Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/758

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��Underneath the castle and in the hill south of it are very extensive galleries in the chalk, known as the Caverns. A large cave of about 45 ft. by 20 ft. and 9 ft. high leads to these passages, which run as far as I 20 ft. in different directions horizontally. They are quarries, whence the street is named, from which the harder strata of chalk were excavated for the castle and other early buildings. A perpendicular shaft has been sunk into them at one place which, by the discolouring of the chalk, seems to have been a cess- pit," probably in connexion with the gaol above.

The origin of the borough of BOROUGH Guildford is somewhat obscure. There is little in the Domesday 51 account to suggest that it had attained the status of a borough at that time ; but the fact of its containing ' seventy-five closes wherein dwelt one hundred and seventy-five homagers' is sufficient to show that it was already a place of considerable importance. The town also possessed the characteristic often found in mediaeval boroughs of including houses which, for purposes of jurisdiction and the like, formed part of manors outside the walls. 61 The word ' bnrgum ' was not used by the Commissioners in their descrip- tion of Guildford, although it is found in other parts of the Survey ; and instead of being above the king's land, where the boroughs of the county were usually placed," it merely forms the first item in that section. In the Burghal Hidage attributed to the loth century a borough seems to be placed at Eashing, ' Mid-Esch- ingum" (compare Alfred's will, ' at ^Escengum')," and its importance may have passed to Guildford, unless this clearly tribal name be taken to have then covered the country as far as Guildford.

Before 1130, however, Guildford had asserted its right to the name of borough, for in that year the sheriff made account for loos, 'deauxilio burgi de Geldeford.' " This sum continued fairly constant throughout the reign of Henry II, 56 rising in 1 165 to 1 6os. odd," and occasionally to 1 o marks.* 8 In the reign of John it was tallaged once for 30 marks, 49 and on another occasion for 35 marks. 60 It is a sign of the growth of the town that there were Jews here in 1187."

The first recorded charter to Guildford occurs in 1257, when Henry III granted to the 'good men of Guildford ' that they and their goods ' should be free from arrest for debt ' with certain conditions. 61 In the same year they also gained the privilege of having

��the county court always held in Gnildford. 63 The pnbt homines of Guildford evidently already existed as a corporate body, for the charter to Kingston of 1256 grants to that town a gild merchant 'to be held as the Pnbi Homines of Guildford hold it.' M In 13 40 Edward III inspected their charter 65 and made them further concessions ; M they also obtained a second charter from him in I346. 67

The year 1367 marked a distinct epoch in the history of the town, for at that time the burgesses were granted the right of holding their town at fee farm. 68 In the year before they had petitioned for an inquiry into the profits received by John Brocas, who had formerly farmed the town as the king's deputy." At the same time the king confirmed the gild merchant according to the ancient custom and according to the custom of Winchester. 70 Henry VI in 1423 inspected and confirmed the charters of his predecessors, including one of Richard II." Probably the latter refers to Richard's renewal of the Guildford charters" which had been burnt at the time of Wat Tyler's rising." A charter of incorporation was granted by Henry VII in 1488, the style being the mayor and good men of Guildford." 4 The charters were confirmed at the same time ; and they were again confirmed by Elizabeth in 15 80, including one granted by Henry VIII and one by Edward VI."

In 1603 the corporation petitioned the king to the effect that the late queen had agreed that the mayor, the late mayor for one year, and two others of the corporation, and a fifth person skilled in the law, should be justices for the borough, but died before her inten- tion could be fulfilled. The petition was granted in consideration of the importance of the road through the town leading to Portsmouth and Chichester. By another petition, in 1626, the mayor and burgesses requested a renewal of their charters, and also that the demolished Castle and the districts of Stoke-above- Bars and Stoke Lanes might be included in the borough. 77 Those districts were apparently the resort of bad characters, 78 who made use of separate justice to the prejudice of the king's town of Guildford." In the next year Charles I confirmed the former charters and granted the extension of jurisdiction, 89 which, however, seems never to have taken effect.* 1 In 1686 the mayor and good men of the town surrendered their former charters to James II, and received a new one, 8 * which was annulled by the proclamation of 1688. From this date until the

��Major-Gen. E. R. James, The Guild- ford Caverns (Guildford, 1871).

61 y.C.H. Surr. i, 295*.

M Ibid. See also Maitland, Domesday Bk. and Beyond, 179 et seq. ; Engl. Hist. Rev. Jan. 1896, p. 17.

48 Maitland, Domesday Bk. and Beyond, 179 et seq.

M Ibid. 188, 503. N.B. On p. 188 Prof. Maitland overlooked a misprint of Eastling for Eashing.

M Mag. Rot. Scac. 3 1 Hen. I (Rec. Com.) 52. See also a writ of c. 1130 directed to the burgesses of Guildford (Add. Chart. 19572).

M Gt. Roll of the Fife, 2-4 Hen. II (Rec. Com.), 12, 94 ; Pipe R. See. Putl. i 47 i *i i68;xv, 163; xvi, 145; xviii, 142, Ac.

"' Ibid, viii, in.

68 Ibid, i, 156 ; xix, 9;.


 * Pipe R. 12 John, m. 15.

��* Ibid. 1 6 John, m. 3 d.

l Ibid. 33 Hen. II, m. 3 d.

Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 456.

88 Ibid. It was no doubt already usu- ally held there, in spite of the complaint (Assize Roll, 873, 43 Hen. Ill) that Letherhead was the old place. A charter of Hen. II to the Bishop of Salisbury (Registers of St. Osmund [Rolls Ser.], i, 238) refers to the county court at Guildford.

M Confirmed Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 42. For the connexion between gild merchant and corporation, see Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Engl. Law, i, 669 et seq.

Chart. R. 14 Edw. Ill, m. i.

A fair. See below.

67 Chart. R. 20 Edw. Ill, m. 3, no. 7.

68 Ibid. 39-40 Edw. Ill, no. ie, 7 ; also Orig. R. 41 Edw. Ill, m. 31.

89 Chan. Inq. p.m. 40 Edw.III ( 1st no.), no. 59.

560

��" Chart R. 39-40 Edw. Ill, m. 2, no. 2 ; Orig. R. 41 Edw. Ill, m. I.

71 Cal. Pat. 1422-9, p. 158.

79 Parl. R. iii, 646.

W Ibid.

7< Conf. R. 4 Hen. VII, pt. ii, no. 16.

76 Ibid. 19-33 E'' z> P*- " no - 7'

78 The Letters Patent are copied in the Town Books, and are countersigned "Ellesmere," who was Lord Chancellor 24 July 1603.

" Cal. S.P. Don. 1625-6, p. 474.

78 Unless 4 malefactores ' be used merely in its original sense ; ' ubi malefactores laceUnt et confugiunt ' (Pat. 3 Chas. I, pt. xxxvii, no. 3).

' Pat. 3 Chas. I, pt. xxxvii, no. 3.

" Ibid.

81 Par/. Papers, Rep. on Manic. Corp. 1835, p. 2871 et seq.

w Pat 2 Ja. II, pt. Ti.

�� �