sword-bearer 
 and water-bailiff, in London have always been deemed 
 esquires by virtue of their offices. The grant, therefore, of 
 gold or silver maces, such as preceded the king and the 
 higher dignitaries of state, instead of copper, which were 
 borne by other cities, was a most distinguishing mark of 
 honour conferred on the City, but has no other import. 4 
 
 1 Ed. Rev. vol. xxxiv. p. 185. the mace came into the mayor's own 
 
 2 Spelm. Gloss, and Lye's Diet. hands (except indeed by the mere ini- 
 8 Seld. Tit. Hon. p. 850. pulse of the moment furor arma min- 
 4 It has been a subject of dispute, istrat), and still more why it came to be 
 
 from the difference in the accounts of used for the purposes of arrest. It ap- 
 
 the chroniclers, whether the Lord Mayor pears plain from a contemporary re- 
 
 Walworth did not kill Wat Tyler with cord, drawn up in the fourth year of the 
 
 a blow from his mace by way of arrest- reign of Richard II., that Walworth 
 
 ing him, or whether he killed him with slew this rebel chief with his sword. 
 
 his dagger. If the first statement is Vide Riley's Memorials of the City <>f 
 
 correct, we may reasonably enquire how London, p. 449.
 
 3C7 
 
 CHAPTER VT. 
 
 FIRST CHAKTEB OP RICHARD II. PROTECTION OF PERSONS ENGAGED 
 IN THE KING'S SERVICE NOT TO AVAIL A6AINST SOTS FOR VICTUALS 
 SECOND CHARTER OF RICHARD H. FIRST CHARTER OF HENRY IV. 
 CUSTODY OF CITT GATES TOLLS OF MARKETS SECOND CHARTER 
 
 OF HENRY IV. FIRST AND SECOND CHARTERS OF HENRY V. CHARTER 
 
 OF HENRY VI. GRANT OF FINES AND FORFEITURES FOR CRIMES 
 CHATTELS OF FUGITIVE FELONS; AISO WAIFS, ESTRAYS, ETC. COM- 
 MON LAND WITHIN THE CITY PURPRESTURES AND IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF EDWARD TV. CERTIFYING CITY CUSTOMS BY THE 
 RECORDER SECOND CHARTER OF EDWARD IV. TRONAGE THIRD 
 CHARTER OF EDWARD IV. PURCHASING IN MORTMAIN FOURTH CHAR- 
 TER OF EDWARD TV. SCAV AGE PACKAGE PTCAGR, ETC. PORTAGE. 
 
 FIBST CHARTER OF RICHARD H.' 
 
 THIS is an Inspexinras charter reciting and confirming CH \P. 
 
 almost all the preceding charters, with some additional VL 
 
 . 2 It was a charter granted in parliament, or, in 
 
 1 In the Inspeximus roll of Charles 
 n., another charter, of 4th December 
 (50th Edward HL) is inserted, in which 
 tiie petition by the citizens mentioned 
 in this charter is recited, and which 
 petition is stated, in the body of the 
 charter quoted in the Inspeximus, to 
 katte been granted. This, however, is a 
 mistake. The citizens petitioned against 
 the effects of the statute 9th Edward IIL 
 as affecting their exclusive rights both 
 in respect of wholesale and retail trade 
 (vide supra, p. 151, note); the com- 
 mons in parliament, in the 51st year of 
 the same king, supported the City peti- 
 tion by a petition of their own, which 
 recited it. The king, thus pressed, 
 granted the petition as far as regarded 
 retail trade (vide Cotton's Abridgment, 
 p. 147; and Cotton's Record*, MS. Brit. 
 Mus , Appendix 2). The citizens were 
 by no means satisfied, and Edward 
 
 dying immediately after, another peti- 
 tion was presented through parliament 
 to his infant successor, which produced 
 the present charter. This charter is 
 not noticed in the Inspeximus of Charles 
 IL, though so much of its contents as 
 is above alluded to is quoted in that 
 Inspeximus as granted by Edward III. 
 The author has seen this charter (bear- 
 ing date 4th December, 1st Richard II.), 
 with the seal appended, in a most per- 
 fect state in the Town Clerk's office. 
 It is also noted in the Liber Albus, and 
 in the Inspeximus of 7th Richard II. 
 The substance of it is also quoted in 
 the Cotton Records of Parliament, Rot. 
 Parl. Rich. L Nos. 52, 156; and vide 
 Cotton MSS. Brit Mus. Appendix 2, 
 and his Abridgment, pp. 165, 166. 
 Vide also Calthorpe's Usages. 
 
 1 The charters before abstracted, not 
 expressly recited in this Inspeximus
 
 368 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK other words, an act of parliament, though passing in 
 ^_ , ' _* form of a charter with the king's seal, which was customary 
 in early times. 1 
 
 All the charters recited, and all the liberties, franchises, 
 and customs of the citizens, are there confirmed, with a clause 
 similar to that in the close of the fourth charter of Edward 
 III., declaring that they shall still enjoy them, notwithstand- 
 ing that they may not sometimes have been used, and even 
 although they may have sometimes been abused. 
 
 The charter then proceeds to recite a petition exhibited by 
 the citizens to the king in parliament, setting forth that they 
 used and enjoyed certain free customs in the City until of 
 late years, when the citizens had been unjustly molested viz., 
 that no foreigner should buy of or sell to another foreigner 
 any merchandise within the liberties of the City, on pain of 
 forfeiting such merchandise, which custom the king confirms, 
 excepting the merchants of Aquitaine. 2 
 
 The charter next alludes to that part of the citizens' petition 
 which sets forth the nature of the tenure by which the City 
 is held as being immediately of the king himself, and that, 
 consequently, the citizens were not bound to obey precepts or 
 process of any inferior authorities or jurisdictions such as 
 constables, marshals, admirals, or others but only those of 
 the king's own justices, and those at the king's suit under 
 the great or privy seal, according to their charter. This 
 privilege the king declares shall be enjoyed according to 
 ancient usage. 3 
 
 charter of Richard II., are 1st, the of Guienne and Bourdeaux ; which 
 
 charter of William the Conqueror : 2nd, provinces, descending to the kings of 
 
 that of Henry I. : 3rd, that of Henry England from Henry II., became the 
 
 II. : 4th, the two charters of Richard I. : scene of great contests in Edward III.'s 
 
 5th, the five charters of John : 6th, the wars, who constituted these provinces 
 
 second, third, sixth, and eighth charters into the principality of Aquitaine. 
 
 of Henry III. : 7th, the second charter Their peculiar privileges have been be- 
 
 of Edward II. But the substance of fore noticed. Vide supra, pp. 114, 
 
 most of these charters is contained in 120, 159 ct seq. 
 
 those which are recited by way of In- * This clause seems to be merely a 
 
 speximus in this charter. confirmation of those exclusive rights 
 
 1 Prince's Case, Coke's Rep. Cotton's of jurisdiction granted by the charter 
 Abridgment, p. 165. Rot. Parl. Rich. of Henry I., and confirmed by others. 
 I., Nos. 52, 156. Cotton MSS. Brit. These exclusive rights of jurisdiction 
 Mus. Appendix 2. have been fully commented on under 
 
 2 Those were the French merchants the charter of Henry I.
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF RICHARD III. PROTECTIONS. 369 
 
 It is then granted, that inquisitions shall be taken by the CHAP. 
 
 citizens themselves, and not by others, for all customs and > , - 
 
 impositions, and also for all pnrprestures, and other things 
 of that nature, arising within the City. 1 
 
 The charter further grants to the mayor and chamberlain 
 the custody of all orphans, and the keeping of their lands 
 and goods.* 
 
 Also that no protections granted by the Trmg to persons 
 making voyages upon his service should be valid after the 
 voyage or the service was performed ; against pleas of debt 
 brought by citizens for victuals supplied, or against pleas of 
 debt, account, or trespass, wherein a citizen is plaintiff, and 
 the cause of action beyond ten pounds. 
 
 That no writs shall issue to bring up a man, confined in 
 Newgate or other City prison for debts or damages adjudged 
 to citizens, before the court of Exchequer to answer debts of 
 the king or others sued in that court ; unless the latter debts, 
 upon due examination, shall prove genuine and not feigned, 3 
 and to have become due before the imprisonment. 
 
 It is also granted, if any difficulty or ambiguity should 
 arise upon any article of the charters capable of various 
 senses, that the king, with consent of his council, upon being 
 required, will put such interpretation on it as shall be con- 
 sistent with good faith and reason. 
 
 Lastly, All former charters, and all other rights, liberties, 
 &c. therein expressed, are confirmed ; so that, however, the 
 citizens shall not be restrained, by reason of the language of 
 the confirmations here made, in the enjoyment of any of their 
 former liberties and approved customs. 
 
 NO PKOTECTION OP THE KING TO BE VALID AGAINST 
 
 PLEAS FOB VICTUALS. The protections granted by the king 
 against arrest or imprisonment in any suits at law, or for 
 delay in the progress of them, on behalf of particular indivi- 
 
 1 The king's judges, but more fre- s For an explanation of this clause, 
 
 qnently his coroners and collectors of vide first charter of James I. ' Office 
 
 customs, used to take these inquisitions, of measurer.' 
 
 commonly called inquests of office. * That is, not feigned for the pur- 
 Vide svpra, p. 361, and the notes. pose of giving jurisdiction to the court 
 For ' Purprestures,' vide charter of of Exchequer. 
 Henry VI. 
 
 B B
 
 370 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK duals supposed to be in the king's service, so contrary to 
 
 r ' every principle of law and justice, were very common at the 
 
 period of the present charter. To add to the scandal of the 
 practice, these protections were usually purchased ; and the 
 records of the king's Exchequer court testify the extent of 
 such abuses. 1 The nature of the system of purveyance by 
 which the king in his progresses and his retinue were supplied 
 with necessaries, has been before commented upon. 2 The 
 system of purveyance was not the only source of prerogative 
 interference with the legal remedies of the subject : and it is 
 astonishing to contemplate the list of protections granted at 
 this period, and the pretences on which they were founded. 3 
 Whenever the king was disposed to find or feign employment 
 for an individual, the service on which he was engaged was 
 always sufficient to entitle him. to the king's protection from 
 all suits during such service. Perhaps the most excusable 
 occasion was that alluded to in the text, when those con- 
 cerned in victualling vessels by purveyance for expeditions 
 on the royal or public service were protected during the per- 
 formance of their official duties. From the time of Edward 
 III. to that of Henry IV., scarcely a parliament was held in 
 which the abuses of protections were not remonstrated 
 against. 4 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF RICHARD II. 
 
 This charter is continually spoken of in the older law 
 authorities, and often referred to in records, as the grand 
 charter of confirmation of all the City liberties, franchises, 
 and customs. It is a transcript, verbatim, of the last charter, 
 confirming by inspeximus that and all the preceding charters 
 recited or referred to in it. The grant was made in parlia- 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. verbiage of Acts of Parliament. When- 
 
 2 Vide supra, pp. 108 et scq., 247. ever penalties are created, it is still 
 * Cotton's Abridg. Index, title ' Pro- usual to add, that no wager of law 
 
 lections ;' and Madox's Hist. Exch. essoin or protection shall be allowed. 
 
 4 Cotton's Abridgment, Index, title 5 Dated in the 7th year, directed as 
 
 ' Protections.' The granting royal pro- the last, and to be found in Liber 
 
 tections has long ceased in practice; Albus. 
 but the name still survives in the
 
 FIBST AND SECOND CHARTERS OF HENRY IV. 
 
 371 
 
 ment, as the last was ; and from the date we may conjecture 
 that it was intended as a ratification of the former charter by 
 the king, on attaining an age of greater discretion, and in 
 deference to the services of the citizens and their celebrated 
 mayor Walworth on the occasion of Tyler's rebellion. 1 It is 
 a copy of that of the 1st of Richard II.* 
 
 CHAP 
 VL 
 
 FIBST CHARTER OF HENRY IV. 
 
 This charter grants the custody of Newgate and Ludgate, 
 as "well as all other gates of the City ; likewise the gathering 
 of tolls and customs in Cheap, in Billingsgate, and in Smith- 
 field. It further grants the trvnagef i.e. the weighing of 
 goods. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF HENRY IV.* 
 
 This charter refers to the statute of 7th Henry IV. cap. 9, 
 by which merchant strangers were allowed to sell in gross (that 
 is, by wholesale) to all the king's subjects as well as to the citi- 
 zens of London, which was contrary to the franchises of the 
 
 1 Vide supra, pp. 117, 366, note. 
 
 * Chamberlain of London's Case, 
 Coke's Reports, part v. Calthorpe's 
 Usages, p. 1. The case of Plaver and 
 Hutehins, Haig. MSS. Brit, Mus. No. 
 56, fo. 26, 27. Strype's Stow, TO! ii- 
 p. 348, quotes the names of the wit- 
 nesses, and says, 'One if not two 
 charters were granted by Richard EL' 
 Vide also the quo wananto case; Coke's 
 Reports, part viii. p. 163 ; and Jones's 
 Reports, p. 283. 
 
 * To be found in the Inspeximus of 
 Charles IL dated May 25, 1st year. 
 The charter is not stated in full in that 
 Inspexiinus, but is said to grant as in 
 the text, 'amongst other things.' For 
 an explanation of the purport of this 
 chatter, vide supra, pp. 87, 364, and 
 notes. 
 
 The custody of the gates seems to be 
 
 granted for the purpose of collecting 
 the tolls which might grow due there 
 for the transit of merchandise, &x, 
 Madox's Hist, Exch. voL L cap. 18, 
 s. 4, and for guarding the City gates, 
 which were also used as prisons. This 
 charter can only be considered as con- 
 firmatory of the ancient rights of the 
 City; mad in all probability arose out 
 of some peculiar circumstances or 
 
 4 Vide 2nd charter of Edward IV. 
 
 * This is rather a statute than a 
 charter. It is dated 9th year, and was 
 passed to repeal, as far as regarded 
 London, die stat. 7th Henry IV. cap. 9, 
 by which strangers were allowed to sell 
 by wholesale in London. Vide Coke's 
 Reports, part viii. p. 254. 4th Inst. p. 
 249. Cotton's Abridgment, p. 466, 
 and his Records, Brit Mus. 
 2
 
 372 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK citizens; and it declares, that no merchant stranger shall 
 
 ^_ IIj ^ traffic by buying of or selling to any other merchant stranger 
 
 in London for the purpose of selling again, but only for their 
 
 own use. 
 
 FIRST AND SECOND CHARTERS OF HENRY V. 1 
 
 These two charters merely confirm all former charters, 
 customs, and franchises in general terms. 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY VI.* FINES AND FORFEITURES 
 PURPRESTURES. 
 
 This charter grants to the citizens all fines and forfeitures 
 for crimes, chattels of fugitive felons, and also waifs, es- 
 trays, common soils, purprestures and improvements, wastes, 
 streets, ways, &c. in the City and suburbs, and in the waters 
 of the Thames, within the limits of the City, and all the 
 profits and rents to be derived therefrom. 
 
 PURPRESTURES AND IMPROVEMENTS. The word p urpresture 
 is often used in law books as synonymous with nuisance; 3 
 but, although a purpresture may sometimes be a nuisance, 
 the term seems more strictly applicable to an encroachment, 
 which may possibly be an improvement and a public benefit. 
 It is not reasonable to suppose that this grant of purprestures 
 could be construed to authorise public nuisances ; still less to 
 give the City a property in them, especially on the Thames ; 
 though such an idea has been apparently entertained. 4 Lite- 
 
 I To be found in Liber Albus. The by a statute passed in his 28th year ; 
 first is dated July 12, 2nd year; the but this grant of Henry VI. was con- 
 second, October 6, 7th year. firmed again by charter in parliament 
 
 II This charter still exists in the Town 2()th Henry VII. : but doubts still exist- 
 Clerk's office, and is copied in Liber ing, it was regranted again by subsequent 
 
 Albus. It is only qtMted in the Inspexi- charters, and lastly by the general In- 
 
 nrns of Charles II. as granting ' amongst speximus of Charles II. Vide Rex v. 
 
 -' other things ' what is contained in the Mayor of London, 1 C. M. & R. i. 2 ; 
 
 text, for the purpose of confirming such M. & C. 82. 
 
 grant. It is dated 26th October, 23rd s Blacks. Comm. vol. iv. p. 167. 
 
 year. All grants of lands and tenements 4 Rex v. Grosvenor and others, 
 
 made by Henry VI. were declared void Starkie's N. P. Rep. vol. ii. p. 511.
 
 ABSTRACT OP FIBST CHARTER OP EDWARD IV. 37$ 
 
 rally, the word signifies something engrossed or usurped, and CHAP. 
 
 was used to express any invasion of landed property as by ^ , 
 
 building, or hunting over, or improving common ground, &C. 1 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF EDWARD IV.* 
 
 This ample charter begins by reciting that the duties and 
 functions of justices of the peace, both in and out of sessions, 
 had always been, and still were, exercised by the civic author- 
 ities, as other justices of the peace were used to exercise them 
 under the statutes of the realm ; and to remove all possible 
 doubt as to the legality of such judicial authority, it then 
 proceeds to grant, that the mayor and recorder, and all 
 aldermen who have been mayors, shall be conservators of the 
 peace, 3 to exercise all authority given to justices of the peace 
 by statute, and the same persons (of whom the lord mayor 
 shall always be one) shall sit as justices to hear and determine 
 all felonies and misdemeanors : 4 and the sheriff is directed 
 to give all needful assistance to them in the performance of 
 their duty, saving to the mayor and commonalty all their 
 customs, liberties, and franchises. 
 
 The charter then confirms the ancient custom of the 
 City, of recording all City customs, upon certificate of the 
 same made by the mouth of the recorder, before any of the 
 king's justices, without request by jury, even though the 
 citizens themselves be parties in the matter at issue. 
 
 It then grants, That the citizens shall fully enjoy all their 
 liberties, ' acquittals, grants, ordinances, articles, and free 
 * customs,' whether they have been used or not used, and even 
 though they may have been abused, without forfeiture or 
 impeachment. 
 
 1 Spelm. Gloss. Glanville byBeames, That is, shall act as justices of the 
 
 bk. 9. Coke's 4th Inst. p. 301. peace out of sessions. 
 
 1 Dated 9th November, 2nd year: 4 That is, shall act as justices of the 
 
 directed to all dignitaries of the realm peace at sessions. As to justices of the 
 
 nominatim, and to all the king's sub- peace in London, see 1st charter of 
 
 jects generally. To be found in the Edward III. ' Inquisitions to be taken 
 
 Inspeximus of Charles II. and in Lib. at St. Martin's le Grand,' &c. pp. 346v 
 
 Alb. 361 ; poet, 396,
 
 374 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK It further grants, That all persons, strangers, aliens or 
 ^ IL ^ denizens, inhabiting and trading within the City, shall con- 
 tribute according to their faculties to all subsidies, talliages, 1 
 grants, and other contributions made for the use of the king 
 or his heirs, or for the use of the City, excepting always the 
 merchants of Almain. 2 
 
 The charter further grants, in consideration of the duties 
 of aldermen in the City, and their need of quiet and relaxation 
 in retirement at their possessions in the country, that they 
 shall not be required to serve in any respects as jurymen out 
 of the said City ; 3 or as collectors or comptrollers of the king's 
 taxes or subsidies. 
 
 Lastly, it grants the borough of Southwark, in language 
 professedly calculated to remove all doubts regarding the 
 civic jurisdiction in that district. 4 It refers to the grant 
 made by the charter of Edward III. ; and to ' divers doubts, 
 ' opinions, varieties, ambiguities, controversies, and dissen- 
 * sions ' which had arisen with regard to the exercise of the 
 franchises thereby granted ; for removing of which for ever 
 it grants in detail, Southwark and its appurtenances, waifs 
 and estrays, 5 treasure-trove, chattels of traitors and felons de- 
 famed, 6 escheats and forfeitures, as fully as the king would 
 have had them were the town in his hands ; and that the 
 mayor and commonalty may put themselves in possession 
 of all these goods : also that they should have assay and 
 assize of victuals, 7 and exercise the jurisdiction of clerk of the 
 
 1 Talliages had by this time become away by the thief upon pursuit, which 
 probably a nomen generate for taxes of belonged either to the king or to the 
 any kind. In their primitive sense they lord of the manor by his grant, unless 
 could not be levied in the City. Vide the owner prosecuted promptly. Estrays 
 supra, pp. 65, 88. were stray cattle, which belonged to 
 
 2 These were the Hanse merchants, the king or lord of the manor, unless 
 or merchants of the Steelyard. For an claimed within a year and a day. 
 account of the nature of this establish- That is, outlawed for felony ; and 
 ment, vide supra, pp. 159 et seq. 167 et so defamed by matter of record, which 
 seq. produced forfeiture of goods. 
 
 1 Which they were otherwise bound ' The assay was the examination of 
 
 to do by virtue of their residence beyond the quality of provisions sold in the 
 
 the City. market, deceits in which were punish- 
 
 4 Second charter of Edw. III., note 2. able by the pillory. Vide Coke's 3rd 
 
 Vide supra, p. 363. Inst. p. 219. The assize was the fixing 
 
 Waifs were goods stolen and thrown the price of provisions, a prerogative
 
 CUSTOMS OEALLY BT THE EECOBDEB. 3ll 
 
 market, 1 and have all forfeitiires and amerciameiits : also the CHAP. 
 execution of afl process, without the interference of the kingf s , _- 
 sheriff, or any of the king's officers : also an annual fair on the 
 7th, 8th, and 9th of September, with a court of pye ponder :* 
 also a yiew of frankpledge, and 4 all summons, attachments, 
 
 * arrests, IPPHBJ, amereiaments, fines, redemptions, profits, and 
 4 commodities,* pertaining to that jurisdiction : also, that the 
 major and commonalty may arrest all malefactors, and send 
 them to JNfewgate,* to be delivered according to law; and 
 gnMBlir 'all maimpT of liberties, privileges, franchises, 
 ' acquittals, customs and rights whatsoever, although not 
 4 expressly mentioned, as the king himself had a right to when 
 ' the town was in his hands ; the City paying the ancient 
 
 * ferm of 10L, and saving the rights of the archbishop of Can- 
 ' terbury there : 4 any statute to the contrary notwithstanding.' 
 
 CERTTFTDfO ClTY CUSTOMS BT THE RECORDER'S WORD OF 
 
 MOUTH. This custom of certifying the law by word of mouth 
 is of very high antiquity, and may be traced to the practice 
 of the ancient and unlettered Scandinavian nations. It was 
 usual on trials at law amongst the northern nations, who are 
 considered to have derived their system of jurisprudence from 
 the same Gothic sources which originally supplied our Saxon 
 and common law, to have the judgments recorded, not in 
 writing, but by the oral testimony of witnesses, whenever the 
 law, already decided, was inquired about; which witnesses 
 attended the trials for that express purpose. In the Grand 
 Gustumier of Normandy, it is said * the Vhig may himself 
 4 record decisions made by him. or he may substitute three 
 
 * other witnesses * but a record of the Exchequer shall be 
 
 xezded time oat of nind by fluoric 
 
 * Thi.dwBTOIRpMkdbyrf.tate 
 
 8th E^rord IV. Tide Ctataw s Abridg- 
 ment, p. 6S2. It was repealed bj li* 
 cfariarrf EfrnriYL 
 
 p. 108, notes ; and 1st nf TTinaiiiailiiij in tTiaQfaail nlii Hun 
 
 charter of EdwaidUL time of Hemy MTJL, wte the BMW- 
 
 A wt inddent to all lairs, hdd teies ftiluto the king's hands : Edmd 
 
 Wfore the strwaid of the lotd erf the TX dm gnuritod k to the CSly. Tiie 
 
 fiu; for adjodkaikg on all cmitraete his charter, aad iStzjpe's Stwr, ixJ. ii> 
 
 at Use Mr. Tide C&* 4tb a. 1.
 
 376 OF THE CHAETEES OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK ' made by seven witnesses sworn to record the truth. Every 
 
 ^ . ' record ought to be made according to what has been said 
 
 i and heard,' 1 So again it is said in the Assizes of Jerusalem, 2 
 ' he who would have judgments in his favour firm, should 
 * take care to have many friends in court who can well under- 
 i stand and who have good memories, so that they may know 
 ' how to record the plea when it may be required.' This 
 plainly shows the source of the City law and customs, as well 
 as the tenacity with which the citizens retained their ancient 
 forms, in defiance of the Norman improvements and invasions 
 in jurisprudence. 
 
 SECOND CHAETER OF EDWAED IV. 3 TEONAGE. 
 
 This charter grants the tronage of wools brought to London 
 or to the staple 4 at Westminster, and the housing of such 
 wools at Leadenhall ; with all fees due in respect thereof. 
 
 The weighing (tronage) of goods brought to the staple 
 markets, and the warehousing them, was required for the 
 purpose of ensuring the payment of the king's customs, which 
 upon wools in particular, were with reference to the times of 
 large extent. 5 In receiving fees for passing the king's beam, 
 for measuring, for coquetting, &c. the king's officers were 
 continually guilty of great abuses. 6 The keeping of the 
 king's beam for weighing customable goods became therefore, 
 like most of the petty privileges of the citizens, a valuable 
 protection from extortion. 
 
 To ensure the payment of the king's customs was probably 
 
 1 Grand Gust, de Norm. cap. 102, 4 For an explanation of the nature of 
 
 103, 104, 107. Edinb. Eev. vol. xxxiv. staples and markets staple, vide supra, 
 
 p. 190. Vide also the report of a p. 242. 
 
 case tried in a court of Scandinavian s Coke's Eep. part v. p. 64. Anderson's 
 
 extraction (in Ireland) of the date A.D. Hist. Com. vol..i. pp. 216, 231, 254, 315. 
 
 934, in which the mode of recording Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. cap. 18; and 
 
 a previous judgment by witnesses on a Hale on Customs, part iii. passim, and 
 
 subsequent trial is detailed. Edinb. eh. xxi. 
 
 Eev. vol. xxxvi. p, 303. " Hale on Customs, part iii. ch. ix. 
 
 8 Grand Cust. de Norm. cap. 45. Parliament was petitioned in Edward 
 
 3 Dated 27th August, 3rd year. Di- III.'s reign, that these extortioners 
 
 rocted and to be found as the last, vide should suffer death for their unjust exac- 
 
 eupra, pp. 329, 335, 385. tions.
 
 GRANT OP TBOXAGE. 377 
 
 the real origin of this office of tronage ; for we find that, both CHAP, 
 in London and in other ports of the kingdom, the officer >_ ,J - 
 (usually the chamberlain in London) who collected this duty 
 was, until the reign of Edward LL, and perhaps subsequently, 
 appointed by the Crown, and accounted to the Crown for the 
 issues of the office, unless exempted specially from rendering 
 any account. 1 The exercise of this office, when in the hands 
 of the Corporation, was extended to the weighing of all goods 
 sold above a certain weight by foreigners that is, those who 
 were not citizens whether customable or not. 2 There appears 
 to have been originally two branches of this office ; namely, 
 tronage at the king's beam, and tronage at the common beam, 
 though the same balance was called by both names. The 
 issues of the latter seem to have been, from the first period 
 of their collection, carried to the account of the commonalty. 3 
 At what time the exercise of this latter branch of the office 
 commenced is difficult to state. It was granted by the 9th 
 charter of Henry ITI. The charter says, ' That no merchant 
 4 stranger shall sell goods but by weight at the king's beam :' 
 but whether this grant first created the office, or whether it 
 granted the exercise of it to the City, is doubtful. It certainly 
 was vested in the Corporation before the reign of Edward II., 
 and probably tronage might have been levied by two distinct 
 officers during the latter period, one being appointed by the 
 Crown. As early as the reign of Henry IY. the office of 
 
 1 Madox's Hist. Exch. voL i. ch. xriii. to the charter of Edward II. and that of 
 
 The appointment of this officer seems Henry IV. and another by himself, by 
 
 by the 3rd charter of Henry VIII. to wbichtronctffe in generalterms is granted, 
 
 have been occasionally asserted by the as all alluding to the same office. 
 
 Crown so late as the 13th year of that Tronage of customable goods on behalf 
 
 prince's reign. of the king was a distinct office both in 
 
 1 Twelfth article of 1st charter of Ed- origin and object, which is apparent, not 
 
 ward II. Strype's Stow, vol. ii. pp. 273 only from the language of this charter, 
 
 et seq. and 421 et seq. ; and the acts of but from its being exercised over mer- 
 
 Common Council and other authorities chandise by the king's officers and all 
 
 there quoted. other ports, and from the 3rd charter of 
 
 1 The 12th article of the 1st charter Henry VIII., and the numerous acts of 
 
 of Edward IL p. 430. refers to the iron- Common Council referring to and dis- 
 
 age belonging to the City, the issues of tinguishing the king's beam. Vide 
 
 which were accounted for the common- authorities quoted in the last note, 
 
 alty as tronage at the common beam. Madox's Hist. Exch. cap. 18, and Bale's 
 
 The 3rd charter of Henry VIII. refers Customs, part iii. passim, and ch. xxi.
 
 378 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK tronage was vested in the Corporation by the express words 
 
 IL of a special charter of the Crown. It was no doubt intended 
 
 by that grant to convey the entire office to the commonalty ; 
 though it appears that the appointment to the office was 
 occasionally claimed by the Crown until the reign of 
 Henry VIII. : it is certain, however, that from the time the 
 whole office came into the hands of the Corporation only one 
 duty was levied, the two duties being as it were blended 
 into the latter branch, as time out of mind exercised by the 
 citizens. 
 
 The real foundation of this toll of tronage, as exercised in 
 all sales between merchant and merchant, was unquestionably 
 for the purpose of preventing fraud in sales. l It was formerly 
 a source of considerable profit to the City Chamber ; but since 
 the gradual decline of wholesale dealing in open markets, 
 this privilege has with good reason been very considerably 
 relaxed. 2 
 
 The warehousing of merchandise, and more especially of 
 manufactured cloths, became, in progress of time, the subject 
 of numerous civic regulations with a view to other objects 
 besides that of securing the king's customs ; chiefly for the 
 prevention of illegal traffic between stranger and stranger, 
 and of fraud in the texture, admeasurement, and quality of 
 the manufactures so deposited. For these purposes sworn 
 brokers and factors, alnagers (measurers), and searchers were 
 established, under sanction of ancient customs, acts of Com- 
 mon Council, or express charters, at Leadenhall and Blackwell 
 Hall. 3 
 
 1 Vide note 2, p. 377. Vide Riley's * Player and Hutchins. Sir 0. Bridg- 
 Memorials of the City of London, pas- man's MSS. Hargrave's MSS. Brit 
 sim. Mus. No. 56. Norton's Exposition, &c. 
 
 2 Strype's Stow, book ii.p. 173; show- where this subject is discussed at large 
 ing that in 1720, the merchants had be- Vide supra, p. 160 note. Co. Rep 
 gun to remonstrate against and to evade book v. p. 63. Strype's Stow, vol. i 
 this toll. p. 276.
 
 PURCHASING IN MORTMAIN. 379 
 
 CHAP. 
 THIED CHARTER OF EDWARD IV. 1 PURCHASING IN MORTMAIN. VI. 
 
 Tliis charter grants, That in consideration of the payment of 
 1923Z. 9s. 8d. the City shall have liberty to purchase in mort- 
 main hinds and tenements to the value of 200 marks per 
 annum, without hindrance of the king's justices, escheators, 
 or other officers, and without the necessity of any inquisi- 
 tions upon the writ of ad quod damnum, and notwithstanding 
 the statutes of mortmain. 
 
 The writ ad quod damnum was a writ of inquisition directed 
 to the king's escheator to inquire into the particulars of the 
 tenancy, the value and the quality of lands, which a person 
 might be desirous of alienating in mortmain. The writ was 
 issued in order to preclude any injustice or deprivation of 
 rights, which the king or mesne lords might suffer, by the 
 tenants so alienating with the king's licence ; which it was 
 conceived might be and was continually granted, notwith- 
 standing the statutes of mortmain. For many years after the 
 passing those statutes the licence was not granted until 
 after the return of this inquisition, by which the king was 
 satisfied he did or suffered no wrong. In process of time the 
 rights of the mesne lords grew to be of small importance ; 
 and as the king's title was the only consideration, it became 
 about the reign of Edward III. customary to take the king's 
 licence, as in the present charter, with a clause dispensing 
 with the ceremony of executing the writ of ad quod dam- 
 
 FOURTH CHARTER OF EDWARD IV. S SCAVAGE. PACKAGE, 
 PICKAGE, PORTAGE, CARTAGE, &c. 
 
 This charter, in consideration of the sum of 7000Z., grants 
 to the citizens the package of all merchandise requiring to 
 be * packed, tunned, piped, barrelled, or in any way inclosed ;' 
 
 1 Dated 20th June, 18th year. Di- Corp. vol. i. p. 90. 
 
 rected and to be found as the last. * Dated and directed as the last. To 
 
 For an explanation of this charter, be found in the Inspeximus of Charles 
 ride supra, 349 et seq. II. 
 
 2 Fitzh. Nat, Br. p. 222. D. Kyd. on
 
 380 OF THE CHARTEKS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK also the oversight 1 of customable goods at the places where 
 . / ^ the customs are payable; also the office of picking 2 and 
 poundering customable goods; also that of the portage of 
 goods and merchandise to and from the houses of strangers ; 
 also the office of garbling 3 all spices and other goods which 
 should be garbled ; also the office of gauger and the carriage 
 of wines ; with all the fees and emoluments belonging to such 
 offices, to be exercised by themselves or their deputies, 
 without rendering any account to the king. 
 
 It further grants, That the mayor and commonalty may ap- 
 point to the office of coroner within the City of London, and 
 that such office shall no longer be in the appointment of the 
 king's chief butler as claimed by him. 
 
 THE OVERSIGHT OF CUSTOMABLE GOODS. This office, termed 
 in Latin supervisus, is translated in another charter by the 
 words search and surveying, 4 and in the 2nd charter of Charles 
 I. it is termed the scavage, which appears to have been its 
 most ancient and common name, 5 and that which is retained 
 at the present day. The origin and nature of this toll of 
 scavage seems to have been but little understood. Spelman, 
 who is followed in his explication by other commentators, 
 terms it a toll levied by the owners of markets for the licence 
 given by them to chapmen of shewing their merchandise, and 
 derives the expression from the word j-cepian (Sax.), which 
 he translates to shew or inspect. 6 The latter word, however, 
 seems to be both the more correct and the more applicable 
 translation, and perhaps the French sc. avoir, to know, is the 
 most apt synonym of anv. In truth, the explanation given 
 by Spelman in his Glossary, the latter part of which does 
 
 1 That is, the surveying as it is some- poundering, vide 3rd charter of Edward 
 times termed in other charters, or scav- III. p. 364 note. 
 
 age ; searching also was the same kind s Garbling was the sorting good from 
 
 of office. It consisted in noting the bad in quality of the same species of 
 
 quality and quantity of goods on which merchandise (vide Coke's 4th Inst. p. 
 
 custom was to be levied. Vide post, 264), and is a term still in use amongst 
 
 this charter. merchants. 
 
 2 This was the sorting or rejecting of 4 Vide 2nd charter of James I. 
 improper substances in the merchandise, * Madox's Hist. Exch. vol. i. p. 778, 
 and was not the same thing as pickage, where the term and the duty is referred 
 which was a toll paid for picking up to in the reign of Henry III. 
 
 market ground for erecting a stall. For Spelm. Gloss. Termes de Leg.
 
 SCAVAGE. STALLAGE. PICKAGE. PACKAGE, ETC. 381 
 
 not seem to have been completed with the same attention and CHAP. 
 
 labour as the former part, 1 is by no means warranted by au- ^^ 
 
 thority or by law. Tolls in general must be founded upon 
 some consideration. 2 But the consideration for this toll of 
 shewage, or for shewing merchandise, is in truth no considera- 
 tion ; and it has been long settled that everybody has a right 
 of access, and of showing his wares, at a fair or market. 3 
 The usual tolls, or duties in the nature of toll recognised as 
 legal in markets, are for stallage or pickage ; without paying 
 which, no one can erect a stall or pick up the ground for such 
 purpose. 4 
 
 The real nature of this duty is not a toll for shewing, but 
 a toll paid for the oversight of shewing ; and under that name 
 (supervisus apertionis) it was claimed in an action of debt in 
 the reign of Charles II. 5 Indeed, the language of the present 
 charter, and that of others above referred to, plainly indicates 
 the same exposition. Scavage, like tronage, was an office ex- 
 ercised with an express object ; and the toll passing by that 
 name was, like that of tronage, paid in consideration of the 
 performance of that office. 
 
 The object of this office was confined merely to securing 
 the payment of the king's import customs. The exercise of 
 it was, therefore, always limited to the customable goods of 
 aliens or sons of aliens. 6 The duty performed was seeing and 
 knowing the merchandise on which the king's import customs 
 were paid ; in order that no concealment or fraudulent prac- 
 tices by false packing, false admixture, or false ownership by 
 a citizen, should deprive the king of his just dues. 
 
 The office is no doubt as ancient as the customs themselves, 
 and the duty in all probability contemporaneous with the 
 office. It was well known under the name of scavage in the 
 reign of Henry III. 7 and it seems as early as that time to 
 have been a franchise of the commonalty. 8 It is secured 
 in very ample terms by the 2nd charter of Charles I. ; and 
 
 Spelm. Gloss, preface. * 2nd charter of Charles I. 
 
 Vide p. 288, and notes ; and au- 7 Madox's Hist. Exch. yol. i. p. 778. 
 
 th rities there quoted. Ibid. When the money was col- 
 
 Str. p. 1238. Wilson, p. 107. lected by the king's officers, they col- 
 
 Ibid. lected it as cvstodes of the City. 
 
 Term, de Leg.
 
 382 OF THE CHARTERS OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK by that charter certain rates are fixed at which the toll is to 
 _^L_ be levied. 
 
 The king's customs have long since been placed under 
 effectual regulations by statute, and the levying of them is 
 superintended by commissioners and officers appointed under 
 authority of those statutes. The petty customs, as the cus- 
 toms paid by aliens were commonly denominated, 1 and in the 
 collection of which only the office of scavage was concerned, 
 have been abolished ; 2 but the same statute which abolishes 
 the petty customs, excepts all duties paid to the City of 
 London. 
 
 The offices of packing, picking, poundering, garbling, and 
 gauging, were granted to the commonalty originally on the 
 same principle as that of scavage. But these offices, like 
 those of portage and carriage granted by this charter, and 
 that of tronage granted by others, would seem, from the mode 
 of exercising them gradually adopted by the City, to have 
 rested rather on the principle of placing every employment 
 and avocation of a common or public character under the re- 
 gulation and supervision of the local government. 
 
 There are some employments which it would be absolutely 
 impossible to leave to general competition in a crowded city, 
 without occasioning disorder, abuse, and disturbances, alike 
 subversive of the public peace and of private accommodation. 
 Amongst these employments may be reckoned those of com- 
 mon carriers, common porters, watermen, fishermen, &c. The 
 rights of the Corporation in controlling and regulating the 
 labour of these classes do not depend upon royal grant, nor, 
 indeed, would such grant, without confirmation in parliament, 
 legally confer such rights ; but they rest on ancient usage 
 exercised time out of mind, and naturally springing from the 
 establishment of good government. In ancient times, and 
 down to the Fire of London, almost all the carriage through- 
 out the City was performed by porters : the irregularity and 
 narrowness of the streets, and the clumsy structure of the 
 vehicles, were such as hardly to admit of any other mode. 
 Considering, therefore, the number and quality of the City 
 
 1 Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. 2 24th George III. sess. 2, cap. 16. 
 
 p. 314 ; and Hale on Customs. .
 
 PORTERAGE. CARTAGE. 383 
 
 porters, the necessity of retaining them under strict rule CHAP. 
 
 must be obvious. With regard to carts, whether we refer , , ' .* 
 
 to the ancient state of the streets or to the modern improve- 
 ments, both in their arrangement, and in the number and 
 variety of wheeled carriages, we shall be equally convinced of 
 the necessity of placing them also under regulation. In short, 
 the employment of common carriers within crowded districts 
 has always been acknowledged by the legislature to require 
 statutable interference, wherever the municipal authority has 
 been insufficient. 
 
 As to those offices which are concerned in the due collection 
 of the king's customs, we can estimate the detriment and the 
 abuses attending the jurisdiction of the king's tax officers in 
 the City in unsettled times, and when no legislative enact- 
 ments denned and enforced their duties. Besides the security 
 from injustice and oppression afforded to the citizens by the 
 exercise of these duties through their own appointed officers, 
 the profits arising to the Chamber of the City out of them, 
 especially in regard to the fees levied from merchant strangers 
 and foreigners, no doubt greatly enhanced the value of these 
 chartered grants. Many of these offices are still exercised 
 by the City, and are the sources of considerable emolument, 
 and others have been put under statutable regulations.
 
 384 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY VII. WHOLESALE DEALERS OFFICE OF GAUGER 
 FIRST CHARTER OF HENRY VIII. TRONAGE SECOND CHARTER OF 
 HENRY VIII. INQUISITIONS AT ST. MARTIN'S-LE- GRAND TRANSFERRED 
 TO GUILDHALL THIRD CHARTER OF HENRY VIII. CONFIRMATION OF 
 TRONAGE CHARTER OF EDWARD VI. LAND IN SOUTHWARD FIRST 
 CHARTER OF JAMES I. CONSERVANCY OF THE THAMES OFFICE OF 
 MEASURER METAGE, DUTY ON GOODS ON BEHALF OF FUNDS OF CITY 
 ORPHANS SECOND CHARTER OF JAMES I. SEARCH AND SURVEY 
 OF GOODS THIRD CHARTER OF JAMES I. WEIGHING FIRST 
 CHARTER OF CHARLES I. GENERAL CONFIRMATION OF ALL PRE- 
 CEDING CHARTERS, NOMINATIM SECOND CHARTER OF CHARLES I. 
 SCAVAGE AND WATER BAILLAGE CHARTER OF CHARLES II. GENE- 
 RAL CONFIRMATION OF ALL PREVIOUS CHARTERS, NOMINATIM, AND 
 RECITING AT LARGE THEIR CONTENTS CHARTER OF WILLIAM AND 
 MARY CHARTER OF GEORGE II. 
 
 CHARTER OF HENRY VII. 1 
 
 BOOK THIS charter, after referring to the custom as ' time out of 
 ** ^ ' mind approved and confirmed by authority of parliament,' 
 that merchant strangers should not buy or sell with other 
 merchant strangers by wholesale within the City, for the 
 purpose of selling again, under pain of forfeiture of the mer- 
 chandise so sold proceeds to confirm it, and to authorize the 
 taking all forfeitures in breach of such custom to the use of 
 the mayor, commonalty, and citizens, whether such customs 
 and liberties may have been used, abused, or not used. The 
 charter further grants the office of ganger. 2 
 
 1 Dated 23rd July, 20th year. To be differences it may be presumed had arisen 
 found in the Inspeximus of Charles II. on this subject as well as that of the 
 
 2 The office of gauger or of measur- custom of forfeiture for goods ' foreign 
 ing the contents of vessels or barrels was ' bought and foreign sold,' which occa- 
 granted by the last charter of Edward sionpd this charter of confirmation. 
 
 IV. almost in the samp terms. Some
 
 CHARTERS OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF HENRY VIIL 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 This charter is a confirmation of the first charter of _ Yn ~ 
 Henry IV., by which tronage is granted to the City. 1 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF HENRY VIII.' 
 
 This charter, referring to that part of the 1st charter of 
 Edward III. by which inquisitions are directed to be taken 
 at St. Martin's le Grand, 3 grants that such inquisitions shall 
 for the future be taken at Guildhall, or other place within 
 the City thought more convenient by the justices before whom 
 such inquisitions shall be taken. 
 
 THIRD CHARTER OF HENRY VIII. 4 TRONAGE. 
 
 This charter first refers to a grant made in the 13th year 
 of the king's reign, of the tronage or keeping of the great 
 beam and common balance to Sir William Sidney; which 
 grant had been surrendered into the king's hands by him, for 
 the purpose of being made over to the commonalty of the 
 City of London. It then proceeds to recite the charter of 
 Edward IE., granted in the 12th year of his reign, by which 
 the weights and beam had been directed to be kept by the 
 citizens of London. 5 It then recites the charter of Henry IV., 
 by which the office of tronage is further secured to the 
 citizens, and also the charter granted in the first year of his 
 reign, confirming the charter of Henry IV. : from which, 
 the charter states, it was evident and clear that the office 
 of tronage did, of ancient right, belong to the citizens of 
 London. 
 
 For the end, therefore, of removing all ambiguity, it grants 
 * the weights and beams for weighing goods and merchandise 
 1 between merchant and merchant,' and the tronage and office 
 
 1 Dated 12th July, in the 1st year of s Vide supra, pp. 361, 376. 
 
 the reign of Henry VIII: * Dated 13th April, 22nd year. To 
 
 2 Dated 16th June, 10th year. To be be found as the last. 
 
 found in the Inspeximus of Charles IL * Vide supra, pp. 33-5. 376. 
 
 C C
 
 386 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON". 
 
 BOOK of keeper of the great beam and common balance, and the 
 
 ^ / ^ power of appointing and removing clerks, and all other 
 
 officers, deputies, and ministers, and all the profits, fees, and 
 
 emoluments arising from the exercise of this office, without 
 
 any account to be rendered thereof to the king. 1 
 
 CHARTER OF EDWARD VI. 2 
 
 By this charter is granted, in the most ample terms, a very 
 extensive property in Southwark, the manor and all manorial 
 rights over it, together with a large jurisdiction over the 
 district, both criminal and civil. 
 
 It first describes the lands, tenements, and premises, 
 granted to the commonalty for the sum of 647Z. 2s. Id., which 
 are declared to have been purchased by the king's father, 
 Henry VIII., of Charles Duke of Suffolk. 3 
 
 Then it proceeds to grant, for the same consideration, the 
 lordship and manor of Southwark, as late possessed by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury ; and then enumerates a great 
 number of rent-charges belonging to the king, arising out of 
 premises in that manor, which it grants to the commonalty ; 
 all which manor, premises, and rent-charges are granted in 
 as full and ample a manner as they were held and enjoyed 
 by Charles Duke of Suffolk, or any other, as Abbot of the 
 dissolved Monastery of Bermondsey, or by the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. 
 
 For the further consideration of 500 marks, the charter 
 proceeds to grant in and through all the town and borough 
 of Southwark, and the parishes of St. Saviour's, St. Olave's, 
 and St. George's, in Southwark; St. Thomas's Hospital, 
 Kentish Street and Blackman Street, and all other places 
 
 1 For an explanation of the purport with the payment of a large sum for 
 of this charter, vide supra, pp. 376 et rebuilding the new bridge. No trust of 
 seq. this nature is mentioned in the charter ; 
 
 2 Dated 23rd April, 4th year. To be and after payment of the existing 
 found in the Inspeximus of Charles II. charges, the estate ought to revert back 
 
 8 [This valuable estate has been con- to the Corporation.] EDIT, (of first edi- 
 side.red as applicable to the maintenance tion, Mr. Edward Tyrrell, afterwards 
 of London Bridge, and is now charged Remembrancer) .
 
 PROPERTY AND JURISDICTION IN SOUTHWARK. o^ 
 
 throughout the borough, of Southwark ; afl waifs, estra js, CHAP, 
 chattels of felons, and deodands, and all escheats and for- . T 11 * 
 feitures ; and that the commonalty may put themselves in 
 possession of all such goods and chattels : also the assay and 
 assize of bread and victuals, &c. and all forfeitures ; also the 
 execution of all process : also an annual fair and court of pye 
 powder for three days : also the view of frankpledge, and the 
 arrest of felons and malefactors, who may be taken to INew- 
 gate. 1 It further grants the franchise of a civil jurisdiction, 
 the same as is exercised in the City courts, to be holden by 
 like actions, bills, plaints, process, arrests, judgments, and 
 executions before the lord mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, at 
 the Guildhall, 2 and in like manner and form as all such suits 
 are prosecuted in the City ; with power to impanel and en- 
 force the attendance of jurymen from the Borough to try 
 issues arising ; and also the cognizance of all pleas personal, 
 to be held in the same courts, and tried by the same jurymen 
 summoned from the Borough. 3 
 
 Then follows the grant of the coronership over the town 
 and borough and precincts before described, to be executed 
 by two coroners appointed by the commonalty, annually or 
 otherwise ; and that the mayor shall be escheator, and clerk 
 of the market of the Borough, and of the king's household in 
 the same district ; and that the City shall have all the afore- 
 said liberties and franchises, and all tolls, stallages, pickages, 4 
 and all other jurisdictions, liberties, franchises, and privi- 
 leges, as fully as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of 
 Suffolk, the master, brethren, and sisters of the late St. 
 Thomas's Hospital, the Abbot of Bermondsey, or the Prior of 
 
 1 The grants specified in this clause * For the nature of 'cognizance of 
 
 are more detailed particulars of the ' pleas,' vide supra, p. 348 et seq. This is 
 
 franchises granted at the close of the not the grant of an exclusive cognizance 
 
 charter of Edward IV. of pleas, nor is it an exclusive personal 
 
 * This jurisdiction is now held in grant to the inhabitants. 
 Southwark, and not in Guildhall Why * Tide supra, pp. 108, 112 note 2, 
 so valuable a jurisdiction in respect of 355, as to king's household, clerk of the 
 actions of small debts (which are in market, &c. ; 379, as to stallage, &c. 
 effect irremovable) has gone so much The major is by custom, coroner of the 
 into decay, or why foreign attachments City also (Pulling's London, 19, 128), 
 are never tried under this jurisdiction, and also escheator by statute 1st Ed- 
 it is not easy to explain. ward HI. 49. Vide Pulling, 19. 
 c c 2
 
 388 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON 
 
 BOOK St. Mary Overy, or any of tliem had, or as the late King" 
 _ I .Jl_ Henry VIII. had. 
 
 It further grants, That the inhabitants of Southward, and 
 of the district before mentioned, shall be under the jurisdic- 
 tion and correction of the mayor and City officers, the same 
 as the citizens of London ; and that the mayor, recorder, and 
 those aldermen who have passed the chair of the City, shall 
 be justices of the peace throughout those limits. 
 
 The charter then grants a market every Monday, Wed- 
 nesday, Friday, and Saturday, and all things appertaining 
 to a market. 
 
 The charter proceeds to except the rights and jurisdictions 
 of the king over his park in Southwark, and the house and 
 garden of the King's Bench, and of the Marshalsea, with their 
 appurtenances, so long as they continue to be used as prisons ; 
 and also the jurisdiction of the king's great master steward 
 and marshal of his house over all such parts of the limits 
 aforesaid as are within the verge. 1 
 
 The charter, lastly, grants, That all these lands, tenements, 
 rights and franchises, before granted, shall be held of the king, 
 as of his manor of Greenwich, by fealty only, and in free socage 
 by way of service, and not in chief ; 2 and that the mayor and 
 commonalty shall be quit of all manner of account, corrodies, 3 
 rents, fees, annuities, and sums of money, excepting as before 
 reserved, and except the ancient ferm rent for Southwark of 
 10Z. ; and that they may have this charter sealed without any 
 fee to the king in his hanaper 4 or otherwise. 
 
 1 This jurisdiction is saved to the tenants as to this district of the king's 
 king as appurtenant to and in respect soc or manor of Greenwich. Vide 
 of his palace. The master steward and supra, p. 44 et seq. p. 289 et seq. 
 marshal of the king's household had 3 Corrody was an allowance of victual 
 jurisdiction over all conspiracies to kill which the founder of a monastery, or 
 the king or any of his household in his owner might charge upon such estab- 
 palace, or within certain limits called lishment: this acquittance of corrody 
 the verge, and over all misprisions of is granted in respect of the monastery 
 treason or violence there committed of Bermondsey, which is granted by 
 Vide Coke's 4th Inst. cap. 18, 19, 20, this charter. Vide Spelm. Gloss, and 
 21. ' Terms de Leg.' 
 
 2 This was to distinguish it from 4 Hanaper literally means a basket or 
 tenure by knight's service, or in chief hamper. It was actually used in ancient 
 simply, according to the feudal prin- times as the king's travelling treasury 
 ciples : the citizens were to be free and gave the name to that office in thr>
 
 JURISDICTION IN SOUTHWARK. 389 
 
 Upon the grant of this charter, the court of Aldermen CHAP. 
 
 added another to their number, and erected Southwark into , ' 
 
 a new ward of the liberties of the City, under the name of 
 Bridge Ward Without. 1 The Common Council then passed 
 a bye-law directing the election of an alderman for Bridge 
 Ward Without, to be made by the inhabitants of the Borough ; 
 but that ordinance was very soon after repealed by another, 
 passed in the reign of Philip and Mary, placing the election 
 in the court of Aldermen again. 2 
 
 The Borough of Southwark was not by this charter com- 
 pletely constituted a ward, or component part of the City of 
 London, nor was it detached from the county of Surrey. It 
 continued a distinct borough for the most important of all pur- 
 poses that of the election of representatives in parliament ; 
 and the justices of the peace, as well as the king's justices on 
 their circuits, still exercise their jurisdiction over this as over 
 every other part of the county. The City possesses jurisdic- 
 tion over the district by the appointment of leet officers ; but 
 in respect of the conservation of the peace it has not an 
 exclusive but a concurrent jurisdiction. The charter directs, 
 That all felons and malefactors may be taken to Newgate, to 
 be then delivered according to law ; but this clause, which 
 had been inserted in the first charter of Edward IV., was re- 
 pealed by express statute of the 8th Edward IV. : 3 the charter 
 was not sufficient to dispense with that statute, and male- 
 factors in Southwark have ceased to be imprisoned or tried in 
 the City. The City has ceased to appoint an alderman for 
 the district ; 4 and the office of alderman, or rather of justice 
 of the peace, is executed by a magistrate of the City of London 
 who has passed the chair. The high steward, appointed 
 by the court of Aldermen, presides in the Borough court of 
 record and at the courts leet, and the high bailiff executes the 
 duties of sheriff. The mayor, recorder, and aldermen who 
 have passed the chair hold the sessions of the peace. 
 
 Chancery where money is paid for fixing * There is nominally an alderman for 
 
 the king's seaL Vide Spelm. voce, and Bridge "Ward Without ; but his office is 
 
 'Fiscus.' a sinecure, and the senior alderman 
 
 1 Strype's Stow, vol. ii. p. 2 et seq. usually holds it, upon translation from 
 
 1 Ibid. his own original ward. 
 
 * Cotton's Abridgment, p. 682.
 
 390 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF JAMES I. 1 
 
 This charter refers to the office of bailiff, and to that of 
 the conservation of the water of the Thames, as having been 
 time out of mind possessed by the mayor and commonalty, 
 and exercised by the mayor or his deputy for the time being, 
 from Staines Bridge to Yendall, otherwise Yenland or 
 Yenleet, and in the river Medway, and upon every bank, 
 shore, and wharf, within those limits ; together with all 
 wages, rewards, fees, and profits belonging to the office. It 
 also refers to the office of Measurer as having been possessed 
 and exercised in the same way, of all coals and grain, also of 
 salt, and of all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and of all other 
 goods and merchandises sold by measure, brought to the 
 port of London, which shall arrive or be laid down within 
 the same limits ; together with all wages, rewards, fees, and 
 profits : in which office of measuring, especially in regard to 
 coals, the charter intimates, the citizens had been lately dis- 
 quieted, though their title was manifest and clear. 
 
 The charter, to end all controversies on these subjects, 
 certifies and confirms all the premises, whether the offices 
 have been used or not used. 
 
 BAILIFF AND CONSERVATOR OF THE THAMES. This office has 
 been, time out of mind, possessed by the commonalty, and 
 executed by the lord mayor and his deputies. By virtue of 
 it, both by long usage and by express charters and statutes, 
 the lord mayor has a general authority to remove wears, 
 kiddles, obstructions, and nuisances, and to seize unlawful 
 nets, and fish caught unlawfully or out of season. 2 
 
 For the preservation of the waters of the fishery and of the 
 navigation, various acts of Parliament have from time to 
 time passed, and various ordinances of the Common Council, 
 regulating what nets are to be used and how, and condemning, 
 under penalties and forfeitures, any injurious traffic on the 
 
 1 Dated 20th August, -3rd year. To cords and authorities collected on t lu- 
 be found in the Inspeximus of Charles subject, vide Strype's Stow, vol. i. p. 35 
 II. and in Lib. Alb. ct seq. 
 
 7 For the nature of the right, and re-
 
 CONSERVACY OP THE THAMES. 391 
 
 river ; l over which offences the lord mayor has jurisdiction, CHAP, 
 either by action of debt in his mayor's court, or by inqui- ~_ t ' ^ 
 sitions taken in his court of Conservacy. A number of the 
 members of the court of Common Council form an annual 
 committee, called the Navigation Committee, to superintend 
 the general state of the navigation. 
 
 The court of Conservacy is a most ancient court of record, 
 held before the lord mayor eight times every year, in the 
 four counties of Middlesex, Kent, Essex, and Surrey, succes- 
 sively, by prescription and by virtue of the king's commission, 
 which is granted by the king on his accession to the lord 
 mayor for the time being. A jury is summoned of residents 
 of those counties ; and their jurisdiction may be said to be 
 confined to the inquiry and redress of common nuisances in 
 the river. The commissions which have been from time to 
 time issued from the period of Henry III.'s reign, direct the 
 mayor to itiquire into, and authorise him to hear and deter- 
 mine offences in unlawful fishing. In modern times the 
 court has been held with great regularity, and with very 
 beneficial results : the jurisdiction has been chiefly exercised, 
 like the wardmote leet courts, for purposes of inquisition and 
 presentment ; and the redress of nuisances, when pointed out 
 by such presentment, has been of late years sought by indict- 
 ments in a superior court. 
 
 For the purpose of enforcing his authority as conservator 
 of the Thames, the lord mayor appoints an officer called the 
 water-bailiff, who is called the sub-conservator, and whose 
 office over the river is of the same nature as that of the chief 
 constable appointed by the county sheriff over the hundred. 
 His duties, which are ministerial and partly regulated by 
 statute, are generally to watch over the river, for the detection 
 of and to inform against nuisances to summon the inquest 
 jury, and to attend them on their view in fulfilment of the 
 charge given them at the Conservacy court to attend the 
 Corporation on their aquatic processions to receive the in- 
 structions of the Navigation Committee of the Common Coun- 
 cil to license and inspect fishing-nets to seize forfeitures 
 
 1 Strype's Stow, vol. i. p. 35 el scq. ; Hodges' Bye Laws ; and Bohun's Priv. Loud.
 
 392 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK for the purpose of condemnation and to obey the instruc- 
 
 , [ c '_ , tions of the civic authorities, in removing obstructions in the 
 
 .navigation of the river. 
 
 OFFICE OF MEASUEER. The measuring or metage, which 
 is the more common expression, of all articles of consumption 
 sold by measure, brought coastwise into the port of London, 
 and especially of coals and corn, is one of the most lucrative 
 franchises enjoyed by the Corporation. It is founded on the 
 same principle as that of tronage, 1 or weighing of goods sold 
 by weight : namely, the collection of the king's customs and 
 the prevention of fraudulent sales. It has long been an object 
 of policy with government, to ascertain the importation and 
 amount of sales of these articles, and more especially that 
 of corn ; but the great facility of fraud in measuring them 
 has suggested the necessity of placing all dealings in these 
 articles under public control. In professed imitation of this 
 civic control, exercised time out of mind by the office of 
 metage, the legislature has passed numerous statutes to en- 
 sure the just measuring of coals and corn in those districts of 
 the metropolis without the City's jurisdiction and elsewhere ; 2 
 and perhaps it is impossible to point out a subject of civic 
 regulation more productive of reciprocal benefit than this of 
 the office of metage. 
 
 Another reason for the public metage of coals and corn 
 is, the collection of the king's customs and other duties. 
 Besides the king's duty upon the importation of coals and the 
 metage duty, the duties known under the name of the orphans 1 
 duty on coals imported into the port of London, are levied ; 
 the origin and purposes of which deserve to be more particu- 
 larly mentioned. 
 
 Formerly the Corporation of London had by ancient 
 custom, confirmed by the first charter in parliament of 
 Richard II., the custody, as it was termed, of all orphans, 
 
 1 Vide sivpra, pp. 376 et seq. III. cap. 62. 47th Geo. III. cap. 68. 
 
 2 Namely, in regard to coals: 9th & 49th Geo. III. caps. 62, 98. 56th Geo. 
 10th William III. caps. 10 & 13. 9th III. cap. 21. 57th Geo. III. caps. 1, 40. 
 Anne, cap. 28. 3rd Geo. II. cap. 26. 4th In regard to corn : 1 st Anne, st. 4, cap. 
 Geo. II. cap. 30. 23rd Geo. II. cap. 26. 26. 2nd Geo. II. cap. 18. llth Geo. II. 
 32nd Geo. II. cap. 27. 13th Geo. III. cap. 22. 31st Geo. III. cap. 30; which 
 cap. 53. loth Geo. III. cap. 27. 27th Geo. last statute refers to many others.
 
 CITY ORPHANS. 393 
 
 which consisted of the care of their persons and property; 1 CHAP. 
 and performed this responsible duty through the medium of YIL _. 
 a court of record, called the Court of Orphans, over which 
 the common-serjeant, ex offido, presided. This court, which 
 was part of the jurisdiction of the court of Aldermen, took 
 security from the executors and administrators of deceased 
 citizens for the payment into the City Chamber of all sums 
 due, and accruing due, on behalf of the orphans ; and super- 
 intended the distribution of such money, according to law and 
 according to the custom of London, in regard to the distri- 
 bution of personal effects. Since the repeal by statutes of the 
 City custom under which the citizens were prohibited from 
 disposing by will of more than one- third of their personal 
 estate, and the remaining part was required to be paid into 
 the chamber in trust for their orphans the functions of this 
 court have entirely ceased : but while this corporate guar- 
 dianship was fully exercised, large sums were constantlv paid 
 into the civic treasury, and the jurisdiction by which the City 
 orphans were protected in their rights was no doubt, in early 
 and unsettled times, both a favourite and valuable privilege 
 amongst the citizens. 2 
 
 In the troublesome times which attended and followed the 
 great rebellion, the City finances (which suffered by plunder 
 and extortion in common with the rest of the nation) fell into 
 much confusion and decay; and the distress of the City 
 Chamber was not a little aggravated by the fire of London, 
 in which immense property belonging to the City was con- 
 sumed, and much more expended in restoring the metropolis 
 in a manner far surpassing in splendour its ancient condition. 
 The arbitrary acts of Charles II. in borrowing great sums 
 of the City, shutting up the Exchequer in which most of 
 the orphans' fund was deposited, 3 and finally seizing on 
 the City charter, completed the ruin of the Chamber ; and 
 when the liberties were restored at the Revolution, tte City 
 
 1 llth Geo. L cap. 18 ; and 5 & 6 there referred to, Strype's Stow, voL ii. 
 
 William & Mary. pp. 323, 324, 372, 373, and Calthorpe's 
 
 * For an account of the Orphans' fftp- P- 159, Polling's Law and Cmtome 
 
 Court jurisdiction, and the City custom (f the City of London, 196 et seg. 
 
 in regard to them and their estates, Tide Vide p. 225. 
 Bohun's Prif. Loud. ; and the authorities
 
 394 OP THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK purse had not only been emptied by the public robbers who 
 . IL usurped the chartered rights of the citizens, but a heavy 
 debt of no less a sum than 750,000?. had accumulated on the 
 responsibility of the Corporation, due to the City orphans 
 and other persons, who were, by the ruin which had thus 
 involved the City, reduced to a state of utter destitution. 1 
 
 These circumstances occasioned many petitions to the 
 legislature, and ultimately the passing of the first act for 
 raising what was called an orphans' fund ; namely, the 5th 
 and 6th of William and Mary. This act provided for the 
 debt thus constituted, by charging the estates of the Corpo- 
 ration with the payment of a perpetual rent of 8,000?., by 
 assigning to the proposed fund certain other small emolu- 
 ments of the City, and by creating a duty of 2,000?. per 
 annum to be paid by the citizens of London out of their 
 personal property, which was paid till 1795, and then 
 repealed. It also imposed perpetual duties of four shillings 
 per tun on wine, and of fourpence per chaldron on coals and 
 culm imported into the port of London ; and a further duty 
 of sixpence per chaldron, which was to last for fifty years, 
 when a charge of 6,000?. per annum was to be fixed upon the 
 Corporation estates, in addition to that of 8,000?. The last- 
 mentioned duties were the only compensation to the citizens 
 of London for taking upon themselves the burthen, partly 
 inflicted by public calamity, but still more by public injustice ; 
 and even a large portion of these was contributed by them- 
 selves. This arrangement was so unfavourable to the Cor- 
 poration, that in 1713 the original debt had increased 90,000?. 
 The great addition to the buildings of the metropolis and 
 other circumstances have since rendered these duties very 
 productive, and various acts of parliament have continued 
 the temporary imposition of sixpence ; but in the same or in 
 a greater proportion has the fund been burthened. The 
 additional charge of 6,000?. per annum on the Corporation 
 estates has not taken effect; but in 1751, 2,000?. per annum 
 was charged upon them by the 21st George IE. cap. 29 ; and 
 
 1 Reports of the House of Commons Council for the years 1818 and 1820, 
 on the Orphans' Fund 1812 and 1823; Index, titles, 'Orphans' Duty,' 'Coals' 
 Journals of Proceedings in the Common (Town Clerk's Office).
 
 ORPHANS FUND. METAGE. 395 
 
 in 1767 a farther annual sum of 1,500Z. by the 7th George CHAP. 
 III. cap. 37. The latter act authorised the application of the . vn ' ^ 
 whole of the orphan' fund to various public purposes, by no 
 means exclusively beneficial to the City of London, 1 and has 
 been followed by several similar acts ; so that no less a sum 
 than 846,300?. had been devoted to public improvements, and 
 paid for out of this fund, when a committee of the House of 
 Commons made their report on the orphans' fund in 1823. 
 In consequence of these incumbrances, the original debt, 
 which was created by public injustice, has not yet been dis- 
 charged ; and a new debt has been raised and defrayed by 
 the voluntary contribution of the Corporation to the various 
 purposes before mentioned, out of their own private income, 
 besides the share borne by individuals in the payment of the 
 duties ; the account of the application of the City revenue 
 forming a part of the fund standing thus : 
 
 PAID TOWARDS THE DEBT CREATED BY THE VIOLENCE OF CHARLES II. : 
 
 From 1696 to 1751, 8.000/. per annum .... 440,000 
 From 1751 to 1782, 10,0001. per annum . . . 310,000 
 
 750,000 
 
 VOLUNTARILY CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS 
 m LONDON, MIDDLESEX, AND SURREY: 
 
 From 1767 to 1782, 1,5001. per annum, and from 1782 to 
 
 1828, 11, 500^. per annum 96000 
 
 1,346,000 
 
 The debts so incurred are now in a rapid course of discharge ; 
 and the fund still retains the name of the orphans' fund, al- 
 though its object has entirely changed. 2 
 
 The metage duty both on corn and coals is received for the 
 account of the Corporation. The office is exercised under the 
 control of a committee of the court of Common Council, 
 The coal and corn committee, who appoint a board of 
 
 1 Amongst others are included the embankment. 
 
 bxiilding of a Sessions House for the 2 [By 1 Oth Geo. IV. cap. 136, intituled 
 
 county of Middlesex, and another for ' An Act for improving the approaches 
 
 Westminster ; the building of Black- 'to London Bridge,' a further sum of 
 
 friars Bridge, paving part of the l.OOO.OOOZ. has been charged upon the 
 
 Borough of Southwark, and improving coal duties.] EDIT (Mr. Tyrrell, after- 
 
 thc avenues in the Strand near Temple wards Remembrancer.) 
 Bar. Of late also in aid of the Thames
 
 $96 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK principal meters, and also a great number of deputy meters. 
 
 ^ Both the metage and orphans' duty is collected usually by 
 
 the same individual, who can of course receive both duties 
 with equal facility at the same time, and which gives ample 
 security for the collection and payment of the duties. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF JAMES I.' 
 
 This is a charter chiefly in confirmation of former liberties. 
 It first refers to the many liberties, privileges, franchises, &c. 
 granted from time to time by the kings of England, and then 
 ratifies all such grants, enumerating the various denomina- 
 tions, corporate and otherwise, under which the citizens 
 received their chartered rights ; and confirming them whether 
 used or not used, or even abused. 2 
 
 The charter then proceeds to grant and confirm the search 
 and survey* of ' oil, hops, soap, salt, butter, cheese, and such 
 ' other like things, coming or brought to the port of the City, 
 ' to the intent to be sold by way of merchandise ;' and also 
 the measuring of corn, coal, and other things measurable, 
 brought for the same purpose. 
 
 It proceeds to enlarge the limits of the civic jurisdiction by 
 comprising within it the districts of Duke's Place, Great and 
 Little St. Bartholomew's, Blackfriars andWhitefriars and Cold 
 Harbour ; with a proviso, that the inhabitants of Blackfriars 
 and Whitefriars shall be exempt from particular contributions 
 of scot and watch and ward, and from the particular offices of 
 constable and scavenger. 
 
 It further grants, That all inhabitants within the City's 
 jurisdiction, who are not freemen, shall nevertheless be liable 
 to ah 1 civic contributions in respect of their houses 4 (with the 
 exception before noticed, of the inhabitants of Blackfriars and 
 
 1 Dated 20th September, 6th year. To Henry VII. 
 
 be found in the Inspeximus of Charles * 4th charter of Edward IV. 
 
 II. * Vide sixteenth clause of 1st charter 
 
 Vide similar clauses in the charters of Edward II. to the same effect. 
 4th Edward III.; 1st Edward IV. and
 
 WEIGHING AND MEASURING. ' 397 
 
 Whitefriars), with liberty of appeal to the lord chancellor in CHAP, 
 case of grievance. r '_x 
 
 The charter then grants, That the mayor, recorder and 
 aldermen who have been mayors, shall be justices of the peace 
 over these new districts : and further, that any four of them 
 (of whom the mayor and recorder shall be two ), shall be 
 justices of oyer and terminer over the whole civic jurisdic- 
 tion. 
 
 Finally, the charter grants to the Corporation throughout 
 the newly comprised districts, all waifs, estrays, and goods 
 and chattels of felons and fugitives ; and that the charter 
 shall be sealed without fine or fee to the hanaper. 2 
 
 THIRD CHAETEK OF JAMES I. 
 
 This charter commences with some testimonials of the 
 king's regard for the welfare of the City, which induces him 
 to desire not only the confirmation but the enlargement of 
 former grants. 
 
 He then refers to some doubts and controversies existing 
 as to the right of the Corporation to the weighing as well as 
 the measuring of all coals brought into the port of London, 
 as expressed in his. first charter ; to end which, the weighing 
 of all coals weighable and the office of weighing is granted 
 and confirmed to the citizens, in the same language as in the 
 charter confirming the measuring. The fee or duty for 
 weighing is then settled at eightpence per ton weight, and 
 proportionably for a smaller weight. All merchants are en- 
 joined not to land or deliver their coals without measuring 
 or weighing ; so that the king may know the quantity of coals 
 imported, and have his duties on them justly paid. 
 
 The charter then alludes to the practice of selling coals by 
 retail from lighters and small craft on the Thames, by which 
 means engrossing, regrating, and forestalling was effected, 
 
 1 The 1st charter of Edward IV. 2 Last clause of the charter of Edward 
 
 giving the same jurisdiction to the City VI. 
 
 authorities, provides only that the 3 Dated loth September, 12th year, 
 
 mayor (without mentioning the recorder, To be found in the Inspeximus of 
 
 shall be of the quorum. Charles II., and in Liber Albus.
 
 398 OF THE CHARTERS OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK and more frequent measurings became necessary, to the 
 ^_' / _^ enhancement of the price ; and also the stream of the river 
 was choked by the coals and rubbish falling into it. These 
 practices are accordingly prohibited; and all sales are di- 
 rected to be transacted either immediately from the ships 
 importing, or in some port, quay, or wharf, near the river. 
 
 Lastly, the charter declares, That the king will renew this 
 grant and charter in a more effectual and express way at the 
 desire of the citizens, in case any doubt should arise, or de- 
 fault exist, in regard to the privileges intended to be con- 
 firmed to them. 
 
 FIRST CHARTER OF CHARLES I.' 
 
 This is a most ample inspeximus charter. It begins by 
 reciting all the charters from William the Conqueror, re- 
 ferred to in the notes of this work as contained in the Iri- 
 speximus charter of Charles II. They are all quoted verbatim, 
 except the first charter of Edward L, the charter of Henry IV., 
 and the first charter of Henry VII., which are only recited 
 either in substance or in part. The charter of Henry VI. 
 also is but partially mentioned in the subsequent part of this 
 charter. 
 
 All these charters are then confirmed ; and all grants of 
 lands, tenements, offices, liberties, franchises, &c. to the 
 citizens, under whatever name they may have received them. 
 All free customs, authorities, franchises, &c. are restored, 2 
 to be enjoyed and used, notwithstanding any hindrances, 
 impediments, or judgments, in times past ; and whether they 
 may have been used, not used, or abused ; and all the grants 
 made to the citizens by former charters are granted to the 
 citizens as wholly arid fully as if they were again severally 
 named and expressed, word for word, to be held by the same 
 rents and services as formerly. 
 
 The charters of Henry VI. and the first of Henry VII. are 
 
 1 Dated 18th October, 14th year. To 2 See the numerous violations of the 
 
 be found in the Inspeximus charter of citizens' rights and liberties, supra, p. 
 Charles II. 213 et seq.
 
 ABSTEACT OF FIEST CHARTER OF CHARLES I. 399 
 
 then mentioned, and the grants cited from those charters CHAP. 
 
 confirmed : the other privileges contained in them are also '_^ 
 
 confirmed, with the provisos and exceptions expressed in the 
 present charter. 
 
 The charter proceeds to grant, That the mayor, recorder, 
 and aldermen who have passed the chair, and the three senior 
 aldermen who have not passed the chair, 1 shall be keepers of 
 the peace and justices ; and that they or any four of them, 
 of whom the mayor .or recorder is to be one, 2 shall also be 
 justices to enquire by the oaths of a jury concerning murders, 
 felonies, and most other offences of an inferior description ; 
 and concerning the misconduct of sheriffs, constables, gaolers, 
 and other officers, in reference to such crimes ; and also to 
 see into indictments taken before them, and award process 
 upon them against those so indicted : also to hear and deter- 
 mine such offences, and punish them according to law ; and 
 to do all other things which justices of the peace may do 
 and execute in counties by force of any laws or statutes. 
 
 Next it is granted, That the mayor and commonalty shall 
 have all recognizances taken which may be forfeited such 
 as for appearance at sessions, for the keeping and maintain- 
 ing bastard children, and saving the parishes of the City 
 harmless ; concerning inmates dividing their dwelling- 
 houses into several habitations, and suppressing ale-houses, 3 
 and for observation of orders made in the premises ; all recog- 
 nizances taken and forfeited at the sessions of gaol delivery. 4 
 The charter likewise grants all fines, issues, and amercia- 
 ments, for offences committed and tried and adjudged within 
 the City excepting only, fines and issues royal, for offences 
 committed by the City magistrates : 5 also all recognizances 
 forfeited, which are taken for good behaviour and keeping 
 
 1 The three senior aldermen who have very frequent during Elizabeth and 
 not passed the chair are hereby first James's reigns ; they were followed up 
 created justices of the peace. by numerous acts of Common Council. 
 
 2 Second charter of James, whereby Vide Maitland and Stow, Index, 'Build- 
 the mayor and recorder are ordained 'ings.' The expediency of these pro- 
 always to be two of the quorum in all clamations and ordinances can be much 
 sessions. easier defended than their legality. 
 
 8 This clause refers to the king's 4 The great sessions of the king's 
 
 proclamations on the subject of build- judges at Newgate, 
 ings and mode of inhabiting houses, 5 Vide supra, p. 353.
 
 400 OF THE CHARTERS OF LOXDOX. 
 
 BOOK the peace, before justices, or in the courb of Conservacy for 
 
 - ~^~ - preservation of the water of the Thames and the fishing ; and 
 
 all amerciaments, fines, and penalties there adjudged ; and all 
 
 penalties and forfeitures imposed, assessed, or adjudged by 
 
 force of any commission of sewers. 
 
 The charter proceeds to grant and confirm to the common- 
 alty all buildings, and erections, and gutters, and water- 
 courses, &c. erected or being in any street or waste ground, 
 or ports, banks, and shores of the Thames : also the field 
 called the Inner Moor and Outward Moor, in the parishes of 
 St. Giles, Cripplegate, St. Stephen, Coleman Street, and St. 
 Botolph, Bishopsgate Street : and the field called West Smith- 
 field and the fairs and markets there held, with pickage, 
 stallage, 1 and all profits the king declaring that he will not 
 allow any of these fields to be built upon, but that they shall 
 be used for the same purposes as heretofore (saving to the 
 king all streets, alleys, and other void or waste places within 
 the City), and to be held by the commonalty for ever, in free 
 or common burgage, and not in capite or by knight's service. 2 
 And that the citizens shall not be liable for any arrearages, 
 or issues of the lands and tenements granted ; nor should it 
 be necessary to issue a writ of ad quod damnum ; 3 and that the 
 citizens should be released and exonerated from all entries 
 and intrusions upon these lands any time before made. But 
 that nothing in this charter is to be understood to take away 
 from, or diminish the force of, any proclamations concerning 
 the buildings of the City; and that all contempts and of- 
 fences against them are to be still punishable, and all en- 
 croachments on purprestures are to be reformed by the king 
 and his privy council. 4 
 
 Then the charter grants and confirms the oflice of gar- 
 bling all merchandise used to be garbled, although not 
 hitherto used to be imported, and the fees and profits there- 
 
 1 Vide supra, p. 379. and, consequently, the streets and waste 
 
 2 That is, the tenure was to be free- ground would not belong to the king, 
 Jiold in the modern acceptation of the except as lord paramount. Vide supra, 
 word, and not by tenure in capite in p. 44 et seq. and p. 7 et seq. 
 
 free burgage. It is doubtful, however, s Vide supra, 3rd charter of Edward 
 
 whether all land within the City was IV. 
 
 not held by the citizens themselves ; 4 In the court of Star Chamber.
 
 GARBLING. GAUGING. OUTROPER. WIDOWS. 
 
 unto belonging; and that the chancellor, or treasurer, or 
 president of the council, and the two chief justices of the 
 King's Bench and Common Pleas, or any four of them, shall 
 appoint fees to be taken for garbling spices and other like 
 merchandise, for which no fee has hitherto been taken. The 
 garbling of tobacco is, however, excepted out of this charter, 
 as an office in the appointment of the king. It further 
 grants, with the same provisions as to merchandise not hitherto 
 used to be imported, the offices of gauging 1 and of weigh- 
 ing between merchant and merchant, and at the king's 
 beam. 8 
 
 The charter proceeds to create the office of Outroper in the 
 City and Southwark, to be exercised by the appointment of 
 the mayor and commonalty in Common Council, for the 
 selling by open claim and outcry ' all household stuff, apparel, 
 ' leases of houses, jewels, goods, chattels, and other things,' 
 in open places ; and that no one else shall execute this office. 3 
 A table of fees are added to the charter in a schedule. 
 
 It is then granted, That the widows of freemen may carry 
 on their husbands' arts and occupations in the City, notwith- 
 standing the statute of apprentices (5th Elizabeth). 
 
 That no market shall be henceforth granted to be kept 
 within seven miles in compass of the City. 
 
 1 Vide supra, 4th charter of Edward Xenophon's Anabasis. It may be pre- 
 
 IV. sumed that a similar duty -was performed 
 
 * Second charter ef Edward IV. by the cryer of London. It was his task to 
 
 1 The term outroper or outrouper, like summon the councils, and call for order 
 
 that of bankrupt, seems to be derived in their deliberations. It continues so to 
 
 from the breaking up (ruptum) of stock ; the present day ; and whoever attends the 
 
 though, as applied to the public selling civic assemblies will still find his voice 
 
 of effects by crying them out, the etymo- the most audible, if not the most at- 
 
 logy of the word is somewhat more in- tended to. His duty, asoutroper, was that 
 
 tricate and involved. The word, and of an auctioneer broker, the performance 
 
 probably the office too, is more ancient of which in open places detracted in no 
 
 than this charter, which professes to small degree from his ancient and also 
 
 create it ; for the officer called the com- his modern dignity. This has, however, 
 
 man cryer is perhaps as ancient as the long ago ceased to be noticed in the 
 
 City. The classical reader need hardly list of his duties, as the change of the 
 
 be reminded of the importance of the times has produced improvements in 
 
 cryer in the earlier ages of democratic public sales, and indeed the legality of 
 
 states, as testified in the character of this exclusive grant by chartr of such 
 
 Homer's Stentor, and of Tolmides in an office may be reasonably doubted.
 
 402 OF THE CHAETEKS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK That City customs shall be certified by word of mouth by 
 -- ,' _ the recorder. 1 
 
 That the commonalty and citizens shall have all treasure- 
 trove, waifs, estrays, and goods and chattels of felons. 
 
 And, That the mayor shall nominate to the chancellor two 
 aldermen, one of whom shall be a justice of the peace for 
 the county of Middlesex, and the other for the county of 
 Surrey. 
 
 The charter then alludes to the trade carried on from the 
 port of London to other ports by persons who have been ap- 
 prentices to freemen, or who are sons of freemen, and who 
 are, consequently, capable of becoming free citizens, but who 
 delay or refuse to become so ; and thereby enjoy many of the 
 privileges of freemen without undergoing the incident charges 
 and burthens : the charter, therefore, declares and ordains, 
 That such persons, residing in the City of London or within 
 ten miles of it, * shall not be permitted, at any time hence- 
 
 * forth, by themselves or by others, directly or indirectly, to 
 1 transport any goods, wares, or merchandise, by way of mer- 
 
 * chandising, in any way from the port of the said City of 
 ' London, to ports foreign, or beyond the seas ' enjoin- 
 ing all societies of merchants, by whatever name known 
 (and naming most of them), that they permit not, nor license 
 such persons to trade or traffic, until they are certified by 
 the chamberlain to have become free citizens. The charter 
 requires service by apprenticeship in London and within ten 
 miles to extend to seven years, and that these apprentices 
 shall be enrolled. 
 
 The charter next alludes to the Court of Conscience Act 
 passed in the third year of James I., 2 by which all tradesmen, 
 victuallers, and labourers are to sue in that court for debts 
 under the amount of 40s. due from such individuals, and in 
 that court only : and it creates the offices of clerk to the 
 court, for the purpose of entering and registering the busi- 
 ness, and of beadle, to execute the mesne process ; and adds 
 a schedule of their fees. 
 
 It further creates an office for the registry of goods sold 
 or pawned by brokers, in order the better to detect lost and 
 
 1 Vide supra, 1st charter of Edward IV. 2 Vide supra, p. 147, 149, note.
 
 STBEET SIGNS. BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL. 403 
 
 stolen goods ; and gives the appointment of the register to CHAP. 
 the Court of Common Council ; and adds a schedule of his > - , ^ 
 
 It grants, That the citizens may hang np, in and over the 
 streets, signs and posts of signs affixed to their houses and 
 shops, without any impediment or interruption, the better 
 to distinguish their dwellings, shops, and occupations.* 
 
 The charter then proceeds to notice the letters patent of 
 13th January, granted in the 28th year of Henry VIII., by 
 which the Hospital of Bethlehem, and the lands and tene- 
 ments thereunto belonging, are made over to the mayor and 
 commonalty, who are thereby constituted masters, governors, 
 and keepers of the hospital, and of such lands, to the use of 
 the hospital, and the better to support the expenses of the 
 poor in West Smithfield ; and it confirms fully these letters 
 patent. 
 
 The charter further grants, That the commonalty may pur- 
 chase a certain parcel of land, to the extent of five acres, in 
 the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, although the land may 
 be held of the king in capite, notwithstanding the statutes of 
 mortmain. And that such land shall not be reckoned in the 
 valuation of land, to the yearly value of which the common- 
 alty have been allowed by charter to purchase. 3 
 
 And, lastly, the charter declares, That, upon enrolment, 
 it shall be fully valid and sufficient and effectual to all in- 
 tents and purposes, without any further confirmations or 
 licences, and without any writ of ad quod damnum^* and 
 notwithstanding the misnaming of any lands, liberties, or 
 privileges, &c., granted, and although no office or inquisition 
 should have been previously found declaratory of the king's 
 title; and notwithstanding any mis-recital or non-recital of 
 any leases, or terms for life or years, of the premises, or of 
 the parish, hamlet, ward, &c., in which the lands may be, or 
 of the names of all the lands granted, or any other defect of 
 
 1 This office no longer exists ; the middle of the last century. 
 
 London brokers are now put under sta- * Tide supra, 3rd charter of Edward 
 
 tutable regulations. IV. 
 
 * This nuisance existed until the * Ibid.
 
 404 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK form ; and notwithstanding the statute of Henry VI., 1 or any 
 
 r of the statutes of mortmain, or any other statutes whatever ; 
 
 and without paying any fee to the hanaper. 
 
 SECOND CHARTER OF CHARLES I. 1 SCAVAGE AND WATER- 
 BAILLAGE. 
 
 This charter first recites, that the mayor, commonalty, and 
 citizens of London had exercised and claimed the office of 
 package, 3 describing it in the same language as is used in 
 the fourth charter of Edward IV. ; and also the office, as well 
 for the surveying, or scavage, of all goods of aliens, or of 
 denizens, whose fathers were aliens, brought from foreign parts 
 into the port of London, by way of merchandise, as for the 
 surveying, delivery, or laillage, of all goods of such merchants, 
 to be exported by way of merchandise, which might be in 
 any vessel upon the river, or upon any wharf or shore of it, 
 and be delivered or unladen within the City or its liberties or 
 suburbs. These offices the charter declares the citizens to 
 have enjoyed time out of mind, and also by virtue of charters 
 granted in the 1st and 18th years of Edward IV., and in the 
 3rd year of Henry VIII. 4 It then alludes to some doubts and 
 differences which had arisen concerning these offices; and 
 some hindrance and molestations occasioned thereby to the 
 citizens in the enjoyment of them to remove which, and for 
 the purpose of confirming, amplifying, and establishing the 
 privileges of the City, this charter, in consideration of the 
 sum of 4,200L, creates and constitutes the office of package 
 of all sorts of merchandise, with the survey of the measure, 
 number, and weight of such merchandise, and the survey of 
 customable goods imported and exported ; and also the office 
 of carriage and portage of all such goods from the river to 
 the houses of aliens, and from their houses to the river, with 
 
 1 For resuming lands, &c., granted. and of 3rd Henry VIII., the author has 
 Vide charter of Henry VI. never been able to meet with ; nor does 
 
 2 Directed and to be found as the he know of any reference to them except 
 last. Dated 5th Sept., 16th year. in the present charter. The 4th charter 
 
 * Vide 4th charter of Edward IV. of 18th Edward IV. is abstracted, supra, 
 
 The charter of 1st Edward IV., p. 379 ct seq.
 
 PORTAGE. SCAVAGE. BAILLAGE. PACKAGE. 405 
 
 all fees for the execution of such respective offices of pack- CHAP. 
 age and of portage, as expressed in two schedules an- ^ - 
 nexed to the charter : and it grants these offices, and the ap- 
 pointment of officers for the execution of them, to the citizens, 
 without forfeiture, by reason of not packing goods upon 
 notice of their being ready : and it provides that no porters, 
 not appointed by the citizens, shall intrude into these em- 
 ployments ; and that the City porters shall receive fees for 
 their labour according to the schedule annexed. 
 
 The charter then grants to the citizens the offices of 
 scavage and baillage, according to the terms recited as to 
 the nature of those tolls; and directs, that the fees for the 
 execution of these offices shall be taken, as expressed in a 
 schedule annexed, according to the statute of 22ud Henry 
 Vlil. : l to hold these offices ' with the appurtenances, and the 
 ' disputings, orderings, supervisings, and corrections of the 
 4 same,' and all the fees belonging to them for ever ; and 
 without forfeiture of them by reason of the not surveying, or 
 delivering, the goods and merchandise to be surveyed or de- 
 livered, when ready and upon request. All alien merchants 
 are enjoined to deliver to the collectors of scavage true bills 
 of entry of their merchandise. An annual rent-charge of 
 3i. 6*. 3d. is then reserved upon these offices, to be paid by 
 the citizens into the Exchequer. 
 
 The charter proceeds to notice the practice of some aliens 
 in landing their merchandise at various wharfs between 
 London Bridge and Blackwall, with a view to defraud the 
 citizens of the fees and emoluments of the above offices, 
 and under the notion of those places being without the port 
 of London, and the liberties, franchises, and suburbs there- 
 of-, namely, at St. Katherine's Wharf, Tower Wharf, South- 
 wark, Bickshore, Wapping, Eedriff, Deptford, Greenwich, 
 Blackwall, and other places : and it ordains and declares that 
 aliens so landing merchandise shall pay the fees as in the 
 schedules annexed. 
 
 1 Cap. 28 ; which statute provides, signed by certain of the king's pmy 
 that all tolls and duties taken by the council and judges, and hong up in cer- 
 Corporation shall be inserted in a table tain conspicuous places.
 
 406 OF THE CHARTERS OF LONDON. 
 
 BOOK Lastly, the charter alludes to the colouring of aliens' goods 
 >_ - .' _^ by other persons not aliens ; whereby the king is defrauded 
 of his customs, and the citizens of their duties, payable in 
 respect of the above offices : it authorises the mayor or his 
 deputy to administer oaths to persons suspected of such 
 frauds, colourings, or concealment ; and to compel, by all 
 lawful ways and means, such suspected persons to take the 
 oaths so to be administered. 
 
 SCAVAGE AND WATEKBAiLLAGE. Of the toll called scavctgo 
 we have already spoken. 1 That of waterbaillage is somewhat 
 more uncertain, both in origin and extent. Literally, the 
 word signifies a toll for delivery by water ; and in that sense 
 it seems to be considered by the language of the present 
 charter. The duty is limited precisely to the same kind of 
 merchandise as that of scavage ; namely, the merchandise of 
 aliens paying port customs. It appears to be the same toll for 
 merchandise exported, as the other is for merchandise im- 
 ported : for as the latter is paid in respect of the survey or 
 oversight of customable goods to be shown for sale in England, 
 so the other appears to be a payment for the delivery by water 
 of similar articles, for exportation and showing in foreign 
 parts. 
 
 There is no doubt that many tolls were formerly paid for 
 the transit of merchandise by the river Thames, which had, 
 previous to the granting of the present charter, become utterly 
 forgotten and unintelligible. Lord Hale enumerates a long 
 list of them of the age of Edward III., but he speaks of them 
 as too obscure to be understood. 2 These water customs, he 
 seems to think, were of the kind usually, in his time, let to 
 farm to the water-bailiff; and probably, therefore, they 
 formerly passed by the name of waterbaillage. However, 
 when in the reign of Charles II. that officer sued for a water 
 toll upon wines, the non-usage of any demand time out of 
 mind overthrew the merit of the evidence of records to show 
 such a duty to be payable, and the waterbailiff was nonsuited. 3 
 
 1 Vide 4th charter of Edward IV. 2 Hale on Customs, ch. iv. 3 Ibid.
 
 CHARTERS OF CHARLES II., WILLIAM AND MARY, GEORGE II. 
 
 CHARTER OF CHARLES II. 1 
 
 This is a grand Inspexinras charter, usually appealed to as CHAP. 
 the text of the City charters ; although it does not contain -_ 
 the whole of them. It is generally termed, by pre-eminence, 
 the Inspeximus charter, and begins by reciting the first charter 
 of Charles I. by way of Inspeximus, and copies the whole of 
 that charter, with all the charters quoted and recited in it, 
 verbatim. It proceeds to recite, by way of Inspeximus, the 
 last charter of Charles I., and then concludes with an ample 
 and detailed confirmation of all these charters, and all their 
 contents ; and all lands, offices, jurisdictions, privileges, 
 liberties, franchises, customs, &c., by whatever name had, ex- 
 ercised, or enjoyed by the citizens whether by letters patent 
 or prescription, or by any other lawful means as fully as if 
 the same were separately, singly, or nominally expressed. 
 
 CHARTERS OF WILLIAM AND MARY, AND OF GEORGE II. 2 
 
 These charters were granted solely to constitute all the 
 aldermen of London justices of the peace within the City. 
 
 The charter of William and Mary, after reciting the first 
 charter of Charles I., appoints the six senior aldermen who 
 had not passed the Chair, in addition and next to the three 
 senior aldermen who had not passed the Chair, who were 
 created justices by Charles's charter, to be justices of the 
 peace ; provided they have served the office of sheriff. 
 
 The charter of George II., after reciting the charter of 
 Charles and also that of William and Mary, constitutes all 
 the aldermen for the time being justices of the peace, and 
 makes the mayor, recorder, and all those aldermen who have 
 passed the chair, of the quorum. 3 
 
 The charter of George II. is the last which has been granted 
 to the City of London. 
 
 1 Dated 24th June, loth year. The charterof Charles and William 
 
 2 The first dated 28th July, 4th year ; required either the mayor or recorder to 
 the second dated 2othAugust, loth year. be of the quorum.
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 ABUSES. Of franchises not to forfeit chartered rights, 368, 373 
 
 Aldermen. Originally synonymous with earl ; title of Governor of London. 1 S, 
 19, note 2 ; originally presided over gilds, afterwards termed wards. 59 ; their 
 dignity and authority, 117, 260, 339 ; impressed as a soldier, another imprisoned 
 for refusing a loan to Henry VIII., 145 ; how elected, 249, 251 ; made justices 
 of peace and of sessions, 373. 397, 399 
 
 Alfred. His reign ; his laws for the City of London, 16 ; recovers London from 
 the Danes, ibid. ; encourages ship-building, 157 
 
 Allectus. Assumes the sovereignty of Britain, 11 
 
 Amerciaments. What. Illegally imposed on cities, and oppressive, SO, 351 : 
 granted to the City, 399 
 
 Apprentices. Origin of, 138 ; usual course to freemanship, ibid. ; statute of 
 Henry IV. restricting, 121 ; repealed by statute of Henry VI., 160 ; riots of ap- 
 prentices' clubs, 205 ; required by charter of Charles L to serve seven years, 402 
 
 Asclepiodotus. Defeats Allectus A.D. 298, 11 
 
 Assize of Victuals. Granted, what, 37-4 
 
 Anla Regis. Jurisdiction of, 272 
 
 Aulus Plautius. In command of Britain, 5, 8 
 
 B 
 
 Baillage. Confirmed by charter, 404 
 
 Barons. Of London, 72 ; origin and explanation of the term, 260, 261 
 
 Bede. His description of London, circittr 600 A.D.. 15 
 
 Benevolences. What, 133, and note 2 ; levied by Henry VII., ibid. ; and by 
 
 Henry VIII., 144 
 
 BetheL Elected sheriff in opposition to the Court, 228 
 Bethlehem. Hospital granted to the City by charter of Charles I., 403 
 Billingsgate. Tolls and customs granted in, 371 
 
 Black Prince, His letter to the Corporation on his victory of Poictiers, 110, nott 6 
 Boadieea. Sacks London, 7 
 
 Boroughs. Meaning of the term, 29 ; their quality, 29 et seq. 
 Bridge. London Bridge first built temp. Henry LL, 63 
 Bridge Ward. Extended over Southwark, 389 ; election of alderman for, ibid. ; 
 
 civic jurisdiction over, ibid.
 
 410 INDEX. 
 
 Bridtoll. What; Freedom from granted, 301, 303 
 
 Brokers. None but freemen to be brokers, and to be sworn before the Mayor, 335 
 
 Burgage. Lands held in burgage tenure, what, 50 ; lands in the City held by, 52, 
 
 110. Fide ' Soc,' ' Socage ' 
 Burghers. Vide Burhwaru, Burgage 
 
 Burhwaru. Citizens so termed in William I.'s Charter, 260 
 By-laws. Eight to make, confirmed by charter of Edward III., 364 
 
 Cade. His rebellion, 123 ; arraigned before the Mayor, defeated by the citi- 
 zens, ibid. 
 
 Oirausius. Sovereign of Britain, A.D. 288, 11 
 
 Carriage. Of goods, confirmed by charter, 405, 406 
 
 Certifying City customs, 373, 375, 402 
 
 Chamberlain. Partly an officer of the king, 315, 318, 377; collected the king's 
 customs, ibid. ; originally elected by the Common Council, 335, 343 ; afterwards 
 by the liverymen in Common Hall, 343 
 
 Charles I. His personal characteristics, 205 et seq. ; review of his reign and mea- 
 sures, 278 ; his illegal and tyrannical measures towards the City, 213 ; citizens 
 side with the Long Parliament, 214 ; personally popular in the City, 215 ; grants 
 ample charters, ibid., 399 ; the five members take refuge in the City, 216 ; appeals 
 personally to the Common Council, ibid. ; religious fanaticism in the City, ibid. ; 
 political influence of the City during the civil war, 218; City turns against 
 Cromwell, ibid. 
 
 Charles II. General review of his reign and measures, 220, et seq. ; religious 
 parties in England, 222 ; and in the City, 227 ; shuts up the Exchequer, 225 ; 
 Popish plot, belief of, in the City, 227 ; disgraceful judicial administration, 228 ; 
 interference of the Court in the appointing and electing sheriffs, 229 ; illegal 
 seizure of the City's charters by writ of quo warranto, 232 ; fire of London, and 
 its re-building, 235 
 
 Charters. Meaning and nature of, 255 et seq. ; Charter of William the Conqueror, 
 257 et seq. ; Charter of Henry II., 301 et scq. ; First Charter of Eichard I., 305 ; 
 Second Charter of Eichard I., 305 ; First Charter of John, 306 ; Second Charter 
 of John, 306 et seq.; Third Charter of John, 313; Fourth Charter of John, 
 313, 314 ; Fifth Charter of John, 315 et seq. ; First Charter of Henry III., 319 ; 
 Second Charter of Henry III., 319 ; Third Charter of Henry III., 319 ; Fourth 
 Charter of Henry III., 320 ; Fifth Charter of Henry III., 320 ; Sixth Charter of 
 Henry III., 321 ; Seventh Charter of Henry III., 323 ; Eighth Charter of 
 Henry III., 324 ; Ninth Charter of Henry III., 324 et seq. ; First Charter of 
 Edward I., 332 ; Second Charter of Edward I., 333 ; First Charter of Edward II., 
 333 et seq. ; Second Charter of Edward II., 344 ; First Charter of Edward III., 
 345 et seq. ; Second Charter of Edward III., 363 ; Third Charter of Edward III ., 
 363 ; Fourth Charter of Edward HI., 364 ; Fifth Charter of Edward III., 365 ; 
 First Charter of Eichard II., 367 et seq. ; Second Charter of Eichard II., 370 ; 
 First Charter of Henry IV., 371 ; Second Charter of Henry IV., 361 ; First and 
 Second Charters of Henry V., 372 ; Charter of Henry VI., 372 ; First Charter of 
 Edward IV., 374 et seq.; Second Charter of Edward IV., 376; Third Charter of 
 Edward IV., 379 ; Fourth Charter of Edward IV., 379 et seq. ; Charter of 
 Henry VII., 384; First Charter of Henry VIII., 385; Second Charter of 
 Henry VIII., 385 ; Third Charter of Henry VIII., 385 ; Charter of Edward VL,
 
 INDEX. 411 
 
 386 et seq. ; First Charter of James L, 390 et sej. ; Second Charter of James I., 
 396 ; Third Charter of James I., 397 ; First Charter of Charles L, 398 ct scq. 
 Second Charter of Charles I., 404 et seq. ; Great Inspeximus Charter of Charles II., 
 407 ; Charter of William and Mary, 407 ; Charter of George II., 407 ; Charters 
 not to be forfeited for offence of individuals, 347 ; all charters to be liberally 
 interpreted, 368 
 
 Cheap. Tolls and customs granted hi, 371 
 
 Chief Justiciar. Vide ' Justiciar' 
 
 Childwite explained. Exemption from, 301, 303 
 
 Citizens. At first associated in territorial guilds, 24, 103 ; original qualifications 
 of, ibid. ; not originally members of mercantile guilds, ibid. ; by redemption, 
 what, 105 ; claims as gentlemen, 204, note ; their lands beyond the City liable 
 for City dues, 347, 360. Vide ' Elections,' ' Liverymen ' 
 
 City officers. All process to be served by them only, 347 ; except that from the 
 king's own justices, ibid. 
 
 Claudius Caesar. His invasion of Britain, 6 ; London not then existing, ibid. 
 
 Clerks. Of the sheriffs' courts, 333, 337 
 
 Clerk of the market. His office, 108, 112, note 2 ; the king's not to have jurisdic- 
 tion in the City, 346, 355, 375; office of, granted to the City, 374; also in 
 Southwark, 387 
 
 Cnut. His battles around and in London, 22 
 
 Coiners. Eight for London, six for Canterbury in Athelstan's reign, 21 
 
 Colouring goods. What, 334, 340 
 
 Common Council. Court of, first established, 114, 244 ; irregularities in appointing 
 members, 114; authority to make by-laws, 364; how elected, 244, 2i9, 251. 
 Vide ' Elections ' 
 
 Common clerk. Now called town clerk, 343 ; elected by Common Council, 335, 
 343 
 
 Common seal. Having it, a constituent principle of incorporation, 27, 74, note ; 
 when first obtained, 27 ; its use explained, 334, 342 
 
 Common Serjeant Elected by Common Council, 335, 343 
 
 Compurgators. Meaning of the term, 36 ; trial by, 36, 265, 286 ; the origin of 
 trial by common jury, ibid. 
 
 Companies. Origin of trading companies, 25, note 2, 103 et seq. ; corporate free- 
 man required to be member of a City company, 91, 102 ; none but selected members 
 of companies to be electors, 115; liverymen only of companies to come to elec- 
 tions in Common Hall of mayor, sheriffs, &c., 126 ; Discussion on the elective 
 franchises of liverymen, 241 
 
 Conscience. Court of, established by charter of Charles I., 402 
 
 Conservacy. Of the Thames, granted by charter of James I., 390 ; nature of 
 the right Court of Conservacy, 391 
 
 Constable of the Tower. Not to take prisage of victuals, 346, 357 
 
 Constantius. The Eoman general defeats Allectus, A.D. 298, 11 
 
 Cookery. Public cookeries temp. Henry II., 63 
 
 Cornish. Elected sheriff in opposition to the Court, 228 ; his judicial murder, 237 
 
 Coronership. Over Southwark granted, 387 ; and of London, ibid., note 4 
 
 Corporation. None existing in Saxon times, 23 ; origin of, and of that of London, 
 25, 54, 65, 102, 315 ; first acquisition of land in a corporate capacity, 74 note 
 
 Corsned. Trial by, 36, 265 * 
 
 Councils. Public deliberative and legislative, a general meeting of all the citizens 
 till Edward I., 61 ; representative Common Council first established, 108. Vide 
 ' Common Council '
 
 412 INDEX. 
 
 Courts. London Judicial Courts in Saxon times, 19, 25, 34 et seq., 42, 68, 61, 91 
 et seq. ; abuses in Judicial Courts redressed by Edward I., 76 et seq. ; Court of 
 Conservancy, 390 ; Court of Orphans, 393. Vide ' Conscience Court ' 
 
 Cromwell. Citizens side with Parliament against, 218 
 
 Cupbearer. Mayor to be, 129 
 
 Customs. To be certified by mouth of the Eecorder, 373, 375, 402. Vide ' Manners ' 
 
 D 
 
 Danegeld. What. Exemptions of citizens from, 283 
 
 Danes. In London, 17, 21 
 
 Debts. Enrolling debts due to citizens, explained, 325, 329 
 
 Debtors. In prison not to be sued in the Court of Exchequer upon feigned suits, 
 
 369 
 Demesnes. What, 29 et seq., 93 et seq.; London not in demesne, 29, 33, 117 ; 
 
 not held by feudal tenure, 44, 50. Vide ' London/ ' Soc,' ' Socage ' 
 Dress. Proclamation of Elizabeth against sumptuous dress, 156 ; order of Common 
 
 Council against it, ibid. 
 
 E 
 
 Edmund Ironside. Battles with Cnut in and near London, 22 
 
 Edward I. Parliament first regularly summoned by, 77 ; his measures to redress 
 judicial abuses and feudal grievances, ibid., et seq. ; appoints a custos over the 
 City, who held it twelve years, 86; grants two charters, 332, 333 
 
 Edward II. Government under, 88 
 
 Edward III. Inquisitions by grand jury before trial usual in his time, 111, and 
 note 3; his commercial laws injudicious; encourages manufactures, 113; 
 grants five charters, 333 et seq. 
 
 Edward IV. Supported in London on death of his father the Duke of York, 124 ; 
 his popularity in London, 125 ; his four charters, 374 et seq. 
 
 Edward VI. His Charter, 386 et seq. 
 
 Elections. City elected its magistrates in Saxon times, 18, 34, and note 2 ; elec- 
 tions of the governor and magistrates of the City by the whole body of the citi- 
 zens till Edward I.'s reign, 60, 74 ; citizens specially summoned to, by the Mayor, 
 88, 114; elections to deliberative councils for the government of the City first 
 regulated temp. Eichard II., 114 ; of gild or ward magistrates in the separate 
 wards, 85, 249, 251 ; elections of mayor, sheriffs, and other officers and members 
 of Parliament in Common Hall transferred to liverymen temp. Edward IV., 126, 
 314; this course of election confirmed by statute 11, George I., 107, 242 et seq.; 
 summary review of the existing elective franchises, 243 et seq. 
 
 Elizabeth. Her reign, 150 et seq. ; her proclamations and monopolous grants, 151 ; 
 attachment of the citizens, 158 ; demands on the City for soldiers on the Spanish 
 invasion, ibid. ; her attempt to appoint the Kecorder, ibid. ; her descent from a 
 mayor, 138, note 
 
 Escheator. Mayor appointed for Southwark, 377 ; and in the City, ibid., note 
 
 Exclusive trade. Vide ' Trade ' 
 
 Eyre. Justices in, their power and oppressions, 79, 86, 112, 361 ; cit zens exempt 
 from their jurisdiction, 346
 
 INDEX. 413 
 
 Fair. Annual, in Southwark, granted by charter of Edward IV., 375 
 
 Farm. What, in cities and boroughs, 32, 51 ; Middlesex "granted in fee-farm, 
 267, 268 
 
 Fee-farm. Vide ' Farm ' 
 
 Felons. Goods of, granted by charter of Charles I., 402 
 
 Feudal system. Explained ; in contrast with the City's rights and customs, 40 et 
 stq. 
 
 Fines. Vide 'Amerciaments* 
 
 Fire of London, 235 
 
 Fitzstephen. His cotemporary account of London temp. Henry II., 57 et seq. 
 
 Folkmote. Original term for wardmotes, 58 ; also for general assemblies of citizens, 
 58, 61, 74 
 
 Foreign attachment. Nature of this legal custom, 299 
 
 Foreigners. Those not citizens so called; jealousies against them, 75, 146; not 
 allowed to reside more than forty days, 75, 87, 120; restriction removed, 120 ; 
 complaints against merchant strangers, 114, 146, 154; their dealings contrary 
 to City charters, ibid. ; not allowed to deal by wholesale except with citizens, 
 120, 363, 364, 368, 371, 384. Vide Second Charter of Edward III., and Second 
 Charter of Henry IV., and ' Trade,' ' London ' 
 
 Foreign merchants. Their residence encouraged by Edward III. and Henry IV., 
 120 ; companies of, settled in London with trading privileges, 160 et seq., 
 their privileges abolished, 168 et seq. ; required to sell within forty days, 346. 
 Vide 1 Trade' 
 
 Foreign pleas. What, 278 
 
 Foreign tenures. Pleas of, to oust City jurisdiction explained, 278 
 
 Forestalling. Forbidden by charter of Henry IK., 325 
 
 Forfeitures. Of City charters in early times illegally claimed by royal arbitrary 
 authority, 118. Vide ' Charles n.,' ' Abuser ' 
 
 Foresters. Oppressions by king's foresters, 320 
 
 Fortifications. Vide ' Streets and Buildings,' ' London ' 
 
 Frank-pledge. In gilds and leets in Saxon times, 94, 95, 97 et seq. ; views of 
 frank-pledge held in the City wards ; formerly termed ' lefts ' and 'gilds,' ibid. 
 
 Free burgage. Vide ' Burgage ' 
 
 Freemen. Of the City, vide ' Citizens ; ' penalty on those entitled to be freemen 
 refusing to become so, 402 ; this penalty under First Charter of Charles I. re- 
 pealed by act of Common Council, 194, note 
 
 G 
 
 Garbling. Office of garbler granted, 379, 382, 400 
 
 Ganging. Office of granted, 380, 381 
 
 Gentlemen. Claims of the citizens as such to the title. Vide ' Citizens ' 
 
 Gilds. Independent territorial associations, 24 ; original term for wards, ibid. ; mer- 
 cantile gilds different from civic, 25, and note 3, 32, 59, 60, and notes ; origin of 
 the latter, 103; gilds of trading companies regulated, 314; Weavers' gild 
 abolished, 313. Vide ' Companies' ' Mercantile Gilds ' 
 
 Graves of the dead. Swearing on, meaning of, 325, 327 ; citizens forbidden from, 
 ibid. 
 
 Guildhall. First built temp. Henry IV., 121
 
 414 INDEX 
 
 H 
 
 Hanseatic. Merchants. Tide ' Foreign merchants ' 
 
 Heirship. A Saxon right preserved to citizens, 18, 41, 265 ; granted by William 
 
 the Conqueror's Charter, 265 
 Henry I. His charter the first step towards incorporation, 41; abstracted and 
 
 explained, 267 et seq. ; grants sheriffwick of Middlesex, 60, and note 2 
 Henry II. Cotemporary account of London in his time 57 et seq. ; wards then 
 
 known by that term, 58 ; his oppressions of the City, 70 ct seq. 
 Henry III. Nine charters granted by ; almost duplicate-mode of extorting money, 
 
 72 ; London supports the barons' war, 73 ; Parliament, first called, ibid. 
 Henry IV. Supported by the citizens throughout his reign, 119 ; condition of 
 
 London in his reign, 121 
 Henry VI. Unpopular in London; citizens side with Richard Duke of York, 124 ; 
 
 Cade's rebellion defeated by the citizens, 123 
 Henry VII. Character of his reign, 131 ; oppressions on the City, 133 ; his charter, 
 
 384 
 Henry VIII. Civic pageantry, 135; Henry attends the night wateh procession, 
 
 136 ; state of London and its suburbs ; manner of living, 140 et seq. ; evil May- 
 day riots, 146 ; three charters granted by him, 385 ; impresses an alderman as a 
 
 soldier, aud imprisons another for refusing a loan, 145 
 Heregeat. What : same as Jeresgite, citizens exempted from, 303 
 Heriot. Vide ' Heregeat ' 
 Householder. Vide ' Citizens,' ' Elections ' 
 Hubert de Burgh. Chief minister of Henry III., 70; his oppressions on the 
 
 citizens ; appoints a custos, 70 et seq. 
 
 Hunting. Citizens addicted to, temp. Henry II., 63 ; right to, of the citizens, 320 
 Hustings. 4 Court of, general assemblies of the citizens so called, 38, 61 ; also 
 
 called ' Folkmote,' 74, and note 297, 417 
 
 Impressments. In the City both for land and sea service, temp. Elizabeth, 153; 
 illegal, ibid., note 4 
 
 Infangtheft. What : granted by charter, 345 ; nature of the jurisdiction, 347 
 
 Inquisitions. Arbitrary and irregular, 80 and notes ; usually presentments by n 
 grand jury of offences, 84, 111 ; from time of Edward III., generally a trial 
 afterwards, ibid., 80, 84 ; complaints of the citizens against those taken in the 
 City, 1 12 ; and of their being summoned to attend them out of the City, ibid. ; 
 regulated by statute, 113; to be taken only at St. Martin's-le-Grand, the Tower, 
 and at Newgate, 347, 363 ; those held at St. Martin's-le-Grand transferred by 
 charter of Henry VIII. to Guildhall, 385 ; on customs leviable, and on encroach- 
 ments and nuisances to be taken by citizens only, 369 
 
 Inspeximus. Charter of Charles II., reciting by inspeximus all previous charters, 
 407 
 
 Irish Society. Grants of lands in Ulster to, by charter of James I., 203
 
 INDEX. 415 
 
 James I. His endeavours at government by prerogative and proclamations, 200 ; 
 grants three charters, 203. ride ' Irish Society ' 
 
 James II. Survey of the measures of his reign, 237 et seq.; his treatment of 
 Alderman Cornish, 207 
 
 Jews. Their trading regulated, 326 
 
 Jeresgite. Vide ' Heregeat,' ' Heriot ' 
 
 John. Disorders in London during his regency, 64 ; his restoration of the sheriff- 
 wick after previous usurpations, 68 ; first grant of mayoralty by that term, ibid. 
 Magna Charta framed in London, 53, 68 ; grants five charters, 68 
 
 Julius Agricola. Completed the conquest of Britain, A.D. 70, 10 
 
 Julius Csesar. In Britain, 5 
 
 Justiciar. Eeves and the portreve of London so termed in early Norman times, 
 60, note 2 ; his functions explained. Appointment granted by charter of Henry 
 L, 267, 270 ; Chief Justiciar of England ; his office and authority, 41 ; not to have 
 jurisdiction in London, 46 ; his oflice abolished, 84 
 
 Justice of Peace. Mayor, recorder, and alderman appointed, 373 ; and to hold 
 sessions, 373, 397, 399 
 
 King's household. Citizens exempted from lodging, 287 ; marshal of, to have no 
 
 jurisdiction in London, 346, 355 
 King's officers. Trading by, forbidden, 345, 347 ; to be sued only in the king's 
 
 special courts, 302 
 Knight-service. Citizens exempt from ; illegally demanded, 110 
 
 Law- worthy. Citizens to be, by charter of William the Conqueror, 41 ; meaning of 
 the term, 31, 257, 264 
 
 Leets. In London, originally gilds, afterwards called wards, 25, 58 ; same as 
 leete in counties, 97 ; views of frank-pledge held in, vide ' Frank-pledge,' ' Wards' 
 
 Liverymen. First become electors at Common Hall elections, temp. Edward IV., 
 126 ; discussion on the elective rights of liverymen, 241, 314. Vide ' Companies ' 
 
 Lodgings. Foreign merchants required to reside in lodgings provided for them, 
 87, 96 et seq., 120, 289. Vide 'King's household' 
 
 Lombard merchants. Vide ' Foreign merchantmen ' 
 
 London. Not existing in reigns of Julius or Claudius Caesar, 5, 7 ; referred to by 
 Tacitus ; his narrative of transactions in Britain, 7 ; founded as a city by the 
 Romans, 10 ; named Augusta by the Romans, 11 ; walled and fortified by them, 
 13; declined on invasion by the Saxons, 14 ; at first inferior to Canterbury, 15; 
 Bede's description of it, A.D. 600, 15; became the metropolis of Britain under Egbert", 
 A.D. 827, 15 ; sacked by the Danes, 15-16 ; recovered from the Danes by Alfred, 
 and repaired by him, 1 6 ; its franchises part of the Saxon common law, and date 
 from Alfred's reign, 16-17 et seq. ; superior to Canterbury, A.D. 847, 15, 21 ; its 
 first charter from William, 17, 54, 257 et seq. ; its condition circiter 1000, 21, 22 ; 
 not a corporation in Saxon times, 24 et seq. ; first became a corporation in the reign 
 of Richard L, 27, 58, 65, 74, note 6, 102, 315 ; never held in demesne under any 
 king or lord, 33, 92 ; its condition and civil and criminal jurisdiction at the time
 
 416 INDEX. 
 
 of the Norman Conquest, 29 et seq., 34 et seq., 52 ; Tower of London built by the 
 Conqueror, 40 ; exemption of the City from Norman changes of the law, 42 ; elected 
 its own magistrates, ibid. ; its lands held on burgage tenure, 52. Vide ' Burgage ; ' 
 its condition and influence temp. Stephen and Henry II., 57 ct seq. ; its supposed 
 military strength in their reigns, ibid. ; its assemblies and courts, its wall, and 
 its bridge at that time, 61, 63 ; outside walls of houses ordered to be built of 
 wood or stone to height of sixteen feet, 64 ; but houses chiefly of wood till 
 James I., ibid., note ; its progressive influence and condition temp. Richard I., 
 66, 67 ; Custos appointed by Hubert de Burgh temp. Henry III., 70 ; lectures on 
 Magna Charta read in London temp. Henry III., 71 ; City supports the barons 
 in their T\rar with Henry III., 73 ; its opulence at this period, ibid., 74 ; held no 
 land in its corporate capacity till reign of Edward III., 74, note 6 ; jealousies 
 against foreigners, 75, 146, 154. Vide 'Foreigners,' 'Trade,' 'Gilds;' Custos 
 appointed by Edward I., 85 ; its course of government in his reign, ibid. ; 
 doubtful claims of exemption from answering the judges at the Tower, 86 ; Wat 
 Tyler's insurrection and Walworth's exploit, 117; exactions by Richard II.; 
 invites Bolingbroke to the City, 118 ; its ordinary military strength temp. Henry 
 IV., 119 ; its condition temp. Henry IV. and Henry V., 121 ; Guildhall built, ibid. ; 
 wall in good repair, ibid. ; Moorgate built temp. Henry V. ibid. ; wall impregnable to 
 the Lancastrians temp. Henry VI., 126 ; political influence temp. Richard III., 
 128; Shaw, the mayor, his instrument, and the Duke of Buckingham at a 
 common hall, ibid. ; benevolence demanded from the City by Henry VII., 133. 
 Vide 'Benevolences;' City oppressed by Henry VII., ibid. ; its pageantry, 135 
 ct seq., 146. Vide 'Manners and Customs ; ' condition and manner of living in 
 temp. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, ibid., 140, 145; its condition temp. Elizabeth; 
 its riots, 142. Vide 'Streets and Buildings;' its political influence temp. Edward 
 VI., 149 ; opposes the Protector Somerset, ibid. furnished 15,000 soldiers and 
 thirty-eight ships on invasion of the Spanish Armada, 153; political proceedings 
 in the City; conduct and sentiments of the citizens in the reign of Charles I., vide 
 ' Charles I. ; ' ditto in the reign of Charles II., vide ' Charles II. ; ' history of 
 the seizure of the City charters by writ of quo warranto by Charles II., 231 ; fire 
 of London ; rebuilding of the City, 236 ; restoration of the charters by James II., 
 239 ; citizens summoned to the Convention on flight of James II., 240 ; franchises 
 of the City confirmed by statute of William and Mary, ibid. ; efforts of the Cor- 
 poration to reform the civic constitution, 241 ; regulating statute of llth George 
 I. ; comments on that Act, 242 
 
 Lot, Vide 'Scot' 
 
 Louis, son of the French king. Invited to oppose John ; supported by the citizens, 
 69, 
 
 Lucius Septimus Severus, the Roman Emperor. In Britain, A.D. 210, 10 
 
 Ludgate. Custody of, granted by Henry IV., 371 
 
 Lupicinus, the Roman General. In London, A.D. 368 ; defeats the Picts and Scots, 
 11 
 
 * 
 
 M 
 
 Maces. Granted to be carried ; nature of the privilege, 365 
 
 Magna Charta. Framed in London, and sworn to at St. Paul's, 53, 68 ; liberties 
 of the City expressly confirmed by, 69 
 
 Manners and Customs. Modes of meeting for civic government and elections 
 temp. Henry II., 58, 61 ; houses, cookeries, schools, sports, huntings, 63; opu- 
 lence, folkmotes, temp. Henry III., 72, 74, 297 ; pageantry and processions, 135,
 
 INT-EX. 417 
 
 136; imrriTf Krinc frrnf Hmry ^TIT and TBmttritti f * -f 10 * -** 
 riots; apprentices and their 'dubs,' ML, 205; proclamations and ordinances 
 ,208; flying to sanetnaries by criminals, 346, 354. ~ 
 
 i, 1 ' Gilds,' 'Apprentices,' ' Folfanotes,' < Lodgings," Complies, ' Biota,' 
 miles of the City, 401 ; market in 
 
 Stoats' 
 Market. Hone to be granted within 
 
 andMto;sAetefiMimqlimmi:hmocomAfi 
 
 featp. Edward L and Edward IL, 85, 88; elaiins exemption from attending the 
 Judges at the Tower, 86; elected ttmp. Edward L and Edhrard IL, by twelve 
 elected from the wards by Mtmmtm, 87. 88 ; made a judge of over and ter- 
 miner by charter of Edward TTT, H2, 373, 397 ; assessed as an earl temp. 
 Richard IL, 117, 260; his right to be cup-bearer at coronations formally re- 
 corded Um f . BJchard UL, 129 ; only to serve one year, 333, 337 : to be pre- 
 sented to the king's justice, 315, 317 ; mad* justice of gaol-delivery at Xewgai*. 
 345; made eseheator, 346, 357; made JMtin of pence, and of over and terminer, 
 373,397. Fife 'Ejections.' 
 Mayora%. first granted by charter of John, 68 
 May-day- Celebration of, in the City; riots on eril May-day, 146 
 Measnage, Of coals and other goods, right to, confirmed \sj charter of James L, 
 
 390,392 
 
 McJfitos. KrstBmhopofL(mdon,Aj>.600,15 
 Mercantile system. What: its prejadidal eflects on trade, 177 
 Mercantile gilds. Fife 'Gilds,' ' !!%.' 'Foreign merchants,' ' Companies.' 
 ExdnsiTO privileges and charters of incorporation of foreign companies diwM 
 Ump. Edward VL, 168 
 Merchants. Sot to forestall, 325 
 
 of, established in London, 163, 171 
 Held in the City, 324 ; presided over by aldermen, 326 
 Merchant strangers. Fife ' Mercantile Gilds ' 
 Merchants of the Staple, 161 
 Merchants of the Steel-yard, 159 
 Metage. FSaV ' Measnrage ' 
 Middlesex. Granted to the City in fium, 267, 268 
 Military serTiee. Citiaens exempt from beyond the wall, 344, 346 
 
 forbidden in the City Courts, 294 
 Granted by Elizabeth, 151; abolished by statute, 200 
 Moorgate. rife 'Streets and Buildings' 
 
 Moore, Mayor. His illegal eandn* in the election of sherins, 23 
 Mortmain. QrixMis maj bcqoaatl in, 346 ; explanation, 349 ; liberty to hold in, 4 
 Murage, 403 
 
 5 of the term, exemption from, 283, 325 
 
 N 
 
 Newgate. Mayor to be a jnstiee of gaol-deliTery at, by charter of Edward JJL, 
 
 345 ; enstody of, granted by Henry IF., 371 
 
 Son-nser. STot to work fbrfeitnre of City rights and privileges, 365, 368 
 Xonnan Conquest. Bights and liberties of the eitiaens at. 33 ef g. ; fhingmrf 
 
 E E
 
 418 INDEX. 
 
 the law introduced by the Normans, 41 et seq. ; London exempted from them, 
 42 etseq., 51 et seq., 100 
 North. Sir Dudley North, his illegal intrigues to be made sheriff, 230 
 
 Occupiers. The true legal construction of ' householders,' 341 
 
 Officers. Process to be served only by City officers, 347 
 
 Ordeal. Trial by, 36, 265 
 
 Orphans. Custody of, granted, 369, 392, 393 ; origin of orphans' duty on coals, 
 
 ibid. 
 
 Outfangtheft. Vide ' Infangtheft ' 
 Outroper. Office of, granted, meaning and nature of it, 401 
 
 Package. What : granted, 379 ; explained, 382 
 
 Pageantry. Vide ' Manners ' 
 
 Parliament. Its original functions those of the king's council, 204 ; first called as 
 a representative body in Henry III.'s reign, 73 
 
 Philpot. Alderman ; his exploit temp. Richard II., 117 
 
 Pickage. What : granted, 379 ; explained, 382 
 
 Picts and Scots. Military muster of the Romans at London to invade, 1 1 ; invade 
 southern provinces of Britain, 14 
 
 Pie Powder. Court at fairs in Southwark, granted, 375, 387 
 
 Pilkington, Alderman. Unjust party sentence against, 232] 
 
 Pleadings. Without the walls, exemption from, explained, 277, 346. Vide 'Mis- 
 kenning ' 
 
 Pleas of the Crown. What, 272, 273 ; abuses arising out of, 78 et seq. 
 
 Popish Plot. Believed by the citizens, 227 
 
 Pontage. Exemption from, 332 
 
 Portage. Granted, 404, 405 
 
 Port-reve. Vide ' Mayor ' 
 
 Portsoken Ward. Anciently Knighten-gild ; history of, 25, 35, notes 4-6, 302 
 
 Presentment. Of mayor to the king's justice, 315 
 
 Presentment. Of the sheriffs at the exchequer, to answer for duties, 307, 312 
 
 Presentments. By a jury ; in early times operated as convictions, 36, 352 
 
 Prisage. Citizens not to be exempt from prisage of wines, 328 ; to be exempt 
 from prisage of victuals, &c., 346, 357 ; and also from that of wines, 347 
 
 Process. Vide ' City officers ' 
 
 Protections. Of debtors not to be granted by the king ; abuses of, and explana- 
 tion, 369 
 
 Purprestures. What : granted by charter, 372, 400 
 
 Purveyances. What: their grievance prohibited by charter of Edward in., 108 
 122, 287, 347, 355 
 
 Q 
 
 Queenhithe. Granted, 321
 
 INDEX. 419 
 
 Recognizances. Of debt allowed to be enrolled in courts ; advantages of, 329 ; for- 
 feitures of, granted to the City, 399 
 
 Recorder. Interference of Elizabeth in the appointment of, resisted, 156 ; to certify 
 customs by word of mouth, 373, 375 ; made justice of the peace, 373 
 
 Redemption. Citizens how becoming so by purchase or redemption, 105, 247 
 
 Reve. One of the names of the original governors of London, 18, 19, 259 
 
 Richard L Progress and influence of London, 64, 66 ; City first incorporated in 
 his reign, 65 
 
 Richard II. Rebellion of Wat Tyler, 117 ; last king who seized the charters for 
 individual offence, 118 ; contrary to charter of Edward III., ibid. 
 
 Richard III. His proclamation to the citizens on the execution of Hastings, 12.8 ; 
 political influence of the City, ibid. 
 
 Romans. Occupation by the, 3 et seq. ; leave Britain, 1 
 
 S 
 
 Sanctuaries. Flying to, explained, 354 ; City charged with the custody of those 
 flying to, ibid. 
 
 Saxons. East Saxons, London made capital of, A.D. 520, 15 
 
 Saxon. Saxon common law the foundation of the City franchises, 16 et seq. 
 
 Scavage. What : granted, 379 et seq., 396, 404 
 
 Scot. Scot and lot, what, 100 ; paying scot and bearing lot, the criterion of the 
 full citizen, 101, 107, 243, 281 ; citizens exempted by charter from general scot, 
 281 
 
 Scotale. What: exemption from, 301, 304, 324 
 
 Seal. Corporate or common seal, the indication of a corporate capacity, 27 ; its 
 use explained, 334, 342 
 
 Serfs. Their quality and condition, 29, 49, 93 
 
 Serjeants. Process officers of the City; their abuses, 333, 337 
 
 Shaw. Dr. Shaw, brother of the mayor, his abortive sermon at St. Paul's on behalf 
 of Richard HI., 128 
 
 Sheriff. Reve and portreve the original name of the governor of London, 18, 37, 55, 
 61 ; appointment of by the citizens in early Saxon times, 55 ; appointment of 
 granted, 267 ; and of amoval, 306 ; presentment of to answer for dues, 307, 312 ; 
 how to be amerced for escapes, 351. Vide ' Charles II.' 
 
 Sheriffwick. Appointment of sheriffs granted by charter of Henry I., 54, 55, 60, 
 61, 268, 307 et seq. ; usurped afterwards occasionally by the Crown, 67 ; sheriff- 
 wick granted in express terms by John, 306, 307 
 
 Ships. Merchants making three long sea voyages to rank as thanes, by a law of 
 Athelstan, 21 ; ship-building first began in Alfred's reign, 157; lent them to 
 foreign merchants, 158 ; supposed enormous navy in Edgar's reign, A.D. 974 ; 
 ship-building and trading in English bottoms encouraged by Richard II., Henry 
 IV. and Henry V., 165 ; no English ships then trading in the Mediterranean, 
 ibid. ; foreign trade in Edward VI.'s reign chiefly in foreign ships, 163 ; thirty- eight 
 ships required from London on the Spanish invasion, 153 ; effect of first Navi- 
 gation Act in encouraging shipping, 172, 186 
 
 Smithfield. A market in, used for field sports temp. Henry II., 63, 371 ; fair 
 granted, 400
 
 420 INDEX. 
 
 Soc. Meaning of the term, 34, note, 35, note, 59, 92, 289 ; etymology of the word, 
 49, 95, and notes 3 and 4 ; tenure in socage, what, 48, 94 et seq. ; citizens of 
 London held their lands by this tenure ; vide ' Burgage.' 
 
 Socage. Fide ' Soc ' 
 
 Socmen. Vide ' Soc ' 
 
 Somerset. The Protector, opposition of the citizens to, 1 49 
 
 Stallage, 381 ; granted in South wark, 387 ; and in London, 404 
 
 St. Paul's. First built A.D. 600, 15 ; liberty of vested in the deanery, 323 ; sheriffs 
 not to account for the issues in, ibid. 
 
 Steel-yard, 159 
 
 Stephen. First saluted king in London, 55 ; political influence of the City, 56 
 condition of London in his reign, 57 et seq. 
 
 Streets and Buildings. Fide ' London,' condition and population in time of Nero, 
 16 et seq. ; wall built by the Eomans and fortifications, 13 ; St. Paul's founded 
 A.D. 600, 15 ; decayed after the Eomans, 14 ; Bede's description of London, 15 ; 
 houses of wood in Edgar's reign A.D. 974, 21 ; Fitzstephen's cotemporary de- 
 scription temp. Henry II., 63 ; London Bridge first begun to be built temp. 
 Henry II. ibid. ; general assemblies of the citizens held at St. Paul's Cross, and 
 conTened by bell till time of Edward III., 74 ; Guildhall first built temp. 
 Henry IV., 121 ; walls and fortifications then in complete condition, ibid. ; 
 pageantry in the streets, vide ' Manners ; ' its wall impregnable to the Lancas- 
 trians temp. Henry VI., 126 ; state of the streets and houses, and of the area of 
 the City and suburbs temp. Henry VIII., 140 et seq. ; brick houses few, if any, in 
 the City till reign of James I., 143 ; proclamation of James I. against increase of 
 buildings, ibid. ; fire of London, and rebuilding of the City in Charles II.'s reign, 
 . 236 ; purprestures (encroachments) and waste grounds granted to the City, 371, 
 400. Fide ' Purprestures ; ' allowance to hang up street signs by charter of 
 Charles L, 403 
 
 Suetonius in command of Britain. Abandons London to sack by Boadicea, 7 
 
 Southwark. Jurisdiction granted over in fee-farm, 363, 374 ; lands, manor, and 
 jurisdiction granted in, 386 
 
 Tacitus. His account of London in Nero's time, 7 
 
 Talliages. What : levied on lands held in demesne, 66 ; London illegally talliaged 
 though not in demesne, ibid., note 5, 72 ; forbidden by statute of Edward I., 83 ; 
 illegally levied by Edward II., 88 ; sometimes levied by Edward IL, 88 ; some- 
 tames levied by the sole authority of the mayor and sherifis, 89 ; citizens 
 expressly exempted from by charter of Edward III., 108, 347, 359 
 
 Taxes. Citizens to be taxed on the same footing as the rest of the commonalty, 
 359 
 
 Testaments. The making of, an ancient Saxon right in London, 20, 31 
 
 Theodosius, the Emperor. His victory near London, A.D. 368, 1 1 
 
 Toll. What : citizens exempted from, 287, 324, 332 ; remedy for taking illegal 
 tolls by cities and boroughs from citizens, 298 
 
 Tower of London. Built by William the Conqueror, 40 
 
 Town Clerk. Fide ' Common Clerk ' 
 
 Trade. Wholesale dealing restricted to open markets till the reign of Charles II., 
 121, 161 ; quality of trade in England in early times, 157 ; progress of trade in 
 England and the City, 1 57 et seq. ; establishment in London of foreign companies,
 
 INDEX. 421 
 
 159 et seq. ; first statute of highways by Edward I, 162 ; woollen manufactures 
 encouraged by him and by Edward ILL, ibid. ; increase of by the reign of 
 Henry VI., 165 ; impedimenta to trade through arbitrary taxation, 164 et seq., 
 171 ; abolition of foreign monopolous companies temp. Edward VL, 167 ; Navi- 
 gation Act, 172; its immediate effects in the encouragement of commerce and 
 ship-building, 172 ; discussion on the exclusive trading privileges of the City, 
 174 et seq,, 334, 341. Vide 'Foreigners,' 'Foreign merchants,' 'Ships,' 'Mercantile 
 system ' 
 Treasure-trove. With waifs and estrays and goods of felons, granted by charter 
 
 of Charles I., 402 
 
 Trials. Modes of trial in Saxon times, 20, 36, 43, 264 
 Tronage. What : granted to the City, 325, 329, 335, 376, 385 
 
 Villeins. Vide' Serfs' 
 
 Vice-comes. Latin term for sheriff, 259 
 
 W 
 
 Wager of battle, 20, 43 ; citizens exempted from, 20, 267, 284; explained, 284 
 
 Waifs and strays, 402. Vide ' Treasure-trove' 
 
 Wager of law. Vide ' Trials ' 
 
 Wall Vide' Streets' 
 
 Ward. Unjust judgment against Sir Patience Ward temp. Charles IL, 232 
 
 Wards. Derivation of the term, applied to City districts as early as Henry II., 
 58 ; previously called gilds, 24, 25 ; leet jurisdiction similar to that over hundreds 
 of counties and socs, 58, 97, 289 ; known by district names first in Edward L's 
 reign, 59, 85 ; before that by name of the alderman or owner, ibid. ; elect 
 councilmen to assist aldermen temp. Edward L, 85, 289, 291. Vide 'Gilds,' 
 'Leets' 
 
 Warren of Staines. Disafforested by charter of Henry HI., 320 
 
 Waste grounds. Vide ' Purprestures ' 
 
 Watch. Annual processions in setting the night watch, 136. Vide ' Manners ' 
 
 Wat Tyler. His rebellion, 117 
 
 Wears. By charter of Richard I. to be removed from the Thames, 305 
 
 Weavers' Gild. Vide ' Gilds ' 
 
 Weighing. Granted by charter of James I., 397 
 
 Weres. Citizens not to be mulcted beyond their weres, 267, 292 ; meaning of the 
 term, ibid., 261 
 
 Widows. Of citizens authorised to trade in the City, 401 
 
 Will. Vide ' Testament ' 
 
 William the Conqueror. His charter, text and translation, 17, 257 
 
 Wittenagemote. This national council ordered by Alfred to be held in London, 
 20 
 
 Wholesale dealing. Vide ' Trade ' 
 
 Woollen manufactures. Vide ' Trade ' 
 
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 INDEX, 
 
 Acrox's Modern Cookery 
 
 A LCOCK'S Residence in Japan 
 
 ALLIES on Formation of Christianity 
 
 Alpine Guide (The) 
 
 AJ.VEXSLEBEX'S Maximilian in Mexico .... 
 
 APJOITX'S Manual of the Metalloids 
 
 AEXOLD'S Manna! of English Literature . . 
 
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 Aruudincs Canii 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson 
 
 AYI-K'S Treasury of Bible Knowledge 
 
 BACOX'S Essays l>y WHATBLY 
 
 Life and Letters, by SPEDDISG . . 
 
 AVorks 
 
 BA ix on the Emotions and Will 
 
 on the Senses and Intellect 
 
 on the Study of Character 
 
 BALL'S Guide to the Central Alps 
 
 Guide to the Western Alps 
 
 Guide to the Eastern Alps 
 
 BABXAED'S Drawing from Nature 
 
 BATLDOX'S Rents and Tillages 
 
 Beaten Tracks 
 
 BECKEE'S Cliaricles and GaUits 
 
 BEETHOTEX'S Letters 
 
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 BERET'S Journals 
 
 BLACK'S Treatise on Brewing 
 
 BLACKLET and FEIEDLAXDEB'S German 
 
 and English Dictionary 
 
 BLAIXE'S Rural Sports 
 
 Veterinary Art 
 
 BLIGHT'S Week at the Land'- End 
 
 BOOTH'S Epigrams 
 
 BOCBXE on Screw Propeller 
 
 's Catechism of the Steam Engine . . 
 
 Handbook of Steam Engine 
 
 Treatise on the Steam Engine. . . . 
 
 Bcr.vm.ER's Family SHAKSPEABE 
 
 BKAMLET-MOOEE'S Six Sisters of the Valleys 
 BEAXDE'S Dictionary of Science, Literature, 
 
 and Art 
 
 BEAT'S (C.) Education of the Feelings 
 
 Philes 'phy of Necessity 
 
 On Force 
 
 BBIXTOX on Food and Digestion 
 
 BBISTOW'S Glossary of Mineralogy 
 
 BBODIE'S Constitutional History 
 
 -(SirC. B.) Works. 
 
 20 BCXSEX (E. De) on Apocrypha 
 
 16 - 's Keys of St. Peter 
 
 15 BUBKE'S Vicissitudes of Families 
 
 16 BCRTOX'S Christian Church 
 
 4 
 
 BEOWXE'S Exposition 39 Articles 
 
 BUCKLE'S History of Civilisation 
 
 Box's Hints to Mothers 
 
 Maternal Management of Children. . 
 
 BUXSEX'S Ancient Egypt 
 
 God in History 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer ............................ 
 
 CALVEBT'S Wife's Manual ................ 
 
 CATES'S Biographical Dictionary .......... 
 
 CATS and FABLTE'S Moral Emblems ...... 
 
 Chorale Book for England ................ 
 
 Christian Schools and Scholars ............ 
 
 CLOUGH'S Lives from Plutarch ............ 
 
 COLEXSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch and Book 
 
 of Joshua ........................ ....... 
 
 COLLIXS'S Horse Train' r's Guide .......... 
 
 Commonplace Philosopher in Towu and 
 
 Country ................................ 
 
 COXIXGTOX'S Chemical Analysis .......... 
 
 - Translation of Virgil's 2Eneid 
 CONTAXSBAU'S Two French and English 
 
 Dictionaries ............................. 
 
 CoxYBEABEandHowsox'sLifeandEpistles 
 
 ofSt.Paul .............................. 
 
 COOK'S Acts of the Apostles ................ 
 
 COPLAND'S Dictionary of Practical Medicine 
 COVLTHAET'S Decimal Interest Tables 
 Cox's Manual of Mythology ................ 
 
 - Tales of the Great Persian War ...... 
 
 - Tales from Greek Mythology ........ 
 
 - Tales of the Gods and Heroes ........ 
 
 - Tales of Thebes and Argos .......... 
 
 CBAWLET'S Billiard Book ................... 
 
 CBEST'S Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson ........ 
 
 CBOWE'S History of France ................ 
 
 CBTTMP on Banking, &c ..................... 
 
 CCSSAXS'S Grammar of Heraldry .......... 
 
 DABT'S Iliad of Homer .................... 
 
 D'ArniGXE's History of the Reformation in 
 the time of CALVIY ...................... 
 
 DAVIDSOX'S Introduction to New Testament 
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