A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



was to form a body corporate and politic for ever. 

 The corporation thus constituted was empowered 

 to plead and be impleaded, make statutes and ordi- 

 nances, use their own seal and make perambulations 

 in the borough of which the boundaries already 

 existing were confirmed. Regulations for the elec- 

 tion of the mayor and his associates were followed by 

 nomination of the first body of these officers under 

 this charter. By the grant of markets and fairs with 

 their profits and court of pie-powder, the sovereigns 

 relinquished ancient appurtenances of the manor, as 

 probably they also did by the establishment of a 

 court of record for pleas within the borough not 



Seal of the 

 Borough of Higham Ferrers. 



A device of a hand stretched horizon- 

 tally in blessing above nine human 

 beads all looking inwards. 



exceeding ^5, to be held every Monday in a common 

 hall, and by giving ' lawedaies ' and view of frank- 

 pledge. The nomination of the chaplain, school- 

 master and beadsmen of the college of Higham 

 Ferrers was now transferred from the Crown to the 

 corporation.^ 



A fresh charter granted by James I in 1604 em- 

 powered every mayor of Higham Ferrers for the time 

 being to be justice of the peace and also justice for 

 the preservation of the statutes of artificers and 

 labourers, and weights and measures, and freed 

 mayor, aldermen and burgesses from service on assize, 

 jury or inquisition whilst resident in the borough. 

 They were besides to have return of assizes and all 

 other royal writs and no sheriff, bailiff or other foreign 

 minister of the Crown was allowed to enter the 

 borough for the return or execution of writs. A 

 general confirmation of all privileges, liberties and 

 franchises accorded by former incorporations fol- 

 lowed.^ 



In 1664 the mayor and corporation of Higham 

 Ferrers petitioned the king for the renewal of their 

 charter with certain alterations of which the most 



important was the extension of the money limit of 

 their power to hold pleas from ^5 to £\o.''^ This 

 and other proposed changes which concerned the 

 fairs and markets were embodied in the new charter 

 of -August 1664 after a confirmation in general terms 

 of the ancient liberties of the borough. It was also 

 provided that the court of record should be held 

 before the mayor, two aldermen, two chief burgesses 

 and the steward of the borough and parish of Higham 

 Ferrers.*" 



Within twenty years Higham Ferrers had followed 

 the example of other boroughs by surrendering its 

 charters to the Crown, and obtained their renewal in 

 letters patent issued in February 1684. This 

 charter also was confirmatory, embodying the early 

 clauses of the charter of 1556, and in it too the 

 mayor, aldermen and burgesses were nominated. 

 Henceforth the corporation was to have its own 

 recorder, the Earl of Peterborough being appointed 

 to this new office for life. Another change was the 

 nomination, also for life, of Goddard Pemberton, who 

 headed the list of aldermen, as justice of the peace. 

 The election of the successors of both these officers 

 was vested in the mayor and corporation, and the 

 number of fairs was reduced to one.** 



The old corporation of Higham Ferrers was ex- 

 tinguished by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1882 

 which at the same time provided for the grant of 

 new charters of incorporation. Accordingly, on the 

 petition of certain inhabitant householders of the 

 parish of Higham Ferrers, the Committee of the Privy 

 Council formulated a scheme called ' The Borough 

 of Higham Ferrers Scheme ' by which a municipal 

 borough was created in place of the old corporation. 

 All property which had been vested in the mayor 

 and his fellow burgesses by right of their office was 

 now transferred to the new governing body, which 

 became the sanitary authority in place of the Welling- 

 borough Union, with charge of the town well, town 

 pump and sewers. The new charter was granted on 

 16 July 1887.32 



The burgesses held Higham Ferrers of the Crown 

 as of the Duchy of Lancaster at a fee-farm rent, 

 which between 1504 and 1515 amounted to 

 j^l8 12;. I (/.,** in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to 

 X'5 '9'- 5J'/-,*'and in 1649 to_^i6 a year.** ' Borough 

 rents ' of the annual value of ^^19 %s. 2^d. were referred 

 to in the settlement of the manor on Queen Catherine 

 wife of Charles II.** From a suit brought early in 

 the i6th century by one Thomas Giles of Higham 

 Ferrers against Robert Pypwell, then mayor, it appears 

 that this tax was collected from the king's tenants 

 of the Duchy of Lancaster in the town who were 

 responsible for the good repair of their tenements.*^ 

 Any man failing in this duty after due warning by 

 the mayor was liable to ejection by his successor 

 should twelve lawful burgesses of the town testify 

 that his tenement was still in decay. The descendants 

 of William dc Ferrers' enfranchised tenants enjoyed 

 free burgage as an hereditary right, and the earliest 

 record preserved in the Town Hall of Higham Ferrers, 



•' Pat. R. 2 and 3 Phil, and M. pi. 8, 

 m. 27. In connexion with the laat 

 cUuie it ii noteworthy that about eighty 

 ytari later Laud'i vicar-general found the 

 poiieiiioni of the College much improved 

 •ince they came into the handi of the cor- 

 poration [S. P. Oom. Chai. I, cccx, ijj. 



'" Pat. R. I Jai. I, pt. 4, ra. 25 ; Col. 

 S. P. Dom. 1^03-10, p. 129. 



" S. P. Dom. Chai. II, «cix, 46, 46 (1) ; 

 Entry Bk. i6, p. 172 ; 18, p. 62. 



•» Pat. R. 16 Chai. II, pt. 14, no. I. 



" Ibid. 36 Chai. II, pt. 6, no. 24. 



"Act Fnv. and Lcc. 49 and 50 Vict., 



270 



cap. 58 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, 



App- 9, p. S3''- 



"Early Chan. Proc. bdlc. 317, no. 57. 

 " Rent, and .Surv. porlf. 13, no. 33. 

 " Pari. Surv. Northanti. no. 32. 

 •• Pat, R. 24Chal. II, pt. 9. 

 " Early Chan. Proc. loc. cit. 



