Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/392

 might be placed so as to enclose the bailiffs' pew, "which seat, for want thereof, was pressed into and thronged by others to the disturbance of the said officers."

The Moot Hall, in which all business relating to the town was transacted, stood in the Market-place until about the year 1790, when it was accidentally burnt down. This building was erected in two stories, the upper of which was divided into a small room, used for flax dressing at the time the Hall was destroyed, and a larger one, devoted to court meetings and other public matters, which was separated from the remainder of the edifice insomuch as it could only be entered from the outside by means of a flight of stone steps. The ground floor or lower story was converted into shops in the occupation of tradesmen of the town. The original borough seal, which still exists, although somewhat defective, represents a dove bearing an olive branch in its beak. Notwithstanding that Kirkham was made a borough, during the last years of the thirteenth century, it never appears upon any occasion to have returned a Member of Parliament, and it may safely be conjectured that no writ for that purpose was ever issued to the burgesses, as the sheriffs exercised a discretionary power in such matters, and consequently only those boroughs, whose inhabitants seemed affluent enough to support the expenses of an election, were selected for the honour, amongst which it is scarcely likely Kirkham would be classed.

A market cross stood in the centre of the town, near to the ancient Moot Hall, about the beginning of this century, but has now, like the stocks, which originally had their place in the churchyard and afterwards were removed to a more public site, been long numbered amongst the memories of a past and less refined age. There is no allusion to a whipping post in any of the old documents, but we have the authority of a gentleman who witnessed the spectacle, that a man was publicly whipped in the Market-place fifty years ago.

The "Thirty Sworn men of Kirkham" was the name given to a council which took cognizance of parochial affairs, and of certain matters connected with the church, amongst other things appointing the churchwardens. This assembly was composed of representatives from the different sections of the parish, two