BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



king did not then insist, in 1681 the corporation were 

 forced to accept him in place of the father of their 

 sitting member, a prominent ExcUisionist Whig, 

 whom they had just elected to the office." In 1683, 

 following the example of a number of other boroughs 

 who had been cowed by the fate of London, North- 

 ampton surrendered its charter and received a new 

 one which nominated the town officials and entire 

 corporation and ' according to the new mode of 

 charters,''^ reserved to the king the right to remove 

 any official who should subsequentlv be elected." 

 This right was freely exercised by James II, who, be- 

 tween February and September 1688, removed a mayor, 

 8 aldermen, the town attorney, 16 ex-bailiffs, the 

 acting-bailifTs, 23 common council men, and, in 

 September, the mayor-elect.*" The Earl of Peter- 

 borough, the recorder, also made a speech to the 

 assembly, desiring them not to promise their votes 

 at the coming parliamentary election till 

 they had heard from him ; ' but the 

 Prince of Orange coming in a short time 

 after, there was an end put to that re- 

 quest,'"' and the mob broke into the 

 earl's house and spoiled his chapel.'* 

 From 1688 the town supported the Crown 

 loyally. In 1 745, when the Duke of 

 Cumberland was preparing to make a 

 stand outside Northampton*^ against 

 the advancing forces of Charles Edward, 

 the recruiting efforts of Halifax were 

 warmly backed up by Doddridge, and 

 one of the pupils of his academy was 

 standard-bearer to the regiment of 814 

 volunteers raised in Northampton.** This 

 temporary rapprochement of church and 

 chapel was not, however, lasting ; the 

 corporation grew steadily more exclusive 

 in its Anglicanism and Toryism ; and 

 as the Liberal and Nonconformist 

 element in the town became more 

 wealthy and influential, the town govern- 

 ment grew less and less representative. Of 

 the 67 subscribers to the loan for the French war in 

 1757, more than half were members of the Castle 

 Hill Church.** ' We term it a Tory Corporation,' 

 said a leading Northampton dissenter, giving evidence 

 before the Select Committee on Municipal Corpora- 

 tions in 1833,'' and in 1835 ' '^ ^^^ admitted by the 

 mayor that he had never known an instance in which 

 a person opposed to the politics of the corporation 

 had been elected to the body. . . . Scarcely any of 

 the master-manufacturers engaged in the staple trade 

 of the town are members of the established church. . . . 

 Since the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts no 

 dissenter has been admitted into the common coun- 



cil.'*' The reform of the borough was long overdue 

 in 1835. 



The constitution of the corporation remained 

 unchanged in substance from 1489 to 1835. .As to 

 its working we have evidence lacking for the medieval 

 period. The records of the town assembly (latterly 

 small enough to meet in the Guildhall)"" are extant 

 from 1553 to 1835 ;*' the minutes of the Mayor and 

 Aldermen's Court from 1694 to 1797 ;"" the mayor's 

 and chamberlain's accounts from 1675 to 1835 ;°* the 

 minUiC-bo'iks of the Committee of Accounts from 

 1800 to 1822,'-'- and tlie Enrolments of Apprenticeship 

 and admission of freemen, some in the first assembly 

 book, and the rest separately enrolled from 1562 to 

 1835.°^ There is also a good deal of material on the 

 parliamentary representation of the borough from 

 1732 to 1835."'' There is also the chronicle of Henry 

 Lee, town clerk from 1662 to 1715;"' and the two 



Northampton : The Swan Hotel 



custumal books, at Northampton and at the British 

 Museum, contain oaths of office, corrected and brought 

 up to date from time to time,** which enable us to 

 differentiate the functions and names of the town 

 officials. 



The mayor was generally chosen from among the 

 ex-bailiffs, but sometimes {e.g., in 1702, 1762, 1817, 

 1 8 19) from the members of the Forty Eight. In 

 spite of a resolution of 1570 that no man should be 

 mayor more than twice,*' there are numerous in- 

 stances of mayors serving thrice, and T. Cresswell 

 served four limes (1579, 1588, 1596, 1604). The 

 mayor's allowance, 20 marks in the 1 6th, as in the 



" Boro. Rec. ii, 109. 



'• Narcissui Luttrell, Diary, i, 278. 



'• Boro. Rec. i, 143-7. 



" Ibid, ii, 476-7. 



•' I.ee, Coll. p. 128. 



•= Hill. \1SS. Com. Rep. xii, app. 7, p. 

 230. 



" Lttteri of Cumbcrbnd to Wade and 

 Newcaitle, 4 Dec. 1745 (S. P. Dom.). 



•• Corresp. and Diary of Philip Dodd- 

 nd^e, ed. J. D. Humphreys (1831), iv, 

 428-31, 436-9, 442-3. 



'» Ibid. 



Minutes 



1 98 1. 



•• Pari. Papers 1833, vol. xiii. 

 of Evidence, 1400. 



" Ibid. 1835, vol. XXV, pp. 1976, 

 •' lioro. Rec. i, 329. 

 " Vorthampt. Corp. Rec. Press N. 

 2b, 3, 3a, 10, 5, 6. 



N. 8, 9. 4. 



Press O. 



I- 30-47; 



*'•' * Memorandums oi the Antiquities of 

 the Town of Morthampton and of severall 

 remarkable things acted in this Kingdome 

 of England Collected by Henry Lee in the 

 Eighty Sixth Year of his Age who served 

 the Corporacion of Northampton in the 

 office of Town-Clerkc Fifty and Three 

 Years till .August 1715.' Top. MS. (Bodl. 

 Lib.), .Northants, c. 9, pp. 89-163, cited 

 as I-ee, Coll. 



•• The prc-Rcformation forms, adjuring 

 ' the Saints ' and ' the holydome ' are 

 cancelled •' Boro. Rec. ii, 31. 



13 



