Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

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

II. NORMAN AND LATER.

There are but few details available as to the development
of Municipal rule in Dover during the Norman period.
The old Saxon Hundred Court was continued without any
apparent change except that the presiding official, the Saxon
Reeve was called by the Normans the Prepositus It is
almost certain that the Saxon Reeve had, according to the
custom of those times, selected twelve of his fellow bur-
gesses to assist him in the Administering Justice and so
introduced the order of Magistrates, known in later centuries
as the Mayor and Jurats, and which without material change
has continued for fully a thousand years.

Although the title of the Civic Chief was changed from
the Reeve to the Prepositus, the Norman Chief like the
Saxon was a burgess of Dover selected from his fellows, and
both appear to have discharged the two-fold duty, of collecting
the King's dues and upholding the rights of the burgesses.
Looking at the general history of Dover in the Norman
period it appears to have been a busy time, but no great
changes seem to have been made in the borough rule which
was continued 191 years after the Conquest, under the
Prepositus. In the year 1257 it v»'as found necessary,
owing, no doubt, to the development of the Cinque Ports
organisation, that the Municipal Chief should be more essen-
tially the representative of the burgesses and he was then called
the Mayor, while instead of the Prepositus, an official called
the Bailiff was appointed by the King's writ to represent the
King and to assist the Mayor and Jurats in their judicial
duties. There appears to be no actual record as to when
the elections of the Civic Chief began to take place annually
but it seems probable that it was from the 8th September,
1257, when James Lucas, the Chief Magistrate, first bore
the title of Mayor.

The customs and usages of the Borough from this time
until the year 1,356 are set forth in the Customal of Dover,
which was drawn up in that year for the guidance of the
Lord Warden, the Earl of March, in dealing with appeals
made from the Mayor's Courts, to him, as the Judge of th?



230 ANNALS OF DOVER.

Court of Shepway. The Customal, which emphasizes the
important fact that the succeasion of Mayors was designed to
be automatically continuous, says: — "They claim prescription
and of old time used to choose the Mayor every year
gn the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady ; and then the
Common horn sounded in fourteen diverse places in the
town for the Common Assembly in the Church of St. Peter,
and there was brought the Common Box, the Seal and
other Muniments ; and the Mayor that was, on resigning
his office doth charge the next Mayor then chosen that he
shall be true and lawful to the King of England and to his
heirs, and rightfully maintain the franchises and liberties of
the town, and rich and poor may right. God him help and
all the holy saints, and so he kiss the book. The Jurats
shall swear the same oath. And if the Mayor so chosen be
not there to take the charge, the Mayor that was shall not
be discharged, and it is to be understood that there shall
be no Jurat in the election."

This statement of usage as to the election of the Mayor
is mainly a description of the procedure at the time the
Costumal was compiled. There is allusion made to the
Jurats who were .sworn after the Mayor, and there is mention
made of an " understanding " that if the Mayor chosen was
not present to take the charge no Jurat .should be put in
election, but that the old Mayor should remain in office.
The ancient mode of election was for the Mayor to be chosen
by the Burgesses from amongst themselves, and after the new
Mayor had taken the oath, the Mayor selected from the
burgesses twelve to assist him in his office, and they, having
taken the oath, were called Jurats. This simple procedure
was gradually changed, ard it became the custom for the
twelve existing Jurats to be re-sworn, so giving permanence
to the Judicial Bench instead of each Mayor selecting twelve
men to his own liking. That stage seems to have been
reached in 1.356, when the Do^•(^r Customal was compiled.
The burgesses at that time siill maintained their right
to elect a Mayor from amongst themselves, for which
reason there was an understanding that no Jurat should
be nominated ; but in the Tudor Penod the Freemen's
privilege to elect a Mayor from amongst themselves was
taken away by an arrangement that the Mayor should
alwa^^s be chosen from the Bench of Jurats. Conten-
tion on tluu point was continued for about 150 years,



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 23 1

but It was eventually ruled by the Privy Coi.ncil in the reign
of Queen Anne that the Mayor should be chosen by the
Burgesses out of four Jurats nominated by the Bench of
Jurats. The Mayor and Jurats, as a Bench of Magistrates,
held their Court once a week, on Fridays, except that during
the month of harvest the Court was held on Sundays; and
from the Friday before Christmas until St. Hilary, and
from the beginning of Passion Week until fifteen days after
Easter there was no Court but for the deliverance of
strangers.

The general l)usiness of the Town was transacted in
Common Assembly, where all Freemen had a voice. This
method of dealing with the bu.siness of the Town and Port
was continued until 9th October, 1556, when it was resolved
that thirty-seven Freemen should be elected out of the whole
body of the Commonalty to form a Common Council, and
that they, together with the Mayor and Jurats, should
transact all the business of the Town and Port, except that
CommoH Assemblies should be called to elect the Mayor,
the Burgesses of Parliament, the Bailiff for the Yarmouth
Fishery, and the officers of the Corporation.

The BaiUff was a Freeman of Dover nominated by the
Sovereign, his commission being under the great Seal; but
before entering on his duties he had to appear before the
Mayor and Jurats to exhibit his commission and to be sworn
in the same way as the Mayor. After that he was admitted
to sit on the right hand of the Mayor in the Hundred Court,
where all sorts of pleas were heard, nicluding pleas Royal
and those could not be dealt with without the presence of
the Bailiff. This Bailiff, also, sat with the Mayor in the
Court of General Gaol Delivery, until the beginning of the
Stuart Period, when the appointment of the Bailiff lapsed
and a Barrister-at-T,aw was appointed as " counsel with the
Corporation an<l the assistant of the Mayor and Jurats at
Sessions and Trials," and he was commonly called The
Recorder.

The miscellaneous duties of the Mayor under the
Charters and Customals were extensive. In the Criminal
Courts he had to pass sentences — sometimes the sentence of
death; and in the Hundred Court he had to adjudicate in
Civil suits. That tribunal being a Court of Record, the
decisions were recorded in triplicate, the writing being called



232



ANNALS OF DOVER.



a Dover Charter, one copy being given to the parties on
each side, and the third was preser\'cd in the Dover Archives,
many of which exist now. The Mayor was also the Coroner,
and was paid by fees, which arrangement continued until
1836. When felons claimed sanctuary at the Altar of St.
Martin-le-Grand, the Mayor had to visit them ; and if, after
taking the cross, they left the town by the King's highway,
they were secured from arrest; but if they turned back to
the Town they were executed by being thrown over the cliff
at Sharpness, now known as " The Devil's Drop." The
Mayor was the Clerk of the Market, and it was his duty to
set the price of provisions sold. He was also the Guardian
of all Dover orphans ; he administered the estates of all
burgesses who died intestate ; and, in cases where the wills
of burgesses were proved in the Archbishops Court, the
Mayor required accounts and acquittances to pass under the
Seal of his Office, and, says the Costumal, " this rule ha»
been used peaceably, without interruption, from the first
foundation of Dover." The Mayor was invarial)ly one of
the Barons of the Cinque Ports who attended Coronations,
and down to the close of the Tudor Period he was frequently
one of the Members of Parliament. Finally, if the Mayor
died during his year of office, he had a public funeral, and
one of the canopy cloths that had been used at the Coronation
was used a.s a pall to cover his coffin. The dead Mayor's
authority was .sustained by the " most ancient Jurat," who
acted as his deputy, and gave the charge to the new Mayor,
who was elected in the Church immediately after the funeral.

Of the insignia of the Corporation, the only article
handed down from ancient times is the horn which was
used for calling together C ommon Assemblers. The Mayor's
most ancient badge was the wand. The Mayor still carries
a white wand, and it has been said that it was white as a
sign that the Dover Corporation were partisans of the Yorkists.
Pepys, in his diary, mentioned ihat when Charles II. landed
at Dover, " the Mayor of the town came and gave him his
staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him
again."

The maces were very ancient emblems of the Dover
Corporation. In 1354 Edward III. gave the City of London
the right to have maces garnished with the King's Arms.
The Dover Corporation used threr- maces from about that



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 233

time. They were of silver, and small. One was carried
by the Mayor's Sergeant, one by the Town Sergeant, and
one by the Bailiff's Sergeant, until 167 1, when, by order of
the Common Council, they were sold for £^(i los. 6d., and
an order was given for the present large silver- gilt mace to
be made. It has long been a tradition that this mace was
presented by Charles 11. in memory of his landing at Dover.
That was not so. The mace was paid for by the members
of the Corporation, who were repaid out of the Court-fines;
although there is no doubt but that the mace was intended to
be a memorial of the landing of Charles II. at the Restoration,
for it bears the inscription: — " Carolus — Hic-Posvit-Prima-
Secundus. May 25th, 1660 "; and underneath is engraved,
" Will. Stokes, Mayor, 1676." The ancient horn,
previously mentioned, is of the Thirteenth Century, and the
Corporation possess a curious hand-bell of brass-gilt, which
appears to bear date 1491. There are eight ancient seals,
the largest known as the Corporate Seal, bearing date 1305.
All the seals have the device .showing St. Martin dividing his
Cloak with a beggar. Other parts of the Mayor's para-
phernalia are modern, consisting of Corporation plate given
by Mr. Jonathan Taylor, 1769, Mr. J. M. Fector and Mr.
Henry Pringle Bruyers, 1828; a Mayor's gold chain and
badge, given by Sir William Henry Bodkin, the Recorder,
1867; a jewelled Mayor's badge, given by Sir Harry Bodkin
Poland, the Recorder, in 1898; and a lighter gold chain and
badge, for the Deputy Mayor, given by the late Mr. Walter
Emden, in 1908.



234 ' ANNALS OF DOVER.