BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



another expulsion in 1 544, is authorised by the mayor 

 and ex-mayors, who bind themselves not to recall the 

 expelled but by the consent of all the mayors and ex- 

 mayors. By this time, then, an inner ring existed in 

 the town government, and though the act of 1489, 

 hereafter to be mentioned, had sanctioned the privi- 

 leges of the ex-mayors, it seems unhkcly that it created 

 them. The ' twenty four co-burgesses ' of the 16th 

 century town assembly books become from 1595 

 onwards ' the bailifT^ and ex-bailifls,' of varying 

 numbers, who wore distinctive gowns, and still 

 occasionally acted with the mayor and aldermen apart 

 from the rest of the assembly up to 1835,*' but iiad 

 resigned the control of town policy to ' the mayor's 

 brethren ' — soon to be called the aldermen. In the 

 15th century, however, the mayor's council seems to 

 have had considerable powers as the efTective town 

 executive. A number of ordinances for the crafts 

 were issued by its authority, after consultation with 

 the craft concerned.^* The wardens and sciiclurs of 

 the crafts reported before the mayor and his council ;** 

 they had some standing in the Court of Husting, 

 which is said on one occasion to have been regularly 

 summoned by the mayor, the coroner and the Twenty 

 Four.** They acted with the mayor in exercising 

 patronage and in assigning guardians to minors in 

 the mayor's custody.** The council met like the 

 husting on Mondays, at the Guildhall.'' In fact, in 

 the 15th century, the mayor's council, like the king's, 

 was a body exercising legislative, administrative and 

 judicial functions, and effectively directing the 

 supposedly popular assembly which met from time to 

 time at St. Giles'. 



In addition to the officials already mentioned the 

 13th century custumal mentions a mayor's Serjeant, 

 or executive official, to whom the 15th century records 

 add four baihfTs' Serjeants,*' later to be known as 

 serjeants-at-mace. In the 15th century also appear 

 the two chamberlains who have custody with the 

 mayor of the common chest and of the town property** 

 and pay the mayor his allowance of twenty marks. 



As at Exeter and Norwich, whose constitutions 

 were likewise modelled on that of London, there is 

 no trace of the existence of a merchant gild ; the 

 prepositura or provostry regulate all industrial matters. 

 Freemen were, however, sharply distinguished from 

 other residents. The second custumal (r. 1260) 

 provided that every native merchant who wished to 

 enter the freedom must pay 5s. 4d., whoever he was,*' 

 and this rate held good till 1341, vvhen it was reduced 

 to 6d. for sons of townsmen at lot and scot of the 

 town.''" It is probable that freemen and prdn homines 

 were the same ; sons of probi homines had to pay only 

 a halfpenny to be enrolled in a tithing, where strangers 



had to pay 5d." In view of the high payment for 

 the freedom, one clause of the 13th century custumal 

 is of special interest : ' That no commune be made 

 henceforth by which the government {prepositura) 

 may lose its rights. If anyone be convicted of this 

 he shall incur the amercement of the town of 40s. 

 without remission.'*- There is other evidence of the 

 existence of an aristocracy envied by their less well-to- 

 do fellow-townsmen. The only original return extant 

 to the inquest of 1274-5** is described as being made 

 by the lesser folk of the town," and it complains 

 bitterly that the wealtjiicr burgesses escape the 

 burdens of citizenship. ' Divers burgesses holding 

 many and great rents in the town refuse to make 

 common cause with the community in tallages and 

 other things, with the result that a large number of 

 craftsmen {menestralli) have left the town because they 

 are too grievously tallaged.'** Some of the exemptions 

 from tallage to which the jurors refer arc enrolled upon 

 the Patent Roll.** They complain further that when 

 poor townsmen are put on assizes and have to go to 

 London and elsewhere on the business of the town, 

 it is at their own charges, whilst the rich men, if they 

 have to do business abroad on behalf of the town, 

 have all their expenses allowed them and the poor have 

 to pay for it.*' This kind of complaint was arising from 

 many towns in the 13th century,** notably from 

 Oxford,*' and it has recently been suggested that it 

 forms part of the wave of anti-aristocratic feeling 

 expressed in 1259 by the communitas bachelerie 

 Ane^Iiac.^ There is no record in Northampton of the 

 proclaiming of a commune as at London in 1262-3*' 

 or at Bury St. Edmunds in 1264,*- but we are told that 

 the bad example of the bachelarii of those towns 

 infected others,** and it would seem that such a 

 demonstration was apprehended by the drafters of 

 the second custumal. The ruthless sacking of the 

 town by the royahsts in 1 264 suggests that if the 

 priory was for the King, the townsfolk, like the 

 scholars, were for the barons, and tiie attribute of 

 Northampton in the medieval Ust of towns preserved 

 in the same manuscript with the custumal echoes the 

 term associated with turbulent democracy — -' Bache- 

 lerie de Norhampton.'** Already in the 13th century 

 it looks as if the town government was in the hands of 

 an ohgarchy, closed by custom, if not by ordinance. 



Freedom in Northampton was probably the 

 equivalent of membership of the gild merchant in 

 towns where such existed ; its essence lay in the right 

 to ' marchaundizen ' in the town itself, and to claim 

 the town's chartered privileges of exemption from 

 toll and custom elsewhere.** In 1396 it was ordered 

 that no freeman need pay stallage, unless he had more 

 than one stall in the market.** A petition of 1433 



" Boro. Re,, ii, 19. 



>• Ibid i, 237, 245, 269, 273, 265, 294, 

 •:o9 (1401-1467). 



" Ibid, i, 238. " Ibid, i, 260. 



•» Ibid i, 242. 



•• Ibid i, 260-276 passim. 



" Ibid, i, 244, 250, 257. 



■•Ibid i., 250, 251, 255-7. 



•• Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.) 98, io. 160 

 Clause 2). The same fee is payable for 

 purchase of a stall. No stranger can hn\c 

 a stall but by consent of the 24 jurau^ 

 fo. 160 »»■ (Clause 11). 



*• B<iro. Rec. i, 235. 



" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.) 98, fo. 160 v° 

 (claus« 12). 



'* Ibid. (o. 161 (clause 20). 



'• Rot. Uund. ii, 1-5. There are three 

 returns at Lincoln, made by the gicatcr 

 the lesser and the ' secondary ' burgesses, 

 Ro: llund. i, 309, 315, 322. 



" Ibid, ii, 5. 



" Ibid, ii, 3. 



•* Cal. Pal. 1258-66, pp. 532, 603. 



" Rii. Uund. ii, 5. 



•' York, Carlisle, Bristol, Lincoln, King's 

 Lynn, Norwich ; see F. F. Jacob, Studies m 

 Baronial R/jorm, p. 136, n.5. Stamford, 

 Grimsby, Gloucester, Winchester; see 

 Eng. Hill. Rev. v, 644-7. 



•• Cal. Inq. Misc. i, no. 238. 



"Jacob, pp. 127, 134. 



** hiber dr Ant. Leg. (Camden Soc. 



P- 55- 



" Engl. Hist. Rrv. xxiv, 313-7. 



" Annal. .Mon. (Rolls Ser.) iv, 138. 



" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 98, fo. 194 v° 

 (printed Fngl. Hist. Rn;. xvi, 502). It is 

 possible, however, that the expression has 

 a purely economic significance. See 

 below, on Trades of the Town. 



" See Boro. Rrc. i, 378-So for letters of 

 exemption from toll, according to the 

 privileges of the borough, to be presented 

 by Northampton merchants when trading 

 elsewhere. 



*" Boro. Rec. i, 262. 



