46 SHAFTESBURY, 



" Queen Elizabeth gave the first charter a.r. . . . and granted 

 a mayor, a recorder, twelve aldermen, a bailiff, and a common 

 conncil." There is simply no evidence to corroLoratc this state- 

 ment, and the mayor and burgesses, in the pleas they advanced in 

 tlie course of the numerous lawsuits in which they subsequently 

 became involved, during which all the available ancient history of 

 the borough was investigated, never made the slightest allusion 

 to such a charter. The first charter of incorporation was, 

 in fact, granted 9th July, 2 Jac. I, 1604, and still remains 

 in the chest in a state of partial decay. It constituted the 

 town a free borough, and the mayor and commonalty 

 a body corporate and politic with a common seal, and contains 

 numerous provisions for the election of mayor, recorder, and twelve 

 capital burgesses. The charter did not give entire satisfaction to 

 the borough, for a draft for a new charter, umlated, but apparently 

 1620, is preserved. This never reached a further stage, and the 

 Corporation was conipellet^l to rest content with the status quo until 

 22nd March, 17 Car. II., 1666, when the charter was granted, 

 which, with a brief exception, continued in force until the 

 Municipal Act, 1835. This charter is printed i7i extenso by 

 Ilutchins, and is still carefully preserved in a Avooden box among 

 the muniments. An effort was made at Shaftesbury, as in other 

 boroughs, in the latter part of the reigiT of Charles II., to set aside 

 the existing charter, and with this object in view new letters patent 

 were issued lOlh April, 1684 (erroneously ascribed in Hutchins to 

 the next reign), which now remain in the municipal chest in great 

 decay, testifying to the low estimation in which they were held. 

 It purported to grant certain additional privileges to the mayor, 

 which may be seen on reference to my book, Sliaxtonian 

 Records, but contained this damning clause, that the Crown 

 reserved to itself the power to remove at pleasure the mayor, 

 deputy mayor, recorder, deputy recorder, town clerk, and burgesses. 

 The effect of this proviso was to give the Crown complete power 

 over the Corporation, and, if this had been heartily accepted, the 

 townsmen would have bartered away their political freedom for i\ 



