SHAFTESBURY. 45 



Edmund r)Owro, gont., then m.iyor of Shaston, and eleven otliers, 

 doubtless for the henefit of the borough. 



THE GROWTH OF THE MUXICIPALITY. 



Shaftesbury is termed in Domesday " Burgus Sceptesberie," but 

 it must be remembered that at this time the term horoiujli did not 

 imply that the inhabitants formed a corporate body contracting 

 Avith the king to hold their town at an annual fee-farm rent. The 

 individual burgess, if he held immediately of the crown, was 

 responsible to the sheriff, or other fiscal officer, for his quota of 

 rent, taxes, or local burdens. You will read in Hutchins that 

 Shaftesbury claimed to be an ancient borough by prescription, but 

 he does not tell you that that claim was rejected at a trial upon a 

 Quo Warranto, 9 Jac. I., 1611. The first accession of privileges to 

 the inhabitants was a grant, 30th Oct., 37 Hen. III., 1252, to the 

 king's demesne burgesses of Shaftesbury, " dominicis burgensibus 

 nostris de Shaftesbury," providing that the justices in eyre, when- 

 ever they entered Dorset, should visit the town to determine 

 common pleas touching the burgesses, and the latter received the 

 privilege of choosing two coroners to determine pleas of the Crown 

 in the same vill. This was an important concession, as it relieved 

 the inhabitants of summons to answer pleadings in all ordinary 

 cases, outside their toion. There was yet no mayor of Shaston. 

 When he was first instituted is not known, but John de Haselmere, 

 mayor, appears in the capacity of witness to a charter dated the 

 Sunday in the Feast of the Annunciation, B.V.M., 26 Edw. III., 

 1352. This charter is now in the municipal chest. This is two 

 years earlier than Robert de Fovent, the first mayor in Hutchins's 

 list. This official was not chosen by the burgesses in their 

 corporate capacity, for as yet they were not a corporation, but, like 

 the coroners, constables, and bailiff, were elected by the jury at 

 the Manorial Court Leet, held at Michaelmas. This appears from 

 a court roll of 1446. jNIatters continued in much tlie .same 

 position until the granting of the first charter of incorporation to 

 the borough. There is a statement in Iluf chins, iii. 14, that 



