Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION SEVEN.
OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION.
V. THE RECORDERS.

The Officer known as the Recorder of Dover came into
bemg soon after the appointment of Bailiffs ceased. The
Bailiff used to sit with the Mayor to assist him in judicial
duties; but the Bailiffs were chosen from the same rank as
the Mayors and Jurats, and had no special legal knowledge.
When the Statutes at large became numerous, and barristers
attended at Sessions ready to pick holes in indictments, more
legal knowledge was needed on the Bench, therefore Recorders
were appointed. John Cowell, an English lawyer of the Reign
of Queen Elizabeth, described the Recorder of his day as
" he whom the Mayor or other Magistrates of any city or
town, having jurisdiction or a Court of Record by the King's
grant, doth associate unto them for the better direction in
the matter of justice and proceedings according to law."
That is the service which the Dover Recorders were called
upon to render from their first appointment in the Stuart
Period. Those officials, unlike the present day Recorders,
were chosen by the Mayor, Jurats and Common Council.
Some confusion has been caused in recent years by a state-
ment which styles all the Recorders as Stewards previous to
the Act of 1835. Many of the old cities and Boroughs had
some high personages as Honorary Stewards, and when
Charles II. forced his unsolicited Charter of 1683 on Dover,
that document nominated the Tieutcnants of Dover Castle
as Steward of Dover, and the Duke of Albermarle as
Honorary Recorder, but, on the Accession of William III.,
that Charter was abrogated by proclamation, when the
appointment of a Steward lapsed, and the election of a
Recorder of the Common Council was continued in the usual
way, there having been no vacancy while that Charter was
in force. Again, in the Eighteenth Century, when Lord
Hardwicke was the Recorder of Dover, an attempt was made
to magnify the office by styling him " Steward," and when
his son, the Hon. Charles Yorke, was appointed Recorder
in 1764, he was appointed under the style of Steward, but
he simply filled the same office as all previous and later



34^ ANNALS OF DOVER

Recorders did, who were described in the Common Council
minutes as " Counsel with the Corporation and Assistant to
the Mayor and Jurats at Sessions and Trials, duranto bene
placito," and the fees that they received were 40/- a year
for being the Corporation counsel; 40/- for assisting at
every Session ; and the issue money for assisting at every
Court of Trials." The following is a list of the Recorders
of Dover as far as we have been able to tiace them from the
Corporation Records : —

1. Dr. Lancelot Lovelace, appointed as Counsel
with the Corporation in the year 1620, was probably the first
of the line of Dover Recorders. He v/as a resident of
Canterbury, and also Recorder of that city.

2. Francis Lovelace succeeded his father as Recorder
of Dover in the Reign of Charles L, but was displaced during
the Commonwealth. After the Restoration, he was re-
appointed, and was also made Registrar of the Courts of
Admiralty and Chancery, posts which during the Common-
wealth had been held by Francis Raworth. the Town Clerk.

3. Thomas St. Nicholas was appointed Recorder in
1654, holding the office until the Restoration, when Francis
Lovelace was re-instated.

4. Sir Thomas Hardres, of Hardres Court, Kent, a
Serjeant-at-Law, sought the office of Recorder, and the
Registrarship (a Cinque Ports office), which Francis T>ovelace
had held. He seems to have received the office of Registrar
of the two Cinque Ports Courts, but as regards the Recorder-
ship of the Borough, the Corporation contended that they had
not elected him.

5. Edward Henden, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed
Recorder in 1664, but Sir Thomas Hardres served a man-
damus on the Corporation, claiming to be restored to the
office. The Corporation replied that they had not elected
him, whereupon Sir Thomas Hardres commenced an action
against the Corporation in the Court of Exchequer, but, the
Corporation having intimated that they were prepared to
defend themselves, the matter dropped.

6. Francis Barrell, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed
Recorder on the 17th March, 1676. The minutes of the
Common Council being, " Francis Barrell, Serjeant-at-Law,
was appointed to assist the Mayor and Jurats at all Sessions



OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION 347

and Trials, and to receive fees and salary as Edward Henden
in the same office." Mr. Barrell, who was a native of
Rochester, held the office until his death in 1679.

7. Thomas Turner, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed
Recorder on the 19th January, 1679, on the same terms as
Serjeant Barrell. Mr. Turner, who held the office ten years,
resided at Ileden, on the Barham Downs.

8. Vincent Denne, Serjeant-at-Law, of Wingham,
was appointed Recorder 6th August, 1689, on the same terms
as his predecessors. It will be observed that Mr. Turner was
appointed before the Charter of 1683 was granted, and held
the office until after that Charter was abrogated, so it appears
that there was no vacancy in the office while the Charter
was in force; and Mr. Vincent Denne, in 1689, was appointed
on exactly the same terms as Mr. Turner had been. Mr.
Denne entered on the office in the year that William III.
was crowned.

9. Jeffery Boys, Counsellor-at-Law, was appointed
Recorder 8th January, 1694, and held the office three years.

10. Edward Crayford, Counsellor-at-Law, was elected
Recorder by the Common Council on the 17th April, 1697.
He resided at Sholden, near Deal, and held the Recordership
sixteen years.

11. Herbert Randolph, by minutes of the Common
Council, appears to have been appointed Recorder on the
23rd November, 17 13, " to have the same fees and allowances
as Edward Crayford, deceased." He was also Recorder of
Canterbury. This Recorder was dismissed to make room
for a local man.

12. Philip Yorke, Counsellor-at-Law, a native of
Dover, was appointed Recorder in the room of Herbert
Randolph on the 3rd October, iyi8. He, like his pre-
decessors, was described in the minutes as being " Counsel
with the Corporation and assistant of the Mayor and Jurats
at Sessions and Trials." This Recorder, who continued to
hold the office until his death — a period of forty-six years —
was a son of Philip Yorke, a Dover attorney, who resided
at Five Post Lane, Snargate Street. Young Philip Yorke,
who had been a " gratis " apprentice to a London attorney,
had recently been called to the Bar when he was appointed
Recorder of Dover, which, being his first legal office, gave



348 ANNALS OF DOVER

him great pleasure. The Dover appointment seemed to bring
him luck. Six months later he was elected Member of
Parliament for Lewes, and in the following year, 1720, he
was appointed Solicitor-General; two years later Attorney-
General; in 1733, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of
the King's Bench; and in 1736 attained the summit of his
ambition by becoming Lord Chancellor, which post he held
for twenty years. His first office, the Recordership of Dover,
he held longest of all, forty-six years. Only for a few years
did this busy and successful lawyer find time to personally
discharge his duties as Recorder of Dover. They were dis-
charged by a deputy, Thomas Knowler, a Kentish barrister.
As Lord Hardwicke, the Chancellor of England, Philip Yorke
did not forget Dover ; he was frequently in correspondence
with its leading inhabitants, and occasionally found time to
visit his native place.

13. The Hon. Charles Yorke was appointed Recorder
of Dover on the death of Lord Hardwicke, and he was elected
by the Common Council on the 26th March, 1764. He held
the office for six years, but being an eminent lawyer and
having attained the office of Attorney-General soon after being
made Recorder of Dover, his duties were discharged by
deputy until 1770, when this Recorder also received the office
of the Lord Chancellorship, but died suddenly at the age of
48, while his patent as Baron Morden was in preparation.

14. Charles Robinson, Barrister - at - Law, was
appointed Recorder in Januar)', 1770, and continued to hold
the office until 1807. He was a descendant of Mr. Matthew
Robinson, of Monks Horton, Kent, and a nephew of Mr.
Thomas Robinson, author of a well-known legal text book
" Robinson on Gavel-Kind." The portrait of this Recorder,
painted by Mr. Hev/son, of London, was hung in the old
Court Hall in March, 1809, and is now hung in the Maison
Dieu.

15. William Kenrick, appointed iii July, 1807, held
the office of Recorder twenty-two years.

16. George Baker, appointed in 1829, was the next
Recorder. He held the office five years, dying on the 30th
October, 1834, at his residence at Canterbury.

17. Sir William Henry Bodkin, who had been for
some years the leader of the Dover Sessions Bar, was, on the
15th November, 1834, elected Recorder by the Common



OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION 349

Council. He was knighted in 1867. At the Sessions at
which he first officiated, this Recorder, in his charge, con-
gratulated the Mayor and Jurats on having decided to restore
the Maison Dieu Hall for use as a Sessions House. This
Recorder soon after receiving the honour of knighthood pre-
sented to the Corporation the handsome gold chain which
is worn by the Mayor. Sir William H. Bodkin resigned his
office on the 15th January, 1874, having held the Recorder-
ship forty years.

18. Sir Harry Bodkin Poland was appointed
Recorder by Queen Victoria a few days after the resignation
of the late Recorder, who was his uncle. This was the first
appointment of a Dover Recorder made by the Crown. He
held the appointment with distinction and with advantage to
the Borough and its Liberties for twenty-seven years, and
was knighted in 1895. He highly esteemed his office as
Recorder of this ancient Town, although the duties were
unimportant compared with his doings in other spheres of
public usefulness. He generously followed in the steps of
his predecessor, enriching the insignia of the Coqjoration by
the presentation of a costly jewelled badge, which is worn
by the Mayor on semi-official occasions when the gold chain
is not in use. This Recorder's resignation was made to King
Edward VH. on the 24th June, 1901.

19. Archibald Henry Bodkin, the present Recorder
of Dover, was appointed by the King on the ist July, 1901 ;
and he first presided at the Dover Quarter Sessions on the
8th July of that year. He was cordially welcomed, both on
his own merits and owing to his relationship to two previous
Recorders, Sir William Henry Bodkin, his grandfather, and
Sir Harry Bodkin Poland, his uncle.



350 ANNALS OF DOVER