A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



hall, 1 " the summoning of members of the council, 

 and the preservation of the peace. 12 * From the four- 

 teenth century onwards there were apparently two 

 Serjeants." 6 At first certain fees from burgesses and 

 strangers pleading in the borough court were due to 

 them," 7 but in 1682 their salary was a fixed one.* 18 

 By 1835 there was only one Serjeant, and he was 

 appointed annually by the mayor, the choice generally 

 falling on the officer of the previous year." 9 



Other officers were the beadle, whose duties in 1685 

 included the cleaning of all gutters ; >3 the hayward, 

 who had care of the cattle in the common fields, and 

 impounded strays ; the constables, whose numbers 

 increased from three in 1531"' to twenty-two in 

 i833,* 3> but whose influence in the government of 

 the town decreased after the thirteenth century, when 

 they had a voice in the formation of by-laws ;"* and 

 the ale-tasters and searchers of market, who sought 

 offenders against the assize of bread and ale. There 

 were also four cofferers, who in the thirteenth century 

 had charge of the borough muniments, 1 * 4 an office 

 which was filled in 1531 by the mayor and two other 

 burgesses, 735 and seems, later on, to have been exercised 

 by the justices of the peace, while the cofferers' duties 

 were those of auditors." 6 In connexion with the port 

 there were also water-bailiffs, a wharfinger, and a 

 measurer."' 



Richard I exempted the town of Portsmouth and 

 the burgesses holding in it and of it from pleas of 

 the shire and hundred, and from all other pleas, in- 

 cluding forest pleas ;"' moreover, he gave them the 

 right of infangtheof and utfangtheof, so that from the 

 first foundation of the town the burgesses had criminal 

 jurisdiction therein. The early ' Customs ' recite the 

 punishments awarded in various cases : the pillory for 

 minor thefts, death by burning or drowning at Cat- 

 cliff (the site of the older portion of the royal dock- 

 yard) for murder, the cucking-stool for scolds, and 

 fixed fines and the forfeiture of the weapon drawn in 

 breaking the peace for assault." 9 



Under the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835 

 Portsmouth was allowed to retain quarter sessions of 

 the peace." The business of these courts had also 

 included the lighting and cleansing of the town until 

 special trustees were appointed for that purpose in the 

 eighteenth century.' 41 It is curious that burgesses 

 were occasionally disfranchised at the sessions of the 

 peace, although their removal was dependent on the 

 votes of the mayor and aldermen, and not only on 

 those of the magistrates."' For more than a century 

 the sessions have been held three times a week, while 

 the court of record, instituted by Charles I to deal 

 with civil cases in the town, has been held every 

 Tuesday. In 1819 a Bill was introduced for the 

 more easy recovery of small debts in Portsmouth, but 

 the attempt was unsuccessful, 8 ' 5 and as yet the 

 borough has no separate court of requests. 



Court-leet and view of frankpledge were probably 

 the oldest of the borough courts. It was doubtless 

 the perquisites of these courts for which 8 los. ^d. 

 were accounted in 1198.'" Their business included 

 the supervision of weights and measures, the making 

 of presentments concerning such misdemeanours as 

 encroachments, frays, and bloodshed, breach of the 

 pound, and all offences affecting trade in the town, 

 such as breaking the assize and using false weights. It 

 appears also that the court-leet dealt with such matters 

 as would elsewhere have been heard in the court- 

 baron of the lord of the manor ; for instance, tenants 

 were there admitted to the town lands, at the same 

 time taking an oath to be true tenant to the mayor, 

 aldermen, and burgesses.'* 4 During the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries the criminal work of the 

 court-leet was gradually assumed by the justices of the 

 peace, and its local duties, such as the supervision of 

 the repair and lighting of the streets, were executed 

 by the commissioners for that purpose. Thus, early 

 in the nineteenth century, though the court was 

 nominally held every Tuesday, the presentments were 

 invariably postponed till the court day next before the 

 Easter or Michaelmas sessions, 846 and it is doubtful if 

 they performed any real business even then, for no 

 leet presentments later than those for 1778 are to be 

 found among the corporation records.' 47 



A court of piepowder was formerly kept during fair- 

 time.* 4 * The same court was held for burgesses as 

 well as strangers during a month which commenced 

 a fortnight before Michaelmas Day.* 49 A memorandum 

 made on the cover of a seventeenth-century book of 

 sessions of the peace and view of frankpledge notes 

 that 6s. was due to the mayor and 4/. to the town 

 clerk for every court of piepowder held ; 240 but the 

 court fell out of use as the fair deteriorated. 



The fair itself was granted to the burgesses by 

 Richard I. It was to be held on the feast of St. Peter ad 

 Vincula (l August) and during the following fortnight, 

 and the charter extended to those who attended it all 

 the privileges enjoyed by visitors to the fairs at Win- 

 chester." 1 The grant of this fair was confirmed in 

 the subsequent charters, and doubtless it brought 

 much trade to the town and profit to the corpora- 

 tion, who took the tolls. In 1585, when the pros- 

 perity of Portsmouth was at a low ebb, the mayor 

 and corporation, in petitioning for various trading 

 advantages, begged that they might be allowed to hold 

 two free fairs yearly, each to last for twenty days, and 

 that during fair-time all men might discharge mer- 

 chandise there for half the usual custom ;*** but 

 apparently no grant of a second fair was made, nor is 

 the original one definitely mentioned in the charter 

 of 1600. Charles I, in 1627, confirmed the fair or 

 feast to be held on the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula 

 and the fourteen days following according to the grant 

 of Richard I, but abolished 'a certain other fair' 



838 Extract} from tbi Portsmouth Rec. 

 12, 51. 



M Ibid. 7, 21. 



486 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 45, No. 53. 



* Ibid. 



887 Extractsfrom thi Portsmouth Rec. 3. 



" Ibid. 12. 



889 Part. Accts. and Papers, 1835, xxiv, 



799- 



480 Extracts from thi Portsmouth Rec. 8 1 . 



881 Ibid. n6. 



868 Par/. Acets, and Papers, 1833, xiii, 

 no. 



888 Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. I . 

 884 Ibid. 2. *Ibid. 116. 



886 Parl. Accts. and Papers, 1835, xxiv, 

 799. "1 Ibid. 



288 Liter Custumarium (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 655. 



889 Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. I 

 et eq. 



M0 Stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV, cap. 76. 

 M1 Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. 

 205. 



H " Ibid. 176 et seq. 



448 Lordl Journ. lii, 716, 725, 997. 



182 



1144 Pipe R. 10 Ric. I. 



245 Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. 

 55. In 1638 the mayor was presented 

 for failing to cause the common fields of 

 the town to be driven according to custom. 



848 Parl. Accts. and Papers, 1835, xxiv, 

 III. 



**' Extracts from the Portsmouth Rec. 23. 



848 Ibid. 14. Ibid. 4. 



850 Ibid. 163. 



861 Liber Custumarium (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 655. 



861 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1580-1625, p. 142. 



