Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION SEVEN.
OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION.
I. OFFICES AND OFFICERS.

The Offices and Officers of the Corporation came into
being at various times. Amongst the most ancient were
the Mayor's Sergeant and the Common Clerk. Next^
probably, came the Bailiff and the BaiUff's Sergeant. In
the Fourteenth Century the Chamberlains and ''he Town
Porters came on the scene. The Recorder, as a separate
officer, distinct from the Town Clerk, dates from the beginning
of the Stuart Period ; and the Coroner, apart from the Mayor,
who anciently held the inquests, did not appear until the
passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. The
Clerk to the Magistrates is the lineal successor of the Clerk
to the Mayor and Jurats who existed from the Reign of
Queen Mary. The Clerk of the Peace, as a separate official,
did not come into existence until 1835, but his duties had
previously been discharged by the Clerk to the Mayor and
Jurats, and, earlier still, by the Bailiff. The Police Force
and its Chief, date from 1836, but there had been bodies
of Ward Constables who had guarded the Town nightly, time
out of mind. Rates, called "cesses," had been collected
for various purposes, such as paying Members of Parliament,
building the Town wall and scavenging the streets, from a
very early period, but the first regular Rate Collector was
appointed in 1778, when a rate of sixpence in the pound was
levied on houses to meet the expenses of the Dover Paving
Commissioners. Town Surveyors were first appointed by the
same body. A Nuisance Inspector was called into existence
by the Dover Local Board when the Public Health Act was



334 ANNALS OF DOVER

adopted in Dover in 1850. At the same time it was suggested
that a Medical Officer of Health should be appointed, but
that was delayed until after the small-pox epidemic of 1872,
when Dr. M. K. Robinson was appointed. The Officer
called the Borough Treasurer was first chosen in 1836, but
his duties were similar to those that had been previously
discharged by the Dover Chamberlains. We shall now give
a more detailed account of the various Officers of the Cor-
poration, and in some cases mention names and particulars
of the principal office bearers.



OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION 335