GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY

Leonardes, ne odyr placez ne santuaries1 within this citie, where we have no power to correk tham and that no meistre of the said craft uttyr their werk." Evidently the number of workers who slipped through the fine sieve of mistery and franchise was sufficiently large to need restraint. As has already been seen, the average number of residents added to the franchise each year was 105, the population 13,500. Of this population probably about 120 men reached the age of twenty-one each year, and were eligible for freedom. According to this calculation there was an annual residium of 15 men who did not take up their freedom at all. Indefinite as the evidence is, it seems to justify the assertion that the bulk of the working population of York became freemen.2 Of course there would be a certain number of casual immigrants within the walls; shipwrecked mariners and foreigners, criminals escaping from justice, and serfs hiding from their masters would add to the number of residents, though they would escape numeration. By one of the customs of the city no man could be taken from the city by any claim of villeinage before the matter had been investigated by law.3

The references in this volume to the government of the city by mayor and three bailiffs, that is before 1396, are few1; broadly speaking it is true that the city's constitution remained homogeneous throughout the whole period covered by the Memorandum Book. The communal period had closed before the register begins ; the representative period, introduced by the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 was in the far future; the magisterial period was already inaugurated.5 The citizens of York, says Domesday Book, pay

1. Post, lxix.

2. I am under the deepest obligations to Mr. Archibald Harrower, F.F.A., who worked out the proportion for me. He based his calculations on the 1901 and 1911 census; as he says, the solution is only rough, but even an approximate suggestion seems to me of interest. In 1833 there were in York 2,400 resident freemen, 1,300 non-resident, out of a population of 35,362 only 2,400 residents voted. Population of Gt. Britain (Census Report), vol. II., 1833, p. 729.

3. Mem. Bk., p. 254.

4. Mem. Bk., pp. 11, 12, 15, 31.

5.

Mem. Bk., vol. I., p. 163, xi. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Hudson for assistance in this section. The threefold division of civic government is his, not only have I, by constant reference to his Records of Norwich, cleared up many doubtful points in municipal development, but he gave me generous assistance by reading through the proofs of all the council meetings given in the Memorandum Book.

no relief. "But if you deprive a lord of these casualties," as Professor Maitland points out, "he is practically reduced to the position of a man with a rent charge." So long as the King's representative was answerable for this rent and the rent was an uncertain quantity, obvious opportunities for peculation were presented it was an important though undated step in the development of civic York, when it gained the right to pay a fixed annual rent farmed by the burgesses themselves, the firma burgi. The charter of Henry I. gave to York liberties, laws, and customs, and the right to have a merchant gild; unfortunately this early charter is only known by an allusion to it in the charter of Henry II., who refers to his grandfather's charter. But that the merchants' gild was in existence in 1130 is proved by the pipe roll for that year, where it is stated that Thomas of York gave the King a coursing dog valued at 20s. that he might be alderman of the merchant gild.3 The exact date when York substituted a mayor for a reeve or præpositus is unknown. London had a mayor in 1191, but certainly as late as 1206 possibly as late as 1211, there is a reference to Gerard, the bellfounder, præpositus of the city of York. In 1217 Hugh de Selby was mayor of York, so far he is the first mayor of York to whom authentic reference is made. 4

The governing body consisted of the mayor, the twelve, three bailiffs, and the twenty-four. After the charter of Richard II. given on the 19th of May, 1396, when the city became a county by itself, and the sheriff of the county was excluded, the twelve became aldermen, two sheriffs took the place of the three bailiffs; and after 1418, the twenty-four councillors consisted of ex-sheriffs.5

1. F. W. Maitland, Town and Borough, p. 71.

The municipality possesses

2. W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, p. 445. this charter, but all traces of the earlier one are lost.

3. Pipe Roll 31, Henry I. (Record Commission), 1833, p. 34. T. Madox, History of the Exchequer, vol. I., p. 397.

4. Rot. Litt. Claus., vol. I. (Record Comm.), p. 341.

5. The twelve and twenty-four are sometimes classed together as probi homines, later as counsaylours ; the use of the word aldermen was slowly adopted, the twelve remained the usual expression during the greater part of the fifteenth century though the term aldermen is used in the custumal.

THE CITY CUSTUMAL

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vii

Two points emerge in which York differs apparently from the normal type of city governments, certainly from London and Norwich. One is the use of the terms camera consilii," and "consilium camere," which does not seem to occur elsewhere. The meeting place on Ouse Bridge is called " the chamber of the council," and the body, which met there, is called "the council of the chamber." The assemblies had also two official meeting places, one in the chamber on Ousebridge, where the smaller meetings of the regular governing body were held, the other in the common hall, where the large popular meetings took place. Apparently other towns had only one hall of assembly.1

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6

As, fortunately, the Memorandum Book includes a custumal2 and an account of the mayor's court and the sheriff's court, it is possible from its own contents to compile a complete record of the machinery of the city's government, as well as to show the machinery at work. The custumal gives a succinct account of the mayor's court. It is held before the mayor and aldermen either in the chamber in the Guyhall,' or in the 'Guyhall.' In this court all pleas and matters concerning apprentices and misteries were settled. All offences against the customs and ordinances of the city, breaches of the king's peace, and misconduct of the city's officials were punished in it. This court dealt, too, with all questions of debt, it administered the statute merchant and generally the statute staple. All wills, which dealt with land and houses, were brought "en pleine courte du mair" to be enrolled. The will was proclaimed by the sergeant,

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1. After the erection of the new common hall, the present gildhall, a room in it was called the council chamber, the first allusion to it in the Memorandum Book is on 21 September, 1416, in cameram consilii infra aulam communem,' p. 52. But the council chamber on Ousebridge was always used by the mayor and council in the fifteenth century.

2. The legalization of local customs was effected by royal ordinances; the custumal is the city's own codification of a mass of customs which had grown out of local needs, but which were too numerous to be included in the king's charters; naturally they differ considerably in different towns, probably all towns of importance had their custumal by the end of the thirteenth century. The account of the Sheriff's court is given in Mem. Bk., vol. I., pp. 137–139, lxxiii-lxxv.

3. Mem. Bk., pp. 251-253. A confirmation of the charter of the city by Henry III. mentions a court for holding pleas before the mayor and bailiffs. Municipal Com. Report, 1835, vol. xxv., p. 1737.

4. Mem. Bk., pp. 251-254, cf. Mem. Bk., vol. I., pp. xvii, lxiv., 13.

proved by two sworn witnesses, who were examined on oath as to the circumstances under which it was made, and the estate of the testator.

Unfortunately the custumal is undated, but it contains intrinsic evidence that it was copied into the Memorandum Book from another book, which had been compiled before 1396, for the three bailiffs, who were abolished in that year, are referred to in the custumal. Many of its provisoes were certainly in use in 1372, probably even at a much earlier date.

It also contains the oaths to be administered to the various municipal officials. These oaths are in London and in Norwich included in the Liber Albus.1

The oath of the mayor is brief. It contains no reference to his duty as the king's escheator; he simply swears that he will be faithful and loyal to our lord the king and preserve and guard the said city for our lord the king and his heirs; he undertakes to maintain the franchises, rights, laws, usages and customs of the same in every point, and to administer impartial justice as well to rich as poor; he concludes " and I will not neglect this for any reason, God helping me and the Saints." This oath shows him in the true light, he is supreme magistrate; his chief duty is to maintain law and order in the city. His fellow citizens approach him with almost servile respect, any insult is visited with severe penalties, any effort to evade the office is regarded as a grave misdemeanour. He was elected by the body of citizens from two or three of the aldermen nominated by the retiring mayor.*

2

The recorder was the official civic lawyer; originally he was chosen each year, when the sheriffs were elected, "ils prendront un recordour que soit sachaunt de la ley et de bon fame a occupier

1.

Lib. Alb. London, p. 306. Ibid. Norwich, fol. 182d, Records of the city of Norwich, p. 122. The Liber Albus of York seems to have disappeared, it is only referred to once in the Memorandum Book in 1392, this is earlier than the London Liber Albus, which was compiled in 1419.

4.

This method of electing the mayor was altered twice by Edward IV. He placed the organization of the voting in the hands of the searchers of the various misteries who were to summons all the workers to the gildhall, they nominated two aldermen of the city, whose names were presented in writing to the mayor, aldermen and council, who selected one. 4 Edw. IV., pt. 2, m. 20, June 30th, 1464; 13 Edw. IV., pt. 2, m. 16; Dec. 23rd, 1473.

S

loffice de recordour par avys du meir et des bones gentz de la citee." "He was the legal adviser of the mayor and aldermen especially when they acted in their magisterial capacity. He was appointed by the mayor, sheriffs, aldermen and twenty-four, the commons taking no part.

"For so myche as the ryght wurshipfull sir John Vavasour, late recorder of this wurshipfull cite, nowe beyng oon of the Kygnges juges and the place of recordership void, it is by the said presence fully determyned and concluded, that the right wurshipfull sir William Fairefaxe, for certane considiracions, is most able and beneficiall fer that rowme. And so by the hole assent and consent of the seid presence, the said William Fairfaxe is elect and chosen to be recorder of this cite, and then and there sworne and admitted to the same office."2 Miles Metcalfe seems to have held the office for nine years. On his resignation, the King, by "his mooste noble and severall letters " and the Earl of Northumberland "by mouthe," desired the position for Richard Green. The mayor, aldermen and sheriffs evasively replied, that if they had full proof of the circumspection and learning of the said Richard, "they may be rather inclined to call hyme to suche rowme, when any shal hapyn next to be voide." It is difficult to imagine their returning the same reply to the son of Henry VII. As Sir John Vavasour became recorder in 1486, the mayor's “rather inclined" seems to have been a polite form of refusal.3

Like Norwich, but unlike London, York had no special form of oath for the twelve, the aldermen. They were sworn in the same form and manner as the councillors. Their duties were probably similar. The custumal clearly defines what was expected from the councillors-they were "to counsel, assist, support and maintain the mayor in all his undertakings for the welbeing of the city." But the aldermen had a special power.

1. Mem. Bk., I.,

p. 40.

2. Mem. Bk., p. 293 [1489]. For list of recorders see F. Drake, op. cit.,

p. 386.

3. Municipal Records, House Book, V., xv° die Februarii, anno regni regis Henrici vij, primo.

4. The custumal is not clear as to whether the thirty-six persons of the council to whom it refers consist of the twelve aldermen and the twenty-four councillors, or of a council of thirty-six, of whom twenty-four form a working committee. Mem. Bk., p. 256, ibid., p. 258.