Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/661

 KINGSTON HUNDRED

��ensuing year, 1 " but in 1835 the method had changed and the gownsmen and peers elected one, while the bailiffs of the present year, with the recorder and high steward, chose a second. 1 * 8 The voting was by a species of ballot, the names of the fifteen being written out and placed aside in the council-room, the vote being recorded by scratching the chosen name with a pen. 199 The growth of the power of the bailiffs is one of the most interesting features of the borough history. Deriving their powers from the bailiffs of the royal manor, they are first mentioned in 1234-5 as holding a court at Kingston, 100 and in 1 242 were impleaded for unjust exaction of tolls. 101 The bailiffs and freemen had been clerks of the market under the charter of 1441,*" the bailiffs only in 1628.* The charter of 1603 rendering their presence necessary at every meeting of the Court of Assembly *" probably only ratified an ancient practice and made abortive an attempt of a royalist minority to hold a court in 1655.** This charter further granted that the bailiffs should be ex officio justices of the peace. In 1626 the Commissioners recom- mended that the outgoing bailiffs should retain their commission of the peace for a year after holding office,' ' and this was embodied in the grant of i628. w Their position may be gauged by the order confirmed by the Court of Assembly in 1680 that the bailiffs were not to take out of the chamber any sum above zo/. without the privity and consent of the whole corporation. 8 The bailiffs were empowered to appoint under-bailiffs and were to be preceded by two serjeants-at-mace.* 09 The office of bailiff was suspend- ed shortly after the Restoration, when Charles II forbade the election of bailiffs until the differences between members of the town had been settled,' 10 and it was only restored after a petition in September 1 66 1." 1 The bailiffs were abolished by the charter of James II in 1685 and a mayor elected by the magistrates substituted ; "' Mr. Agar the first mayor complained that one of the Common Councilmen had ' very much abused him,' and the offender was accord- ingly discorporated.' 1 ' Restored on the resumption of the charter, the bailiffs retained their office until replaced by a mayor under the reconstruction of

1835.'"

Of the constables little is known, their office being such that they are seldom mentioned. The chamber- lains filled a more important office and acted as treasurers.* 1 * They were elected by the Fifteens from among their fellows on the charter day, and might hold office for several years in succession. 816 Being considered an integral part of the Court of Assembly they are not expressly mentioned among the officers detailed in 1628 ;"' their accounts are preserved from the 1 5th century and are full of detail concerning the

��KINGSTON- UPON-THAMES

life of the town. In 1835 it was said that in practice the senior chamberlain alone executed the office, ' the junior only signing the accounts,' "' and possibly this explains the election of a ' treasurer ' in i684.' 19 In the i6th century two churchwardens were also officers of the corporate body, which seems to have retained its power over them for another hundred years. They were answerable to the bailiffs and yielded up their accounts at the Gildhall each St. Luke's-tide.** The reason for " this term being chosen is obscure, as St. Luke was not patron of the church or its chantries, nor was it one of the recog- nized quarters ;*" it probably had some connexion with the borough year, which began on the Sunday after Michaelmas. A meeting corresponding to the vestry was first held in the church in I535, 2 "when the bailiffs are expressly mentioned as being present ; the vestry minute books begin a century later. 1

It is not known when bridgewardens were first appointed as custodians of the bridge and its property; ** 4 they were elected from among the freemen by the Court of Assembly, and submitted their accounts for signature by the bailiffs each Michaelmas.** 4

The ale-tasters have been already mentioned ; it was part of their duty to give a dinner to the court, and so important was this considered in the 1 8th century that recalcitrant ale-tasters were threatened with a fine of 10 in 1 706 "'and with incorporation in 1721.*"

The high officials of the corporate body were the high steward, the steward of the court, and the recorder. The office of high steward probably originated in the 1 6th century, when it was advisable to have some pro- minent person at court directly interested in the town's welfare. Lord Howard of Effingham is the first named. The office was not purely nominal, for in 1684 the corporation immediately applied to their high steward, Lord Arlington, for advice as to the surrender of their charter.** 8 James II under the new charter appointed Lord Ailesbury to the office, which still exists and has been held by Lord Liverpool and other distinguished persons.' 29 The appointment was for life by patent of the Court of Assembly, the pre- sentation being signalized by ' a handsome treate ' ; ***' the annual present consisted of eighteen sugar-loaves, worth about <) in I835-' 31 The steward of the Court or ' Learned Steward,' as he was more frequently- called in the I yth century,* 3 ' filled an office originally- much more humble in character than it afterwards became. By the charter of 1628 the appointment was limited to the attorney-general,*" who has always held the office since that date.

A recorder is first mentioned in the charter of 1 603 when he and the bailiffs were empowered to hold a court of record and to be justices of the peace.* 3 *

��l " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, p. 149. 118 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2895. 199 Ibid.

800 Maitland, Braeton't Note Bk. no.

1122.

801 Ablrtv. Plae. (Rec. Com.), 119. 808 Roots, Charters, 43.

808 Ibid. 149. " Ibid. 123.

806 Merewether and Stephens, Hist, of Boroughs (ed. 1835), 1685-6.

808 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixvii, 27. "* Roots, Charters, 179.


 * Ct. of Assembly Bk. 8 Oct. 1680.

809 Roots, Charters, 172.

��110 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 455. 811 Ibid. 1661-2, p. 95. 818 Roots, Charters, 220. 818 Lansd. MS. 226, fol. 56. 8 " Public Act, 5 & 6 Will IV, cap. 76. fol. i.
 * Ct. of Assembly Bk. 1680-1724,

816 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2897. M 7 Roots, Chartert, 167. 818 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2897. Ct. of Assembly Bk. 5 Nov. 1684.

880 Doc. of Corp. Churchwardens' Bks. 1523, 1575, 1578.

881 Heales, Hist, of the Church of King- iton { Surr, Arch. Coll. viii, 68.

497

��888 Doc. of Corp. Churchwardens' Accts, 1585. *B Heales, op. cit. 103.


 * " fide ,upra.

extant from 1 508.
 * Doc. of Corp. Bridgewardens' Accts.

Lansd. MS. 226, fol. 56.

W Ibid. fol. 47.

888 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 27 Nov. 1684.

889 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 341-2. 880 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 7 Nov. 1683-4. 811 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2896. 888 Ct. of Assembly Bk. I May 1682 ;

4 Sept. 1684.

888 Roots, Charter i, 161. 884 Ibid. 131, 134.

�� �