Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

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

X. BOROUGH RECORDS.

The Records of the Dover Corporation, if only the more
important of them had been carefully preserved, would have
been a collection that would not in many cases have been
surpassed in interest. Unfortunately, however, the records
have been neglected. Many of the earlier ones have been
entirely lost, while others which had passed into private
hands have found their way to the British Museum. The
records left in Dover, in passing from one Town Clerk to
another, suffered owing to the want of a convenient public
muniment room to retain them.

The necessity for a better system of dealing with the
Borough records was pressed upon the Corporation in 1875
by the late Mr. Edward Knocker, F.S.A., and he so far
aroused their interest in the subject that they created for
him the office of Honorary Librarian, with a free hand to
spend a moderate sum in collecting and translating, and in
constructing a muniment cabinet in which the records would
be safe and convenient for reference. Mr. Knocker, who
was a keen antiquarian himself, and possessed special local
knowledge, derived from having held the office of Town
Clerk, put his heart into the work, and when he had com-
pleted it, in the summer of 1877, the Cabinet, which had
been built under the South windows of the Council Chamber,
was formally opened by the Mayor, Mr. George Fielding,
and Mr. Edward Knocker gave an interesting statement of
the muniments and records that had been salved from the
wastage and wreck of centuries.

The earliest records in the possession of the Town
Council, he said, are those relating to the Maison Dieu, the
first being a Charter granted by Henry HI. in the year
1227, confirming a grant of land that Hubert De Burgh
had made. The same King, in 1230 granted a second
Charter, extending the liberties and franchises of the Maison
Dieu. In 1236 Henry HI. granted another Charter which
enlarged the first; and a fourth Charter was granted by
Edward HI. in April, 1338. In addition to those four
Charters, the Corporation possess seven deeds by which



264 ANNALS OF DOVER

property was conveyed to that religious house. There
are two very interesting deeds relating to the regulation of
the ships of the Passage, and twenty royal charters connected
with the Town and Port, granted by various Sovereigns from
Edward II. to Charles II. There are also ninety-five deeds
to which the Corporation were parties, ranging from 1365
to 1 806, and sixty-one other ancient documents connected
with the Town and Port.

The minute books of the Common Assemblies and
Common Council, which have been preserved by the
Corporation, commence with the year 1557, but are only
continued until 1560, after which date the minutes are lost
up to 1603. Commencing again at that date the Common
Council Minutes are continued until 167 1. From that year
the original minutes have been lost, leaving a gap of ninety-
seven years, from 167 1 to 1757; but those minutes have
found their way into the Egerton Collection of MSS., which
have been purchased by the British Museum, and a copy of
them from 1673 to 1768 has been made and placed in the
Dover Muniment Cabinet; and from 1757 the original minute
books have been preserved complete down to the present
time. The early Chamberlains accounts are missing but
from 1 38 1 to 1546 they have found their way to the British
Museum, and the continuation of the accounts from 1547 to
1835 are in the Muniment Cabinet at Dover, as well as Copies
from the British Museum of a portion of the older accounts,
for a few vears, commencing 1365. Also there are two books
of the Court of Record, one containing the transactions from
1684 to 1692, and another for the period from 1729 to 1740,
as well as entries of cases from 1684 to 1801. There are
enrolments and lists of Freemen from the beginning of the
Stuart Period in the Muniment Cabinet at Dover. The
Corporation records as preserve d at Dover, are, as before
stated, very incomplete; but, happily, the original records
at Dover, together with those in the Egerton and additional
MSS. at the British Museum, gi\ e a fairly continuous account
of the Dover Corporation affairs from 1365 until modern
times. Of course, it is inconvenient to have part of the Dover
Records in London, but that mi;jjht be remedied by having
the remainder of them copied and brought to Dover. That,
and the proper arrangement of more modem records, would
require additional accommodation.



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 265

The Borough Miuiiments may be classed as records of
historical interest and documents of practical utility. If the
missing early records were copied, as suggested, and lodged
in Dover, the historical side would be sufficiently dealt with ;
but the modern muniments demand methodical and careful
treatment. When Mr. Edward Knocker, in 1876, undertook
the arrangement of the Dover Corporation Records, he acted
in the spirit of the keen antiquarian that he was, sparing no
pains in collecting and arranging the old documents, but he
made no suggestions as to the arranging and preservation
of the modern records, probably because he presumed that
they were in safe and convenient keeping ; but that is now
forty years ago. Since then the muniments have largely ac-
cumulated. The minutes, which are bound in yearly volumes,
and other modern documents must require a good deal of
room. Every document that is impressed with the

Corporate Seal is a muniment of more or less value, securing
some advantage or accepting some responsibility. They are
l)ublic documents, and there ought to be lists of them
with a brief description of their contents printed and
published every year, so that members of the Town
Council and the ratepayers may know what documents
there are in existence bearing on matters that come up for
discussion in the Town Council. Such knowledge is neces-
sary' to equip Town Coimcillors for their duty in the
Town and to enable ratepayers to keep Town Councillors
up to their duty. The publication of such annual lists would
l)e a safeguard against the loss of records, for if such lists
had been kept in early times, and properly compared with
the records in posses.sion, those piles of records, accounts
and minutes belonging to the Corporation from the Four-
teenth Century to the Eighteenth Century would not have
been transferred to private libraries and eventually sold to
the British Museum. It would be a great public advantage
to keep the burgesses interested in both the ancient and
modern history of their native or adopted town ; that
was one great object that the late Mr. Edward Knocker had
at heart, and, to further that, he .suggested that as soon as
the contents of the Muniment Cabinet were arranged they
should be catalogued, and that the catalogue should be
printed, so that, under proper safeguards, the burgesses
might have an opportunity of consulting the records. If
the ancient and modern records were so catalogued, more



266 ANNALS OF DOVER

room than the present Muniment Cabhiet affords would
certainly be necessary, both for the safety of the documents
and for convenience in examining them. The great leakages
of valuable records in the past evidently arose from
the Corporation having no place of their own where the
records could be conveniently kept. Previous to the

passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the
Mayor for the time being was the only person really
responsible for the Muniments and he fairly discharged that
responsibility while the Muniments were so few that they
could be carried in a box into St. Mary's Church and
handed over by the old Mayor to the new one; later the
Town Clerks had charge, but had no special authority as
Muniment Keepers until the Municipal Corporation Act
made them the respon.sible custodians. At a later date the
Corporation came to the conclusion that further help was
needed in the keeping of their records and some forty years
ago they deputed the care of those documents possessing
historical value to their Honorary Librarian, to which office
there have been three presons successively appointed since
1875, viz., Mr. Edward Knocker, F.S.A. (who had previ-
ously been Alderman, Mayor, and Town Clerk), Sir
Wollaston Knocker, C.B. (who was Town Clerk for forty
years), and Mr. John Ravington Jones (author of several
l)ooks on Dover, and Editor of the " Dover Express " for
more than forty years.)



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 267