BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



ought to have had his own roll. For these various 

 reasons the liberties of the town were seized into the 

 king's hands, and the officials removed from their 

 offices. The baihffs and two of the coroners were 

 reappointed and sworn in as the king's delegates, but 

 a custos was appointed in place of the mayor.** From 

 the deeds of the 13th and 14th centuries it appears 

 that mayor, bailiffs and coroners were present at the 

 court,** and in the I5lh century the Twenty Four 

 sometimes at least took part.** The pleas at which 

 the freemen were sworn in must have been the hust- 

 ing.** In 1557 the assembly ordered that the mayor 

 should be assisted by four ex-mayors and six ei- 

 bailifTs every Monday at the court of husting, and that 

 members of the Common Council might also be called 

 upon to attend there.** The proceedings were 

 enrolled by the town clerk on the Rotulus Memoran- 

 doTum,^^ destroyed presumably in the fire of 1675, 

 for no medieval court rolls are extant. Some legal 

 formula are entered in the Liber Custumarum^* 



The charter of Richard II of 14 June 1385 granted 

 to the mayor and bailiffs cognizance of all pleas 

 whatever arising within the town, to be holden before 

 them in the guild hall of the town and to the mayor 

 the right to keep the assize of bread, wine and ale, of 

 measures and of weights, to inquire concerning fore- 

 staUers and regraters, and to inflict the penalties and 

 take the profits arising from this jurisdiction.*' This 

 charter again must have sanctioned existing practices ; 

 the mayor had the assize of bread and ale in 1274. 

 The procedure and scope of his duties as clerk of the 

 market are indicated by the formula in the Libfr 

 Custumarum and the charge administered to the 

 jurors.* In 1621 the mayor was said to fine victuallers 

 sitting as clerk of the market, at court-leet, as well as 

 at quarter-sessions.*^ The charter of Henry VI of 1 1 

 June 1445, constituted the mayor for the time being 

 the King's escheator in the towm, its suburbs and 

 fields, with the jurisdiction belonging to the office,'* 

 and his charter of 14 March 1459, which incorporated 

 the town, appointed the mayor Justice of the Peace 

 for the town.** In addition to these jurisdictions the 

 mayor had the duty of registering recognizances of 

 detjt under the Statute Merchant, probably from 

 1283 and certainly from 1 31 1.** This also was done 

 in the court of Lusting.** 



As elsewhere, the sessions of the Justices of tlic 

 Peace absorbed the work of the older courts of North- 

 ampton. Under the charter of 1495 a recorder learned 

 in the law and two other more honest and learned 

 coburgesses were to be elected annually to sit with 

 the mayor as justices of the peace.** The charter of 

 1 599 provided that the late mayor should be one of the 



two burgesses." By the charter of 1796 the bench 

 was enlarged to consist of mayor, recorder, deputy- 

 recorder, ex-mayor and three other aldermen, as the 

 business was too heavy for the existing number.*" 



Thus down to 1835 all the magistrates were elective, 

 and the majority were members of the corporation. 

 The magistrates' sessions had absorbed all the 

 criminal business, short of capital offences, and the 

 court-leet and court-baron had purely formal duties.** 

 The Northampton justices' abuse of their judicial 

 powers, in combination with the town baihffs' bias 

 in impanelling juries, was singled out for condemna- 

 tion in the general report of the Municipal Com- 

 missioners of 1835.*" 



The court of husting, still of importance in the 

 16th and 17th centuries,'*' had dwindled almost to 

 vanishing point by the 19th century. It sat as a 

 ' court of record ' once in three weeks, and was held 

 before the mayor and two bailiffs and the town 

 steward, but had little business — in 1830 fifteen 

 actions, in 1831 four, and in 1832 six.*"* An attempt to 

 have a court of Requests estabhshed in 1818-19 was 

 defeated in the House of Lords."** Enrolments of 

 recognizances are extant for 1 783-1 803. ■*•* There was 

 also, in the i6th and 17th centuries, an orphans' 

 court, reorganised, if not originated by the charter 

 of 1599,'** which was held the first Thursday of Lent, 

 at which the mayor and chamberlains inquired into 

 the conduct of guardians and sureties."** 



A special inquest was held at Northampton for 

 inquiring into boundaries or party walls. A similar 

 inquest was used in London from the 12th century 

 onwards,"*' and in some other boroughs later, but 

 the name by which it was known in Northampton — 

 Vernall's inquest — appears to be unique. Its origin 

 can be traced to clause 11 of the earliest custumal** 

 (c. 1 190), which provides for the holding of a jury 

 to decide disputes over walls, gutters, or other 

 boundaries. Records of the holding of such inquests 

 are found in the assembly books as late as 1724, 

 and the inquest was annually appointed down to 

 1768,'*° so that the institution has a history of some 

 570 years. The special local name has never been 

 satisfactorily explained, in the absence of mediaeval 

 forms of the word. It is possibly to be associated with 

 the form veiours, vayowres or aviewers, as used for the 

 jury that surveyed the boundaries in Bristol where, 

 as in Northampton, it was the mayor's duty to 

 adjudicate as to boundaries and gutters from the 

 13th century on.^" The corruption would be no 

 stranger than that of frith-borli to third borough, 

 the Northampton term for the tithing man. 



The closing of the corporation at Northampton, 



'* For reports of the Eyre of North- 

 ampt. Ke Egerton MS. (B.M.) 2811, 

 fT. 248-50; Add. MS. 5924, f. 7, I2d; 

 lee alio Assize R. 635, m. 71 d. For 

 appointment of custos^ Boro. Rec. i, 64. 

 A cusiot had alio been appointed in 1227 

 and 1264. 



"Add. Ch. 22354-7, etc. 



" BoTo. Rrc. i, 309, 312. 



«» Ibid, i, 235. 



•* Ibid, ii, 20. 



" Ibid, i, 384. Deed* were frequently 

 enrolled upon it ; ie« B.M. .Add. Ch. 729, 

 730, 22368, 22371. 



•• Ibid, i, 382-191. 



" Ibid, i, 367. 



" Ibid, i, 373. 



>' Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. 1 580-1625, p. 

 641. 



*' Boro. Rec. i, 77. The escheator's 

 oath, from the Brit. Mus. cuitumal, is 

 printed Boro. Ree. ii, 132. 



» Ibid, i, 85. 



•* Ibid, ii, 120-1. 



» Ibid, i, 382-3. 



>• Boro. Rec. i, 104. 



" Ibid, i, 123. 



"Ibid, i, 166; Pari. Papers 1833, vol. 

 xiii. Minute* of Evidence, 1068. 



"Ibid. 1344. 



"Ibid. 1364-74, 1418; ibid. 1835, 

 vol. jutiii, 40 ; vol. XXV, 1979-81. 



II 



♦' Boro. 

 " Pari. 



Rec. ii, 1 16, 1 18-9. 

 ol. 



1970. 

 Rec. 



Press R. 



Papers 1833, vol. xiii, 344, 

 p. 52. 



" Ibid. 1835, vol. XXV, 



" Northampt. Corp. 

 101. 



•• Boro. Rec. i, 124. 



" Ibid, ii, 119-20. 



" Bateton, Boro. Customs (Selden Soc). 



'■ 245-7- 



«' Ibid, i, 245. 



•• Boro. Rec. ii, 135-7. 



>« Bickley, Little Red Book of Bristol, ii, 

 134 ; Bateton, Boro. Ci«(<>mj (Selden Soc), 

 ii, 31. 



