Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION FIVE.
THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION.

I. SAXON ORIGIN.

Dover claims to be a Saxon Borough by prescription.
By that phrase the text-books mean that the burgesses acted
in a corporate capacity without any formal Charter of
incorporation. But Dover claims more than that ; it claims
that its privileges of independent jurisdiction and free courts
in the Saxon time were acknowledged, although they possess
no Charter by which those privileges were conferred. The
acknowledgment is clearly written on the first page of the
Kentish section of Domesday Book thus : ' ' The burgesses
gave to the King twenty ships once a year for fifteen days,
and in each ship were twenty men. This they did in return
for his having endowed them with sac and soc.'' The lawyers
interpret " sac and soc " to mean the right of independent
jurisdiction and free courts. That historic record is as good
as a Saxon Charter to Dover; it testifies to something much
more definite than prescription; it proves that in Saxon
times Dover actually had a Royal grant, and that the ship
service rendered to the King by the burgesses was in return
for that grant. It is not stated to which of the Saxoii Kings
the ship service was first rendered, but considering the great
need there was for coast protection all through the Saxon
period, it seems highly probable that the mariner burgesses
of Dover at an early period took up the duties which had
been performed at Dover by the Count of the Saxon Shore
in the time of the Roman occupation. The entry in Domes-
day Book makes it clear that the burgesses of Dover held an
important position on the neck of the narrow seas, and that
the valuable and honourable grant made to them by the
King was for the purpose of ensuring a continuation of their
services, which were of great importance to the nation.



226 ANNALS OF DOVER.

Such were the burgesses of Dover in the Saxon period,
possessing ships by the score, trained mariners by hundreds,
ever ready to convey travellers across the Straits, to ward off
pirates and sea robbers, or to go forth on the sea to encounter
the King's enemies. It is impossible to coirectly estimate
how long this had been going on before the Norman Con-
quest ; but the Saxon municipal rule at Dover appears to
have been well established under a Civic Chief called the
"Reeve." Certainly, Dover was not then a newly made
borough, carved out of some Kentish Manor by the will of
its lord. The Dover Hundred had never been numbered
with the Manors of the County of Kent. The Roman town
had been transformed into a Saxon borough, and its bounds
had been the same from the time beyond which the memory
of man runneth not to the contrary. Time out of mind it
had contributed its share towards public expenditure, two-
thirds of the contribution going to the King, and one-third
to the Earl of Kent. Dover, too, was a place of trade, for
there was a mint here in the reign of Edward the Elder. The
borough Court was held three times a year, according to
Edgar's Law, and it so continued to be held until an Act
of the Nineteenth Centuiy made the Sessions quarterly.

Dover, owing to its haven being at the point nearest
to the Continent, must have been a place of importance since
the dawn of history, but the first solid ground we touch is
in the official de.scription given in Domesday Book, which
we will quote: " In Dover there are twenty-nine houses, of
which the King has lost the custom," which means that
the quit rent of those houses had passed from the King to
the Earl of Kent. Dover was one of the old " Third Penny "
Boroughs — two-thirds of the custom was paid to the King
and one-third to the Earl of Kent — from which it may be
inferred that there were then in Dover fifty-eight houses that
paid quit-rent to the Kiii'j; and twenty-nine to the Earl. The
record continues: " ;)iid all in respect of these twenty-nine
houses avouch the Bishop of Baieux [then Earl of Kent]
as their protector. ' ' The burgesses of Dover who held those
twenty-nine houses are named in Domesday Book as follows:

Robert of Romney liad two of them.

Ralph Curbspine, three.

William, son of Tedal, oik.

William, son of Orger. one.

William, son of Tcd.il, and



THE HISTOftY OF THE COftPORATIQN 2 27

Robert Niger, six.

William, son of Godfrey, three (one of which was the
Guildhall of the Burgesses).

Hugh Montford, one.

Durand, four.

Ralph Columbel, one.

Wadard, six.

The son of Madbert, one.

This detailed list is a raalistic picture of a section of the
property holders in Dover in the far-back year of i®86 ;
and one point of it, which is specially interesting for our
present purpose, is the fact that William, son of Godfrey,
was the holder of three of those houses, and that one of>
them was the Guildhall, or Gilhalla, of the Burgesses. That
William is the man who, as Prepositus, heads the roll of
Dover's Civic Chiefs, as far back as it has been compiled.
The Domesday Book also gives a clear view of the
town and port both in the time of Edward the Confessor,
and in the year of Domesday, thus: " Dover, in the time of
King Edward (the Confessor), rendered eighteen pounds, of
which money King Edward had two parts and Earl God-
wine the third .... the Burgesses gave the King
twenty ships, once a year for fifteen days, and in each ihip
twenty men. This they did in return for his having endowed
them with sac and soc. When the King's Messenger came
there (to use the Passage to France) he gave for the pas-
sage of a horse, threepence in Winter and twopence in
Summer, but the Burgesses found the pilot and one to
assist him, and if he wanted more he hired it at his own
cost. From the Festival of St. Michael (29th September),
to that of St. Andrew (November 30th), the King's truce
was in the town (immunity from arrest for debt or civil
actions) and if any one broke it the Reeve received a com-
mon amend (fine). Whoever resided constantly in the town
and rendered custom to the King, was quit of toll throughout
England. All these customs were there when King William
came to England. On his very first arrival the said town
was burnt, therefore no computations could be made of
what it was really worth when the Bishop of Baieux received
it. Now it is appraised at forty pounds, yet the Reeve
rendered fifty-four pounds for it, to the King twenty-four
pounds in pence, and to the Earl thirty pounds by tale."
Then follows the list of the holders of the twenty-nine



228 AJ4NALS OF DOVER.

houses before quoted, after which was written, " Roger of
Amsterdam built a house over the water where there had
never been one, and there he collected the King's customs.
In the entrance of the Port of Dover there is one Mill
which shatters almost every ship by the great swell of the
sea, and it was not there in the time of King Edward.
Concerning this, the Nephew of Herbert says, the Bishop
of Baieux granted leave to build it. '"

Fairly paraphrased this Domesday record means that
Dover, when William son of Godfrey, the first Civic Chief
on the roll, ruled, was a well organised community of
Burgesses, who received from the King the right of self-
government by contributing twenty ships to the King's
service, with twenty men in each, — 400 able sea warriors
who kept themselves fit, by fifteen days manoeuvres at sea
every year at their own charges, and in readiness to serve
for the defence of the Kingdom in any emergency. The
ability of the Port to put to sea so many ships and such
a large body of mariners was due to the fact that the
ancient Passage Ser\ice, between England and France was
then maintained at Dover under royal authority ; thus the
daily avocations of burgesses of Dover had from early
times fitted them to defend their country. For this service
they had been raised to the honourable position of being
barons of the realm, having thftir own local government,
and their own free courts which were open to all.

Such was the community that flourished at Dover in
Saxon and Xorman times, under rulers elected by them-
selves and subject to no one else but the King, and the
Earl of Kent whose seat was at the Castle. The borough
was then a going concern with a considerable historj'
behind it, and a large population. Those 58 houses
which paid quit rent to the King and the 29 that were
under the Earl of K'-\i were additional to the freehold
property of the Cancn.- of Dover and to the Barony held
by the Corporation and let out to the burgesses, subject
to the ship service due to the King- The 400 men who
annually manned the twenty ships, together with their
families represented a large section of the population, but
there were other crafts and vocations making it clear that
Dover was a large and important community when the
Norman rule began.



THE mSTORY OP THE CORPORATION 229