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 ANTIENT 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.
 
 LONDON 
 
 MINTED BT SfOITISWOODl AND CO. 
 
 NEW-STBEET Sv^CAKE
 
 V 
 
 ANTIENT 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 A HISTOEY 
 
 SHOWIXG 
 
 HOW PARLIAMENTS WERE CONSTITUTED 
 
 AND 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE ELECTED 
 
 IN 
 
 ANTIENT TIMES. 
 
 BY 
 
 HOMERSHAM COX, M.A. 
 
 BARBISTEB-AT-1.A"W : 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT' 
 
 ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMANS, GEE EN, AND CO. 
 
 1868. 
 
 [77<e right of
 
 JM 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A few years ago the compilation of a satisfactory his- 
 tory of Antient Parliamentary Elections would have been 
 t almost impracticable. Some of the most important clocu- 
 j ments relating to the subject were but little known, and 
 . others entirely unknown. For example, when the elaborate 
 \ ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer ' was published in 1820, 
 ; the writers, though they were officially assisted by the 
 keepers of the Public Records, and could command the 
 services of the whole of that department, were not ac- 
 quainted with the returns for the very first regularly con- 
 stituted and complete House of Commons ever convened 
 in this country — that which sat in the twenty-third year 
 1 of the reign of -Edward I. Those returns have since 
 I been published in the magnificent collection of Parlia- 
 i mentary Writs, edited by Sir Francis Palgrave. The 
 z : publication of that, and of the other great works issued 
 by the Record Commission, marks a new era in the 
 study of Constitutional History. But the very magnitude 
 and number of the volumes, and the obscurity of the 
 language in which they are written, render them in- 
 accessible to all but the most diligent and determined 
 inquirers. In another branch of the subject discussed 
 in the following pages — the Saxon polity — most important 
 additions to our means of knowledge have, been made 
 - within the last few years. In order to investigate 
 accurately the original suffrage, either in counties or 
 
 411875
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 boroughs, a knowledge of English political institutions 
 before the Conquest is requisite. It was not until 
 I I that the ' Antient Laws and Institutes of Eng- 
 land ' during the Anglo-Saxon period were made fully 
 accessible by the publication of a collection of those laws, 
 edited by Mr. Thorpe, under the direction of the Commis- 
 sioners of Records. Another work, from which I have 
 derived even more important assistance, is the ' Codex 
 Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici,' edited by Mr. Kemble, and 
 published in six volumes, between the years 1840 and 
 1848, by the Historical Society. The series comprises 
 upwards of fourteen hundred documents, many of which 
 are of the greatest value in ascertaining the nature of 
 Saxon Government. Also, from several of the books lately 
 issued under the direction of the Master of the Rolls — 
 particularly the series of ' Chronicles and Memorials of 
 Great Britain and Ireland' — I have frequently derived 
 valuable information. 
 
 But, besides these recent publications, others, long 
 known to inquirers into the antiquities of the English 
 Constitution, have been consulted. The 'Hundred Rolls' 
 of the reign of Edward I. and his predecessor have 
 been published more than half a century in two very 
 large and closely-printed folio volumes ; but the very 
 obscure contracted Latin in which they are written, 
 and the technical expressions with which they abound, 
 render them unintelligible to all but a very few readers. 
 Yet they are a vast mine of constitutional knowledge, 
 and in some respects more interesting than even the 
 Domesday Book itself. The works of that prodigy of 
 learning — Prynne, especially his ' Brief Register ' of Par- 
 liamentary Writs; the 'Firma Burgi,' and 'History of 
 the Exchequer,' by Madox; and Spelman's ' Glossarium,' 
 will of course be consulted by anyone who wishes to 
 obtain authentic materials for a history of the suffrage. 
 Going still further back, it is obvious that in writing such 
 a work it is necessary to refer to the earliest jurists — 
 Glanville, Britton, Bracton, and Fleta. Copious use of
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 these authorities has been made ; and though, of course, 
 anything founded upon them cannot be considered as 
 absolutely new, much of the information here collected 
 from them will probably appear novel to many of my 
 readers. 
 
 The earliest chapters of this work are necessarily of a 
 preliminary character, and may seem superfluous to a 
 reader anxious to plunge in medias res. I am certain, 
 however, that in the study of the subject here discussed, 
 a preparatory consideration of the state of society to which 
 our parliamentary institutions adapted themselves, is in- 
 dispensable. In the first place, therefore, the social and 
 legal status of the various agricultural classes in the 
 Middle Ages has been investigated. The close connection 
 of this subject with the county suffrage will be imme- 
 diately obvious. The third and fourth chapters treat of 
 that much-controverted subject — the constitution of the 
 antient County Courts. The condition of the persons 
 who frequented those assemblies has long been a vexed 
 problem of history ; and I do firmly believe that it is 
 now for the first time solved — principally by a most 
 fatiguing and protracted exploration of the ' Hundred 
 Rolls.' 
 
 The fifth chapter relates to the origin of Parliament, 
 and the development of the representative system in the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this chapter are 
 collected numerous authorities, which appear decisive of 
 the much-controverted question whether villans, the most 
 numerous class of county tenantry, were contributory to 
 parliamentary taxes and the wages of knights of the shire. 
 That they were so contributory, and that they had a right 
 of suffrage, seems to me now absolutely beyond doubt. 
 In the next chapter the changes in the county suffrage, in 
 the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry VI., are traced; and I 
 have endeavoured to show the real reasons for the violent 
 innovations of the latter reign, and the disastrous conse- 
 quences which ensued. The extinction of antient electoral 
 rights in the time of Henry VI, marked and hastened the
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 decline of the power of Parliament which commenced in 
 that reign, and continued until it reached its lowest point 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 The remaining chapters deal with the method of pro- 
 cedure at elections, and the borough suffrage. The original 
 suffrage of burgesses extended to all the free inhabitant- 
 householders in towns, and all boroughs without exception 
 were, at the original institution of the House of Commons, 
 deemed entitled to send representatives to that assembly. 
 The counter-theory — that only towns of royal demesne, 
 and therefore under royal patronage, sent representatives 
 — was supported by Dr. Brady and the ' Report on the 
 Dignity of a Peer ; ' but, as I have here shown, the 
 evidence of the returns to the first complete Parliament 
 of Edward I. and other antient documents is absolutely 
 fatal to this opinion. 
 
 The liberal arrangements adopted in the Record Office 
 permit free access to that great storehouse of historical 
 knowledge. I was anxious to ascertain from documents 
 somewhat later than the ' Hundred Rolls,' the condition 
 of villans and other tenants after the reign of Edward I. 
 For this purpose a large number of Chartularies and 
 Extents deposited in the Record Office have been 
 searched. I am under the greatest obligations to my 
 friend Mr. Frank Scott Hayclon, of that department, 
 who, on my behalf, applied his learning and skill to 
 the examination of these manuscripts — an investigation 
 for which his familiarity with the history of the Middle 
 Ages, and his skill in pakeography, rendered him 
 peculiarly well fitted. I am also indebted to the Rev. 
 James Thorold Rogers, Professor of Political Economy 
 at Oxford, for several valuable suggestions, and for 
 some able notes respecting the value of property in the 
 Middle Ages. The research displayed in his elaborate 
 ' History of Agriculture and Prices,' enable and entitle 
 him to speak with the highest authority on questions 
 of medieval economy. 
 
 The numerous translations, from Latin and Norman-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 French, which occur in the following pages are often very 
 uncouth. It is desirable to explain that literal accuracy 
 has been deliberately preferred to a treacherous smoothness 
 of composition. 
 
 I cannot hope that this work is free from errors, but 
 can truthfully plead, in extenuation, that it is the result 
 of careful research and deliberation. 
 
 The subject has been regarded entirely in its historical 
 aspects, apart from all reference to existing controversies. 
 The social and political condition of the country at the 
 period here under examination, differed materially from 
 that which at present prevails, and therefore extreme 
 caution is necessary in deducing from the antient history 
 of Parliament lessons of modern application. At the first 
 institution of the House of Commons, land was cultivated 
 principally by peasant proprietors, members of Parlia- 
 ment were paid wages, their functions were principally 
 fiscal, the parliamentary franchise was a burden rather 
 than a privilege, the polling of voters and a property 
 qualification for the suffrage were unknown, and the 
 relations of the Administrative Government to Parliament 
 were utterly different from those established under the 
 Hanoverian Dynasty. These considerations are sufficient 
 to show that a Constitution which worked well hi the 
 fourteenth century would not necessarily be beneficial in 
 the nineteenth.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TnE Rural Population of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Mediaeval tenancies, page 1. — Freeholders, villans, 2. — Cottagers, 3. — Officers 
 and government of a manor, 4. — Jurisdiction of manorial courts, 4. — Free- 
 holders' rents and services, 5. — The time when villan-te mires became 
 hereditary, 6. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Social Order in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Division of the people into the bond and free, page 8. — Saxon Frank-pledge, it. 
 — Admission of youths to the Decenna, 10. — Saxon institutions main- 
 tained after the Conquest, 10. — Domesday, 12. — Census of different 
 classes, 13. — Free villans, 14. — Emancipation of serfs, 17. — Relative num- 
 bers of bond and free, 19. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Saxon County Court. 
 
 Courts of Hundreds and Counties, Folcmot, page 22.— Shire moot at .Egelnorth's 
 stone, 23. — Rank of Thanes, 24. — Shire moot at Ouckamslow, 25. — Popu- 
 lar characters of these courts, 26. — Assemblies at Ely, 24. — At Northamp- 
 ton, 26.— At Huntingdon, 27.— At Erith, 28.— A.1 Penenden I!, alii, 29.— 
 The Ealdorman, 30. — Assembly of bishops, earls, and villans of Kent, 32. 
 — Villans present in local assemblies, 34. Meetings held in the open 
 air, 36.
 
 XII CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 County Courts after the Conquest. 
 
 ral administration of justice, page 39. — Manorial courts, 39. — Sheriff's turn, 
 40. — Coroner's presentments, 40. — Freeholders not the only suitors, 42. — 
 County courts held periodically, 42. — Nature of a general summons, 44. — 
 Persons exempt from attendance, 45. — Juries, 46. — Coroners elected, 40. 
 — Business of county court, 47. — The court held commonly in an edifice, 
 48. — Evidence that villans were present, 49. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Origin op Parliament. 
 
 The regal councils after the Conquest not merely feudal, page 60. — The Constitu- 
 tions of Clarendon, 61. — Provisions of John's Magna Charta respecting a 
 council, 64. — Councils of Henry III., 66. — Earliest representation of 
 boroughs, 68. — Parliaments of Edward I., 69. — Taxation of villans to 
 parliamentary grants, 71. — Control of the Commons over taxation, 77. — 
 Parliaments of Edward II., 82. — Elections in the county courts, 83 — by 
 the ' men of the whole county,' 86. — Wages of members of Parliament, 
 88. — Villans contributed to this charge, 89. — Parliaments of Edward III. 
 and Richard II., 91. — Representation of boroughs regulated by statute, 95. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The County Suffrage after the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 Growth of the power of the Commons in the reign of Henry IV., page 97. — 
 Grants settled by conference between the two Houses, 99. — Statute against 
 'Lollerie,' 101. — First statute regulating county elections, 103. — All the 
 inhabitants of counties entitled to vote for knights, 103. — Statute of 
 Henry V. requiring citizens and burgesses to be residents, 109. — Im- 
 becility of Henry VI., and anarchy of his reign, 110. — The Act giving the 
 suffrage to forty shillings' freeholders, 113. — The motives for which this 
 statute was made, and its disastrous effects, 115. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Procedure at Elections. 
 
 Elections were originally by show of hands, page 121. — This method common 
 during the Tudor period, 122. — Right to a poll established in the reign of 
 James I., 123. — The form of Returns, 125. — Burgesses returned by indenture 
 in the county court, though not elected there, 126. — The parties to the inden- 
 ture were only a few of the electors, but declared the will of the rest, 127.
 
 CONTENT?. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Representation of Boroughs. 
 
 Boroughs distinguished by their separate jurisdiction, page 133. — Saxon govern- 
 ment of boroughs, 134. — Saxon municipal charters, 136. — Norman charters, 
 139. — Royal domain boroughs, 144. — Charters granted to towns not of royal 
 domain, 146. — Electoral franchise not originally confined to towns of royal 
 domain, 148. — Boroughs excused on account of their poverty from send- 
 ing members, 156. — Revival of discontinued franchises, 158. — The power 
 of the Crown to enfranchise or disfranchise boroughs considered, 159. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Borough Electors. 
 
 Scot and Lot, page 165. — The antiquity and etymology of Scot and Lot, 166. — 
 How assessed, 167. — All householders of boroughs reckoned as burgesses in 
 Domesday, 169 ; and in ancient charters, 173. — Burgesses, and no others 
 in towns, liable to Scot and Lot, 177. — Lodgers not entitled to burgess- 
 ship, 179. — The burgesses were the parliamentary electors, 180. — Earliest 
 municipal corporations, 186. — Select or self-elected corporations, 189. — 
 Abuses of municipal government, 189. — Partial restitution of municipal 
 rights in the reign of James I., 190. — Potwallers, 191. — Municipal reform 
 in 1832, 193. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Particulars taken from Manuscript Cartularies in the Record Office, showing 
 the tenures and services of tenants of various manors in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries, page 195.
 
 ANTIENT 
 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RTTKAL POPULATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Mediaeval Tenancies, 1. — Freeholders, Villans, 2. — Cottagers, 3. — Officers and 
 Government of a Manor, 4. — Jurisdiction of Manorial Courts, 4. — Freeholders' 
 rents anal services, 5. — The time lohen villan-tenures became hereditary, 6. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, land was held upon a system very different 
 from that which at present prevails. In modern times, farmers 
 are for the most part tenants from year to year, or in some 
 districts for fixed terms of years. In the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries, such tenancies were almost unknown.* The 
 majority of the cultivators of the soil were peasant proprietors. 
 Either as freeholders or as customary tenants they had per- 
 manent interests in their holdings, though apparently it was 
 not until some time after the reign of Edward I. that those 
 interests became generally transmissible from father to son by 
 inheritance. 
 
 It is necessary to recognise the social condition then pre- 
 vailing in order to comprehend the early history of our repre- 
 sentative institutions ; for those institutions were obviously 
 framed with reference to the circumstances of the people who 
 were to have the benefit of them. 
 
 In the reign of Edward I., when representative government 
 became regularly established, the general character of the rural 
 population was as follows. The country was for the most part 
 
 * Leases for years were recognised by law ; for Fleta and Bracton, who wrote 
 in tine reign of Ed. L, expressly mentioned them. But in the course of a minute 
 examination of the Hundred Rolls, which are coeval, I have found hardly one 
 instance of a lease for a term of years. — Fleta, lib. 4, c. 31 ; Bracton, lib. 4, c. 86. 
 
 B
 
 2 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 divided into manors, the lords or owners of which constituted 
 the country gentry. The lord of a manor of ordinary dimen- 
 sions occupied the social position of a modern squire. He 
 usually retained in his own hands a considerable part of his 
 estate, which was cultivated by his bailiff. The remainder was 
 occupied by three classes of persons : (1) Libere tenentes, free- 
 holders who had small holdings for which they paid fixed rents ; 
 (2) villans {villani), or customary tenants, whose rent was paid 
 partly in labour and partly in money or farm produce ; (3) 
 coterelli or bordarii — cottagers. 
 
 1. Freeholders. A modern freeholder in England does not 
 usually pay any rent for his land ; he buys it out and out for a 
 single sum of purchase-money. This, however, was not the 
 practice in the reign of Edward I. Then the free tenant paid 
 a rent which was considerable with reference to the profits of 
 his holding. The distinguishing character of his tenure was 
 its hereditary quality. Fleta, who wrote in this reign, insists 
 upon this as the distinction between freehold land and that held 
 in villenage. ' If a villan,' he says, ' be infeoffed of his lord, 
 under whose power he was, to hold freely — no mention being 
 made of heirs — although he be ejected by the feoffor himself, 
 he shall not recover by assize.' * The free tenant was simply 
 the man who held his land to him and his heirs. Besides this, 
 a law of Edward I., called, from its first words, Quia Emptores, 
 rendered land of this tenure freely disposable at the will of the 
 owner. This enactment, from its important consequences, is a 
 landmark in our political history. According to the feudal 
 theory which prevailed in the time of William the Conqueror, 
 all land in the hands of subjects was supposed to be held 
 of some superior lord, either of the king directly — whose 
 tenants were said to hold in capite or in chief — or of some 
 intermediate or mesne lord. The strict feudal rule was, that 
 the tenant could not alienate his land without the licence of 
 his feudal superior ; but this rule was evaded, and at last was 
 abrogated by the law of Edward I. 
 
 2. Yillans — Villani. The word villanus (derived by Cokef 
 from villa, which is another word for a manor or lordship, J) 
 denotes a person attached to the vill — adscriptus villa;. These 
 tenants were originally of servile condition, and had land 
 granted to thern by their lords under an obligation of per- 
 
 * Fleta, lib. 4, c. 11. 
 
 t First Institute, UGa. This derivation suggests that villanus should be 
 rendered in English by ' villan/ not ' villein.' 
 
 \ Ellis : Introduction to ' Domesday/ vol. i. p. 240.
 
 THE EURAL POPULATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 3 
 
 forming agricultural services.* At first their tenure was very 
 precarious, and they had no better title than the custom or usage 
 of the manor. But this custom became gradually recognised 
 by law. The villan, or customary tenant, in the reign of 
 Edward I., had acquired a permanent legal interest in his land, 
 and the lord could not eject him so long as he performed the 
 services proper to his holding. f 
 
 3. Cottagers — Cotarii, coterelli, or bordarii — -occupied ordi- 
 narily the lowest rank among the tenants. These Latin appel- 
 latives, for our present purpose, may be regarded as almost 
 synonymous ; for the terminology of the Middle Ages was by 
 no means exact. Bishop Kennett, however, in his ' Parochial 
 Antiquities,' distinguishes between cotarii and coterelli, and 
 considers that the former had a free socage tenure, and paid a 
 firm or rent, in provisions or money, with some customary 
 services ; whereas the latter held in absolute villenage, and 
 their persons and goods were disposable at the pleasure of the 
 lord. J Bordarii are frequently mentioned in 'Domesday,' and 
 
 * It must not be assumed that this practice originated after the Conquest. 
 The Saxon charters record numerous instances of Icen land, or loan land, let upon 
 the condition that the occupiers should perform various services, and render 
 specified amounts of produce to the owners. (See 'Kemble's Saxons in England,' 
 b. 1, c. 11.) The remarkable document called ' Rectitudines Singularum Per- 
 sonarum,' of which a Saxon version exists in the library of Corpus Christi 
 College, Cambridge, enumerates the services exacted from different classes 
 of tenants. Of the geneat — in the ancient Latin version called 'Villanus' — 
 it is said, ' The geneat right is various, according to the custom of the land. 
 In some places he must pay land rent and a grass service annually, ride and 
 carry, work and feed his lord, reap and mow,' &c. The obligations of the 
 cotsetla, or cottager, and of the gebur — another class of tenants — are similarly 
 described. 
 
 In the ' Codex Diplomaticus ^Evi Saxonici ' — a most valuable collection of 
 Saxon documents, edited by Mr. Kemble, and published by the Historical 
 Society — there is given a grant of certain lands at Hurstbourne, in the days of 
 jElfred, or of Edward the Elder ; the services of the ceorls, or dependent freemen, 
 are enumerated ; among other things, they are to plow three acres, and sow 
 them with their own seed, to house the produce, to pay three pounds of rent- 
 barley, to mow half an acre of rent-meadow, and stack the produce, &c. — Cod. 
 Dip., No. 1077 : Diplomatarium, p. 143. 
 
 | Britton, who wrote in the reign of Ed. I., says of the tenants — 'Et ceux 
 sont priviledges en tiel maner que nul de les doit ouster de tiels tenements taut 
 come ilz font les service que a lour tenements appendent.' — Fol. 105. 
 
 % In the 'Rectitudines Singularum Personarum,' mentioned in a previous 
 note, the services of the cotsetla in Saxon times are enumerated. It is dis- 
 tinctly stated that he is not to pay money-rent, and that he is a, free man. ' The 
 cot-settler's right varies according to custom. In some places he must work 
 for the lord every Monday throughout the year, or three days every week in 
 harvest. He need pay no land-rent (gafol). He ought to have five acres ; 
 more, if it be the custom, And if it bo less it is all too little, for his service is 
 
 b 2
 
 4 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 are evidently the same as cotarii.* Spelnian derives the word 
 borda/rius from the Saxon Bonb, a house, because the persons so 
 called performed domestic service for the lord, such as grinding" 
 corn, drawing water, and the like.f 
 
 Fleta, who wrote in the reign of Edward I., gives a curious 
 and interesting picture of the government and economy of a 
 manor in his time. The chief officer, he says, is the steward, 
 or seneschal (senescallus), whose duty it is to hold the courts of 
 the manor. If he do so by substitute, yet he ought personally 
 to attend the court at least two or three times a year, and 
 inquire respecting rents and services withheld, alienations 
 of land, and the like. He ought to keep account of the number 
 of acres of arable, of cattle, &c. ; to inquire into the conduct 
 of the bailiff and inferior officers towards the tenants, whether 
 they engage in brawls or frequent taverns, neglecting their 
 duty. It was also his office to take account, personally or by 
 deputy, of meat and other provisions delivered for the use of 
 the lord's household. The bailiff of the manor had duties 
 more strictly agricultural. He overlooked the reapers, mowers, 
 and other labourers, and directed the time and order of agri- 
 cultural operations. The prejpositus, or foreman, was one of the 
 most skilful of the labourers, elected by the people of the vill, 
 and presented to the lord or his steward. The prepositus 
 accompanied the other labourers in their work, fed and littered 
 the cattle, and gave an account of their fodder, of the seed 
 used for sowing, and other outgoings of the estate.^ 
 
 Thus the manor of the Middle Ages formed a distinct society 
 or community by itself. The principal secular edifice was the 
 manor-house. In the manorial hall the lord or the steward 
 received the homage of the tenants, and held periodically the 
 manorial court. The jurisdiction of this court related most 
 frequently to petty misdemeanours and trespasses within the 
 manor, and to questions respecting the property of the tenants. 
 Many of the manorial courts had, however, a far more important 
 authority, and, by prescription or charter, claimed cognisance of 
 the most serious crimes. The ' Hundred Rolls,' to which frequent 
 reference will be made in the following pages, show that the 
 
 often called upon. He must pay bis hearth penny on Holy Thursday, as it 
 behoves every freeman to do,' &c. This document is given in the ' Antient 
 Laws and Institutes of England,' which will be frequently cited in the following 
 pages. 
 
 * Ellis : Introduction to ' Domesday,' vol. i. p. 83. 
 
 + Spelman : Glossary — In vocibus Cotarius, Bordarius. 
 
 j Fleta, lib. 2, cc. 72-76.
 
 THE RURAL POPULATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 5 
 
 lords of manors in very many places exercised the right of 
 gallows. A record of a trial for felony in the Holywell Manor 
 Court, Oxford, proves that this right was exercised so late as the 
 reign of Edward III. The document states the particulars of 
 a robbery committed in the suburbs of Oxford, within the 
 liberty or franchise of Holywell ; that the prisoner was found 
 guilty and sentenced to be hung. The significant marginal 
 note ' Susp.' shows that the sentence was executed.* 
 
 Freeholders in the Middle Ages were not only liable for annual 
 payments, often considerable, with reference to the value of their 
 holdings ; they were also often bound to render other services 
 not materially different from those of villans. The ' Hundred 
 Rolls ' of the reign of Edward I. often make mention of labour 
 performed by free tenants in virtue of their tenure ; though 
 more frequently those Rolls show that their rent was paid in 
 money or farm produce. f In later records, also, there are repeated 
 instances of .free tenants who paid for their land by their 
 labour. For instance, in the Cartulary of Battle Abbey,! now 
 in the Record Office, it appears, by an extent taken in 5 Ed. II., 
 that in the manor of Lymenesfield there were 56 lib ere tenentes, 
 each of whom, besides money, contributed, as part of his rent, 
 a certain amount of labour in ploughing. And this is by no 
 means a singular or unusual instance. 
 
 The social position of villans differed widely in different 
 places. In the next chapter it will be shown that at the time 
 of the Conquest, and afterwards, villenage did not necessarily, 
 or even generally, imply serfdom. The freeman who held in 
 villenage had acquired, certainly in the reign of Edward I., a 
 fixed tenure of his land, and was often the social equal of the 
 freeholder. In other cases the villan occupied a much lower 
 
 * Prof. Rogers' ' History of Agriculture,' vol. ii. p. G66. 
 
 ■j- For example, in the Hamlet of ' Tvytroph/ Oxfordshire (2 ' Hund. Polls,' 
 p. 785), it is said of a free tenant, that ' he holds three virgates of land for 
 doing suit at the court of his lord and the Hundred of Leuek,' ' and he ought 
 to reap in autumn for one day with all his household, at the usual day (bederipp) 
 of the lord, except his wife nursing and his shepherd.' The bederipp was one of 
 the customary days in the year when tenants were bound to work for the lord. 
 These days are said by Spelman to be called bind-days, or bidden days — dies 
 precariaa. — Glossarium, In voce ' Precaria.' 
 
 The Bederipp is very frequently mentioned in the 'Hundred Polls,' in the 
 enumeration of customary services in the reign of Ed. I. But the same custom 
 prevailed in Saxon times. Bishop Denewulf gave ^Elfred forty hides, at 
 Alresford, loaded with various conditions : among them, that his men should 
 be ready 'ge to ripe, ge to huntnothe,' — that is, at the bishop's harvest and 
 hunting. — Kemble, ' Saxons in England,' vol. ii. p. 84, note. 
 
 \ Cartulary of Battle Abbey, vol. i.
 
 6 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 grade, and more dependent on his landlord ; and though not 
 legally a serf, was subject to obligations which were the relics 
 of former bondage. The following may be taken as a specimen 
 of services of villans of the more servile condition in the reign 
 of Edward I.: — At Eltesle, in Cambridgeshire, ' Henry Godknave 
 is the customary tenant of the same Philip, and holds of him 
 one messuage and sixteen acres of land, and owes, therefor, 
 from Michaelmas to the calends of August every fortnight three 
 days' work whenever required ; and from the calends of August 
 to Michaelmas next following, every week three days' work, 
 namely, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, unless feast days 
 prevent. And he owes his lord four hens and at Easter twenty 
 eggs ; and he cannot marry his daughter without the licence of 
 his lord. Et si sit fornicata per quod habeat puerum dabit 
 domino suo pro ilia fornicatione quinque solidos. And if the 
 said Henry die, his wife shall continue on the land and do all that 
 pertains to that land so long as she chooses to remain a widow, 
 and shall give to the lord one ploughshare or ninepence.' — 
 ' Hundred Rolls,' vol. iii p. 508. The entry states that there 
 are nine other tenants- on this estate subject to the same 
 services. 
 
 It is uncertain when villan tenements became hereditary. 
 Littleton, writing in the reign of Edward IV., speaks thus 
 of copyholders, of whom the villans were the jn'ototypes : — 
 * Although some tenants have an inheritance according to the 
 custom of the manor, yet they have but an estate at the will of 
 the lord according to the course of the common law.' He adds, 
 that ' the lord cannot break the custom which is reasonable in 
 these cases.' Thus Littleton speaks of the inheritance of 
 villans as a matter of custom, not universal and not according 
 to the course of common law, though the custom had in his day 
 acquired the force cf law. A passage from Fleta, cited in a 
 preceding page, shows that in the reign of Edward I. coj)yhold 
 or villan tenements were not hereditary. The extract just 
 made from the ' Hundred Rolls ' is to the like effect. It shows 
 that according to the custom of a particular manor, on the 
 death of a villan tenant, his wife was entitled to hold his land 
 during her widowhood. Consequently, during that period his 
 heir could not occupy it. This shows conclusively that the heir 
 of a villan on the estate in question was not then deemed en- 
 titled to his land. But it also shows that the villans themselves 
 had a fixity of tenure, for if the widow of a tenant had a vested 
 interest in his holding it is not to be supposed that he himself
 
 THE RURAL POPULATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 7 
 
 could be dispossessed capriciously. The question of the social 
 and legal position of this numerous class of persons is very 
 material in determining the antient character of the count} 7- 
 suffrage. In the next chapter the subject will be pursued 
 for the purpose of investigating the place which the tenants 
 in villenage occupied in the political system of the Middle 
 Ages.
 
 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Division of the people into the bond and free, 8. — Saxon Frankpledge, 9. — Admis- 
 sion of youths to the Decenna, 10. — Saxon institutions maintained after the 
 Conquest, 10. — Domesday, 12. — Census of different classes, 13. — Free vil/ans, 14. 
 — Emancipation of serf s, 17. — Relative numbers of bond and free, 19. 
 
 The principal characteristic of the social polity of the Middle 
 Ages was the division of the people into two great classes — the 
 bond and the free. This distinction affected the whole of 
 England. Accordingly as a man helonged to the one class or 
 the other his legal status was determined ; and the entire system 
 of law and government depended upon this classification. 
 
 William the Couqueror found this social distinction firmly 
 established in England and he did not attempt to disturb it ; 
 on the contrary, one of the most notable acts of his reign was 
 the collection and confirmation of the Saxon laws with some 
 comparatively small modifications. The distinction between the 
 bond and free continued until long after his time. When the par- 
 liamentary suffrage was established, it plainly had relation to 
 the twofold division of the people. Hence it becomes necessary to 
 advert for the purpose of this work to Saxon political institu- 
 tions ; for without some reference to them it is impossible to 
 comprehend the first development of the system of parliamentary 
 elections. 
 
 The cardinal rule of government, at least during the latter 
 part of the Saxon era, was that persons of free condition were 
 responsible for each other before the law, but that those of the 
 servile class were under lords who were responsible for them. 
 The free found pledges, each among his fellows, to produce him 
 before the courts wherever justice required that he should be 
 forthcoming. The lord was similarly answerable for his servile 
 dependents. This system was utterly different from anything 
 which now exists ; the only analogy to it would be to suppose 
 every subject in the realm perpetually bound over with sureties 
 to keep the peace. 
 
 We have now a very carefully edited collection of the Saxon 
 laws* published by the Record Commission, under whose 
 
 * 'Antient Laws and Institutes of England.' Folio. 1840.
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 9 
 
 auspices most important contributions have been made to the 
 knowledge of English history and constitutional law. Some 
 few references to these authentic materials will serve to explain 
 the principal features of the Saxon system. 
 
 The learned editor of the collection of Antient Laws does not 
 adopt the view that the decennary system was completely 
 established during the Saxon era. In his Glossary he states 
 that Frithborg, or Frankpledge, was the system ' by which all 
 free persons whose rank and property were not in themselves 
 adequate security for good behaviour, were associated in tith- 
 ings, whose members were mutual security, or " borh," for each 
 other. The chief of these associations was the tithing-man. 
 This institution, which in its perfected form dates probably from 
 the Conquest (though traces of it exist in " Edgar's Laws," ii. 6, 
 s. 3, where it is directed that every man shall have a "borh"), 
 must not be confounded with the older one of Saxon times, by 
 which every hlaford [master] was bound to have his men in his 
 borh, or under his guarantee.'* 
 
 Notwithstanding the high authority of the writer just quoted, 
 it may be doubted whether the statement that Frithborg ' in its 
 perfected form dates probably from the Conquest,' gives an ade- 
 quate impression of the prevalence of this system at an earlier 
 period. The very name, essentially Saxon, indicates its origin. 
 Moreover, in the Saxon laws we find clear and distinct regula- 
 tions respecting this institution ; and in the laws which William 
 the Conqueror promulgated, he distinctly adopts the ancient 
 usages of the country. 
 
 The laws of Edgar provide (ii. 6) that every man shall leave 
 his borh or pledge, who is to have him forthcoming to do right; 
 and if he do not, ' let the borh bear that which he ought to bear.' 
 If any man had been often accused and was found unfaithful to 
 the people, and did not attend the gemote or general assemblies, 
 those of the gemote were to go to him and he should find a 
 pledge if he could : if he could not, he was to be seized alive or 
 dead, and all that he had was to be forfeited to pay his accuser 
 the just ransom of his crime ; and the lord should have half his 
 land and the Hundred the rest (ii. 7). 
 
 Similarly, the laws of Ethelred, who succeeded to the throne 
 a.d. 978, direct that every free man shall have his borh, and 
 ' that the borh may present him to every justice if he should 
 be accused. And every lord is to have his hired household in 
 his own pledge, and is to be responsible for them' (i. 1). Here 
 a distinction is clearly made between the mutual pledge of free- 
 * Antient Laws : Glossary, Sub voce Friilborg.
 
 10 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 men, or frankpledge, and the responsibility of a master for his 
 servants. 
 
 It is material to observe that in these and other Saxon laws 
 the condition of freedom is not connected with the tenure of 
 land. The persons who are to give pledges are free men — not 
 free tenants, or free holders. Various ways existed in which 
 persons of servile condition could be emancipated, and as those 
 persons did not necessarily possess land, it is clear that many 
 free men were not freeholders. 
 
 The laws of Cnut, who became king a.d. 1017, describe with 
 much particularity the system of mutual pledges. By sect. 20, 
 every freeman who wishes to be ' law-worthy ' shall place himself 
 in the Hundred and Decenna after he is twelve years of age, 
 * otherwise let him not afterwards be entitled to any free rights, 
 whether he be the head of a family (heorth-fsest), or a follower. 
 And every one shall come to the Hundred Court and be put in 
 pledge ; and his pledge shall keep him forthcoming to every 
 plea.' A subsequent section declares that every lord shall have 
 his servant in pledge. 
 
 The meaning of these provisions seems to be, that all freemen 
 were to be brought to the Hundred Court and put in pledge, 
 whether they were heorth-ftest — that is, householders with 
 hearths of their own — or ' followers,' which phrase probably 
 denotes free persons in the service of a master and living under 
 his roof ; on the other hand, for servants who were not free the 
 masters themselves were to be sureties. 
 
 These references seem sufficient to prove that the Frank- 
 pledge was a fundamental institution of Saxon England. Every 
 free youth, when he reached the age of legal responsibility, 
 was subject to it. By a solemnity of the Hundred Court he 
 was formally enrolled in the number of English free men. The 
 ceremonial was an important epoch of his life ; it marked the 
 transition from pupilage to the privileges and obligations of 
 citizenship. 
 
 The compilation of laws which bear the name of Edward the 
 Confessor gives much additional information on this subject. 
 William the Conqueror, in the fourth year of his reign, insti- 
 tuted an inquiry into the laws of England as they existed in 
 the time of Edward the Confessor. This circumstance is ma- 
 terial to our investigation, because it shows that the political 
 institutions of England after the Conquest were fundamentally 
 based upon those which existed in Saxon times. It was the 
 policy of the Conqueror to manifest great deference to the laws 
 of the Confessor and respect for his memory. This is shown
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 11 
 
 incidentally in the Domesday Book, which was compiled under 
 William's authority. In that great record, Harold is frequently 
 mentioned in terms of contumely as a tyrant and an invader ; 
 while Edward — gloriosus rex Edwardus — is regarded with the 
 utmost respect.* WiUiam directed an inquisition, by twelve 
 persons elected from every county, into the Saxon laws ; and 
 the compilation so framed has been always called the Laws of 
 Edward the Confessor. There can be no doubt that they 
 describe the customs which prevailed in his time, with some 
 later modifications. f Those laws declare that everybody in 
 every vill of the whole kingdom ought to be under pledge of 
 the decenna, or ten men ; so that if any of the ten should incur 
 a forfeiture, the nine should produce him to do right ; but if 
 he should fly, 31 days should be allowed him by law, and being- 
 sought and in the meanwhile found, he should be made amenable 
 to the justice of the king. The subordination of jurisdictions 
 is defined. Minor disputes were to be settled in the decenna, 
 more considerable questions in the Hundred, and causes which 
 could not be dealt with in the inferior jurisdictions were to be 
 determined in the shire. 
 
 There are to be two great folc-motes, or meetings, in the course 
 of the year. It is important for our future purpose to note who 
 are to attend them. All the people who are under the protection 
 or in the peace of the king are to come once in the year, in the 
 kalends of May. There is to be another folc-mote every year in 
 the kalends of October, when the sheriffs and head-boroughs are 
 to be elected. The shire-rnote is to be held twice a year ; that of 
 the Hundred twelve times, being summoned seven days before.. 
 
 Throughout these laws, the great distinction between bond 
 and free is uniformly observed. The persons who are to be in 
 pledge are all free men — omnes liberi homines. 
 
 The laws of William the Conqueror are another collection of 
 his reign. They have a preamble to the following effect: — 
 ' These are laws and customs which King William, after the 
 
 * A MS. quoted in the Preface to the ' Antient Laws and Institutes of 
 England,' p. 5, states that in the fourth year of his reign William summoned, 
 from all the counties of England, a number of persons learned in their laws, in 
 order that he might be informed of the laws and customs ; that though he had 
 previously enjoined in the whole kingdom laws of Danish origin, because his 
 ancestors and those of his Norman followers came from Norway, yet, at the 
 instance of the English people, he determined to revive the laws of the Con- 
 fessor. By the command of King William, twelve of the wisest men of every 
 county were elected, who were commissioned to compile the laws which bear 
 the name of the Confessor. 
 
 t Compare Ellis's Introduction to 'Domesday,' vol. i. p. 30-'5 and p. 311.
 
 12 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 acquisition of England, granted to all the people of England to 
 be observed — namely, those which his predecessor and kinsman 
 Xing Edward kept in his kingdom of the English.' 
 
 These laws, among other things, elucidate the relations be- 
 tween lords and their villans. By sect. 29 it is provided that 
 the lord shall have for the relief of his villan the best of his 
 cattle, whether it were a horse, an ox, or a cow, but that after- 
 wards the villan shall be in Frankpledge.* This probably 
 means that if the lord chose to accept a relief or contribution 
 from his villan, he recognised him as capable of possessing pro- 
 perty— a power which was inconsistent with absolute servitude. 
 Consequently, after such acceptance the villan was to be in 
 frankpledge : that is, he was to come under that system of 
 mutual pledges which was the characteristic of freemen. 
 
 There are other ways provided by which villans might acquire 
 freedom. ' If any one wishes to make his serf free, let him 
 deliver him to the sheriff by the right hand, in full county 
 court, and declare him free from the yoke of his servitude by 
 manumission, and let him show him free ways and gates, and 
 deliver to him free arms — namely, a lance and a sword — and 
 then he is made a free man.'f The next section provides that 
 if ' a bondsman remain without claim for a year and a day in 
 our cities or in walled boroughs, or in our castra, from that day 
 they are made free, and shall be free from the yoke of bondage 
 for ever.' 
 
 These references are sufficient for the present purpose of 
 showing the general character of the laws relating to the states 
 of different classes of the people. It is desirable to see, further, 
 the practical effect of those laws, and the relative numbers of 
 the classes to which they related. So far as the reign of 
 William the Conqueror is concerned, we have tolerably com- 
 plete information on this point from the Domesday Book. 
 This great survey of England was completed in the year 1086. 
 It was made under the superintendence of certain commis- 
 sioners, called the king's justiciaries. The sheriffs, the lords 
 of each manor, the presbyters of every church, the reves of 
 every hundred, the bailiffs and six villans of every village, were 
 appointed jurors to inquire into the name of each place, who 
 held it in the time of Edward the Confessor, who was the pre- 
 sent possessor, the extent of each manor, how much was in 
 
 * De villani relevio ; melius animal quod habuerit id (sive Equus sit, sive 
 Bos, siveVacca) donabit Domino suo pro relevio et postea sint omnes villani in 
 franco plegio. 
 
 t iii. sec. 15, ' Antient Laws/ p. 213.
 
 SOCIAL OKDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 13 
 
 demesne, how many homagers there were, how many villans, 
 how many cotarii, how many servi, how many free men, how 
 many tenants in socage, and various particulars as to the 
 quality and value of the land. The method generally followed 
 in each return was, first, to entitle the estate to the owners, 
 the hundred was next specified, then the tenant with the place, 
 and afterwards the description of the property. The survey is 
 nearly complete, except that the counties of Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham are omitted.* 
 
 It will be apparent from this account that Domesday af- 
 fords an invaluable means of understanding the distribution of 
 the population of England in the latter part of the eleventh 
 century. It may be added that, for the purpose of researches 
 respecting our political institutions, the use of this record is 
 greatly facilitated by the elaborate introduction compiled by 
 Sir Henry Ellis, and published in 1833. This valuable work 
 contains an abstract of the population, which has been com- 
 puted by counting the number of persons of each class enume- 
 rated in each county ; and the learned compiler expresses the 
 opinion that, so far as the agricultural population is concerned, 
 the account may be considered accurate. The total number of 
 persons recorded in the abstract is 283,242 ; which, if we adopt 
 the common supposition that each family consists of five per- 
 sons, would make the total recorded population 1,416,210. 
 Lest this number should appear extravagantly small, it may be 
 remarked that a very high authority reckons the population of 
 England and Wales approximately at one million and a half in 
 the fourteenth century, t 
 
 Erom the abstract of total population appended to the 
 Introduction to 'Domesday,' the following figures have been 
 selected : — 
 
 Tenants in capite .... 1,400 
 
 Under tenants (mesne lords) . . 7,871 
 
 Bordarii . 82,119 1 
 
 Coscets . . . . 1,749 L 88,922 
 
 Cotarii .... 5,054 J 
 
 Liberi Homines ..... 10,097 
 
 Liberi Homines commendati 
 Servi .... 
 Sochemanni . 
 Villani 
 
 2,041 
 25,156 
 23,072 
 
 108,407 
 
 Total 266,966 
 * Ellis's Introduction to ' Domesday.' 
 f Rogers' ' History of Prices and Agriculture/ vol. i. p. 67.
 
 14 ANTIENT PAKLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 This will give a fair idea of the relative numbers of the more 
 numerous classes of the population. The abstract from which 
 these figures are copied contains a great many more entries, 
 which are here neglected for the sake of simplicity. In the 
 foregoing extract I have omitted all the small classes of which 
 the numbers are below 1,400, and have given all the rest, 
 except burgenses, who do not belong to the present inquiry 
 respecting rural population. Most of the omitted numbers are 
 very small ; some of them are only units, and probably many 
 of them appear in stead of more exact appellations. For ex- 
 ample, there are among the entries classes vaguely called 
 paupers, homines, and rustics. 
 
 In the foregoing synopsis, by far the largest class mentioned 
 is the villani. It is to be considered, however, that this term 
 included persons of very different conditions. It is quite cer- 
 tain that the villans were not all in a state of servitude ; for in 
 several places liberi villani are mentioned.* There does not 
 appear to be in Domesday anything which would justify the 
 conclusion that the villani were universally in bondage ; but, on 
 the contrary, there is much in that and other mediaeval records 
 which leads to the inference that a very large portion of them 
 were free. Sir Henry Ellis, in the learned work to which fre- 
 quent reference has been made, says there are ' numerous 
 entries in the Domesday survey which indicate the villani of 
 that period to have been very different froni bondsmen.' He 
 notices instances in which villans are said to pay reliefs. Ac- 
 cording to the law mentioned in a former page, the villan, upon 
 such payment, would become free and be liable to be put in 
 frankpledge. Sir Henry Ellis refers to the circumstance 
 that the jurors who made up the returns for Domesday in- 
 cluded six villans for every manor — pretty good proof that 
 they were not slaves. He also refers to different denomina- 
 tions of villans — villani integri, villani dimidii, and others — 
 which show that those persons were not all on the same social 
 level. There is a remarkable entry in the second page of the 
 second volume of Domesday, under Bennet, which shows that a 
 man might be free as to his personal capacity, and be reckoned 
 a villanus with reference to his tenure. The entry states that 
 in this manor there was formerly a certain freeman who has 
 since become one of the villans ; f that is, as Sir Henry Ellis 
 construes the entry, he was a yeoman and became a tenant. 
 
 * In the Abstract for Norfolk, 73, ' Liberi villani ' enumerated. — Introduc- 
 tion to 'Domesday,' vol. ii. p. 470. 
 
 t In boc manerio erat tunc temporis quidani liber homo de dimidia bida qui 
 rnodo efFectus est unus de villanis.
 
 SOCIAL OKDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 15 
 
 Besides, we have throughout Domesday multitudes of entries 
 in which villani, servi, and cotarii are obviously distinguished 
 from one another. Respecting the same manor, we frequently 
 find an entry first of the villani, then of servi, then of cotarii. 
 It is impossible to suppose that if servi and villani were the 
 same, this double enumeration would have been adopted in a 
 number of instances too large to be regarded as accidental. 
 
 There are many other evidences that freedom was in the 
 Middle Ages a personal right independent of the tenure. Many 
 of these evidences are of a later date than Domesday ; but it 
 will be desirable to refer to them here in order to avoid the 
 inconvenience of reverting to the subject hereafter. In the 
 ' Hundred Rolls,' or ' Rotuli Hundredorum,' which were com- 
 piled in the later part of the reign of Henry III. and the early 
 part of the reign of Edward I., and contain a survey of manors 
 in various counties, we find the classification of libere tenentes, 
 villani, and servi, commonly observed with respect to individual 
 manors ; the villani are entered in a list separate from servi. 
 
 The authority of Bracton, who wrote in the reign of Edward I., 
 is express to the effect that freedom did not depend on tenure. 
 For example, he says in one place that ' the tenement does not 
 change the state of the freeman any more than of the slave ; 
 for a freeman can hold pure villenage, doing whatsoever per- 
 tains to villenage, and not on account of his person.' * And he 
 has many other passages to the like effect. Britton, who wrote 
 in the same reign, says — ' There are some who are free in blood, 
 who hold in villenage.'f 
 
 In a large number of manuscript Rentals and Chartularies 
 preserved in the Record Office, and of which some account 
 is given in the Appendix, freeholders, villans, and servi are 
 enumerated as separate and distinct classes. The dates of 
 these documents range from the reign of Edward I. to that 
 of Henry YI. This classification differs somewhat materially 
 from that of Domesday. In that survey, libere tenentes are 
 rarely if ever mentioned as a class. The tenants of an estate 
 are distinguished as bordarii, villani, servi, sochemanni, liberi 
 homines, &c, but not as libere tenentes. This observation is not 
 unimportant. It indicates that free tenants or free holders did 
 not become generally recognised as a distinct class until after 
 the date of Domesday .J 
 
 * P.racton, De Legibus, lib. 2, c. 8. 
 f Britton, 165. 
 
 I It is not to be understood tbat the pliraso liherh tenem was quite unknown 
 when ' Domesday' was written. I have found one or two isolated instances of
 
 ]6 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 As another evidence that freemen held in villenage, I may 
 mention that in the later documents I have found several 
 instances of clergymen who held in villenage. It is quite 
 certain that ecclesiastics could not be in the position of serfs.* 
 Bracton says (lib. 1, c. 6), that one case in which a free man 
 can become a serf is where one who was originally a serf 
 becomes a cleric or monk, and afterwards returns to secular 
 life ; in such case he ought to be restored to his master. 
 
 The villani in the middle ages formed so large a proportion 
 of the country tenantry, that it is very important, for the pur- 
 pose of the present inquiry respecting the agricultural popula- 
 tion, to accumulate information respecting their actual status. 
 In a case respecting villenage reported in the fourth Year-book 
 (a.d. 1369, fol. 5, b. 8), it is stated in argument that ' if a villan 
 be once free he can never again be a villan, notwithstanding he 
 is known to hold as a villan in a court of record. For as he 
 made his services on account of tenure, that will not make his 
 body in slavery ; because in many manors freemen perform ser- 
 vices as neifs f on account of tenure.' This statement is made 
 only in argument, but it is alleged as a matter of common 
 notoriety and is not contradicted. It may therefore be taken 
 as strong evidence of the custom of freemen holding in villenage. 
 The truth .appears to be, that the word villanus, like many 
 similar terms, was in the Middle Ages used in several senses. 
 Sometimes, beyond a question, it refers to persons in a state of 
 bondage. Thus in the ' Mirror of Justices ' — a compilation which 
 has been attributed to the reign of Edward II., and which is, at 
 all events, very antient — it is said that a villan cannot indict a 
 freeman. In the statute 9 Rich. II., c. 2 recites, ' Whereas divers 
 villans and neifs, as well of great lords as of other people, as 
 well spiritual as temporal, do fly within cities and towns and 
 places enfranchised, as the city of London and other like, and 
 feign divers suits against their lords, to the intent to make them 
 free by the answer of their lords : it is accorded and assented 
 that the lords nor others shall not be forbarred of their villans 
 because of their answer in law.' In 1391, the knights of the 
 
 it. Thus, in Warwickshire, at Berdingeberi — Ibi sunt hi. francones homines 
 cum iiii. villanis. Ipsi homines francones tenuerunt libere, T. R. E. 
 
 * In the Coventry Cartulary (12 Hen. IV.), at Offchurch, among the native te- 
 nentes is Thomas Offchurcb, clericus, who holds 'perscriptumdomini ad terminum 
 vita? suae.' At Merston (among native tenentes) John Reynbolde, ' capellanus,' 
 holds a messuage and land, but claims to hold ' libere per cartaui.' At Herde- 
 wyke, John Reynbolde, ' clericus,' holds a messuage and land, and pays 13s. 4d. 
 rent, and certain works which, however, are remitted as long as the lord pleases. 
 
 f Neifs are nativi, or slaves by birth.
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 17 
 
 sliire in parliament complain that there are many villans who 
 fly from their lands into cities and boroughs enfranchised, and 
 pray that they may have liberty to enter and take away the 
 villans, notwithstanding the franchises of these places. 
 
 In these and many other passages which might be cited from 
 ancient authorities, it is obvious that the word ' villan' applies only 
 to bondmen ; but it is equally clear that in the records of the 
 tenantry of estates where a large number of villani are entered, 
 they were not all, nor even generally, in a state of servitude. 
 When they are entered as a class distinct from servi, it seems 
 safe to assume that they were free. 
 
 Reverting now to the synopsis of the population at the time 
 of Domesday, which is given in a former page, we find that 
 after the villans, the next most numerous class are the bordarii, 
 coscets, and cotarii, making together a total not much inferior 
 to the villans. The bordarii, coscets, and cotarii may be safely 
 added together for the present purpose, for they were evidently 
 of nearly the same class. Were they free or serfs ? Innumerable 
 evidences in Domesday and other antient documents prove that 
 they were not universally, nor even generally, of servile condi- 
 tion. In Domesday it is very common to enumerate the villans, 
 bordars, and serfs on particular manors as distinct classes, and 
 most frequently the number of serfs is less than that of the 
 bordars ; for instance, in Norfolk, in the Hundred of Ensfuth, 
 at Hidofestuna, there are said to be twelve villans, twenty -two 
 bordarii, and three servi ; at Helmingham, in the same county, 
 there are said to be four villans, nine bordarii, and not one 
 slave (servus modo nullus) . Sometimes a distinction is expressly 
 made between those who are simply bordarii, and bordarii who 
 are serfs. Thus in the same county, in Lawendic Hundred, at 
 Elmenham, there are said to be forty-one villans, sixty-three 
 bordarii, and four servi bordarii. A number of similar instances, 
 taken at random from various counties, are a ppended in a note ; 
 and the list might be extended almost indefinitely.* 
 
 * (The word ' tunc' refers to the time of Edward the Confessor ; 'inodo,' to 
 the time of the return.) 
 
 Norfolk. — Hundred of Greneshou : Stoffta semper 3 villani, tunc 19 bordarii, 
 modo 15, tunc 4 servi, modo 1. Hundreda de Brodercros : Colechirca, tunc 1 
 villanus, modo nullus. Semper 12 bordarii, tunc 4 servi, modo 2. Hund. 
 de Holt : Tomedis, 40 bordarii, 8 servi. Hund. de Grenehov : Hindringham 
 semper 11 villani, tunc 20 bordarii modo 15, tunc 8 servi modo 7. 
 
 Suffolk.— Ilertesmara, Weringhseta semper 10 villani, 9 bordarii, tunc 4 servi 
 modo 2. Dim. Hund. de Cosforda, Hecham, tunc 30 villaui, modo 30 ; tunc 
 18 bordarii, modo 26 ; semper 8 servi. 
 
 Northamptonshire. — Neveslund Hundred, Werchintonc 10 villans, 8 bordars. 
 3 servi. 
 
 C
 
 18 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 From the examination of this record it is impossible to resist 
 the conviction that serfdom was declining- at the time of 
 the Conquest. When the numbers of serfs at that period and 
 in the time of the Confessor are compared, the number at the 
 later date is almost always the least. 
 
 ' Liberi homines,' says Sir Henry Ellis, ' appears to have been 
 a term of considerable latitude, signifying- not merely freemen 
 or freeholders of a manor, but occasionally including- all the 
 ranks of society already mentioned, and indeed all persons 
 holding in military tenure.' ' The ordinary freeman before the 
 Conquest,' says Kelham, ' and at the time of compiling Domes- 
 day, were under the protection of great men ; but what their 
 quality was, further than that their persons and blood was 
 free — that is, that they were not nativi, or bondsmen — it will 
 give a knowing man trouble to discover to us.' That the liberi 
 homines were not always freeholders, appears from the fol- 
 lowing consideration. The distinguishing characteristic of a 
 freeholder was, that he could sell his land and go where he 
 pleased. But it appears by Domesday that many liberi homines 
 were annexed to particular manors by the command of their 
 superiors. Thus in the description of Essex we read that 
 in Castestuna four liberi homines were added to the manor, 
 after the accession of the king, by his command. Of two liberi 
 homines at Bertune, in Gloucestershire, it is said, ' They cannot 
 separate themselves or their land from the manor.' At 
 Folsham, in Norfolk, the record states that to this manor 
 two liberi homines were annexed (adjuncti) by Radulphus 
 Talibosc. In Suffolk, three liberi homines of the hundred of 
 Wanneforda were added to the manor of Montfort in the time 
 of King William.* ' A certain number of freemen or socmen,' 
 
 Wiltshire. — Land of Ernulf de Heading : Caldefelle 1 serf, 4 bordars. Land 
 of Waleran the Huntsman : Chenete 1 serf, 2 bordars. Langeford 5 serfs, 
 8 villans, 4 bordars. 
 
 Essex. — Hundred of Dommauua (Dunmow) : Estanes 4 villans ; then 3 
 bordars, now 8 ; then 3 serfs, now 2. Canefelda, then 1 priest and 2 villans, 
 now 1 priest and 7 villans ; then 3 bordars, now 17 ; always 2 serfs. Hundred 
 of Tendringe ; Almsteda, then 14 villans, now 13 ; then 31 bordars, now 3G ; 
 then serfs, now 1. 
 
 Surrey. — Land of the Abbey of S. Peter of Certesy (Chertsey). — The Abbey 
 holds in the Hundred of Copedorne (Copthorn), Evesham (Epsom). There 
 are 34 villans, 4 bordars, with 17 ploughs ; there are 2 churches and serfs. 
 Land of Bichard, son of Earl Gilbert (Richard de Tonebrige). The same 
 Richard holds in demesne Tornecrosta (Thorncroft in Letherhead). There are 
 now in demesne 2 ploughs and 5 villans, and 4 bordars with 2 ploughs. There 
 are 9 serfs and I mill of 20 shillings, and 5 acres of meadow. Wood for 1 hog. 
 
 * The references are given in the Introduction to ' Domesday,' pp. 230-7.
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 19 
 
 observes Sir Henry Ellis, ' were necessary to every lord of a 
 manor for holding- pleas of a manor court or soke.' * In another 
 place he shows that in some instances socmen were attached 
 inalienably to particular manors, and had not the rig-lit of 
 removing- from them.f 
 
 Of the other classes besides villans and bordars mentioned 
 in the foregoing 1 synopsis of population, the tenants in capite, 
 under tenants or mesne lords, liberi homines, liberi homines 
 commendati, and sochemanni, were undoubtedly freemen. Their 
 aggregate number is 44,481. So that we have the following 
 result : — 
 
 Free . . . 44,481 
 
 Serfs . . . 25,156 
 
 Mixed. . . 197,339 
 
 Total . 266,976 
 
 The mixed class are the villans and bordars. The incessant 
 mention of them in Domesday as distinct from serfs seems to 
 show that the great bulk of them were free ; but the proportion 
 of the bond to the free cannot now be ascertained with 
 precision. 
 
 Unfortunately we have no record of the agricultural popu- 
 lation at a later period of mediaeval history so complete as 
 Domesday. The Hundred Eolls, however, supply a great mass 
 of interesting information on the subject. Indeed, these 
 valuable records seem to have been somewhat unduly neglected 
 by constitutional writers. They are in several respects more 
 valuable than Domesday itself; for they give more minute 
 accounts of the tenants of manors, and usually record their 
 names and the particular services which they were severally 
 required to perform. The second volume of the Hundred Rolls, 
 which were printed by the authority of the Record Commis- 
 sioners in 1818, is the most convenient for our present purpose. 
 It contains Rolls of Inquisitions of the 7th and 8th years of 
 Edward I., taken by virtue of a commission which directs a 
 survey of villans, bondmen, cotars and free tenants, separately. 
 The inquisition requires a return of the persons ' who hold in 
 demesne as in demesne ; in villans as in villans ; in serfs as in 
 serfs ; in cotars as in cotars ; and afterwards in free tenants as 
 in free tenants ' J — which expression probably means that each 
 
 * Introduction to ' Domesday,' vol. i. p. G3. 
 t Ibid. p. 71. 
 
 j Et qui ea tenant in dominico ut in dominico, in villanis ut in villains, in 
 cotariis ut in cotariis, et postmodo in liberis tenentibus ut in liberis tenentibus. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 of these classes is to be returned separately ; and so the returns 
 are made out. This direction is of itself a valuable piece of 
 information ; for it shows what were the general distinctions of 
 tenants at the period. The expression liberi, or libere, tenentes 
 which is frequent in these Eolls, occurs very rarely in Domes- 
 day, and must therefore have come into general use after the 
 compilation of that record. 
 
 If the same minute enumeration which has been made of the 
 population mentioned in Domesday were made with respect to 
 the Hundred Eolls, we should have some very valuable statistics 
 indicating the changes in the distribution of different classes 
 which occurred in the interval between William I. and Edward I. 
 But this investigation would be extremely laborious. From my 
 own examination of these Rolls I cannot detect any great and 
 marked changes of this kind. In some manors the free tenants 
 and socmen far outnumber the villans, cotars, and serfs. The 
 returns of only five counties — Bedford, Buckingham, Cambridge, 
 Huntingdon, and Oxford are given. In Huntingdonshire, at 
 Gomecestr', in answer to the enquiry, 'What and how much each 
 free tenant per cartam, or free socman or bondus, holds of our 
 Lord the King in capite or per medium, and by what service;' 
 the reply, made rather proudly, as we may conjecture, is — 'As 
 to this they say that they are free socmen, and there is no bond- 
 man among them.' And then follows an enumeration of no 
 fewer than 586 tenants, their names, holdings, and rent or 
 services. The holdings are usually of very small extent. The 
 Prior of Merton has upwards of 70 acres ; but the other tenants 
 have for the most part about four or five acres, and rarely so 
 much as sixteen acres. Many of them have only a rood or two 
 of land. 
 
 There are many instances in the Hundred Eolls in which the 
 libere tenentes are by far the largest class of tenants. In the 
 Hundred of Thame, in Oxfordshire, they are many times more 
 numerous than the others, the custumarii and cotarii. At 
 Stepelaston, in the same county, there are forty free tenants and 
 only two who hold in villenage. At Gamelingeye, in Cam- 
 bridgeshire, forty-three free tenants to nine cotars,. and about 
 the same number of custumarii. But in other places the pre- 
 dominance is the other way. For example, at Northlege, in 
 Oxfordshire, there are mentioned only one free tenant and two 
 ' adhuc libere tenentes,' while there are upwards of seventy who 
 hold in villenage, and forty cotars. But this proportion is 
 very unusual. Possibly, on a minute investigation of the cir- 
 cumstances of different manors, the reasons of the great varia-
 
 SOCIAL ORDER IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 2] 
 
 tions in the distribution of these different classes might in some 
 cases be discovered. 
 
 In the Hundred Rolls we have again abundant evidences that 
 villans and cotars were not generally in a state of servitude. 
 At Scharnebroc, in Bedfordshire, we have an enumeration of 
 cotars * who are not serfs, but hold to farm ' (cotarii qui non 
 sunt servi sed tenent ad firmam) .* At Wallhulle there is a list 
 of upwards of thirty persons who are expressly called free cotars 
 (liberi cotarii) . In Turveya seven ' free cotars ' are mentioned, 
 and they are said to hold in libero cotagio. At Kynebolton, in 
 Huntingdonshire, four free coterells have cottages and pay 
 rents varying from 6cl. to 2s. 6d. per annum. The services of 
 tenants, whether in money or labour, are generally fixed and 
 definite. Sometimes we find an entry that certain villans are 
 under the will of the lords as to their labour and holdings, but 
 the proportion of persons thus dependent is certainly much 
 smaller than at the period of Domesday. 
 
 Much information respecting the distribution of the agri- 
 cultural population at a later period, is contained in the 
 manuscript cartularies and rentals which are preserved in 
 the Public Record Office. Of some of these documents, 
 relating mostly to the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry VI., 
 abstracts are given in the Appendix to this work. They 
 do not show any very marked variation in the relative numbers 
 of free tenants and the other classes. But they indicate 
 very clearly that in the fifteenth century absolute servitude 
 had become rare, and that the land was generally divided in 
 small portions held at fixed rents, either in money or labour or 
 both. In a word, the great bulk of the agricultural population 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were peasant pro- 
 prietors, who were under the obligation of assisting in the 
 cultivation of their landlord's estate, but had a secure legal 
 title to their own holdings. 
 
 * Firma meant sometimes a pecuniary rent for lands &c. let to tenant, 
 sometimes, by a metonymical mode of expression, the land so let, and sometimes 
 the lease or contract of letting. See Spelman, in voc. Firma, where, as an 
 example of the latter meaning, he quotes this passage from Ingulphus Saxon. 
 Hist. Croyl : — ' Nostram esse possessionem non firmariorum reputant el affir- 
 mant, cum adhuc 20 anni de firma illorum restent antequam centum anui 
 concessi .... compleantur.'
 
 22 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COURT. 
 
 Courts of Hundreds and Counties. — Folcmot, 22. — Shire moot at JEijet 'north's 
 stone, 23. — Rank of Thanes, 24. — Shire moot at Cuchamsloiv, 25. — Popular 
 character of these Courts, 26. — Assemblies at Ely, 24. — At Northampton, 26. — 
 At Huntingdon, 27. — At Erith, 28. — At Penendcn Heath, 2d— The Eal- 
 dorman, 30. — Assembly of Bishops, Earls, and Villans of Kent, 32. — J'i/laus 
 present in local assemblies, 34. — Meetings held in the open air, 36. 
 
 From the very commencement of Parliaments knights of the 
 shire were elected in the county courts by the persons entitled 
 to attend there. It is, therefore, necessary to ascertain the 
 constitution of these assemblies, in order to determine the 
 nature of the original county suffrage. 
 
 The enquiry involves considerable difficulties. The informa- 
 tion derived from contemporaneous authorities is frequently 
 obscure and provokingly imperfect. Points of the highest in- 
 terest to us are by antient writers passed over almost un- 
 noticed, as matters of common notoriety. It is only by patient 
 examination and comparison of fragments of knowledge col- 
 lected from many sources that we are able to form any safe 
 conclusions on this subject. Almost every matter connected 
 with the antient constitution of the county courts has in later 
 times become the foundation of a political controversy. Were 
 the suitors — those who owed suit or attendance to these tri- 
 bunals — a numerous or a restricted class ? The question is 
 closely connected with another of more direct interest in 
 later times, Was the county suffrage democratic or oligar- 
 chical? These enquiries involve so much dispute that no 
 assertions on the subject ought to be accepted without the 
 support of direct evidence. 
 
 Before the Conquest the ordinary local administration of 
 justice took place in the courts of hundreds and of counties. 
 The litigant was first to seek justice in the tribunal of the 
 hundred — a division of the county — and from thence he had 
 an appeal to the court of the shire itself.* 
 
 Folcmot was the Saxon name for a general meeting of the 
 people (folc, populus ; gemote, mot, or moot, conventus) . These 
 popular assemblies were frequently held in the open air. Spel- 
 
 * Laws of Onut, § 18.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COURT. 23 
 
 man, in his glossary, observes : — ' It was the antient custom for 
 the people to meet in the open air, and within some military 
 entrenchment, for the sake of safety, and that they might not 
 be drawn into an ambush. There still exist in England many 
 such places in which pleas of counties, rapes, and hundreds 
 are held to this day.' * Sir Francis Palgrave, in his ' English 
 Commonwealth,' has distinguished several localities which are 
 recognised as the sites of antient Folcmotes. In the following 
 account of Anglo-Saxon Councils it will be observed that 
 several of them are expressly stated to have been held in the 
 open air. From the Saxon charters, the medieeval chronicles, 
 and the collection of Saxon laws, we obtain valuable, though 
 not complete, information respecting the practice and pro- 
 cedure of county courts before the Norman era. This informa- 
 tion is of essential importance in an investigation of the 
 county suffrage at a later date. The Saxon institution not 
 merely survived the Conquest, but, as will be hereafter seen, 
 was continued, without any substantial alteration, to the 
 Plantagenet times. Resort to the earlier authorities is, there- 
 fore, a matter, not of choice, but of necessity in the present 
 investigation. They serve to demonstrate much that would 
 otherwise be obscure in the practice of the shire court at the 
 later period, when its machinery was employed for the purpose 
 of electing members of Parliament. 
 
 The celebrated Anglo-Saxon scholar Dr. Hickes,f who was 
 Dean of Worcester in the last century, drew attention in his 
 ' Dissertatio Epistolaris' to various remarkable documents illus- 
 trative of Saxon judicature. One of them relates to a county 
 court held in the reign of Cnut at iEgelnorth's stone, now 
 Aylston, in Herefordshire, and commences to the following 
 effect : — % 
 
 ' Here is made known in this writing that a shire moot sat 
 at iEgelnorth's stone in the days of King Cnut. There sat 
 yEthelstan bishop and Ranig ealdorman, and Eadwine the 
 ealdorman's son and Leofwine Wulfige's son and Thurkil White ; 
 and Toiig Prud came there on the king's errand. And there 
 were Bryning shire reeve and iEgelweard at Frome and 
 Leofrine at Frome and Godric at Stoke and all the thanes 
 
 * ' Glossarium in voce Mallobergium.' 
 
 t Georgii Ilickesii S. T. P. de antiquoe literatures septentrionalis utilitate, 
 sive de linguarum septentrionalium usu Dissertatio Epistolaris. Oxonise, 
 1703, fol. 
 
 X This document is also given in Mr. Thorpe's ' Diplomatarium Anglicum 
 Saxonici ;evi.' London, 1865. 8vo. The translation in the text is that of 
 Mr. Thorpe.
 
 24 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 in Herefordshire. Then came there to the moot Eadwine 
 Eanwen's son and there raised a claim against his own mother 
 to a portion of land namely at Wellington and Cradley. Then 
 asked the bishop who would answer for his mother ? Then 
 answered Tlmrkil White and said that he would if the claim 
 were known to him. As the claim was not known to him three 
 thanes were selected from the moot [who should ride] to 
 where she was and that was at Fauley.'"* 
 
 This record goes on to give a curious account of the manner 
 in which the land was ultimately adjudged to her kinswoman 
 Leofloed, who was wife of Tlmrkil, and concludes thus : — ' Then 
 Thurkil White stood up in the moot and prayed all the thanes 
 to grant to his wife the lands which her kinswoman had given 
 her. And they did so. And Thurkil then rode to Saint 
 iEthelberht's monastery with the leave and witness of all the 
 folk and caused it to be set in a Christ's book.' 
 
 This document is valuable for the information which it gives 
 respecting the constitution of the shire moot. The president 
 is the bishop sitting with the ealdorman and the sheriff of the 
 county. The great body of the members of the court who 
 ultimately adjudicate the land to ThurkiPs wife are the Thanes. 
 This word is used in Saxon documents in various senses. Dr. 
 Hickes translates it in this place liberi homines, freemen. If 
 this translation be strictly correct, it follows that all persons of 
 free condition were members of the county court sitting judici- 
 ally. The material question of the rank of thanes will be 
 noticed hereafter in connection with some other records of the 
 time of iEthelstan. In the remarkable Saxon document en- 
 titled * Rectitudines Singularum Personarum,' f thanes are de- 
 scribed next before villani and apparently rank as the next 
 superior class ; and the taxes to which according to that 
 document they are subject — the reparation of bridges and of 
 fortified places, and assistance to repel invasions, in later times 
 called the trinoda necessitas — are those to which all freemen 
 would probably be required to contribute. But on the other 
 hand, there are some passages in the ' Antient Laws ' which 
 favour the idea that a thane was a person somewhat above the 
 lowest rank of freemen. J The document entitled ' Ranks ' 
 states that if a ceorl or villanus throve so that he had five 
 hides of his own land, and some other qualifications, he be- 
 came thenceforth worthy of ' thane-right.' According to Mr. 
 
 * 'A village five miles from Aylston. Hickes, ubi supra. 
 t ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England/ p. 184. 
 % ' Antient Laws/ &c, p. 81.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COURT. 25 
 
 Keinble's computation of tlie hide, the person thus described 
 would be the possessor of about 150 acres of land.* 
 
 A charter t of the reign of iEthelred, some time before 995, 
 relates to a claim of land brought in the first instance before 
 that king on the application of one claimant Wynfloed and 
 subsequently, at the instance of the other claimant Leofwine, 
 referred to the county court. The king having heard Wynfloed, 
 who produced her title, ' sent forthwith by the archbishop and 
 by those who were there to witness with him to Leofwine and 
 made this known to him. Then he would not [comply] unless 
 it were carried to the shire-mote. And they did so. Then 
 the king sent by Abbot iElfere his brief to the mote at Cuck- 
 hamslow and greeted all the witan who were there assembled. 
 That was iEthelsige bishop and iEscwig bishop and iElfric 
 abbot and all the shire. And prayed and commanded that 
 they should reconcile Wynfloed and Leofwine as justly as might 
 ever seem to them most just.' 
 
 This document is a remarkable proof that the appeal to the 
 county court, even from the king himself, was claimed not as a 
 favour but as a matter of right. Leofwine, upon receiving 
 notice of the title adduced by his opponent, refuses to submit 
 to any adjudication but that of the shire-mote ; and accordingly 
 that tribunal is set in motion by a writ from the Crown. Dr. 
 Hickes comments on the conformity of this procedure with the 
 law of Cnut (sect. 80) . ' And he who has land assured by the 
 witness of the shire, let him have it undisputed during his 
 day and after his day to sell and to give to him who is dearest 
 to him.' 
 
 In the cause in the county court at Cuckhamslow to which 
 we have referred, the persons assembled are said to have 
 included all the shire (eal sio scir). In other records the 
 members of the court are described in still wider terms. In 
 the antient ' Historia Ecclesiee Eliensis,' given in Gale's ' His- 
 torian Scriptores,' and written by a monk of Ely in the twelfth 
 century, J there is a curious account of a lawsuit shortly after 
 the death of King Edgar respecting some land in Northampton- 
 shire, which one Lessius claimed against the Bishop of El}\ 
 The cause was in the first instance heard in London, and after- 
 wards reheard — apparently by way of appeal — in the county 
 
 * Kemble, ' The Saxons in England,' vol. i. p. 109. 
 
 f It is given in the 'Dissertatio Epistolaris ' ; and also in the 'Codex 
 Diplomatious.' 
 
 X Histories Britanicse, Saxonicre, Anglo Danicoe Scriptores XV. ex Vetnstis 
 codd. MSS. Editi Opera Thomas Gale. Vol. i. p. 408.
 
 26 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 court of Northampton, where it is said to have been decided by 
 ' all the people.' The history states that ' eight days after- 
 wards they assembled again at Northampton, and there being 
 congregated the whole province or shrievalty (vice comitatu) they 
 again expounded the said cause before all ; which being ex- 
 pounded and declared, like as it had been previously decided at 
 London, they also at Northampton adjudged. Which being- 
 done, all the people (omuis populus) with an oath on the cross 
 of Christ restored to the bishop absolutely what was his own.' 
 
 The same writer gives numerous accounts of sales of land in 
 the presence of assemblies of Hundreds ; and these meetings 
 seem to have been held occasionally in the precinct of the 
 cathedral. Thus, in an account of land at Staneie (cap. 27) it is 
 stated that Wlstanus, of Dalham, came to Ely, ' and with him 
 many harones, and two Hundreds being collected there towards 
 the north at the gate of the monastery, held plea. Then came 
 to him a certain widow by name iEsunien, and with her came 
 many of her kinsfolk and neighbours, who before them all gave 
 to Wlstan Staneie and the fishery which she had there. Then 
 arose Ogga de Mildenhalle and silence being made he says, 
 " Beloved, I will you to know that I give to S. Etheldryda after 
 my day a hide of land at Cambridge." "Whereupon arose Wlstan 
 and before them all gave to S. Etheldryda the land and fishery 
 of Staneie which the said widow had given him. Then he ad- 
 dressed Ogga, and said to him, " Since, beloved, thou hast 
 begun to reverence the glorious virgin iEtheldryda, delay not to 
 do that which thou art about to do ; that which thou desirest 
 to do is good, but it were better to accomplish it in thy life- 
 time." Which counsel Ogga approving, did as he had said.' 
 In a subsequent chapter of the narrative it is stated that the 
 fishery or pool here mentioned was subsequently for many years 
 let to certain kinsfolk of the widow at a rent of two thousand 
 eels, and that after a time the tenants who held this fishery on 
 lease unjustly took possession of some land of the monastery 
 at Staneie. The dispute was the subject of much litigation. 
 * At length iEgelwine, the alderman at Cambridge, held there a 
 great court of the citizens and people of the Hundreds (placitum 
 civium et Hundretanorum) before xxiv judices under Thorninge- 
 feld, near Maidenburge.' The land was awarded to the abbot, 
 and the lessors were ordered to pay the fish of six years.* 
 
 The references to judicial assemblies are frequent in this 
 history of Ely, and some of them convey valuable information 
 respecting the constitution of the Anglo-Saxon tribunals. A 
 
 * ( Historia Eliensis/ cap. xxxiv.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COUET. 27 
 
 curious account is given of the purchase by the abbey of Ely 
 of land at Bluntesham, from Wlnothus, for thirty pounds. Five 
 pounds were paid to him at Ely, and ' the xxv pounds which 
 remained were paid to him before the King- Edgar and his wise 
 men ; which being done, Wlnothus in their presence delivered 
 Bluntesham to the bishop with a deed.' But afterwards the 
 title of Wlnothus was disputed by one Boge, who asserted a 
 prior title, alleging that the land had descended to him from 
 his grandmother. The narrative proceeds : ' After these things 
 there was assembled the whole county of Huntingdon by Beor- 
 notho the alderman and by Afwold and by iEdric. Forthwith 
 there was a very great assembly. Wlfnoth is summoned and 
 brings with him faithful men, namely all the better men 
 (meliores) of vi Hundreds, and Lessius, now of Ely, produced 
 there the deed of Bluntesham, who being all gathered together 
 they explained the claim and ventilated (ventilaverunt) and 
 discussed the cause ; and the truth of the matter being known 
 they by their judgment took the land from the sons of Bogan. 
 .... Then Wlnoth produced more than a thousand men, 
 that by their oath he might assert his title to that land ; but 
 the sons of Bogan were unwilling to take the oath, and so all 
 determined that Wlnoth should have Bluntesham, and faithfully 
 promised to be his helpers in this matter and to bear witness 
 what they had then done if ever at any other time he or any 
 of his heirs had need. And when all this was done Bishop 
 (Edelwold gave to Wlnoth xl shillings and an armlet worth iii 
 marks because he had labored much in this and was about to 
 go beyond the sea in the service of God.' 
 
 Two instances have been cited of county courts — one at Cuck- 
 hamslow, in Berkshire, and one at Northampton — which decided 
 causes after they had been primarily heard by the sovereign. 
 The following is a remarkable example of the same nature. It 
 shows in a very striking manner the independence of the shire 
 mote ; for in this instance the popular judgment not only re- 
 versed the prior decision in the king's court, but annulled an 
 adjudication in favour of the king himself. It relates to land 
 at Bromley and Fawkham, adjudged to King Eadgar by the 
 royal court in London, and subsequently sold by him for a large 
 sum of money to the Bishop of Eochester. There was ; i prior 
 title set up by iEscwyn, a widow. The record states that after 
 the king's death, 'Bryhtric, the widow's relative, began and 
 compelled her, so that they took violent possession of the land. 
 And they sought Eadwine the ealdorman, who was LUnVs 
 adversary, and the folic, and compelled the bishop to restore the
 
 28 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 books [i.e. the title-deeds] on peril of all his property. He 
 was not allowed to enjoy his rights in any one of the three 
 things which had been given him in pledge by all the leodscipe — 
 neither his plea, his succession, nor his ownership.' * The 
 leodscipe must have been the king's royal court, which, as appears 
 by the context, included the King Eadgar and several prelates 
 and nobles. The writer of the account shows his partisanship 
 by styling the presiding officer of the county court ' God's ad- 
 versary.' The material point is that the jurisdiction of the local 
 tribunal was considered incontestable even in a case in which 
 the king and nobles were interested in disputing it.f 
 
 The county courts, on some occasions of special interest, 
 attracted vast gatherings of people. In the venerable document 
 called the ' Textus Roffensis,' a MS. belonging to Rochester 
 Cathedral, and supposed to have been written about a.d. 1120, 
 there are remarkable accounts of two great assemblies of that 
 kind held in Kent, the one some time before a.d. 988, the other 
 in the reign of William the Conqueror .% 
 
 The earlier instance relates to a great shire-mote held at 
 Erith, in Kent, in which upwards of a thousand persons took 
 part. The subject of adjudication was certain land at Would- 
 ham, given to S. Andrews at Rochester by a devise, the validity 
 of which was disputed by Leofsunu, who had married the 
 widow of a former owner. The will under which the Church 
 of Rochester claimed had been made in the presence of Arch- 
 bishop Dunstan. The Saxon accounts state that ' Leofsunu, 
 
 * l Codex Diplomatics yEvi Saxonici,' No. 1258. This remarkable collection 
 of Saxon charters, published by the English Historical Society, and the Diplo- 
 matarium already cited, are the most important recent contributions of 
 authentic materials for the study of Saxon laws and institutions. 
 
 f Mr. Kemble, in his ' Saxons in England,' commenting on this document, 
 says : ' The matter was brought in the king's theningmanna gemot in London, 
 and there decided in favour of the plaintiff, a bishop. But the defendant was 
 not satisfied, and carried the cause to the shire, who at once claimed jurisdiction 
 and exercised it too, coming to a decision diametrically opposed to the thening- 
 nien or ministri regii. It seems to have been a dirty business on the part of the 
 Bishop of Rochester, and the freemen of Kent so treated it in defiance of the 
 king's court.' Vol ii. p. 46. 
 
 t ' An historical account of that venerable monument of antiquity the Textus 
 Roffensis,' by Samuel Pegge, M.A. (London, 1784, quarto) attributes the book 
 to Ernulf, Bishop of Rochester, who died a.d. 1124. The MS. consists of two 
 parts — the Laws of Anglo-Saxon Kings, and a Register or Chartulary of 
 Rochester Cathedral. An edition of the ' Textus Roffensis,' by Thomas Hearne, 
 was published at Oxford in 1720. 
 
 The passages in the 'Textus Roffensis' relating to the shiremots at Erith 
 and Penenden were noticed as early as 1G5G by Lambard in his ' Perambulation 
 of Kent,' p. 484 and p. 236.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COURT. 29 
 
 through the wife he had taken, Eadric's relict, violated the 
 testament, and contemned the archbishop's witnessing; rode 
 then into the land with the woman without the decree of the 
 witan. When that was made known to the bishop, then the 
 bishop laid claims in all iElfeh's testament at Erith in the 
 witness of iElfstan bishop of London, and of all the convent 
 and of that of Christchurch and of the bishop iElfstan of 
 Rochester and of the shireman, Wulfsige's priest and of Bryht- 
 wald at Mereworth, and of all the East Kentishmen and 
 West Kentishmen. And it was known in Sussex and in 
 Wessex and in Middlesex and in Essex. And the Archbishop 
 with his own oath claimed for God and S. Andrew, with the 
 charters, in Christ's rood, the lands that Leofsunu took to 
 himself. And Wulfsige the shireman on the part of the king 
 received the oath as he [Leofsunu] declined it. And there 
 was a good addition of ten hundred men who gave the oath.'* 
 
 It is apparent from this document that county courts had 
 jurisdiction in testamentary causes. The corresponding Latin 
 account, which also appears in the ' Textus Roffensis,' says, 
 ' The archbishop appointed a day for this plea at Erith ; ' upon 
 which Dr. Hickes, who has given the record in his ' Dissertatio 
 Epistolaris,' observes that the archbishop and similarly the 
 bishops within their jurisdiction had power of summoning the 
 comitia of the counties. f 
 
 The same Rochester manuscript gives a very interesting 
 account of another very remarkable assembly at Penenden 
 Heath in the reign of William the Conqueror. The account is 
 entitled ' A Plea at Pinenden between Lanfranc Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and Odo Bishop of Bayeux.'J Odo, who was a 
 brother of the Conqueror, had been raised to the dignity of 
 Earl of Kent, and subsequently Vice-regent of the kingdom. 
 The record states that he, during the absence of Lanfranc 
 from the realm, unlawfully took possession of various lands 
 belonging to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. On the 
 requisition of the archbishop, ' the king commanded the whole 
 county to assemble together, and that all the men of the county, 
 French-born and especially English, should assemble at one 
 place, who when they were met together at Pinenden all sat 
 equally together. And since many pleas of determinations of 
 lands and discussions respecting the customs of the laws arose 
 
 * This translation is taken from Mr. Thorpe's 'Diplomatarium/ p. 271. 
 t ' Dissertatio Epistolaris,' p. 60. 
 
 J It is transcribed by Spelman in his notes appended to his edition of 
 Eadmer.: 'Eadmeri Mouachi Cantuarensis Ilistoria.' Loudon, fol. 1628, p. L97.
 
 30 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 between the archbishop and the said Bishop of Bayeux, and 
 also between the archiepiscopal and regal customs which could 
 not be finished on the first day, for that reason the whole 
 
 county was detained there three days And by all those 
 
 good and wise men who were there present it was so determined, 
 and also by the whole county recorded and judged, that as the 
 king himself holds his lands free and quiet in his demesne, so 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury holds his lands altogether free 
 and quiet in his demesne. At this plea were present Goisfrid 
 Bishop of Normandy, who was in loco regis, and held his 
 justice ; Lanfranc, archbishop, who, as was said, pleaded and 
 proved the whole ; the Earl of Kent, viz. the said Odo Bishop 
 of Bayenx ; Ernostus Bishop of Rochester ; iEgelric, Bishop 
 of Chichester, a very aged man, and most learned in the laws 
 of the land (who, by the command of the king, was brought 
 there in a carriage to discuss and explain the antient customs 
 of the laws) ; Richard Earl of Tunbridge, Hugo de Mountfort, 
 William de Arces, Haymo the sheriff, and many other barones 
 and other men of other countries also, with the whole of that 
 county, men of much and great authority, Erench-born and 
 English.' 
 
 Penenden Heath, as Lambard observes, lies almost in the 
 middle of Kent, and therefore was very suitable for the assembly 
 of the whole county. He observes ' that the commodity of the 
 situation itself, and the example of this notable assembly, have 
 been the cause that not only the sheriifs use to hold their 
 county courts, but also to appoint the meeting for Knights of 
 the Parliament most commonly at this place.' * It may be 
 added, as a curious instance of the duration of local customs, 
 that the nomination of representatives for the western division 
 of the county takes place at the present day on Penenden 
 Heath. 
 
 It will be observed that in this record the decision is said to 
 have been determined by the ' good and wise men,' and to have 
 been recorded and judged by the whole county. (Et ab 
 omnibus illis probis et sapientibus hominibus qui aff'uerunt 
 fuit ita ibi diratiocinatum et etiam a toto comitatu recordatum 
 atque judicatum.) The difference of phrase with respect to the 
 more learned members of the tribunal and the commonalty 
 clearly shows the different nature of their functions : the former 
 determined the law, the latter judged and recorded. 
 
 Again, in another cause, mentioned in the Textus Roffensis 
 
 * ' Perambulation of Kent,' p. 239.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COUET. 31 
 
 (cap. 91), a dispute between Gundulf Bishop of Rochester and 
 Pichot Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, in the reign of William L, 
 respecting land at Giselham, the cause was referred to all the 
 men of the county. ' The king commanded that all the men 
 of that county (omnes illius comitatus homines) should be 
 assembled, and that by their judgment it should be proved 
 whose the land most rightly ought to be.' 
 
 In the earlier county courts the ealdorman appears to have 
 uniformly acted as a chief officer. The Laws Edgar (II. § 5) 
 have a provision to this effect : ' And thrice a year let the 
 borough gemot be held, and twice a year a shire gemot ; and 
 let there be present the bishop of the shire and the ealdorman, 
 and there both expound as well the law of God as the secular 
 law.' There is a similar provision in the secular laws of Cnut 
 (§18).* Down to the time of the last-mentioned king the 
 internal regulation of the shire, as well as its political relation 
 to the whole kingdom, were under the immediate guidance and 
 supervision of the ealdorman or duke : the scirgerefa or sheriff 
 was little more than his deputy. The new constitution intro- 
 duced by Cnut reduced the ealdorman to a subordinate position : 
 over several counties was now placed one eorl or earl. From 
 that time the king's writs were directed to the earl, the bishops, 
 and the sheriff of the county, and gradually the old title of 
 ealdorman came to denote a very inferior jurisdiction.! In the 
 shire moots held in and after the time of Cnut, the sheriff 
 seems to have frequently sat without the ealdorman. This was 
 evidently the case with respect to the assembly at iEgelnorth's 
 Stone mentioned in a previous page. So also in the great trial 
 at Erith, in which Archbishop Dunstan bore a conspicuous 
 part. Though there is a particular enumeration of persons 
 present, the ealdorman is not mentioned. 
 
 A subject of more immediate importance with reference to 
 the investigation of the parliamentary suffrage of later times, 
 is the presence of the inferior classes in the shire mote. 
 There are strong reasons for supposing that the right to attend 
 that assembly remained in the Norman and Plantagenet times 
 substantially the same as in the Saxon era. There is not the 
 
 * ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England.' 
 
 t Kemble, ' Saxons in England,' vol. ii. chap. 4. The learned author says, 
 -with reference to the Saxon period, 'Gradually the old title ceasea altogether, 
 except in cities.' This, however, is not quite correct. 1 find that it lingered 
 in counties as late as the reign of Edward I. Aldermen of hundreds are 
 several times mentioned in the 'Hundred Rolls' with reference to the county of 
 Sussex. See < Hundred Rolls,' vol. ii. pp. 205, 217.
 
 32 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 slightest trace of any alteration of the laws in this respect, and 
 the legislation after the Conquest proceeds evidently on the 
 assumption that the old institution and its usages remained 
 unimpaired. But the knights of the shire, when parliaments 
 became established, were elected by all persons who had a right 
 to be present in the comity court. Hence it becomes indispens- 
 able, for the purpose of our enquiry, to ascertain who had that 
 right before the Norman period. 
 
 We have very strong evidence that the lowest class of the 
 people of free condition were entitled to be present. A very re- 
 markable document, addressed by the people of Kent to King 
 JEthelstan, referring to Acts passed by his council of Feversham, 
 is entitled in the Latin version, ' Decretuni Episcoporum et 
 aliorum sapientum de Kancia de pace observanda,' and com- 
 mences as follows : * — ' Dearest ! thy Bishops of Kent and all 
 the Thains of Kentshire, Earls and Villans, give thanks to 
 thee, their dearest lord, because thou has been willing to 
 command us to inquire and consult concerning our peace and 
 concerning our welfare, because there is great need thereof to 
 us both rich and poor. 
 
 ' And this we have begun with all the diligence we could, by 
 the aid of those wise men whom thou has sent to us. Wherefore, 
 dearest lord, the first matter is concerning our Tenth, as to 
 which we are very ready and willing, and supplicantly return 
 thee thanks for thy admonition. 
 
 ' The second matter is concerning our peace, which all the 
 people desire to be held as thy wise men have established at 
 Greateley, and as also has now been declared in the council 
 at Favreshani.' 
 
 After other articles specifying various amendments of the 
 laws, the document concludes thus : — 
 
 ' Eighth. That we are all content concerning scutage, 
 as thou has said. 
 
 'We pray, Lord, thy clemency, if in this writing there be 
 either too much or too little, that thou wilt order it to be 
 amended according to thy will. And we are devoutly ready for 
 all things which thou wilt command us, which we by any means 
 are able to fulfil.' 
 
 Mr. Hallam,f conimenting on this document, says : ' The 
 whole tenor of this letter, which relates to the laws enacted 
 at the Witenagemot or grand synod of Greatanlea (supposed 
 
 * ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England.' 
 
 f ' Supplemental Notes to the View of the State of Europe in the Middle 
 Ages ' (London, 1848, 8vo.) p. 229.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COURT. 33 
 
 near Andover), though it expresses approbation of those laws, 
 aud repeats some of them, with slight variations, does not in 
 my judgment amount to a distinct enactment of them ; and the 
 
 final words are not very legislative It is, moreover, an 
 
 objection to considering this a formal enactment by the witan 
 of the shire that it runs in the names of the thaini, comites, et 
 villani. Can it be maintained that the ceorls ever formed an 
 integral element of the legislature in the kingdom of Kent ? ' 
 
 To this question, it may be answered that the effect of antient 
 documents ought to be ascertained from the records them- 
 selves, and not from preconceived notions of what would be 
 proper to be found in them. The ' clecretum,' just quoted, 
 seems free from obscurity. It is distinctly the act of the whole 
 people of Kent, bishops, nobles, and villans. It thanks the 
 king for his permission to enquire into the laws. Then follows 
 a statement that the people have set about this task with 
 the utmost diligence, with the aid of the wise men whom the 
 king had sent to them. The amendments approved are not 
 mere repetitions of those passed by the king's councils at Great- 
 anlea and Feversham, but differ from them very materially in 
 several particulars. The Kentish decree ratifies generally the 
 enactments of those councils, but adds several entirely new and 
 very important provisions. Therefore it must be understood 
 that the will of the people of Kent was expressed independently 
 in this ' decretum.' Indeed, that very title shows that it was 
 understood to be an authoritative act, though expressly made 
 subject to the king's assent. The submission to the royal will 
 in the last paragraph does not amount to more than a recog- 
 nition of the king's right of veto. The same right is recognised 
 in the enacting formula of every bill which passes through 
 parliament at the present day. 
 
 But this is not a solitary instance of villans or ceorls being 
 associated with the higher classes in the administration of public 
 affairs. A document,* addressed to people of Kent, res] 
 ing the confirmation of the liberties of Christchurch, Cantor- 
 bury, commences thus : ' I, Cnut, king, greet Lyfing, archbishop, 
 andGodwine, bishop, andJElmser, abbot, and iEthel wine, shire- 
 man, and iEthelric and all my thanes twelfhynd and twihynd.'f 
 Twihynd is synonymous with villan or ceorl, and the common 
 
 * ' Diplomatarium,' p. "08. 
 
 t 'Twyhynde man; a man whose wer-gi!d was two hundred shillings. This 
 was the lowest class of freemen, otherwise called ceorls? 
 
 Ceorl — -'a freeman of ignoble rank; a churl, twy-hinde man, villauus, illibe- 
 ralia.' — Antient Laivs and Institutes of England: Glossary. 
 
 D
 
 34 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 phrase ' twelfhynd and twihynd,' like the equally common 
 phrase ' earl and churl,' denoted freemen from the highest to the 
 lowest. The charter goes on to confirm the immunities granted 
 to Christchurch by King iEthelbyrht. This instrument is ad- 
 dressed to the county as a formal notification of the grant which 
 the king had made to the archbishop. From the dignity of 
 the parties concerned, and the solemnity of the transaction, it 
 may be supposed that the language of this charter was well 
 considered. As in the ' decretum' of Kent, just cited, the shire, 
 as a body politic, is described as comprising, besides the higher 
 classes, the ceorls or villans. 
 
 In after times, when parliamentary institutions were esta- 
 blished, the practice prevailed for many centuries of sending 
 the statutes at the end of each session to be proclaimed by the 
 sheriff in each county court. A similar practice, but with some 
 material differences, existed among the Anglo-Saxons. After 
 the conclusion of a witenagemot, the reeves carried the chapters 
 down to the several counties and there took the ived or pledge 
 from the freemen that they would abide by what had been 
 enacted.* 
 
 Thus, in the ' Judicia Civitatis Lundoniae,'t passed in the 
 reign of iEthelstan, we find : ' That all the witan gave their 
 pledges [weds] altogether to the archbishop, when iElfeah Stybb 
 and Brihtnoth, Odda's son, came to meet the gemot, by the 
 king's command ; that each reeve should take the wed in his 
 own shire that they would all hold the " frith " [peace] as King 
 iEthelstan and the witan had counselled it.' And at the com- 
 mencement of the same collection of laws it is stated that they 
 were confirmed by the oaths and pledges of all, both earls mid 
 churls (eegther ge eoilisce ge ceorlisce). Thus, the laws were 
 required to be ratified by the pledge and promise of the people 
 of all ranks ; whereas, in later times, nothing of the kind took 
 place with respect to Acts of Parliament; they were simply 
 proclaimed in the county court, as the most convenient way of 
 making them known. But the acts of the witenagemot were 
 considered to acquire force from the oath which the people took 
 to observe them. This is evident from several passages in the 
 Saxon laws. For instance, in the laws of iEthelstan (iii. § 3) we 
 find a complaint ' that the oaths and pledges which were given 
 to the king and his wise men are always broken, and less 
 observed than is proper for God and the times.' In another 
 passage of iEthelstan's laws it is said (iv. § 1) : ' iEthelstan the 
 
 * Kemble, 'Saxons in England,' vol. ii. p. 233. 
 t ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England/ p. 97.
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COUET. 35 
 
 king makes known that I have learned that our peace is worse kept 
 than is pleasing to me or than was ordained at Greatley ; and 
 my witan say that I have borne with it too long. . . . because 
 the oaths and weds and pledges [borhs] are all disregarded and 
 broken which were then given.'* These passages show that the 
 obligation of the people was considered to be founded on their 
 personal consent and undertaking to observe the laws. 
 
 If the popular character of the county court were exceptional 
 and inconsistent with other parts of the Saxon polity, we might 
 regard the evidence which has been adduced on this point with 
 distrust. But other Saxon institutions were equally democratic. 
 The elaborate system of testing a man's fitness for political 
 power by the value of his property was an invention of much 
 later times, and was altogether unsuited to the primitive condi- 
 tion of society before the Conquest. We know that the witena- 
 gemot, or great council, held in the presence of the king, was 
 often attended by a large concourse of the common people. 
 Possibly their share in the actual conduct of legislation was small. 
 Still, their mere presence, and the freedom with which they 
 exercised the right of conclamation, as it has been happily called, 
 tended to restrain unpopular measures. Moreover, the old 
 documents, even those of the highest official character, fre- 
 quently note with evident care and respect the expressions of 
 popular assent; a circumstance which shows that it had its 
 value and effect in the councils of the nation. 
 
 Among other examples of the presence and influence of the 
 populace in great Saxon councils, the following may be cited. 
 The deposition of Sigeberht is stated to have taken place in a 
 convention of the proceres and populus, the chiefs and people 
 of the whole realm. According to Henry of Huntingdon this 
 was not a tumultuous proceeding, but the deliberate, orderly act 
 of a regularly constituted assembly. ' Whereas King Sigebert 
 was a man of incorrigible pride and wickedness, in the second 
 year of his reign the chiefs and people of the whole realm met, 
 and by careful deliberation and unanimous consent of them all 
 he was expelled from the realm.' f It must be observed, how- 
 ever, that Henry of Huntingdon lived long after the events 
 
 * Referring to the ' Judicia Civitatis Lnndoniae ' above cited, Sir Francis 
 Palgrave says : ' Legislation was the prerogative of the sovereign and his witan. 
 Still the mode of accepting the statutes, and of carrying thorn into effect, 
 depended upon the deliberations of the hurghmot and the discretion of its 
 members.' — English Commonwealth, part i. chap. 21. 
 
 p 'Henrici Huntindoniensis Hist. lib. iiij. Rerum Anglicaruin Scriptorea 
 post Bedarn/ p. 100. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 wliicli lie narrates, and therefore his statement has not that 
 authority of contemporaneous evidence which attaches to the 
 various Saxon documents cited in this chapter. 
 
 Thus, by a charter of iEthelstan,* a gift of land by the king 
 to his officer iElfwald is made at Winchester in a general 
 assembly of the people (tota populi generalitate) . Another 
 charter of the same king grants certain lands which had 
 escheated by the felony of the former owners ; and it is stated 
 that, ' By a most just judgment of the whole people and of the 
 seniors and chief men, it was taken away from those who had 
 been possessors of it because by manifest crime of robbery they 
 had been found deserving of death. And therefore it was 
 decreed by the whole people that the conveyance which they 
 held of those lands should be cancelled.' Here a distinction is 
 drawn between the people and the chief men ; they are described 
 as the two classes composing one national body. Another 
 charter of iEthelstan records a meeting of the witan at Abingdon 
 and a grant, to the abbey, to which all the people (' populus,' 
 ' folc ') assented, exclaiming, ' So be it ! Amen, amen.'t 
 
 From such examples it is abundantly proved that the Anglo- 
 Saxon councils were frequently attended by large multitudes of 
 people, including those of the lowest class. The popular cha- 
 racter of these assemblies was in a great measure due to the com- 
 mon practice of holding them in the open air. We have already 
 referred to some instances in which county courts and other 
 general meetings were so held. In various parts of the country 
 there are places which, by their names and traditions, are shown 
 to have been the sites of these gatherings. But the most illus- 
 trious example is Runemed, the scene of King John's great 
 charter. Matthew of Westminster describes the convention 
 which took place on that occasion as follows : — ' In the same 
 year a very great consultation was held between the king and 
 barones concerning the peace of the realm between Stanes and 
 Windsor, in a meadow which is called Bruneined (which is in- 
 terpreted the meadow of council), because from antient times 
 councils were held there concerning the peace of the realm.' J 
 
 * ' Codex Diplomaticus,' No. 364. 
 
 t ' Codex Diplomaticus,' No. 374 and No. 1129. For the references in this 
 paragraph and others in this chapter 1 am indebted to Mr. Kemble's work ; hut 
 I have consulted the authorities cited, and dealt with them in my wn way. 
 
 X ' Flores Ilistoriarum per Mattlieeuni Westmonasteriensem Collecti (in anno 
 1215).' The name of this meadow is variously spelled in different copies of 
 Magna Charta, Euningmed', Runigmed', and Ronimed'. See ' Blackstone's 
 Law Tracts,' Magna Charta, xxiii. 
 
 ' Some call this place Runemede, which if it be the true name, then was it
 
 THE SAXON COUNTY COUET. 37 
 
 Sir Francis Palgrave has strongly insisted on the important 
 practical effect of these open-air assemblies in keeping alive the 
 popular spirit of our antient institutions. He observes that, ' by 
 assembling in the open air, the suitors of the hundred and the 
 shire courts retained an importance which they would have lost 
 had they been confined within the limits of the Moot-hall ; and 
 it is not too much to assert that the present influence of the 
 great body of the people is in a great measure derived from the 
 mode and manner of their meeting. William the Conqueror, 
 by enacting a law like the capitulary of Charlemagne, would 
 have more effectually checked the growth of the influence of 
 the English people than by erecting all the massy dungeon- 
 towers whose ruins are yet frowning over the land. If, instead 
 of causing the men of Kent to assemble on the wide Heath of 
 Penenden to witness the discussion of his pleas, he had com- 
 manded those who were selected and chosen to testify on behalf 
 of the county to meet in the speech-house of Canterbury, the 
 election of knights of the shire would now at this day be made 
 by a close corporation.' 
 
 This conclusion somewhat exceeds the premisses; but it cannot 
 be doubted that the practice of holding assemblies in unenclosed 
 places must have had a very material influence upon the Saxon 
 constitution and principles of government. That influence has 
 continued to our own times. What part of our present political 
 system is so thoroughly democratic as the nomination of mem- 
 bers of Parliament at the hustings in the presence of a promis- 
 cuous gathering of the people ? For centuries the parliamentary 
 elections were determined by show of hands at these meetings, 
 which were open to all comers.* In the assemblage on the 
 
 so called of this consultation ; for Runan in the Saxon speaclie (which was not 
 then so muche forgotten) signifies to consulte or talke together, which word is 
 not yet cleane gone, for we say that Men rounde together when they whisper 
 or talke softelye one to another.' — Lambarde's 'Alphabetical Description of the 
 Chief Tlaces in England and Wales.' Lond. 1730, 4to. p. 304. 
 
 Run, 1. A letter, magical character, mystery. 2. Council, meditation, con- 
 sultation, conversation. — Bosworth's 'Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.' 
 
 Lambarde, it will be seen, conjectures that Runemede was so called from 
 the consultation between John and the Barons. Matthew Paris, on the contrary, 
 states that the name was received from more antient councils. We do not know 
 his authority for this statement, and therefore cannot determine with precision its 
 historical value. But at all events, it is not probable that a name so purely Saxon 
 as Runemede was given after the Conquest ; and the Convention between John 
 and the Barons conclusively shows that when it was signed, the name of Rune- 
 mede was well known. The articles are dated 'in the meadow which is 
 called Runingmed/ 'Datum per manum nostrum in prato quod vocatur 
 Runingmed.' 
 
 * I consider this point very material in an investigation of the character of 
 
 -z u. . a - < > - ~ J
 
 38 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 liill-side or unenclosed common or open heath scrutiny of voters 
 would have been impracticable. The Anglo-Saxon local courts 
 were equally accessible ; and we have the direct evidence of 
 coeval documents, that they were in fact attended by large 
 numbers of persons of all ranks, who expressed their opinions 
 upon the business submitted to their consideration. This con- 
 clusion is of the utmost importance in determining the nature 
 of the county court when it became the arena of parliamentary 
 elections. 
 
 the autient suffrage. What we now call 'nominations' were formerly the 
 elections, and are still so regarded in law. Until the time of Henry VI. there 
 was no scrutiny of votes; and long after that period election by the 'view' 
 or 'show of hands' was common. It will be shown hereafter that the right 
 to a poll of the voters was not thoroughly established until the time of the 
 Stuarts.
 
 39 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 
 
 General administration of Justice, .°>0. — Manorial courts, 89. — Sheriff" 's turn, 40. — 
 Coroners' 1 Presentments, 40. — Freeholders not the only suitors, 4i'. — County courts 
 held periodically, 42. — Nature of a general summons, 44. — Persons exempt 
 from attendance, 45. — Juries, 40. — Coroners elected, 40. — Business of county 
 court, 47. — The court held commonly in an edifice, 43. — Evidence that viUans 
 were present, 49. 
 
 The general character of the judicature under the Norman and 
 Plantagenet kings was as follows : — There was, in the first 
 place, a multitude of courts of lords of manors and other 
 great personages all over the country, which took cognisance, 
 sometimes only of minor causes, sometimes of the highest 
 crimes. But these peculiar courts, numerous as they were, 
 must be considered exceptions to the ordinary course of justice, 
 which was regularly administered in the courts of Hundreds, 
 the sheriff's Turn, the county court, and, above all, by the 
 king's justices, the judges in eyre, or the judges of assize. 
 
 Courts of peculiar jurisdiction were not unknown in the 
 Saxon era, but they were enormously multiplied after the 
 Conquest, and must have had a very great effect upon the 
 social condition of the people. The ordinary manorial courts 
 had jurisdiction merely of questions arising between the tenanl s 
 of the manors. But besides these there were numerous isolated 
 tribunals, hi which either by charter or prescription or, as was 
 sometimes the case, by unwarranted assumption, the barons 
 and others had cognisance of crimes and misdemeanours, and 
 not unfrequently of capital offences. The number of these local 
 jurisdictions is shown by the circumstance that the Articles of 
 Inquiry, the answers to which are recorded in the ' Hunt In <! 
 Rolls,' direct, among other things, a return of particulars respect- 
 ing the persons who claim to hold pleas and to enjoy royal fran- 
 chises, such as the right of gallows, and other prerogatives of 
 the Crown. From almost every page of the ' Hundred Rolls ' it 
 appears that the gallows were set up in thousands of places 
 throughout the country, and that the owners of estates claimed 
 the right to use them.* 
 
 * Of tlu- arbitrary power frequently assumed by local potentates, there are 
 
 some remarkable instances in the 'B Ired Rolls.' Thus in the return for the 
 
 Hundred of Bradeley, Gloucestershire, the following statement occurs (vol.
 
 40 AXTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Iii contradistinction to these peculiar or privileged courts, 
 the regular tribunals — that is, those of hundreds and counties, 
 and of the king's justices in eyre or the judges of assize — wee 
 royal courts, because they belonged to the ordinary administra- 
 tion of justice. The law distinguished between the suit or 
 service which a man owed to the peculiar jurisdictions, and that 
 due to the king's tribunals. 'Suit real,'' or 'suit royal,' is that 
 ' which by common law is due to the sheriff's turn or leet, which 
 are courts royal or king's courts ; and to these courts all men 
 of the age of twelve years or above shall be compelled to come 
 in person to learn and know the laws.' This suit is due, not 
 for their lands which they have or hold, but only ratione dd 
 resiancie del person, by reason of their dwelling within the 
 hundred. Suit to the county court is also a suit royal, and due 
 within the county. But suit-service, such as is owed in a 
 baronial court, is by reason of tenure.* 
 
 We have here the distinct authority of two old text writers 
 of deservedly high repute in favour of the position that 
 suitors in the county court were not freeholders merely, and 
 that the obligation of attendance there depended on resiancy 
 or residence, and not on the tenure of land. The counter theory 
 that such suitors were exclusively freeholders has been frequently 
 maintained by later writers, though upon what authority I have 
 been unable to discover. I believe this theory, and the 
 inference from it that knights of the shire were originally 
 elected by freeholders only, are without any real foundation. 
 The attention of the reader is particularly directed to the 
 authorities hereafter cited with reference to this controverted 
 point. 
 
 Britton, whose treatise of English law was written in the 
 reign of Edward I., and purports to be put forth by that king's 
 authority and in his name, thus speaks of the jurisdiction of 
 the county courts : — ' In counties we have a two-fold court : one 
 of the pleas of our peace, which is held by our coroners and 
 the suitors, and of which the coroners only have record. We 
 have also a court of the nature of a court-baron, in which the 
 
 p. 179) : — 'John Essewy, bailiff of Stoutr', held a certain court at Stoutr', and 
 when certain of the suitors opposed him in the said court, he caused the doors 
 to he shut, and by armed men whom he privily procured, slew three of the 
 suitors, namely Ranulf Richer, John Freeman, and Thomas de la More.' 
 
 On the same page, in the return for the Hundred of IJerhurst, it is stated 
 that Gilbert and Walter Scot, bailiffs of the Earl of Gloucester, 'lately took a 
 certain man with five egg*, stolen as they alleged, and caused him to be decapi- 
 tated without trial.' 
 
 * 'IMton on Sheriff,' p. 45. Finch, booh ii. chap. G.
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 41 
 
 suitors are judges, and have no record out of their court except 
 by consent of the parties. . . . We have also one court there, 
 with the sheriff of the county for our justice, whensoever we 
 command our sheriffs by our writs that for the purposes of 
 justice they cause any plaint to be brought before them, whereof 
 the sheriff with the suitors bears record ' (et dunt le viscounte 
 ove les sutiers portent record).* 
 
 In another chapter f he says: 'In county courts also before 
 our sheriffs and the suitors, and in hundred courts, and in 
 courts of freemen (en courtz des fraunces homines), pleas of 
 trespass and debt may be pleaded without our writs, simply hj 
 gage and pledge, provided that neither the goods taken away 
 in trespass nor the debt demanded exceed forty shillings, except 
 trespass of mayhems and wounds and imprisonment, and 
 batteries committed against our peace. For we will that no 
 one have cognisance or jurisdiction to hold pleas of such com- 
 plaints, nor other trespasses for goods carried away beyond the 
 value of forty shillings, or of debts exceeding the same sum, 
 without our writs, which writs shall sometimes be pleaded in 
 the county courts and in franchises, unless removed therefrom 
 by our precept, and sometimes elsewhere before our justices. 
 And we will that great trespasses be pleaded before ourselves.' 
 
 From the same author it appears that the coroners had a 
 very important and extensive jurisdiction in enrolling criminal 
 accusations which were to be ultimately determined before the 
 justices in eyre. In every county there was to be a coroner 
 who was elected by the commons of the county, and it was 
 his duty not merely to make inquests in cases of death, but 
 also ' we will that when any felony or misadventure has 
 happened, or if treasure be found underground and wickedly 
 concealed, and in case of rape of women, or the breaking of 
 our prison, or of a man wounded near to death, or of any other 
 accident (aventure) happening, that the coroner do speedily, 
 as soon as he is informed of it, give notice to the sheriff and 
 the bailiff of the place that at a certain day he cause to 
 appear before him at the place where the accident happened 
 the four adjacent vills, and others if need be, whereby he may 
 enquire of the truth of the casualty. And when he is come 
 let him swear the vills upon the Holy Evangelists that they 
 will speak the truth of such articles as he shall demand of 
 them on our behalf.' J 
 
 The coroner was required 'to make enrolments of appeals 
 or accusations of felonies, of the death of a man ; ' and also 
 
 * Britton, liv. i. ch. 28. t Ibid. liv. i. ch. 29. $ Liv. i. chap. 2.
 
 42 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 ' to do the like in appeals of rape, robbery, larceny, and in 
 appeals of every kind of felony.' These were subsequently 
 heard before the justices in eyre. 
 
 The foregoing 1 extracts from Britton afford valuable informa- 
 tion respecting the nature of the county court in his day, and 
 the position which it occupied with reference to the general 
 administration of justice. Everything written on this subject 
 by authors of the time of Edward I., or shortly before or after 
 that time, deserves careful consideration, because that is the 
 period in which persons attending the county courts were first 
 constituted electors of knights of the shire. 
 
 The treatise which bears the name of Eleta is shown by 
 Seldon* to have been compiled in the reign of Edward I. Fleta 
 expressly states that the suitors at the sheriffs' turns and views 
 of frankpledge were not only the freeholders, but also the free 
 men. He says that the county court was to be held from month 
 to month ; the sheriff's turn was to be held in each hundred 
 twice a year — once after Easter and once after Michaelmas. The 
 articles of enquiry at the view of frankpledge, which was taken 
 at the Michaelmas turn, included enquiries respecting felonies, 
 misdemeanours, nuisances, concealments of crown rights, &c. 
 The persons whose duty it was to make these enquiries were 
 the capital pledges f (capitales plegii), or heads of decennse, who 
 among other things discharged functions similar to those which 
 in later times devolved upon grand juries. ' When the capital 
 pledges have answered distinctly to these articles, reliance is to 
 be placed not merely on their verdict, but also on the verdict 
 and oath of twelve freemen, who upon the aforesaid indictments 
 and concealments shall be charged to declare the truth. Nor 
 can they be excused from that oath by any exemption except 
 the king's writ, for on that day no exemption is allowed, because 
 it is granted to all who have the liberty of frankpledge that 
 their free tenants or other free men suitors to their views shall 
 make oath in the turns and views, notwithstanding any royal 
 mandate, or shall be heavily amerced for contempt, because that 
 is the king's day and was ordained in favour of the peace.' 
 From this passage it appears that the duty of acting as jury- 
 men at the turns and frankpledges was universally incumbent 
 on all free men, and that any neglect of that duty was punishable 
 by fine. The turn was, as Fleta emphatically styles it, the 
 
 * ' Ad Fletam Digsertatio,' chap. 10. 
 
 f The ' capitales plegii' were the head men of each deeenna, and were also 
 called 'head borows,' or ' horsholders ' (borg, the decennal pledge, and alder, 
 elder, or chief). — Spelman, Glossarhun, in voce Borsholder.
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 43 
 
 king's day — a general review by the men of the hundred of 
 offences against the peace of their community. Fleta states 
 further, that the persons presented as offenders by this jury 
 are to be committed to custody, except where the alleged 
 offences are bailable, in which case they are to be released on 
 bail. 
 
 From some curious entries which I have found in the i Hun- 
 dred Rolls,' and which may be conveniently inserted here, it 
 would appear that the capital pledges acted as constables. In 
 the return for the Hundred of Anesford, in the county of Sussex,* 
 the following complaint of contempt of the sheriff's authority 
 is recorded : ' Whereas a certain Roger le Whyte taken by the 
 king's writ at Cudelawe for a certain robbery was delivered by 
 the sheriff to the capital pledge of Cudelawe and four other men 
 to be taken to Gudeford to be there imprisoned ; Walter Sewale 
 and several others by the command of the steward of Arundell 
 took the said capital pledge with the said four men so convey- 
 ing the said Roger and imprisoned them in the castle of Arun- 
 dell for eleven days until each of them gave the same steward 
 two shillings for his release.'f The following return for the 
 Hundred of Duddestan, Gloucestershire, is of the same cha- 
 racter. ' The headborow (decennarius) of Abilade and his 
 decenna were conducting a certain Walter de la Hoke to the 
 castle of Gloucester to prison and the burgesses of Gloucester 
 took away the said prisoner from them by force and W. de 
 Booking undersheriff took from the said headborow and decenna 
 one marc' % 
 
 The antient statutes contain various provisions respecting 
 county courts, and are of course the most authentic sources of 
 information on the subject. Under the Saxons and by the laws 
 compiled in the reign of the Conqueror (as we have seen, ante, 
 p. 11), shire motes were held twice a year. But besides these, 
 there were lesser assemblies held monthly. By the laws of 
 Edward the Elder (sec. 11) ' I will that each reeve have a gemot 
 always once in four weeks.' The Magna Charta of John does 
 not refer to the times when county courts are to be held, but 
 the Magna Charta of 9 Henry III. provides (c. 24) that the 
 
 * * Hundred Rolls/ vol. ii. p. 214. 
 
 t The steward and bailiffs of Arundell Castle -were evidently not in favour 
 among the neighbouring population. One of the complaints in this return is 
 that, 'when the sheriff holds his turn, the said steward will not allow any 
 secrets to be told the sheriff apart from him.' Another is, that 'when anj 
 capital pledge comes before the bailiff with his cap on (indutus capucio), he 
 immediately amerces him.' 
 
 t ' Hundred Rolls/ vol. i. p. 181, col. 1.
 
 44 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 county court shall be lield from month to month, except where 
 a greater interval is customary ; and the Sheriff's turn in every 
 hundred at Easter and Michaelmas. At the Michaelmas turn 
 the view of frankpledge is to be held. 
 
 Additional light is thrown on this enactment by one of the 
 documents printed in the first volume of the e Authentic Edition 
 of the Statutes,' and, more recently, in the ' Royal and other 
 Historical Letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III.'* 
 This document is a writ from the crown to the sheriff of 
 Lincoln, and bears date 18 Henry III. (a.d. 1234). A trans- 
 lation of the principal contents of this little known record 
 will be acceptable on account of its importance with reference 
 to our subject. ' The king to the sheriff of Lincoln greeting. 
 Because we have heard that you and your bailiffs and also 
 bailiffs of others who have hundreds in your county, do notunder- 
 stand in what manner the hundred and wapentake ought to be 
 held in your county, after that we have granted to all of our king- 
 dom the liberties contained in our charters which we did while 
 we were under age ; we have caused the same charter to be lately 
 read in the presencef of the Lord of Canterbury and the greater 
 and more worthy (sanioris) part of all bishops, earls and barons 
 of our whole realm, in order that in their presence and by them, 
 the clause contained in our charter of liberties might be ex- 
 pounded ; viz. that no sheriff or bailiff should make his turn 
 through hundreds except twice in the year and only in the 
 proper and accustomed place namely once after Easter and 
 again after Michaelmas, without occasion.' The writ goes on 
 to direct, in accordance with the advice of this council, ' That 
 between the said two tnrns, there shall be held the hundred and 
 wapentake courts and also the courts of great men (magnates) 
 every three weeks, where formerly they were held once a fortnight. 
 So, however, that at such hundreds, wapentakes, and court there 
 shall not be a general summons as at the said turns ; but at those 
 hundreds, wapentakes and courts shall assemble the complain- 
 ants and their opponents and those who owe suit ; by whom let 
 the pleas be held and judgments given, unless it so happen that 
 at those hundreds and wapentakes inquisition should be made of 
 pleas of the crown ; as of the death of man, of treasure trove, 
 
 * Edited by the Rev. Walter W. Shirley, and published by the authority of 
 the Lords of the Treasury. 8vo. 1862. Vol. i. p. 450. 
 
 f 'A Colloquium met at Westminster April 1234; the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and other prelates and barons being present. The Archbishop 
 threatened to excommunicate the king unless he altered his courses. The king 
 assented to their demands.' — Parry's Parliaments, p. 30.
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 45 
 
 or the like. At which inquiries let there assemble with the said 
 suitors the four nearest villates, namely all of those vills who 
 are necessary to make those inquisitions.' 
 
 By the provisions of Merton made shortly after this regula- 
 tion, namely 20 Henry III., it was provided (c. 10) that every 
 . free man* (liber homo) who owed suit to the county court 
 trithing, hundred, or wapentake, or to the court of his lord, 
 might freely appoint his attorney to make those suits for him. 
 This law had an important effect on the constitution of the 
 local courts. By virtue of it, lords of manors, as will be here- 
 after seen, very commonly did suit in the county court by their 
 stewards or other agents. 
 
 The provisions of Oxford, made in the year 1258 (42 Hen. III.), 
 show that at a very early date villans were admitted to an 
 important share in the administration of justice. One of 
 these provisions, cited in Fleta (lib. i. c. 18), regulated the 
 inquisitions to be taken periodically respecting murders, 
 felonies, treasure trove, and other matters ; and directed 
 that the presentments, which were to be subsequently de- 
 livered to the justices in eyre, should be sealed by each of 
 the jurors, and enrolled by the coroners. 'And if in the 
 said vills, half vills, and hamlets, any deficiency be found 
 whereby the inquisitions cannot be taken sufficiently by free 
 men only, then let there be joined to them some of the more 
 discreet and lawful villans having seals' (de discretioribus et 
 legalioribus villains sigilla habentibus). 
 
 The duty of making these inquisitions and of performing the 
 offices required in the sheriffs' turns devolved upon the middle 
 and lower classes of the laity. The Statute of Marleberge, or 
 Marlborough (52 Hen. III. a.d. 1267), exempts prelates, lords, 
 and 'religious ' men and women from the necessity of attending 
 sheriffs' turns, unless their presence was required there for any 
 cause specially (ch. 10). Another section of this statute relates 
 to the special exemptions which individuals obtained by charter 
 from being empanelled in assizes, juries, and inquests. With 
 respect to such persons it is enacted, ' That if their oaths be so 
 requisite that without them justice cannot be administered . . . 
 they shall be compelled to swear, saving to them at another 
 time their foresaid liberty and exemption.' The ' Hundred Rolls ' 
 contain numerous references to exemptions by charter from 
 attendance at the county courts. 
 
 * Every 'free man' — not free tenant, be it observed. The phrase 'liber 
 homo' is evidently used in this Act of Parliament us a nomen generalis&imum, to 
 include the whole clasa of suitors in the county court.
 
 46 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 The Statute of Marleberge regulates in an important parti- 
 cular the general periodical inquisitions of sheriffs and coroners, 
 to which reference has been frequently made in the preceding 
 pages. The legal age for entering the decenna was twelve years, 
 and all persons in the decenna were, as we have seen, generally 
 liable to attend these inquisitions. But the obligation was so 
 far relaxed that, if a sufficient number to make up the juries 
 attended, the rest were excused ; with this proviso, that the 
 exemption did not extend to inquests for the death of man. The 
 statute provides (sec. 24) that ' The justices in eyre from hence- 
 forth shall not, on their circuit, amerce villates (villatas),* 
 because all being twelve years old come not before the sheriffs 
 and coroners to make inquiry of robberies, burnings of houses, 
 and other things pertaining to the crown ; so that there come 
 out of those villates sufficient men by whom such inquests may 
 be fully made. Except inquests to be made of the death of 
 men, where all of twelve years ought to come unless they have 
 reasonable cause of absence.' 
 
 In the next reign several additional provisions were made 
 respecting the constitution of juries. By "6 Ed. I. c. 11, the 
 inquests taken by the sheriff in cases of homicide were to be 
 taken by lawful men chosen by oath, of whom two shall be 
 chivalers at least (prodes hommes esluz per serement dount les 
 ii serrent chivalers f a meins). By 21 Ed. I. stat. 1, it was 
 enacted, ' that within the county before justices of our lord the 
 king or other ministers assigned to the taking of any such 
 inquests, juries or other recognisances, none shall be empanelled 
 except he have land or tenements to the yearly value of forty 
 shillings (nisi habeat terras vel ten' ad valentiam quadraginta 
 solidorum per annum ad minus).' In some printed collections of 
 the statutes at large this statute is entitled ' What freehold 
 lands jurors must have,' but there is not a word about freeholds 
 either in this, or, so far as I have been able to discover, in any 
 other antient enactment respecting the qualifications of jurors. 
 
 The coroners were chosen in full county court. By 18 Ed. III. 
 c. 6, affirming the old law on the subject, ' all coroners of the 
 counties shall be chosen in full county court by the commons of 
 
 * ' Villata,' the community or population of a vill. — Spelman, in Voce J'illata. 
 
 •f" The word ' chivaler,' and the equivalent Latin word ' miles,' were used in 
 the middle ages with great latitude to denote persons of very different grades. 
 Sir Henry Ellis, in his Introduction to Domesday (vol. i. p. 58), has shown 
 that the appellation sometimes applied to soldiers merely, sometimes to persons 
 of higher rank ; and he gives various instances from Domesday in which 
 milites were classed with inferior orders of tenantry.
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTEE THE CONQUEST. 47 
 
 the same counties (par les communes de meismes les contees), 
 of the most meet and most lawful people that shall be found in 
 the said counties to execute the said office.' When chosen, 
 they were required to take oath in the full county court before 
 the sheriff that they would duly execute their office.* 
 
 In very early Saxon times the sheriffs appear to have been 
 elected by the people in full county court, f The statute 
 28 Ed. I. stat. 3, cap. 8, has the following clause : — ' The king- 
 hath granted unto his people that they shall have election of 
 their sheriffs in every shire (where the shrievalty is not in fee) if 
 they list.' The exception in this enactment relates to one or 
 two counties in which the shrievalty was a freehold or hereditary 
 office. In other places this statute gave or restored to the people 
 the power of choosing sheriffs. But in 9 Ed. II. this popular 
 election was abolished by the ' statute of sheriffs,' and the choice 
 of those officers was assigned to the chancellor, treasurer, barons 
 of the exchequer, and justices. 
 
 The business done in the county court was of an exceedingly 
 miscellaneous character. We have already seen that it had cog- 
 nisance of debts and demands not exceeding forty shillings, and 
 of petty assaults and trespasses. Proclamations of outlawry 
 were made in this court. Fugitive villans might be recovered 
 by process there, except when they pleaded that they were 
 freemen, in which case the cause was remitted to the king's 
 justices.J Titles to land might in certain cases be tried in the 
 county court by ' writ of right. '§ For a long period after the 
 establishment of parliaments, the practice prevailed of sending 
 the statutes of each parliament to the sheriffs to be proclaimed 
 in the county court. In that assembly not only were .knights 
 of the shire elected, but also many local officers. For example, 
 in several instances, as will be shown in the next chapter, the 
 sheriffs were directed to convene the assemblies of their counties 
 
 * Britten, chap. i. sec. 2. 
 
 ■)■ Mr. Kemble (' Saxons in England,' vol. ii. p. 165) thinks the office of 
 sheriff was in the earliest periods elective, but that subsequently 'the scirgerefa 
 was nominated by the king with or without the acceptance of the county court.' 
 
 There is a passage in the Charter of John (nos non facienms justiciaries con- 
 stabularies vicecomites vel ballivos nisi de talibus qui sciant legem regni et 
 earn bene velint observare) which favours the idea that in his reign sheriffi 
 were appointed by the Crown. Probably the usage was not uniform. In the 
 Hundred Rolls (temp. Ed. I. vol. i. p. 50) it is said that King John, by a 
 charter, gave to the county of Cornwall the right of electing its sheriffs, but 
 that the right had been subsequently usurped by Richard, Earl of Cornwall. 
 
 I (ilanville, ' De Legibus,' lib. v. chap. 1. 
 
 § Bracton, lib. \. chap. •').
 
 4S ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 to elect assessors and collectors of parliamentary grants. Again, 
 by the Act 9 Ed. II. stat. 2, it was directed that the execution 
 of sheriffs' writs should be made by ' hundredors ' known and 
 sworn in the full county court. In the same place were assessed 
 the wages of knights of the shire.* The practice in this respect 
 began with the very commencement of parliaments. The 
 method of assessing these wages is described in detail in the 
 statute 23 Hen. VI. c. 10, which directs the sheriff to make 
 open proclamation that the coroners, chief constables, bailiffs, 
 and ' all others who wish to be present at the assessment of the 
 tvages of the knights of the shire ' shall be present at the next 
 county court for the purpose. This passage, as we shall here- 
 after more particularly show, goes far to prove that the county 
 court was open to all who chose to attend it. 
 
 It is not unimportant to observe that the Saxon practice of 
 holding shire-motes in the open air was not generally followed 
 in the thirteenth century. At that period meetings for the 
 ordinary transaction of business seem to have been held in 
 buildings appropriated for the purpose, and only when the 
 attendance was unusually large the county court was held in 
 the open air. One or two very early instances of edifices 
 appropriated to the court are extant. Thus in the ' Hundred 
 Rolls ' for the county of Norfolk there is a curious entry that 
 the servants of the sheriff i demolished, took away, and sold the 
 houses of Simon le Waleys de Atlebrigg, and converted his 
 dwelling into a building in which the pleas of the county are 
 held.'f At Oxford, in the reign of Edward I., the county court 
 was held at the manor-house there. This appears by a writ to 
 the following effect : — ' The king to the Sheriff of Oxford 
 greeting. We command you that you deliver to Francescus 
 Accursius or his order, on production of this writ, the Manor 
 of Oxford to dwell in, with his wife and household, during our 
 pleasure. But we will not that you on account of this fail to 
 
 * There is a curious illustration of the way in -which this business was 
 managed in the record (Madox, 'Firma Burgi,' p. 101) of a suit by William de 
 Goldington against the sheriif of Westmoreland in the Exchequer in 2 Edward II. 
 The plaintiff claims ten pounds for his wages as knight of the shire in two 
 parliaments. The sheriff answers, that in the next county court, after the 
 receipt of the writ for these wages, 'he caused it to be determine:! what and how 
 much the said William should have for his said expenses. After a discussion 
 had thereupon between the said William and the men of the community 
 of the said county, the same men granted him forty shillings for his expenses, 
 with which the said William at that time held himself well contented.' The 
 plaintiff denies the compact, and demands a jury. 
 
 f < Hundred Rolls,' p. 528. .
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER TUG CONQUEST. 4<J 
 
 liold the county court in the hall of the said inanor on the 
 appointed days.'* 
 
 There are abundant proofs in the ' Hundred Rolls ' that villans 
 and other classes of tenants besides freeholders were required 
 to attend the county courts, the sheriffs' turns, and the courts 
 of the justices in eyre, in the reigns of Henry III. and 
 Edward I. This point has been much contested, and it will 
 therefore be desirable to state rather minutely some of the 
 evidence with reference to it which is to be found in those rolls. 
 
 These documents contain returns to inquisitions made in 
 various counties respecting the rights of the crown, the 
 administration of justice, and kindred subjects. It was a 
 function of the justices in eyre to inquire respecting escheats, 
 usurpations of rights of the crown, oppressions and frauds of 
 the king's officers, and unlawful assumptions of jurisdiction. 
 The justices in eyre delivered in charge to a jury of twelve men 
 of every hundred certain articles of inquiry called ' Capitula 
 Itineris.' f These were not always the same, but varied from 
 time to time. The ' Annales de Burton ' give the form of the 
 inquisitions in various counties in 1254, and again in 1255 
 (39 Henry III.). The latter are apparently those to which 
 returns are given in the ' Hundred Rolls ' of that date. There 
 are extant on the patent rolls writs (39 Henry III.) addressed 
 to the officers of various counties, announcing that the king 
 had assigned certain justices to take the inquisitions, and re- 
 quiring that due assistance should be rendered to them for the 
 purpose. J 
 
 * Selden's < Dissertatio ad Fletam,' p. 526. 
 
 | Bracton, fol. 116. Fleta, lib. i. chap. 19. Both Bracton and Fleta give a 
 large number of such articles of inquiry. 
 
 X This writ, which does not appear to have been hitherto printed, is in the 
 Record Office, and is as follows : — 
 
 Pat. 30, II. 3. m. 9d. 
 , . ("Hex omnibus Ballivis et fidelibus suis in comi- 
 Deinquisitionibusfaciendis | tatibus Notingh > De rb' Eborum Northumbr' 
 
 Cumberl' Westmerl' et Lancastr' salutem. Sciatis quod assignavimus dilectos 
 et ELdeles nostros Henricum de Bathonia et Ricardum de Shireburn' ad inquisi- 
 tionea faciendas de juribua et libertatibus nostris in comitatibus prsedictis el qui 
 sectas debent ad comitatus illos et ad curias nostras in eisdem comitatibus et 
 qui subtraxerunt se ab hujusmodi sectis faciendis sine waranto et ad inquirendum 
 similiter de custodiis castrorum nostrorum et de omnibus ad castra ilia pertinen- 
 tibus et de statu boscorum parcorum haiarum et forestarum nostrarum in comi- 
 tatibus prsedictis. Et de omnibus aliis quae utilitati nostras et regni nostri 
 maris viderint expedire. Et ad extendendum prsedictos comitatus et omnia 
 maneria et dominica nostra in eisdem comitatibus et omnia proficua ad castra 
 
 E
 
 50 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Of the inquisitions of the reign of Henry III. only a few- 
 are preserved. The great part of the ' Hundred Rolls ' is occupied 
 by returns of the next reign — that of Edward I. — taken, not 
 by the judges in eyre, but by special commissioners appointed 
 in the second and seventh years of that reign respectively. The 
 'Patent Rolls' give thirty -five articles of inquiry by the commis- 
 sioners appointed 2 Edward I. 
 
 By a laborious examination of these documents I have been 
 able to discover much valuable information respecting the 
 constitution of the antient shire courts and other tribunals. 
 One of the principal articles of inquiry by the commission of 
 2 Edward I. was ' respecting antient suits, customs, services, and 
 other things withheld from our lord the king and his ancestors, 
 who have withheld them, and from what date ; and who have 
 appropriated to themselves such suits, customs, services, and 
 other things belonging and customarily due to our lord the 
 king, and from what date, and by what warrant.' Another 
 article is ' respecting those also who have franchises granted to 
 them by the kings of England, and use them otherwise than 
 they ought to do, and from what date, and in what manner.' 
 
 The replies frequently show what were esteemed to be the 
 ordinary obligations of attendance in the courts of justice. 
 The following are entries with respect to the attendance of 
 villans :— 
 
 Norfolk, Hundred de Lodningges : ' The Abbot of Langele 
 withholds all his tenants, as well free as villans (omnes tenentes 
 suos tarn liberos quani villanos), from the leet of our lord the 
 king in Carleton, from the sheriff's turn, and even from coming 
 before the king's justices in eyre.' (' Hund. Rolls,' vol. i. p. 541, 
 col. 2.) 
 
 Norfolk, Henstede : 'The king's earl marshal, lately deceased, 
 withheld certain suits due from the tenements of certain of 
 his villans to the said hundred every three weeks.' (lb. p. 536, 
 col. 1.) 
 
 Norfolk, Happinge : Warinus de Monte Canis' withheld ( all 
 his tenants, as well free as others, from the sheriff's turn, and 
 so does now William his son.' (76. p. 528, col. 2.) 
 
 Norfolk, Smethedon : ' The villans of the Countess of 
 Arundell in Snetisham hold certain land from which suit is 
 prsedicta pcrtinentia. Et ideo vobis mandamus in fide qua nobis tenemini quod 
 prsedictis fidelibus nostris cum ab eis requisiti fueritis diligenter intendatis et 
 assistatis ad expeditiouem omnium prsedictorum prout vobis plenius injunxerint 
 ex parte nostra Ita quod diligentiam vestram debeamus merito commendare. 
 In cujus etc. Teste liege apud Wodestok' xxij. die Junij [a.d. 1255]. 
 
 Similar letters patent for other counties are enrolled concurrently.
 
 COUXTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 51 
 
 due to that hundred, but that suit is omitted because the 
 countess, to whom the hundred belongs, will not distrain the 
 viUcms to make that suit.' (lb. p. 522, col. 2.) 
 
 Gloucestershire, Kiftesgate : ' The Sheriff of Gloucestershire 
 and Walter de Bockyng' required four attendances at the 
 hundred of Kiftesgate, where they were never wont nor ought 
 to come except twice a year. And he hath amerced as well 
 freemen as customary tenants (tarn liberos quam consuetos), if 
 they came not at each of his summonses.' (lb. p. 173, col. 2.) 
 
 Lincolnshire, Manle : ' The Abbot de Bupe produces a 
 charter of King Richard, which witnesseth that the aforesaid 
 land is quit of all custom. And the twelve [jurors] testify 
 that the said land hath been quit of all custom since the making 
 of the said charter, except that the tenants of the abbot, as 
 well free as villans, come to the turn of the bailiwick, and also 
 to make presentments.' (lb. p. 339, col. 2, in notis.) 
 
 Norfolk, Strephain, &c. : ' The villans of Lord Warinus de 
 Montecaniso were wont to give fourpence a year to the suit of 
 the hundred of our lord the king, and are withdrawn from the 
 time when our lord the king granted his charter to Lord 
 Warinus, father of the said William.' (76. p. 470, col. 1.) In 
 explanation of this entry it should be noticed that the sheriffs 
 were entitled to remuneration for holding the turn. By a 
 charter* of 2 Henry III. a.d. 1218, it was provided that the 
 sheriff should ' be content with that which the sheriff was wont 
 to have for taking the view in the time of King Henry our 
 grandfather.' 
 
 Nottingham, Bingham : The land of the Prior of Thorgarton, 
 ' and the tenants of the same, as well free as others, were wont 
 to be rateable (geldabiles) generally, and to make suit to the 
 wapentake of Bingham.' (Vol. ii. p. 318, col. 1.) There is an 
 entry to the like effect with respect to this place, ib. p. 27, col. 1. 
 
 Salop, Munselawe : John de Stepelton ' holds Feldhamton 
 in villenage, and does not make suit to the county or hundred, 
 nor give stretwarde and motfeh.'t This is from the 'Hundred 
 Eolls' of Henry III. (vol. i. p. 71, col. 1), and is a return to 
 the article respecting rights and franchises withheld from the 
 
 * 'Statutes of the Realm' (authentic i dition), vol. i. p. 18. 
 
 f 'Stretwarde' is several times mentioned in the ' Collection of Saxon Laws.' 
 In the laws of William the Conqueror the word is translated de viarum eustodiu — - 
 the keeping of highways. 'Of every hide in the hundred four men shall be 
 found for stretwarde from Michaelmas to Martinmas.' ' Motfeh' possibly 
 means the fee of the moi or folcmot. In the ' Hundred Rolls' there is an appa- 
 rently analogous word : ' letefe' — ' ij d. annul redd' qui vocatur letefe'quod Uex 
 habere consuevit.' Vol. i. p. 516. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 AXTIEXT PAKLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 crown. John de Stepelton is returned as a defaulter for not 
 making snifc to the county court in respect of the land which 
 he holds in villenage. If such land were always exempt from 
 such suits it would obviously have been superfluous to notice 
 his non-attendance at the comity court. 
 
 It is impossible to resist the inference from the passages just- 
 cited, that in parts of the kingdom widely distant from each 
 other villans were expected to take a share with their neigh- 
 bours in the ordinary administration of justice. It must be 
 remembered also that the returns were made under the super- 
 intendence of commissioners who were versed in the law and 
 would not have entered villans as defaulters if the law exempted 
 them. 
 
 We now turn to a different class of entries in the ' Hundred 
 Rolls,' those respecting the quota or complement of men sent 
 from different districts to the different courts of justice. From 
 a passage in Britton already cited, it appears that four men and 
 a prepositus, or foreman, for every vill were bound to attend the 
 justices in eyre. One of the articles of inquiry made by the 
 justices on their circuits was respecting defaulters in this respect, 
 and it is obvious from the form of the inquiry that the four 
 men and the prepositus were not free tenants."* The vills which 
 did not duly send their contingent of men were punishable by 
 fine. Thus, the villate of Brewes in 13 Richard II. was fined 
 half a mark ' because four men and a prepositus were not pre- 
 sent before John Holt and his companions justices of our lord 
 the king assigned for gaol-delivery. 'f 
 
 A similar practice existed with reference to attendance at the 
 sheriffs' turns. Of this, numerous instances might be cited 
 from the ' Hundred Rolls,' but the following will suffice. Essex, 
 Tendringes : ' Four villans and a prepositus of the homage of 
 the villate of Appelford in Alesford were wont to come to the 
 sheriff's turn' (vol. i. p. 163). Cambridgeshire, Witlisford : 
 ' The freemen of Witlisford and four men and a prepositus 
 were wont to come to the sheriff's turn' (lb. p. 55). 
 
 Lastly, it appears that the four men of each vill had to 
 
 * 'Item si omnes libere tenentes et iiij homines et prepositi de singulis villis 
 veniant ad summonicionem sicut precept' furint.' — Hundred Rolls, vol. ii. p. (>7 . 
 'De libere tenentibus et aliis hominibus utrum veniant ad sum" sicut preceptum 
 est.' — Ibid, p. 04. A similar article of inquiry is given in the ' Annales de 
 Burton' (published by authority of the Master of the Rolls), p. 331. 
 
 f Madox ' Firma Burgi,' p. 65. Half a marc seems to have been a common 
 fine for such defaults. In the 'Hundred Rolls' of Edward I., vol. ii. p. 263, it 
 is said that the whole of Berton paid half a marc ' pro defalta coram justic' 
 jtiiierantibus.'
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 53 
 
 attend tlie county court to make presentments there. Thus, 
 with reference to Newark, Nottinghamshire, it is returned that 
 ' The presentments of the crown were made in the county 
 court by the four nearest vills and by four men of each vill. If 
 they do not all come, they are amerced in the county court, 
 whereas they ought * to be amerced only before the justices 
 itinerant, and so they have a double penalty' (vol. ii. p. 29). 
 
 It was part of the duty of the coroner to cause the present- 
 ments to be made in the county court of appeals or prosecutions, 
 and articles of the crown, and of these the sheriff kept a counter 
 roll. (Fleta, lib. i. c. 18.) The author expressly states that 
 villans were to be included among the persons making these 
 presentments if there were not a sufficient number of freemen 
 for the purpose. 
 
 Attendance at the county court wai, as was stated in a pre- 
 vious page, a suit royal due, not by reason of tenure of particular 
 lands, but on account of residence of the j)ersons liable in the 
 district. Still, there is abundant evidence that particular lands 
 were bound by custom or by the conditions on which they were 
 originally granted to send suitors to the court. For example, in 
 the following instance, it is quite apparent that obligation was 
 regarded as one which attached locally to a particular place. 
 Buckinghamshire, De-la-Mewe : Of four hydes of land in Merse 
 in the feud of Neuport, the jurors say, ' we believe that it ought 
 to make suit, because two hydes at Thorneberge which are of 
 the same feud make suit' (vol. i. p. 28). 
 
 It is material to observe that the same classes of persons are 
 constantly mentioned as liable to do suit both in the hundred 
 and in the county. The evidence that villans were required to 
 attend the hundred courts is copious, and therefore when we 
 find that two kinds of service are regarded as due from the 
 same persons, the inference arises that the villans did suit to 
 the county court also. The following examples will sufficiently 
 show the force of this argument. Hereford, Welbetr' : ' The lord 
 of the park (haya) of Hum was wont to make suit to the coxinty 
 and hundred together with the men of the said vill' (1 '11 mid. 
 Rolls,' p. 186). Here the same persons are described as liable 
 to do service in both kinds of courts. But the following passage 
 is still stronger to the same effect. Cambridgeshire, Stanton : 
 ' The whole feud (totum feoudum)f owes one suit of the county 
 
 * By -52 Henry III. c. 18, amercement for default of common summons was 
 to be by the justices itinerant only. 
 
 t Totum feoudum debet j sectam comitatus et hundredi pontagium et 
 auxilium vicecomitis per annum iij s. et pro visu franciplegii ij s. per annum pro
 
 54 AXTIENT PAKLIAMENTABT ELECTIONS. 
 
 court and hundred, pontage and aid of the sheriff four shillings, 
 and for the view of franckpledge two shillings, for which two 
 shillings all free tenants of that feud, namely those who hold 
 land, shall go twice a year to the sheriff's turn, and one villan 
 of the homage of Ralph de Tounii and one villan of the homage 
 of Robert de Caldamo similarly shall go to two turns for the 
 whole feud, and all the rest holding or not holding land shall 
 remain at home.' 
 
 This entry alone appears decisive of the controversy respect- 
 ing attendance of villans in the county court. The passage cited 
 shows that the suit to that court from this feudal territory was 
 due from the whole of the inhabitants without distinction ; 
 but that the suit to the sheriff's turn was rendered by a limited 
 number of them in the name of the rest, namely all the free 
 tenants and two villans. It appears also from the context of 
 this entry that there were in this feudal territory a large 
 number both of free tenants and villans. 
 
 The rule as to attendance at the various courts differed in 
 different places. Sometimes only part of the tenants of a 
 manor, sometimes all the tenants, were bound to do suit. These 
 diversities of practice were due to causes which, for the most 
 part, are now unknown ; but we know that many lords obtained 
 by charter special immunities and exemptions for their tenants ; 
 and in other instances the like privileges may have been ob- 
 tained by arrangement or gradual encroachment. The ' Hundred 
 Rolls ' in several places seem to draw a distinction between 
 general suits and those of a more limited kind, which did not 
 extend to the whole body of tenantry of particular localities. 
 For instance, at Hertesmere, Cambridgeshire, ' Nicholas de 
 Wynton has a certain holding in Mendlesham, for which he 
 ought to make two general suits yearly to the county court, and 
 one entire suit to the aforesaid hundred (duas generales sectas 
 per annum ad comitatum et unam integram sectam ad predic- 
 tum hundr,' vol. ii. p. 193). The same person is said to hold 
 other land, ' which land owes two general suits to the county 
 court, and an entire suit to the same hundred.' (Ibid.) In the 
 Hundred of Resbrygge, in the same county, i eight men of the 
 nomage of John le Butiler, in Stokes and Boxham, who ought 
 to do suit in the said hundred, have withdrawn their suit to 
 
 quibus duobus s. ornnes liberi tenentes istius feoudi scilicet qui terrain tenont 
 ibimt bis in anno ad turnos vicecomitis et unus villanus de liomagio Iladulfi de 
 Tounii et unus villanus de bomagio Roberti de Cadomo similiter ibunt ad duos 
 turnos pro toto feoudo et omnes alii terrain tenentes et non tenentes remanebunt 
 ad domum. — Hundred Rolls, vol. ii. p. 461, col. 2.
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTEE THE CONQUEST. 55 
 
 two general hundreds annually' (vol. ii. p. 195). There are 
 several other references in the same page to 'general hundreds.' 
 
 These expressions apparently relate to the cases in which all 
 the tenants of particular places are liable to summons. In a 
 preceding page of this chapter a writ of Henry III. has been 
 cited, which directs that at ordinary hundred courts there shall 
 not be a general summons, as at sheriffs' turns, but only the plain- 
 tiffs, defendants, and those by whom the pleas are to be tried. 
 Bracton says, with reference to different kinds of summonses, 
 that some are general and some are special. ' A general sum- 
 mons is that which affects a whole body (universitatem), as all 
 of a county or all of any city, borough, or town on account of 
 anything which concerns the whole body ; as the general sum- 
 mons which is made before the eyre of justice and the like.' * 
 The word 'generalis,' applied to suits and summonses, had 
 therefore a technical meaning. Applying the meaning given 
 by Bracton to such a passage as that just cited (' which land 
 owes two general suits to the county court yearly' — (2 'Hun- 
 dred Rolls,' p. 193), it follows that the whole body, or universitas, 
 of tenants of that land were suitors to the county court. 
 
 In the following extracts from the ' Hundred Rolls ' we have 
 decisive evidence that the whole of the tenantry of various large 
 estates were bound to attend the county courts. 
 
 Nottingham, Bersetelaw : — i The honor of the castle of 
 Tychillf has two turns yearly of all its tenants within the wapen- 
 take of Bersetelaw, from the time of our lord King Henry, 
 father of our lord the present king, who gave that franchise to 
 our Lord Edward, his eldest son, and those two turns are 
 worth 100 shillings yearly. Nevertheless the tenants of that 
 honor answer with Bersetelaw of all things pertaining to the 
 crown and to the county court, and before the justices. And also 
 of the same wapentake, the soke of Dunham has two turns 
 yearly of all its tenants . . . and all the tenants of that soke 
 answer with Bersetelaw of all things touching the crown and 
 the county court and before the justices. And also of the same 
 wapentake the honor of Lancaster has two turns yearly of all 
 its tenants, from the time when that barony fell into the hands 
 of our lord King Henry . . . Nevertheless all tenants of that 
 franchise answer with Bersetelaw of all things touching the 
 crown, and to the county court, and before the justices. And of 
 
 * Bracton, lib. v. cap. G. 
 
 t It appears by the context that the castle of Tychill, in the county of York, 
 had territories in different counties and wapentakes, and the answer here is 
 confined to the territory within the wapentake of Bersetelaw.
 
 56 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 the same wapentake the Earl of Lincoln has two turns yearly 
 of all his tenants, from what time we do not know, and by what 
 title we do not know, and those two turns are worth half a 
 marc, and nevertheless they answer with Bersetelaw of all things 
 touching the crown and to the county court and before the 
 justices.' (Vol. ii. p. 301, col. 2.) 
 
 Here is a distinct statement that the whole of the tenantry 
 of four territories — those parts of the wapentake of Bersetelaw 
 which belonged to the honor of Tychill, the soke or liberty of 
 Dunham, the honor of Lancaster, and the estate of the Earl of 
 Lincoln — had their own separate turns, but were liable with 
 the rest of the wapentake to attend the county court. 
 
 Landowners availed themselves extensively of the law which 
 permitted them to do suit by attorney. We find repeated in- 
 stances of this kind in the ' Hundred Bolls.' For example, at 
 Duthiirtoii, in Salop, ' the lord of the isle is Ralph Pincerna, 
 and he pays suit to the county and hundred by his steward ' 
 (Senescallum, vol. ii. p. 56, col. 2). In the same county Ralph 
 de Butiler is lord of Wemme, and 'makes due suit by his 
 steward to the county and hundred for the whole of bis barony.' 
 (Ibid. p. 58.) Many other instances of the same kind occur; 
 but it is not to be inferred that the stewards of great baronies 
 appeared on behalf of all their lord's tenants. 
 
 That the attendance of stewards and bailiffs of manors did 
 not supersede that of the tenantry, is clearly shown by the 
 following passage from Eleta. Referring to certain proceedings 
 promoted in the county court for purposes of extortion, he 
 says : ' If it be necessary to plead in the county court, there is 
 danger that such stewards may be guides of the judgments 
 of the court, as a herdsman's horn of a herd, and strive to 
 oppose the person compelled to plead, and to obtain unjust 
 judgments, since they can do this without risk of corporal or 
 pecuniary punishment, because they are not suitors of the 
 county; for although the county may be amerced for false 
 judgment, that will be no hurt to themselves.' 
 
 He then goes on to refer to an enactment which is evidently 
 the following (3 Ed. I. c. 33) : ' It is provided that no sheriff 
 shall suffer any barretors or maintainers of quarrels in their 
 shires, neither stewards of great lords nor other, unless he be 
 attorney for his lord, to make suit, nor to give judgments in 
 the county courts, nor to pronounce the judgments, unless he 
 be specially required and prayed by all the suitors and attorneys 
 of suitors which shall be at the court.' 
 
 From this passage it is obvious that stewards of estates i've-
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 57 
 
 quently sat in the county court with others over whom they 
 were apt to exercise a commanding influence — presumably the 
 tenants of those estates. 
 
 In a few instances the names of villans attending the county 
 court are specially given. In the list of the ' nativi ' of the 
 Prior of Ware, at Cherleton, Oxfordshire, occurs the name of 
 William Wyd, who holds of the same prior a virgate of land, 
 ' for which the said William owes suit to the court of the said 
 prior every three weeks, and is bound to the prior to two general 
 work days (precaria) in the autumn, with all his household, 
 except himself and his wife, and the same William owes suit 
 throughout the year to the fourth hundred and fourth county 
 court ' (vol. ii. p. 830). So in the list of ' villani,' at Seldeswelle, 
 Oxfordshire, ' John the son of William of Seldeswelle holds two 
 virgates of land for seven pence a year of the same Nicholas, 
 and owes two attendances at the hundred of our lord the kino- 
 at Poch, and to two county courts every year.' (Id. p. 837.) 
 
 Of the diversities of practice in different counties many in- 
 stances have been noticed in the foregoing pages. The follow- 
 ing is a final specimen. With reference to the hundred of East 
 Grenstead, Sussex, it is stated that the barony of Aquila pays 
 ' to the sheriff's aid 91. 17 s. 6d., for which the baron and milites 
 of the whole barony are quit of suit to the county court, except 
 the aldermen of the hundreds who do suit for the hundred' 
 (vol. i. p. 205). In another hundred, Rutherebrugg, of the 
 same county, it is stated that there is a bedell who is called 
 alderman, and that at one time he used to be ' elected by the 
 scottors of the hundred.' The electors of these representatives 
 in the county court must therefore have included villans, for 
 persons of that condition certainly contributed to the scot of 
 the county. 
 
 As to the suitors at the sheriffs' turns and before the justices 
 in eyre, we have direct and repeated testimony that villans 
 were included among such suitors. The suits to these tribunals 
 and to the county courts are repeatedly mentioned in conjunc- 
 tion as if there were no difference between them ; and it would 
 require strong evidence to overcome the antecedent improbabi- 
 lity that in the inferior court a higher qualification of jurors 
 was required than was deemed necessary in the suj>erior court. 
 The county court in the time of Henry III. and Edward I. had 
 only a very limited jurisdiction, relating to petty offences and 
 suits involving disputes about small sums of money not exec. <1- 
 ing forty shillings. The judges in eyre dealt with matters of 
 life and death, and determined the rights of the crown and
 
 58 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 claims to estates and property of the greatest value. We have 
 abundant unimpeachable evidence that the jurors on these more 
 important issues included men of the villan class. Is it not 
 excessively improbable that in the inferior court of the county, 
 and there alone, a superior class of jurors ivas required? 
 At all events it would require strong proof to warrant such a 
 conclusion. But not a particle of such evidence is known to 
 exist. No writer appears to have been able to adduce from the 
 antient authorities any evidence that the liability to do suit 
 in the county court at the period in question was confined to 
 freeholders. Those who affirm that proposition content them- 
 selves with unsupported assertions or the citation of authors 
 later than the reign of Henry VI., when the constitution of 
 county courts for electoral purposes was altered by statute. 
 
 Again, it is quite clear that during the Saxon period the 
 shire mote was attended by the free population generally. The 
 right of all freemen to attend that assembly is stated iu the 
 most general terms. If, then, a great change was made in this 
 respect after the Conquest, some positive law would have been 
 necessary to effect it. But in the numerous references to the 
 county court in the great charters and enactments of the Nor- 
 man and earlier Plantagenet kings, nothing of the kind occurs. 
 On the contrary, those laws clearly show that the spirit and 
 general character of the popular Saxon institutions were studi- 
 ously respected. 
 
 These general considerations would, if there were no positive 
 evidence one way or the other, render it highly probable that 
 the attendance in the county court was an obligation extending 
 to the whole free population. But there is also strong positive 
 evidence to the same effect. We have seen several instances in 
 the preceding pages in which particular vills, or the inhabitants 
 of particular vills, are spoken of generally as suitors. The persons 
 making presentments of the crown in the county court included 
 vilians. In one case we find it made a special matter of com- 
 plaint a gainst a tenant ' in villenage,' that he neglects to attend 
 the county court. In other cases such suits are said to be due 
 from a ' whole feud,' or from the ' tenants,' the ' men,' or e all the 
 tenants ' of particular estates. The generality of these expres- 
 sions is quite inconsistent with the restriction of the liability in 
 question to one class of tenantry exclusively. The theory which 
 favours that restriction is of modern origin, and those who 
 support it do not cite any authorities in support of their opinion. 
 After patient examination, I have not discovered any warrant 
 for it in our laws or antient documents. On the contrary, the
 
 COUNTY COURTS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 59 
 
 evidence collected in this and the preceding chapter appears to 
 amply justify the conclusion that the obligation of attendance 
 in the county courts was not confined to freeholders, and that 
 those tribunals were open assemblies to which the whole of the 
 free population had right of access.
 
 CO 
 
 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE OEIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS."* 
 
 The regal councils after the Conquest not merely feudal, 60. — The Constitutions of 
 Clarendon, 61. — Provisions of Joint's Magna Charta respecting a council, 64. — ■ 
 Councils of Sen. III., (jG. — Earliest Representation of Boroughs, 68. — Parlia- 
 ments ofEdw. I, 69. — Taxation of villuns to parliamentary grants, 71. — Control 
 of the Commons over taxation, 77. — Parliaments of Edw. II., 82. — Elections in 
 the County Courts, 83. — By the l men of the whole county,'' 86. — Wages of 
 members of Parliament, 88. — Villans contributed to this charge, 89. — Parlia- 
 ments of Edward III. and Richard II, 91. — Representation of boroughs regulated 
 by statute, 95. 
 
 If there be any date in early English history which above all 
 others deserves to be implanted in the memory of Englishmen, 
 it is the year 1265, the forty-ninth year of the reign of Henry 
 the Third. Historians and antiquarians are agreed in referring 
 to that epoch the earliest parliament of lords, knights, citizens, 
 and burgesses. Before that time, indeed, there had been held 
 many great councils of the nation, but none, so far as extant 
 records show, in which the counties and boroughs of England 
 were represented together. 
 
 In the reigns of William the Conqueror and his immediate 
 successors councils were frequently convened, and were attended 
 by the principal men of the kingdom — bishops, abbots, earls, 
 and barons. According to the feudal polity, the free tenants 
 of every lord were bound to attend the court of their superior, 
 and by the same rule the king's immediate tenants were bound 
 to attend his court. Thus, the regal councils immediately after 
 the Conquest bore a resemblance to feudal courts ; but they 
 also bore an equally strong resemblance to the assemblies of 
 great men under the Saxon kings. There seems no sufficient 
 reason why we should consider either the Saxon Witenagemot 
 
 * In tlie perusal of this chapter it will be sometimes convenient to refer to 
 the following table of dates of the accession of several of the kings after the 
 Conquest : — 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 William I. . 
 
 1066 
 
 Edward I. . 
 
 . 1272 
 
 William II. 
 
 1087 
 
 Edward II. 
 
 . 1307 
 
 Henry I. 
 
 1100 
 
 Edward III. 
 
 . 1826 
 
 Stephen 
 
 1185 
 
 Richard II. 
 
 . 1877 
 
 Henrv II. 
 
 1154 
 
 Henry IV. . 
 
 . 1399 
 
 Richard I. . 
 
 1189 
 
 Henry V. . 
 
 . 1412-8 
 
 John . 
 
 111)1) 
 
 Henry VI. . 
 
 . 1422 
 
 Henrv III. . 
 
 1216 
 

 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. CI 
 
 or the feudal court-baron as the sole prototype of councils 
 summoned by William I. It has been assumed by some mo- 
 dern writers that these meetings were solely and essentially 
 feudal. The only evidence on which this theory rests is the 
 provision in the ' Constitutions of Clarendon,' to be noticed 
 presently, requiring those ecclesiastics who were tenants of the 
 crown to attend the judgments of the king's courts in respect of 
 their baronies. But this obligation extended only to judicial pro- 
 ceedings, and would not involve their presence in consultations 
 respecting affairs of state and the general government of the 
 country. It is scarcely worth while to form any theory respect- 
 ing William's motives in seeking the advice of the chief men 
 of the kingdom. Probably he was influenced partly by the 
 obvious prudence of such a cause, which has been common in 
 all ages and kingdoms, and partly by respect for Saxon tra- 
 ditions, and especially for the example of Edward the Confessor, 
 for whose memory he professed great respect. 
 
 The ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer ' attributes the origin 
 of national councils and parliaments after the Conquest exclu- 
 sively to the feudal polity, aud indefatigably pursues this theory 
 to very minute consequences, some of which are, as will be 
 shown hereafter, contrary to historical truth. The writers sup- 
 pose our Norman forefathers to have been the slaves of a self- 
 imposed system, and to have upheld it in season and out of 
 season, and often at the expense of their own judgment and 
 interests. 
 
 The councils convened by the Conqueror ordinarily at Easter, 
 Whitsuntide, and Christmas acted rather in an administrative 
 than in a legislative capacity. In one of them, held in the 
 fourth year of his reign, he confirmed the ' Laws of King Edward 
 the Confessor,' with some additions. But the chief business of 
 the councils of William I., so far as we have now records of 
 them, related to matters of executive government, such as the 
 grant of local charters, and the decision of questions of title to 
 land. The same observation applies to the reign of Rufus and 
 several succeeding kings. By the ' Constitutions of Clarendon,' 
 which relate to the subjection of the clergy to the secular 
 power, and were adopted at a great council of bishops, abbots, 
 earls, barons, and others at Clarendon, in the tenth year of 
 Henry II. (a.d. 1164), it was rjrovided that 'archbishops, 
 bishops, and all rectors,"* who are tenants in capite of the king, 
 shall have their possessions of the king as a barony, and therefor 
 
 * This seems to be the proper translation of the word ' personaa' in the original 
 text. See Spelman's ' Glossary,' in voc. Personas.
 
 62 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 shall be answerable to the king's justices and officers, and must 
 observe and perforin all royal rights, and customs, and like 
 other barons, are bound to attend the judgments of the kiug's 
 court until sentence of blood.' * 
 
 These ' Constitutions ' were the result of a great struggle, in 
 which the ecclesiastics, under the leading of Becket, claimed 
 almost absolute immunity from civil burdens and secular 
 government. The barons assembled at Clarendon assigned 
 a very good reason for the obedience of the clergy to the 
 authority of the state. They were allowed to enjoy the emolu- 
 ments of large territorial possessions, and while they had the 
 privileges of other barons, it was only reasonable that they 
 should be subject to similar obligations. But the comparison 
 between them and other classes of the king's feudatories is 
 pressed too far when it is made the foundation of a theory 
 that all the consultations which the sovereign held with the 
 chief men of the state were regulated by feudal rules. f 
 
 Not until after the time of King John do we find evidence of 
 rei3resentative government, that is, of numerous bodies actually 
 appearing and answering in the national councils by their 
 elected proxies or delegates. The theory above mentioned has 
 been extended to these councils also, and supposes that they 
 were convoked upon feudal principles, and that the persons 
 assembled were regarded in the light of suitors doing service in 
 a baronial court. This seems to be a seriously erroneous view. 
 A clause in the Charter of John, to which reference is about to 
 
 * Archiepiscopi episcopi et universae personae regni qui de rege tenent in 
 capite habeant possessiones suas de rege sicut baroniam et inde respondeant 
 justitiariis et ininistris regis et sequantur et faciant omnes rectitudines et 
 consuetudines regias; et sicut cceteri barones debeut interesse judiciis curiae 
 re^is cum baroiiibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutioneni membrorum, 
 vel ad mortem. — Wilkins' ' Concilia,' vol. i. p. 430. 
 
 t Wilkins, in bis ' Concilia Magme Britanniae et Hibernise,' vol. i. p. 435, 
 gives a transcript of these 'Constitutions.' They consist of sixteen articles, and 
 are said to have been enacted on account of the ' dissensions and discords 
 frequently arising between the clergy and the justices of our lord the king and 
 the magnates of the king.' 
 
 Among other provisions, trials of clerics in the king's courts and of laymen 
 in the ecclesiastical courts are regulated. Disputes between laics and clerics 
 respecting advowsons, or respecting titles to lands of lay-fee, are to be tried in 
 the secular courts. Bishops, abbots, and priors are to be elected with the 
 assent of the king and the advice of persons appointed by him. 
 
 The IGth Article, considered in the text, requires that the clergy shall dis- 
 charge the same obligations with respect to their lay-fees as other barons. 
 
 The mediaeval monastic writers frequently dispraise the ' Constitutions of 
 Clarendon.' Matthew Paris calls them ' a record of unjust customs, liberties, 
 and dignities hateful to God.'
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 63 
 
 be made, provides that for certain purposes of making grants 
 to the crown, the greater barons shall be summoned singly, 
 and the other tenants of the crown collectively ; and without 
 
 - doubt this provision contemplated a feudal assembly. But 
 
 - it was never, in that reign, acted upon. The representative 
 councils actually convened in the time of John and in later 
 times seem to have been of an essentially different kind, for 
 the persons attending them did not appear as tenants in the 
 court of their superior lord. How can we regard knights of 
 shires elected in the county courts as in any sense the repre- 
 sentatives of the tenants in chief of the town ? The Report 
 which has been frequently quoted suggests, with reference to 
 an assembly called in the reign of Edward I., that knights of 
 the shire were ' considered as standing in the place of such 
 tenants in chief, and ranked therefore with the magnates.'* 
 This is a very violent hypothesis. The writers of the Report 
 themselves allow that all the county freeholders, at least, had 
 the right of suffrage. But a vast majority of these free- 
 
 1 holders were tenants of private persons and not of the crown. 
 It is therefore directly contrary to the facts of the case to sup- 
 pose that knights of the shire represented only, or even princi- 
 pally, those who held of the king in chief. Another hypothesis, 
 to which the authority just quoted is obliged to resort in order 
 to maintain the feudal theory of the origin of parliament, is 
 that the represented boroughs were only those of royal domain. 
 This supposition I shall,' in the proper place, prove to be utterly 
 contrary to the truth. Many of the represented boroughs were 
 never in any sense the feudatory possessions of the crown. 
 
 A far more reasonable theory of the origin of parliaments is 
 to suppose them analogous to the old witenagemote and other 
 popular assemblies of Saxon times. The people were familiar 
 by tradition with the practice of consulting with their sovereign 
 upon affairs of common interest, and the only novelty consisted 
 in their sending persons to represent their opinions. This plan 
 of choosing a few to speak for the many would be recommended 
 by its obvious convenience. Moreover, it was not absolutely 
 new. The people were already conversant with a system of 
 appearing in various assemblies by their attorneys or substi- 
 tutes. Thus, as I have shown in a former chapter, it was the 
 practice when Bracton wrote, and probably much earlier, for 
 each vill to send four men and a prepositus to attend the 
 justices in eyre ; and in some places the same usage prevailed 
 with reference to the sheriff's turn. So, again, in some districts, 
 * ' Report on the Dignity of a Tecr/ vol. i. p. 101.
 
 64 ANTIENT PAKLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 by antient usage, suitors to the county court were repre- 
 sented there by certain elected officers, called ' aldermanni.' * 
 The election of knights of the shire was merely an application 
 of the same contrivance to the greater councils summoned by 
 the sovereign. 
 
 The first instance of a representative assembly is supposed to 
 have been in 1213, the fifteenth year of King Jolm.f Writs 
 were addressed to the sheriff of each county commanding him 
 to cause four discreet knights of the county to attend the king 
 at Oxford to consult with him on the affairs of the kingdom. J 
 No provision was made for the representation of boroughs. 
 
 This transaction took place two years before the Magna, 
 Charta, which was granted by the king at a great assembly of 
 barons held at Runimede, in the 17th year of John (a.d. 1215). 
 One of the provisions of this celebrated treaty provided that 
 ' no scutage or aid shall be imposed in the kingdom except 
 by common council of the kingdom, except to ransom the king's 
 body, and to knight his eldest son, and to once marry his eldest 
 daughter ; and for this there shall be a reasonable aid. In 
 like manner shall it be done respecting taillages and aids of 
 the City of London, and of other cities which thereof have 
 franchises.' § 
 
 The articles in which this passage occurs constituted the ori- 
 ginal treaty between John and the barons at Runimede, and are 
 entitled : ' These are the articles which the barons require and 
 the king concedes. (Ista sunt ca/pitula quce barones petunt et 
 dominus Bex conccdit.y They are not in the form of a charter ; 
 but after they had been agreed upon and sealed, they were 
 reduced to the form of a charter, of which exemplars were sent 
 to every diocese in the kingdom. || 
 
 * Ante, p. 57. 
 
 t 1 ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer/ p. GO. 
 
 X Et quatuor discretos milites de comitatu tuo illuc venire facias ad nos ad 
 eundem terminum ad loquendum nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri. 
 
 § Ne scutagium vel auxilium ponatur in regno nisi per commune consilium 
 regni, nisi ad corpus regis redimendum, et primogenitum iilium militem 
 faciendum, et filiam suam primogenitam semel maritandam, et ad hoc fiat 
 rationabile auxilium. Simili modo fiat de taillagiis et auxiliis de civitate 
 London' et de aliis civitatibus qui inde habent libertates ; et ut ci vitas Loudon' 
 plene habeat antiquas libertates et liberas cousuetudines suas tarn per aquas 
 tarn per terras. — Rymer's ' Foedera ' (ed. 1816). Vol. i. p. 130. 
 
 || Sir William Blackstone's Tracts, ' The Great Charter,' p. 207. The 
 original of the Treaty at Runimede was at one time in the possession of Arch- 
 bishop Laud; subsequently of Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury; afterwards of 
 bis son's executor, whose daughter sold it to Earl Stanhope, by whom it was 
 presented to the British Museum. 
 
 Of the charter founded on these articlea there arc two exemplars in the
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 65 
 
 In these articles no stipulation is made respecting the form 
 in which the ' common council ' is to be held. The charter 
 founded on the articles has, however, a supplementary provision 
 on the subject;* 'and for holding the common council of the 
 kingdom for assessing an aid otherwise than in the three cases 
 aforesaid, or for assessing a scutage, we will cause to be sum- 
 moned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater 
 barons, by our letters under seal ; and moreover we will cause to 
 be summoned in general by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all those who 
 hold of us in capite, at a certain day, to wit, at the expiration 
 of forty days at least, and to a certain place ; and in all letters 
 of that summons we will express the cause of summons ; and 
 the summons being so made, the business shall proceed at the 
 appointed day, according to the counsel of those who shall be 
 present, although all the persons summoned do not attend.' 
 
 There are three points very noticeable in this clause. In the 
 first place, the common council was to be convened for fiscal 
 purposes only — the grant of certain aids to the crown. Se- 
 condly, the prelates, earls, and greater barons were to be 
 summoned singly by royal writ, just as the members of the 
 House of Lords are at this day. Who were distinguished as 
 greater barons,t has not been clearly ascertained ; probably the 
 distinction was somewhat arbitrary, and depended on the will 
 of the king. Thirdly, the tenants in chief were to receive 
 a collective summons by the sheriffs and bailiffs. 
 
 British Museum; and Sir William Blackstone says there was another in the 
 cathedral archives at Salisbury ahout the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 but when search was made for it in 1759 it could not be found. This copy was 
 overlooked by the Record Commissioners in 1806. It was, however, visible in 
 1816, and is now carefully kept in the Muniment Room in Salisbury Cathedral. 
 The Cathedral at Lincoln preserved its copy, of which a transcript is given 
 in Rymer's 'Fcedera,' edition of 1810. 
 
 * Treterea volumus et concedimus quod omnes alie civitates et burgi et ville 
 et portus habeant omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines suas. Et ad 
 habendum commune consilium regni de auxilio assidendo aliter quam in tribus 
 casibus predictis vel de scutagio assidendo summoneri faciemus archiepiscopos 
 episcopos abbates comites et majores baroues sigillatim per litteras nostras et 
 preterea faciemus summoneri in generali per vicecomites et ballivos nostros 
 omnes illos qui de nobis tenent in capite ad certum diem scilicet ad terminuru 
 quadraginta dierum ad minus et ad certum locum et in omnibus litteris illius 
 summonitionis causam summonitionis expritnemus, et sic facta summonitione, 
 negotium ad diem assignatum procedat secundum consilium illorum qui pre- 
 sentee fuerint quamvis non omnes summoniti venerint. — Rymer's ' Foedera,' 
 vol. i. p. 131. 
 
 t The word barons was antiently used in a very wide sense to denote persons 
 of dignity. Thus we have barons of the Cinque Ports, Barons of the Exchequer, 
 and even the citizens of London and other cities appear to have been some- 
 times called barons. — Brady on ' Boroughs,' cap. 6, p. 37. 
 
 F
 
 66 ANTTENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 John lived only a year and four months after the transactions 
 at Runimede, and the greater part of that time was spent in 
 contests with the barons. It is probable that there was never 
 any convention during his reign in accordance with the provi- 
 sions of Magna Charta just cited.* 
 
 It is very remarkable that in the great charter of the following 
 reign, granted a few years later (9 Henry III.), the provision 
 of John's charter about the common council was altogether 
 omitted. That clause had reference to the assemblage of the 
 king's tenants in chief only — a comparatively small class. 
 These persons, who held land directly from the crown, were far 
 outnumbered by other classes of tenantry whose landlords 
 were private persons. The clause in some sense involved the 
 idea of representative government. The tenants in chief were 
 to be summoned by a general or collective summons, and the 
 business was to proceed at the appointed time, notwithstanding 
 the absence of some of the persons summoned. Thus the part 
 was to represent the whole, the persons present were to decide 
 for those who were absent. 
 
 But, from the omission of this clause in Henry the Third's 
 charter, it is presumable that it was found unsuited for the 
 times. By John's charter only royal tenants were invited to 
 the king's councils. But in the next reign the principle of 
 representation received a great development, much more nearly 
 in accordance with the old traditions of popular government in 
 the Saxon times. For example, in the year following the grant 
 of Henry's charter (12 Henry III., a.d. 1226), a great council was 
 held at Lincoln, which was attended by the representative 
 knights of several counties, who accused the sheriffs of in- 
 fractions of the charters. The manner in which these knights 
 were chosen shows that they were regarded as representatives. 
 At a previous assembly of magnates at Winchester, the crown 
 had agreed to call the Lincoln assembly ; and for that purpose 
 writs were directed to the sheriffs of certain counties, directing 
 the election of four knights of each county by the milites and 
 good men (probi homines) thereof. f This assembly was called 
 only for a special, though very important purpose, namely, 
 to examine complaints against the sheriffs of violating the 
 charters. The Lincoln assembly was not a complete parliament, 
 in the modern sense, but shows a great advance beyond the 
 narrow system of representation contemplated by John's charter. 
 It is remarkable that the electors included all persons com- 
 
 * 1 'Report on the Dignitj- of a Peer,' p. 70. 
 t 1 ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer/ p. 88.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 67 
 
 prised under the wide designation probi homines, and that 
 there is no mention of free tenants. 
 
 We pass over those transactions which do not mark distinct 
 epochs in the development of parliamentary institutions. The 
 council summoned in the 38th year of Henry III., a.d. 1254, is 
 considered by an authority* which is at least laborious, the first 
 instance appearing on any record now extant, of representatives 
 assembled for the purpose of obtaining an aid. This assembly 
 was convened for the purpose of making a grant to the crown. 
 By the writs — which are extant f — the sheriffs of each county 
 were commanded to cause to appear before the king's council, at 
 Westminster, two legal and discreet knights, whom each county 
 court was to elect for this purpose (legates et discretos milites 
 quos iidem comitatus ad hoc elegeriiit) ' in the stead of the 
 same, to provide what aid they are willing to pay us in so great 
 necessity.' 
 
 In this instance no provision was made for the representation 
 of boroughs. It is observable, that the knights were to be 
 elected by the counties. The form of the writ shows that 
 election must have been made in an ordinary county court, by 
 all the persons who had a right to attend there. 
 
 The 'Provisions of Oxford,' enacted four years afterwards 
 (a.d. 1258) in a parliament of prelates, earls, and nearly one 
 hundred barons, introduce important innovations in the govern- 
 ment. Among others, it was provided that, in every county, 
 four discreet and legal knights (discreti et legates milites) should 
 be chosen to inquire into grievances, and, upon oath, make a 
 report on the same, which report, sealed with their own seal, 
 and that of the county, was to be personally delivered by the 
 sheriffs to the parliament, to be holden at Westminster, on the 
 octaves of Michaelmas next ensuing. 
 
 Henry made several attempts to get rid of the obnoxious 
 Provisions of Oxford. At a parliament held in the 48th year of 
 his reign (a.d. 1264) the disputes between the king and the 
 barons were, by common consent, referred to the King of Prance. 
 At a parliament, held in the following February, the award of 
 the King of France was read, annulling these Provisions, except 
 what related to Magna Charta. Again, in a similar assembly 
 in March, where the Earl of Leicester, and several earls and 
 barons of his party attended, a bull of the pope to the like effect 
 was produced. But on both occasions the recalcitrant barons 
 refused to submit, and declared their determination to adhere 
 to the Provisions. 
 
 * 1 ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer,' p. 5(5. 
 t Printed in ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer,' vol. iii. p. 1".. 
 
 f 2
 
 68 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTAKT ELECTIONS. 
 
 Passing over some intermediate transactions between the 
 contending- parties, we come now to the memorable occasion 
 when the representation, as well of boroughs as of counties, ap- 
 pears — so far as any record is extant — to have been first insti- 
 tuted. In 1264 the Battle of Lewes occurred, when the king- 
 was taken prisoner. The subsequent acts occurred during- his 
 captivity. In the following- year, January 30, 1265, a parliament 
 was held in London, in obedience to writs of summons addressed 
 in the king's name to a numerous body of barons, prelates, 
 abbots, and other dignitaries, and also to the sheriffs of counties, 
 and to various cities and boroug-hs. The sheriffs of each 
 county throughout England were commanded to cause ' two 
 knights of the more loyal and discreet knights of the several 
 counties ' (duos milites de legalioribus et discretioribus militibus 
 singulorum comitatuum) to attend at the time appointed. ' In 
 the same manner summonses were addressed to the citizens of 
 York, the citizens of Lincoln, and to the other boroughs of 
 England, to send in the aforesaid form two of their more dis- 
 creet and approved citizens and burg-esses ; ' and similar writs 
 were sent to the Cinque Ports. The records do not set forth 
 the form of the writs to the cities and boroughs ; but it is con- 
 jectured that they resembled the writs to the Cinque Ports 
 which are addressed to their barons and bailiffs, and command 
 them to send four of the more loyal and discreet men of these 
 ports to treat with the prelates and magnates, and grant an aid. 
 
 Very memorable are these first writs for the election of 
 citizens and burgesses, as well as knights, to attend parliament. 
 We thus arrive at that great epoch in the history of our con- 
 stitution, the summons of a complete representative assembly. 
 The earlier parliaments included only the barons and great men 
 of the kingdom, except the one or two cases in which knights 
 of the shire were summoned. Even the Provisions of Oxford, 
 which added greatly to the political power of the people, made 
 no provision for the representation of towns. 
 
 The parliamentary representation, for which this assembly of 
 1265 afforded a memorable precedent, did not immediately, 
 nor for a long time afterwards, become an established institu- 
 tion. Henry III. reigned several years after he recovered his 
 liberty, but he never again summoned a parliament like that 
 which met during his captivity. An interval of thirty years 
 occurs before we can find any record of another general sum- 
 mons of knights, citizens, and burgesses to one assembly. 
 Edward I., who succeeded his father in 1273, assumed, as his 
 predecessors had done, the prerogative of making laws, with
 
 THE OEIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 09 
 
 the assent of prelates and barons specially summoned to his 
 councils. Thus in the third year of his reign, the celebrated 
 statute of Westminster the First, and in the seventh year the 
 statute of Mortmain seem to have been so enacted. Again, in 
 the eleventh year of his reign the statute of Acton Burnel ' de 
 niercatoribus ' was passed ' by the king and his council ; ' and 
 it is at least a matter of doubt whether knights, citizens, and 
 burgesses concurred in enacting that law.* A similar remark 
 applies to the statutes of Gloucester (6 Edward I.), and the 
 great statute (13 Edward I.) ' de donis conditionalibus,' regu- 
 lating the law of entails, and the statute of Winchester (13 
 Edward I.), by which most important provisions were made for 
 the administration of justice and the public peace. The laws 
 made in the earlier part of the reign had an immense effect in 
 altering the institutions of England, and determined the rights of 
 property for centuries afterwards. Kules originally established 
 by the legislation of this period have become imbedded in English 
 jurisprudence, and yet the representatives of the people seem 
 to have had no direct share in establishing a code of so great 
 importance to the interests of the country. It may indeed be 
 conjectured that they were occasionally indirectly consulted. 
 Thus the statute of Acton Burnel (just mentioned) was made at 
 a parliament to which knights, and citizens, and burgesses of 
 some few cities and boroughs were summoned to consider the 
 affairs of Wales and other matters. It is quite probable that 
 the representatives so summoned to this parliament were con- 
 sulted about the statute of Acton Burnel then passed, but we 
 have no direct authority for that conclusion. 
 
 Notwithstanding this uncertainty respecting the legislative 
 power of the commons, for some years after the accession of 
 Edward I., there are strong proofs that in his reign it came to 
 be well understood that grants to the crown were not to be 
 exacted from the people without their consent previously ex- 
 pressed by their representatives. This doctrine was not estab- 
 lished all at once. Long after it had been distinctly recognised 
 by the crown, and apparently by the courts of justice, we shall 
 find that subsidies were occasionally imposed without due sanction. 
 It seems very important to observe, that in many of the earliest 
 instances the aids to the crown were considered to be granted, 
 not by free tenants or freeholders, but by free men (liberi homines) 
 — a very different class of people, as I have shown in a former 
 chapter. Thus, in 3 Edward I., we find a writ ' to the arch- 
 
 * 1 < Report on the Dimity of a Peer,' p. 191.
 
 70 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 bishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, free men, 
 and all other our faithful men of the county of Chester,'* recit- 
 ing that the 'prelates, earls, barons, and others of our kingdom,' 
 have granted a fifteenth of their goods, and requiring such a 
 subsidy from that county. Again, in 11 Edward I., two great 
 assemblies were held, the one at Northampton, to which repre- 
 sentatives of thirty -two counties were required to be sent ; the 
 other at York, to which the representatives of five counties were 
 summoned. The sheriffs were at the same time directed to send 
 two representatives for each city, borough, and market town 
 (villa? mercatorise) . Letters patent, which are still extant, were 
 previously addressed to the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the pro- 
 vince of York, and their proctors, ' and all the knights, free 
 men, commonalties, and all others of the several counties beyond 
 the Trent, then about to be assembled at York't (militibus liberis 
 hominibus communitatibus et omnibus aliis de singulis comita- 
 tibus ultra Trentham apud Ebor. in instantibus octab. Sancti 
 Hillarii con Venturis), empowering the Archbishop of York and 
 the Archdeacon of Durham to ask and procure a subsidy from 
 the lieges of every bishoprick and county beyond Trent. Another 
 writ shortly before directs certain persons to order and dis- 
 pose of the services ' Avhich the knights, free men, communities, 
 find all others of the several counties beyond Trent' had granted. 
 Here appears a distinct recognition of the principle, that the 
 free men of the country were to have a voice in the grant of 
 aids to the crown. J The ' Report on the Dignity '§ twice trans- 
 lates ' liberi homines ' in these documents by the word free- 
 holders. That translation is certainly inaccurate. It has been 
 shown in a former chapter, that at this period the free men 
 included a large number of persons who were not freeholders. 
 To confound the words ' liberi homines ' and ' libere tenentes' is 
 equivalent to begging the whole question whether the right of 
 parliamentary election in the time of Edward I. depended on 
 the tenure of land. 
 
 It appears that the contemporaneous assembly at Northamp- 
 ton made a grant to the crown. A writ|| (11 Ed. I.) to 'the 
 knights, free men, and whole community of Hampshire,' recites 
 that they had lately, by four knights sent on the ' part of the 
 community of the same county to Northampton, courteously 
 
 * Rex Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Prioribus, Comitibus, Baronibus, 
 Militibus, Liberis Hominibus et omnibus aliis fidelibus suis de comitatu Cestrite 
 salutem. — 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 4. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 11. X Ibid. p. 11. 
 
 § Vol, i. p. 187. || 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 13.
 
 THE OEIGIiS 7 OF PARLIAMENTS. 71 
 
 (curialiter)* granted the king a subsidy on account of the 
 expedition into Wales.' Similar writs of the same date were 
 addressed to the knights, free men, and community of other 
 counties. f In these documents we find the several counties 
 stated to have made each their own grant by their own repre- 
 sentatives. Evidently the sound constitutional doctrine of later 
 times, that a member of parliament is a representative of the 
 whole of the commonalty of the kingdom, and not merely of 
 the constituency which elects him, had not been established at 
 this period. 
 
 That villans as Avell as free tenants were taxed to this subsidy, 
 appears very distinctly from contemporaneous documents. A 
 writ of the same year (11 Ed. I.) to the collectors of the thir- 
 tieth in the county of Hereford, in favour of Robert de Bode- 
 ham, exempts him on account of his personal services in Wales, 
 from the taxation of his own goods, but directs that, neverthe- 
 less, the goods of his ' free tenants and villans ' are to be taxed 
 in the regular form (proviso quod bona libere tenendum et 
 villanorum predicti Roberti in eodem comitatu per vos taxentur 
 in forma hide provisa). Several other persons obtained similar 
 concessions by writs addressed to the collectors of other coun- 
 ties with the like proviso for the taxation of their villans and 
 free tenants. J 
 
 There are numerous proofs of the taxation of villans in the 
 time of John and his successors. Various transactions which 
 
 * The meaning of the word curialiter, which I have here translated ' cour- 
 teously,' is not unimportant. 'The Report on the Dignity of a Peer' says 
 (vol. i. p. 19), ' extraordinary aids are sometimes described as granted " curi- 
 aliter," importing probably that the grants were made by an assembly, con- 
 vened for the purpose, of the king's great court, aud that the aid was there 
 regularly granted.' 
 
 I believe the meaning here given to the word 'curialiter' to be altogether 
 erroneous, and that it simply means courteously. In the collection of ' Royal 
 Letters of the Reign of Henry III.' (vol. ii. p. 333), there is a letter from the 
 king, addressed evidently to the abbots and lower clergy, which conclusively 
 shows that the word 'curialiter ' does not mean 'in a court.' The letter (dated 
 f>4 Henry III.) recites that the bishops who came to the king last Easter have 
 granted a twentieth ; slates that it is impossible to call a parliament, but 
 prays the persons addressed that they, notwithstanding, will grant a twentieth 
 benigne et curialiter, which must mean kindly and courteously; for it is expressly 
 stated that they are not expected to assemble in a parliament. Moreover they 
 are asked to make the grant with like courtesy (pari curialitate). 
 
 t Apparently these writs have been discovered since the ' Report on the 
 Dignity of a Peer ' was written; for in that work it is said (vol. i. p. I s 7), 
 that 'the committee have not discovered whether any grant was obtained from 
 the assembly at Northampton.' 
 
 \ 1 ' Parliamentary Writs/ p. 387.
 
 7> ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 will be cited in the course of this chapter, put it beyond doubt 
 that, in the reign of Edward I., taxation and representation 
 were, in law, regarded as inseparable. These considerations, 
 even if they stood alone, would render it almost certain that 
 villans acquired a share in the representation in that reign. 
 
 In the eighteenth year of Edward I. (June l, a.d. 1290), the 
 ' prelates, earls, barons, and other magnates,' granted, ' for 
 themselves and the whole community,' an aid to the crown of 
 forty shillings on each knight's fee.* Shortly afterwards, by 
 writs tested June 14, 1290, the sheriffs of all the counties of 
 England are directed to cause the election of knights of the 
 shire. The language of these writs is interesting, because it 
 draws a distinction between limited assemblies of lords and 
 the more general assemblies in which representatives were to 
 appear. It refers to the recent consultation of earls, barons, 
 and other chief men (proceres) on certain special matters ' upon 
 which we desire to have a consultation, as well with them as 
 with others of the counties of our kingdom,' and then com- 
 mands the sheriff to cause two or three knights of the county 
 to be elected without delay, and to appear at Westminster three 
 weeks after the day of S. John the Baptist, with full power for 
 themselves and the whole community of the said county to 
 consult and consent for themselves and the county respecting 
 those things which the earls, barons, and aforesaid proceres 
 should agree upon.f 
 
 The returns of the sheriffs to these writs give some valuable 
 indications of the mode in which the election was conducted. 
 In several instances, the' returns state the elections to have 
 taken place in ' full county court,' or by the ' assent of the whole 
 county.' The manucaptors, or sureties, who are pledges for the 
 due attendance of the elected persons, are in most instances 
 named. In Lincolnshire, the sheriff makes a special return. 
 He returns the names of three persons elected, but with respect 
 to one of them, Gilbertus de Nevill, he adds, ' Gilbert de Nevill 
 was not in the county of Lincoln when the election took place, 
 nor ever since, and I have not found any one in his absence 
 who was willing to be surety for his attendance at the day in 
 the writ contained according to the form of the writ. And the 
 stewards and suitors of the said county (senescalli et sectatores 
 predicti comitatus) were unwilling to elect any one else in the 
 
 * This grant, and the date of it, are recited in a later writ of 80 Edward I. 
 ' Parliamentary Writs,' vol. i. p. 132. 
 
 t The writ, together with the returns, is printed. 1 'Parliamentary Writs,' 
 p. 21, et seq.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 73 
 
 place of tlie said Gilbert, but gave full power to the aforesaid 
 two knights for doing and receiving all the premisses, if Gilbert 
 de Nevill do not come on the day in the writ contained.'"* We 
 have here unambiguous evidence, that at this date it was well 
 understood that the election of knights of the shire was to take 
 place in the county court, and that the electors included the 
 sectatores or ' suitors' of that court. 
 
 In this parliament a fifteenth was granted to the crown. Who 
 were deemed to be the grantors, appears by the commission 
 for collecting it. The commission for Suffolk is extant ; it is 
 addressed to the ' knights, freemen, and whole community of 
 the county ' (multibus liberis hominibus et toti communitati 
 comitatus). Nothing is said in this commission about free- 
 holders.^ The contrast between the two assemblies of 18 
 Edward I. is very instructive. The first is a meeting of pre- 
 lates, barons, and great men : they grant an aid which is to be 
 assessed on knights' fees only. The second assembly includes 
 persons elected by the whole ' community ' of each county : 
 their grant is assessed on the freemen and whole community of 
 the county. In other words, the representation and taxation 
 were in each case co-extensive. 
 
 In 1295 (23 Edward I.) we come to another chief epoch in 
 the history of parliamentary institutions — the regular and 
 general representation of cities and boroughs. The memorable 
 parliament of 49 Henry III., January 20, 1265, was evidently 
 not regarded by Edward I. as a binding precedent. The cir- 
 cumstances connected with the convocation of that assembly 
 naturally induced him to regard it with disfavour. It was 
 summoned by the influence of the Earl of Leicester, by whom 
 the king (Henry III.) had been defeated and taken prisoner 
 at the Battle of Lewes in the previous year. Prince Edward 
 shortly afterwards delivered himself up to the victors as a 
 hostage for his father, and was sent under guard to Dover 
 castle. The parliament of January 20, 1265, was held during 
 his captivity. In the May following he escaped, and took 
 measures to liberate his father. This liberation was effected 
 by the Battle of Evesham (August 4, 1265), when the Earl of 
 
 * 1 'Parliamentary Writs,' p. 23. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 24. The first mention of freeholders in parliamentary writs, 
 appears to be in 22 Edward I. In that year a parliament, attended by 
 knights of the shire, granted a tenth. The commissions for collecting it arc 
 directed to the 'knights, freeholders, and whole community' (militibus, libere 
 tenentibus, et toti communitati) of each county. 1 'Parliamentary Writs,' p. 27. 
 From the addition of the words 'toti communitati,' and from the tenor of the 
 commissions, it is certain that the grant was uot confined to freeholders.
 
 74 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Leicester was slain, and his adherents routed. One of the first 
 acts of Henry III. after this success was, to declare that his 
 letters and concessions, under the royal seal, during the usurpa- 
 tion of Simon de Montfort, were void. 
 
 The parliament of 49 Henry III. was therefore treated as 
 a revolutionary proceeding-, and Edward I., who must have 
 had bitter recollections of the humiliation of his father and 
 himself, showed no inclination to adopt the convention of 
 that period as a precedent. Until the twenty -third year of his 
 reign there was no similar assembly. In one or two instances, 
 indeed, at an earlier period there was (as we have seen) a 
 partial and incomplete representation of towns and counties. 
 Thus, in the remarkable double parliament of 11 Edward I., 
 when the representatives of thirty-two counties met at North- 
 ampton, and the representatives of five counties at York, two 
 men were summoned for every city, borough, and market town.* 
 A few months afterwards London and twenty other cities 
 severally sent two citizens to a parliament at Shrewsbury. t 
 But the first instance in this reign of a general summons of 
 knights, citizens, and burgesses to one general national council, 
 was in 23 Edward L, a.d. 1295, when the sheriffs received writs 
 for the election of two knights of every county, and two citizens 
 of each city, and two burgesses of each borough therein, with 
 full and sufficient power for themselves and the e communities ' 
 of their several counties, cities, and boroughs to do what should 
 be ordained of the common council in the premisses. This 
 council was summoned to attend on the Sunday after the next 
 feast of S. Martin, at Westminster. 
 
 The reasons assigned by the king for convening this assembly 
 are very remarkable. He recognises explicitly the right of the 
 whole community to be consulted on matters affecting their 
 common interest. The commencement of the writs X to the 
 prelates runs thus : ' Whereas a most just law, established by 
 the provident circumspection of sacred princes, exhorts and 
 ordains that what affects all by all should be approved ; so also 
 it declares evidently that common dangers should be met by 
 remedies provided in common.' § He then refers to a contem- 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 10. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 10. In this instance writs -were directed to the mayors and 
 citizens, or to the mayors or bailiffs and probi homines of the cities and towns. 
 The writs to the sheriffs of counties directed the election of knights of the 
 shires only. 
 
 X 1 'Parliamentary "Writs," p. 30. 
 
 § Sicut lex justissima provida circumspection e sacrorum principum stabilita, 
 hortatur et statuit ut quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbetur, sic et innuit 
 eridenter ut communibus periculis per remedia provisa communiter obvietur.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 75 
 
 plated invasion by the King of France, with a very great fleet 
 and multitude of armed men, with which he is about to attack 
 the kingdom and its inhabitants, and ' if his power correspond 
 to the detestable purpose of his conceived iniquity (which may 
 God avert), to utterly efface the English language from the 
 earth.' The writ then proceeds to command the attendance of 
 the prelates and clergy to treat, ordain, and determine with us 
 and the rest of the prelates, chief men, and other inhabitants of 
 our realm (aliis incolis regni nostri), how dangers and designs of 
 this kind shall be obviated.' 
 
 It is observable that, in this summons, the first example 
 subsequently to the isolated revolutionary proceeding in 49 
 Henry III., of convoking a complete parliament of lords, clergy, 
 counties, and towns — reference is made not to usage nor to any 
 established law, but to a general principle, the right to con- 
 sult in common about common dangers ; and that right is 
 expressly extended to the ' inhabitants ' of the realm generally. 
 
 The sheriffs' returns to this parliament are extant,* and 
 show that, besides knights of the shire, representatives 
 were sent from about one hundred and twenty cities and 
 boroughs. In this parliament, an eleventh of all their move- 
 ables was granted by the earls, barons, and others of the king- 
 dom (alii de regno) ; and the citizens, burgesses, and good men 
 of the demesnes, cities, and boroughs (alii probi homines de domi- 
 nicis nostris Civitatibus et Burgis) granted a seventh. This ap- 
 pears from the writs for collecting the eleventh and seventh. f 
 From the words just cited, the ' Report on the Dignity of a 
 Peer ' makes the seriously erroneous inference, that only cities 
 of the royal domain were required to send members to the 
 parliament. The Report says : ' the grant of the cives burgenses 
 et probi homines being confined to such as were de dominicis 
 civitatibus et burgis, it seems to follow that the cives burgenses et 
 probi homines of such cities and boroughs only as were of the 
 Icing's demesnes were summoned to send representatives to 
 that parliament.' In other words, the writers of the Report 
 adopt Dr. Brady's theory, that the original representation 
 of boroughs was a peculiar privilege conferred on royal cities. 
 But the language of the documents on which this theory is 
 founded is mis-stated. The writs do not say that the only cities 
 and boroughs which made a grant were those of royal demesne, 
 but that the places described by the words, ' de dominicis 
 nostris civitatibus et burgis ' made a larger grant than the rest. 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 34, ct scq. 
 t Ibid. p. 45.
 
 76 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 It seems very extraordinary, that writers on this subject have 
 not observed that the words just quoted admit of a translation 
 very different from that given in the Report. Instead of 
 'domain cities and boroughs,' I submit that the rendering 
 ought to be, ' the demesnes, the cities, and the boroughs.' This 
 version renders the writs consistent with similar instruments of 
 the same period, in which almost the same words are used in 
 an order which renders the meaning: here sug-g'ested indis- 
 putable. For instance, in writs of July 30, 25 Edward I., the 
 prelates, barons, and knights and others, laics of our 
 kingdom ' not within cities, boroughs and demesnes ' (extra 
 civitates, burgos et dominica nostra) are said to have granted 
 a ninth, and ' the citizens, burgesses and other good men, of all 
 and singular the cities and boroughs of the same our kingdom, 
 of whatever tenures and franchises they were, and of all our 
 domains '* to have granted a fifth. Similarly, in 34 Edward I., 
 a grant of a thirtieth was made for the whole community of 
 the counties of the kingdom, ' and the citizens and burgesses 
 and communities of all cities and boroughs of the same king-- 
 dom, and also the tenants of our demesnes ' (Civesque et Bur- 
 genses ac communitates omnium civitatum et burgorum ejus- 
 dem regni necnon tenentes de dominicis nostris) granted a 
 twentieth.f Again, in 1 Edward II., the ' citizens, bur- 
 gesses, and communities of all cities and boroughs of the same 
 kingdom, and also of antient demesnes of our crown ' granted 
 a fifteenth (civesque et burgenses ac communitates omnium 
 civitatum et burgorum ejusdem regni necnon tenentes de anti- 
 quis dominicis coronse nostrse). J We must here suppress the 
 word ' also ' (necnon), if we would maintain the theory, that only 
 boroughs and cities of royal domain concurred in the grant. 
 Lastly, to cite only one more of many similar instances to the 
 like effect, commissioners are sent in 8 Edward III. to treat ' with 
 the communities of cities and boroughs, and the men of towns 
 and of antient domains ' (cum communitatibus civitatum et 
 burgorum ac hominibus villarum et dominicorum antiquorum).§ 
 
 In all these instances cities and boroughs are clearly dis- 
 tinguished from royal domains. All cities, and all boroughs 
 were taxed besides the royal domains. It is therefore in the 
 highest degree improbable, that the taxation of 23 Edward I. 
 
 * Cives burgenses et alii probi homines de omnibus et singulis civitatibus et 
 burgis ejusdem regni nostri de quorumcumque tenuris et libertatibus fueriut 
 et de omnibus dominicis nostris. 
 
 t 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 178. 
 
 J 2 ' Parliamentary Writs/ p. 10. 
 
 § 3 ' Rotuli Pari' p. 447.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 77 
 
 included only royal cities and boroughs. Moreover, the in- 
 ference of the 'Report on the Dignity of a Peer,' that only such 
 cities and boroughs were then represented, is simply contrary 
 to fact. The returns to the parliament of 23 Edward I. have 
 been printed since the Report was written ; and in a later 
 chapter of this work, it will be shown that a very considerable 
 number of the towns which made those returns were not of 
 royal domain. 
 
 The parliament of 23 Edward I. has such an important place 
 in our constitutional history, that all the circumstances which 
 tend to show its nature and authority deserve minute ex- 
 amination. It seems quite clear that the grants of that par- 
 liament were assessed not merely on freeholders, but on villans 
 also. The writs for the collection are addressed, indeed, to the 
 ' milites, free tenants, and whole community ' of each county 
 (militibus, libere tenentibus et toti communitati comitatus). 
 But that the words ' free tenants ' have no restrictive operation 
 appears from the context. They are coupled with ' whole com- 
 munity,' and the writ directs that the grant shall be levied on 
 the same persons as another of a tenth, which had been granted 
 shortly before. On reference, it will be found that this tenth 
 had certainly been assessed on villans, for there are extant 
 writs,* addressed to the collectors of various counties, super- 
 seding, for specified reasons, the taxation of the villans of certain 
 bishops — a plain proof that, without this special exemption, they 
 would have been liable to taxation. 
 
 At this period the right of the people to give or withhold aids 
 to the crown was stoutly maintained. This we see clearlv in 
 the history of an illegal taxation ordained by the king shortly 
 afterwards. In February 1297 (a little more than a year after 
 the meeting of the complete parliament just described), the 
 king convoked an assembly of barons, without either prelates, 
 knights, citizens, or burgesses. In consequence of the con- 
 tumacy of the clergy, who had in the previous year refused a 
 grant to the crown, they were not summoned to this parlia- 
 ment, but the king met with equal opposition from the laity. 
 When he proposed to the magnates, that they should cross the 
 seas into Gascony, they severally excused themselves. Upon 
 the refusal of the Earl of Norfolk, the king is said to have ex- 
 claimed with an oath, ' Earl, thou shalt go, or hang.' The Earl 
 replied, ' By the same oath, king, I will neither go nor hang,' 
 and, without waiting for licence, departed, and the assembly was 
 dissolved. The earls and their followers retired to their estates, 
 * 1 < Parliamentary Writs,' p. 892,
 
 78 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 and prevented the king's officers from making illegal levies.* 
 The king, however, endeavoured to charge the people with an 
 extraordinary aid. In the July following, writs were addressed 
 to the ' milites, free tenants and whole community ' (militibus 
 libere tenentibus et toti communitati) of each county, reciting 
 that ' the earls, barons, milites and other laics of our kingdom, 
 without cities and boroughs, and our demesnes,' had granted 
 an eighth, and the cities, boroughs and royal demesnes a fifth ; 
 and the writs directed the collection of these grants. t 
 
 But this exaction was strenuously resisted, and expressly on 
 the ground that the grant had never been made by the only 
 competent authority — that of prelates, barons and the com- 
 monalty. On the Thursday next before the feast of S. Bar- 
 tholomew (22nd Aug. 1297), that is, about three weeks after 
 the date of the commissions for collections of the eighth, the 
 Earls of Hereford and Norfolk, with the leading barons of their 
 party, appeared at the bar of the Court of Exchequer, and in 
 the name of themselves and of the ' communaute ' of the king- 
 dom, as well clerks as laymen, protested against these com- 
 missions, and objected that they stated the grant to have been 
 made by the earls, barons, knights and the ' communaute ' of 
 the kingdom, whereas, they never did grant the same. The 
 statement of these proceedings was instantly transmitted to 
 the king, who had gone to Flanders, and he returned answer 
 that the levy of the eighth should not be turned into a pre- 
 cedent. Accordingly letters patent, declaring that the levy 
 should not prejudice the people for the future, were issued by 
 Prince Edward, tested at Tunbridge, 28th Aug, 12974 
 
 This, however, was not deemed a sufficient guarantee against 
 the recurrence of like irregularities. In a parliament held in 
 the next month, September 30, a law was passed to prevent the 
 taxation of the people without their consent. It is true that 
 the great statute De Tallagio non concedendo, which is here 
 referred to, was passed in a parliament to which the repre- 
 sentatives of counties only and not of cities and boroughs were 
 summoned. But the enactment was solemnly confirmed by the 
 king, and became and has ever since been deemed one of the 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' Chronological Abstract, p. 28. 
 
 t ' Rotnli Pari.' p. 25, ed. 1 ; 1 * Parliamentary Writs/ p. 52. Cum comites 
 Barones milites et ceteri laici regni nostri extra Civitates Burgos et dominica 
 nostra octavam partem omnium bonorum suorum mobilium et cives Burgenses 
 et alii probi homines de omnibus et singulis Civitatibus et Burgis ejusdem regni 
 nostri de cpiorumcumque tenuris aut libertatibus fuerint et de omnibus dominicis 
 nostris quintain partem, &c. 
 
 J 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' Chronological Abstract, p. 32.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 79 
 
 fundamental laws of this kingdom. It provides that ' no talliage 
 or aid shall by us or our heirs be imposed or levied in our 
 kingdom without the will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, 
 barons, milites, burgesses, and the other free men of our realm.'* 
 
 No words could more largely or more distinctly declare the 
 right of the community to regulate grants to the crown. Not 
 a word is said about limiting this right to freeholders or the 
 possessors of any other kind of property. The qualification of 
 the classes who are to exercise the right is personal, not pro- 
 prietary — they include all the freemen of the realm. Thus the 
 statute not merely declares the title of the people to control 
 taxation, but also effectually defines the parliamentary suffrage. 
 
 How thoroughly well the connection between taxation and 
 representation was then understood appears in a very remark- 
 able manner by the proceedings of this very parliament. It 
 has been observed that knights, but not citizens or burgesses, 
 were summoned. The parliament granted an aid of a ninth. 
 On whom was it levied 9 On all the persons in the kingdom 
 except those in cities, boroughs, and royal demesnes ;f that is, 
 the people who had not been represented at the parliament were 
 not taxed. The writs for collecting the tax (14 Oct. 1297) are 
 expressly so restricted. A week afterwards (23 Oct. 121)7) 
 further writs are issued for the collection of the tax in the 
 cities, boroughs, and royal domains. An indorsement on the 
 patent roll states that this step was taken in accordance with a 
 grant previously made in common for the purpose (juxta con- 
 cessionem prius super hoc communiter factam).J It appears 
 that after the grant of the lords and knights of the shire, the 
 city of London made the same grant, and it may be conjectured 
 that other towns did the like at the same time. But even sup- 
 posing the statement just quoted from the Patent Roll to be 
 untrue, it is an admission of the principle that the towns ought 
 not to be taxed without their consent. And the resolution of 
 parliament on the subject is unmistakable. § 
 
 * Nullum taUagium vel auxilium per nos vel heredes nostras in regno 
 nostro ponatur seu levetur sine voluntate et assensu Archiepiscoporum, Epis- 
 coporum, Comitum, Baronum, Militum, Burgensium et aliorum liberorum 
 hominum de regno nostro. Authorised Edition of the Statutes, vol. i. p. 0. 
 
 •j- Archiepiscopi episcopi abbates priores comites milites et alii de regno 
 nostro extra civitates burgos et dominica nostra. 1 'Parliamentary Writs,'p.63. 
 
 % Ibid. p. 64. 
 
 § That villans -were assessed to this tax of a ninth appears from the form 
 given in the first volume of the printed 'Rolls of Parliament,' I. ]>. 240 b. 
 Considering the doctrine of taxation which then prevailed, it seems difficult to 
 suppose that a large class thus directly taxed was entirely excluded from a 
 share in the representation.
 
 80 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 The writs for the summons of knights, citizens and burgesses, 
 in this and several following reigns preserve a general uni- 
 formity. The following translation of writs to the sheriffs, 
 tested 30th April, 26 Ed. I. (1298) summoning a parliament for 
 the 25th of May following, may be taken as a type. 
 
 ' Edward by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of 
 Ireland, and Duke of Aquitain to the Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 
 greeting. Whereas we purpose, God willing, to be at York 
 at the ensuing feast of Pentecost, and desire there to hold a 
 colloquy and treaty (colloquium et tractatum) with the earls, 
 barons and other chief men (proceribus) of our realm, upon 
 affairs touching us and the state of the said realm, on which 
 account we have commanded the same earls, barons and chief 
 men, that they then be with us there to speak with us and to 
 treat upon the said affairs : We command you, firmly enjoining 
 that you cause of the aforesaid county, two knights (milites), and 
 of each city of the same county two citizens, and of each borough 
 two burgesses, of the more discreet and more able for business 
 (de discretioribus et ad laborandum potentioribus), to be elected 
 without delay, and cause them to come to us at the aforesaid 
 day and place. So that the said knights may have full and 
 sufficient authority for themselves and the community of the 
 said county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves 
 and the community of the said cities and boroughs respectively, 
 then and there to do what then of common council shall be 
 ordained in the premisses, so that the aforesaid affairs may not, 
 by reason of defect of such authority, in any wise remain un- 
 done : and have there the names of the knights, citizens and 
 burgesses, and this writ. Witness myself at Fulhain the 13th 
 day of April, in the 26th year of our reign.' 
 
 In the language of these writs, except so far as we choose to 
 attach meaning to the word ' communit}^,' there is no distinct 
 statement respecting the class of persons who were to be 
 electors. But the writs for the collection of aids granted by 
 parliament, are much more explicit on this subject. A par- 
 liament at Lincoln, to which knights, citizens and burgesses 
 were summoned in the usual form, granted (20th Jan. 1301) a 
 fifteenth to the crown. In the October following, writs were 
 addressed to the sheriffs of all the counties, commanding each 
 to convene the community of his county, and elect three or four 
 persons to assess and levy the tax. This was done ; and the 
 persons so chosen were confirmed by writs to the ' milites, free- 
 men, and whole community ' of each county, authorising the 
 persons so elected to collect the subsidy. The latter writs com-
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 81 
 
 mence tlius : ' Tlie King to the milites, freemen (liberis homini- 
 bus) and whole community of the county of York, greeting. 
 Whereas, you, as well as the rest of the communities of our 
 realm, lately granted to us in our parliament at Lincoln, a 
 fifteenth, &c.,' and similarly for the other counties. Here is 
 a plain statement that the milites, freemen and whole com- 
 munity of the county, were represented in the parliament at 
 Lincoln. The words 'you, as well as the rest of the com- 
 munities,' show that 'community' was held to comprise the 
 knights and freemen of the several counties. 
 
 We have abundant evidence that, both before and after this 
 time, aids granted by parliament were levied on villans as well 
 as others. With respect to this very tax of a fifteenth, there are 
 writs of February 9, 1302, which state that it is not confined 
 to free tenants ; it is to be levied from the temporal goods ' of 
 all persons of our kingdom of whatever condition.' * At the 
 time when these writs were issued, the words ' liberi homines ' 
 had a meaning well settled by law and constant familiar usage ; 
 they distinguished freemen from serfs. It would be a violent 
 assumption to suppose that in the important public documents 
 in question the words were used in a non-natural sense. Again, 
 the reason assigned for collecting the tax from all classes of 
 the community is, that it has been granted by the whole com- 
 munity. The writ would be inconsistent with itself, unless it 
 intended that the class to be taxed was co-extensive with the 
 class which granted the tax. 
 
 Similar observations apply to the writs of 22nd July, 34 Ed. I. 
 (1306), for collecting the grants of another Parliament held 
 at Westminster in that year. The preamble is : ' The king 
 to the freemen and whole community of the county of Lincoln, 
 as well within the liberties as without, greeting : Whereas the 
 archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, free 
 men, and communities of our realm have conceded and granted 
 to us courteously (curialiter) a thirtieth part of all their tem- 
 poral moveable goods, and the citizens and burgesses of all the 
 cities and boroughs of the same realm, and also the tenants of 
 our demesnes, a twentieth,' &c.f 
 
 If the multiplication of authorities on this point appear 
 needlessly prolix, it should be considered that it has been 
 stoutly controverted, and that it is of fundamental importance 
 with, reference to the origin of our representative system. 
 
 * Bona temporalitatis tarn ecclesiasticarum quam secularium et aliarum 
 quarumcumque personarum de regno nostro cuj uscumque conditionis existunt. 
 1 < Parliamentary Writs/ p. 110. t Ibid. p. 178. 
 
 G
 
 82 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 There are numerous proofs that in the following- reign, that 
 of Edward II., parliamentary grants were deemed to be made 
 by the whole class of free men throughout the country. Thus, 
 in 1 Edward EL,* a writ addressed to the ' milites, free men, 
 and whole community ' of Middlesex, states that the ' earls, 
 barons, milites, free men of the counties of our kingdom,' had 
 granted a twentieth, and the ' citizens, burgesses, and com- 
 munities of all the cities and boroughs of the same kingdom, 
 and also the tenants of the antient demesnes of the crown,' 
 a fifteenth. 
 
 A similar form is observed with respect to the grant of a 
 twenty-fifth in 3 Edward II. by the ' earls, barons, milites, free 
 men, and whole community of our kingdom.' f To the like 
 effect are the writs for collecting a twentieth and a fifteenth, in 
 7 Edward II. J The classes making the grant include the free 
 men (liberi homines). The corresponding word in the Norman- 
 French form for assessing this grant is ' francs homines,' and 
 these forms provide expressly for the taxation of villans. ' Also 
 the goods of villans of prelates, men of religion, and other 
 clerics shall be taxed in this taxation : Provided that the rents 
 and other services which the same villans render to their lords, 
 of which the king taketh a tenth by the same lords, be sub- 
 tracted in the taxation of the goods of villans, and of the resi- 
 due the twentieth levied.' § 
 
 Among other instances in which the freemen are expressly 
 said to have participated in making grants to the crown, may 
 be cited the writs 10 Edward II., addressed to the milites, free- 
 men, and whole community of each county, for the collection 
 of a sixteenth, stated to have been granted by the earls, barons, 
 freemen, and communities of the several counties (comites, 
 barones, liberi homines, ac communitates comitatuum) at Lincoln. 
 In the form of taxation a special provision again is made for 
 
 * 3 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 14. Rex Militibus Liberis Hominibus et toti 
 communitati comitatus Middlesex tarn infra libertates quam extra. Cum 
 comites, Barones, Milites, Liberi Homines ac communitates comitatuum regni 
 nostri vicesimam omnium bonorum suorum mobilium civesque et burgenses 
 ac communitates omnium civitatumet burgorum ejusdem regni necnon tenentes 
 de antiquis dominicis corone nostre quintam decimam bonorum suorum mo- 
 bilium nobis curialiter concesserint. 
 
 f 3 ' Parliamentary Writs/ p. 38. 
 
 % Ibid. p. 116. 
 
 § Ensement les biens des villeins as Prelatz Gentz de religion et autres clers 
 soient taxez en ceste taxacion. Issint que rentes et autres services que meismes 
 les villeins fount a leur seigneurs, dont le Roy prent disme ore par meismes les 
 seigneurs soient souztretz en la taxacion des biens des villeins etdu remenant le 
 vintisme levee. Ibid. p. 118.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 83 
 
 the taxation of the villans of clerics on the residue of their 
 goods, after deducting payments to their lords.* A similar 
 regulation is made for the taxation of villans, with respect to a 
 grant of a twelfth, in 12 Edward II., which is said to be granted 
 by the earls, barons, free men, and commonalties of the counties 
 (les countes, barons, franks hommes, et les comunaltez des 
 countes).f In none of the parliamentary writs of this reign 
 are free holders or free tenants mentioned. The whole of the 
 freemen were taxed, and the villans are included hi the taxation, 
 with an abatement, as already mentioned, in taxing the villans 
 of clerics. $ 
 
 During the whole period of parliamentary institutions which 
 has hitherto been considered, it is clear that the representatives 
 of shires usually were elected in the county court. From the 
 very dawn of our present constitution this method of election 
 prevailed. 
 
 The earliest set of returns by the sheriffs which are given 
 in the 'Parliamentary Writs' are in 18 Edward I. (a.d. 1290). 
 The representatives of Lincoln are returned by the sheriff to 
 have been chosen ' in full county court by the assent of the 
 whole county ' (hi pleno comitatu per assensum totius conii- 
 tatus). In Gloucestershire the election is said to have been 
 made by ' the whole community of the county.' In Oxford- 
 shire, and again in Berkshire, the knights are said to be chosen 
 in full county court (in pleno comitatu electorum).§ So in 
 24 Edward I. the return for Somersetshire and Dorsetshire 
 states that the elections took place in fall county courts (in 
 plenis comitatibus). || In 25 Edward I. the same form is observed 
 in the returns from those counties. ^[ 
 
 In a subsequent chapter it will be shown that, by an enact- 
 ment in the reign of Henry IV., all persons whatsoever who 
 chose to attend the comity court were at liberty to take part 
 in elections of knights of the shire. It will also be shown that 
 
 * 3 ' Parliamentary Writs,' pp. 167, 169. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 212. Similarly in the grant 13 Ed. II., ibid. p. 216, 17 Ed. II., ibid. 
 p. 286. 
 
 \ A writ tested at York, Dec. 2, 1322 (16 Ed. II.) recites that in the last 
 parliament the earls, harons, milites, freemen, and community of the counties 
 (comites, harones, milites, liberi homines ac conimunitas comitatuum) granted 
 a tenth (3 < Pari. Writs,' p. 278). The ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer ' (vol. i. 
 p. 233) erroneously translates 'liberi homines' in this and other places by the 
 ■word ' freeholders.' The error is the more important, because the writers of the 
 report found a theory upon it. 
 
 § 1 < Parliamentary Writs,' pp. 22, 23. 
 
 || Ibid. p. 41. 
 
 ^[ 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 60. 
 
 o 2
 
 84 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 another statute in that reign declared this unrestricted suffrage 
 to be an antient practice. These enactments alone, even if 
 there were no other proofs, are quite sufficient to show that the 
 same system prevailed at the period now more immediately 
 under consideration. There is not a particle of evidence that 
 the sheriffs had authority to summon particular persons or 
 classes of persons to the election of knights of the shire, or to 
 institute any scrutiny of votes, or to hold the court otherwise 
 than as an open court, free to all comers. I have in one return, 
 and one only, found evidence which would give some counte- 
 nance to the theory that particular classes were summoned to 
 the choice of knights. It is a return of the sheriff of Surrey 
 and Sussex, in 25 Edward I., in which he states that he assem- 
 bled the milites and libere tenentes. But he does not state that 
 he summoned them only; and as he had no powers of scrutiny, 
 the law at that period did not give him any means of excluding 
 the suffrages of other classes of the population. The language 
 of nearly contemporaneous returns clearly shows that the whole 
 body of the inhabitants of comities were free to take part in the 
 choice of representatives. In 26 Edward I. the election for 
 Somerset is said to have taken place ' in full county court by 
 the whole community (per totam communitatem) of the said 
 county.' * It would be impossible without putting a forced 
 interpretation on these words, and others to the same purport, 
 in various returns of this and the following reign, to suppose 
 that the electors were merely one class of tenants. In Middle- 
 sex, 5 Edward II., the sheriff indorses that the election took 
 place, 'the community of the whole of my county being assem- 
 bled' (congregata communitate totius comitatus mei). In 
 8 Edward II. the sheriff of Northumberland makes a special 
 return, which shows how the parliamentary writs were taken 
 into consideration in the county court. ' This writ was shown 
 in full county court, when it was answered to me that all the 
 milites of my bailiwick are not sufficient for the defence of the 
 marches. And a mandate was sent to the bailiffs of the liberty 
 of the town of New Castle upon Tyne, who thus answered — 
 that all the burgesses of the said town scarcely sufficed for the 
 defence of the same town ; and so, with respect to the execution 
 of this writ, nothing was done.'f 
 
 In the reign of Edward II. we see very distinctly the growth 
 of the power of the House of Commons as a legislative assembly. 
 In the preceding reign its functions had been almost exclu- 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary "Writs/ p. 74. 
 t 3 ' Parliamentary Writs,' v>. 145.
 
 THE ORIGIN" OF PARLIAMENTS. 85 
 
 sively financial. The delegates of different counties and towns 
 assembled at some appointed place, and declared what grants 
 their constituents were prepared to concede to the crown ; and 
 this seems to have been the sum of their duties. But in the 
 reign of Edward II. the power of the commons in making laws 
 was formally recognised. By far the most important trans- 
 action of this reign, with reference to the development of par- 
 liamentary institutions, was the enactment in the fifteenth year 
 (a.d. 1322), which declared that ' matters to be established for 
 the estate of the king and his heirs, and for the estate of the 
 realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and esta- 
 blished in parliament by the king, and by the assent of the 
 prelates, earls, barons, and the commonalty of the realm, 
 according as had been before accustomed.' In the most ample 
 terms the supreme legislative power of the kingdom is declared 
 to be resident in the King-, Lords, and Commons assembled in 
 parliament. 
 
 In the returns of sheriffs to parliamentary writs subsequently 
 to this epoch, we again find frequent reference to the election 
 of knights of the shire in full county court. In the return of 
 the sheriff of Northampton (16 Edward II.) it is stated that 
 the knights were elected by the consideration of the whole 
 county of Northampton (per consideracionem tocius comitatus) . 
 In Rutland the election is stated to have taken j^lace in a ' full 
 county court held at Ockham.' In Wiltshire the election is 
 similarly stated by the sheriff to have been made ' in my full 
 county, held at Wilton.'* 
 
 The 'Parliamentary Writs' preserve a curious piece of evidence 
 of the jealousy with which freedom of election was regarded at 
 this period. In 17 Edward II., in the roll of pleas of the 
 crown, is a presentment of the jurors of Derbyshire, who, among 
 other accusations against a sheriff, present, ' that whereas a cer- 
 tain writ of the king came to the said William for the election 
 of two knights to go to the king's parliament, who ought to 
 be elected by the whole community of the county, the same 
 William chose Gilbert de Haydok and Thomas de Thornton, 
 without the assent of the county ; who, when they returned 
 from parliament, had a writ for levying their expenses, by which 
 it was commanded to Richard and William de Wynwyk, bailiffs, 
 to levy twenty pounds for the expenses of the said knights ; 
 whereas the community of that county could have had of their 
 own election two sufficient men to go to parliament for ten marcs, 
 or ten pounds.' The record states that the sheriff, when called 
 
 * 3 ' Parliamentary Writs,' pp. 272, 273, 277,
 
 86 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 upon for his defence, could not deny the aforesaid transgressions, 
 and was sentenced to imprisonment.^ The people of Derby- 
 shire seem to have been influenced principally by economical 
 considerations in resenting this interference with their con- 
 stitutional rights. 
 
 In the writs for the summons of a parliament in 18 Edward II. 
 (a.d. 1324) there is a somewhat remarkable variation in the 
 prescribed form of election. The sheriffs are directed to return 
 'two of the better or more discreet milites, or others of the 
 county, to be named by the assent and will of the men of the 
 same county ' (duos de melioribus et discrecioribus militibus seu 
 aliis in utroque comitatu assensu et arbitrio hominum eornndem 
 comitatuum nominandos). Accordingly, several sheriffs indorse 
 on their writs that the election has been made by the assent 
 and will of the men of the whole county. f It is observable here 
 that the persons to be chosen are not required necessarily to be 
 knights, and the electors are described in the largest possible 
 terms as the ' men of the whole county.' 
 
 The language of the statutes of the following reign — Edward 
 III. — frequently, though not uniformly, recognises the legisla- 
 tive power of the commons. Thus, the statutes of the first year 
 are said to be granted by the king 'at the request of the com- 
 monalty of his realm by their petition made before him and 
 his council ; by assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and other 
 great men assembled at the said parliament.' The statutes 
 made at Northampton in 2 Edward III. are said to be made 
 ' to the honour of God and of Holy Church, and to the common 
 profit of the people, by assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and 
 other great men, and all the commons summoned to the same 
 parliament.' The statutes made at York in 2 Edward III. 
 (a.d. 1335) recite that ' before this time in many parliaments, 
 and now at this parliament summoned at York on the morrow 
 after the Ascension, in the ninth year of the reign of King 
 Edward the Third after the Conquest, it was showed to our 
 Lord the King by the knights of the shires, citizens of the 
 cities, and burgesses of the boroughs which come for the 
 commons of the said shires, cities, and boroughs, that in divers 
 cities, boroughs, and other places of his realm, great duress 
 and grievous damage have been done. . . . Whereupon the 
 said knights, citizens, and burgesses for them and the commons 
 desired our said Lord the King in his said parliament, by their 
 
 * 3 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 315. 
 
 t 3 ' Parliamentary Writs/ p. 319 et seq.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 87 
 
 petition, that for the profit and commodity of his prelates, 
 earls, barons, nobles, and of the people of his realm, it would 
 please him, without further delay, upon the said grievances and 
 outrages to provide remedy.' 
 
 In the parliaments of Edward III. we find a continual asser- 
 tion of the principle that each estate of the realm was to be 
 taxed only by themselves or their representatives. Thus, in 
 13 Edward III. (a.d. 1339) the prelates, earls, and barons make 
 a grant of a tenth for themselves. The commons give their 
 answer in writing : ' As it was necessary that a great aid 
 should be granted, they dared not give their assent till they 
 had advised and consulted the commons of their counties ; and 
 therefore they desired another parliament to be summoned, and 
 in the meantime they would return to their counties, and would 
 do their utmost to obtain for the king a proper aid ; and they 
 pray that writs be sent to every sheriff, that two of the most 
 esteemed (mielx vanez) knights of counties should be elected 
 and sent to the next parliament for the commons.' In the next 
 parliament, January 20, 1340, the earls and barons grant for 
 themselves and their peers of the land, who hold any barony, 
 the tenth sheaf, fleece, and lamb of all their demesne lands, 
 and the commons offer an aid of 30,000 sacks of wool, on 
 certain conditions. In 14 Edward III. the prelates, earls, and 
 barons made a grant for themselves and all their tenants ; and 
 the knights of shires and the communes de la terre for them- 
 selves. In 20 Edward III. the commons present a petition of 
 grievances : * That the king had assumed the power by his com- 
 missioners of charging the people with array without assent and 
 grant of parliament.' It seems that the commission had issued on 
 authority of an informal grant by the lords without the commons, 
 which the latter considered an invasion of their rights. They 
 did not dispute the right of the lords to make a separate grant 
 for themselves, but only prayed that the commons might not be 
 so charged.* In 22 Edward III. (a.d. 1348) the commons com- 
 plain of many charges put upon them without their assent, and 
 other grievances, but grant three-fifteenths to be levied in three 
 years upon certain conditions — among others, ' That thenceforth 
 no imposition, tollage, or charge by way of loan, nor in any other 
 manner, should be put by the privy council of the king, without 
 the grant and assent of the commons in parliament.' 
 
 To this complaint the unsatisfactory answer was returned, 
 ' that the business shall rest till the king's council be better 
 advised.' During this long reign there were several struggles 
 
 * 1 ' Report on tho Dignity of a Peer,' p. 310.
 
 88 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 between the crown and the commons with respect to illegal 
 charges upon the people. But the repeated remonstrances of 
 the representative assembly undoubtedly tended to restrain 
 these exactions, and to vindicate the parliamentary right of 
 controlling taxation. In the following reign this right was 
 constantly respected by the crown. 
 
 A cognate subject, the levy of expenses of members of parlia- 
 ment, here demands attention. From the very earliest times of 
 representative government it was the practice that persons 
 elected should, after their attendance in parliament, receive 
 writs directed to the sheriffs for the payment of a remuneration 
 for their services. The issue of these writs, 'de expensis,' began 
 before the first constitution of complete representative assem- 
 blies in 49 Henry III. Writs of 43 Henry III., addressed to 
 the sheriffs of several counties, direct the payment of the 
 expenses of knights who had attended an assembly in the pre- 
 vious year.* A writ of 49 Henry III., directed to the sheriff of 
 Yorkshire, recites that the knights of the several counties have . 
 been detained longer than they expected at the late parliament, 
 which occasioned them great expenses ; and commands that 
 ' for the two knights who were present for the said county in 
 parliament, you, by the counsel of four lawful milites of the 
 same county, cause their reasonable expenses in coming to the 
 said parliament, there staying, and thence returning to their 
 own places, to be provided and levied of the same community. 'f 
 
 These writs are of considerable constitutional importance, 
 because they indirectly afford information respecting the classes 
 represented. In the frequent disputes respecting knights' 
 wages, it was assumed that those only ought to pay who were 
 represented ; consequently we frequently derive from these 
 discussions an insight into the electoral system. 
 
 From a writ of 35 Edward I. (a.d. 1307) it is evident that 
 tenants in villenage at that period generally contributed to the 
 charges of knights of the shire. This writ, translated, is as 
 follows : — ' The king to the sheriff of Cambridgeshire, greeting. 
 Whereas our beloved and trusty John de^-la Mare personally 
 came at our mandate to our parliament at Carlisle, on the 
 octaves of S. Hilary last past : We command you that you 
 
 * ' Report on Dignity of a Peer/ vol. ii. p. 4. 
 
 t Tibi precipimus quod duobus militibus qui pro dicto comitatu parliamento 
 interfuerunt de concilio quatuor legalium militum ejusdem comitatus rationa- 
 biles expensas suas in veniendo ad dictum parli amentum, ibidem morando et 
 inde ad partes suas redeundo, provideri et eas de eadem communitate levari 
 facias. 1 ' Report on Dignity of a Peer/ p. 143.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 89 
 
 supersede altogether the demand which you make in lands 
 which are held of the said John in villenage in your bailiwick, for 
 making contribution to the expenses of knights who by the com- 
 munity of your county were sent to the said parliament : and 
 if in any of the aforesaid lands on that occasion you shall have 
 levied anything 1 , that you thereon make restitution forthwith, 
 removing altogether the distraint made in the same lands on 
 that occasion.' * 
 
 The John de la Mare here mentioned was one of the magnates 
 who, with several earls and barons, received a personal sum- 
 mons to attend the parliament at Carlisle in 35 Edward I. 
 (a.d. 1307), and his name is entered on the parliament roll 
 accordingly. f The writ just quoted shows that his villans, on 
 the ground that their lord attended as a baron in parliament, 
 were exempted from contributing to the expenses of knights of 
 the shire. The inference is irresistible, that other villans Avho 
 had not that special ground of exemption were required to 
 contribute to expenses of knights, and therefore were deemed 
 to be represented by them. 
 
 There are also various records of law proceedings in Lhe 
 reign of Edward II. respecting the wages of knights of the 
 shire, which show that those charges were assessed on the free 
 county tenantry generally ; and consequently that this body 
 composed the county constituencies. 
 
 In a suit in the Exchequer in 2 Edward II., which has been 
 noticed in the preceding chapter, William de Goldington sought 
 to recover the sum of ten pounds as his wages as a knight of 
 the shire. The sheriff of Westmoreland, against whom the 
 action is brought, answers that the parliamentary writ for 
 these wages was taken into consideration in a full county court, 
 and that upon discussion between the said William and the 
 'men of the community of the said county,' it was agreed that 
 he should have two pounds for his remuneration. J Here the 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary Writs/ p. 191. Hex. Vic' Cantebrigiaj salutem. Quia 
 dilectus et fidelis noster Johannes de la Mare personaliter venit de mandato 
 nostro ad parliamentum nostrum apud Carliolum in octavia Sancti Hillarii 
 proximo preteritis : tibi precipimus quod demands [me] qnam facis in tenia 
 que tenentur de predicto Johanne in villenagio in ballia tua pro contribucione 
 facienda expensia militum qui per communitatem comitatua tui ad dictum 
 parliamentum missi fuerunt supersedeas omnino : et si quid in terris predictia 
 ea occasione levaveris inde restituticionem facias indilate, distiiccionem in 
 biadem terris ea occasione factam penitus relaxnndo. Teste Rege apud Lanre- 
 cost xx. die Febr' per Consilium. 
 
 t 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' pp. 183, 185. 
 
 % Special agreements between representatives and their constituents appear 
 to have been regarded as regular and lawful in the fourteenth and fifteenth
 
 go antient parliamentary elections. 
 
 persons concerned in settling the amount are described largely as 
 'the men of the community of the county' (homines de communi- 
 tate dicti comitatus). In a similar action in the same year 
 against the sheriff of Hertfordshire, the declaration states that 
 two persons were elected by the whole community of that 
 county (per to tarn communitatem comitatus), and that their 
 wages were to be levied on the men of the county (de hominibus 
 comitatus). In another case in the same year (2 Edward II.), 
 a claim of wages against the under-sheriff of Suffolk, the proof is 
 still stronger. The plaintiff declares that fifteen pounds were 
 levied on the 'whole community' of Suffolk for the expenses of 
 the knights in going for the 'whole said community' to the parlia- 
 ment of 35 Edward I. 'to grant a thirtieth of their goods, as the 
 rest of the kingdom of England had done;' but that part of the 
 money had not been paid. The under-sheriff answers that he 
 levied of the men of the body of the county which is in gildable 
 (de hominibus corporis comitatus quod est in guldabili) sixty shil- 
 lings only, which he paid the knights ; but that he could not levy 
 more, because two of the parts of the county were the franchises 
 of S. Edmund and S. Etheldreda, which were exempt from his 
 jurisdiction. The parties join issue, and a jury is directed to 
 be summoned, ' twelve as well of the body of the county gildable, 
 as of the franchises of S. Edmund and S. Etheldreda.'* 
 
 We have here a series of connected applications of the ex- 
 pressions ' community ' and ' men of the county,' which are 
 quite conclusive as to their meaning. The plaintiff was elected 
 for the community, to assent to a grant of the community. But 
 we know that villans were taxable to parliamentary grants ; 
 therefore they are included under the denomination ' commu- 
 nity.' Again, the knights' wages were levied on the men of the 
 body of the county which is in gildable ; that is, subject to the 
 county taxation ; consequently the villans are again included. 
 Lastly, a jury of twelve of the county and the two franchises 
 are summoned. Abundant proofs were given in the preceding 
 chapter that villans were summoned on county juries; it follows 
 therefore that villans were assessed to knights' wages. 
 
 A frequent and, for us, very interesting controversy of the 
 fourteenth century related to the liability of lords' tenants to 
 
 centuries. The following is a very curious instance. By an indenture in 
 3 Edward IV., between the bailiff of the town of Donewych and John 
 Brompton, he agrees for his services in the next parliament, ' no more to be 
 takyn for hys wagys than a cade of full heryng and half!' a barell full of 
 heryng, tho to been deliveryd by Chrystmasse next comyng.' — Qlanville, ' Cases 
 in Parliament,' 8vo. 1775, p. xxiii. 
 
 * The Latin records of these suits are given in Madox, 'Firma Burgi/ ch. 5.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 91 
 
 contribute to the expenses of knights of the shire. How far 
 were lords of parliament to be deemed the representatives of 
 their own tenants ? If the peers represented for all purposes 
 their feudatories, these persons could have no concern in the 
 election of knights of the shire, and therefore could not be 
 justly called upon to contribute to their wages. The writ of 
 35 Edward I. respecting John de la Mare, which has just been 
 cited, manifestly asserts the principle that his attendance as a 
 lord of parliament justified the exemption of his villans from 
 such contribution ; but nothing is said about his free tenants. 
 Were they also exempt ? This point was the occasion of fre- 
 quent and vehement controversies in subsequent reigns. Thus 
 in 28 Edward III. (a.d. 1354), the commons ' pray that as 
 tenants of lords who hold by barony and are summoned to 
 parliament claim to be discharged of the expenses of knights, 
 who come to parliament by the king's command, the king and 
 his council will declare whether those persons shall be charged 
 with the others of the county, or shall be discharged and the 
 others charged. The king wills that it shall be done as here- 
 tofore.' * 
 
 The attempt to render lords' tenants liable to knights' wages 
 was renewed at the very end of the reign. In 51 Edward III. 
 (a.d. 1377), the commons in Parliament present a petition, re- 
 citing that ' of common right of the realm, of every county of 
 the kingdom, there are and should be elected two persons to be 
 at the parliament for the community of the said counties, save 
 for prelates, dukes, earls, barons, and such as hold by barony, 
 and who are and should be summoned by writ to come to par- 
 liament, except cities and boroughs which ought to elect for 
 themselves such as should answer for them. Which persons 
 elected by the commons of the said counties, have their accus- 
 tomed expenses for the time of their stay, and for that have a 
 writ to the sheriff to levy the amount. That it please the king- 
 to ordain in this parliament that such expenses be levied of all 
 the commons of the said counties (de touz les communes des 
 dites countees), as well within the franchises as without, ex- 
 cept the franchises of the cities and boroughs, and except of 
 those who come also to parliament by writ of summons, and 
 of their tenants who hold in bondage (qui tiegnent en bondage).' 
 The answer is as indecisive as heretofore : ' Let it be done as 
 before has been the custom in this case.' f 
 
 In this, as in several preceding petitions, the commons 
 
 " 2 ' Parliamentary Rolls,' p. 258. 
 t 2 « Parliamentary Rolls/ p. 368.
 
 92 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 contended that all the tenants in counties were represented by 
 the knights of the shires, except those villans of lords of par- 
 liament who were not free men, and except also the inhabitants 
 of parliamentary cities and boroughs. But the expression was 
 not intended to apply to free villans, as we shall show presently 
 by reference to a parliamentary petition of 2 Richard II. 
 
 In 50 Edward III., the meetings of parliament having been 
 intermitted for a period of nearly four years, the commons in 
 parliament pray that the king will be pleased ' to establish by 
 a statute that every year there may be held a parliament to 
 correct errors and abuses in the realm, and that knights of 
 counties of the better class of people shall be elected by common 
 election of the said counties, and not certified by the sheriff* 
 alone without due election.' The petition goes on to pray that 
 sheriffs may be elected annually and not made by procurement 
 (brocage) in the king's court. With reference to the election 
 of knights, the answer is, ' The king wills that they shall be 
 elected by common assent of all the county (par commune 
 assent de tout le contee).'f 
 
 There can be no doubt that this answer was an authoritative 
 declaration of the law established by antient usage, that knights 
 of the shire were to be elected in full county court. It is re- 
 markable that this important determination was not recorded 
 in a statute. It is still more remarkable, and highly charac- 
 teristic of the mode in which the fundamental institutions of 
 the English government have been established, that until the 
 enactment of 8 Henry IY. (a.d. 1406), to be considered here- 
 after, not one statute was made regulating the election of re- 
 presentatives. Thus a period of nearly two centuries and a 
 half from the first convocation of a complete House of Com- 
 
 * In Prynne's fourth part of a ' Brief Register of Parliamentary Writs,' p. 259, 
 there are two writs, which give a curious specimen of the malpractices of 
 sheriffs ahout this time. The first is a writ to the sheriff of Lancaster, dated 
 either 36 or 37 Edward III., commanding an investigation in the county court, 
 whether the last election of knights of the shire had been duly conducted. The 
 sheriff is commanded to institute ' in your full county court, respecting the said 
 election, diligent deliberation and inquiry with the milites and other good men 
 of your county whether Edrus Laurence and Matthew de Risheton, who in our 
 writ of parliament directed to you were returned for knights of the shire, were 
 elected, or others.' 
 
 To this the sheriff made no answer. It appears that Edrus was the deputy of 
 the sheriff of Lancashire, and he had simply returned himself. A second writ, 
 addressed to the justices of Lancashire, recites that be had concealed the former 
 writ and disobeyed it, and commands them to summon the milites and other 
 good men of the county, and to inquire into the premises, and to inform the 
 king in chancery of the result of the inquiry. 
 
 f 2 ' Rot. Parliament,' p. 355.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 93 
 
 mons elapsed before any Act of Parliament was passed regulat- 
 ing the constitution of that assembly. 
 
 In the latter part of the reign of Edward III. the power of 
 the commons increased greatly. They strenuously resisted 
 inordinate taxation, and boldly remonstrated with the king 
 upon his choice of unfit advisers. They insisted that the 
 king's council should be augmented by ten or twelve lords, 
 prelates, and others who should be continually near his person, 
 ' so as no great business might pass without the advice and 
 assent of six or four of them at least, as the case required.' To 
 this the king assented, with the proviso that the chancellor, 
 treasurer, and privy seal might execute their offices without 
 the assent of any of the said councillors. In a further protes- 
 tation the commons added, ' that if the king had always had 
 about him loyal counsellors and good officers, he had now been 
 rich in treasure, so that he should not have needed so much to 
 have charged his subjects with so great subsidies or talliages.'"* 
 
 The reign of Richard II. was characterised by a constant 
 succession of struggles between the commons and the executive 
 government. The king, who ascended the throne when he was 
 a boy eleven years of age, was surrounded by evil counsellors, 
 who were frequently guilty of gross malversations. The reign 
 is distinguished by frequent impeachments of great officers of 
 state by the House of Commons, and finally that body concurred 
 in the deposition of the king, who was induced to execute a 
 formal renunciation of the crown. These are, however, matters 
 of general history, and are here mentioned merely as illustra- 
 tions of the position and authority which the House of Commons 
 assumed during the latter part of the reign of Edward III., and 
 maintained with increased energy after his successor came to 
 the throne. 
 
 Though the law of parliamentary elections was subject to no 
 material changes during the sway of Richard II., we find at 
 this period one or two valuable records of the constitutional 
 doctrines then recognised. A petition of the commons, in the 
 second year of Richard II., deserves consideration, because it 
 shows very clearly what classes were deemed to be represented 
 by knights of the shire. The document may be translated as 
 follows : ' Also the commons pray that, whereas their expenses 
 are ordered by writ of our lord the king, directed to the sheriffs 
 of every county, to be levied according to the purport of the 
 said writ directed to them, to the use of the knights of the 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary History,' p. 141.
 
 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 parliament of our lord the king there being ; that their said 
 expenses are assessed upon every town of the said counties 
 rateably ;* whereas some towns are held of the king, and will 
 pay nothing though their tenure is not of antient demesne 
 of our lord the king ; and some towns are within franchises, 
 and [held] of peers of the realm who hold by barony, which 
 will pay nothing because their lords are at parliament for 
 themselves and their men in their own person, and take the 
 expression " their men " so largely that, though a lord has 
 in one town but four or five bondsmen, and a hundred or two 
 hundred who hold freely or by court roll, and are free of body, 
 yet they will not [pay] the said expenses, so that the whole sum, 
 by that cause reduced and not levied, is thereby diminished in 
 the payment of the expenses of the said chivalers, to their great 
 loss. For which, they pray redress.' The answer is : ' Let it 
 be done as has been used in former times.' 
 
 On consideration, it will be observed that the commons here 
 make two distinct complaints : Firstly, that towns which, 
 though held of the crown, are not of antient demesne, do not 
 contribute to the knights' wages. Secondly, that towns held of 
 lords, though they contain great numbers of freeholders and free 
 copyholders, do not contribute. With respect to the first 
 subject of complaint, it is to be observed that the doctrine 
 had long prevailed, that the antient demesnes of the crown, 
 unless they were expressly charged, were not liable to parlia- 
 mentary charges and grants. Probably it was considered that 
 tenants of such lands were represented by the king in parlia- 
 ment, in the same way that tenants of barons were represented 
 by them. And accordingly we have seen, in several former 
 instances of grants made by parliament to the crown, that 
 
 * Item prie le Cornune que par la ou lour despenses sont ordenez par Brief 
 nostre Seigneur le Boi assiguez as Visconts des chescuns countees, a lever selonc 
 le purport du dit Brief a eux direct, a l'oeps de Chivalers du Parlemeut nostre 
 Seigneur le Roi illceques esteantz, la sont lour ditz despenses assis sur chescune 
 ville des ditz countees selonc l'afferant, par la ou le uns villes sont tenuz du 
 Boi, & riens ne veullent paier coment que lour tenure ne soit d'ancien deuiesne 
 nostre Seigneur le Boi; & les unes villes deinz Franchises, and des Pieres 
 dei Boialme qui teignent par Baronie qui rienz ne veullent paier a cause que 
 lour seigneurs sont au Parlement pour eux & lour honimes en propres persone 
 
 et preignent si largement cest parol leur Homes coment ad en im 
 
 ville que quatre ou cynk bondes & centz ou deux ce itz qui teignent franche- 
 ment ou par roulle des Oourtes & sont frank du corps unqore ner veullent .... 
 dites despenses i.?sint que toute la sonime par celle cause abregge & nient leve 
 si est recoupe en paiement des despenses des ditz chivalers a grant damage .... 
 a eux. Dont ilfl prient remede. 
 
 Ent soit fait ad este use devant ces heures.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENTS. 93 
 
 when royal demesnes were intended to be charged, they were 
 expressly mentioned. The lands of antient demesne were, as 
 we have already explained, ascertainable by ' Domesday' and 
 other antient records. 
 
 The first complaint of the commons is, that lands acquired 
 by the crown at a later period (probably by escheat, among 
 other causes) claimed the like privilege with antient demesnes. 
 The second complaint obviously assumes that freeholders and 
 free copyholders of lords of parliament ought to contribute to the 
 knights' wages. But the commons do not extend their claim 
 to persons who were not personally free. We have thus a clear 
 exposition of the doctrine that knights of the shire represented 
 free men, whether their tenure were freehold or copyhold.* 
 
 At length, in 1388, a compromise was effected with respect 
 to the exemptions of which the commons complain in the fore- 
 going petition, and several others. By a statute (12 Rich. II., 
 c. 12) it was provided that the expenses of knights coming to 
 parliament for the commons of counties should be levied ' as 
 it hath been used before this time ; joining to the same, that if 
 any lord, or any other man, spiritual or temporal, hath pur- 
 chased any lands or tenements, or other possessions, that were 
 wont to be contributory to such expenses before the time of 
 such purchase, the said lands, tenements, and possessions, and 
 the tenants of the same, shall be contributory to the said 
 expenses, as the said lands, tenements, and possessions were 
 wont to do before the time of the same purchase.' It is 
 observable that nothinsr is said here about freeholders. The 
 contributories are to be the tenants generally of the lands 
 which were formerly chargeable with knights' wages. 
 
 The only other transaction of this reign which is very 
 material to the present inquiry is the statute (5 Rich. II., 
 
 * The ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer' (vol. i. p. 33G) makes great difficul- 
 ties about this petition. The writers of the report have a preconceived theory 
 that the representation of boroughs was originally confined to those which were 
 of antient demesne, and that copyholders were not represented by knights of 
 the shire. Accordingly, the writers are much perplexed by the language of 
 the petition. In the passage referring to copyholders, the qualification 'who 
 are free of body' (frank du corps) is a key to the meaning of the petition ; but 
 this expression is entirely omitted in the translation by the writers of the 
 report. They get over their difficulty by suggesting ' that the commons had 
 no clear conception of any principles on which representation was first instituted, 
 in whom the right of electing representatives was vested, or who ought to be 
 charged with the wages, and on what ground.' The commons in the reign of 
 Richard II. had a direct personal interest in the matters discussed in their 
 petition. Possibly, they were as well informed on the subject as their com- 
 mentators after a lapse of four centuries and a half.
 
 96 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 stat. 2, c. 4), which provides that lords, knights, citizens, 
 burgesses, and others duly summoned to parliament shall 
 attend on pain of amercement for their default. The latter 
 part of the statute enacts that, ' If any sheriff of the realm he 
 from henceforth negligent in making his returns of writs of the 
 parliament, or that he leave out of the returns any cities or 
 boroughs which be bound and of old time were wont to come 
 to parliament, he shall be punished in the manner as was 
 accustomed to be done in the said case in times past.' 
 
 This enactment tended to render permanent the constitution 
 of the House of Commons. The sheriffs were prohibited from 
 arbitrarily omitting from their returns cities and boroughs which 
 had been theretofore bound to send representatives, and the 
 distribution of the parliamentary franchise was fixed in the 
 form determined by long established custom. Thus, by the end 
 of the fourteenth century, the constitution of parliament had 
 become definitively settled in all essential particulars. All the 
 antient parliamentary boroughs were to send representatives. 
 Every county was to elect knights of the shire, chosen in open 
 county court by all the free inhabitants who were liable to 
 taxation. The House of Commons had secured an absolute 
 independence in making its grants to the crown. And lastly, 
 it had become a fundamental law that the statutes of the realm 
 were to be enacted by the king, with the assent of the prelates, 
 earls, barons, and commons in parliament assembled.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Growth of the jwiver of the Commons in the reign of Henry IV., 97 '. — Grant* 
 settled by Conference between the tioo Mouses, 99. — Statute against 'Lollerie,' 101. 
 
 —First Statute regulating County Elections, 103. — All the inhabitants of 
 Counties entitled to vote for Knights, 103. — Statute of Henry V., requiring 
 Citizens and Burgesses to be residents, 109. — Imbecility of Henry VI., and 
 anarchy in his reign, 110. — The Act giving the suffrage to forty-shilling Free- 
 holders, 113. — The motives for which this Statute was made, and its effects, 115. 
 
 After the fourteenth century great changes took place in the 
 county suffrage. The period of the three Lancastrian kings, 
 Henry IV. Henry V. and Henry VI. (a.d. 1399-1460) consti- 
 tutes a distinct epoch in the history of parliament. In that 
 period the right of voting for knights of the shire attained 
 both its maximum and minimum limits. During the reign of 
 Henry IV. the county suffrage was more extensive and general 
 than it has ever since been. Shortly after the accession of 
 Henry VI. the constituencies were suddenly and materially 
 diminished by a law which remained undisturbed until the 
 Eeforrn of 1832. 
 
 Under the government of Henry IV. the power of the com- 
 mons was progressively developed. In the first year of that 
 reign they * petition the crown to the effect that no judge in 
 concurring in any unjust measure should be excused by pleading 
 the orders of the king, or even the clangers of his own life. Iu 
 the second year they obtained the assent of the crown to an 
 important modification of the method of drawing up statutes. 
 Previously, the practice had been to have them compiled Jby the 
 judges after the dissolution of parliament, from the petitions 
 and answers in that assembly. This practice presented an op- 
 portunity of falsifying the intentions of the legislature ;f and in 
 
 * The petition was 'that the lords spiritual and temporal and the judges do 
 not from henceforth plead in excuse that they durst not for fear of death to 
 speak the truth.' Answer — 'The king reputeth them all to be just, and that 
 they will not give him counsel to the contrary; but if they do, let complaint 
 be made.' — 1 ' Parliamentary History,' 281. 
 
 t A very gross case of this kind occurred in the preceding reign. A statute 
 was passed in 5 Richard II. (stat. ii. c. •">, 'Authentic Edition of Statutes,' vol. ii. 
 p. 25) authorising the imprisonment of preachers of heresies ' in strong prison till 
 they will justify themselves according to the law and reason of the Church.' In 
 
 it
 
 98 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 order to obviate that danger the commons petitioned, and the 
 king assented, that all matters transacted in parliament should 
 be engrossed before the departure of the justices.* In 8 Henry 
 IV. at the petition of the commons, certain lords, prelates, and 
 commons were appointed to be present at ' the enactment and 
 engrossment of the rolls of parliament.' It was not, however, 
 until the reign of Henry YI. that the practice of enacting laws 
 in the exact language in which they passed the two houses was 
 completely established. 
 
 The principal constitutional struggles in which the commons 
 were engaged in the time of Henry IV. were these three — first, 
 to assert their own independence in making grants of public 
 money ; secondly, to secure the political responsibility of the 
 king's advisers ; thirdly, to render the enormous property of the 
 Church contributory to the expenses of the State. 
 
 The mode of making parliamentary grants in the fourteenth 
 century differed utterly from that which is now observed. The 
 antient practice in this respect has a high constitutional interest, 
 but seems to have been but little noticed by modern writers. 
 The lords, as we have seen, claimed for themselves and their 
 dependent tenants exemption from the charge of knights' wages, 
 on the principle that the upper house represented a distinct por- 
 tion of the community. In accordance with the same principle 
 that assembly made its own separate grants to the crown. But 
 it was obviously necessary that the two houses should be in 
 accord as to the amount of these grants, for neither would choose 
 to be subject to a higher rate than the other. It was also 
 deemed to be of great importance that the two parties should 
 come to an agreement before their proposals were disclosed to 
 the crown ; and also the commons from an early period exhibited 
 an anxiety that in the negotiations between the two houses the 
 first offer should be made by the lords, and not by themselves. 
 Each estate considered it a practical advantage to obtain a 
 knowledge of the dispositions of the other before disclosing its 
 own. 
 
 These observations will serve to explain and connect the fol- 
 lowing brief notes of some negotiations between the two houses 
 
 the next year (' Rot. Pari.' 6 Richard II. vol. iii. p. 141) the Commons complain 
 in Parliament that this statute was made without their assent and demand its 
 repeal ; to which the Icing assented. Coke says (Fourth Institute, p. 51) that 
 when this pretended act was passed Robert Braibrooke, Bishop of London, 
 was Lord Chancellor: apparently the enactment was procured by his influ- 
 ence. Coke cites other instances of statutes passed in an unconstitutional 
 manner. 
 
 X 3 < Pari. Rolls/ 7 & 8 Hen. IV. p. 585.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 99 
 
 in the fourteenth century. As far as I am aware, the history of 
 the contest has not been narrated by writers upon constitutional 
 and parliamentary law. In 25 Edward III. a.d. 1352, the king 
 proposes that the commons shall elect twenty-four or thirty of 
 their body to confer with certain lords, whom he will send to 
 them, respecting the grant to be made ; and that the rest shall 
 assemble in the Chapter House of Westminster, and receive the 
 report of the conference. The commons, however, will not 
 assent to this, but the whole body comes before the prince and 
 lords on a subsequent day, and after long deliberation, and an 
 adjournment, present a roll containing the aid they had agreed 
 to grant.* 
 
 In 47 Edward III. certain bishops and lords are appointed to 
 treat with the commons in the Chamberlain's Chamber respect- 
 ing the grant. After a consultation continued two days, the 
 king, lords, and commons reassemble, and the latter deliver a 
 grant ' in a schedule written and indented without seal.' f 
 
 In 50 Edward III. 51 Edward III. and again in 1 Eichard I.J 
 the method was adopted of appointing a committee of lords to 
 confer with the commons respecting the grant. But in the 
 next year the lords object to this course, as an unjust innovation 
 which placed them at a disadvantage. To ' the request that five 
 or six prelates and lords may come to the commons to treat with 
 them about the charge,' the lords answer that they neither 
 ought to, nor will do it ; for that the practice and manner had 
 never been but in the last three parliaments. But they say 
 and avow that it had been the custom for the lords to choose of 
 themselves a small number of six or ten, and the commons as 
 many of themselves, to treat together in secret, and then report 
 what they had done to their companions ; and ' according to 
 this method the lords will act, and not otherwise.' § The 
 commons assented at that time, that only a small number of 
 lords and commons shall be selected. Shortly afterwards (5 
 Richard II. a.d. 1381) a committee of certain lords named by 
 the commons is sent, at their request, to confer with them. 
 After some conference they pray ' that the prelates by them- 
 selves, the lords temporal by themselves, the knights by them- 
 selves, the justices by themselves, and the other estates singly 
 may be ordered to treat about the charge, and that their advice 
 may be reported to the commons.' The king, however, refuses 
 to accede to this arrangement. ' The antient custom and form 
 
 * « Rotuli Pari.' vol. ii. p. 237. t ' Rot. Pari.' vol. ii. p. 31G. 
 
 % ' Rot. Pari.' vol. ii. p. 322 and p. 3G3, and vol. iii. p. 5. 
 § < Rot. Pari.' vol. iii. p. 36. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 of parliament had been,' lie replies, ' that the commons should 
 first report their advice on the matters assigned to them to the 
 king and the lords first, and not the contrary.' * Evidently in 
 this process of bargaining, it was considered disadvantageous to 
 be compelled to take the first move. In subsequent years we 
 have several instances of committees of the lords sent to the 
 commons to confer about the grant. This was apparently the 
 general practice ; and it was continued in the following reign 
 of Henry IV. 
 
 But in the ninth year of that reign we find a remarkable 
 instance — probably the earliest — of an open dispute between the 
 two houses ; in which the commons manifested great boldness, 
 and vindicated their independence against the king and the 
 house of lords. In 9 Henry IV. a.d. 1407, the commons com- 
 plained on account of the lords making the king several times 
 privy to their debates on the subsidy. The king having assembled 
 the upper house, had required them to state what aid they thought 
 necessary for the public service ; to which the lords had made 
 reply. This communication gave great offence to the commons, 
 who affirmed the proceeding ' to be in prejudice and derogation 
 of their liberties.' The protest was successful. The king, with 
 the assent of the lords, made an ordinance declaring that ' the 
 lords on their part, and the commons on their part, shall not 
 make any report to the king of any grant by the commons 
 granted, and by the lords assented to, nor of the communications 
 of the said grant before the lords and commons be of one assent 
 and accord ; and then in manner and form as has been accus- 
 tomed, that is by the mouth of the speaker of the commons.' f 
 
 The victory was substantially with the lower house, and 
 tended to confirm their authority, especially with reference to 
 the public revenue. The growth of their power is similarly 
 shown in their reiterated efforts to regulate the administrative 
 government. In 5 Hen. IV. (a.d. 1404) on the petition of the 
 house of commons, the king's confessor and three other mem- 
 bers of the royal household were removed, and a committee of 
 the lords was appointed to make further regulations of offices 
 under the crown. £ In 8 Hen. TV. (a.d. 1406) § the speaker of 
 the house of commons came again before the king and lords, 
 and required in the name of the commons, that all the lords of 
 the council might be sworn to observe certain articles which 
 they had drawn up for the better regulation of the public affairs 
 of the kingdom. The king accordingly caused all the offices of 
 
 * ' Rot. Tarl,' vol. iii. p. 100. No. 10. f Ibid. p. 011. 
 
 \ 1 < Pari. Hist.' 291. § Ibid. 303.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 101 
 
 his household, and all of his courts of justice, to be sworn upon 
 these articles which related, among other things, to the applica- 
 tion of the royal revenue, the dispatch of petitions addressed to 
 the king's council, and the fees and duties of the great officers 
 of state. The Parliamentary History commenting upon this 
 document observes, ' whoever considers well the foregoing 
 articles delivered by the speaker, will find that there is 
 scarcely a trifling one among them : which evidently shows 
 that the commons of England were neither knaves nor fools 
 in those days. Nor was the king less obliging and conde- 
 scending on his part than the commons had been resolute and 
 presumptive upon theirs ; not only suffering the said articles 
 which struck sufficiently at his prerogative to pass into a 
 law, though but a temporary one, but also compelling the 
 archbishop, with the rest of the council, to swear to the ob- 
 servance of them.' 
 
 But probably, of all the acts of the commons in this reign, 
 the most meritorious was their resistance to the religious perse- 
 cution of the Lollards promoted by the clergy. In the earlier 
 part of the reign, an enactment for the punishment of heretics 
 (2 Hen. IV. c. 15) was passed in an unconstitutional manner 
 without the assent of the Commons. Cotton remarks, ' that 
 the printed statute differs greatly from the record, not only in 
 form, but much more in matter, in order to maintain ecclesi- 
 astical tyranny.' His publisher Prynne has this note upon it, 
 ' that this was the first statute and butcherly knife that the 
 impeaching prelates procured or had against the poor preachers 
 of Christ's Gospel.'* 
 
 The statute as it stands in the statute-book provides that 
 heretics shall be judged by the ordinary ; after a heretic is 
 pronounced relapsed, he is to be delivered to the sheriff's officers 
 to be burned to death. The preamble of this atrocious enact- 
 ment, which is utterly repugnant to the common law of 
 England, states, that it was passed on the petition of the 
 clergy, and does not refer to the commons. The petition of the 
 clergy is closely followed, except that where the Act prescribes 
 burning as a cure for heresy, the corresponding passage of the 
 petition proposes that the sheriff's officers shall receive the 
 relapsed heretics, * and further do what is incumbent upon them 
 
 * Exact Abridgement of the Kecords collected by Cotton, revised by Prynne. 
 Lond. fol. 1<;.">7, ]). 109. Prynne's statement is not quite correct. There was 
 an earlier act against preachers, 5 Richard IT. (mentioned ai the beginning of 
 tliis chapter). Both acts, though passed in an unconstitutional manner, seem 
 ' i have been enforced.
 
 102 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 in that respect.'* The exquisite sensibility of the petitioners 
 prevented them from giving expression to a decree of death. 
 
 The petition of the commons was very different. The follow- 
 ing is a translation of it : ' Item — The commons pray that, 
 when any man or woman, of whatever estate or condition, 
 is taken and imprisoned for " Lollerie," he may be forthwith 
 put to his answer, and have such judgment as he has de- 
 served, to the example of others of that evil sect to speedily 
 cease their evil preachings, and to hold them to the Christian 
 faith.' The commons pray not that any new punishment or 
 process may be devised, but that persons in prison for Lollerie 
 may have speedy trial and judgment according to law. The 
 object of this petition was probably to procure for the Lollards 
 protection against protracted imprisonment, such as that 
 authorised by the statute of 5 Richard II. , mentioned at the 
 beginning of this chapter. 
 
 Ten years after, 11 Hen. IV. (a.d. 1410), the commons prayed 
 that persons arrested under the statute passed at the request of 
 the clergy in the second year of the reign ' might be admitted 
 to bail and to make their defence freely and without impedi- 
 ment, in the county in which they were arrested, and that such 
 arrest should be made in due form of law? The king, however, 
 was unwilling to offend the clergy, who were very powerful, and 
 rejected their petition. t 
 
 To the commons of the reign of Henry IV. preeminent 
 honour is due for their services in establishing principles which 
 are now esteemed fundamental parts of the British constitution. 
 While they firmly and successfully asserted their own indepen- 
 dence in making public grants, they respected that of the 
 house of lords, and discreetly refrained from interfering with 
 the distinct privileges of that assembly. Their celebrated 
 articles for the regulation of the king's household and officers 
 of state were limited to the correction of manifest abuses — 
 malversation, misappropriation of public money, and delays of 
 justice — but they did not attempt to infringe upon the royal 
 prerogative of appointing the ministers of the crown. If they 
 failed in vindicating the principle of religious toleration, and in 
 resisting the enormous aggrandisement of the Church, their 
 failure is attributable, not to their lack of zeal and courage, but 
 to the overwhelming power of the clergy and the intolerance of 
 the age. 
 
 * Et ulterius agaiit quod eis incumbit in ca parte. — ' Rot. Pari.' vol. iii. 
 1». 468. 
 t 'Rot. Pari.' vol. iii. p. 626.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 103 
 
 A like spirit animated their more successful endeavours to 
 improve the constitution of their own body. There are more 
 important statutes of Henry IV. relating to the election of 
 members of parliament than of any previous reign. In 7 Hen. IV. 
 (a.d. 140G) an act was passed* which had the practical effect 
 of greatly enlarging the county suffrage. This law is so mate- 
 rial to our subject that it must be given in extenso. 
 
 * Item, our lord the king, at the grievous complaint of his 
 commons in this present parliament, of the undue election of 
 knights of counties for parliament, which be sometime made of 
 affection of sheriffs and otherwise against the form of the 
 writs directed to the sheriff, to the great slander of the counties 
 and hindrance of the business of the commonalty of the said 
 county : 
 
 * Our sovereign lord the king, willing therein to provide 
 remedy, by the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and 
 commons in this present parliament assembled, hath ordained 
 and established : That from henceforth the election of such 
 knights shall be made in the form as folio weth, (that is to 
 say) :— 
 
 ' At the next county to be holden after the delivery of the 
 writ of the parliament, proclamation shall be made in full 
 county court of the day and place of the parliament ; and that 
 all they that be there present, as well suitors duly summoned for 
 that cause as others (qe toutz ceux qe illoeqes sont presentz sibien 
 suterez duement somonies pur cele cause come autres) shall 
 attend the election of the knights for the parliament, and then 
 in full county they shall proceed to the election freely and 
 indifferently notwithstanding any commandment or request to 
 the contrary ; and after they be chosen, the names of the persons 
 so chosen (be they present or absent) shall be written in an 
 indenture under the seals of all of them that did choose them, 
 and tacked to the same writ of the parliament ; which indenture, 
 
 * The commons had hefore this time entered upon a resolute course of oppo- 
 sition to undue interference with the liberty of elections. The 10th of the 
 articles exhibited in Parliament against Richard II. stated that 'Although by 
 the statute and custom of his realm in the calling together of every parlia- 
 ment, his people in the several counties of the kingdom oughl to be free in 
 choosing and deputing two knights to be present in such parliament for each 
 respective enmity, and to declare their grievances and to prosecute such 
 remedies thereupon as to them shall seem expedient; yel the aforesaid king, 
 
 that in his parliaments he might be able more freely to accomplish 1 1 Sects 
 
 of his headstrong will, did very often direct his commands to his sheriffs thai 
 they should cause to come to his parliament as knights of the shire certain 
 persons by the king named.' — ' Rot. Pari.' vol. iii. p. 120.
 
 104 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 so sealed and tacked, shall be liolden for the sheriff's return 
 of the same writ touching the knights of the shire. 
 
 ' And in the writs of the parliament to be made hereafter 
 this clause shall be put : " Et electionem tuam in pleno comitatu 
 tuo factam distincte et aperte sub sigillo tuo et sigillis eoruni 
 qui electioni illi interfuerint nobis in cancellaria nostra ad diem 
 et locum in brevi contentos certifices iudilate ; " [and your 
 election made in your full county court, distinctly and openly 
 under your seal and the seals of those who shall have been 
 present at that election, you certify without delay to us in our 
 chancery at the day and place contained in the writ].' 
 
 It appears by the preamble of this important enactment, that 
 the occasion of it was the grievous complaint of the commons 
 of undue elections made by the sheriffs from partiality and other 
 causes. The nature of the grievance further appears from the 
 direction that elections are for the future to be made freely and 
 indifferently, notwithstanding any request or commandment to 
 the contrary. In the preceding reign of Richard II., a practice 
 of undue interference with elections had been commenced, and 
 had been made one of the articles of accusation upon which the 
 deposition of that king was founded. 
 
 Next we find it provided that proclamation is to be made in 
 full county court of the day and place of the parliament. To 
 this it may be added, that in the contemporaneous articles for 
 the regulation of the royal household of Henry IV., to which 
 frequent reference has been made, it was provided (Art. 22) 
 ' that all the sheriffs, before the election of knights of the shire, 
 shall, by open proclamation in their several counties, give 
 fifteen days' respite to the time and place.' * 
 
 The electors are defined to be ' all they that be present, as 
 well suitors duly summoned for the same cause as others.' A 
 very important question arises on the meaning of this word 
 ' others.' Does it mean other causes, or other persous ? Were 
 the electors to be all persons present as well suitors as other 
 persons ? or were they all suitors summoned for that canse or 
 for other causes ? If the latter interpretation be adopted, 
 suitors only were to have the suffrage. A little consideration 
 will show that this latter interpretation cannot possibly be 
 correct. If we understand ' others ' to mean other causes, we 
 must suppose that some of the suitors were summoned to the 
 election and some for other purposes. Hence we have to sup- 
 pose that the summons of suitors to attend the election was 
 partial only. For it all of them were convened for that pur- 
 
 * 1 -Pari. Hist.' r- 304.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 105 
 
 pose, there were no 'others ' of their number who could be 
 convened for anything else. But we know that the summons 
 to the election was perfectly general. The law distinctly 
 required that it should be so ; and it would be absurd to pro- 
 vide that the electoral summons should be addressed to only a 
 part of the suitors, and yet that the rest of their body who 
 were present in the county court should be also authorised to 
 vote. We are therefore forced to the conclusion that ' others ' 
 means other persons. The manifest intention of the clause is, 
 that all persons present in the county court, whether suitors or 
 not, should take part in the choice of knights of the shire. 
 
 As the construction of this statute is of vital importance in 
 the history of the suffrage, a repetition of the foregoing argu- 
 ment, in a somewhat different form, may be excused. 
 
 There are, then, two modes of construing the words which 
 describe the voters at county elections. They were either 
 (1) All suitors summoned for that cause and any other causes ; 
 or (2) All suitors summoned for that cause and any other 
 suitors. The second interpretation assumes that there were 
 other suitors besides those summoned to the election. In other 
 words, that the summons to the election was not general, but 
 addressed only to some of the suitors. This we know to be con- 
 trary to the fact, and it is therefore demonstrated that the first 
 interpretation is the correct one. 
 
 The language of other parts of the enactment is consis- 
 tent with this interpretation. A passage in Latin which is 
 required to be inserted in the parliamentary writ directs that 
 the return shall be certified under the seals of those who shall 
 have been present at that election — eorum qui electioni illi 
 interf'uerint. The county court was an open court, and was 
 attended, certainly, by many auditors who were not necessarily 
 suitors. It was held on great occasions — as it is to this day — ■ 
 in open unenclosed places, where any exclusion of persons dis- 
 qualified from voting would have been impracticable. There 
 was no machinery for scrutiny of votes. The election was that 
 which we now call the nomination, and the only practicable 
 way of ascertaining the will of the majority in the case of a 
 contest was by show of hands, or by some similar rough process. 
 
 The meaning here assigned to the statute 7 Henry IV. is 
 conclusively confirmed by reference to the parliamentary writs 
 issued immediately after that date. We find in them .t consi- 
 derable variation from the language of the similar instruments 
 .if , -in earlier date. Thus the writs of 7 Henry IV., just before 
 the statute was passed, merely direct each sheriff, "That of
 
 106 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 your county you cause two knights girt with swords, of the 
 more fit and discreet of your county, and of every city of that 
 county two citizens, and of every borough two burgesses of the 
 more discreet and sufficient men to be elected, and to come at 
 the said day and place.' * But when we turn to the like instru- 
 ments immediately after the enactment, there is a material 
 variation in the language employed : the process of election in 
 counties is now described. Thus in 8 Henry IV. each sheriff 
 is commanded, f ' That proclamation being made in your next 
 county court to be holden after the receipt of this writ, of the 
 day and place aforesaid, you cause two knights, girt with 
 swords, of the more fit and discreet of the said county, and of 
 every city of the said county two citizens, and of every borough 
 two burgesses of the more discreet and sufficient to be freely 
 and indifferently elected by them who shall attend upon that pro- 
 clamation, according to the form of the statute in our last par- 
 liament in that behalf made and provided ; and the names of 
 the same knights, citizens, and burgesses so to be elected, to be 
 inserted in certain indentures to be made between you and 
 those who shall attend such election, whether the persons so to 
 be elected be present or absent.' 
 
 There is not a word here about the election being confined to 
 suitors. The sheriff is to make proclamation respecting the 
 election. The statute describes this announcement. It is to be 
 made in open county court, and merely relates to a time and place ; 
 and therefore it could not be addressed to any particular class 
 of persons. All who shall attend upon that proclamation are to 
 freely and indifferently participate in the election. Moreover, 
 this is to be done in accordance with the late statute ; so that 
 we have here an authentic exposition of that enactment. Can 
 it be imagined that if the election were to be confined to any 
 
 * Quod de comitate tuo duos milites gladiis cinctos magis idoueos et dis- 
 cretes comitates predicti et de qualibet civitate comitates illius duos cives 
 et de quolibet burgo duos burgenses de discrecioribus et magis sufficient il> us 
 eligi et eos ad dictos diem et locum venire facias. — ' Rep. on Dig. of a Peer,' 
 vol. iv. Appendix, p. 794. 
 
 f Quod facta proclamatione in proximo comitatu tuo post receptionem liujus 
 brevis tenendo de die et loco predictis, duos milites gladiis cinctos magis 
 idoneos et discretes comitates predicti et de qualibet civitate comitates 
 illius duos cives et de quolibet burgo duos burgenses de discrecioribus et 
 magis sufficientibus libere et indiffereuter per illos qui proclamacioni liujus- 
 modi interfuerint juxta formam statuti in ultimo parliamento nostro editi et 
 provisi eligi ac nomina eorundem militum civium et burgensiuni sic eli- 
 gendorum in quibusdam indenturis inter te et illos qui bujusmodi eleccioni 
 interfuerint inde conficiendis licet bujusmodi eligendi presentes vol absentes 
 fuerint inseri. — ' Rep', on Dig. of a Peer,' vol. iv. p. 802.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 107 
 
 limited or privileged body, this general and unrestricted lan- 
 guage could have been employed — that no direction would have 
 been given to exclude unqualified persons ? 
 
 The county court was open to all comers. In the Saxon 
 times, as we have abundantly shown in a previous chapter, it 
 was often attended by large promiscuous gatherings of the 
 people of all classes : and there is not a particle of evidence 
 that it had become a select body in the fourteenth century. On 
 the contrary, the statute-book, at a much later period than that 
 now under consideration, distinctly shows that the court was 
 open to every one. An act passed about forty years later, 
 23 Henry VI. c. 10 (a.d. 1444) makes the following provision 
 for levying the wages of knights of the shire. When the time 
 comes for assessing these charges, the sheriff ' shall make open 
 proclamation that the coroners and every chief constable of the 
 peace of the said counties, and the bailiffs of every hundred or 
 wapentake of the same county, and all others who wish to be at 
 the assessing of the wages (et toutz autrez qui voillent estre a le 
 assesaunce de lez gagez) of the knights of the counties, shall be 
 at the next county court there to be holden.' The act goes on 
 to provide that the sheriff shall assess the wages in the presence 
 of those who shall come at that time and of the suitors of the said 
 counties then being there (en presence diceux qui a celle temps 
 viendront et de lez suitours dez ditz counteez adonques esteantz 
 la). Can any words more clearly show that the county court 
 was open to everybody who chose to attend it ? 
 
 These considerations show the importance of the preliminary 
 investigation, essayed in former chapters, respecting the con- 
 stitution of this tribunal. If the foregoing conclusions be 
 accepted, it follows that the whole body of the inhabitants of 
 the county were by the statute of 7 Henry IV. confirmed in 
 their right to participate in the choice of knights of the shire. 
 The statute, as we shall presently show by reference to another 
 act made four years later, was not a creation of any new 
 suffrage, but a declaration and confirmation of that which had 
 long existed. We have already referred to the authoritative 
 declaration made seventy years previously in answer to a peti- 
 tion of the commons respecting the election of knights of the 
 shire (50 Edward III. a.d. 1870), 'The king wills that thvy 
 shall be elected by common consent of all the county/ and 
 even that declaration was but an exposition of the then antient 
 law. 
 
 Lastly, this act of 7 Henry IV. introduces a new statutory 
 prevision as to the mode in which sheriffs were to make their
 
 108 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 returns. Previously the return was usually a statement annexed 
 to the writ, and signed by the sheriff, stating- the names of the 
 persons returned, and of their manucaptors, or sureties for 
 their due appearance in parliament. Henceforth it was no 
 longer in the power of the sheriff to make his return privately 
 without the cognisance of the electors. The result of the elec- 
 tion was to be signified by an indenture, signed and sealed by 
 the electors as well as by himself; and that form of return by 
 indenture is continued to the present day.* 
 
 This remarkable legislation was followed up four years 
 afterwards by an enactment imposing severe penalties upon the 
 sheriffs for making false returns. The law of 7 Henry IV. had 
 imposed no penalties, and therefore was violated with impunity. 
 But in 11 Henry IV. (a.d. 1410), the commons present a petition 
 in parliament complaining of the non-observance of the former 
 act respecting knights of the shire. They represent ' that the 
 statute was made in conservation of the franchises and privileges 
 of the election of the knights of the shires, and throughout the 
 realm, and by the king's progenitors, and by himself, from 
 parliament to parliament, confirmed for time of which memory 
 did not run.' The answer is : ' That the statute mentioned, 
 and other statutes of the king's progenitors before made in the 
 same matter, shall be observed.' On this petition the statute is 
 made 11 Henry IV. c. 1, by which sheriffs who are guilty of 
 false returns are to be fined £100 for each offence, and the 
 knights so returned are to lose their accustomed wages. The 
 petition on which this enactment is founded has a great his- 
 torical value, for it shows that the right of suffrage declared 
 by the statute of 7 Henry IV. was the antient usage of the 
 kingdom. It is an utter mistake to suppose that the great law 
 of 7 Henry IV. created a novel system of suffrage. The parlia- 
 ment itself recorded four years afterwards that the franchises 
 in question existed in the reigns of the king's progenitors, ' for 
 a time of which memory did not run.' 
 
 In the brief reign of Henry V. the most important transac- 
 tion with reference to the constitution of parliament was an 
 
 * To preclude a surmise that the sealing by the electors had the effect of 
 excluding persons of inferior condition, who might be supposed not to possess 
 seals, the reader may be reminded of the passage from Fleta, cited in a former 
 chapter, which states that inquisitions of felonies might be taken, not only by 
 freemen, but also ' by some of the more discreet and lawful villans having 
 seals.' The use of seals in the fourteenth century is shown by Prof. Rogers 
 (' History of Agriculture and Prices,' vol. i. p. 120) to have been very common 
 among persons of humble condition.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 109 
 
 enactment requiring that knights of shires, and the represen- 
 tatives of cities and boroughs, should be residents within the 
 counties, cities, and boroughs which they represented. By 
 1 Henry V. c. 1, it is provided * that the knights of the shires 
 which from henceforth shall be chosen in every shire be not 
 chosen unless they be resident within the shire where they are 
 chosen, the day of the date of the writ of summons of the 
 parliament ; and that the knights and squires and others 
 which shall be chosen of those knights of the. shires be also 
 resident within the same shires in manner and form as is afore- 
 said : and moreover it is ordained and established that the 
 citizens and burgesses of the cities and boroughs be chosen 
 men citizens and burgesses resiant, dwelling, and free in the 
 same cities and boroughs, and no other in any wise.' 
 
 The language of the latter part of this enactment is some- 
 what peculiar. The original is qe les citeins et burgeis soient 
 esluz hommes citeins et burgeises reseauntz demurrauntz et enfraun- 
 chises en mesmes le cites et burghs et nulles mitres en nulle manere. 
 These words define the qualification of the representatives, not 
 of the electors in boroughs : and on reference to the rolls of 
 parliament, it appears that the parliamentary petition on which 
 this enactment is founded is to the same effect, though slightly 
 different in form. 
 
 There is, however, one very material difference between the 
 petition and the statute. The former, with reference to county 
 elections, prays that they ' may take place in the presence of the 
 sheriff for the time being, in manner and form aforesaid, and not 
 by the voice, nor assent, nor commandment of those who are 
 absent.' * All the other articles of the petition are dealt with 
 in the reply, and are embodied in the statute. But to this 
 article no answer is given. If it had been enacted, the effect 
 would have been to prevent the attorneys of suitors in the county 
 court from voting on their behalf in the election of knights of 
 the shire. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VI. the nation had fallen upon evil 
 times. Political power was divided between two hostile aristo- 
 cratical factions — the Lancastrians and the adherents of the 
 house of York, whose bloody feuds kept the country in a state 
 of anarchy. The voice of the commons was drowned by the 
 din of arms. The king came to the throne a child of nine 
 months old, and during a great part of his reign was a mere 
 
 * 4 « Rotuli Pari.' p. 8.
 
 110 AXTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 puppet in the hands of others, who ruled in his name. For 
 some years after his accession the country was governed by the 
 protector, or regent, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ; and Beau- 
 fort, Duke of Exeter, and the Bishop of Winchester were 
 appointed by parliament governors to take care of the king's 
 person and education.* 
 
 Constant dissensions occurred between the bishop and the 
 Duke Humphrey, the protector assuming absolute authority, 
 and the prelate resisting his pretensions. We have a charac- 
 teristic illustration of the lawless spirit of the times in the 
 account of a parliament held in Leicester in 4 Henry VI. (a.d. 
 1427), ' at which time and place, being assembled in the great 
 hall of the Castle of Leicester, much care had been taken to 
 prevent any tumults between the great trains of the protector 
 and bishop, by strictly prohibiting any person whatsoever to 
 come thither with swords or any other warlike weapon ; which 
 order, though it was literally observed, yet the lords and their 
 attendants came armed with batts or clubs on their shoulders, 
 from whence this meeting got the name of the " parliament of 
 batts." ' f 
 
 In 8 Henry VI. a.d. 1429 the king was crowned, and the pro- 
 tectorate nominally dissolved, but the Duke of Gloucester 
 retained his power, and in the following year (9 Henry VI. a.d. 
 1431) the writs for the assembly of parliament were issued by 
 him under the style of guardian or keeper of England, and he 
 opened the session, seated in his chair of state, in the Painted 
 Chamber at Westminster. But the rivalry between him and 
 the bishop, who had been raised to the dignity of a cardinal, con- 
 tinued, and parliament was several times called upon to interpose 
 in their quarrels. 
 
 Henry VI. was imbecile or insane all his life. A letter in the 
 Paston Collection gives a very natural and affecting picture of his 
 recovery from one of his severe attacks of mental disease, which, 
 from the circumstances here related, appears to have continued 
 from October 1453 till Christmas 1454, and to have been at- 
 tended by total loss of memory. The letter, which is addressed 
 to John Paston, Esquire, a gentleman of Norfolk, by his cousin 
 Edmund Clere, is dated 10th January, 1454, and contains the 
 following passage (the spelling modernised) : — 
 
 ' Blessed be God ! the king is well amended, and hath been 
 since Christmas Day; and on S. John's Day, commanded his 
 almoner to ride to Canterbury with his offering, and commanded 
 his secretary to offer at S. Edward's. 
 
 * 1 < Pari. Hist.' p. 346. f 1 < Pari. Hist.' p. 8-54.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Ill 
 
 ' And on the Monday afternoon, the queen came to him and 
 brought my lord prince with her, and then he asked what the 
 prince's name was, and the queen told him Edward ; and then 
 he held up his hands and thanked God thereof. 
 
 ' And he said he never knew him till that time ; nor wist not 
 what was said to him, nor wist not where he had been whilst he 
 had been sick till now ; and he asked who were godfathers ; and 
 the queen told him, and he was well apaid [content], 
 
 ' And she told him that the cardinal was dead ; and he said he 
 knew never thereof till that time ; and he said one of the wisest 
 lords in this land was dead. 
 
 ' And my Lord of Winchester, and my Lord of S. John's were 
 with him on the morrow after Twelfthday, and he spake to them 
 as well as ever he did ; and when they came out they wept for 
 
 ' And he saith that he is in charity with all the world, and so 
 he would all the lords were. 
 
 ' And now he saith matins of our Lady, and evensong, and 
 heareth his mass devoutly. 
 
 'And Richard shall tell you more tidings by mouth.' * 
 
 In this familiar letter we have a touching picture of the 
 unhappy king's condition, and the distraction of the times. 
 For fifteen months he had continued in a state of unconscious- 
 ness, ' nor wist not what was said to him, nor wist not where he 
 had been.' Of the birth of his own son, Prince Edward, he 
 was ignorant for more than a year after the event. 
 
 It is not within the purpose of this work to pursue minutely 
 the history of the reign, but it is necessary to make some 
 reference to it in order to explain the character and results of 
 contemporary legislation respecting the constitution of the 
 House of Commons. The reign was almost entirely a succession 
 of regencies, either formally or tacitly recognised. In 1433, 
 the Duke of Bedford, who had been nominally supreme pro- 
 tector from the commencement of the reign, but who had long 
 been in France conducting the war with that country, assumed 
 a large share of the governing power by the consent of parlia- 
 inent.t In 1445 (23 Hen. VI.), by the management of the Earl 
 of Suffolk, and others about the court, the king was married to 
 Margaret, daughter of the King of Sicily, and thenceforward 
 
 * ' Faston Letters,' vol. i. p. 81. These letters were addressed by and to 
 various members of the Paston family in the reign of Hen. VI. and two follow- 
 ingreigns, and "were collected and printed in 17S(>. The Pastons were gentlemen 
 of distinction in Norfolk, where they had considerable property. 
 
 * 1 'Pari. Hist.' p. 370.
 
 112 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 the queen and Suffolk, who was raised to the dignity of a 
 duke, had a complete ascendency over Henry. The dominant 
 court party plotted the ruin of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 
 the former regent, and in 1447 he was arrested and murdered. 
 His old enemy, the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester, died a few 
 months later ; and for some time afterwards the queen and the 
 Duke of Suffolk managed the kingdom without control.* 
 Suffolk was impeached and sentenced to banishment in 1450 
 (28 Hen. VI.). On his way from England, the ship which con- 
 veyed him was overtaken by another English vessel, he was 
 taken into a boat and decapitated. One of the Paston Letters 
 which narrates his death refers to a mock trial of Suffolk, 
 which is supposed to have taken place in the ship by which he 
 was captured. f 
 
 Shortly afterwards there was another regency. In 1453 
 (32 Hen. VI.), the Duke of York sat as ' the king's lieutenant in 
 his parliament,' and was appointed Protector et Defensor Anglice. 
 The end of the troubled career of Henry VI. was briefly this : — 
 In 1455, the Duke of York raised an army, routed the ad- 
 herents of the court at St. Albans, and took the king prisoner. 
 In the same year the duke was again appointed protector. In 
 1460 he was attainted in parliament. Subsequently, his ad- 
 herents fought a battle near Northampton, in which the king 
 was a second time taken prisoner. Shortly afterwards the Duke 
 of York made public claim to the crown by a bill exhibited 
 in the House of Lords. In 1461, he was slain at the battle 
 of Wakefield, together with 3,000 Yorkists ; but very shortly 
 afterwards that party was again triumphant, and his son, the 
 new Duke of York, was proclaimed king under the title of 
 Edward IV. Eor the next ten years Henry VI. remained in 
 captivity. In 1470, a brief interruption of the royal authority 
 of Edward IV. occurred. Henry was taken from the Tower 
 and nominally restored to the throne, but his incapacity being 
 avowed, the government was entrusted to a regency. About 
 six months later the battle of Tewkesbury was fought, in 
 which the Lancastrians were utterly defeated. A few days 
 after the battle, Henry VI. died suddenly in imprisonment, 
 and he was generally supposed to have been murdered. 
 
 The laws of this reign must be read by the light of these 
 contemporary events. It may be safely assumed that every 
 important transaction of parliament had some reference to the 
 incessant struggles of the rival aristocratical factions. 
 
 In 8 Hen. VI. (a.d. 1429), an act was passed which marks 
 
 * 'Pari. Hist.' p. .183. t ' Paston Letters/ vol. i. p. 41.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 113 
 
 an entirely new era in the county suffrage, by limiting that 
 right to the class who are commonly called forty -shilling 
 freeholders. 
 
 This statute, which was passed during the contentions between 
 the Duke Humphrey and Cardinal Beaufort, presents a strong 
 contrast to the legislation of the preceding reigns. The policy 
 of the former parliaments had been to secure the whole body of 
 the county population in the free and independent exercise of 
 their electoral rights. The law of Henry VI., for the first time in 
 our annals, imposed a property qualification, limiting the right 
 of county suffrage to persons possessing freehold tenements to 
 the value of forty shillings by the year, at least, above all 
 charges or reprises. 
 
 The petition of the commons upon which this enactment is 
 founded, deserves attention on account of the reasons assigned 
 for the new law. 
 
 ' Pray the commons of this present parliament that, Whereas, 
 the elections of knights of shires elected to come to your 
 parliaments in many counties of England have lately been 
 made by too great and excessive number of people dwelling 
 within the same counties ; of whom the greater part are by 
 people of little or no means, of whom each pretends to have an 
 equivalent voice so far as relates to such elections with the 
 most worthy knights or esquires dwelling in the same counties ; 
 of which homicides, riots, batteries, and divisions between the 
 gentlemen and other people of the same counties probably will 
 arise and be, if a convenient remedy be not provided in that 
 behalf : 
 
 ' That it may please your gracious lordship to consider the 
 premises, and to provide and ordain by the authority of this 
 present parliament, that the election of knights of the same 
 counties within your realm of England to be chosen to come 
 to parliament hereafter be made in each county by people 
 dwelling and resident therein, of whom each has freehold 
 (frank tenement) to the value of xl shillings by the year, at least, 
 beyond the outgoings (reprises). And that those that be there 
 chosen be dwelling and resident within the same counties. And 
 those that have the greater number of them who can expend by 
 the year xl shillings and upwards, as aforesaid, be returned by 
 the sheriffs of each county, knights for the parliament by inden- 
 tures sealed between the said sheriffs and the said electors. 
 And that each sheriff of England have power by the said autho- 
 rity to examine upon the holy Evangelists each such elector 
 how much he can expend by the year. And if any sheriff 
 
 i
 
 114 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 return knights to come to parliament contrary to this ordinance, 
 that the justices of assizes, in their session of assizes, have power 
 by the said authority to inquire thereof. And if by inquisition 
 that be found before the said justices, and the sheriff thereof 
 be duly attaint, that then the said sheriff incur the penalty of 
 J100 to be paid to our lord the king. And also that he be 
 imprisoned for a year without bail or mainprise. And that 
 the knights for the parliament returned contrary to the said 
 ordinance lose their wages. Provided always, that every one 
 who cannot expend xl shillings by the year, as aforesaid, shall 
 not be in any manner an elector of knights for the parliament. 
 And that in every writ issued hereafter to the sheriffs to elect 
 knights for the parliament mention be made of the said ordi- 
 nances.' 
 
 1 Answer. — Let it be as is desired by the petition.' * 
 It will be observed that three several reasons are assigned for 
 restricting the franchise ; firstly, the too great and excessive 
 number of electors ; secondly, their pretension to have equal 
 voice with knights and esquires ; thirdly, the probability that 
 homicides and disputes will arise between the gentlemen and the 
 other people. The second and third reasons explain the first. 
 The true grievance appears to have been not the mere number 
 of the lower class of electors, but that their votes were of equal 
 weight with those of persons of gentle (' gentil ') condition. 
 Parliament was also apprehensive that the two parties might 
 come to blows — it is not alleged that they had already done so — 
 but ' probably ' divisions will arise between the gentry and the 
 simple folk. We have this valuable piece of historical infor- 
 mation that the legislature of the reign of Henry IV., though it 
 did not expressly extend the suffrage, had the practical effect 
 of increasing the number of voters. Can there be any doubt 
 that the true motive of the petition just cited was to aggrandise 
 the power of the upper classes ? They were intent upon their 
 feuds and took a deep interest in the political struggles of rival 
 houses for supremacy : the common people, on the contrary, 
 had no great zeal for these disputes, and probably rmderstood 
 but little about their merits. A parliament which represented 
 them would concern itself to secure peace and to promote the 
 arts of peace. A parliament which represented the upper 
 classes would be chiefly busy with their contests. 
 
 The parliaments after this time were assembled at irregular 
 intervals. In all the previous reigns from the accession of 
 
 * < Petitions in Pari. 8 Hen. VI. ;' ' Rotuli Pari.' vol. iv. p. 350.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 115 
 
 Edward II. they had met annually with very few omissions. 
 Now they were frequently intermitted for two or three years 
 together, and these assemblies when they met were principally 
 occupied in making enormous grants of public money and loans ; 
 in impeachments and counter-impeachments; in legislation 
 which either did not interest the people or increased the burdens 
 imposed upon them. 
 
 The Paston Letters give a clear insight into the operation of 
 the new law respecting the county suffrage. The following 
 letter was written by the Duchess of Norfolk to John Paston, 
 apparently about 1455 : — 
 
 ' Right trusty and well beloved, we greet you heartily well ; 
 and for as much as it is thought right necessary for diverse 
 causes, that my lord have at this time in the parliament such 
 persons as belong unto him, and be of his menial servants ; 
 wherein we conceive your good will and diligence shall be right 
 expedient ; we heartily desire and pray you, that at the con- 
 templation of these our letters, as our special trust is in you, ye 
 will give and apply your voice unto our right well beloved cousin, 
 and servants John Howard, and Sir Roger Chamberlayne, to be 
 the knights of the shire ; exhorting all such others as by your 
 wisdom shall now be behoveful, to the good exploit and conclu- 
 sions of the same. 
 
 ' And in your faithful attendance, and true devoir in this part, 
 ye shall do unto my lord and us a singular pleasure and cause 
 us hereafter to thank you therefore, as ye shall hold you right 
 well content and agreed with the grace of God, who have you 
 ever in his keeping. 
 
 ' Written at Framlingham Castle, the 8th of June.' * 
 
 To this estate had the House of Commons fallen that the Duke 
 of Norfolk undisguisedly sought the return to parliament of 
 ' such persons as belong to him and be of his menial servants.' 
 An assembly so constituted was not likely to be animated by the 
 spirit which prompted the parliaments of Henry IV. to boldly, 
 firmly, and temperately reform the abuses of the royal household, 
 and to resist the encroachments of the House of Lords on their 
 independence in the grant of supplies. Knights of the shire 
 elected by the ' great and excessive number of people,' which 
 the statute of 8 Henry VI. was intended to reduce, were at least 
 preferable to a Duke's ' menial servants.' 
 
 Another letter, by the Earl of Oxford to John Paston, written 
 some time before 1455, is to the like effect. 
 
 * ' Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI. &c.' edited by 
 John Fenn, M.A. London, 1787, quarto, vol. i. p. i>7.
 
 116 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 ' Right well-beloved, — I greet you well ; and as touching for 
 Tidings I can none, saving that my Lord of Norfoulk met with 
 my Lord of York at Bury on Thursday, and there were 
 together till Friday 9 of the clock, and then they departed ; 
 and there a Gentleman of my Lord of York took, unto a 
 Yeoman of mine, John Deye, a token and a sedell [schedule] of 
 my Lord's intent, whom he would have Knights of the Shire, 
 and I send you a sedell closed [schedule enclosed] of their names 
 in this same Letter, wherefore me thinketh (it) well done to 
 perform my Lord's intent. Written the 18th day of Octr. at 
 Winch, Oxenford.' * 
 
 This and the preceding letter were written about twenty-five 
 years after the system of elections by forty- shilling freeholders 
 was instituted ; and the testimony thus afforded respecting the 
 effect of that institution is not favourable. In the first of 
 these letters the duke, who wants to have in Parliament ' such 
 persons as belong to him and be of his menial servants,' has 
 at least the grace to solicit the concurrence of the electors. 
 In the second letter this formality is dispensed with, and a 
 shorter course adopted. The Duke of York (Richard Planta- 
 genet) and the Duke of Norfolk agree at a conference who 
 shall be the representatives of Norfolk, and issue their instruc- 
 tions in a ' schedule ' accordingly. 
 
 The power of the Duke of York to appoint members of par- 
 liament was well recognised. Thus in an earlier letter, written 
 probably in 1450, by James Gresham to John Paston, the 
 writer states that ' my master Calthorpe had writing from my 
 lord of York ;' and adds pithily, ' some folk ween that it is 
 to the intent that he should be either sheriff or knight of the 
 shire.' f 
 
 The following letter was written about seventeen years later 
 (1472, 12 Edward IV.) to Sir John Paston by his brother : — 
 
 i Right worshipful Sir, — I recommend me to you, letting you 
 weet, that your desire, as for the Knights of the Shire, was 
 an impossible (thing) to be brought about ; for my Lord of 
 Norfolk and my Lord of Suffolk were agreed, more than a 
 fortnight ago, to have Sir Robert Wyngfield, and Sir Richard 
 Harcourt, and that knew I not till Friday last past. I had 
 sent, ere I went to Framlingham, to warn as many of your 
 friends to be at Norwich, as this Monday, to serve your intent, 
 as I co aid ; but when I came to Framlingham, and knew the 
 
 * ' Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI. &c./ edited by 
 John Fenn, M.A. London, 1787, quarto, vol. i. p. 99. 
 f Ibid. vol. i. p. 93.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 117 
 
 appointment that was taken for the two knights, I sent warning 
 again to as many as I might, to tarry at home. ... I sent 
 to Yarmouth, and they have promised also to Doctor Aleyn and 
 John Russe to be (Burgesses) more than three weeks ago. 
 
 ' James Arblaster hath written a Letter to the Bailiff of 
 Maldon, in Essex, to have you a Burgess there ; how Jude 
 shall speed, let him tell you when ye speak together. ... If 
 ye miss to be Burgess of Maldon and. my Lord Chamberlain 
 will, ye may be in another place; there be a dozen towns in 
 England that choose no Burgess which ought to do it. Ye 
 may be set in for one of those towns and [if] ye be friended."* 
 
 From this letter it appears that the nomination of knights 
 of the shire for Norfolk was, at the date when it was written, 
 in the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. 
 
 A remarkable petition from one hundred and twenty-four 
 freeholders of Huntingdonshire complains of the illegal con- 
 duct of an election of knights of the shire at Huntingdon in 
 29 Henry VI., and gives a very curious and interesting picture 
 of the times. This petition, which is addressed to the king, 
 recites the writs for the election, and states that ' at Hunting- 
 ton the Saturday next before Saint Luke's day the Evangelist 
 now last passed, the under-sheriff of your said shire of Hunt- 
 ington, there in the pleyn shire did your said writ of elections 
 to be proclaimed for the two knights of the said shire.' It is 
 then alleged that the petitioners, ' with a three hundred mooe 
 good cominers of the said shire,' named and chose for knights 
 Robert Stoneham and John Stynecle. ' Notwithstanding these 
 premises, there appeared be labour of diverse of Gentilmen 
 of onher Shires and of your said Shire of Huntington, the 
 nombre of a lxx. Freeholders comoners, naming Henry Gimber 
 to be one of the said knights, which is not of gentill birth 
 according to your said writ ; and thereupon the under-sheriff 
 went to examination according to the statutes rehersed in your 
 said writ, and have xlvii. examined of forreiners and receants 
 without interruption of us and few of them contributes to the 
 knights' expenses. And when wee the Freeholders before 
 named should be examined likewise, tho on the said Henry 
 G-imber's part would not suffer us of our part to be examined 
 and to give voys, thoue he might clearly yarely expend xx. mark 
 without that we should have offended the peace of yowe our 
 most doutye Soveraigne Lord; and soe wee departed for dread 
 of the said inconveniences that was likely to be done of man. 
 
 * 'Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI. &c,,' edited by 
 John Fenn, M.A. London, 1787, quarto, vol, ii. p. 10o.
 
 118 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 slaughter. And what the sheriff will return in this behalf we& 
 can have no notice.' The petitioners pray that the sheriff may 
 be charged to return Stoneham and Stynecle.* 
 
 This petition, sealed by the one hundred and twenty-four 
 freeholders, is annexed by the sheriff to his return, which is by 
 indenture in Latin, and states that Nicholas Stynecle and other 
 forty-shilling freeholders have elected Robert Stoneham and 
 John Stynecle to be knights of the shire. The return is 
 sealed by Nicholas Stynecle, the first named of the petitioners 
 who complained of the undue conduct of the election. It 
 thus appears that the sheriff took upon himself to redress 
 the grievance complained of, by returning the knights for 
 whom the petitioners claimed the election. Prynne remarks on 
 this document, ' That this is the only clear declaration and 
 record I have met with complaining against a sheriff giving 
 of an oath and poll to the freeholders giving- their voyces 
 at an election of knights in former ages for the one side, 
 and denying' an oath and poll on the other side.' The record 
 does not, however, justify this comment. The election was 
 conducted by the under-sheriff, and it does not appear that he 
 refused the oath and poll of the petitioners, but that they were 
 prevented by the opposite party from voting, and ' departed 
 for dread of the said inconveniences that was likely to be done 
 of manslaughter.' It is remarkable that all the voters on 
 one side were examined by the under-sheriff before any of the 
 votes on the other side were given. The words, ' and when 
 wee the freeholders before named should be examined in like- 
 wise,' tend to show that this was a regular practice at that 
 period. 
 
 In ' The Complaint of the Commons of Kent, and Causes 
 of their Assemblie on Blackheath,' during Cade's insurrection 
 in 29 Henry VI. a.d. 1451, we have another proof of the 
 political thraldom to which the people were subjected after the 
 destruction of their antient rights of suffrage. One of the 
 articles of this complaint is as follows : — ' Item : The people 
 of the said shire of Kent maie not have their free elections 
 in the choosing of knights of the shire ; but letters beene sent 
 from diverse estates to the great rulers of all the countrie the 
 which imbraceth their tenants and other people by force to 
 choose other persons than the commons will is.'f 
 
 It is true that this is the language of men to whom history 
 gives the character of rebels. But the document appears by 
 
 * Prynne, ' Brevia Parliamentarian p. 157. 
 t Hollinshed, vol. iii. (Ed. 1586) p. 633.
 
 THE COUNTY SUFFRAGE AFTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 119 
 
 strong internal evidence to be a carefully considered and tem- 
 perate exposition of grievances of which the complainants had 
 practical experience. 
 
 The strongest proof, however, of the prevalent parliamentary 
 corruption is to be found in the statute-book itself. An act 
 39 Hen. VI. a.d. 1460, in reference to the parliament held at 
 Coventry two years previously, states that ' it was not duly 
 summoned, and a great part of the knights for different counties 
 of this kingdom, and many citizens and burgesses for different 
 cities and boroughs who appeared there were named, returned, 
 and accepted, some of them without due and free election, and 
 some of them without any election, contrary to the course of the 
 king's laws and the liberties of the commons of the said realm.' 
 
 Again, three years later, we find the next king, Edward IV., 
 assigning the following reasons for the prorogation of a par- 
 liament which he had summoned. In writs addressed to the 
 sheriffs, tested 25 Feb. 2 Edw. IV., he requires them to make a 
 proclamation in their counties which contains this passage. 
 ' By oure writtes we have called the commialte of oure said land 
 by auctorite of such eleccion as accordeth with oure lawes and 
 theire fredom and liberte yet natheless for so much as we 
 understonde that thelleccion of knyghtes of right many of the 
 shires of the same oure lande for the said parliament hath not 
 by thordre of oure said lawes, but contrarie therunto, and also 
 to oure peas, and the said fredom and liberte proceded right 
 inordinatly : Whereof to grete and perilous inconvenience and 
 evyll example in our said lande might grewe if the same parlia- 
 ment shuld have ben kepte.'* 
 
 These proofs are surely sufficient to show what benefits Eng- 
 land reaped from the destruction of the old county franchise. 
 From the degraded position to which it sank in the latter part 
 of the reign of Henry VI., the House of Commons did not 
 recover for more than a century and a half subsequently. The 
 parliaments which sanctioned the Star Chamber in the time of 
 Henry VII., which gave to Henry VIII. authority to issue pro- 
 elm nations having the force of acts of parliament, and which 
 zealously supported Mary in her policy of burning heretics, were 
 animated by a very different spirit from that of the early Plan- 
 fcagenet parliaments. How utterly the independence of the 
 House of Commons was destroyed in the Tudor period may be 
 inferred from the single fact that, in the reign of Edward VI., 
 letters publicly addressed in the king's name to the sheriffs of 
 all the counties state that 'Our pleasure is thai where our 
 
 ' Rep. on Dig. of a Peer.' vol. iv. ]>. 964.
 
 120 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 privy council, or any of their jurisdiction in our behalf, shall 
 recommend men of learning and wisdom, in such case their 
 directions shall be regarded and folloAved.' And the sheriffs of 
 several counties were desired to return certain persons recom- 
 mended by name.* 
 
 In the following reign of Mary, the practice of royal inter- 
 ference in elections continued, and letters were addressed by the 
 queen to the sheriffs commanding them to admonish the people 
 to elect representatives ' of the wise, grave, and Catholic sort.'f 
 The parliament so convoked repealed ' all statutes, articles and 
 provisoes made against the see apostolique of Rome since the 
 20th of Hen. VIII.,' and revived the former acts against heretics. 
 But even in the servile House of Commons of 1554 there were 
 some independent members bold enough to raise an indignant 
 protest against the domination of the crown. Thirty-nine 
 members voluntarily left the house when they saw the majority 
 inclined to submit to the court. The crown resented this 
 separation, and directed the attorney-general to prosecute them 
 in the Queen's Bench. Upon an information preferred against 
 them there for departing without licence contrary to the king 
 and queen's inhibition, six submitted to the mercy of the court 
 and paid their fines. All the rest, among whom was the famous 
 lawyer Plowden, traversed ; but judgment against them was 
 prevented by Mary's death.J 
 
 In the following reign of Elizabeth, something of the an- 
 tient independence of parliament reappeared. This spirit was 
 manifested in a successful resistance to illegal grants of mono- 
 polies and other unlawful exercises of the royal prerogative. 
 But it was not until the reign of James I. that the House of 
 Commons recovered its old dignity. The protestation of the 
 commons concerning their privileges in 1621, and the records 
 of the committees which, under the guidance of Coke, Selden, 
 Pym, and other illustrious and learned advisers, restored the 
 antient course of election in many boroughs, comprise some of 
 the fairest pages of our parliamentary history. 
 
 * 1 « Pari. Hist.' 599. t Ibid. p. G15. 
 
 % Coke's ' Fourth Institute,' cap. 1, where a copy of the ' information ' con- 
 taining the names of the thirty-nine seceders is given.
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 
 
 Elections were originally by show of hands, 121. — This method common during 
 the Tudor period, 122. — Right to a poll established in the reign of James I., 123. 
 — The form of returns, 125. — Burgesses returned by indenture in the County 
 Court though not elected there, 126. — The parties to the indentures were only a 
 few of the electors, but declared the will of the rest, 127. 
 
 For a long time after the first institution of the House of 
 Commons, the only method of voting at a contested election 
 was by the view or show of hands. What is now termed the 
 ' nomination ' was then the only election. Until the passing of 
 the statute of Henry VI. limiting the county suffrage to forty 
 shilling freeholders there is not the slightest trace of any 
 practice of polling the electors or of scrutinising their votes. 
 And even after that period the old method was long retained 
 even at county elections. There is strong evidence that the right 
 to a poll was not firmly established until the time of James I. 
 
 In an action brought in the first and second years of the 
 reign of Philip and Mary (a.d. 1554) by Sir Richard Buckley 
 against Rice Thomas, formerly sheriff of Anglesea, the legality 
 of elections by show of hands was affirmed. Buckley had 
 been an unsuccessful candidate for the county of Anglesea at 
 an election in the first year of Queen Mary's reign. He com- 
 plained of a false return : one of the exceptions taken by him 
 was that there had not been a poll, and that consequently the 
 sheriff could not determine for certain the number of electors. 
 Upon this point Staunford, J., one of the judges, said : ' As to 
 the second point, it seems to me that he shall not be com- 
 pelled to show the certain number of electors. For since he 
 cannot be intended to have certain knowledge thereof, he 
 shall not be compelled to show the certainty ; and perhaps he 
 was elected by voices or holding up of hands, and not by the 
 number of persons in certain, in which case it is easy to deter- 
 mine who hath the majority of voices or hands, by hearing or 
 seeing, and yet very difficult to know the certain number or 
 names of them.' Saunders, J., was also of the opinion that a 
 parliamentary election might legally be taken by the view, 
 and added, ' and so shall it be in the election of a coroner, who
 
 122 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 is chosen by voices or hands.' The Chief-Justice Brooke says : 
 ' The election might be made by voices or by hands, or such 
 other way, wherein it is easy to tell who has the majority, and 
 yet very difficult to know the certain number of them ; and 
 in such manner there are divers elections in London. And I 
 myself in London was elected by holding up of hands, but T 
 could not tell how many there were that held up their hands.' 
 He also refers to a case in the time of Henry VII. , of an action 
 by Richard Corbet against Sir Gilbert Talbot, sheriff of Shrop- 
 shire, in which the legality of that method of election was 
 virtually admitted, and adds significantly, ' which case I take 
 to be worthy of particular observation. For the persons con- 
 cerned in it were snch sort of men (for I was born in the same 
 county, and have heard of their tempers), that if there had been 
 any defect in the pleadings on the one side or the other, they 
 would not have passed it over to save any expense, as every one 
 that knows the parties could affirm ; and at that time there 
 were very good lawyers.'* 
 
 It is clear from this report that up to the time of Philip and 
 Mary elections were taken by the view or voices, and that, in 
 the opinion of the judges, a poll was not essential in the case 
 of a contest. But in the reign of James I. a different doctrine 
 began to prevail, as the following extract from the ' Commons 
 Journal,' for March 5, 1623 (21 Jac. I.) will show. Mr. Glan- 
 ville reports from the Committee of Privileges a petition from 
 Cambridgeshire concerning the validity of the election. ' Upon 
 the first view, the poll demanded, but not proceeded in ; and 
 second view, but not performed. Demanded by both sides. 
 Upon this, the third view, being in a mix't company. A mere 
 void election, the conclusion of the committee generally.' f 
 
 It appears that at this election the view had been taken 
 thrice, owing to an uncertainty as to which party had the 
 majority. The House of Commons ordered a new election. 
 
 An account of the mode in which an election was conducted 
 in Yorkshire a few years afterwards shows that the means 
 then adopted for polling the electors were exceedingly rude 
 and imperfect. Sir George More reports (July 4, 1625, 1 Car. I.) 
 from the Committee of Privileges the following statement of 
 its proceedings upon an examination of the sheriff of York- 
 shire : 'That the sheriff was charged— 1. That upon his view, 
 without poll, he gave his judgment for Sir Tho. Wentworth 
 and Sir Tho. Fairfax, to be knights ; when Sir Jo. Savyle most 
 
 * Plowden's 'Commentaries, 1 p. 129. 
 t 1 'Commons Journal/ p. 729.
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 123 
 
 voices ; 21y, That when the poll required, he said it was only 
 of courtesy to grant it ; 31y, That he began the poll, but having 
 polled about thirty-five, brake it off . . . That upon Tuesday last 
 he by his counsel alleged that the day of the election after eight 
 of the clock he made proclamation and read the writ at the usual 
 place. That the writ being read, he caused the gates to be 
 shut ; he took a view of the freeholders, and returning, said he 
 thought Sir Tho. Wentworth and Sir Tho. Fairfax were double 
 the voices of Sir Jo. Savyle. That he chose to take the poll at 
 the postern gate, and having polled about thirty-five, heard the 
 fore gate was broken open, and many freeholders gone out upon 
 Sir John Savyle' s persuasion that the poll would last many 
 days. That thereupon he brake off the poll.' * 
 
 This report occasioned a great debate. In the course of it 
 Sir Thomas Wentworth stated ' that the sheriff shut up the 
 fore gate, went to the postern gate, and being without, the poll 
 by the unlawful act of Sir Jo. Savyle himself interrupted.' 
 
 Sir Edward Coke ' liketh not the sheriff's answer that he 
 needed not grant the poll : For bound to grant it.' 
 
 Mr. Glanvyle : ' If the poll were demanded before eleven 
 o'clock, but not granted before, then the poll not granted at 
 all, because the time for the election past. And it like the 
 case of Cambridgeshire : wherein the House resolved that the 
 not polling when demanded is misdemeanour in the sheriff.' 
 
 Sir Francis Seymour : ' That the poll demanded and granted 
 before eleven. The shutting of the gate fit to exclude other 
 freeholders who might come in and ffive their voices now when 
 the time of election was past.' 
 
 The debate was resumed July 5. Sir Thomas Wentworth 
 contended ' That the sheriff had no power when new men were 
 let in to give them an oath whether they were present at the 
 election or not for a praemunire if he had.' 
 
 To this Mr. Glanvyle replied : ' Adjudged in the case of 
 Arondell that so many as came in during the polling had right 
 of voices. So in the case of Gloucester.' The House resolved 
 that the election for Yorkshire was void, and ordered a new 
 writ.f 
 
 The sheriff in this case seems to have been under the im- 
 pression that all electors who were present at the view, and 
 those only, ought to be polled. He accordingly appears to have 
 closed one of the entrances to the place of election, and to have 
 stood at the other for the purpose of counting the voters as they 
 passed out. The breaking open the gate which he had closed 
 
 * 1 * Commons Journal;' p. 801. t Ibid. p. v(, i
 
 124 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 was regarded by him as an interruption which justified a dis- 
 continuance of the polling. 
 
 In a report made by the Committee of Privileges to the 
 House of Commons concerning an election for Southwark 
 (March 2, 1623, 21 Jac. 1)* it is said ' the electors, according 
 to their antient usage, declaring for whom they were by hold- 
 ing up of hands, at the first trial it seemed that Mr. Mingaie 
 had the more hands with him ; but upon a second and further 
 trial, it seemed very clear that Mr. Brom field had the more 
 hands for him. But there were divers watermen and others 
 present who ought to have no voice in the election ; and albeit 
 a motion was made in due time to try by numbering the polls 
 of the electors who had the more voices, . yet that course was 
 not taken, but the assembly of electors dissolved without num- 
 bering the polls.' It was resolved that the election was imper- 
 fect, and a new writ was ordered. f 
 
 From these cases it is obvious that, so late as the reign of 
 James I., the right to a poll when demanded was not completely 
 established. Probably the resolutions of the House of Commons 
 just cited tended materially to settle the practice. But even in 
 the reign of William III. it was considered necessary to enact 
 that ' in case the said election be not determined u]3on the view, 
 with the consent of the freeholders there present, but that a 
 poll shall be required for the determination thereof, then the said 
 sheriff, or in his absence his under-sheriff, with such others as 
 shall be deputed by him, shall forthwith then proceed to take 
 the said poll. 'J 
 
 But up to the time of Henry VI., when the law respecting 
 the forty-shilling freeholders was passed, there is no trace 
 whatever of any instance of polling ; certainly there was no 
 scrutiny of votes. In reference to this Act of Parliament, and 
 the petition of the Commons on which it was founded, the 
 learned Prynne says, in his ' Brevia Parliamentaria Bediviva :' 
 ' Before this petition and Act, every inhabitant and commoner 
 in each county had a voyce in the election of knights, whether 
 he were a freehol ler or not, or had a freehold only of one peny, 
 sixpence, or twelvepence by the year.'§ 
 
 Thus, the opinion of that most learned antiquary, William 
 Prynne — to whom we are indebted for the rescue of our most 
 valuable parliamentary records from oblivion — exactly confirms 
 the conclusion of the preceding chapters : that, up to the time 
 
 * 1 ' Commons Journal,' p. 724. t Glanville's ' Cases in Parliament,' p. 7. 
 
 1 7 & 8 William III. c. 25. 
 
 § 'Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva,' London, 1GG2, p. 187, in margin.
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 125 
 
 of Henry VI., elections both of knights of the shire and bur- 
 gesses took place in open court, free to all comers, and that 
 ' evert inhabitant and commoner in each county had a voyce 
 in the election of knights." 
 
 In order to complete our investigation of the procedure at 
 elections, it is necessary to explain the manner in which the 
 return was made. It has already been shown that, in the time 
 of Edward I. and several subsequent reigns, the sheriff made 
 his return by simply appending to the writ the names of the 
 persons chosen, with their manucaptors or sureties for their due 
 appearance at the parliament. 
 
 In the reign of Henry IV. the form of returns was by statute 
 required to be by indentures. But, long before that time, the 
 returns were occasionally made by indentures, in which the 
 names of the knights elected, and some of the electors (some- 
 times only a few, and sometimes a considerable number) were 
 inserted. Prynne refers to such a return for Bedford as early 
 as 12 Edward I.* The obvious purpose of this arrangement 
 was to prevent the sheriff from making a false return ; a number 
 of electors subscribed the indenture, as witnesses that the sheriff 
 had correctly stated the names of the persons chosen. 
 
 By the statute 7 Hen. IV. c. 15, respecting 'the manner of 
 the election of knights of shires for a parliament,' it was pro- 
 vided that ' after they be chosen, the names of the persons so 
 chosen (be they present or absent) shall be written in an inden- 
 ture under the seals of all them that < did choose them, and 
 tacked to the same writ of the parliament, which indenture so 
 sealed and tacked shall be holden for the sheriff's return of the 
 said writ, touching the knights of the shire.' 
 
 Another Act, made four years afterwards (2 Hen. IV., c. 1), 
 imposes a penalty of £100 on any sheriff making ' any return 
 contrary to the tenor of the said statute ' just cited. 
 
 The same contrivance of return by indenture extended to 
 elections of citizens and burgesses. The statute 26 Hen. VI., 
 c. 14, provides that the sheriff, after receiving the parliamentary 
 writ, shall issue his precept to the mayors and bailiffs of 
 cities and boroughs, commanding them ' to choose by citizens 
 of the same city, citizens, and in the same manner and form, if 
 it be a borough, by the burgesses of the same, to come to the 
 parliament. And that the same mayor and bailiff, or bailiff 
 when there is no mayor, shall return lawfully the precepts to the 
 same sheriff's, by indentures between the same sheriff's and them, 
 * Pry nne's ' Brevia Parliamentarian p. 190.
 
 126 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 to be made of the said elections, and of the names of the said 
 citizens and burgesses by them so chosen ' (per endenturez 
 entre mesme le viscount et eux affaire de lez ditz elections et 
 dez nouns dez ditz citezeins et burgeisez issint per eux eslutz). 
 
 It will here be observed that, so far as concerned the election 
 of citizens and burgesses, the return was to be made by inden- 
 ture between the sheriff and the persons making the election. 
 
 Accordingly, we have several records of returns of citizens 
 and burgesses made in the county court, by indentures between 
 the sheriff and others. The utterly erroneous inference has 
 frequently been drawn that, because the returns of burgesses 
 were made in the county court, their election also took place 
 there. A reference to the statute just cited effectually disposes 
 of this hypothesis. 
 
 It has already been stated that the practice of returning 
 citizens and burgesses by indenture prevailed a considerable 
 time before this statute of Hen. VI. on the subject. In 
 8 Henry IV. the knights for the county and the burgesses for the 
 town of Cambridge are returned by one and the same indenture, 
 which witnesses that twelve persons named have chosen John 
 Howard and John Rocheford for the county, and Simon Benti- 
 bowe and Thomas Beverles for the borough.* A like joint 
 return is made for the county and borough of Huntingdon. 
 Prynne says of -these documents, 'the knights for the shire and 
 burgesses for each county were elected together at the respective 
 county courts.' But the documents merely say that the inden- 
 tures were made in the respective county courts, not that the 
 elections of both knights and burgesses took place there. The 
 return of burgesses was made by indenture in the county court, 
 in order that the sheriff might record the transaction in the 
 most authentic manner. 
 
 In some returns, indeed, we find statements that the repre- 
 sentatives of boroughs have been elected in the county court ; 
 but it is evident from the context that such election f was merely 
 a formal declaration of a previous choice by the citizens or 
 burgesses. For example, an indenture made in the county 
 court of York, in 2 Hen. V., between the sheriff of Yorkshire of 
 the one part, and the mayor of the city and thirteen other 
 
 * Prynne, 'Brevia Parliamentarian p. 252. 
 
 f The word ' election ' was frequently used to denote, not the choice of the 
 electors, but the ministerial act of the returning officer. Thus the statute 
 23 Henry VI., c. 14, recites that 'divers sheriffs of the counties of the realm of 
 England, for their singular avail and lucre, have not made due elections of the 
 knights.'
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 12V 
 
 citizens of the other part, witnesses that ' the said mayor and 
 fellow-citizens in the said county court then being- and having 
 full power of the whole community of the said city, by unanimous 
 assent and will freely and indifferently have elected two proper 
 and discreet citizens,' &c* It is quite clear, from the reference 
 to the power received from the whole community of the city, 
 that the mayor and thirteen other citizens attended at the 
 county court merely to declare and record the choice of repre- 
 sentatives which had been made by their fellow-townsmen. 
 
 Writers who are anxious to uphold the theory that the 
 suffrage was antiently very much restricted have argued from the 
 returns of this period that very few persons participated in the 
 elections. But a very little attention to the language of the 
 indentures themselves is sufficient to annihilate this hypothesis. 
 In no single instance is it said that the persons subscribing the 
 indentures were the only electors ; on the contrary, there are 
 much more frequently expressions which negative the supposi- 
 tion. It is often stated that the election was made by the 
 whole community, or all the burgesses. For example, in the 
 return for Wallingford in 5 Hen. V., the indenture is signed by 
 only eleven electors ; but the idea that they were the only 
 persons who concurred in. the election is expressly negatived by 
 the statement that it was made by ' the consent and assent of 
 all the burgesses. 'f 
 
 The circumstance that the return for boroughs was made in 
 the county court is explained by the fact that the sheriff was 
 party to the indenture. This form was, as we have seen, re- 
 quired by the act of 23 Henry VI., and was in use before that 
 time. There is no warrant for concluding that the choice of 
 burgesses in distant boroughs was made in the presence of the 
 sheriff. Probably the municipal returning officer either pro- 
 cured the signatures of some of the electors before he went up 
 to the shire court, or they accompanied him thither. 
 
 * ' Predicti Major & Concives in Com. predicto tunc existentes, & plenarn 
 potestatem de tota communitate civitatis prsedict. habentes unaninii assensu & 
 voluntate libere & indifferenter eligerunt duo cives idoneos & discretos,' &c. — 
 Prynne's Brevia Parliamentaria, p. 208. 
 
 t Prynne, ' Brevia Parliamentaria,' p. 288. In some cases the returns 
 expressly state that others beside the parties to the indenture were present at 
 the election. For instance, an indenture in 2 Hen. V., between the sheriff of 
 Lincolnshire of the one part, the mayor and nineteen citizens of Lincoln of the 
 other part, Witnesses that the latter have chosen two representatives of the 
 city by the ' unanimous assent of them and other trustworthy persons there 
 being' (ex eorum unanimi assensu et aliorum fide dignoruni tunc ibidem 
 existentium). — Ibid. p. 278.
 
 128 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 If we suppose that the few electors whose names appear in the 
 returns were all who participated in the election, we must 
 adopt this preposterous conclusion, that they and the mayors 
 and the sheriffs put upon record in a most authentic manner 
 the fact that they had committed a breach of the law which 
 was punishable by severe penalties. The statute 23 Henry YI. 
 c. 14, above cited, provides that ' at every time that any mayor 
 and bailiffs, or bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, shall return 
 other than those chosen by the citizens and burgesses of the 
 cities and boroughs where such elections be or shall be made, 
 shall incur and forfeit to the king forty pounds,' and a further 
 sum of forty pounds recoverable in an action of debt by the 
 parties aggrieved. Now, there were many returns after this 
 statute in which only a few burgesses are named as electors. 
 For instance, in 29 Henry VI., fourteen burgesses are so men- 
 tioned as electors for Worcester.* Are we to understand that 
 the fourteen persons usurped the authority which belonged to 
 their fellow-townsmen ? If so, we must suppose also that the 
 mayor of Worcester committed the inconceivable folly of record- 
 ing in a document, which was to be returned into Chancery, 
 the fact that he had been party to an illegal transaction by which 
 he exposed himself to a penalty of ^80. 
 
 Similar observations are applicable to various antient returns 
 for counties, which have been supposed to show that knights of 
 shires were chosen by a very few electors, or to have been 
 nominated by the influence of particular prelates and nobles. 
 The strongest instances of this kind are certain returns for 
 the county of York, in 13 Henry IY. and subsequently. The 
 first of these indentures is a return to a parliamentary writ 
 12 Henry IY. The parties are described by Prynne to be 'the 
 attorneys of the Archbishop of York, and sundry earles, lords, 
 nobles, and some ladies who were annual suitors to the county 
 court of Yorkshire, being the sole electors of the knights of the 
 shire.' The latter part of this statement appears to be erroneous. 
 On reference to the record it will be found that it does not 
 state that the persons named were the sole electors. On the 
 contrary, there are expressions which imply that the election 
 was made in the regular way by the general constituency of 
 the county. The following is a translation : — 
 
 ' This indenture made in full county court of York, held 
 there on Monday the feast of S. Wilfrid Bishop, in the thir- 
 teenth year of the reign of Henry the Fourth after the Conquest, 
 
 * Prynne, ' Brevia Parliamentarian p. 293.
 
 PROCEDUEE AT ELECTIONS. 129 
 
 Between Edmund Sanford, sheriff of York, of the one part, and 
 William Halgate, attorney of Ralph Earl of Westmoreland ; 
 William de Rillyngton, attorney of Lucia Countess of 
 Kent ; William Hesham, attorney of Peter Lord de Mauley ; 
 William de Barton, attorney of William Lord de Roos ; Robert 
 Queldale, attorney of Ralph Baron de Graystock ; William de 
 Eoston, attorney of Alexander de Metham, Chivaler; and 
 Henry de Preston, attorney of Henry de Percy Chivaler, com- 
 mon suitors annually to the county of York every six weeks, of 
 the other part, Witnesseth that proclamation having been 
 made by the said sheriff in the county court, by virtue of a 
 certain writ directed to the same sheriff for holding a parlia- 
 ment of our lord the king at Westminster, on the morrow of 
 All Souls next after the date of these presents : the aforesaid 
 attorneys by unanimous assent and will, in the said county 
 court then being, and severally having full power from the 
 aforesaid suitors, freely and indifferently have chosen two 
 fit and discreet knights,' &c* 
 
 It will be observed in this document, in the first place, that 
 the indenture is said to have been made in ' full county court.' 
 The transaction was, therefore, under the observation and 
 cognizance of the general body of suitors. Secondly, that 
 
 * ' Htec indentura facta in pleno comitatu Eborura tento ibidem die lunse in 
 festo sancti Wilfridi Episcopi anno regni regis Ilenrici qnarti post conquestum 
 tertiodecimo inter Edmundum Sandt'ord vicecomitem Eborum ex una parte 
 et Willelmum Halgate attornatiim Radulphi Comitis Westmerlandiae 
 Willelmum de Rillyngton' attornatiim Luciae Comitisspe Kancire Willelmum 
 Hesham attornatiim Petri domini de Malo Lacu Willelmum de Barton' 
 attornatiim Willelmi domini de Poos Robertum Queldale attornatiim 
 Radulphi Baronis de C4raystok Willelmum de Foston' attornatiim Alexandri 
 de Metham Chivaler et Ilenricum de Preston' attornatiim Ilenrici de Percy 
 Chivaler sectatorum communium annuatim ad Comitatum Eborum de sex 
 septimanis in sex septimanas ex parte altera testatur quod proclamatione facta 
 per dictum vicecomitem in Comitatu prredicto virtute cujusdam brevis pro 
 parliamento domini Regis apud Westmonasterium tenendo in Crastino Ani- 
 marum proximo futuro post datam prajsentium eidem vicecomiti inde directi 
 prajdicti attornati unanimi assensu et voluntate in prtedicto Comitatu tunc 
 existentes et plenariam potcstatem de secta[to]ribus pra3dictis separatim 
 habentes libere et indifferenter elegerunt duos milites idoneos et discretos de 
 Comitatu Eborum videlicet Johannem de Eton' Chivaler et Robertum do 
 Plumpton' Chivaler ad essendum ad parliamentum prsedictum die et loco pr»- 
 dictis pro Communitate Comitatus prsedicti ad faciendum quod dictum breve 
 in se requirit secundum formam ejusdem brevis In cujus rei testimonium 
 partes praedictae sigilla sua partibus hujus indenturse alternatim apposuriunt 
 I )iit a die loco et anno supradictis.' 
 
 The foregoing has been printed from an extended copy of the original 
 indenture in the Public Record Oflice. In the copy given by Prynue some 
 slight verbal inaccuracies occur. 
 
 K
 
 130 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 ' proclamation ' was made in the county court in pursuance of 
 the parliamentary writ. That proclamation certainly was 
 addressed not to the attorneys of half a dozen nobles, but to 
 the whole body of persons entitled to attend the court. Thirdly, 
 the attorneys are said to have made the election by ' unani- 
 mous assent and will.' It is most reasonable to construe that 
 phrase as referring* to the assent of the other persons present in 
 the court. If the seven attorneys intended to speak merely 
 of unanimity among themselves, they would probably have used 
 the word consent, not assent. Assensus implies the adhesion 
 of others rather than the concurrence of the parties themselves. 
 And the word is continually so used in legal documents, and 
 particularly in many parliamentary returns by indenture, in 
 which the context expressly shows that the assent was that of 
 the whole body of electors. It is very remarkable that the ex- 
 pressions unanimi assensu et voluntate and lib ere et indifferenter, 
 which occur in this return, occur also in the nearly contem- 
 poraneous returns of burgesses in the same county court of 
 York, which have been noticed in a previous page.* With 
 respect to the return of burgesses, the context puts it beyond 
 doubt that the whole body of citizens had been consulted. 
 The similarity of the language fully justifies a similar inference 
 with respect to the meaning of the phrase 'unanimous assent 
 and will ' in the county return. Besides, if no more than agree- 
 ment among themselves were intended, the expression would 
 be utterly superfluous ; for the mere fact that they signed the 
 indenture would have been sufficient evidence of such agreement. 
 The practice of appointing attorneys for suitors in the count}' 
 court was, as we have shown in a former chapter, exceedingly 
 common. An antient statute allowed every free man to send 
 his substitute to do duty for him. Great lords and persons of 
 wealth seem to have almost universally discharged in this way 
 their obligation of attendance. In some cases we find that land 
 was held on condition that the occupier should attend the 
 county court on behalf of the landlord. f In the indenture just 
 cited, the services of the common suitors were said to be required 
 every six weeks, and, therefore, persons in the position of the 
 Archbishop of York would certainly find substitutes to perform 
 that onerous duty. The presence of the attorneys mentioned in 
 the indenture is thus fully accounted for. If the document be 
 understood to mean that the election was made by these seven 
 attorneys, to the exclusion of the rest of the constituency, and 
 that the transaction was under the cognisance of the Arch- 
 
 * Ante, p. 126. f Ante, chap. iv.
 
 PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. 131 
 
 bishop, the Earl of Westmoreland, and the other noble persons 
 mentioned, it follows that a prelate of metropolitan dignity, and 
 six other persons of exalted rank, not only engaged in an 
 unlawful act, but placed upon record the evidence of their illegal 
 conduct. It follows also that the sheriff gratuitously exposed 
 himself to the severe penalties to which he was liable by statute 
 for making a return without the consent of the constituency. 
 
 When we turn to the parliamentary writ to which this return 
 was originally sewn, and which is still preserved in the Record 
 Office, we find that it directs that proclamation shall be made 
 in the county court, and that the election shall be made ' freely 
 and indifferently by those who shall attend upon that proclama- 
 tion (libere et indifferenter per illos qui proclamation! hujusinodi 
 interfuerint).' This form is substantially the same as that which 
 came into use immediately after the enactment of 7 Hen. IV. 
 noticed in a previous page."* It will be observed that in the 
 return the election is said to have been made freely and indif- 
 ferently (libere et indifferenter). These words are evidently 
 borrowed from the parliamentary writ. But they would be an 
 impudent parody of it if the sheriff and the other parties to the 
 indenture meant to put upon record a statement that only the 
 attorneys of a few great personages made the election. 
 
 The meaning of the indenture, it a2)pears to me, is simply 
 this: the sheriff, according to the usual practice, asked about 
 half-a-dozen persons to sign the return as witnesses of its cor- 
 rectness, and for this purpose he applied to some of the most 
 respectable people present at the court. The same course is 
 adopted at every election at the present day. The returning 
 officer gets a few of the electors to join in the indenture, and 
 naturally applies to some of the more active and distinguished 
 supporters of the successful candidates. 
 
 There is no warrant for concluding that either in Yorkshire 
 or any other county, or in any borough, elections were com- 
 monly under the control of a few individuals at the period in 
 question. Abuses on the part of the sheriffs occasionally oc- 
 curred, but the indignant manner in which they were resented 
 by the constituencies is strong evidence that they were not 
 general. The statutes passed in the petitions of the House of 
 Commons in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. conclusively 
 show that the Legislature exercised the utmost vigilance fco 
 secure freedom and purity of elections. Until the time of 
 Henry VI. we have not the slightest ground for supposing Dial 
 
 * Ante, p. 100. The writ of 12 Tien. IV., to which this return is made, is 
 given in the first Appendix to the ' Report on the Dignity (if a Peer,' p. 8] 1. 
 
 K -2
 
 132 ANTIENT PAKLIAMENTAKY ELECTIONS. 
 
 the popular rights of suffrage were frequently violated. On 
 the contrary, an Act passed in the 23rd year of that reign 
 (23 Henry VI., c. 14,) expressly states that elections of knights 
 ' have been duly made until now of late that divers sheriffs of 
 the counties of the realm of England, for their singular avail 
 and lucre, have not made due elections.' We have ample 
 evidence that under the earlier kings the people successfully 
 maintained their constitutional right to choose their represen- 
 tatives ' freely and indifferently.'
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 133 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 
 
 Boroughs distinguished by their separate Jurisdiction, 133. — Saxon government of 
 boroughs, 134. — Saxon municipal charters, 136. — Norman charters. 139. — 
 Royal domain boroughs, 144. — Charters granted to toions not of Royal domain, 
 146. — Electoral franchise not originally confined to towns of Royal demesne, 
 148. — Boroughs excused on account of their poverty from sending members, 
 156. — Revival of discontinued franchise, 158. — The power of the Crown to 
 enfranchise or disfranchise boroughs considered, 159. 
 
 The origin of a complete system of representative government 
 in England is, by common accord, referred to the peyiod when 
 the delegates of boroughs first sat in parliament. Before the 
 celebrated assembly of 49 Henry III. a.d. 1265 was convoked 
 by the influence of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, there 
 had been several parliamentary councils in which knights of 
 shires took part. The convention of Simon de Montfort was 
 distinguished from its predecessors by the presence of citizens 
 and burgesses. Their number is not known ; nor is there any 
 record extant which shows the cities and towns which made 
 returns to the summonses then issued. It is certain that this 
 assembly, called together in a revolutionary period, was not re- 
 garded after the re-establishment of the royal authority as a 
 lawful precedent. There was no subsequent general summons 
 of citizens and burgesses to a complete parliament until 23 
 Edward I., a.d. 1295, when Edward I., by his own free authority, 
 convened all the estates of the realm. Happily a copy of the 
 parliamentary returns of that date have been preserved, and we 
 know the names of upwards of 120 boroughs which were then 
 represented. Upon what principle were these towns selected ? 
 and who were the electors ? In order to answer these questions 
 we must consider what was the constitution of the boroughs 
 themselves in the thirteenth century. 
 
 It is obvious that a borough must have been distinguished 
 from other towns by something more precise than the mere 
 number and density of its population. These are matters of 
 degree : the law recognised a criterion more sharply defined. 
 The characteristic legal distinction between boroughs and 
 other populous places was the possession of a separate jurisdic- 
 tion and local government. It has been already explained that
 
 134 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 the general administration of justice was conducted in the 
 courts of counties and hundreds. But to this general system. 
 there were various exceptions. Many great feudal proprietors 
 had by grant or prescription their own jurisdictions, exempt 
 from the authority of the sheriffs and other county officers. 
 Another class of special jurisdictions were those of boroughs 
 which had their own judicial and administrative institutions. 
 
 It is necessary to revert briefly to the Saxon period in order 
 to understand how those institutions arose, and what was their 
 nature at the time when they became a part of the machinery 
 of representative government. The Conquest did not abrogate 
 the Saxon political system : on the contrary, it was continued 
 in full force in all essential respects at the time when cities and 
 towns were first bidden to send their delegates to parliament. 
 
 The collection of Saxon laws which we now possess does not 
 give a very copious or specific account of the constitution and 
 privileges of boroughs. But these antient and venerable docu- 
 ments show with sufficient clearness some of the characteristics 
 of the government in those places. For instance, the distinc- 
 tion between the folkmotes of boroughs and of counties is clearly 
 pointed out. The ' Laws of Edgar ' provide (cap. 2, § 5) that the 
 borouo-h o-emot shall be holden thrice a year. These assemblies 
 appear to have answered, among other things, the purpose of 
 the sheriffs' turns in shires ; for the next section requires that 
 every man shall be under pledge (borh) both within boroughs 
 and without. Certain persons, to the number of thirty -three in 
 the larger towns and twelve at least in the smaller, are to be 
 appointed as witnesses or compurgators, in the presence of whom 
 the sales of chattels are to take place ; and each of these wit- 
 nesses on his election is to take an oath that ' he never, neither 
 for money, nor for love, nor for fear, will deny any of those 
 thin gs of which he is witness, nor declare any other things above 
 what he saw and heard.'*" 
 
 Apparently these provisions refer to the same subject as the 
 ' Laws of Athelstan' (I. § 12, 13), by which ' no man can buy any 
 property out of " port " over 20 pence, but let him buy them 
 within on the witness of the port-reeve or of another untying 
 man ; or further on the witness of the reeves of the folkmote. 
 And we ordain that every borough be repaired 14 days after 
 Rotation Sunday ; secondly, that every marketing be within 
 
 port.' t 
 
 The ' Laws of Ethelred ' (Articles of Peace, § 6) make some 
 remarkable provisions respecting the preservation of the peace 
 
 * Supplement to Edgar's ' Laws.' 
 
 t 'Antient Laws and Institutes of England,' p. 122.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 135 
 
 in boroughs. ' If a breach of the peace be committed within a 
 borough, let the inhabitants of the borough go and get the 
 murderers, living or dead, or their nearest kindred, head for 
 head. If they will not, let the ealdorman go ; and if he will not, 
 let the king go; and if not, let the ealdordom lie in unfrith. 3 
 Probably the meaning of this law was, that the responsibility 
 of exacting the penalty of a crime devolved primarily uj>on 
 the townsmen ; in their default, upon the alderman, who was 
 the chief magistrate of the county ; and if he did not fulfil the 
 duty, the king's officers were to intervene. If all means of 
 doing justice failed, the whole ealdordom, or district under the 
 alderman, suffered the penalty of unfrith, or outlawry. 
 
 Many of the towns of England received from the Saxon kings 
 charters granting to them special privileges and jurisdiction. 
 A few Saxon municipal charters exist at the present day in their 
 original language, and copies of several of them are given in the 
 admirable collection to which frequent reference has been made, 
 the ' Codex Diplomaticus.' Latin versions of other municipal 
 charters, granted before the Conquest, are preserved upon the 
 'Patent and Confirmation Polls. '* There are also abundant proofs 
 from other documents that before the time of William I. a great 
 many boroughs possessed their own separate systems of govern- 
 ment. In the collection of laws or ' dooms ' of the City of 
 London, attributed to the time of Athelstan (' Judicia Civitatis 
 Lundonise ') t we have a most interesting account of the govern- 
 ment of that city in the tenth century. It is remarkable that 
 these constitutions or ' dooms ' of London purport to have been 
 adopted by the inhabitants themselves. They commence thus : — 
 ' This is the ordinance which the bishops and reeves belonging 
 to London have ordained and with pledges confirmed among our 
 communities (frith gegildas), as well eorlish as ceorlish,' i. e. 
 noble as ignoble. The ordinance is part of the royal laws ; and 
 thus we find, as Mr. Kemble observes, the burghers treating as 
 power to power with the king, under their port-reeves and 
 bishops. J By this ordinance the people were associated together 
 in decennse or tithings, as in the counties. Each of the tithings 
 had its own chief, whose duty it was to ' direct the nine in each 
 of those duties which we have all ordained' (§ 3). Besides 
 these were hynden-men, ' who shall admonish the ten for our 
 common benefit, and let those eleven hold the money of the 
 hynden, and decide what they shall disburse when aught is to 
 
 * Merewether, ' History of Boroughs,' p. 56. 
 
 t ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England,' ]>. 97. 
 X Kemble, ' Saxons in England/ vol. ii. p. 312.
 
 136 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 be paid, and what they shall receive if money arise to us at our 
 common suit' (§ 3).* These hynden -men were to meet together 
 once in the month, and were to ' have their refection together, ' 
 and the remains of their meal were to be distributed in charity 
 (§ 8). Minute provisions were made respecting the common 
 duty of pursuing criminals. The thief of goods beyond the value 
 of twelve pence was to suffer death, if ' we learn according to 
 folkright that he is guilty' (§ 1) ; a provision which shows a settled 
 system of trying criminals. From these laws it is manifest 
 that the chief officers of the city were its reeves, but that the 
 people assumed a control in making their own laws. These 
 ' dooms ' are expressed to be made by their authority and the 
 king's concurrently ; and they profess their willingness to follow 
 his advice if amendments should be needed, ' If we slacken in 
 the peace and pledge which we have given and the king has 
 commanded of us, then may we expect or well know that thieves 
 will prevail yet more than they did before. But let us keep our 
 pledge, and the peace as is pleasing to our lord. It greatly be- 
 hoves us that we devise that which he wills, and if he order and 
 instruct us more we shall be humbly ready ' (§ 8). 
 
 Among undoubted Saxon municipal charters the following 
 may be cited. There is a charter about the end of the ninth 
 century, t by which half the local dues of the City of Worcester 
 are granted to the cathedral at the request of the bishop. The 
 grant is made by JEthelraed, the ealdorman, and iEthelflaed, 
 who had built the town, and so become entitled to these dues. 
 The charter states that ' JEthelraed the ealdorman and iEthel- 
 fiaed commanded the burh at Worcester to be built and eke 
 God's praise to be there upraised. And now they make known 
 by this charter that of all the rights which appertain to their 
 lordship, both in market and street within the borough (byrig) 
 and without, they grant half to God and S. Peter, and the 
 Lord of the Church.' 
 
 It is stated as a consideration of this grant, that the bishops 
 have agreed that certain religious services and masses shall be 
 performed at the cathedral for the grantors ; and it is added, 
 ' that they have thus granted with good will to God and 
 S. Peter, under witness of iElfred the king, and all the witan in 
 Mercia ; excepting that the wain-shilling and load -penny are to 
 go to the king's hand as they always did from Saltwic ; but as 
 
 * Hynden was an association of ten men. Mr. Thorpe (' Antient Laws/ &c, 
 glossary, in voce) interprets this law thus : that the eleven who were to hold 
 the money consisted of the senior of each hynden, together with the hynden- 
 man who presided over the hynden of the hyndens. i.e. ten hyndens. 
 
 | ' Codex Diplomatics,' No. 1075.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 137 
 
 for everything else, as landfeoh, fihtwite, stalu, wohceapung, and 
 all the customs from which any fine may arise, let the Lord of 
 the Church have half of it for God's sake and S. Peter's, as it 
 was arranged about the market and streets.' The wain-shilling 
 here mentioned is a toll upon the standing or loading of waggons. 
 The landfeoh and other sources of revenue were charges fer 
 occupation of land, or fines for breaches of the law. 
 
 By a charter* of a later date, a.d. 968, King Eadgar confers 
 on the bishopric of Winchester certain profits of the borough 
 of Taunton. This charter is both in Latin and in Saxon. The 
 translation of the Saxon version runs thus : ' Here is made 
 known in this writing how King Eadgar renewed the liberty of 
 Taunton for the Holy Trinity and S. Peter and S. Paul to the 
 episcopal see of Winchester, as King Eadward had before freed 
 it and granted that both twelfhynde men and twyhynde men 
 [nobiles quam ignobiles, in the Latin version], should in that 
 same vill of God be worthy of the same rights that his own men 
 are in his own royal vills. And that all suits and rights be in 
 the same manner given into the hand of God as they were 
 brought to his own : and let the town's market, and the produce 
 of the town's dues, go to the holy place as they did before in the 
 days of my forefathers, and were levied for Bishop iElfeah, and 
 every one of those who enjoyed the land.' The Latin version 
 shows the meaning of these provisions more distinctly. The 
 bishop was to have jurisdiction of all secular causes in this 
 place, and the profits of the market of Taunton were given to 
 his cathedral. This document is valuable as an early instance 
 of separate local jurisdictions in a borough, and for the reference 
 to the privileges of tenants of the royal demesne. The men of 
 Taunton were to have all the privileges that the king's tenants 
 enjoyed in his own royal vills. 
 
 In ' Domesday' there are repeated references to the franchises 
 of boroughs as they existed in the time of Edward the Confessor. 
 Thus, among the customs of Shrewsbury in that reign, it is 
 stated that if any one knowingly broke the peace which the king 
 had given under his hand, he was outlawed : if any one broke 
 the peace which the sheriff preserved, he was fined a hundred 
 shillings.f Thus a clear distinction is drawn between the specia I 
 jurisdiction for keeping the peace within the borough which 
 the king had granted under his hand, i. e. by charter, and the 
 
 * 'Diplomatarium,' p. 233. 
 
 t Si quia pacem re^is manu propria datam scienter infringebat vtlagatua 
 fiebat. Qui vero pacem regis a, uicecomite datam infringebat c. solidoa 
 emeudabatur. 'Domesday, ' fol. 252.
 
 138 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 general jurisdiction of the sheriff. In Warwick the burgesses 
 are said to have enjoyed sac and soc — that is, a jurisdiction 
 of their own — from the time of Edward the Confessor. Walling- 
 ford, Ipswich, and Derby are also among the towns which 
 ' Domesday ' states to have been boroughs before the Conquest. 
 
 Later charters frequently give evidence of the existence of 
 separate municipal jurisdictions before the Conquest. Thus a 
 charter* of Henry I. recites that the men of the guild at 
 Eochester had in the reign of the Confessor the rights of sac 
 and soc, toll, them, and infangthief. A charter of Henry III. 
 confirms to the borough of Wallingford all its franchises and 
 laws which it had in the reign of the Confessor and succeeding 
 reigns, f 
 
 It is necessary to explain some of the technical expressions 
 which occur in these documents. The Saxon names of various 
 franchises designated with great precision the power exercised 
 in the privileged places. Sac or SaJca was the right to hold 
 pleas for the redress of grievances, and probably did not include 
 criminal jurisdiction. Soc was suit or obligation to attend a 
 particular court ; and it is derived by Spelman from socan, to 
 follow or attend .J Infangthief was a liberty to try and judge 
 a thief taken within the limits of the place having this franchise. 
 Outfang thief was the right to pursue a thief beyond the juris- 
 diction, and bring him back to the court or place where the fact 
 was committed, and there to judge and try him. Toll, theo- 
 loneum, was a toll, for merchandise bought and sold. In the 
 ' Laws ' of Edward the Confessor it is defined to be the right of 
 buying and selling in one's own land. TItem, or team, was the 
 right of the people within the jurisdiction to be under their 
 own separate system of frankpledge ; the nature of which has 
 been discussed in a former chapter. These franchises were 
 granted not only to towns, but also very frequently to the lords 
 of manors. In the ' Laws' of Edward the Confessor it is said, 
 that he who has infangthief has jurisdiction over a thief, if 
 taken upon his land ; but where these customs do not exist, 
 justice is to be done in the hundreds or wapentakes or shires. § 
 
 It was the policy of William the Conqueror to preserve and 
 
 * Merewether, ' History of Boroughs/ p. 807. 
 
 f 'Brady on Boroughs,' App. No. 4. 
 
 X 'Soc' denotes, says Mr. Kemble, the district comprehended under a 
 particular jurisdiction, as 'socmen, sokmanni ' denote the persons subject to 
 it. He adds, that in the earlier examples we far more frequently find ' socn ' 
 than 'soc' 'Socn' is the preliminary investigation necessary in holding 
 pleas.— Codex Diplomaticus, vol. i., Introd. p. xlv. 
 
 § Spelman, ' Glossarium,' in vocihus. 'Brady on Boroughs,' App. p. 11. 
 ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England,' p. 195.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 139 
 
 extend tlie privileges of boroughs. One of the sections of his 
 'Laws' (III. 6) provides 'that all cities and boroughs, and castles 
 and hundreds and wapentakes, shall be watched every night, 
 and shall be kept in tarn against evildoers and enemies, as the 
 sheriffs, aldermen, reeves, bailiffs, and our ministers shall the 
 better provide by their common council for the benefit of the 
 kingdom.' The antient rule respecting sales in the presence 
 of witnesses is repeated (III. 10), and it is provided (III. 11), 
 ' that there shall be no market or fair except in cities of our 
 realm and in close boroughs surrounded by walls, castles, and 
 secure places, where the customs of our realm and our com- 
 mon law and the dignities of our crown, which have been 
 established by our good predecessors, may not be destroyed or 
 defrauded ; but all things may be done rightly, openly, and 
 according to judgment and justice; and for this purpose castles 
 and boroughs and cities exist and were founded and built; 
 that is to say, for the safety of the people of the land, and the 
 defence of the kingdom ; and therefore they ought to be pre- 
 served in full liberty, integrity, and right.' 
 
 One of the most remarkable privileges accorded to boroughs 
 by these ' Laws' is that which constitutes them places of refuge 
 for fugitive serfs. ' If any bondman shall have remained 
 without claim for a year and a day in our cities or our boroughs 
 surrounded by a wall, or in our castles, from that day they shall 
 be made free men, and they shall be for ever free from the yoke of 
 bondage.' The means of emancipation thus legally afforded to 
 bondmen illustrates in a striking manner their condition in 
 the Saxon and Norman times. The law tolerated, but did not 
 encourage slavery. The lord lost his right over his bondman 
 if he neglected to assert it for more than a whole year ; and 
 the fugitive who remained free and unmolested for that period 
 could not be reduced to his former state of servitude. The 
 boroughs scattered all over the country afforded easily accessible 
 places of refuge, and thus the remarkable privilege confirmed 
 to them by William the Conqueror had both directly and in- 
 directly a material effect in destroying the institution of serfdom. 
 
 The practice of conferring special privileges upon particular 
 towns became frequent after the reign of William I. It does 
 not appear, indeed, that his immediate successor made any 
 such grants. But a charter given to the city of London by 
 Henry I. is preserved in the collection of laws which bears the 
 name of that king.* That instrument may be regarded as a 
 
 * ' Antient Laws and Institutes of England.' The same charter is recited by 
 ' inspeximus' in later charters. — Brady on Boroui/]is, App. p. •'!•">.
 
 140 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 type of the most extensive municipal franchises then granted. 
 It gives the county of Middlesex to the ' citizens of London and 
 their heirs ' at the farm or annual rent of 3001. ; and empowers 
 them to elect their own sheriff and justiciary for holding pleas 
 of the crown, and directs that no citizen shall be called upon to 
 plead out of the city upon any plea. If any of the citizens be 
 impleaded concerning the pleas of the crown, the man of London 
 shall discharge himself by oath to be adjudged in the city. 
 
 The holding of the folkmote or court of the people is referred 
 to in the following passage : — 'And further, that there shall not 
 be any miskenning in the hustings, nor in the folkmote, nor in 
 any other pleas within the city : that the hustings shall sit once 
 in a week, that is to say on a Monday.' Miskenning is variance, 
 or inconsistency in pleading. This abuse of legal procedure was 
 regarded by our ancestors as a serious grievance ; as the frequent 
 provisions against it in old charters demonstrate. Hustings (from 
 hus, house; and thing, a cause) were the buildings in which causes 
 were tried; the word designated the chief municipal court of 
 justice in London, York, and many other cities.* 
 
 There is no mention of a mayor of London in this grant of 
 Henry I. Spelman says that this office of mayor did not exist 
 before the tenth year of King John, a.d. 1208, but by other 
 authorities it is supposed to have existed as early as the year 
 1187. But the mayor and sheriff differed but little from the 
 earlier magistrates, the port-reeve or port-greeve, and the pro- 
 positus. The port-reeves were not merely keepers of the gates, 
 but also the principal magistrates of cities. The appellations of 
 mayors and bailiffs were introduced by the Normans. A char- 
 ter of William the Conqueror records the name of one of the 
 antient port-reeves of London : ' William the king friendly 
 salutes William the bishop, and Godfrey the port-reeve, and 
 all the burgesses within London, both French and English. 'f 
 
 The grant of franchises was frequently a matter of bargain 
 and sale. For instance, the citizens of London gave 3,000 
 marks for the confirmation of their antient liberties by King- 
 John. The ' Oblata Roll ' gives the following curious record of 
 
 * Spelman, in voeibus. The same author gives a copy of a very curious 
 document illustrative of the practice of this court — an instrument of sale made 
 about the time of Henry 1. It states that ' Wlfnothus of Walebroc in London 
 has sold to the Ahhot Reinaldus a certain house and land at Walebroc, before 
 the whole hustings of London, for ten pounds, given to him in the presence of 
 the whole hustings. Of this bargain and sale the witnesses on the part of the 
 hustings are William de Einefford, Sheriff of London, and John his under- 
 sheriff, and many others.' 
 
 f Spelman, sub voce Portgrefius.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 141 
 
 the transaction : — ' The citizens of London give to our lord 
 the king- three thousand marks for having- a confirmation by 
 our Lord the King" of their liberties in this Charter : and it 
 shall be delivered to Galfrid the son of Peter on this condition, 
 that if they will give 3,000 marks they shall have their charter, 
 but if not, they shall not have their charter.'* 
 
 Fines for grants and confirmations of liberties and franchises 
 were frequently paid in the reign of King John. Thus, the 
 citizens of Lincoln offer to the lord the king. 300 marks to 
 have the city of Lincoln at farm as they had in the time of 
 King Richard. The citizens of Gloucester offer to the king 
 200 marks to have the same liberties as those enjoyed by the 
 citizens of Winchester. The Abbot of Whitby offers to the 
 lord the king 100 marks that the burgesses of Whitby may not 
 enjoy the liberties granted to them by the Abbot of Whitby, 
 and confirmed by the king's charter, until it be ascertained 
 whether the abbot and convent were able to grant such liber- 
 ties to them. The men of Hartlepool offer to the lord the 
 king 30 marks that they may have the same liberties and laws 
 in their town of Hartlepool as are enjoyed by the burgesses of 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne in their town ; and may have the king's 
 charter thereof, and that they may be free burgesses. Their 
 charter is delivered to William de Stutevill until they find 
 sufficient sureties for the debt : a moiety is to be paid at 
 Easter, and the other moiety at Christmas. The men of Burg 
 offer the lord the king 20 marks and a palfrey to have a market 
 every Sunday, and a fair for two days, viz., on the vigil and 
 day of S. John the Baptist, f 
 
 * ' Brady on Boroughs.' App. No. 18. 
 
 t ' Rotuli de Oblatis, tempore Regis Johannis, accurante Thorna Duffus 
 Hardy.' Preface, p. xix. 
 
 The following are other examples of the grant of municipal privileges for 
 valuable consideration. In 'Domesday' (fol. 118), after particulars of land 
 held by burgesses of Norwich, it is said that ' all tins land of the burgesses was 
 in the demesne of Earl Radulph, and he granted it to the king in common to 
 make a borough between him and the king, as the sheriff witnesses.' And the 
 survey shows that a large part of Norwich was then held by the king and earl 
 jointly. Again, in 11 Henry III., the burgesses of Bristol paid sums of money 
 to the crown for a grant that a part of the town called Redcliffe should be 
 separated from Bristol, and answer with the county of Somerset. — Merewether, 
 p. 458. In 5 Edward III. the burgesses of the town of Aberconway paid 
 the king a sum of 20 pounds for having a confirmation of a certain charter. — 
 Madox, ' Firma Burgi,' p. 04. Again, the burgesses of Dunwich paid to King 
 John three hundred marks to have their liberties granted to them in their 
 charter in the first year of King John, besides ten falcons and five girfalcons. 
 The burgesses gave a further sum of 200 marks and 5,000 eels for having 
 lorec and lagan inserted in their charter.' — Brady, App. No. 3.
 
 142 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 The grant by Henry I. to London, it has just been observed, 
 may be regarded as a type of the most extensive municipal 
 privileges then granted. The following reference to a charter 
 granted by Richard I. to the city of Lincoln illustrates this 
 remark. After conceding that the citizens of Lincoln shall 
 not be impleaded out of the city in any pleas, excepting those 
 relating to lands held elsewhere, and matters relating to the 
 king's revenue and officers, it is provided, among other things, 
 that the ' burwaremot,' or folkmote of the borough, shall be 
 held once a week. The charter proceeds : ' These customs we 
 have granted to them, and all other liberties and free customs 
 which our citizens of London have had, or have, as they have 
 had them most favourably and freely according to the liberties 
 of London and the laws of the city of Lincoln. Wherefore 
 we will and strictly command that they and their heirs have 
 and hold all the aforesaid things hereditarily of us and our 
 heirs, rendering annually 180 pounds from Lincoln, with its 
 appurtenances, at our exchequer at two terms — namely, at 
 Easter and Michaelmas, by the hand of the provost of Lincoln. 
 And let the citizens of Lincoln elect as provost whom they will 
 annually who may be a fit person for us and for them.' * 
 
 The concessions of municipal privileges proceeded ordinarily, 
 but not exclusively, from the crown. The same authority was 
 exercised by personages possessing Jura Regalia within the 
 districts in which they had vice-regal power. Thus, Truro was 
 for some time in the possession of Richard de Lucy, Justice of 
 England in the time of Henry II. Subsequently, the borough 
 became vested in Reginald Earl of Cornwall, who died in 
 21 Henry II. This earl, by his charter, granted to his free 
 burgesses of Truro that they should have all their free customs 
 sac, soc, tol, them, and infangthief, and exemption from 
 pleading in the hundred and county courts, and from tolls in 
 all fairs and markets throughout Cornwall. Again, Richard, 
 created Earl of Cornwall 15 Henry III., constituted Dunheved 
 or Lanceston a free burgh, with the power, among other 
 privileges, of electing their own bailiffs ; and gave them a site 
 for a guildhall in the same borough. Several other Cornish 
 boroughs received charters from Earls of Cornwall in the reigns 
 of Henry III., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III. Regi- 
 nald de Valle Torta, or Vautort, who was lord of the honor and 
 castle of Trematon, in the reign of Henry III. confirmed to the 
 free burgesses of Essa or Saltash, within that honor, numerous 
 franchises and free customs, including the right of electing 
 * ' Brady on Boroughs,' Appendix No. 20.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 143 
 
 their own bailiffs. Brady, from whose ' History ' these particulars 
 are taken, gives several other instances of municipal charters 
 granted by the Earl of Devon, the Earl of Lancaster, and 
 others.* 
 
 The privileges of boroughs at the period under consideration 
 were defined by custom and special charters. There was not 
 then any general statute analogous to the modern Acts of 
 Parliament regulating municipal corporations. But it would 
 be a serious error to infer that the franchises of towns 
 depended merely on the royal prerogative. If that were the 
 case — if the will of the crown were the sole foundation of 
 these popular rights — then, as they were arbitrarily given, they 
 might be arbitrarily resumed, at least with respect to those 
 towns which had not purchased their franchise for valuable 
 consideration. This important constitutional question was 
 vehemently debated at a much later epoch. The resumption of 
 the charters of London and other cities by Charles II. raised a 
 most violent discussion respecting the right of the crown to 
 destroy municipal franchises. The high prerogative doctrine 
 which for a time was triumphant, ' left,' as Hume observes, ' no 
 national privileges in security, but enabled the king, under 
 like pretences, and by means of like instruments, to reclaim all 
 the charters which he pleased.' 
 
 But this doctrine certainly did not prevail in the times of 
 the Norman and Plantagenet kings. The stability of the 
 franchises of boroughs was declared by the general law of the 
 land. The Magna Charta of John expressly establishes the 
 liberties and custom of the city of London, and all other cities, 
 boroughs, towns, and the Cinque Ports. t Again, the Great 
 Charter of 9 Henry III. provides that ' the city of London shall 
 have all its antient liberties and its customs. Moreover, we will 
 and grant that all other cities and boroughs and towns, and the 
 Barons of the Cinque Ports and all ports, shall have all their 
 liberties and free customs.' A statute of 8 Edward I. c. 31 
 provides that towns shall be liable to forfeiture of their 
 franchises for exacting excessive tolls contrary to the common 
 custom of the realm, or for unduly taking the tax called 
 murage, granted to them for enclosing their towns. The 
 enumeration of particular offences for which borough fran- 
 chises might be forfeited shows that the crown did not then 
 assume a merely arbitrary power of extinguishing municipal 
 privileges. 
 
 * 'Brady on Boroughs,' p. 93, ct scq. t Ante, chap. v.
 
 144 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Many of the cities and towns which sent members to the 
 earliest parliaments were royal domain boroughs. It is im- 
 portant that this phrase should be correctly understood, for it 
 incessantly occurs in discussions respecting the origin of the 
 representation of burgesses. By far the fullest and most satis- 
 factory investigation of the proprietary rights of the crown in 
 borouo-hs is contained in the learned treatise of Madox en- 
 titled ' Firma Burgi,' which is principally devoted to this sub- 
 ject. In the following references to the principal conclusions 
 at which Madox arrives, it has not been considered necessary 
 to cite the authorities by which he supports them. 
 
 After the Norman Conquest the principle of feudal tenures 
 which affected land generally extended to boroughs. Some of 
 the cities and towns of England were vested in the crown, some 
 in the clergy, and others in the baronage of great men of the 
 laity. The king was the immediate lord of some of these places, 
 and particular persons were the feudal superiors or landlords of 
 others. Of those which belonged to the king, part were pos- 
 sessed by the right of original inheritance of the crown, and 
 were called antient demesne. Others accrued to the sovereign 
 by later titles, as by escheat on failure of heirs of a baron, by 
 forfeiture on attainder, or by exchange or purchase.* It has 
 been mentioned in a former chapter that questions whether 
 particular lands were of antient demesne, were settled by refer- 
 ence to antient records, but principally to the Domesday book. 
 The same records were decisive of disputes respecting the similar 
 character of boroughs. If land was set down in the Domesday 
 book under the title Terra Regis, or was there stated to be held 
 by the king in dominio, then it was determined to be antient 
 demesne. If ' Domesday ' recorded land under the name of a 
 private lord or subject, the entry was held conclusive in the 
 contrary sense. Madox, in his ' Firma Burgi,' cites several 
 instances occurring in the reign of Edward II. of reference by 
 the judges to ' Domesday ' and other records for the purpose of 
 determining causes in which this question arose. 
 
 A city or town thus vested in the king was commonly styled 
 Civitas Regis, or Burgus Regis. On the other hand, when the 
 crown had let out a city or town at a fee farm or perpetual rent, 
 the king held by seigniory. Lords of baronies frequently held 
 in demesne all the towns within their baronies in a similar 
 manner ; so also the great baronial abbots and priors often were 
 the demesne lords of the towns within their scignories. 
 
 * Madox, ' Firma Burgi/ chap. i.
 
 AXTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 14.5 
 
 The yearly issues and profits to which the king- was entitled 
 from his boroughs were sometimes raised by the sheriffs of the 
 counties in which those places were situated. In other instances 
 they were demised, or let to the townsmen themselves, either in 
 perpetuity or at will. 
 
 Of this practice of letting the issues of towns to the inhabi- 
 tants at a fixed rent, the evidences after the Conquest are abun- 
 dant and minute. But there is sufficient proof that the practice 
 existed before that time. In the 'Domesday' entry of Hunting-don 
 it is expressly stated that the dues of the town were farmed ; 
 two-thirds of the firma burgi were paid to the king, and one- 
 third to the earl. In the entry respecting Shrewsbury, after an 
 enumeration of certain fines payable to the crown, it is added 
 that these fines the king had, throughout England, extra firmas 
 (besides farms). And this expression seems to warrant the con- 
 clusion that in the time of the Confessor the practice of 
 farming town-dues was not uncommon.* 
 
 There is evidence to the like effect in a return f respecting 
 Gloucester, which is supposed to be coeval with ' Domesday.' 
 After enumerating burgesses in Gloucester holding under differ- 
 ent landlords, the record adds : ' And over all these the king has 
 sac and soc ; and there are ten churches in the king's own soke. 
 In the time of the Sheriff Roger they paid a, farm (reddebant 
 de firma) of thirty-eight pounds and four shillings ; now the 
 render is forty-six pounds.' 
 
 The practice of farming the royal revenues was not confined 
 to boroughs. The revenues of hundreds were frequently let in 
 the same way. Thus in the ' Hundred Eolls ' one of the subjects 
 of inquiry was ' respecting farms of hundreds, wapentakes, 
 cities, boroughs, and other revenues whatsoever.' The follow- 
 ing, from the returns for Norfolk, is a specimen of the answers : 
 ' The Hundreds of Lodenynges and Knavynge are in the hands of 
 our lord the king, and were wont to be let to farm in the time of 
 King Henry, father of the present king, for fourteen pounds, and 
 are now let for twenty pounds.'^ 
 
 * See Ellis's ' Introduction to Domesday,' vol. ii. p. 482. 
 
 t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 445. 
 
 \ 'Hundred Rolls,' p. 458, where there are several similar entries. This 
 practice of letting hundreds to farm was abolished by the statute 2 Edward III. 
 cap. 12. It recites that all the counties in England were in old time assessed 
 to a certain farm, and all the hundreds and wapentakes were in the sheriftV 
 hands rated to this farm; that afterwards 'the kings at divers times have 
 granted part of t lie same hundreds and wapentakes for the old farms only;' 
 and, after showing the inconveniences of this practice, provides that henceforth 
 wapentakes and hundreds shall be joined again to the counties. 
 
 L
 
 146 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 The revenues of a borough might be demised at feefarm in 
 perpetuity, or for a limited period, or during the king's pleasure. 
 In such cases the town was demised to the townsmen in the 
 same way that manors were let to the tenants. When the town 
 was let to feefarm, the tenure was called burgage.* 
 
 The transaction, in fact, was not unlike the modern practice 
 of letting turnpike tolls to contractors, or the practice which 
 prevailed in France in the last century of letting public taxes 
 to fermiers generaux, whose exactions were among the principal 
 causes of the Eevolution of 1789. In England, during the 
 Middle Ages, the crown had various revenues from towns of the 
 royal domain — such as customs of goods, tolls of fairs, markets, 
 stallage, and wharfage. When the town was farmed to the 
 inhabitants, they took these profits, and agreed to pay a lamp 
 sum in lieu of them. In some cases they were outbidden by 
 private speculators. Madox refers to the dealings of a certain 
 William de Stutevill, sheriff of Cumberland, in the time of King 
 John, who appears to have entered largely into this kind of 
 business. The men of Carlisle offered a fine to King John to 
 have their city at the antient ferine and GO shillings increment; 
 William de Stutevill made a higher offer, and the king com- 
 mitted the city to him. There was at the same time the like 
 competition between this man and four other towns in Cumber- 
 land — Penred, Languadely, Salkil, and Scoteby, in all which he 
 prevailed, and succeeded in getting the towns committed to 
 him.f The ordinary issues were commonly more than sufficient 
 to make up the farm ; but if the issues fell short, the inhabi- 
 tants, where the town was demised to them, were of course 
 compelled to make up the deficiency, according to their bargain. 
 
 If the farm or rent of a town were not duly paid, the sum due 
 might be recovered by proceedings against the local officers or 
 individual inhabitants ; or the crown might resume the right of 
 collecting the dues by its own officers, and suspend the autho- 
 rity of the borough officers. Thus, a charter of 5 Edward III., 
 granted to Appelby, recites that Edward II., formerly King of 
 England, on the 26th day of April, in the fifth year of his reign, 
 ' took the said town of Appelby, from which 20 marks annually 
 were due to him of feefarm, into his own hands, as appears by 
 certificate of the Treasury and Barons of the Exchequer, made 
 upon our command in our Chancery ; on which account the 
 said town remains still in our hands : We, in consideration of 
 the fine (or composition) which the burgesses have paid to us, 
 have granted to them the aforesaid town, to hold to farm as they 
 or their predecessors, burgesses of the said town, have had and 
 
 * Madox, 'Firma Burgi,' chap. i. f Madox } 'Firma Burgi,' p. 2-">l .
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 147 
 
 Held the said town to farm before the aforesaid seizure.'* In 
 18 Richard II., in consequence of the default of the men of the 
 town of Bridgnorth to account for the king's dues, leviable in 
 the franchise of the said town, a precept issues out of the 
 Exchequer to the sheriff, commanding that, notwithstanding the 
 franchise, he shall levy the said dues and pay them into the 
 Exchequer from day to day and term to term ; and that he shall 
 not make return of summonses to the bailiffs of the town for 
 levying any of the king's debts. A few months afterwards the 
 men of the town, by their attorney, make satisfaction, and the 
 franchise is restored. Many other similar instances are collected 
 by Madox. It is remarkable that the process against towns 
 took place, not by any extraordinary exercise of the royal pre- 
 rogative, but by an ordinary proceeding of the Court of Exche- 
 quer. But, on the other hand, it does not appear that the seizure 
 of franchise extended beyond a substitution of the authority of 
 the sheriff for that of the municipal officers in levying the king's 
 dues. 
 
 Madox says : c The Kings of England made their towns free 
 burghs ad incrementum or meliorationem villce, not to defeat 
 themselves of their ferine due from the towns. It appeareth, 
 by many of the charters of the antient kings, that the great end 
 for which franchises were wont to be granted by the king to 
 his towns, was this — To amend and improve the town ; that is 
 to say, to enable the townsmen to live comfortably, and to pay 
 with more ease and punctualness their yearly ferme and other 
 duties to the king.' 
 
 It must not be inferred from this passage — and probably it is 
 not the author's meaning — that the franchises were granted 
 only to those towns which were royal domain. There are 
 numerous proofs that municipal charters were granted to places 
 in which the king had not any proprietary rights. Thus a 
 charter of the second year of King John, in favour of Bridge- 
 water, commences — 'Know ye that we have given and granted, 
 and by this present charter have confirmed, to our beloved 
 William Briwer, that Bruge Walteri shall bo a free borough ; ' 
 and concludes : ' Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin that the 
 aforesaid William, and his heirs after him, shall have and hold 
 all the aforesaid things, well and in peace, freely and quietly, 
 wholly, fully, and honourably, with all liberties and free customs 
 as aforesaid.' This was a grant to the landlord of the town, 
 William Briwer or de Bruere.f 
 
 * Madox, ' Firma Burgi,' chap. ix. ace. 1, 
 
 f ' Willieltnus de Bruere tunc domlnus de Brugewalt'i.' ( 2 • Hundred Rolls.' 
 
 p. 122.) 
 
 L 2
 
 148 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Lynn (or Lenna), in Norfolk, is another town not of the royal 
 domain which received a charter from King John : ' Know ye 
 that, at the instance of John Bishop of Norwich, we have granted, 
 and by this our present charter confirmed, that the town of 
 Lenna shall be a free borough for ever, and have all liberties 
 and free customs which free boroughs have ; saving to the 
 bishop and his successors, and William Earl of Arundell and 
 his heirs, all the liberties and customs which they have antiently 
 enjoyed in the said town.'* It appears by the ' Hundred Rolls' 
 that the Bishops of Norwich and the Earl of Arundell had various 
 territorial rights and emoluments in this part. 
 
 Salisbury is another instance of a town not of royal domain 
 constituted a borough by charter. New Sarum, or Salisbury, 
 was founded in the reign of Henry III. The old town of Sarum 
 is mentioned in Domesday. A charter (11 Henry III.) states 
 that the church had been removed, and the first stone laid in a 
 lower situation, and grants that the place called New Salisbury 
 shall be a free city. It was held by the bishop of his own 
 domain. f 
 
 In discussing the antient parliamentary rights of boroughs, 
 two distinct questions arise : (1) what boroughs sent members 
 to parliament ? — (2) who were the electors ? 
 
 In answering the first question, it will be convenient to ex- 
 amine a theory frequently maintained, that only royal domain 
 boroughs possessed the electoral franchise. According to this 
 view, the privilege was confined to places in which the crown 
 had proprietary rights, and was not based upon any general 
 principle of popular representation. Dr. Brady, a writer of the 
 seventeenth century, was a zealous propounder of this doctrine. 
 In his ' Historical Treatise of Cities and Burghs or Boroughs,' J 
 he says : ' We shall proceed to discover what cities and burghs 
 sent their representatives, or citizens and burgesses, upon such 
 summons. The answer to this is very short — that they were 
 only the Dominici civitates and Burgi Regis, the king's demeasn 
 cities and burghs, such as had charters from the king, and paid 
 a feefarm rent in lieu of the customs and other advantages and 
 royalties that belonged to the crown.' He subsequently ex- 
 plains that the boroughs thus enfranchised were not merely 
 those included in the Terra Eegis of Domesday, but others 
 which subsequently became, or were deemed to be, royal domain. 
 
 * Brady, App. No. 9. 
 
 •j- Merewetlier, p. 401 ; Brady, p. 101. 
 
 \ Edition of 1777, p. 7-J.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 149 
 
 ' And further, 'tis not to be doubted but there are many small 
 towns, manors, and places now reputed burghs, which were not 
 such at the Conqueror's Survey, nor perhaps were they the 
 king's demeasns at the time. But those manors and towns 
 might have come to the crown afterwards by escheat or forfei- 
 ture, before there were any summons issued for the choice of 
 citizens and burgesses.' * Thus, even on his own showing, his 
 theory is merely conjectural. He says that several parliamen- 
 tary boroughs, which were not of royal demesne at the time of 
 Domesday, ' might have ' (not actually had) ' come to the crown.' 
 
 The ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer ' countenances the 
 same doctrine. Arguing upon the language of a single writ of 
 24 Edward I., for the collection of a parliamentary grant, the 
 writers of the ' Report ' say : ' The grant of the cives burgenses et 
 probi homines being confined to such as were de dominicis civita- 
 tibus et burgis, it seems to follow that the cives burgenses et probi 
 homines of such cities and boroughs only as were of the king's 
 demesnes were summoned to send representatives to that par- 
 liament — a point which has been much disputed, but which the 
 language of the writ seems to go far to decide.' f 
 
 Unfortunately for this theory, we have now positive proof that 
 the parliamentary summonses of 23 Edward I. were directed 
 to cities and boroughs, of which some were not then royal 
 demesne, and others never had been so from the time of the Con- 
 queror. In a former page of this work (p. 75), reasons have been 
 given for translating the words de dominicis civitatibus et burgis — 
 not ' of the domain cities and boroughs,' but ' of the domains, the 
 cities, and the boroughs.' If the latter translation be adopted — 
 if the grant, like many others of the same period, was made by the 
 tenants of the royal lands, and also by citizens and burg-esses — 
 there is an end of the argument just cited from the ' Report on 
 the Dignity of a Peer.' But, besides and beyond this, it appears, 
 by the actual returns to the parliament in question, that towns 
 not of the king's domain sent representatives. The context of 
 the passage just cited shows that the writers of the ' Report ' J 
 were not acquainted with these returns; but they are now 
 printed in the admirable edition of ' Parliamentary Writs,' to 
 which frequent reference has been made in the preceding pages. 
 
 As the question affects the very basis of the borough franchise, 
 
 * Edition of 1777, p. 80. f 1 < Report,' p. 217. 
 
 J It appears also, from a subsequent page of the ' licport' (vol. i. p. 374 ), 
 that the writers were not acquainted with the returns to the wj 
 23 Edward I. Dr. Brady also was ignorant of them.— See his Trea\ 
 Boroughs, p. IK' (edition of 1777).
 
 150 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 it deserves detailed examination. The following are instances 
 of towns which, by the sheriffs' returns, are shown to have sent 
 members to the parliament of 23 Edward I., but which were 
 not then royal domains. 
 
 Many of the boroughs of Devonshire and Cornwall had been 
 given by Henry III. to his son Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of 
 the Alemain. Thus, in the ' Hundred Rolls ' of Edward I., it 
 is stated that ' King Henry, father of the present king, held the 
 castle of Dounheved, Launceston, with its appurtenances, and 
 the whole county of Cornwall, as well in fee as in domain ; and 
 the same King Henry gave the same castle, with the appurte- 
 nances and the domain, to Earl Richard, King of the Alemain, 
 his brother.'* With regard to the borough of Liskeard, it is 
 said ' King Henry, father of the present king, gave the county 
 of Cornwall, together with the whole manor of Liskaret and 
 the whole township of Liskaret, to the Lord Richard his 
 brother.f In Devonshire ' the city of Exeter was always in the 
 hands of the Kings of England, predecessors of our lord King 
 Edward, pertaining to the crown, until our lord King Henry, 
 father of the aforesaid Lord Edward, gave it to Richard Earl of 
 Cornwall.' J Of the borough of Totnes it is said, ' King Henry 
 gave the aforesaid borough to Roger de lSTovaund.'§ Plympton 
 was not only not royal domain in the reign of Edward I., 
 but it had been in private hands ever since the Conquest : 
 
 * Isabella de Eortibus, countess of the Isle (of Wight), holds 
 the castle of Plympton with the whole honor appurtenant, with 
 the borough of Plympton, of our lord the king in capite, by the 
 service of an earl, and her ancestors have held it from the Con- 
 quest of King William the Bastard.' || Of Tavistock, in the 
 same county, the jurors return, ' That it formerly belonged 
 to the lord King Adelred, then King of England before the 
 Conquest, as they understand ; and the same Adelred gave the 
 same place, with the outer hundred, to Earl Ordulph, his 
 brother. 'If The borough of Barnstaple is said to be held by 
 Galfridus de Canvill in right of his wife, whose ancestors held 
 it ' from the Kings of England from the time of the Conquest 
 of William the Bastard.' ** 
 
 Every one of these places sent burgesses to the parliament of 
 23 Edward I. The three last mentioned had not at any time 
 from the Conquest been royal domain ; the others had been 
 alienated by the crown after that period. 
 
 Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, also returned burgesses to 
 
 * 1 ' Hundred Rolls,' p. 56. f Ibid. p. 57. J Ibid. p. 70. 
 § Ibid. p. 82. \\ Ibid.-p.77. ^ Ibid, p. 81. ** Ibid, p. 63.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 151 
 
 the parliament of 23 Edward I. The ' Hundred Rolls' state 
 (vol. ii. p. 284), that the manor of Kyderminister was in the 
 hands of King Henry, the father of King John, who gave it to 
 Maunsell Biset and his heirs ; that it afterwards descended, by 
 course of inheritance, to three sisters : one had a son, who gave 
 his part to the prior and canons of Bradeleye, and the other 
 two sisters still retained their shares. 
 
 From the same Rolls it appears that several of the boroughs 
 of Wiltshire which sent members to the parliament of 2 3 Edward I. 
 were not royal domains. Thus, ' the Bishop of Salisbury holds 
 the city of Salisbury, with its appurtenances, of our lord the king 
 in capite appurtenant to his barony, and it is the chief manor 
 of the whole barony.'* Salisbury was made a city by letters- 
 patent (11 Henry III.), and given to the bishop and his suc- 
 cessors as their own domain (tamquam proprium dominicum) ;f 
 therefore it had never belonged to the crown from the time 
 when it was constituted a borough. Wilton, in the same 
 county, was alienated by Henry III. : * The town of Wylton 
 was domain of the lord king, and the present lord king 
 (Henry III.) gave it to his brother, the Earl of Cornwall. 'J 
 The town of Bradford was antiently given to the Abbess of 
 Shaftesbury and her predecessors by King Etkelred.§ Malmes- 
 bury was conveyed by King John to the Abbot and Convent 
 of Malmesbury, at a feefarm of twenty pounds, which they paid 
 annually at the king's exchequer; and subsequently, by the 
 assignment of Henry III., to the Earl of Cornwall. || 
 
 Another of these parliamentary boroughs of Edward I. 
 (Stamford, in Lincolnshire) was given by King John to William 
 Earl of Warenn. It subsequently became revested in the crown, 
 and Edward I. ' held it for six years and upwards, and the same 
 lord King Edward gave it to the Lord Eblerus de Montibus.'^f 
 ' The castle of Walingford, with the borough, was given by 
 Henry III. to Richard Earl of Cornwall.'** The following entry 
 relates to Axebridge, in Somersetshire : ' The borough of Axe- 
 brugg was a borough of King John. And King John gave the 
 borough to a certain Thomas de Waleys and his heirs for a 
 certain service, but what we know not ; and the said John sold 
 the said borough, with the appurtenances, to Maurice de 
 Gaunt ; and the said Maurice sold the said borough to Jocelin, 
 the Bishop of Bath ; and William Bishop of Bath now holds 
 the said borough, and pays now to the king eight pounds a 
 year at the exchequer.' ft 
 
 * 2 'Hundred Rolls,' p. 266. *■ Brady, p. 101; Merewether, p. 461. 
 X 2 'Hundred Rolls,' p. 233. § Ibid. pp. 232, 230. || Ibid. p. 272. 
 
 U 1 'Hundred Rolls/ p. 351. *' Ibid. p. 9. tt Ibid. p. L26.
 
 152 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Manors and boroughs granted by the crown to private per- 
 sons as feudatories would be the demesnes of the mesne lords 
 and not of the king, even where, as in some of the previous in- 
 stances, rents and services were reserved to him. 
 
 Bridgewater, another parliamentary borough in the same 
 county, was held in capite by Eoger de Mortimer and Eudo 
 la Zouche ; it had previously been held by William de Bruere.* 
 The entry with respect to Taunton states, that ' the borough 
 of Taunton formerly belonged to the king, and that in times 
 unknown ; and the Bishops of Winchester hold the borough of 
 our lord the king.' f 
 
 Several of the parliamentary boroughs in Surrey similarly 
 appear to have been in the domain of private persons, and not 
 of the crown. ' The late King Henry held the city of Chiches- 
 ter, with its appurtenances, which is of the crown : which he 
 assigned to Richard Earl of Cornwall, his brother, and now 
 Edmund, son and heir of the said Richard, holds it. 5 J Brembre 
 (or Bramber) was in the barony of Walter de Breus, who had 
 a court in that place. § With respect to Lewes, it is said : 
 ' John de Warenn, Earl of Surrey, holds in capite of our lord the 
 king the whole rape of Lewes, from the time of the Conquest 
 of England.' || 
 
 These instances completely negative the theory that the 
 towns selected to send members to the parliament of 23 Edward I. 
 were all of royal domain. The boroughs thus shown to have 
 been in the hands of subjects of the crown were represented in 
 that assembly. It is probable that, on more careful and minute 
 inquiry, the list of parliamentary boroughs not belonging to the 
 royal domain might be increased. The evidence of the ' Hundred 
 Rolls ' is the more valuable with reference to this subject, because 
 they were compiled within a few years of the date of the parlia- 
 ment in question. It would be very easy to show, from Domes- 
 day, that at the time when that record was made, many of these 
 parliamentary boroughs did not exist, and that others of them 
 which then existed were not included in the Terra Regis or 
 crown-land. 
 
 Dr. Brady, in support of his theory of the origin of burgess 
 representation, contends that grants in parliament were often 
 expressed to be made by towns of royal domain. But this state- 
 ment is disproved by the very documents which he cites in 
 support of it. Thus, the record of the parliamentary grant of 
 84 Edward I. (on which he relies), after reciting the aid given by 
 
 * 2 'Hundred Rolls,' pp. 122, 12(5. f -' 'Hundred Rolls,' p. 137. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 201. § Ibid. pp. 202, 208. [| Ibid. p. 208.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 153 
 
 the lords and knights of the shire, proceeds thus : — ' Also the 
 citizens and burg-esses of cities and boroughs, and others of the 
 domains of the king (coeteri de dominicis) being assembled,' 
 granted a thirtieth. It is added that, ' the prelates and other 
 magnates of the realm, for themselves and the whole community 
 of the same realm, have granted to our lord the king a thirtieth 
 of all their temporal goods without cities, boroughs, and the 
 domains of our lord the king ; and the citizens and burgesses, 
 and the tenants of the said domains a twentieth ' (vicesimam 
 bonorum suorum temporalium extra civitates burgos et do- 
 minica domini regis ; et cives et burgenses et tenentes domi- 
 nicorum predictorum vicesimam)* — that is, the citizens, bur- 
 gesses, and tenants of the domain lands made a separate grant. 
 There is not a word here about those domains being towns, as 
 Dr. Brady suggests. The towns and crown -lands, probably on 
 account of their greater wealth, usually made larger grants than 
 the counties. 
 
 In another passage, Dr. Brady is obliged to resort to a mis- 
 translation to support his theory. Part of a record relating to 
 a grant in 8 Edward III. he translates thus : ' There were sent 
 commissaries unto every county in England, to agree and com- 
 pound with the inhabitants of every town that was to pay a 
 fifteenth ; and also with the communities of cities and boroughs, 
 and men of towns of ancient demeasns which paid a tenth.' It 
 is difficult to abstain from pronouncing this version wilfully 
 dishonest. The words rendered by Dr. Brady, ' men of the 
 towns of ancient demeasns,' really means ' men of the towns and 
 of the antient domains ' (hominibus villarum et dominicorum 
 antiquorum). In the original, the towns are clearly distin- 
 guished from the antient demesnes. 
 
 Not one of the records cited refers to any parliamentary 
 grant made by royal domain towns in particular, and therefore 
 the inference that they were exclusively rej)resented falls to the 
 ground. It is moreover contradicted, as we have seen, by direct 
 evidence. This narrow doctrine being rejected, we have to in- 
 quire what broader principle determined the selection of towns 
 originally summoned to send members to parliament. 
 
 The safest clue is obviously the writs of summons to par- 
 liament, and the sheriffs' returns to them. The election of 
 citizens and burgesses as a regular practice dates, as we have 
 seen, from 23 Edward I. The writs of that date command each 
 sheriff to cause ' two knights of the said county, and of every 
 
 * 'Brady on Boroughs,' App. No. 13.
 
 154 AXTTENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 city of the same county two citizens, and of every borough two 
 burgesses, of the more discreet and apt for business, without 
 delay, to be elected, and to come to us at the aforesaid day and 
 place ' (quod de comitatu prcedicto duos milites et de qualibet 
 civitate ejusdem duos cives, et de quolibet burgo duos bur- 
 genses de discrecioribus et ad laborandum potencioribus sine 
 dilatione eligi et eos ad nos ad prsedictum diem et locum venire 
 facias) . 
 
 According to the terms of these writs, every city and every 
 borough were to send members to parliament. In the returns to 
 them the sheriffs state, firstly, the names of the knights and their 
 manucaptors, or sureties for their due appearance in parliament ; 
 secondly, burgesses and citizens, with the places for which they 
 are returned, and their manucaptors. Some of the returns add 
 special remarks, which indicate the sense in which the writs 
 were interpreted by the sheriffs. Thus the sheriff of Cornwall, 
 after the names of five boroughs and their representatives, 
 adds : ' There are not any more market towns (villce mercatoriee) 
 in the county of Cornwall, nor is there any city in the said 
 county' — showing that he understood that all market towns 
 were to be represented. The returns for Middlesex give the 
 names of two knights of the shire only, and adds — ' There is not 
 any city or borough in my bailiwick.' The return for Oxford- 
 shire, after the names of the knights, states that ' there is no 
 city or borough in the county of Oxford, except the town of 
 Oxford ; and the writ which came to me was returned to the 
 bailiffs of the franchise of the said town, who have return of all 
 writs ; and they answer me, that by the assent of the community 
 of the town of Oxford, there were elected, according to the form 
 of the writ, the two burgesses undermentioned — Thomas de 
 Sowy de Oxon, An dr. de Pyrie of the same.' The sheriff of Berk- 
 shire says he has sent ' the writ of our lord the king to the bailiffs 
 of the borough of Walingford and Reading, who have return 
 of all writs, and they have answered, as further appears below.'* 
 
 * 1 ' Parliamentary Writs,' p. 40. — These returns are taken from the Petyt 
 transcripts in the Inner Temple Library. The following is part of a memo- 
 randum in the handwriting of the celebrated antiquary George Holmes, 
 explaining the circumstances in which the Petyt transcripts were made : — 
 ' In my searches in the King's Remembrancer's Office in the Exchequer, near 
 twenty years ago, I met in a great chest several broken bundles of writs and 
 other records in the reigns of different kings huddled up together ; and amongst 
 them I found an imperfect bundle of writs, with their returns, to a parlia- 
 ment to be held at Westm' anno 23 Ed. I. — the very first president hitherto 
 found out by any man that I have heard of. This discovery being made by me, 
 1 ordered my clerk to take a copy of those writs and returns which I have, and 
 after acquainted Mr. Halsted (then deputy to S r Algernoon May, Keeper of the
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 155 
 
 The cities and towns elected members of parliament by the 
 authority of a mandate received, not directly from the crown, 
 but (as these returns show) immediately from the sheriff. This 
 practice, commenced in the reign of Edward I., continued to 
 our own times. It was not until the year 1853 that an Act of 
 Parliament* provided that the writs to the sheriffs should require 
 them to make election for their own counties only, and that 
 writs for elections in boroughs should be issued directly to their 
 own returning officers. 
 
 According to Prynne, the whole number of cities, boroughs, 
 and ports which, from the time of Edward I. to that of 
 Edward IV., received summonses to return members to par- 
 liament was 170. Some of them made no return, others not 
 more than once ; several returned four or five times, and others, 
 after long discontinuance, resumed the electoral franchise. 
 New boroughs received writs in several of the intervening 
 reigns, and after the time of Edward IV. several, though 
 poor and inconsiderable, made returns, ' by the practice of 
 sheriffs or ambitious gentlemen seeking to be made burgesses 
 for them, and consent of the poor burgesses of them being 
 courted, feasted by them for their voyces, without charters from 
 the king, or title by antient custome or prescription.' f Prynne 
 notices that the parliamentary writs addressed to the sheriffs, 
 directed the election of citizens and burgesses for every city and 
 borough, without designating particular cities and boroughs ; 
 and he adds — ' Thereupon every sheriff used a kind of arbitrary 
 power in execution of the general clause, according as his 
 judgment directed, or his affections of favour, partiality, malice, 
 or the solicitations of any private boroughs to him, or of com- 
 petitors for citizens' or burgesses' places within his county 
 swayed him.' % 
 
 These, however, were clearly abuses of the law. The parlia- 
 mentary writs certainly did not give the sheriffs any arbitrary 
 power of election ; they were simply required to make returns 
 for every city and borough. If any of them refused to obey the 
 mandate, sheriffs had no power of enforcing obedience. The 
 law upon this subject is correctly laid down by a modern 
 learned writer, § as follows : ' It was the duty of the sheriff to 
 
 Records at the Tower, and after to D r Brady) with my discovery, which I 
 believe, upon very good reasons, M r Halsted afterwards told the Doctor oi'.' — 
 Ibid. p. 24 
 
 * 10 & 17 Vict. c. 68. 
 
 f Prynne, c Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva,' p. 229. J Ibid. p. 231. 
 
 § Merewether and Stephens, 'History of Boroughs,' p. 1931.
 
 15G ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 ascertain, according to the fact, what places were boroughs and 
 which not, and accordingly to grant his precept to them. With 
 the power of arbitrary selection, the constitution never en- 
 trusted the sheriff; the duty cast upon him he was bound to 
 perform under the same responsibility as his other official acts, 
 and in the same manner as he would take notice of any liberty 
 or exempt franchise which actually existed within his bailiwick. 
 This appears by several of the returns, in which the sheriff 
 stated that the writs were returned by the officers of particular 
 places, who had the privilege of returning writs in them.' 
 
 That the sheriffs exercised a discretion in exempting boroughs 
 incompetent from poverty, or want of population, is manifest. 
 There are many returns of the reign of Edward III., and later 
 dates, which assign such reasons for omitting returns from 
 particular places. Thus, in 38 Edward III., the sheriff of Lan- 
 cashire, after the names of the knights, adds : ' And there are 
 not any cities or boroughs within the county from which any 
 citizens or burgesses ought to come to the said parliament, or 
 are wont, because of their inability or poverty ' (propter eoruni 
 debilitatem seu paupertatem) .* There are many similar returns 
 from the same county in subsequent reigns. In 27 Henry VI., 
 ' There is not any city within the said county, nor borough, 
 which, at any parliament in times past, was wont to find 
 (invenire) any citizens or burgesses, because of their inability 
 and poverty.' f 
 
 Frequently the omission of returns from towns resulted from 
 the default, not of the sheriff, but of the towns themselves. In 
 several instances the return shows that the precept has been 
 issued, but the boroughs have refused to comply with it. 
 Thus, in 17 Edward III., it is stated, with respect to Chiping- 
 Torington, in Devonshire, ' The bailiffs have given me no 
 answer ; ' and the statement is repeated in 19 Edward III. and 
 20 Edward III. In 42 Edward III., there is a remarkable 
 application from this place to the king : to the effect that they 
 ought not to be burdened with sending men, neither did they 
 send any before the 21st year of his reign, when the sheriff 
 maliciously returned into the chancery that the town was a 
 borough ; and from that year, by pretext of that return, the 
 town had been annually required to send men to parliament, 
 and thereby had been put to great pains and expenses. The 
 statements of this petition were incorrect, for though, for 
 three parliaments before 21 Edward III., they did not elect 
 
 * 'Brady ou Boroughs,' p. 121. 
 
 t Prynne, 'Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva/ p. 2-117.
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 1.57 
 
 burgesses, they had certainly done so several times previously. 
 Upon this petition the king, by his patent, stated that, being 
 unwilling to burden the town of Toriton to find or send men to 
 parliament, 'We have and hold you excused, and exonerate you 
 therefrom by these presents for ever.' * 
 
 Again, in 6 Richard II., a temj>orary exemption was granted 
 to the burgesses of Colchester, for five years, ' in aid of the 
 expenses of enclosing the said town with a wall of stone and 
 mortar for resistance of enemies.' f 
 
 In strictness, the office of the sheriffs, with respect to parlia- 
 mentary elections, was ministerial, not judicial ; and any dis- 
 cretion which they exercised in excusing boroughs was in excess 
 of their legal powers. This appears manifestly by the statute 
 5 Richard II., stat. 2, c. 4 (a.d. 1382), which enacts that 'if 
 any sheriff of the realm be from henceforth negligent in making 
 his returns of writs of the parliament, or if he leave out of the 
 said returns any cities or boroughs which be bound, and of old 
 time were wont to come to 'parliament, he shall be punished in 
 manner as was accustomed to be done in the said case in 
 antient times.' 
 
 On the face of it, this is no new law : the sheriff is to be 
 punished as in antient times (dauncienetee) if he omits the 
 proper returns. In other words, it is distinctly recognised that 
 the antient constitution does not give him an arbitrary power 
 of disfranchisement. It is remarkable that no provision is made 
 for an excess of power in the opposite direction. Representa- 
 tion was a burden, not a privilege ; and the statute does not 
 indicate that the sheriffs had, up to that time, unduly im- 
 posed that burden on any towns which were not boroughs. 
 Another valuable lesson to be learned from this enactment is, 
 that it makes usage the criterion for distinguishing parlia- 
 mentary boroughs ; the returns are to be sent for all cities and 
 towns ' which of old time were wont to come to parliament.' 
 
 It would be almost hopeless now to attempt to discover the 
 reasons for all the irregularities in the antient returns from 
 boroughs. Beyond doubt, the principal if not the only reason 
 was their poverty, and anxiety to escape from the payment of 
 the wages of members of parliament. The extent of the irregu- 
 larities must not be overestimated. It would be a serious 
 
 * Prynne, 'Previa Parliamentaria Rediviva,' p. 239. — Prynne adds that, 
 notwithstanding this perpetual exemption, Toriton sent burgesses to the vcry 
 next and several subsequent parliaments, and he conjectures that the patent may 
 have been revoked because grounded on false information (p. 240), 
 
 t Prynne, ' Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva,' p. 241.
 
 158 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 mistake to suppose that the borough representation was in a 
 state of utter confusion and irregularity during the reigns of 
 the Plantagenet kings. On the contrary, the great majority of 
 towns represented in the parliaments of Edward I. continued to 
 send members to all succeeding parliaments. After that reign 
 there appear to have been but few, if any, creations of new parlia- 
 mentary boroughs, until the corrupt times of Henry VI. Nor 
 until the latter period — which witnessed, as we have seen in a 
 former chapter,* an almost absolute suspension of constitutional 
 rights — was there any considerable revival of decayed boroughs. 
 From Edward I. to Henry VI. the number of represented cities 
 and boroughs remained nearly constant. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VI. a considerable number of new 
 parliamentary boroughs was created, and the representation of 
 many decayed boroughs was revived. Saltash, Camelford, 
 West Looe, Grampound, Bossiney, S. Michael, Wooton-Bassett, 
 and Newport first sent members in this reign. Among the 
 towns which then, after long intermission, resumed the electoral 
 franchise, were Downton, Hindon, Heytesbury, Westbury, and 
 Cricklade. 
 
 There is sufficient evidence in the Paston Letters of the 
 reasons for reviving the representation of small boroughs in the 
 reign of Henry VI. and the following reign. In a letter to 
 Sir John Paston from his brother, in 1472 (12 Edward IV.), the 
 writer says : ' James Arblaster hath written a letter to the 
 bailiff of Maldon, in Essex, to have you a burgess there . . . 
 If ye miss to be burgess of Maldon, and my Lord Chamberlain 
 will, ye may be in another place ; there be a dozen towns in 
 England that choose no burgess which ought to do it ; ye may 
 be set in for one of those towns, and \if~\ ye be friended. Also in 
 anywise forget not in all haste to get some goodly ring, price 
 of 20s., or some pretty flower of the same price, and not under, 
 to give to Jane Rodon ; for she hath been the most special 
 labourer in your matter, and hath promised her goodwill forth; 
 and she doth all with her mistress. And, [if] my Lord Cham- 
 berlain will, he may cause my lord of Norfolk to come up 
 sooner to the parliament than he should do, and then he may 
 appoint with him for you ere the farm-corn be gathered. I 
 proffered but £40, and if my Lord Chamberlain proffer my lady 
 the remanent, I can think it shall be taken. My lady must 
 have somewhat to buy her a coverchief, besides my lord.'f 
 
 It is obvious from this letter that the House of Commons 
 had sunk to a very degraded condition, and that a traffic of 
 
 * Chapter YI. f 'Paston Letters/ vol. ii. p. 107.
 
 THE KErBESEXTATION OF BOEOUGHS. 159 
 
 seats in that assembly was carried on, almost openly, with great 
 noblemen and officers of state. The reference to towns ' which 
 choose no burgess which ought to do it,' shows that decayed 
 parliamentary boroughs were revived to serve personal and 
 party interests. 
 
 But, whatever abuses occurred in practice, there is no obscurity 
 in the antient law respecting boroughs entitled and required 
 to send members to parliament. The statute of Richard II. 
 (already cited) directed that returns should be made for all cities 
 and towns ' which of old time were wont to come to parliament.' 
 Again, an act of 23 Henry VI. c. 14, required that every sheriff, 
 after delivery to him of the writ of summons, ' shall make and 
 deliver, without fraud, a sufficient precept under his seal to 
 every mayor and bailiff, or to the bailiffs or bailiff where no 
 mayor is, of the cities and boroughs within his county, reciting 
 the said writ, commanding them by the same precept, if it be a 
 city, to choose by the citizens of the same city two citizens, and 
 in the same form, if it be a borough, burgesses to come to the 
 parliament ' [per citezeins de mesme la citee deux citezeins et en 
 mesme la fourme si soit burgh, burgeisez de venir al parlement] . 
 
 The limitations of the powers of the crown with respect to 
 the creation of new seats in parliament appear very clearly by 
 the course of legislation, in the reign of Henry VIII., affecting 
 Wales. Until the latter part of that reign, the principality did 
 not send any members to the English House of Commons. Upon 
 the incorporation of Wales an act was passed (27 Henry VIII. 
 c. 26), by which the shires of that country were authorised to 
 elect knights, and ' every borough being a shire-town within 
 the said country or dominion of Wales, except the shire-town 
 of the foresaid county of Mereoneth, one burgess.' This legis- 
 lation shows that in the reign of Henry VIII. — who certainly 
 was not wont to underestimate his prerogative powers — it was 
 deemed necessary to have recourse to parliament to create new 
 seats in the House of Commons. A few years later a similar 
 act was passed (34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 13), ' for making- 
 knights and burgesses within the county and city of Chester.' 
 
 Prynne considers that ' all new boroughs erected, or old poor 
 ones revived, since 23 Henry VI., by the sheriffs' precepts, by 
 pretext of the general clauses in the king's writs, the solicita- 
 tions of competitors for burgess-ships, or of the boroughs lately 
 set up or restored, or by a bare order of the commons' house or 
 king's charter, without any Act of Parliament, may justly be 
 suppressed and unburrowed by quo warranto.''* Notwith- 
 
 * .Prynne, ' Brevia Parliamentaria Etediviva/ p. 238.
 
 160 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 standing the high authority of Prynne on questions of consti- 
 tutional law, his opinion respecting the revival of antient 
 boroughs may be confidently disputed. That the crown had 
 not, after the statute of 23 Henry VI., a prerogative power of 
 creating new parliaxnentary franchises, is clear ; but the same 
 statute perpetuated the existing franchises. The true doctrine 
 on this subject was clearly laid down by the celebrated Election 
 Committee of 1628 (4 Charles I.). This body included three of 
 the most illustrious constitutional scholars whose names are 
 known to English history — Sir Edward Coke, Sir Robert 
 Cotton, and John Selden. Upon consideration of the cases of 
 Milborne Port in Somersetshire, and Webley in Herefordshire, 
 which had antiently sent burgesses, but afterwards had long 
 discontinued to do so, the committee decided that ' by the writ 
 every antient borough ought to send burgesses,' and that ' long 
 discontinuance no loss of it — this no franchise which may 
 be lost, but a service pro bono ptiblico ; ' and thereupon the 
 house ordered the issue of writs for these two antient 
 boroughs.* 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the constitutional principle, 
 which restrained the crown from creating new parliamentary 
 boroughs, was acknowledged in theory, though it appears in 
 some instances to have been violated in practice. Upon the 
 meeting of parliament in 1562 (5 Elizabeth), it is reported in 
 Sir Simonds D'Ewes's Journal, that ' Burgesses being returned 
 of divers boroughs not latety returned in the chancery — viz., the 
 burgess of Tregony, S* Jermynes, and Maws in Cornwall, the 
 borough of Minhed in Somersetshire, the borough of Tarn worth 
 in Stafford, Stokbridge, and the borough of Stankbridge in South- 
 ampton — Mr. Speaker declared that the Lord Steward agreed 
 that they should resort into the house, and with convenient 
 speed, to show letters-patent why they should be returned in this 
 
 parliament.'f 
 
 Though Queen Elizabeth purported, by her charters, to incor- 
 porate some of these places, she did not profess to give them 
 any right of returning members. Sir Simonds D'Ewes adds 
 that in former times boroughs frequently, on account of their 
 poverty, had neglected to return members to parliament when 
 representatives were paid by their constituents ; but when the 
 payment of wages was discontinued, 'many of those borough 
 
 * 'Journal of the House of Commons,' p. 891. 
 
 ■J" Sir Simonds D'Ewes, ' Journals of all the Parliaments during the Eeign of 
 Queen Elizabeth.' (London, 1G82, fol. p. 80.)
 
 THE REPRESENTATION OF BOROUGHS. 161 
 
 towns which, had discontinued their former privilege by not 
 sending, did again recontinue it (as these towns here), both 
 during her Majestie's reign, and afterwards in the reign of 
 King James, her successor.' 
 
 It is important to observe that, in the numerous charters 
 granted by Elizabeth to towns, they are declared to have been 
 ' immemorially incorporated.'* Thus, it is evident that the 
 crown did not, ostensibly at least, claim a prerogative to create 
 new seats in parliament. 
 
 Upon the meeting of parliament in 1570 (13 Elizabeth), certain 
 members were appointed to confer with the Attorney-General 
 and Solicitor- General, about the returns for nine boroughs — ■ 
 East Looe, Fowey, Cirencester, Retford, Queenborongh, Wood- 
 stock, Christchurch, Aldborough, and Eye— which, it was 
 alleged, had not returned burgesses to the last parliament. 
 Some at least of these places appear to have previously existed 
 as boroughs. In 14 Edward II., Otes de Bodrijan, then lord of 
 Looe, granted a charter, in which he mentioned the reeve and 
 the mayor. In 14 Edward III., Eowey, with Looe, sent a re- 
 presentative to a council at Westminster.f Cirencester is stated 
 by Glanville to have antiently sent burgesses to parliament ; 
 but this statement is disputed by Serjeant Mere wether, who 
 says that Cirencester does not appear to have been incorporated 
 before the reign of Queen Elizabeth. J I find, however, that in the 
 'Hundred Rolls' (temp. Edward I.) the marketplace and the bailiffs 
 of Cirencester are mentioned. § This town was certainly directed 
 to send burgesses to the parliament or council summoned to meet 
 at Westminster, the Friday before Michaelmas, 2 Edward III. || 
 So that there is some warrant for the statement in Glanville. 
 Retford is said to have sent representatives to a parliament or 
 council in 9 Edward II. Queenborough was made a borough 
 in 42 Edward III. ; Woodstock in the reign of Edward I., and 
 it sent representatives to parliament in 30 Edward I. Christ- 
 church is mentioned as a borough in Domesday ; so is Ald- 
 borough. The burgesses of Eye are also mentioned in that 
 record.^f 
 
 Thus, it seems that there was at least some foundation for the 
 incorporation of these places, on the ground of antient right. 
 The material point is, that Queen Elizabeth granted charters 
 to these nine towns on that ground, and therefore tacitly 
 
 * Merewether, 'History of Boroughs,' p. 1221. 
 f Ibid. pp. 1254 and 1276. \ Ibid. p. 1281. 
 
 § Also in Madox, ' History of the Exchequer,' p. 486. 
 || ' Report on the Dignity of a Peer,' App. i. p. 486. 
 % Merewether, 'History of Boroughs,' p. 1258 et tcq.
 
 162 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 admitted that she had not a prerogative to create new parlia- 
 mentary seats at her own absolute discretion. 
 
 Upon the Report of the Committee appointed to confer with 
 the Attorney-General and Solicitor-Greneral respecting these 
 boroughs, it is ' ordered, by M r Attorneys Assent, that the 
 burgesses shall remain according to the returns, for that the 
 validity of the charters of their Towns is elsewhere to be 
 examined, if cause be.'* The House of Commons did not at 
 that time, as it does now, claim exclusive authority to determine 
 questions of controverted returns to parliament. In the cases 
 before us, it left the legality of the charters to the jurisdiction 
 of the courts of law. Those courts, by writ of quo warranto, 
 had power to restrain any person or corporation from usurping 
 any franchise without good title, or to declare it forfeited by 
 nonuser or misuser. 
 
 The Stuart kings went far beyond those of the preceding 
 dynasty in assuming a power of enfranchising and disfranchising 
 boroughs. ' During the violent proceedings that took place 
 in the latter end of the reign of King Charles II.,' says 
 Blackstone,t ' it was, among other things, thought expedient to 
 new-model most of the corporate towns of the kingdom ; for 
 which purpose many of those bodies were persuaded to sur- 
 render their charters, and informations in the nature of quo 
 warranto were brought against others upon a supposed, or 
 frequently a real, forfeiture of their franchises by neglect or 
 abuse of them . And the consequence was, that the liberties of 
 most of them were seized into the hands of the king, who 
 granted them fresh charters, with such alterations as were 
 thought expedient; and during their state of anarchy, the 
 crown named all their magistrates. This exertion of power, 
 though perhaps, in summo jure, it was strictly legal, gave a great 
 and just alarm ; the new-modelling of the corporations being a 
 very large stride towards establishing arbitrary power.' In the 
 succeeding reign of James II., the usurpations of the crown 
 became direct and open, and, as Hume observes, ' by the practice 
 of annulling the charters, the king was become master of all 
 the corporations, and could, at pleasure, change everywhere the 
 whole magistracy. ' When it was too late, James sought to 
 avert the popular indignation by retracing his steps. One of 
 the last acts of his reign was to publish a proclamation 
 restoring the corporations, and directing that all the cities, 
 towns, and boroughs in England and Wales should be put in the 
 
 * Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 'Journals/ p. 150. 
 | 3 ' Commentaries/ p. 263.
 
 THE EEPRESENTATIOX OP BOKOUGHS. 163 
 
 same condition as they were in before any deed of surrender or 
 judgment against them. By the same instrument the king 
 annulled charters which had been granted to new boroughs, 
 incorporated since 1679.* 
 
 The first public act of William III. was a declaration, reciting 
 the evils of the former government, and particularly condemn- 
 ing the seizure of franchises of towns which had a right to be 
 represented in parliament. The declaration directs that the 
 late charters, by which the elections of burgesses are limited, 
 contrary to antient custom, shall be considered null and void, 
 and that all the boroughs shall return to their antient muni- 
 cipal rights. 
 
 The extent of the power of the crown to create new parlia- 
 mentary boroughs has been much controverted. In the case of 
 Newark, the existence of that prerogative was distinctly affirmed 
 by the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II. ; but the 
 precedent has never since been followed, and all claim to such 
 a power on the part of the crown has from that time been 
 abandoned, t Serjeant Mere wether, who is by no means a 
 favourer of excesses of royal authority, thinks ' that the king, 
 as the head of the executive government, had the undoubted 
 prerogative of declaring within what districts the law should 
 be administered, and therefore had the power of creating 
 boroughs, upon which creation would follow all the legal conse- 
 quences.' The sending of burgesses to parliament, he pre- 
 viously observes, ' is only one of the many consequences of the 
 places being made boroughs.' J 
 
 The correctness of this opinion is not absolutely free from 
 doubt. It is true that the old statutes did not expressly 
 negative the right of the crown to create new parliamentary 
 boroughs. The Act of 5 Richard II., already cited, merely re- 
 quires that returns shall be made for ' any cities or boroughs 
 which be bound and of old time were wont to come to parliament.' 
 The Act of 23 Henry VI. c. 14, requires the sheriifs to send pre- 
 cepts to every mayor and bailiff of the cities and boroughs, 
 and does not positively prohibit additions to the number of 
 represented towns. But in accordance with the rule of law — 
 expressio unius est exclusio alterius — it seems reasonable to under- 
 stand that the description of particular places which were 
 to send members to parliament, implied that others were not 
 to do so. This view is confirmed by the course of subsequent 
 
 * Merewether, 'History of Boroughs/ p. 1837. 
 t Ibid. p. 1774. J lbid - P- 1773. 
 
 m 2
 
 164 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 legislation. The statutes of the reign of Henry VIII., autho- 
 rising the creation of new parliamentary seats for Welsh bo- 
 roughs and for Chester, shows that the crown did not then 
 claim the prerogative of creating such seats. The language 
 of the charters of Elizabeth was to the like effect. The ex- 
 clusive right of parliament to alter the representation was thus 
 recognised by the crown. Until the corrupt times of Charles II. 
 and James II., there does not appear to have been any direct 
 and open attack upon that constitutional principle. 
 
 In the time of the Plantasrenet king's the legal rule was 
 simply this — the sheriff was required to send his precept to 
 every city and borough for the election of citizens and burgesses. 
 The parliamentary writs and the statutes are conclusive on this 
 point — that they did not confer on him any power of selection. 
 Sometimes, indeed, he illegally omitted to send his requisition 
 to poor boroughs, which were deemed unable to bear the ex- 
 penses of representation. In some instances, burgesses were 
 exempted by the crown at their own request. Sometimes they 
 simply disregarded the sheriff's mandate, and means were not 
 taken to enforce it. But the old law undoubtedly was that 
 every borough should be represented in the House of Commons. 
 The creation of boroughs was, until the end of the reign of 
 Edward III., left to the discretion of the crown ; but from that 
 time to the present the prerogative has been abandoned — 
 excepting in some instances under the Stuarts — and the sole 
 authority of parliament to create new boroughs has been 
 uniformly recognised.
 
 165 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 
 
 Scot and Lot, 165. — The Antiquity and Etymology of Scot and Lot, 166. — How 
 assessed, 167. — All Householders of Boroughs reckoned as Bun/esses in Domesday, 
 109 ; and in Antient Charters, 173. — Burgesses and no others in Toiots liable 
 to Scot and Lot, 177. — Lodyers not entitled to Buryess-ship, 178. — The Bur- 
 gesses zvere the Parliamentary Elector*, 179. — Earliest Municipal Corporations, 
 185. — Select or Self-elected Corporations, 188. — Abuses of Municipal Govern- 
 ment, 188. — Partial restitution of Municipal Riyhts in the Reiyn of James I., 
 189— Pot wallers, 190.— Municipal Reform in 1832, 192. 
 
 The concluding subject of our inquiry — the antient qualification 
 of electors in boroughs — is comparatively easy. Materials 
 for determining this question are much more readily accessible 
 than those which relate to the suffrage in counties ; for the 
 antient records are more copious and explicit respecting the 
 electoral rights of burgesses than with reference to the corre- 
 sponding rights of voters in shires. 
 
 There is indisputable evidence that in the reign of Edward I., 
 when parliamentary institutions became regularly established, 
 and long afterwards, the electors in boroughs were the resident 
 householders liable to pay * scot and lot. Before examining the 
 evidence on which this conclusion is founded, it will be desirable 
 to explain the nature of the custom of paying scot and lot. 
 
 It was a very antient custom. It was part of the common 
 law of England in the time of Edward the Confessor, and was 
 expressly recognised in the laws of William I. One of them 
 provides (iii. 4), that 'every man French-born, f who in the 
 time of Edward our kinsman was in England, a partaker of the 
 English customs which they call hlote and scote, shall pay accord- 
 ing to the law of the English.' J Scot means a common fund 
 arising from the contributions of many. Spelman derives the 
 word from the Saxon sceote, to throw, because the scot was 
 the collection of what was cast in by several. The word sceote 
 seems to be the root of the English verb 'to shoot.' Matthew of 
 
 * The words ' liable to pay ' are used advisedly. There is no warrant for 
 supposing that a man was ever disfranchised for nonpayment of these charges. 
 Arrears were recoverable, like other debts, by ordinary legal process; bui it 
 dors not appear that the law in antient limes superadded Loss of municipal 
 privileges as a penalty for default of payment. 
 
 •j- Francigena, i.e. of Norman origin. Kelliam says (p. 210) thai this was a 
 general name for all persons who could not prove themselves to be English. 
 
 I 'Antient Laws and Institutions of England.' p. 211.
 
 166 ANTIEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Westminster, in a sentence quoted by Spelman, says : ' That is 
 called scot which is collected of several things into one heap.' 
 
 Lot is defined by Spelman to be the part of a tribute or nay- 
 ment which each of several persons is bound to pay. It seems 
 to be used to designate any component part or item, which is 
 the sense in which auctioneers now use the word. Thus, in a 
 presentment of a jury of the High Peak in Derbyshire — cited 
 by Spelman — it is said that the king's lot of lead, taken in the 
 royal mines there, was every thirteenth pot of metal — (Rex 
 solebat percipere le lot mineris, id est tertium decimum vas). 
 Another use of the word lot occurs in ' burgelote ' (otherwise 
 ' burgbote '), the lot or contribution toward repairing the walls of 
 a borough.* 
 
 The word scot was not confined to the revenue of boroughs. 
 Hundredeschot, or Hundredeshot, or Hundred scot, is frequently 
 mentioned in the ' Hundred Rolls ' of Edward I. Thus at 
 Tavernham, in Norfolk, three persons are returned as with- 
 holding twelve pence of hundredeschot, and two pence from the 
 sheriff's turn.f Again, the Abbot de Becco Herleuin had with- 
 drawn, and appropriated to his own use two shillings of hun- 
 d'edeschot.J In the return for Strepham, in Norfolk, it is 
 said that the tenants of the church of Seynges were wont to 
 pay scot (goddare et scottare) with the villans of the same vill 
 to all charges. § 
 
 Another use of ' scot ' as an affix occurs in the word ' Chir- 
 chescot ' (of which ' Chyrchset ' and ' Circset ' are modifications. 
 This was a payment to the Church of firstfruits of harvest, 
 and was enjoined by the laws of Ina and the laws of Cnut. || 
 
 Romescot, or Romepenny (in Saxon romgeseot or romsceat), 
 was another species of ecclesiastical scot. It was a penny for 
 every hearth, payable to Rome on the Feast of S. Peter. It 
 is enjoined by the laws of Ina and later Saxon kings, and was 
 prohibited in England (39 Edward III.) a.d. 1365.11 
 
 Another kind of scot mentioned in the ' Hundred Rolls ' is 
 the shireveschot, or sheriff's scot — apparently the same tax as 
 that called the auxilium vicecomitis, or sheriff's aid. Another 
 scot mentioned in the same record is ' wodewelschot.'' Thus, in 
 the return for Northgrenehow, in Norfolk, Warm de Monte 
 Caniso is said to withhold ' four shillings and tenpence half- 
 penny of a certain annual render called wodewelschot ' (quodam 
 
 * Spelman, ' Grlossarium ' — in voce ' Burgbote.' 
 
 t ' Hundred Rolls,' vol. i. p. 527. J Ibid. vol. i. p. 528. § Ibid. vol. i. 
 p. 468. — Hundred scot is mentioned in the same return for Strepham, p. 470. 
 || Spelman — sub voce ' Circset.' H Ibid. — sub voce ' Romescot.'
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 167 
 
 annuo redditu qui vocatur wodewelschot), from which expression 
 it may be conjectured that this change was peculiar to parti- 
 cular localities. In the same returns shireveschot is twice 
 mentioned.* 
 
 Scot is frequently mentioned in Domesday. For example, 
 in an entry respecting Ipswich, mention is made of 328 houses 
 which, in the time of the Confessor, paid scot (scottabant) to 
 the gelt of the king. Again : ' In Colchester the bishop has 
 fourteen houses and four acres not rendering custom except scot' 
 — (non reddentes consuetudinem prceter scotum) — (Essex, fol. 
 14); and the burgesses of Colchester are elsewhere (fol. 104) said 
 to have claimed five hides in Luxenhen to the custom and scot 
 of the city. 
 
 * Let us enquire,' says Madox, with reference to the lot and 
 scot in boroughs, * who they were that were liable to bear the 
 common burdens of the community, and in what manner the 
 same were to be raised. The Kings of England having in 
 several ages granted divers liberties to their towns, it became in 
 some cases doubtful what persons were entitled to those liber- 
 ties. For men that live in a town were not all of a sort. There 
 were townsmen and suburbians, townsmen and co-inhabitants : 
 in fine, some that were of the gild or gilds of that town, and 
 some that were not. Many were willing to have the benefit of 
 the common liberties, but were unwilling to have a share in the 
 common burdens or payments. . . . The communia onera, or 
 common burdens, were those things which were chargeable on 
 the community, to be borne and defrayed by common contribu- 
 tion : for instance, the yearly ferine of the town, aids or tallages 
 assessed in communi, common fines, common amerciaments, and 
 suchlike. Every person willing to enjoy the franchise of the 
 town was to contribute, according to his ability, to these public 
 burdens or charges incident to the community. Indeed, the 
 ferme of a town generally arose out of certain demised premises 
 yielding profit, as I have shown above. But other communia 
 onera were borne in communi, and were usually raised by ap- 
 portionment amongst the townsmen, according to each man's 
 ability or substance.' f 
 
 From the records of antient suits in the Court of Ex- 
 chequer respecting the taxation of towns, we get much 
 information upon this subject. The contribution of each 
 man was reckoned according to the value of the goods and 
 
 * ' Hundred Rolls,' vol. i. p. 52G. 
 
 ■j" Madox, 'Firma Burgi/ chap. xi. sec. 5.
 
 168 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 chattels which, he had in the town. Tims, in an action in 
 28 Edward III., against the collectors of a fifteenth granted to 
 the crown in the county of Northampton, there is a complaint 
 that the lower division of the town of Heyford was assessed at 
 a higher rate than the upper division ; and it is said, that ' every 
 man there ought to be taxed and assessed to the said sura, 
 according to the quantity of his goods and chattels, in the same 
 place, without favour shown to any one in that behalf.' Simi- 
 larly, in a plea before the Barons of the Exchequer in the same 
 year, with reference to the collection in Guildford of a fifteenth, 
 and a tenth granted to the crown in Surrey, it is said that the 
 sum due from the town ' ought to have been assessed among the 
 men of the same town proportionately, according to the quantity 
 of their goods, without favour to any one ; ' and the sub- 
 collectors are charged with assessing the plaintiff above the 
 proper rate.* 
 
 Any favour or exemption of townsmen in assessing the com- 
 mon burdens of a town seems to have been regarded with 
 great jealousy. Thus, in the 'Hundred Rolls' (temp. Edward I.) 
 in the returns for the city of London, there is a presentment to 
 the following effect : ' Whereas the liberty of the city of London 
 is one and common to all, and ought to be and is enjoyed in 
 common — certain men of that city, enjoying that liberty, going 
 against their own own oath, namely, Thomas, son of Ade de 
 Basinges .... and others whose names are not known, have 
 charters from our lord King Henry, that they shall not be 
 taxed with their. fellow-citizens, which is against the common 
 justice of the city, whence the whole burden of the taxation, 
 when it occurs (which is frequently), falls upon the poor and 
 middle classes, and is to the destruction of the said city.' f 
 
 The governing officers of towns had power, by virtue of their 
 office, to compel the burgesses to pay the taxes or quotas assessed 
 upon them. If the mayor or ruling officers of a town could not 
 compel any refractory persons to discharge these obligations, 
 they might have aid from the king's officers. If the citizens 
 and burgesses could not agree among themselves in assessing 
 and raising the money, the sheriff of the county, by order 
 from the Court of Chancery or the Exchequer, might apportion 
 it among them. J 
 
 It will be convenient to examine the qualification of burgesses 
 chronologically — first, as it is described in Domesday ; secondly, 
 as it is defined in later documents. The language of Domesday 
 
 * Madox, ' Firma Burgi,' p. 281 in notis. 
 t ' Hundred Rolls,' vol. i. p. 408. 
 J Madox, f Firma Burgi,' chap. xi.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 169 
 
 is concise, and a difficulty is often occasioned by its silence 
 respecting circumstances which were assumed to be noto- 
 rious. The Survey does, however, show satisfactorily that, 
 at the time of the Conquest, and previously, the burgesses were 
 the inhabitant-householders of boroughs. This point is estab- 
 lished in a very curious manner. In several boroughs there 
 is an enumeration of the number of burgesses in the time of the 
 Confessor, the number of houses which have since become un- 
 inhabited, and the number of burgesses at the time of the 
 Survey. The latter number is in these cases the difference of 
 the two former ; and, consequently, the irresistible inference 
 arises, that the number of burgesses was reckoned by the 
 number of inhabited houses. Thus, in the account of Derby in 
 Domesday (fol. 280), it is said that there were in that place, in the 
 time of Edward the Confessor, 243 burgesses. At the time of the 
 Survey there were 100 burgesses and 40 lesser burgesses, and 103 
 houses uninhabited (mansiones wastos) . The sum of the numbers 
 100 -f 40 + 103 = 243, the previous number of burgesses ; and this 
 computation shows very clearly that, at both periods, every inha- 
 bitant-householder was a burgess. So in Ipswich (fol. 289 b), it is 
 recorded that, in King Edward's time, there were 538 burgesses 
 who paid customary rent to the king. At the Survey there 
 were 110 who paid the rent, and 100 poor burgesses who paid 
 a penny a head, and 328 mansiones which had paid geld were 
 wasted. Here 1 1 + 100 f 328 = 538. That is to say, the total 
 number of burgesses of the former period is reckoned by adding 
 the numbers of burgesses and of uninhabited houses at the later 
 period. Of Thetford it is stated that, ' In the borough there were 
 943 burgesses in the time of King Edward ; of them the king 
 has all custom. Of these men, 36 so belonged to the demesne of 
 King Edward, that they could not be the men of anyone else 
 without license of the king : all others could be men of anyone ; 
 but always, nevertheless, the king's custom remained, except 
 heriot. Now, there are 720 burgesses and 224 vacant houses.'* 
 
 * In burgo autem erant dccccxliii. burgenses tempore Regis Edwardi. De 
 his babet Rex omnera consuetudinein. De istis hominibus erant xxwi ita 
 dominice Regis Edwardi ut non possent esse homines cujuslibet sine licentia 
 Regis. Alii omnes poterant esse homines cujuslibet ; sed semper tamen 
 consuetudo Regis remauebat pneter herigete. Modo sunt dccxx burgen si i e1 
 ccxxiiii mansurse vacuee. — Domesday, vol. ii. fol. 118 b. 
 
 The numerals are here given as they appear in the printed edit inn of 
 Domesday; but the conjectural emendation suggested above lias been con- 
 firmed by an examination of the original document in the Record Office. 1 
 am informed that a fourth i alter tin- one which now terminates the DCCCCXLIII 
 has been rubbed nearly out, apparently by accident : also a third C in the 
 numeral dccxx has been erased, apparently on purpose.
 
 170 AXTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Here there is probably a numeral (i) omitted in the dccccxliii. 
 With that correction, we find that, as before, the later 
 number of burgesses, together with the number of vacant 
 houses, makes up the former number of burgesses (720 + 224 = 
 944). It is material to observe, also, that only a few of the 
 inhabitants are the king's tenants. By far the greater part of 
 them, it is expressly stated, may hold of whatever landlord they 
 please, so that burgsss-right depended not on tenancy, but on 
 inhabitancy. All the inhabitants, without distinction, pay the 
 king's custom, except heriot, which was a landlord's charge. 
 
 Similarly, in Norwich (fol. 116 b), among the burgesses are 32, 
 of whom Harold had sac and soc at the time of the Confessor. It is 
 added that, on the land of which Harold had the soc, there are 
 now 15 burgesses and 17 empty houses. The sum of the two 
 latter numbers (17 + 15) is equal to the number (32) of burgesses 
 who held of Harold. 
 
 In a remarkable record, the Cottonian Eegister of Evesham 
 Abbey, cited in Sir Henry Ellis's ' Introduction to Domesday,' 
 there is similar evidence. This Eegister ' contains returns, 
 possibly those which were made to the Commissioners who 
 formed the Domesday Survey, and were afterwards abridged.' * 
 The returns state that, ' in the time of King Edward, there 
 were in the city of Gloucester 300 burgesses in the demesne, 
 paying eighteen pounds and ten shillings of gable by the year. 
 Of these, 97 are resident in their own inheritance, and 97 
 dwelling in hired houses .... And within the castellum dwell 
 24 of these 300, and 82 mansiones are waste.' Here 97 + 97 + 2 i 
 + 82 = 300, or the number of householders added to that of 
 vacant houses makes up the aggregate number of burgesses 
 before the Conquest. 
 
 Besides this arithmetical argument, there are various proofs to 
 the like effect from expressions in Domesday connecting burgess- 
 ship with inhabitancy. For example, at Shrewsbury, in the 
 time of the Confessor, there are said to have been ' 252 houses, 
 and as many burgesses in the same houses paying gable 'f 
 • — a proof that all the householders there were burgesses. In 
 Northampton it is stated that, 'in the time of King Edward 
 there were in Northantone, in the king's demesne, lx burgesses 
 having so many houses (totidem mansiones) : of these, xini are 
 wasted. There remain xlvii. Besides these, there are now, in 
 the new town, xl burgesses in the demesne of King William.' j 
 
 * Ellis, ' Introduction to Domesday,' vol. ii. p. 445. 
 
 t Domesday, vol. i. fol. 252. 
 
 | Hid, vol. i. fol. 219. — The numerals are here given as thev appear
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 171 
 
 The word geld (geldum), which occurs in some of the fore- 
 going extracts, is used in Domesday for Danegeld, a tax which 
 was, by law, imposed in the time of the Saxons. This tax was 
 originally instituted to defray the expense of resisting the incur- 
 sions of the Danes. By the laws of Edward the Confessor, it 
 was enacted that Danegeld should be paid annually, at the rate 
 of twelvepence for every hyde of land throughout the country. 
 It was continued after the Conquest. Spelman says, he finds no 
 mention of Danegeld after the reign of King Stephen, though it 
 did not then cease, but was designated the tallage, in the lan- 
 guage of the Normans, and the tax in English.* By the Domes- 
 day Survey the Conqueror was enabled to fix the proportion of the 
 Danegeld on the property of each landholder. Danegeld occurs 
 only in one place, by its own name, in the Survey ; in all other 
 places it is called Geld.f 
 
 The payment of Gelt, or any any other payment to the crown, 
 did not constitute burgess-ship. This is evident from the 
 reference in Domesday to various burgesses, who paid nothing 
 to the crown. Thus, in Buckingham, in an enumeration of 
 burgesses who were the tenants of different landlords, men- 
 tion is made of ' two burgesses who were men of Earl Leuvin ; 
 they pay sixteen pence, and to the king now nothing' — 
 (ii. burgenses qui fuerunt homines Leuvini Comitis ; hi red- 
 dunt xvi. den. et Regi modo nichil). They are expressly 
 called burgesses, and are stated to be exempt from all pay- 
 ments to the crown. In the same borough there are mentioned 
 ' four burgesses who were men of Eddeva, the wife of 
 Syred. They pay twenty-nine pence ; to the king they owe 
 nothing.' J 
 
 Neither was tenancy of land belonging to the crown a con- 
 dition of burgess-ship, nor was the possession of any freehold 
 necessary. In the extracts from Domesday already given, 
 there are references to lessees and occupiers under private 
 landlords who were burgesses. In Thetford, of 943 bur- 
 gesses, only 36 were the king's tenants. In Gloucester there 
 were, in the king's land, 97 persons living on their own 
 inheritance, and 97 others in hired houses, for which they 
 paid rent ; besides a great number of tenants of various 
 landlords, some of whom had 50 or 60 tenants, and some 
 
 in the original record, which, I am assured, has no vestige of erasure. But it 
 is clear that there is an error of a unit in the enumeration. 
 
 * Spelman, 'Glossarium' — sub vocihus ' Danigeklum,' 'Geldum.' 
 
 f Ellis, 'Introduction to Domesday,' vol. i. p. 351. 
 
 \ Domesday, Buckingham, fol. 143.
 
 172 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 only one or two.* In almost every borough of the king- 
 dom there were burgesses who were tenants of private persons. 
 In Romenel 85 burgesses held under the archbishop. In Bath, 
 besides burgesses holding under the king, 90 are enumerated 
 who were tenants of other persons. In Hereford, after an 
 enumeration of king's tenants, it is expressly stated that Earl 
 Harold had 27 burgesses having the same privileges as others. 
 At Buckingham and Colchester, and many other places, there 
 are similar enumerations. Sometimes burgesses in towns were 
 tenants of manors far distant from them. Thus, one manor at 
 Beddington, in Surrey, had 15 houses in London belonging to 
 it, and another had 13 houses there, besides 8 in Southwark. 
 The Abbey of Romsey had 14 burgesses in Winchester : the 
 Church of St. Denys, at Paris, had 30 burgesses in Grloucester.t 
 
 It is not necessary to multiply instances of this kind. It is 
 abundantly evident that, in the time of Edward the Confessor, 
 and when Domesday was completed, the burgesses hi boroughs 
 were simply the inhabitant-householders. There is not the 
 slightest reason for supposing that those who were king's 
 tenants had any peculiar privileges. They are continually 
 enumerated with other burgesses, and there is no mention or 
 suggestion of any distinction between them. 
 
 In Dr. Brady's treatise on Boroughs it is asserted that, at the 
 period to which Domesday refers, the burgesses or tradesmen 
 in great towns had ' their patrons, under whose protection they 
 traded, and paid an acknowledgment therefor ; or else were in 
 a more servile condition, as being in dominio regis vel aliorum.' % 
 But, certainly, the passages from Domesday which he cites do 
 not warrant these inferences. There is not a word in them 
 about burgesses being under anybody's patronage. Expressions 
 frequently occur, to the effect that burgesses belong to parti- 
 cular manors, or are in the domain of particular persons ; but 
 these are merely concise modes of stating whose tenants the 
 burgesses were. 
 
 The instances in which burgesses are clearly identified, in 
 Domesday, as all the inhabitant-householders of a town, are so 
 numerous, and apply to so many different parts of the country, 
 that they must be taken to show the general meaning of the 
 word burgi rises, as it is used in the Survey. It is true that in 
 some of the returns, with respect to boroughs, other classes be- 
 sides burgesses are mentioned. Thus, at Buckingham, it is 
 
 * See 'Register of Evesham Abbey,' cited in Ellis's ' Introduction to 
 Domesday,' vol. ii. p. 446. 
 
 f Ellis, 'Introduction to Domesday,' vol. i p. 207. 
 J Brady, 'History of Boroughs ' (ed. 1777), p. 27.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 173 
 
 stated that there were ' twenty-seven bnrgesses, eleven bordarii, 
 and two serfs.' But it appears, by the context, that the 
 assessment of the town included a large tract of land which 
 was cultivated by some of these persons. For instance, with 
 reference to a part of this land, it is said : ' Bishop Reniigius 
 holds the church of this borough, and four carucates of land, 
 which belong to it. There are four ploughs, and three villans, and 
 three bordars, and ten cotars, one mill often shillings, meadow 
 two carucates, wood for fences.' * So in other places, where 
 bordars and other classes are mentioned in the same returns 
 with burgesses, the context shows that they cultivated land 
 outside the town. 
 
 The general conclusion that the qualification of a burgess 
 was, in the period to which Domesday refers, simply the occu- 
 pation of a house in a borough, is of the utmost importance 
 with reference to the later history of municipal franchises. 
 Shortly after the Conquest, the grant of charters to the 'bur- 
 gesses' or to the 'men ' of boroughs became, as we have already 
 seen, frequent. But no law was enacted, giving a new and more 
 restricted meaning of the word 'burgess.' Nor is there the 
 slightest evidence of any change in the customary signification 
 of the word. The inference is irresistible, that in the charters 
 granted from the time of the Conquest until long after the per- 
 manent establishment of parliamentary institutions, the whole 
 body of householders was enfranchised. 
 
 The language of the charters themselves tends to the same 
 conclusion. A charter given by Henry III. to Bristol granted, 
 among other privileges, that the burgessess and their heirs, 
 burgesses of the same town, should be empowered from among 
 themselves to choose and create a coroner. Since the coroner 
 was necessarily a resident officer, and the burgesses were to 
 choose him from among themselves, it seems plain that the 
 burgesses were assumed to be resident. f 
 
 Shrewsbury, at an earlier period, affords an instance of a 
 reference to scot mid lot, as an evidence of the right to enjoy 
 municipal privileges. In 11 John (a.d. 1211), a charter was 
 granted to the burgesses of Shrewsbury, which provided that 
 no one should buy and sell certain commodities within the 
 
 * Domesday, vol. i. fol. 143. — The ' carncate' varied in different times and 
 places. Sir Henry Ellis has collected (' Introduction to Domesday/ vol. i. 
 p. 151) several authorities which give different estimates of it ; the lowest being 
 GO, and the highest 180 acres. 
 
 t Merewether, ' History of Boroughs,' p. 459.
 
 174 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 borough, unless he were in lot, and in assizes, and talliages with 
 the burgesses.* 
 
 ' Assizes ' here apparently means assessments. The criterion 
 of the right to trade in Shrewsbury was liability to the public 
 charges to which the burgesses contributed. 
 
 To the same effect is a charter of 1 1 Henry ITT. to Gloucester, 
 which, among other franchises, provided that if any villan by 
 birth should continue for a year in the said borough, and should 
 be in market gild and toll (gilda mercatoria et hansa),f and in 
 scot and lot with the burgesses for a year and a day without 
 claim, then he should not be recovered by his lord, but should 
 remain free in the same borough. Clauses of this kind were 
 frequently inserted in antient municipal charters. J 
 
 A relevant passage in Glanville strongly confirms the opinion 
 that, at the time when he wrote, residence was the test of 
 burgess-ship. Speaking of the mode in which neifs or born 
 slaves may be emancipated, he says : ' Also if any neif abide 
 quietly for a year and a day in any privileged town, so that he 
 is received into their common gyld as a citizen, he shall thereby 
 be liberated from villenage.'§ Here the process of acquiring 
 the right of citizenship is described as consisting in residence 
 for more than a year within the borough, and being received 
 into the common gyld. The word gelda (or gylda) is used in 
 antient documents as the equivalent of lot, and therefore it 
 seems clear that the latter of the conditions to which Glanville 
 here refers imports liability to scot and lot. || 
 
 A passage in the charter granted to Helston by King John, 
 in the second year of his reign, expressly provides ' that none 
 of the aforesaid burgesses, unless he be resident in the said 
 town of Helleston, shall have these liberties.' 1 
 
 Eesidence was the qualification for burgess-ship, and payment 
 of scot and lot its chief obligation. But it was not the only 
 obligation. If a man used the franchises of a borough, he was 
 required to take his share of all the other duties to which the 
 
 * Madox, ' Firina Burgi,' p. 270. 
 
 t Hansa — Peusitatio pro mercibus exsolvi solita. — I)u Cange, ' Ghssarium ' : 
 in voce. 
 
 J Madox, 'Firma Burgi,' p. 271. 
 
 § ' Item si quis nativus quiete per unum annum et unum diem in aliqna villa 
 privilegiata manserit, ita qnod in eorum communem gyldam tanquam civis 
 receptus fuerit, eo ipso a villenagio liberabitur.' — Glanville, lib. v. cbap. 5. 
 
 || Tbis point seems to be established by reference to a charter of Edward I. 
 to Hull (cited hereafter). The grant is in Latin, and is founded on a petition 
 in Norman-French. The latter mentions ' lot et eschot.' The corresponding 
 phrase in the charter is geldam ct scottum. 
 
 ^ Brady, A pp. No. viii.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 175 
 
 burgesses were liable in common. This appears by various 
 law-proceedings against persons who had shared the benefits 
 without the burdens. In 29 Henry III. the men of Castre, in 
 Lincolnshire, brought their action against the Abbot of 
 Grimsby, and others by name, because ' they refuse to partici- 
 pate with the said men in talliages, suits of courts, and other 
 customs pertaining to our ferm of Castre; so that the said 
 men are not able to answer to us fully for the said ferm, 
 although the above-named parties participate with the said 
 men in trading, and all other liberties of the said town.' In 
 40 Henry III. the men of the suburbs of Warwick claimed and 
 enjoyed the liberty of trading in that town, but were unwilling 
 to partake with the townsmen in common amerciaments. The 
 inhabitants of the town and suburbs were summoned to the 
 Court of Exchequer, that the barons might determine the 
 matter between them. In 42 Henry III. an agreement was 
 made between the Augustines' Abbey at Canterbury and the 
 citizens of that city, that the tenants of the abbey who traded 
 in the city ' should be in lot and scot, and in talliage, and 
 defence of them against all, as they had before done.'* 
 
 From these examples, it is apparent that every one who en- 
 joyed the rights of citizenship was required to take his share of 
 all its obligations. In the case of Castre, suits of courts, that is 
 attendances on juries, are expressly included among those 
 obligations. In the case of Canterbury, it is made a condition 
 of the enjoyment of civic privileges that the persons admitted 
 to them shall join in the public watch and defence of the town. 
 
 The antient municipal records of Ipswich present a most 
 interesting account of the local government of that town in the 
 reign of King John. In the first year of his reign he granted a 
 charter to the burgesses of this borough, providing, among other 
 things, that they should hold their lands, pledges, and dues, 
 according to the customs of the borough of Ipswich, and of the 
 king's free boroughs. The rolls of the borough, made shortly 
 afterwards, state the proceedings thereupon as follows : — The 
 whole town being assembled in the burial-ground of S. Mary's, 
 to elect two bailiffs and four coroners, according to the charter 
 then lately granted by King John — it was ordained that there 
 should be twelve Chief Port-men, sworn in the same manner as 
 they are in other free boroughs in England ; that they should 
 have full power for themselves, and the whole town, to govern 
 and maintain the borough, and all the liberties of the same — to 
 render judgment of the town, to ordain and do all things in the 
 
 * Madox, 'Firms Burgi,' p. 271.
 
 176 AN T T1ENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 borough which ought to be done for its state and peace : the 
 whole town to assemble in the burial-ground after the Feast 
 of SS. Peter and Paul, to elect the said Chief Portrnen — 
 on which Sunday the whole town accordingly met before the 
 bailiff and commoners* to elect the said twelve Chief Port- 
 men ; and the bailiff and coroners, by the assent of the town, 
 elected four good and lawful men of every parish of the town, 
 who were sworn to elect twelve Chief Portrnen of the most 
 discreet and worthy of the town, to ordain for its state. 
 
 The record states that the portrnen took an oath of office, and 
 proceed s : 'As soon as they were sworn, they caused the whole of the 
 townsfolk to stretch their hands towards the book, and with one 
 voice solemnly to swear to be obedient to the Bailiffs, Coroners, 
 and Chief Portrnen, and to maintain the town and the new 
 charter, 'f 
 
 This narrative shows that in Ipswich, at the commencement 
 of the thirteenth century, the burgess-suffrage was almost un- 
 limited. The whole town assembled in an open place, where 
 exclusion of non-electors would have been impracticable, and, in 
 a very methodical way, appoint four persons of each parish, to 
 whom is assigned the responsibility of selecting the portrnen. 
 The whole body of townsfolk afterwards ratify the selection by a 
 collective oath. And yet there is nothing to show that the 
 case of Ipswich was exceptional ; on the contrary, the usage of 
 other boroughs is expressly said to have been followed. Its 
 charter is similar in character to those granted to many other 
 places before and after this period. The great value of the 
 record consists in this — that it affords a commentary upon the 
 antient municipal charters and privileges, not of a single town 
 merely, but of the whole kingdom. 
 
 When we reach the era of settled parliamentary institutions — 
 the reign of Edward I. — Ave find no substantial change in the 
 language of borough charters. Occupancy and taxability con- 
 tinue to be the test of burgess-ship. A petition (in Norman- 
 French) of the men of Kingston-on-Hull, in 26 Edward I. (a.d. 
 1298) for certain franchises, prays ' that no one may enjoy the 
 franchises undermentioned, except the tenants of the said town 
 who are, or are willing to be at lot and scot with those of the town' 
 ■ — (forsque le tenantz de meisme la Vile qui sont et estre volent a 
 Lot et Escot ove ceux de la Vile). The charter (in Latin) 
 granted on this petition has a clause, ' That all those of the said 
 
 * Sic in Merewether's abstract of this record. 
 t Mere wether, 'History of Boroughs,' p. 393.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 177 
 
 burgh, wishing to enjoy the said liberties and free customs, shall 
 be at geld and scot with the same burgesses as often as the 
 borough happens to be taxed ' — (shit ad geldam et scottum 
 cum eisdem burgensibus quociens burgum ilium contigerit 
 talliari) .* 
 
 Conversely, if a man did not enjoy the municipal privileges, 
 he was not liable to the municipal burdens. This is shown very 
 clearly by the exemptions allowed to foreigners by the Court of 
 Exchequer, in several cases occurring in the reign of Edward II. 
 In 9 Edward II., certain merchants of Amiens apply for relief 
 from an assessment in Cirencester. They allege that ' they are 
 not citizens or burgesses anywhere within the realm of the king, 
 nor have any domiciles, lands, or tenements within the same 
 kingdom, except certain shops in Cirencester, which they hire for 
 reception of their merchandise till they can sell it.' Their 
 claim of exemption is allowed. Another case of Cambinus 
 Fulbert, a merchant of Florence, in 19 Edward II., shows 
 plainly that the ground of exemption was not alien-birth, but the 
 exclusion from burgess-ship. This man, in his application to 
 the Exchequer, expressly describes himself as a citizen of London 
 at that date, but claims exemption from an assessment for a 
 fifteenth granted to the crown at a much earlier date — the first 
 year of the reign. The Register of the Chamberlain of London 
 is searched, and it is found that he was admitted to the freedom 
 of the city in the seventeenth year of the reign. f And thereupon 
 his claim is allowed. Obviously, the ground of the decision 
 was, that his admission to the freedom of the city was subse- 
 quent to the date of the grant to which he was sought to be 
 made liable. Consequently, mere residence without citizenship 
 did not constitute a liability to scot and lot. If residence alone 
 created the liability, it would have been superfluous to search 
 the City Register. 
 
 This case, and the other authorities already cited, suggest 
 that payment of scot and lot was not an antecedent qualification 
 for burgess-ship, but an incident of it. There is no trace of a 
 law by which the payment was made a condition precedent to 
 the enjoyment of borough privileges ; or by which burgess- 
 rights, when acquired, could be subsequently lost by default 
 of such payments. The qualifications appear to have been, 
 simply, residence and the occupation of a house. The conse- 
 quent liability to local burdens was enforceable by various 
 legal processes, but not, so far as we have any evidence, by 
 
 * Madox, ' Firma Burgi/ chap. xi. see. 4. 
 t Ibid. p. 274. 
 
 N
 
 178 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 disfranchisement. This distinction seems to be very commonly 
 overlooked. It is usually assumed that, unless a man paid scot 
 and lot, he was debarred from the franchise. The statement 
 is not accurate. The liability to scot and lot, and not the 
 actual payment, was a test of the right of burgess-ship. 
 
 It was well settled, at an early period, that the enjoyment of 
 municipal privileges in cities and boroughs was restricted to 
 residents, and that burgesses were not entitled to exercise their 
 franchises anywhere but in the town in which they resided. 
 
 This point was decided in parliament in the reign of Henry IV. 
 In the eleventh year of that reign, Thomas Chaucer, the king's 
 butler, presented a petition, complaining of gross abuses of 
 the privilege granted by charter to the citizens of London, 
 exempting them from paying the charge called ' prisage ' upon 
 wines. The answer to the petition was, ' The king will send for 
 the mayor and aldermen of the said city ; and further has 
 declared, by the advice of the lords in parliament, that none 
 hath or enjoys such freedom in this case, if he be not a citizen 
 resident, and dwelling within the same city. And that all 
 others dwelling in other cities, boroughs, or towns have and 
 enjoy their franchises to them granted.'* That is, burgesses 
 were to be content with the franchises of the towns in which 
 they resided, and were not to participate in the local privileges 
 of other places. 
 
 There was a still earlier decision — Otes's case, in 38 Edward III. 
 — which shows that a citizen of London, in order to enjoy the 
 peculiar privileges of that city, with respect to the devise of 
 land, must be resident, and in scot and lot there. The case is in 
 the ' Liber Assisarum ' of 38 Edward III. pi. 18. The following 
 is a translation of part of it : ' Fincheden for the king say, that 
 he well granted that the citizens ought to have such franchise, 
 scilicet those to whom the franchise extends, scilicet those who 
 are born and inheritable in the same city by descent of heritage, 
 or who are residents, and taxable to scot and lot.' The case was 
 adjudged accordingly. f 
 
 It is also clear that inmates or lodgers, not being householders, 
 
 * Le Roy voet envoier pur les Mair et Aldermans de dite citee. Et en outre 
 ad declarez par advys des Seigneurs en Parlenient que nully n'eit ne enjoise 
 tiele Fraunchise en ceo case s'il ne soit citezein receant et demurrant deins mesme 
 la Citee. Et que fcoutz autres demurantz en autres Citees Burgha ou Yilles eient 
 et enjoisent lour Franchise a eux grauntee. — Hot. Pari. 11 Henry TV. vol. iii. 
 p. 646. 
 
 f 'Juridical Arguments and Collections/ by Francis Hargrave (London, 1797), 
 p. 496.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 179 
 
 were not entitled to municipal privileges. There was a direct ad- 
 judication upon this point in the Exchequer in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, of which the following account is given in the 
 ' Reports ' of Sir John Davys. Referring to the antient impost of 
 prisage, and the charters of exemption granted to the citizens of 
 London and of the Cinque Ports, he says : ' The charter of Lon- 
 don was allowed in this point in the Exchequer of England 
 (44 Elizabeth). But the question there was, if a citizen of 
 London, who has not a family, nor pays scot and lot, but 
 sojourns in the house of another, shall have the benefit of the 
 said charter. In the argument of which case, Coke, then 
 Attorney-General, put this difference of citizens — viz., that 
 there is a citizen nomine, a citizen re, and a citizen re et nomine. 
 But it was resolved that only the citizen re et nomine — viz., 
 he who is a freeman of London, and also inhabits and pays 
 scot and lot there — shall be free of prisage by the said charter.'* 
 The learned Mr. Hargrave, commenting upon the original Latin 
 record in this case, says : ' From this abridgment of the Latin 
 record it is plain that, according to the solemn judgment of 
 the Exchequer in this case, a freeman of London, to have the 
 benefit of exemption from prisage, must be not oyily resident, but 
 also a householder. It is also apparent that the court so con- 
 strued cives in the charter of Edward III., in spite of an 
 uninterrupted usage of fifty years, found by the jury in favour 
 of resident freemen being only inmates and lodgers.' f 
 
 This precedent is somewhat late. But it is clear that the 
 court declared what was considered to be the antient law, for. a 
 contrary custom of fifty years' standing was expressly overruled. 
 The exemptions in question were so valuable, that we may be 
 certain that, if there had been any antient authorities in favour 
 of extending the privilege to inmates and lodgers, they would 
 have been produced on the part of the defendants. 
 
 The authorities just cited relate to the special privileges of 
 citizens respecting prisage and devise of lands, but they involve 
 a more general principle. They show who are the persons 
 entitled to municipal privileges of all kinds ; for the borough 
 franchises of every description were granted to the same persons 
 indistinguishably. 
 
 It may, therefore, be safely inferred that taxable householders 
 only, and not lodgers, were in general entitled to such rights. 
 The only exceptions to this rule were one or two boroughs in the 
 
 * Sir John Davys, ' Le Primer Report ties cases ct matters en ley ' (Lond. 
 1628), fol. 10 (Le case de Customes). 
 
 t Hargrave, 'Juridical Arguments and Collections,' app. xlii. 
 
 n2
 
 180 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 West of England, where (as will be shown hereafter) lodgers, 
 under the name of potwallers, have at one period of our history 
 enjoyed the right of voting for members of parliament. 
 
 We have, then, clear evidence of the nature of the burgess- 
 qualification in the fourteenth century. This point being 
 ascertained, the question, ' Who were the parliamentary electors 
 in boroughs ? ' is free from difficulty. Undoubtedly they were 
 the general body of burgesses. There is not, indeed, any express 
 enactment upon the subject until the fifteenth century ; but in 
 the reign of Henry YI. we find, on the records of parliament, a 
 retrospective statement of the antient electoral law, which is 
 quite conclusive. A petition in parliament by the commons to 
 the crown is the foundation of the statute 23 Henry VI. cap. 14, 
 respecting elections in shires, cities, and boroughs. The petition 
 and the statute agree nearly verbatim ; but there is one remark- 
 able difference between them, which has certainly not received 
 adequate attention. The statute recites a previous Act of 
 1 Henry V., which provided, ' That the citizens and bur- 
 gesses of cities and boroughs coming to the parliament should 
 be chosen men, citizens and burgesses resident, abiding and 
 enfranchised in the same cities and boroughs,' and adds to this 
 recital — ' The which citizens and burgesses, and no others, have 
 at all times been chosen in cities and boroughs ' — (lez queux 
 citezeins et burgeisez et null autres ont tout temps en citeez et 
 burghs estez eslieux).* But when we turn to the corresponding 
 passage of the parliamentary petition, we find a remarkable and 
 important variation. The words there are, 'the which citizens 
 and burgesses, by citizens and burgesses, and no others, have at all 
 times been chosen in cities and boroughs ' — (lez queux citezeins 
 et burgeyses, par citezeins et burgeyses, et null autres ount tout 
 temps en citees et burghs estez esluz).f The additional words 
 entirely alter the sense of the passage, and the context indicates 
 that they are omitted from the statute accidentally. J The petition 
 states that the electors have been citizens and burgesses. The 
 statute (if construed literally) states that the elected have been 
 
 * ( Authorised Edition of the Statutes/ vol. ii. p. 310. 
 
 f 'Rot. Pari.' vol. i. p. 115. 
 
 \ It is remarkable that the old translation of the Statutes renders the passage 
 under consideration as follows — ' Which citizens and burgesses have always, in 
 cities and boroughs, been chosen by citizens and burgesses, and no other.' This 
 version agrees exactly with the parliamentary petition, but not with the statute 
 itself. The old translation of the Statutes into English, as Serjeants Hawkins 
 and Paiff head observe, has obtained a kind of prescriptive authority.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 1S1 
 
 citizens and burg-esses ; but the latter statement is surplusage, 
 because it immediately follows a recital of an existing- law to 
 that effect. Moreover, a subsequent part of tlie statute (agree- 
 ing in that respect with the petition) provides that any mayor 
 or bailiff shall forfeit forty pounds if he shall return ' others 
 than those who are chosen by the citizens and burgesses, of 
 the cities or boroughs where such elections are, or shall be 
 made ' — (autres que ceux qui sont esluz per lez citezeins et 
 burgeisez dez citeez et burghs on tielx elections . sont ou serront 
 faitz) . 
 
 The statute and parliamentary petition of 23 Henry VI. 
 agree, then, that the electors in cities and boroughs were ' the 
 citizens and burgesses,' and the petition adds that this had 
 been the practice 'in all times. This evidence is conclusive. On 
 the very highest possible authority, we have here a definition of 
 the qualification of borough electors ; and that definition, 
 though very brief, is perfectly precise. The electors are not 
 ' burgesses,' but ' the burgesses,' and the petition adds that no 
 one else was allowed to participate in the election. In other 
 words, the entire body of townsmen entitled to the municipal 
 franchise, and they alone, were the electors of representatives 
 in parliament. 
 
 The records of earlier date, though less explicit, are completely 
 consistent with this conclusion. They contain no indication of 
 the existence of a select constituency in towns. The writs to 
 the sheriffs of the date 23 Edward I. — which is the commence- 
 ment of the regular representation of boroughs — require each 
 sheriff to cause to be elected of his county two knights, and 
 of each city of the same county two citizens, and of every 
 borough two burgesses — ' so that the said knights shall 
 then have full and sufficient power for themselves and the 
 community of their respective counties, and the citizens and 
 burgesses for themselves and the community of their respective 
 cities and boroughs, to do what of common council shall be 
 ordained in the premisses, so that, on account of defect of this 
 power, the aforesaid business shall not remain in any manner 
 uncompleted.' The elected citizens and burgesses were to 
 receive full power for the community of the cities and boroughs : 
 the business of parliament was not to be stopped by any defect 
 of the power to be conferred on these delegates. Is it not clear, 
 from these expressions, that they were regarded as the law at 
 this day regards persons invested with authority, by k powers of 
 attorney,' to perform various legal acts in the name of their 
 principals ? Is it possible to doubt that the persons nominated
 
 182 ANTIENT TAELIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 were to be attorneys or agents appointed by the communities in 
 whose name they acted ? 
 
 Many writs addressed to particular cities and towns in the 
 fourteenth century show that the election of their representa- 
 tives was to be made by the whole body of citizens. In 27 
 Edward III. a writ to the bailiffs of Boston, in Lincolnshire, 
 commands them to cause to be chosen two burgesses, ' by the 
 assent of the said town ' — (de assensu ejusdem vilhe). A writ to 
 Bristol of the same date is in the same form ; and the return to 
 it states that two persons have been chosen, ' by the assent of 
 the community of the same town' — (de assensu communitatis 
 vilke prsedictse). So the contemporaneous return for Exeter is 
 entitled, ' The answer of Robert de Bridport, mayor of the city 
 of Exeter, and Eichard Oliver and Thomas .Spicer, bailiffs of 
 the same city, and the community of the same city.' A return 
 of the city of London, in 12 Edward II., is in still more general 
 terms : it is made in the names of ' the mayor of the city of 
 London, the aldermen, sheriffs, and ivhole community of the same 
 city.' A still earlier return, for a parliament to be held at 
 York in 26 Edward I., from Derby, states that the bailiff ' has 
 chosen, by the assent of the whole of the said town' — (assensu 
 communitatis totius ville predicte) — two persons named.' 34 ' 
 
 It would be easy to multiply such instances. Generalty, the 
 returns are merely brief records of the names of the elected 
 burgesses and their manucaptors, or sureties, for their due ap- 
 pearance in parliament. But wherever there is an incidental 
 mention of the mode of election, it indicates that it has been 
 made by the assent of the whole community of the towns 
 represented. 
 
 The only mode of resisting the obvious inference from these 
 documents is that adopted by Dr. Brady — that the words are to 
 be interpreted in some non-natural sense ; that when the re- 
 turning officers speak of election by the whole town, or whole 
 community, they do not mean the whole town or whole com- 
 munity, but something else.f Dr. Brady asserts, a great many 
 times, that the government of towns, at the period under consi- 
 deration, was in the hands of select corporate bodies. But he 
 does not give any tittle of evidence in support of this assertion. 
 On the contrary, it is shown, by the authorities cited in the 
 preceding part of this chapter, that the municipal franchise, in 
 the reigns of the early Plantagenet kings, was enjoyed by the 
 whole body of inhabitant-householders of boroughs. 
 
 * Brady on Boroughs (ed. 1777), pp. 133-140. 
 t Ibid. p. 132.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 183 
 
 Some very remarkable documents of the borough of Lynn, in 
 Norfolk, in the possession of the corporation, furnish curious 
 and instructive information respecting the government of that 
 town in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the pecu- 
 liar method then adopted for electing burgesses to serve in 
 parliament. 
 
 In Merewether's ' History of Boroughs,' one or two extracts 
 from these records are given, and the learned authors state that 
 they have examined the originals. Also in the twenty-fourth 
 volume of the 'Archseologia' (1832, p. 317), there are 'extracts 
 from a manuscript containing portions of the proceedings ol 
 the corporation of Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, from 1430 to 1731, 
 taken from the Hall books,' and communicated by Mr. Hudson 
 Gurney, who states that the records in the possession of the 
 corporation are ' somewhat imperfect from 1392 (15 Richard II.) 
 to 1453 (32 Henry VI.), from which date they are perfect to 
 the present day.' Mr. Gurney's extracts commence in 1430 ; 
 those of Serjeant Mere wether are considerably earlier. 
 
 In these Hall books we find the remarkable fact, that bur- 
 gesses to serve in parliament were repeatedly elected by twelve 
 jurymen. In 1376 (50 Edward III.), the burgesses to parlia- 
 ment were so chosen on two several occasions.* Serjeant 
 Merewether conjectures that the jury which performed this 
 function was the Leet Jury. But the extracts from the 
 'Archseologia,' presently to be given, show that this conjecture 
 is not correct, and that the jury was appointed specially for 
 the purpose of the election, in a very peculiar manner. 
 
 For the election in 1378 (2 Richard II.), the procedure is 
 thus described in the record : — 
 
 ' On the same day, the mayor and commonalty caused to be 
 chosen two discreet men — viz., Nicholas de Luerdeston and 
 Hugh de Ellyngham— to be present in the parliament of our 
 lord the king, to be held at Gloucester, on Wednesday next 
 after the Feast of S. Luke the Evangelist, by virtue of a writ 
 on that account directed to the aforesaid mayor and common- 
 alty, by John Locke,' and eleven other persons, who are stated 
 to have been sworn, f 
 
 The following entry also occurs : ' On the aforesaid day were 
 elected, for the parliament to be held at Westminster, at the 
 Feast of S. Martin, John de Wentworth and Thomas Waterden, 
 by Robert Kene,' and eleven others sworn. J 
 
 * Merewether, ' History of Boroughs,' p. G53. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 700. 
 
 j Ibid. p. 701. — The date of this extract is not given. Apparently it was
 
 184 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 It is apparent that the commonalty did not surrender, by this 
 procedure, their control of the election ; they merely delegated 
 the task of making a fit selection to twe]ve burgesses appointed 
 by their sanction. 
 
 This appears clearly from the following account of an elec- 
 tion (January 7, 1436) : — 
 
 ' John Ashden and John Syff, of y e Twenty-four, John Adams 
 and Bartholomew Colles, of y e common council, were called 
 by y e mayor, by y e assent of y e whole congregation, who called 
 Edward Mayne and John Spryngewell, and they called Galfrid 
 Gatele and John Mariat, and the foresaid eight called - William 
 Kyrketon and Thomas Lok, and y e foresaid ten called Thomas 
 Talbot and Martin Wrighte, which twelve were charged (being 
 sworn according to custom to preserve y e liberty of y e town), to 
 chuse two burgesses for y e borough of Lyn, to go to the parlia- 
 ment on the 21st day of January next ensuing, to be held at 
 Cambridge or London, according to y e form of y e writ lately 
 delivered to y e mayor aforesaid. They chose burgesses for the 
 said town — Thomas Burgh, John Warryn.'* 
 
 In this borough there was, at the date of this transaction, 
 besides the common council, a committee of Twenty-four — a 
 self-elected body. This appears from an extract, from the same 
 manuscript, under the date, September 21, 1432: 'Afterwards 
 the Mayor and Twenty-four entered y e chamber, and in y e room 
 or place of Bartholomew Pettipas and Philip Frank, lately 
 deceas'd, chose John Watei'den and John Boucher into y e 
 Twenty-four.' It is not known what the functions of this body 
 were, and how it originated. It is found existing at Lynn at a 
 period earlier than the charter of Hull — to be noticed j>resently 
 — which is considered the earliest instance of a charter of 
 municipal corporation. Apparently, at Lynn, the peculiar 
 form of municipal government existed by prescription and 
 arrangement among the townsmen themselves, without the 
 sanction of a charter. 
 
 about A.D. 1399, or a little earlier ; for in the list of burgesses returned for this 
 borough, given by Prynne in the ' Fourth Part of a Brief Register' (p. 1024), 
 the following occurs: '21 R. 2 P. ap. West. Johes. Wentworth, Rogerus 
 Rawlin. 1 II. 4 P. ap. West. Robtus. Bodeksham, Thomas Waterden.' 
 As Wentworth's name occurs only here, it may be conjectured that he was 
 returned at this time, and Waterden either with him, or nearly at the same 
 time. There is an error somewhere in the transcription of the names. The 
 regnal year 21 Richard II. commenced in a.d. 1397 — 1 Henry IV. commenced 
 in a.d. 1399. 
 
 * ' Archoeologia,' vol. xxiv. p. 320. — The manuscript book from which this 
 extract is taken, is stated by Mr. Gurney to be 'a translation, in its earlier 
 parts, probably made by some townclerk for his private use.'
 
 THE BOKOUGII ELECTORS. 185 
 
 The account of the procedure on January 7, 1436, shows that 
 the choice was made by a jury appointed with the sanction of 
 the commonalty. The process of constituting this jury was as 
 follows : — First, the mayor, with the assent of the whole congre- 
 gation, selected four ; these chose two others ; the six chose 
 two more, and so on, until a complete jury of twelve had been 
 called. They were then sworn, ' according to custom ' — an 
 expression which shows that this method of procedure at elec- 
 tions of members of parliament was usual in the borough. 
 
 The election of these burgesses was ratified, nine days after- 
 wards, by the general body of the electors. This appears by 
 the subsequent entry: 'Jan. 16. — The same day was sealed, 
 under the common seal, a letter for y e authority of John Warryn 
 and Thomas Burgh, burgesses of parliament.' So on another 
 occasion (June 17, 1433), when burgesses had been similarly 
 chosen by a jury, we find a fortnight afterwards: 'July 1. — Then 
 also was seal'd y e warrant for the burgesses of parliament.'* 
 
 There are other entries, which show very plainly that at this 
 period the representatives represented the general municipal 
 body, and consulted its wishes. Thus, with reference to 
 Thomas Burgh and John Warryn, above mentioned, we find, 
 under the date February 20, 1436-37 : ' The same day was read 
 a letter sent to y e mayor, by y e burgesses of Lyn, remaining in 
 parliament for y e said town, which letter being fully under- 
 stood, it was appointed, by the assent of y e whole congregation, y* 
 an answer should be return to y e said letter, by the mayor 
 aforesaid, under y e seal of y e office of mayoralty of Lyn.' 
 
 1 1437, April 4. — The same day Thomas Burgh and John 
 Warryn, burgesses of y e last parliament for Lyn, did well and 
 discreetly declare those things which were substantially done 
 and acted for y e mayor aforesaid, in y e parliament.' 
 
 Thus it appears that what we now often call ' extra-parlia- 
 mentary utterances,' are recommended by precedents of vener- 
 able antiquity. The following are entries to the like effect — 
 1432, July 23: 'John Waterden reported y e transactions of 
 parliament.' 1442, April 18 : 'The said day y e burgesses of y e 
 last parliament — viz., Richard Frank and Walter Curson — dis- 
 cretely and seriously declar'd several transactions of y e said 
 parliament.' The material point in these records is that the 
 representatives consulted the inhabitants generally, and were 
 deemed responsible to them. With regard to the election in 
 January 10, 1441-42, of the persons last mentioned, it is said : 
 ' And it was the same day also ordered, by if assent of y e whole 
 
 * ' Archjeologin.,' vol. xx.lv. p. 320.
 
 186 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 congregation, y* y c burgesses chosen for parliament shall be 
 allowed each of them two shillings a day, and by no means any 
 more.' January 26: 'Also y e same day, by assent of y e congrega- 
 tion, y e charter of y e liberties of y e town was delivered to Richard 
 Frank, in order to get the said charter confirmed.' These 
 entries show a distinct recognition, by the ivhole congregation, of 
 the members chosen by jury. 
 
 We now come to a very important epoch in the constitutional 
 history of boroughs — the creation of municipal corporations. 
 The first instance of a municipal charter of incorporation is 
 supposed to have occurred in the reign of Henry VI. Of 
 the change then commenced, in the form of borough charters, 
 the consequences were more extensive and pernicious than 
 probably were at first foreseen. The system introduced in this 
 reign led, by degrees, to the establishment of the select or self- 
 elected corporations, and the manifold abuses of local institutions, 
 which were abolished by Act of Parliament in 1835. 
 
 It is not possible to trace, in every case, the successive steps 
 by which the free and simple method of borough government, 
 in the Norman and Plantagenet periods, degenerated into 
 the mercenary and utterly debased system of the last and 
 earlier parts of the present century. The change came by 
 slow and almost imperceptible degrees. The extracts just 
 given respecting Lynn furnish some clue to the mode in which 
 it was accomplished. We find at Lynn a self-elected municipal 
 body — the Twenty-four — constituted not by the charter of the 
 town, but by a voluntary arrangement on the part of the 
 burgesses, who, however, retained the supreme power in their 
 own hands. Again in the case of Ipswich, cited a few pages 
 back, there is even, so early as the reign of King John, a 
 select governing body — -the Twelve Portmen; though, indeed, 
 this committee was not self-elected, but chosen by the towns- 
 men. It is further added — and that is a most important 
 piece of information — that the election of the Twelve Port- 
 men was in accordance with the practice of the other free 
 boroughs of England. So that, from very early times, the 
 boroughs allowed to exist in their constitution a superior ruling 
 body, which — we may conjecture— became converted gradually 
 and stealthily into an oligarchy. We shall presently see how 
 an apparently unimportant variation in the language of muni- 
 cipal charters was converted by legal ingenuity into a means 
 of confirming abuses originated by mere usurpation. 
 
 Charters and grants of franchise to towns, in the earlier
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 187 
 
 reigns after the Conquest, were usually made in favour of tlie 
 townsmen and their heirs. Thus a charter of Henry II. is 
 granted to the citizens of London, ' to hold to them and their 
 heirs.' After the time of Henry III., the form was slightly 
 varied ; it became : ' To hold to them and their heirs and suc- 
 cessors,' or ' to them and their successors.' * These appear, 
 at first sight, trivial matters. But the expressions in cpiestion, 
 in later times, assumed great importance, as indications of the 
 classes of persons entitled to the municipal franchise. 
 
 The distinction between towns incorporated, and others, is 
 thus expressed by Madox : ' A town not corporate had succes- 
 sion only as an aggregate body or community, or, if you please, 
 as one generation succeedeth another. This might be called a 
 natural succession. On the other hand, a town corporate had 
 succession as an aggregate body or community too ; but as a 
 community modified, or putt into a particular form. It had 
 succession under a special denomination, suppose of mayor, 
 bailifs, and community — mayor, jurates, and community, or the 
 like. And this was a complex kind of succession — to wit, both 
 natural and artificial.' f 
 
 Thus, in earlier times, the towns were regarded as bodies 
 perpetual by natural succession. But when the artificial system 
 of creating corporations within towns arose, the law gave to 
 these offsprings of its ingenuity special and artificial rules of 
 succession. This, however, was not the only difference between 
 corporate and unincorporated towns. The municipal charters 
 of later times are much more minute than their prototypes, 
 and create a great variety of corporate powers. Among the 
 most important was that of purchasing land. This power 
 existed under the old charters, as we have already shown in 
 some instances ; but it was abrogated by the Statute of Mort- 
 main (15 Richard II.), and the recovery of it appears to have 
 been the chief object of the earliest petitions for incorporation 
 after that date. Thus, in 13 Henry IV. (a.d. 1444), Plymouth 
 petitions the crown, that the inhabitants, their heirs and suc- 
 cessors, may be a body corporate, to purchase free tenements for 
 term of life, or in fee, without the king's licence. J This appli- 
 cation was some time before the actual incorporation of any 
 borough. 
 
 It is worthy of consideration whether we have not here a cine 
 to the origin of municipal corporations. The laws commonly 
 called the Statutes of Mortmain restrained, first religious houses, 
 
 * Madox, 'Firma Burgi,' chap. ii. 6cc 12. t Ibid. p. 50. 
 
 % Merewether, 'History of Boroughs, ' p. 801.
 
 188 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 and afterwards secular bodies, from purchasing land without 
 the licence of the crown. The statute 15 Richard II. c. 5 
 (a.d. 1391), made about fifty years before the Plymouth petition, 
 extends the prohibition against the purchase of land in per- 
 petuity, to cities and boroughs, ' because mayors, bailiffs, and 
 commons of cities, boroughs, and other towns, which have a 
 perpetual commonalty, and others which have offices perpetual, 
 are as j>erpetual as men of religion.' 
 
 Probably this law, and the consequent difficulty which 
 boroughs experienced in acquiring land for various public 
 jmrposes, were the principal reasons for that alteration in 
 their charters by which the constitution of bodies corporate was 
 subsequently conferred upon many of them. Of municipal cor- 
 porations, in the modern technical sense, the first known in- 
 stance is that of Kingston-on-Hull, which was incorporated in 
 18 Henry YI. (a.d. 1439). This charter does not, however, 
 infringe upon the antient common law respecting the class 
 of persons who were to enjoy municipal rights. It incorporates 
 the mayor and burgesses, and provides that the mayor, bur- 
 gesses, and their successors, mayors and burgesses of the town 
 so incorporated, shall be one perpetual corporate commonalty, 
 in deed and name, and have perpetual succession. Power is 
 given to them to bring and defend suits in their corporate 
 name, and also to purchase lands and tenements within the 
 town, notwithstanding the Statutes of Mortmain. Hull is 
 constituted a county by itself, severed from the county of York ; 
 and the burgesses are to elect, annually, their own sheriff, who 
 is to hold his county court, monthly, in the town. Powers 
 are also given to the burgesses to elect aldermen, coroners, and 
 other officers.* 
 
 This precedent of 18 Henry YI. was speedily followed. 
 Plymouth was incorporated in the same year — Ipswich in 
 1446 ; and during this reign, several other municipal corpora- 
 tions were created. 
 
 The establishment of the new system ultimately led to still 
 wider departures from the simplicity of the antient govern- 
 ment of towns, but it had no great immediate effect in changing 
 the constitution of the governing bodies. It is material to 
 observe that, long after the establishment of the Tudor djuiastj^, 
 the existence of select or close corporations of boroughs was 
 unknown. In his retrospect of the reign of Henry YIL, 
 Serjeant Merewether, who regards the innovation of charters of 
 incorporation with great disfavour, allows — ' that the inhabitants 
 
 * Merewether, ' History of Boroughs^' p. 8G0.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 189 
 
 were the objects of these grants, and that therefore, properly 
 speaking, such charters made no essential alteration in either 
 the class or the character of the burgesses, who were still the 
 free inhabitant-householders, paying scot and lot. 5 * And with 
 reference to the reign of Henry VIII., he says : ' Although the 
 foundation was now generally laid for the usurpations- which 
 followed in the succeeding reigns, yet, to the close of this 
 dynasty, nothing essential was done to alter the nature of the 
 boroughs or burgesses. 'f Even up to the end of the reign of 
 Queen Mary, ' there is no ground whatever for assuming that 
 the burgesses were not, during any part of this reign, as they 
 ever had been, the inhabitant-householders, paying scot and 
 lot, and sworn and enrolled at the court leet.' J 
 
 These conclusions are probably correct, so far as relates to 
 the burgess-rights defined by municipal charters. But it is 
 clear, from the same authority, that as early as the reign of 
 Henry VIII., gradual encroachments on the liberties of towns 
 had taken place without any legal warrant whatever. For ex- 
 ample, the records of a suit respecting the borough of Evesham 
 show that, up to that time, the right of electing the bailiffs 
 of the town was vested in the inhabitants, and then, by 
 mere usurpation, it became transferred to particular persons. § 
 But the first instance of a charter, expressly creating a close 
 corporation, appears to be in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The 
 charter of 27 Elizabeth (a.d. 1585) to the borough of Helston, 
 introduced a clause which allowed the mayor and commonalty, 
 and their successors, with the aldermen, or the major part of 
 the aldermen, to elect and admit such and so many of the more 
 discreet, honest, quiet men, and inhabitants of the borough, to be 
 burgesses and freemen of the same borough, as to them should, 
 from time to time, seem fit and convenient. || 
 
 This, of course, was a direct violation of the old common law, 
 which made burgess-ship not a matter of election, but the 
 absolute right of all the free inhabitant-householders. There 
 were other instances of a similar kind in this reign. The 
 Twenty-four burgesses who constituted the common council of 
 Wells began about 23 Elizabeth to assume a power to act 
 without the consent of the general body of the burgesses, and 
 shortly afterwards obtained a new charter, which gave them the 
 power of election, and of making bye-laws. Similarly, in the 
 charter given to Bath in 32 Elizabeth, authority is given to the 
 
 * Merewetker, ' History of Borouplis,' p. 1090. 
 t Ibid. p. 1144. t Ibid. p. L218. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 1420. || Ibid. p. 1387.
 
 190 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 mayor, aldermen, and common council, to make, from time to 
 time, of the inhabitants of the city, free citizens and burg-esses, 
 and bind them, with an oath, to serve and obey the mayor, 
 aldermen, and common council of the city in all their lawful 
 commandments. It is probable that, in many cases, similar 
 assumptions of authority, in derogation of the rights of the 
 general body of burgesses, were allowed, even when there was 
 no pretext of a charter to support the innovations. Thus, 
 at Chester, the charter distinctly gave the power to elect alder- 
 men to the ' mayor and citizens.' Yet, in 1573, the corporation 
 claimed, for the mayor and common council, the right of electing 
 aldermen, on the ground of continual usage ; and ' that it would 
 be to the utter subversion of the state of this city, if the election 
 should take place contrary to their former order, to the hind- 
 rance and defacing of the mayor and city's proceedings.'* In 
 the next reign — that of James I. — the creation of corporations, 
 with authority to select their own members, became still more 
 frequent. 
 
 Many of the abuses which by that time had crept into the 
 electoral system were corrected by the celebrated Committees 
 of Elections, appointed by the House of Commons during 
 the latter part of the reign, and the early part of that of 
 Charles I. Sir Robert Cotton, Selden, and Sir Edward Coke 
 were illustrious members of this body, which did much to 
 restore the antient constitutional rights of burgesses. 
 
 Among other decisions of the committee, the following may be 
 briefly cited. In the case of Cirencester, which came before the 
 committee in 22 James I. (a.d. 1624), it was determined, ' that 
 there being no certain custom or prescription who should be 
 electors, recourse must be had to the common right, which to 
 this purpose was held to be that more than the freeholders only 
 ought to have voice in the election — viz., all men, inhabitant- 
 householders, residents within the borough.'' f In the case of 
 Pontefract it was agreed that, ' where no constant and certain 
 custom appears who should be electors in a parliamentary 
 borough, then recourse must be had to the common law, or 
 common right.' Secondly, the important principle was laid 
 down, that no charter could 'be of force to abridge or alter that 
 common right.' Another resolution stated that ' of common 
 right all the inhabitants, householders, and residents within 
 the borough ought to have voice in the election.' This decision 
 was confirmed by the House. J 
 
 * Merewetlier, 'History of Boroughs/ p. 1324. 
 
 f Glanville, ' Reports of Cases in Parliament/ p. 107. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 139 ; 1 ' Commons Journals ' (May 28, 1624), p. 797.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 191 
 
 Several similar conclusions were adopted by the Election Com- 
 mittees in the reign of Charles I. In 4 Charles I., in the case 
 of Bridport, on a question whether the commoners or the two 
 bailiffs and thirteen capital burgesses were electors, the 
 committee resolved, by a majority, that the commoners had 
 voice in election. And like resolutions were made in the cases 
 of Boston and Warwick. 
 
 These decisions had the beneficial effect of restoring, in many 
 cases, the antient common-law right of burgess- voters ; but the 
 committees, by sanctioning the principle that the suffrage might 
 be varied by custom, opened a door for still greater anomalies 
 and irregularities in later times. The burgess-right, which had 
 originally been characterised by extreme simplicity and uni- 
 formity, became, in process of time, superseded by local usages, 
 which varied all over the country. 
 
 Among other peculiarities of this kind, may be noticed the 
 remarkable privilege of potwallers, in some places in the West of 
 England. It is said that the right was established in three 
 boroughs only — Tregony, Taunton, and Honiton.* I have not 
 been able to ascertain whether the word, variously spelled Pot- 
 wallers, Pot-wabblers, and Pot-walliners, occurs in antient do- 
 cuments, f Probably the use of the word was merely local. 
 
 It seems very doubtful whether the peculiar custom had any 
 great antiquity to recommend it. In 1710, on the trial of an 
 election-petition relating to the borough of Honiton, evidence of 
 old men, who had known the place for fifty years, was given in 
 support of the claim of potwallers. And returns, in 1661 and 
 1679, signed by potwallers were produced. That testimony 
 traces the right no further back than the Interregnum. The 
 Committee of 1710 reported, that the right of election was 'in 
 the inhabitants of the said borough paying scot and lot, and in 
 the potwallers not receiving alms.' But the House, on a di- 
 vision, reversed this decision by a large majority, and resolved 
 that the right was in scot-and-lot voters only 4 Fourteen years 
 afterwai-ds, the House was asked to reconsider its former 
 
 * Merewether, 'History of Boroughs/ p. 105. 
 
 t 'Pot-wabblers: Persons entitled to vote for members of parliament in 
 certain borougbs, from having boiled their pots therein. Tanodunii in agro 
 Somersetensi vocantur pot-walliners.' — Upton's MS. additions to Junius in 
 Bodleian Library; llalliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words 
 (London, 1850). ' Wallop — Ebullire, infervescere.' — Junii Etymologicum 
 Anglieanum (Oxon, 174.3, fol. 8). 'Walling, i.e. boiling; it is now in freqw q1 
 use among the salt-boilers at Northwych, Namptwych, &c. Perhaps ( be same as 
 AVallopping. — Grose's Provincial Glossary (London, 1811). 
 
 \ 'Commons Journals/ February •% 1710 (Queen Anne), p. 480.
 
 192 ANTIENT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 decision. A petition of several inhabitants of Honiton not paying 
 scot and lot states that, 'the petitioners constantly enjoyed the 
 right of voting ever since the restoring of the said borough, 
 which is eighty years since, nntil 1711, when the Honse of Com- 
 mons determined the right of election to be in the inhabitants 
 paying scot and lot only.' A committee of privileges, to which 
 this petition was referred, reported that the right of election 
 was in the potwallers, and their privilege was restored.* 
 
 With respect to Tregony, in Cornwall, a committee reported, 
 in 1695, ' That it was agreed that all snch inhabitants of the 
 said borough as did provide for themselves, whether they lived 
 nnder the same roof or not, had a right to vote.'f 
 
 A petition J of several of the inhabitants, being potwattoners, 
 within the borough of Taunton, in 13 William III. (a.d. 1701), 
 alleges that the right of election belongs ' to such inhabitants 
 and resiants as are potwalioners, or potboilers, there.' The 
 right of this class of voters was allowed by the House of Com- 
 mons on several subsequent occasions. § 
 
 The legality of this peculiar custom has been recognised by 
 statute. The Act 26 George III. c. 100 recites that, in some 
 boroughs, the right of election is ' in the inhabitants pay- 
 ing scot and lot ; or in the inhabitants, householders, house- 
 keepers, and potwallers, legally settled,' &c. ; and provides that 
 such persons shall not be admitted to vote, unless resident 
 six months before the election. 
 
 A committee of the House of Commons, in 1838, resolved, 
 with respect to Taunton, that a potwaller was one, ' whether he 
 be a householder or lodger, who has sole dominion over a room 
 with a fireplace in it, and who furnishes and cooks his own 
 diet at his own fireplace, or some other place within the same 
 house, at which fireplace he had a legal right so to do, and 
 who has actually cooked his diet at such fireplace.' A witness 
 gave evidence before this committee, that it was the custom of 
 the borough of Taunton for a person to boil his own pot at his 
 own fire, in order to make him a potwaller. || 
 
 It would be an almost interminable task to describe all the varie- 
 ties of burgess-right which became established in different towns 
 after the practice of creating select corporations became general. 
 
 * 20 ' Commons' Journals ' (December 18, 1724), p. 36. 
 fll' Commons' Journals ' (March 5, 1095), p. 492. 
 X 13 ' Commons' Journals ' p. 484. 
 
 § 18 ' Commons' Journals ' (July 20, 1715), p. 241 ; 1 Douglas, ' Cases of 
 Controverted Elections, 15 and 16 Geo. III.' p. 367. 
 
 || Falconer and Fitzherbert's ' Reports ' (8vo. London, 1839), pp. 301 and 311.
 
 THE BOROUGH ELECTORS. 193 
 
 The Committees of Privileges, in the time of James I., allowed 
 that the general common-law right of scot- arid-lot voters might 
 be overridden by established local usage. This decision tended 
 to confirm and increase local diversities from the general law. 
 At the time when the Royal Commissioners, appointed in 
 1833, to inquire into the state of municipal corporations, 
 made their report, the borough franchises and government 
 had fallen into the utmost confusion, and the grossest abuses 
 prevailed. The Commissioners state that, ' even when those 
 institutions exist in their least perfect form, they are inade- 
 quate to the wants of the present state of society. In their 
 actual condition, where not productive of positive evil, they 
 exist, in the great majority of instances, for no purpose of 
 general utility. The perversion of the municipal institutions to 
 political ends has occasioned the sacrifice of local interests to 
 party purposes, which have been frequently pursued, through the 
 corruption and demoralisation of the electoral bodies.' Upon 
 the Report of the Commission was founded the Act of 1835 for 
 the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and 
 Wales (5 and 6 Will. IV. s. 76). This celebrated statute 
 abrogated a vast multitude of local laws, statutes, usages, 
 charters, and letters-patent, under which peculiar systems of 
 government prevailed in different boroughs, and gave to them 
 a uniform constitution, consisting of a mayor, aldermen, and 
 town-councillors, elected by the general body of resident 
 ratepayers. 
 
 The modern history of boroughs is not, however, within the 
 scope of the present inquiry. The main object of this work 
 has been to examine the parliamentary institutions of the 
 Plantagenet period. If the investigation has been successful, 
 it establishes this general conclusion — that, according to the 
 primitive law of parliament, all the free inhabitants of each 
 county were entitled to vote for knights of the shire, and that, 
 in every city and borough, all the free resident householders 
 had a right to participate in the choice of representatives. In 
 other words, the result of these researches is, that the House of 
 Commons was originally what its name implies — a council 
 elected by and for the Commons of England.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Particulars taken from Manuscript Cartularies in the Record Office, showing the 
 Tenures and Services of Tenants of various Manors in the Fourteenth and 
 Fifteenth Centuries. 
 
 I. Battle-Abbey (Sussex). 
 
 Cartulary No. 57. — The dates assigned to the extents in this 
 volume are those given by the late Sir F. Palgrave in 
 App. II. to the ' Eighth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of 
 the Public Records ' (pp. 139-141). 
 
 1. Manor of Bernehome (Sussex). — An extent taken 35 
 Edward [I.] gives 8 freeholders (' liberi tenentes '), 7 nativi, 
 18 coterelli, and one tenant for life, ' Silvester sacerdos,' who 
 holds an acre adjacent to his mesuage. ( l ) 
 
 2. Manor of Bright-Walton (' Britwolton ') (Berks). — A rental 
 of 12 Edward [II.] gives 6 freeholders ('qui tenent libere '), 
 10 virgarii, 17 cotarii, 28 villani, and 4 coterie. ( 2 ) Of the 
 freeholders, 2 are said to be villani of the lord ; another is 
 the parson of Bright- Walton. 
 
 3. Manor of Bromham (Wilts). — A rental of about the same 
 date as the last gives 12 freeholders ('liberi tenentes') 5 
 ' majores Erdlings ' (i.e., yerdlings or yardlings = virgarii) , 8 
 ' minor es Erdlinges,' 11 ' Halferdlinges et majores cotarii,' 13 
 'minores cotarii,' 3 coterie, and 2 who do not perform works. ( 3 ) 
 There are also two tenants at will, one a nativus of the 
 lord. 
 
 4. Manor of Limenesfeld (Wilts). — An extent taken in 
 5 Edward [II.] gives 55 freeholders (' liberi tenentes ') ; no 
 other tenants are mentioned. Some of them are said to be 
 ' adeo parvse tenuree et inpotentes quod neque carucas integras 
 nee earum aliquam partem habere estimatur.' ( 4 ) 
 
 5. Manor of Prynkehamme. — A list of tenants in the same 
 handwriting as the last extent gives 10 freeholders (' liberi 
 tenentes '), 23 nativi, and 29 tenants at will. ( 5 ) 
 
 6. Manor of Brodeharnme (Wilts). — An extent taken in 
 5 Edward II. gives 7 freeholders ('liberi tenentes'), 9 nativi, 
 and 4 tenants at will. One of the nativi is the Prior of Tan- 
 ridge ( G ) (' Tanregge '), unless the seven names at the top of 
 fol, 73, which follow the two coming at the bottom of fol. 72 b, 
 are names of tenants whose class has not been defined. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 APPENDIX. 
 
 Cartulary No. 56. 
 
 1. Hundred of Battle. — A rental and custumal made 
 8 Henry VI. 
 
 a. Tenures in the parishes and precincts of the borough of 
 Sanglake, otherwise Battle. In Tiltonsbatke are 8 free- 
 holders, and 13 who hold ' per irrotulamentum.' (") In 
 Breggesell are 6 freeholders, and 1 who holds 'per 
 irrotulamentum.' ( 8 ) 
 
 b. Outside the vill of Battle, near Longreche, are 2 free- 
 holders, and 2 who hold ' per irrotulamentum.' ( 9 ) 
 
 2. Manor of Bright- Walton. — Rental renewed 3 Henry VI. 
 It appears that there were 1 freeholder ( 10 ), 8 virgarii, 5 dimidii 
 virgarii, 16 holding cotsetella (one being the Rector of Bright- 
 Walton), 5 holding cotagia, and 6 called cotarii. ( u ) 
 
 3. Manor of Bromham. — Rental renewed 8 Henry VI. There 
 are 14 freeholders, 5 'more yerdlynges,' 7 ' lasseyerdlynges,' 11 
 ' halfyerdelynges et majores cotarii,' and 33 not defined. ( 12 ) 
 
 II. A Religious House in Coventry, most probably the 
 
 Priory. 
 
 Cartulary No. 21. 
 
 1. Manor of Soive ('Sawe') (Warwick). — An extent taken in 
 12 Henry IV. In the same hand as this is a list of the 
 tenants of: 
 
 2. Wylnehale. — There are 1 freeholder, 13 tenants at will, 
 and 9 cotarii. ( 13 ) 
 
 3. Pakwode (? Packwood) (Kington hundred). — There are 8 
 freeholders, and 36 tenants for life (some of the names being, 
 as in almost all similar lists, repeated). ( u ) 
 
 4. Manor of Off church (hundred of Lylyngton). — An extent 
 taken in 12 Henry IV. gives 2 freeholders, 8 tenants for life, 
 36 ' native tenentes ' (one of whom is a cleric, and two are said 
 to be nativi of the lord), and 10 cotarii. ( 15 ) 
 
 5. Manor of JJlnton (hundred of Stonelegh). — An extent 
 taken in 1 2 Henry IV. gives 2 freeholders, 8 tenants ' de libera 
 tenura de novo perquisite citra facturam veteris extentae ' 
 (which was made, it appears, in 31 Edward I.), 16 ' native 
 tenentes,' and 7 cotarii. ( 1G ) 
 
 6. Manor of FranJceton (hundred of Knytlowe). — An extent 
 taken in 12 Henry IV. shows that there were 3 freeholders, 6 
 tenants ' de lib. ten. de novo perquis.' since old extent, 16 
 ' native tenentes,' 8 cotmanni, and 4 tenants at will. ( 17 ) 
 
 7. Manor of Merston-Priors (hundred of Kyngton). — By an 
 extent taken 12 Henry IV., there are 20 freeholders, 8 tenants 
 at will ' de lib. ten. perquis.' since old extent, and 27 ' native 
 tenentes ; ' 1 tenant ' ad nrmam,' and 2 who pay rent to the 
 Pitanciarius. ( 18 ) 
 
 8. Manor of Hardwich-Priors (same hundred). — An extent
 
 APPENDIX. 197 
 
 of the same date gives 8 freeholders, 13 ' native tenentes,' and 
 5 cotarii. 
 
 9. Manor of Honyngton (same hundred). — An extent of the 
 same date gives 6 freeholders, 5 tenants at will, ' per liberam 
 firmam,' 23 ' native tenentes,' 4 ' native tenentes de alia 
 tenura quse vocatur cotemanni,' and 7 cotarii. 
 
 10. Manor of Wasperton (same hundred). — An extent of the 
 same date gives 2 freeholders, 6 tenants for life and at will, ' de 
 lib. ten. perquis.' since old extent, 2 freeholders ' de Hethecot,' 
 16 'native tenentes,' and 6 cotarii.' 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (') The free tenants hold from 40 acres of land to a small piece, 
 at annual rents from 7s. to a goose worth 2d. One holds an 
 acre of meadow, and pays one penny at Michaelmas. Two are 
 said to pay relief and heriot. One has to perform suit of court. 
 Two hold a cottage each, and one a mesuage with land. The 
 nativi hold from a mesuage and 30 acres of land to one acre, 
 at rents varying from 8.s. a year to 2s. Three of them have to 
 perform various customary works (called both ' opera ' and 
 ' consuetudines '), which are defined, their money-value being 
 also given. Allowances being made for meals, the balance is 
 stated to be sometimes against the lord, sometimes zero ' si 
 dominus receperit opus.' The remaining four are stated to 
 perform suit, and to pay relief and heriot. In a note, however, 
 all the nativi are said to do so. The heriot is to be the best 
 beast, if there be a live one ; if not, the lord has no heriot, ' ut 
 dicunt.' The coterelli hold from a cottage, with an acre and a 
 half of land, to a cottage only, at rents from 4s. to 6VZ. a year. 
 Fourteen perform suit, and pay relief and heriot. One pays 
 relief only. One pays 3s. ' pro omnibus.' A few hold land 
 only, without a cottage. Three are ' de feod' Episcopi,' and 
 pay rent only. They are distinguished from the rest of their 
 class in a note. Neither the nativi nor the coterelli can marry 
 their daughters without licence. 
 
 ( 2 ) I am of opinion, from a careful examination of the hand- 
 writing of the MS., that this extent, and the following one, 
 were taken in 12 Edward I. The virgarii hold each a virgate, 
 at 5s. Aid. per annum, of which 4d. is paid for an acre, which is 
 held by each ' in comnmni de Greneholte.' They are to perforin 
 certain ' consuetudines,' which are defined — the alternative of a 
 payment (of three hens and a cock) being permitted for one of 
 the services, at the pleasure of the lord. They pay one penny, 
 called ' Lesselver,' to the lord, for every animal of two years old 
 or more, at the feast of S. John Baptist. They are 'port are 
 faldam domini ad sommonitionem servientis ter in anno,' 
 whithersoever they are ordered. No reduction of their reni is 
 to be allowed for these services. If, however, fc debenl operari,' 
 they must do whatever is ordered every other day from S. John
 
 198 APPENDIX. 
 
 Baptist to the Gule of August [Aug. 1], and every day from 
 the Gule to Michaelmas, from morning to midday ; and for full 
 work a reduction of Is. on the rent of each will be made. The 
 cotarii hold half a virgate each, at 2s. 4d. per annum. Two pay 
 an additional sum of 2s. a year, to be exempted from performing 
 works. Each pays 4d. a year for an acre, which is held by each 
 ' in Greneholte ... in communi inter alios ; ' but this rent is 
 not to be forgiven to any of them for their works. If they 
 work, they are to do whatever is ordered during certain periods, 
 with an allowance of 2s. off their rent for full work. An allow- 
 ance of 2s. is made off the rent of the man who is chosen by 
 the lord to be his ploughman or ' ad aliud officium.' For certain 
 works, such as sheep-washing and shearing, with the other 
 tenants ('cum aliis '), no reduction is made. The free tenants, 
 excluding the two villain (who are not mentioned), are to perform 
 fixed services. All the tenants, ' tarn liberi quam servi,' are to 
 attend the three ' precarise ' at harvest- time, ' ad metendum.' 
 The lord can at pleasure choose the propositus and other 
 ministers, with two exceptions, from the custumarii. He can 
 select them all from the virgarii, cotarii, or those who hold 
 * de assarto quia omnes sunt villani sui et servilis conditionis, 
 nee possunt maritare filium vel filiam sine licentia domini extra 
 libertatem, vel vendere bovem suum vel juvencum.' 
 
 ( 3 ) The free tenants may, perhaps, number only eleven. Their 
 services are defined. They appear all to pay relief and heriot. 
 The virgarii owe certain defined works, for which no reduction 
 of their rent is made ; the works for which abatement is allowed 
 are ' quicquid eis injungitur,' for certain periods, with other 
 works specified. The same is also the case with the other in- 
 ferior tenants, except the ' minores cotarii,' who are allowed no 
 reduction. 
 
 ( 4 ) Most of them perform suit of court, and pay heriot and 
 relief. 
 
 ( 5 ) Six of the free tenants perform suit of court, and pay 
 heriot and relief; two pay heriot and relief — two relief only. 
 The customs and works of the nativi are definite, and the 
 money-value is given. They are excused in two cases. Four of 
 these tenants are said to be of Prynkehamme ; the remainder 
 belong probably to Limenesfeld, as the whole 23 are referred 
 to as ' tarn illi de Lymenesf ' quam illi de Prynkehamme.' 
 
 ( 6 ) He holds four acres of land, at one shilling a year, ' pro 
 omnibus.' 
 
 ( 7 ) The former pay heriot and relief; the latter heriot and 
 relief ' post mortem,' and ' per alienationem ' heriot, and a fine 
 at the lord's will. Their number is approximate, the ' heirs ' 
 holding one tenement not being named. 
 
 ( 8 ) Three of the free tenants owe suit of court, relief and 
 heriot, one suit only, and two do not owe heriot or relief. 
 The tenant by enrolment owes heriot, and a fine at the lord's 
 will.
 
 APPENDIX. 199 
 
 ( 9 ) The free tenants owe snit, heriot, and relief ; the others 
 heriot and a fine at will. 
 
 ( 10 ) He owes suit, heriot, and relief for one holding ' per 
 cartam,' and for the other a service and suit ; whether heriot or 
 no is to be enquired. 
 
 ( u ) The virgarii perform defined services; two are said to 
 owe heriot and suit. The dimidii virgarii render certain ser- 
 vices. Of the holders of cotsetella, four pay heriot in money, 
 and all but one perform services and works. The holders of 
 cotagia, all but one, owe heriot and suit ; three perform works. 
 Of the cotarii, only one performs work. A memorandum is 
 added: 'Et omnes custumarii qui debent sarclare bladum domini 
 . . . Non licebit eis maritare filium vel filiam suam vel bovem 
 suum vel jumentum vendere extra libertatem prout patet per 
 vetus custumale.' See note ( 2 ). 
 
 ( 12 ) The free tenants owe certain specified services. The 
 number in the text is only approximate, the colleagues of one 
 Chapman not being enumerated. Some of the halfyerdelinges 
 pay heriot in money. 
 
 ( 13 ) The tenants at will owe, some of them, suit of court and 
 heriot, others certain defined works besides. Others pay rent 
 only. The same is true of the cotarii. 
 
 ( 14 ) The free tenants, all but one, who does only suit of court, 
 render suit twice a year, with wardship, marriage, relief, and for 
 heriot their best beast. The tenants for life render, most of 
 them, suit and heriot, their rent ranging from 40s. to 6d. 
 
 ( 15 ) Of the free tenants, one pays, with rent, the price of the 
 third part of a pair of gloves, and does an ' opus ' worth a half- 
 penny, the lord having heriot, ward, and relief. The other 
 pays rent, does works, and renders suit of court. Each holds 
 a mesuage and half a virgate of land. The tenants for life hold, 
 with (all but one) mesuages, from a virgate and three acres to 
 half a virgate. 
 
 ( 16 ) The lord has from the free tenants as heriot 'unum equum, 
 cellam, et gladium ; ' with ward, marriage, and relief. Both do 
 works, and attend courts-leet. The eight tenants ' de lib. ten. 
 perquis.' since old extent pay rent, and all, but one, come to the 
 bid-day, and owe heriot. The ' native tenentes ' pay rent, 
 partly in condonation, during the lord's pleasure, of the works 
 in the old extent, except one work with the custumarii at the 
 ' metcbien' ' at harvest. They render snit of court and leets, 
 and pay heriot. The cotarii render the same services. 
 
 ( 17 ) One of the free tenants has to attend the 'metebien'' 
 with all his household, except his wife, the lord providing 
 meals. The lord has his best beast after his death, ward, mar- 
 riage, and relief of his heir. He also does suit at the Great 
 Courts twice a year, and aiforcement of court. Of the others, 
 one renders suit and afforcement, ward, marriage, relief, and 
 heriot; the other, suit and heriot. Of the tenants ' de lib. ton. 
 perquis.,' since old extent, all, but our, ronder suit, a bid-day
 
 200 APPENDIX. 
 
 (' precaria ') at harvest, and heriot. Of the * native tenentes,' 
 one is said to do suit at all the courts and leets, a precaria at 
 harvest, and heriot, ' tarn pro reddit',' as for the works parti- 
 cularised in the old extent, ' sibi relaxatis,' during- the lord's 
 pleasure. The others are said to do, some of them, ' servicia 
 prsedicta,' one ' opera,' and others ' opera prsedicta.' It is not 
 easy to see what is intended. The same is the case with the 
 cotmanni. 
 
 ( 18 ) Of the free tenants, the first holds in fee four virgates and 
 a mesuage for the tenth of a knight's fee, and by service of four 
 shillings a year and scutage, ' cum accident.' He does suit of 
 court, 'de tribus in tres.' He has to come with at least eight 
 men to the ' metebien' ' for one day, e ad cibum domini.' The 
 lord has for heriot a horse, harness, a sword, a shield, and a 
 lance, ' si habuerit ;' and for ' principale ' his best beast, 
 ward, marriage, and relief. Another has to do three 
 ploughings a year, and to find two men for one day for the 
 precaria without food, and two for the ' metebien',' the lord 
 providing meals. He does suit at all the courts, and the lord 
 has heriot and principale. Another does a moiety of these 
 services, suit at all the courts and leets, and gives heriot and 
 principale. Another, who holds only a mesuage and five acres, 
 has to plough, ' sicut minutus est,' thrice a year, to find one 
 man for two days — viz., for the ' bedripe ' and the ' metebien' ' 
 — and to do suit twice a year at courts and leets. One pays 
 a penny for all services. Of the tenants at will, each renders 
 suit and heriot, and some do two works at harvest. One, 
 who formerly did the iron-work of eight ploughs for his 
 holding with the lord's iron, now pays sixteen shillings a year. 
 Of the ' native tenentes,' one is said to pay two shillings of his 
 yearly rent to the seneschal, partly for works set forth in the old 
 extent, but now released at the pleasure of the lord. He does, 
 however, one work at the precaria in harvest, suit at all courts 
 and leets, and pays for heriot his best beast : he gives ' auxilium' 
 also with the other custumarii. The others do, some the 
 ' servicia,' some the ' opera,' and some the ' opera et servicia ' 
 aforesaid. 
 
 In the foregoing notes, and the extracts to which they refer, 
 no attempt has been made to present anything like an exhaus- 
 tive summary of the rentals and extents which have been dealt 
 with. Anything short of a transcript must necessarily give a 
 most imperfect idea of the amount of materials which lie hidden 
 in imprinted monastic cartularies. 
 
 For an explanation of most of the terms which occur in 
 this Appendix, the reader may consult the 'Interpreter' of 
 Dr. Cowel. 
 
 F. S. H. 
 
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 INDEX. 
 
 Abbey & Overton's English Church History 15 
 
 's Photography n 
 
 Acton s Modern Cookery 21 
 
 Alpine Club Map of Switzerland 18 
 
 Alpine Guide (The) 18 
 
 Amos's Jurisprudence 5 
 
 Primer of the Constitution 5 
 
 Fifty Years of the English Con- 
 stitution 5 
 
 Anderson's Strength of Materials n 
 
 Armstrong's Organic Chemistry n 
 
 Arnold's (Dr.) Lectures on Modern History 2 
 
 Miscellaneous Works 7 
 
 Sermons 15 
 
 (T.) English Literature 6 
 
 Arnott's Elements of Physics 10 
 
 Atelier (The) du Lys 19 
 
 Atherstone Priory 19 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 7 
 
 Ayre's Treasury of Bible Knowledge 21 
 
 Bacon's Essays, by Whatcly 6 
 
 Life and Letters, by Spedding ... 5 
 
 Works 5 
 
 Bagchot's Economic Studies 21 
 
 Literary Studies 6 
 
 Bailey ' s Festus, a Poem 19 
 
 Bain' s Mental and Moral Science 6 
 
 on the Senses and Intellect 6 
 
 Emotions and Will 6 
 
 Baker's Two Works on Ceylon 17 
 
 Balls Alpine Guides 18 
 
 Barry on Railway Appliances n 
 
 Beacon sfield 's (Lord) Novels and Tales 18 & 19 
 
 Becker's Charicles and Gallus 8 
 
 Beesly's Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla 3 
 
 Black's Treatise on Brewing 21 
 
 Blackley's German-English Dictionary 8 
 
 Blaine's Rural Sports 20 
 
 Bloxam's Metals 11 
 
 Bolland and Lang's Aristotle's Politics 6 
 
 Boultbee on 39 Articles 15 
 
 's History of the English Church... 15 
 
 Bourne's Works on the Steam Engine 14 
 
 Bowdler's Family Shakespeare 19 
 
 B ram ley-Moore's Six Sisters of the Valleys . 19 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature, 
 
 and Art 12 
 
 Brasscy's Sunshine and Storm in the East . 17 
 
 Voyage of the Sunbeam 17 
 
 Browne's Exposition of the 39 Articles 15 
 
 Brown ing's Modern England 3 
 
 Buckle's History of Civilisation 2 
 
 Posthumous Remains 7 
 
 Buckton's Food and Home Cookery 21 
 
 Health in the House 13 
 
 Town and Window Gardening... 12 
 
 Bull's Hints to Mothers 21 
 
 Maternal Management of Children. 21 
 
 Burgomaster's Family (The) 19 
 
 Burkes Vicissitudes of Families 4 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer 21 
 
 Capes' s Age of the Antonines 3 
 
 ^— — Early Roman Empire 3 
 
 Cayley's Iliad of Homer 19 
 
 Cetshwayo's Dutchman, translated by 
 
 Bishop Coleuso 7 
 
 Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 7 
 
 Chesney's Indian Polity 2 
 
 Waterloo Campaign 2 
 
 Church ' s Beginning of the Middle Ages ... 3 
 
 Colenso on Moabite Stone &c 17 
 
 's Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 17 
 
 Commonplace Philosopher 7 
 
 Comte's Positive Polity 5 
 
 Conder s Handbook to the Bible 15 
 
 Congreve's Politics of Aristotle 6 
 
 Conington's Translation of Virgil's yEneid 19 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings 6 
 
 Contanscau's Two French Dictionaries ... 8 
 
 Conybeare and Howsoris St. Paul 16 
 
 Coopers Tales from Euripides 18 
 
 Cordery's Struggle against Absolute Mon- 
 archy 3 
 
 Cotfa on Rocks, by Lawrence 12 
 
 Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... 7 
 
 Cox's (G. W.) Athenian Empire 3 
 
 Crusades 3 
 
 > Greeks and Persians 3 
 
 Creighton s Age of Elizabeth 3 
 
 England a Continental Power 3 
 
 Shilling History of England ... 3 
 
 Tudors and the Reformation 3 
 
 Cresy's Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering 14 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Crookes's Anthracen 15 
 
 Chemical Analyses 13 
 
 Dyeing and Calico-printing 15 
 
 Culley's Handbook of Telegraphy 14 
 
 Curie is s Macedonian Empire 3 
 
 De Caisne and Le Maoui's Botany 12 
 
 De Tocqueville s Democracy in America... 5 
 
 Dixon's Rural Bird Life 12 
 
 Dobson on the Ox 20 
 
 Dove's Law of Storms 9 
 
 Doyle's (R.) Fairyland 13 
 
 Dmmmond' s Jewish Messiah 16 
 
 Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste 14 
 
 Edwards's Nile 17 
 
 Ellicott's Scripture Commentaries 16 
 
 Lectures on Life of Christ 16 
 
 Elsa and her Vulture 19 
 
 Epochs of Ancient History.. 3 
 
 English History 3 
 
 Modern History 3 
 
 Ewalds History of Israel 16 
 
 Antiquities of Israel 16 
 
 Fairbairn's Applications of Iron 14 
 
 Information for Engineers 14 
 
 Mills and Millwork 14 
 
 Farrar's Language and Languages 7 
 
 Francis's Fishing Book 20 
 
 Frobisher's \J\te\yy Jones 4 
 
 Fronde's Ccesar 4 
 
 English in Ireland 1 
 
 History of England 1 
 
 ■ Lectures on South Africa 7 
 
 Short Studies 6 
 
 Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York 3 
 
 . Richard II I. & Perkin Warbeck 2 
 
 Ganot's Elementary Physics 10 
 
 • Natural Philosophy 10 
 
 Gardiner's Buckingham and Charles 2
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS 6~ CO. 
 
 23 
 
 Gardiner's Personal Government of Charles 1 . 2 
 
 First Two Stuarts 3 
 
 Thirty Years' War 3 
 
 German Home Life 7 
 
 Goodeve's Mechanics n 
 
 Mechanism 11 
 
 Gore's Art of Scientific Discovery 14 
 
 Electro-Metallurgy 11 
 
 Gospel (The) for the Nineteenth Century . 16 
 
 Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 6 
 
 Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Greville's journal 1 
 
 Griffin's Algebra and Trigonometry ir 
 
 Griffith's A B C of Philosophy 5 
 
 Grove on Correlation of Physical Forces... 10 
 
 Gwilt's Encyclopaedia of Architecture 14 
 
 Hale's Fall of the Stuarts 3 
 
 Hartwlg's Works on Natural History and 
 
 Popular Science n 
 
 Hassall's Climate of San Remo 17 
 
 Haugkton's Animal Mechanics 10 
 
 Hayward's Selected Essays 6 
 
 Heer's Primeval World of Switzerland 12 
 
 Heine's Life and Works, by Stigand 4 
 
 Helmholtz on Tone 10 
 
 Helm/tolls 's Scientific Lectures 10 
 
 Herschels Outlines of Astronomy 9 
 
 Hillebrand's Lectures on German Thought 6 
 
 Hobson's Amateur Mechanic 14 
 
 Hopkins's Christ the Consoler 17 
 
 Hoskold's Engineer's Valuing Assistant ... 14 
 
 Hullalis History of Modern Music 12 
 
 Transition Period 12 
 
 Hume' s Essays 6 
 
 Treatise on Human Nature 6 
 
 Nine's Rome to its Capture by the Gauls... 3 
 
 History of Rome 3 
 
 Ingelow's Poems 19 
 
 Jameson s Sacred and Legendary Art 13 
 
 Memoirs by Macpherson 4 
 
 Jenkins Electricity and Magnetism 11 
 
 Jerrold's Life of Napoleon 1 
 
 Johnson's Normans in Europe 3 
 
 Patentee's Manual 21 
 
 Johnston's Geographical Dictionary 8 
 
 Jukes's Types of Genesis 16 
 
 Jukes on Second Death 16 
 
 Kalisclis Bible Studies 16 
 
 Commentary on the Bible' 16 
 
 * Path and Goal 5 
 
 Keller's Lake Dwellings of Switzerland.... 12 
 
 Kerl's Metallurgy, by Crookes and R'dhrig. 15 
 
 Kingzett's Alkali Trade 13 
 
 '■ Animal Chemistry 13 
 
 Kirby and Spence's Entomology 12 
 
 Klein's Pastor's Narrative 7 
 
 Kuatchbull-Hugessen's Fairy-Land 18 
 
 Higgledy-Piggledy 18 
 
 Landscapes, Churches, &c 7 
 
 Latham's English Dictionaries 8 
 
 Handbook of English Language 8 
 
 Lccky's History of England 1 
 
 ■ European Morals 3 
 
 ■ Rationalism 3 
 
 Leaders of Public Opinion 4 
 
 Leisure Hours in Town 7 
 
 Leslie's Essays in Political and Moral 
 
 Philosophy 6 
 
 Lessons of Middle Age 7 
 
 Leives's Biographical History of Philosophy 3 
 
 Leivls on Authority 6 
 
 Liddcll and Scott's Greek- English Lexicons 8 
 
 Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany ... 21 
 
 Lloyd's Magnetism 10 
 
 Wave-Theory of Light 10 
 
 Longman's (F. W.) Chess Openings 21 
 
 German Dictionary ... 8 
 
 (W.) Edward the Third 2 
 
 Lectureson History of England 2 
 
 Old and New St. Paul's 13 
 
 Loudon's Encycloptedia of Agriculture ... 15 
 
 — Gardening 15 
 
 Plants 12 
 
 Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation 12 
 
 Ludlow's American War of Independence 3 
 
 Lyra Germanica 17 
 
 Ma calls fer 's Vertebrate Animals 11 
 
 Macaulay's (Lord) Essays 1 
 
 History of England ... 1 
 
 Lays, Illustrated 13 
 
 Cheap Edition... 19 
 
 Life and Letters 4 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings 7 
 
 Speeches 7 
 
 Works 1 
 
 Writings, Selections from 7 
 
 McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce 8 
 
 Macfarren on Musical Harmony 13 
 
 Macleod's Economical Philosophy 5 
 
 Economics for Beginners 21 
 
 Theory and Practice of Banking 21 
 
 Elements of Banking 21 
 
 Macnamara's Himalayan Districts of British 
 
 India 18 
 
 Mademoiselle Mori 19 
 
 Mahaffy's Classical Greek Literature 3 
 
 Mulct's Annals of the Road 19 
 
 Manning's Mission of the Holy Spirit 17 
 
 Marshman's Life of Havelock 4 
 
 Martineau's Christian Life 17 
 
 Hours of Thought 17 
 
 Hymns 17 
 
 Maunder s Popular Treasuries 20 
 
 Maxwells Theory of Heat n 
 
 May's History of Democracy 3 
 
 History of England 2 
 
 Melville's (Whyte) Novels and Tales 19 
 
 Mendelssohn's Letters 4 
 
 Merlvale's Early Church History 15 
 
 Fall of the Roman Republic ... 2 
 
 General History of Rome 2 
 
 Roman Triumvirates 3 
 
 Romans under the Empire 2 
 
 Mcrrifi ' eld's Arithmetic and Mensuration... ir 
 
 Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing 20 
 
 on Horse's Teeth and Stables 20 
 
 Mill (J.) on the Mind 5 
 
 Mills (J. S.) Autobiography 4 
 
 Dissertations & Discussions 5 
 
 Essays on Religion 16 
 
 Hamilton's Philosophy 5 
 
 Liberty 5 
 
 Political Economy 5 
 
 Representative Government 5 
 
 Subjection of Women 5 
 
 System of Logic 5 
 
 Unsettled Questions 5 
 
 Utilitarianism 5
 
 24 
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS & CO. 
 
 Miller's Elements of Chemistry 13 
 
 Inorganic Chemistry 11 
 
 Wintering in the Riviera 17 
 
 Minto (Lord) in India 2 
 
 Mitchell's Manual of Assaying 15 
 
 Modern Novelist's Library 18 & 19 
 
 Monselts Spiritual Songs 17 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies, Illustrated Edition 13 
 
 Lalla Rookh, Illustrated Edition.. 13 
 
 Morcll's Philosophical Fragments 5 
 
 Morris's Age of Anne' 3 
 
 Mozart's Life, by Nohl 4 
 
 Mailer's Chips from a German Workshop. 7 
 
 Hibbert Lectures on Religion ... 16 
 
 Science of Language 7 
 
 Science of Religion 16 
 
 Neison on the Moon 9 
 
 Nevile s Horses and Riding 20 
 
 Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua 4 
 
 Nicols's Puzzle of Life 12 
 
 Noire" s Muller & Philosophy of Language 7 
 
 Nortlicott's Lathes & Turning 14 
 
 Ormsby's Poem of the Cid 19 
 
 Owen's Comparative Anatomy and Phy- 
 siology of Vertebrate Animals 11 
 
 Packc's Guide to the Pyrenees 18 
 
 Pattison's Casaubon 4 
 
 Payen's Industrial Chemistry 14 
 
 Pewtner's Comprehensive Specifier 21 
 
 Phillips's Civil War in Wales 2 
 
 Piesse's Art of Perfumery 15 
 
 Pole's Game of Whist 21 
 
 Powell's Early England 3 
 
 Prcece & Sivewright's Telegraphy 11 
 
 Present-Day Thoughts 7 
 
 Proctors Astronomical Works 9 
 
 . Scientific Essays (Two Series) ... 11 
 
 Prothero's Life of Simon de Montfort 4 
 
 Public Schools Atlases 8 
 
 Rawlinson s Parthia 3 
 
 Sassanians 3 
 
 Recreations of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Reynardson s Down the Road 19 
 
 Pick's Dictionary of Antiquities 8 
 
 R ivers's Orchard House 12 
 
 Rose Amateur's Guide 12 
 
 Rogers's Eclipse of Faith 16 
 
 Defence of Eclipse of Faith 16 
 
 Roget's English Thesaurus 8 
 
 Ronalds' Fly-Fisher's Entomology 20 
 
 Rowley's Rise of the People 3 
 
 Settlement of the Constitution ... 3 
 
 Russia and England 1 
 
 Russia Before and After the War 1 
 
 Ridley's Study of Rocks 11 
 
 Sandars's Justinian's Institutes 6 
 
 Satikey's Sparta and Thebes 3 
 
 Savile on Apparitions 7 
 
 Sckellen's Spectrum Analysis 9 
 
 Seaside Musings 7 
 
 Scott's Farm Valuer 21 
 
 . -Rents and Purchases 21 
 
 Seebohm's Oxford Reformers of 1498 2 
 
 Protestant Revolution 3 
 
 Scwell's History of France 2 
 
 Scwell's Passing Thoughts on Religion ... 16 
 
 Preparation for Communion 16 
 
 Stories and Tales 18 
 
 Thoughts for the Age 16 
 
 Shelley's Workshop Appliances 11 
 
 Short's Church History 15 
 
 Smith's {Sydney) Wit and Wisdom 6 
 
 (Dr. R. A.) Air and Rain 9 
 
 (R. B.) Carthage & the Carthaginians 3 
 
 Southey's Poetical Works 19 
 
 Stanley's History of British Birds 12 
 
 Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 4 
 
 Stonehengc, Dog and Greyhound 20 
 
 Stoney on Strains 14 
 
 Stubbs's Early Plantagenets 3 
 
 Sunday Afternoons, by A. K. H.B 7 
 
 Supernatural Religion 16 
 
 Swinbouriic's Picture Logic 6 
 
 Tancock's England during the Wars, 
 
 1778-1820 3 
 
 Taylor's History of India 2 
 
 Ancient and Modern History ... 4 
 
 (Jcremyi) Works, edited by Eden 17 
 
 Text-Books of Science 11 
 
 Thomd's Botany n 
 
 Thomson s Laws of Thought 6 
 
 T/wrpe's Quantitative Analysis 11 
 
 Thorpe and Muir's Qualitative Analysis ... 11 
 
 Thudicknm ' s Annals of Chemical Medicine 13 
 
 Tilden's Chemical Philosophy 11 
 
 ■ Practical Chemistry 13 
 
 Todd on Parliamentary Government 2 
 
 Trench's Realities of Irish Life 7 
 
 Trollope's Warden and Barchester Towers 18 
 
 Ttuiss's Law of Nations 5 
 
 Tyndall's (Professor) Scientific Works ... 10 
 
 Unawares 19 
 
 Unw in's Machine Design n 
 
 Ure's Arts, Manufactures, and Mines 14 
 
 Venn's Life, by Knight 4 
 
 Ville on Artificial Manures 15 
 
 Walker on Whist 21 
 
 Walpole ' s History of England 1 
 
 Warburton s Edward the Third 3 
 
 Watson ' s Geometery n 
 
 Watts' s Dictionary of Chemistry 13 
 
 Webb's Civil War in Herefordshire 2 
 
 Wcinhold's Experimental Physics 10 
 
 Wellington's Life, by Gleig 4 
 
 Whaiely's English Synonymes 8 
 
 Logic 6 
 
 Rhetoric 6 
 
 White's Four Gospels in Greek 16 
 
 and Riddle's Latin Dictionaries ... S 
 
 Wilcocks s Sea-Fisherman 20 
 
 Williams' s Aristotle's Ethics 6 
 
 Wilson's Resources of Modern Countries... 21 
 Wood's (J. G.) Popular Works on Natural 
 
 History n 
 
 Woodward's Geology 12 
 
 Yonge's English-Greek Lexicons 8 
 
 Horace 19 
 
 Youatt on the Dog 20 
 
 on the Horse 20 
 
 Zeller's Greek Philosophy 3 
 
 Spattiswoode is 1 Co. Printers, Nciv-strect Square, London.
 
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