CHAPTER 1
The Structure of Borough Government
Notes (2)
71 I use this term to distinguish it from the lower council, sometimes known as the Common Council (although strictly speaking that term referred to the legislative as a whole).
72 Ballard and Tait, op.cit., lviii.
73 Gross, op.cit., II, 117.
74 Tait, op.cit., 271; Martin, Early Court Rolls of Ipswich, 14; G.C.R. 39-40 Hen.III m.7r; Saunders, op.cit., 32.
75 For by this title, for brevity, they shall henceforth be referred.
76 Ballard, op.cit., 14; Ballard and Tait, op.cit., lix; Tait, op.cit., 31, 42-45, 124, 291; Reynolds, op.cit., 121-22. See also Wilkinson, op.cit., xviii, a study influenced by Tait.
77 Tait, op.cit., 270-71, 284.
78 G.C.R. 39-40 Hen.III m.7r; Twiss, op.cit., 16-18, 166.
79 Add.Ms. 20152 f.50; Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 43-44, 47-49, 70.
80 Twiss, op.cit., 98, 150-52.
81 Cal. Inq. Misc., 1399-1422, 290; S. Meech and H. Allen, eds., The Book of Margery Kempe, (London, 1940), 111. Margery seems to be using the term to denote not moral character but status.
82 G. Martin, ed., The Ipswich Recognisance Rolls 1294-1327, (1973), 14.
83 R.R. 11-12, 12-13, 13-14 Ed.III; G.C.R. 16-17 Ed.II m.2d; P.P.R. 17-18 Ric.II m.7r; White Domesday ff.17b, 66.
84 C.Ch.R. 1257-1300, 185-86; Y/C18/1 f.10; Ballard and Tait, op.cit., lix; Tait, op.cit., 278.
85 Y/C18/1 ff.8, 13b-14; Ms. Gough Norfolk 20 f.1; Y/C4/104 m.12r, /105 m.6r; Saul, op.cit., 10-12; Rutledge, Court Rolls of Great Yarmouth, 4.
86 Red Parch. Bk., 32-33, 43; Round, "Municipal offices: Colchester," XII, 241.
87 Tait, op.cit. 335; evidence supporting this view will be discussed in chapter 3.
88 Red Paper Bk., 46.
89 Red Parch. Bk., 31; Tait, op.cit., 333-34 (Tait unjustifiably tried to strengthen his case by adding "of the" before "sworn"); Round, "Municipal offices: Colchester," XII, 241.
90 Col.C.R., I, 3, 34, 42, 46-47, 61; Red Paper Bk., 45.
91 Col.C.R., I, 14; Red Paper Bk., 7.
92 Records of Norwich, I, 60; universitas means the urban community.
93 Records of Norwich, I, xliv, xlvi-li, 37, 60, 193-94, 261-63, 269; Alsford, op.cit., 119-22.
94 H. Ingleby, ed., The Red Register of King's Lynn, (King's Lynn, 1919-22), ff.35, 40, 46.
95 Ibid., I, ii, iv; KL/C6/3 m.5r; KL/C6/2 m.2r.
96 KL/C37/1 m.20r; KL/C37/5 m.1r.
97 Red Reg. f.145; what we have here is probably not a genuine re-election but a case of the clerk anticipating re-election of the membership en masse and copying out the previous year's list of names.
98 KL/C10/2 ff.3b, 17; KL/C2/29; KL/C4/11. This subject will be further discussed in chapters 3 and 7.
99 D/B 3/1/1 ff.1, 5, 22; D/B 3/3/4 m.6r; D/B 3/3/13 mm.2r, 3d, /18 m.7d.
100 D/B 3/1/1 f.23; D/B 3/1/2 f.8; D/B 3/3/14 m.1r, /18 m.4d.
101 D/B 3/3/2 m.4d, /9 m.4r, /10 mm.4r, 8r (schedules), /12 m.3d, /20 m.1r. The terms in parentheses are my own interpretation.
102 D/B 3/1/1 f.31b; C.P.R. 1553-54, 137-38. Round, "Municipal offices: Colchester," 241, mistakenly assumed that the 24 were the original medieval council and that the subdivisions were later developments.
103 Leach, op.cit., xxv; R. Easterling, introduction p.xxi in Wilkinson, op.cit.; Bacon, op.cit., iii, vi; Gross, op.cit., I, 126; Tait, op.cit., 287-88, 292.
104 Wilkinson, op.cit., xxix; D/B 3/3/23 m.1r; KL/C10/6; Red Paper Bk., 50; Custumale Gippowicense, f.27b.
105 Records of Norwich, I, lxii-lxiii, 37, 98-100, 191, 269, 274.
106 KL/C4/11; KL/C6/3 m.10r; KL/C6/4 mm.3d, 19r, 21r; KL/C39/52 m.11r; KL/C2/29.
107 Rutledge, Court Rolls of Great Yarmouth, 4; Ecclestone, op.cit., 40; C. Palmer, The History of Great Yarmouth, (Yarmouth, 1856), 45; Y/C18/1 ff.10, 13b.
108 C.Ch.R. 1427-1516, 150; Col.C.R./72 m.1r.
109 General Court Rolls, 10-13 Ed.IV, m.1r, 12-14 Ed.IV m.1d; White Domesday f.74.
110 White Domesday f.73b; Add.Ms. 25011 f.29; Add.Ms. 30158 ff.10b, 14b. The 1464 charter incorporated Ipswich by the name of the bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty - this is unhelpful; R. Canning, ed., The Principal Charters Which Have Been Granted to the Corporation of Ipswich, (London, 1754), 12.
111 Bacon, op.cit., iv; Reed, op.cit., 205-05.
112 Note, for example, the early freeman's oath in Lynn (KL/C37/1 mm.3r, 17r), the chapters in the Ipswich and Norwich custumals dealing with entrances to the franchise (Twiss, op.cit., 128, 152; Records of Norwich, I, 178-80), and that the last stage of the setting up of Ipswich's administration in 1200 included giving all residents an opportunity to pay a fine entitling them to superior trading privileges (Gross, op.cit., II, 121).
113 Lynn's tallage rolls, especially that for 1357/8, demonstrate that not only freemen but all inhabitants were subject to local taxation.
114 Tait, op.cit., 241-44.
115 Records of Norwich, I, 2, 3, 6; Green, op.cit., II, 234; Tait, op.cit., 114, 123-24; Gross, op.cit., II, 122; Alsford, op.cit., 74-75, 79, 97-98.
116 C. Palmer, ed., The History of Great Yarmouth by Henry Manship, (Yarmouth, 1854), 366; Red Parch. Bk., 226-27; Alsford, op.cit., 78.
117 Gross, op.cit., II, 119.
118 Ibid., II, 121; Black Domesday ff.74b-75.
119 Colchester Ms. 57 f.26. For the abbots' crimes see, for example, the leet record published by I. Jeayes, "Court rolls of Colchester," Trans. E.A.S., XIV (915-17), 83-88.
120 W. Hudson, Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich, (1892), xxxiv-xxxvi; Col.C.R. II, 83; Col.C.R./35 m.26d.
121 LK/C37/1 m.17r; G.C.R. 14-15 Ed.II m.1r, 16-17 Ed.II m.2d. The theoretical concept of parity of rights of all freemen is most clearly expressed in Norwich's custumal.
122 C.Cl.R. 1323-27, 457-61.
123 Green, op.cit., II, 226.
124 Rutledge, Court Rolls of Great Yarmouth, 3; Wilkinson, op.cit., xvii.
125 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, passim; Col.C.R. I, 33; Records of Norwich, I, xlv; Tait, op.cit., 318. Regarding synonomity, compare separate accounts of the same meeting in KL/C6/1 f.1 and Red Reg. f.153.
126 Gross, op.cit., II, 116-22; Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 23; Twiss, op.cit., passim.
127 G.C.R. 19-20 Ed.III m.2r; C.Cl.R. 1349-54, 100; G.C.R. 29-31 Ed.I m.7d; I/C2/23/1; Black Domesday f.89; White Domesday f.66b; Col.C.R. I, 82; Ms. Gough Norfolk 20 f.1; D/B 3/1/1 f.6; D/B 3/1/3 f.38.
128 KL/C37/6 m.1r; Add.Ms. 37791 f.50; Records of Norwich, I, 61.
129 Records of Norwich, I, 192.
130 Ibid., I, liv, 29, 68-70, 98.
131 Ibid., I, 220.
132 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 6; see also M. Clarke, Medieval Representation and Consent, (London, 1936), 288-89.
133 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 161; W. Hudson, "The growth of an English city: being an account of the early topographic development of the city of Norwich," Transactions of the Eastbourne Natural History, Photographic and Literary Society, III (1895), 4.
134 Gross, op.cit., II, 117.
135 Records of Norwich, I, 262; Red Reg. f.35; Add.Ms. 37791 f.45; G.C.R. 1-6 Ed.II m.2r; Red Paper Bk., f.50.
136 Red Reg. f.157.
137 M. McKisack, "Parliamentary representation of King's Lynn before 1500," E.H.R., XLII (1927), 584-85; KL/C6/3 passim; Strutt, op.cit., 47; C.Cl.R. 1296-1302, 593; Records of Norwich, I, 266, 269.
138 KL/C34/1; Red Paper Bk., 13; Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 122-23.
139 Green, op.cit., 303.
140 Gross, op.cit., II, 116-17; Add.Ms. 25012 f.50; I/C1/1/2/6. There is no evidence to support the statement of Saul (op.cit., 9) that the portmen elected the bailiffs.
141 D/B 3/1/1 f.31b. This process attained its zenith with the 1554/5 charters.
142 Red Parch. Bk., 31-32, 41. The same stipulation is found in the oath of the electors in Lynn (KL/C9/1 f.10b). There is, of course, no evidence as to whether the expectations expressed in these oaths were matched by the reality.
143 Col.C.R./36 m.1r; Col.C.R. I, 66.
144 Records of Norwich, I, 94-96, 119-20, 261, 263. We may note that the Common Council first appears in the form of an electoral committee (ibid., I, 274).
145 KL/C37/5 m.1r; Red Reg. ff.35, 177; KL/C34/1; C47/43/278. The most informal arrangement I have encountered was in Ipswich when, in 1335, four elected and sworn burgesses were told to go off and choose 18 others for an inquisition jury, and bring the names to the next court; G.C.R. 9-10 Ed.III m.1r.
146 KL/C6/3 mm.10r, 18r; KL/C2/29; KL/C4/11. The electoral reforms proposed in Lynn and Norwich tempore Henry V were loosely based on the London system.
147 Add.Ch. 6317; see Saul's discussion, op.cit., 9, 11.
148 Y/C18/1 ff.13b-14; Swinden, op.cit., 491-92.
149 K. Houghton, "Theory and practice in borough elections to Parliament in the later fifteenth century," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXXIX (1966), 130. See also J. Roskell, The Commons of the Parliament of 1422, (Manchester, 1954), 30; J. Roskell, A Study of the Parliamentary Burgesses During the First Half of the Fifteenth Century, (Manchester M.A. thesis, 1936), 85.
150 Red Reg. f.154b; McKisack, "Parliamentary representation of King's Lynn," 583. The use of committees was a prominent feature of practical administration in Lynn, and served to involve a large percentage of the freemen in governmental duties.
151 KL/C6/5 mm.18r, 19r; C219/12/3.
152 C219/10-17; Strutt, op.cit., 45-47.
153 Records of Norwich, I, 107; D/B 3/1/3 f.29b; Add.Ms. 30158 ff.12, 13, 23; General Court Roll 12-14 Ed.IV m.2r.
154 J. Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Register of the Ministers and of the Members of Both Houses, 1439-1509, (London, 1938), 664; Saul, op.cit., 35.
155 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 58; General Court Roll 10-13 Ed.IV m.1r. Perhaps specifically participation by 'foreign burgesses'.
156 KL/C6/4 m.2r.
157 Reynolds, op.cit., 122.
158 Records of Norwich, I, 95; KL/C6/3 m.18r; KL/C6/4 m.10r; KL/C7/2 ff.88b, 157.
159 Cases of this may be found in KL/C2/29; General Court Roll 12-14 Ed.IV m.2r; Swinden, op.cit., 492.
160 KL/C6/3 m.6r; KL/C6/6 m.9r; KL/C9/1 f.13; KL/C4/11.
161 D/B 3/1/3 f.24; Red Parch. Bk., 33.
162 Red Parch. Bk., 32; KL/C39/1; Reynolds, op.cit., 176.
163 Records of Norwich, I, 81. This was quite a turnabout from the position in the time of Edward III, when the city government was obliged to compel selected members of the community (besides the council) to attend; ibid., I, 191, 269.
164 Wilkinson, op.cit., xxii.
165 Red Parch. Bk., 35-36.
166 KL/C2/29; KL/C39/48 m.9r.
167 Although in Norwich, where the course of events took a faster turn, the terminology of incorporation was used to suggest division of authority.
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