PORTSDOWN HUNDRED 



PORTSMOUTH 



the town, until the growth of the office of alderman. 

 Then their duties became more formal ; they were 

 obliged to attend the mayor in their gowns when 

 summoned, and their presence at the election of a 

 new mayor was also enforced. 1 " In 1605 their 

 gowns were known as cloaks in contradistinction to 

 the gowns of the assistants. 155 In 1700 it was agreed 

 that since many burgesses, in spite of their oath, had 

 absented themselves from the mayor's courts and 

 assemblies, all inhabitants when admitted as burgesses 

 should either pay a fine of 5 or take a special oath 

 to attend the mayor's courts and assemblies. 15 * 



A method of government which placed supreme 

 control in the hands of an indefinite number of 

 burgesses must have proved somewhat clumsy in the 

 working. It is not surprising, therefore, to find a 

 more limited number of the burgesses gradually 

 forming a council to aid the mayor or bailiffs in the 

 executive branches of their business. Owing to the 

 absence of early records it is difficult to discover at 

 what date such a council first existed, but in the list 

 of usages and customs of the town which was prob- 

 ably drawn up late in the twelfth or early in the 

 thirteenth century, mention is made of twelve jurats, 

 who were apparently identical with the mayor's 

 council of twelve men which he himself chose yearly 

 upon his election. 15 ' In 1537 it was the twelve 

 jurats who made certain regulations concerning trade 

 in the town."* Probably these twelve men were 

 those 'senior and principal better and more honest 

 burgesses ' from whom the mayor was to be chosen 

 according to the terms of Queen Elizabeth's charter 

 of incorporation, and represented the mayor's assis- 

 tants. The latter term occurs about the middle of 

 the sixteenth century. There were evidently eight 

 assistants, two of whom attended the mayor in 

 rotation at the weekly courts of the borough. 159 In 

 1585 the mayor, aldermen, and inhabitants of Ports- 

 mouth petitioned the queen with regard to the decay 

 of trade in the town, 1 * hence it seems probable that 

 the terms 'alderman ' and 'assistant' were interchange- 

 able before the charter of 1 627, in which it is definitely 

 stated that there should be twelve aldermen to form 

 the council of the borough, and aid and assist the 

 mayor. They were to be chosen for life from the 

 burgesses, and vacancies were to be filled up by the 

 remaining aldermen and mayor or the majority of 

 them. On at least one occasion a newly elected 

 burgess was immediately chosen as alderman. 1 * 1 This 

 occurred in 1656. In 1662 the Royal Commission 

 appointed four new aldermen in place of four removed 

 for alleged disloyalty. 1611 Under the charter of 

 Charles II the aldermen were removable, like the 

 burgesses, by the royal sign manual. Towards the 

 end of the seventeenth century there were continual 

 discords among the aldermen. In the words of a 

 contemporary tract, ' the beginning of our divisions 



184 Extract! from tte Portsmouth Sec. 8 

 and 127. 



Ibid. 153. 



" Ibid. 19. W Ibid. I. 



168 Ibid. 119. It ii curious to note 

 that on the same day in the same court 

 the twelve jurats presented that Henry 

 Byckeley was heir of John Byckeley 

 a function of the grand jury. 



""Ibid. 136. 



" Cal. S.P. Dam. 1580-1625, p. 142. 



181 Extractsfrom the Portsmouth Rec. 167. 

 d. 169. 



and distractions may be dated from the time 

 Mr. Ward, our vicar, made choice of Mr. Ely 

 Stamyford for churchwarden at Easter, I7O3. 1 ** 

 These divisions continued with increasing acrimony 

 between the Whig and Tory parties. Both parties 

 chose numerous burgesses for political purposes, and 

 the struggle continued till 1711, when the two lead- 

 ing Whigs, Henry Seagar and Thomas White, were 

 ousted from among the aldermen by a mandamus 

 from the Queen's Bench. A similar conflict arose 

 in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 163 From 

 1782 onwards the Whig party was supreme in the 

 town, and until the Reform Act of 1832, their 

 selection of burgesses was openly based on political 

 considerations, while the aldermen were almost all of 

 the Carter family. 164 Under the Municipal Reform 

 Act of 1835, the number of aldermen was altered to 

 fourteen, half of their number retiring every three 

 years, an arrangement which is still in force. 



There appear to have been no privileges attached 

 to the office of alderman beyond its political and 

 social power. The former rested chiefly in the 

 ability of the aldermen to choose burgesses and hence 

 to influence both the parliamentary and municipal 

 elections. Their duties included all the government 

 of the town and the management of the corporation 

 estates. They were bound to attend the common 

 council when summoned by the mayor. 1 * 6 In 1678 

 a rule was made that they should attend him to church 

 every Sunday, and in 1682 it was agreed that they 

 should wear their scarlet gowns on election day, 

 certain feast days, the first Sunday in the month, and 

 any other day appointed by the council. 1 ** 



The earliest government of the town appears to 

 have been by a reeve and bailiffs. Possibly William 

 de Ste.-Mere Eglise, who accounted for the petty 

 customs of the town when they were first separated 

 from those of Southampton, acted as the first reeve. 167 

 Theobald, the reeve of Portsmouth, witnessed a con- 

 veyance of land in Portsmouth in 1201,"* and in 

 1 2 1 6 a royal writ was addressed to the reeve and men 

 of Portsmouth, 1 ** while the reeve and whole court of 

 Portsmouth witnessed a conveyance of the thirteenth 

 century. 170 In 1270 Peter Coperas was reeve. 1 " 

 The number of bailiffs is so far unknown. Probably, 

 as at Winchester, there were two ; Elizabeth's charter 

 states that the town had been governed by a mayor 

 and two bailiffs. It was the bailiffs who collected the 

 rents and customs and were responsible to the crown 

 for the farm of the borough during the reign of King 

 John. 1 " Pleas were also held before them and writs 

 addressed to them 17S ; they acted as the king's 

 escheators in the town. 174 Their duties also included 

 the hearing of recognizances of debt, 175 and the seal- 

 ing of conveyances of lands within the borough, since 

 the seals of the parties to the deeds were unknown to 

 most men. 17 * Towards the end of the thirteenth 



Plain and Trut Account of thi 

 Divisions in Portsmouth, 1711, p. I. Thi 

 tract gives an account of the 'discords 

 from the Whigs' point of view. The 

 proceedings of the Tories, who included 

 Charles Bissell, the town clerk, are con- 

 tained in Book 13 of the Corp. Rec. 

 See also Add. MS. 33278, fol. 85. 



1M See Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. 

 144 et seq. 



1M Parl. Acctt. and Papers, 1835, jexiv, 



799- 



1M Extracts from tke Portsmouth Rec. 8. 



I 79 



'Ibid. ii. 



"7 Pipe R. 6 Ric. I. 



188 Cal. Doc. France, 304. 



169 Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 302. 



W Anct. D. (P.R.O.), B. 2950. 



W Ibid. B. 2946. 



V Curia Regis R. 36, m. t d. 



"* Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), ii, 

 606 ; i, 599. 



W Misc. Inq. (Hen. Ill), ii, 3. 



W Anct. D. (P.R.O.), B. 2935. 



l " Add. Chart. 15857, 15858. 



