BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON 



granting him freedom from serving the office of mayor, 

 a compliment possibly otherwise awaiting him, or 

 coroner, or filling any other corporate office for the 

 rest of his life."' 



The dignity and importance of the mayor's office 

 grew with the privileges of the town and with its 

 charters : and generally, as the high functionaries 

 from without were debarred from entering the town 

 so the mayor ascended in their stead. For instance, 

 by charter of 1445 he was made escheator, &c. ; 

 charter of 1447 creating the town and port a county 

 gave him a further rise ; that of 1 6 Charles I ( 1 640), 

 the governing charter till 1835, regranted all par- 

 ticulars. 



Previously to 1835 the mayor continued to be ap- 

 pointed to offices which had long fallen into abeyance. 

 These will be mentioned with others at the end of 

 this section. 



Formerly, like the members of Parliament, the 

 mayors received remuneration. Until 1481 we find 

 10 assigned to the mayor of old custom. In 1579 

 the allowance was increased to 20, and in 1617 to 

 ^50 ; again, in 1623, it fell, from prudential motives, 

 to 30, namely 20 the older sum, and 10 in lieu 

 of making a burgess. In 1725 this old allowance of 

 20 for table money was taken away" 7 till the town 

 should have again at least 400 at interest. Table 

 money, however, though to no great amount, was fre- 

 quently voted ; and the privilege, which can be traced 

 from 1501, of making one burgess during the year of 

 office and retaining the admission fee seems always to 

 have remained. The mayor had also some small port 

 dues on corn and coals. In 1802, when these dues 

 were discontinued, the mayor was allowed twenty- 

 five guineas per annum. In the depression of 1830 

 all dinners, perquisites, and even the daily newspaper 

 hitherto taken in for the mayor, were stopped." 8 



The mayor has no perquisites at the present day, 

 but it would be lawful for him to receive such remu- 

 neration as the council might think fit. The quaint 

 oaths of mayor, &c, which are not given here, are no 

 longer taken as oaths, but as solemn declarations. 



The mayor is now invested with the chain of office, 

 the gift of Bercher Baril in 1792, as anciently with 

 the tippet. He also receives, ' that he may always 

 have money in his pocket,' the $ of quaint coins 

 given under the will of Andrew Meares of Millbrook 

 some time before i639." 9 The coins are preserved 

 in the Audit House. 



The Common or Town Council. Next to the 

 mayor we place the town council ; and we are now 

 dealing with the close government of the town and 

 gild which prevailed with small variation till the last 

 century. 



The ' twelve assistants ' of the chief alderman ot 

 the gild (see above) were the original mayor's or town 

 or common council. They had of course been sworn, 

 as the ordinance provides, from the beginning, although 

 the oath taken at the earliest period is not extant. 

 From that which belongs to the far later period of 

 about 1650 we gather that the title of 'assistant' 



was being dropped. In the heading, as also in the 

 body of the oath which bound them to attendance 

 in ' the counsell-house,' the word ' assistants ' was 

 replaced by ' comon councill men,' whose office at 

 this period, and no doubt long before, was strictly 

 annual. It becomes a little difficult to state in what 

 particular this body was assistant to the mayor and 

 when he might be left to act, as he often did, motu suo, 

 or how far again originally the council was itself 

 assisted by and virtually comprised others, e.g. the 

 aldermen of wards or other chief officials ; whether 

 in fact the common title ' the Mayor and his brethren' 

 connoted only these ' twelve discreets,' or included 

 other selected burgesess, certainly the bailiffs could 

 not have been excluded ; or what indeed in any 

 accurate definition ' constituted the Assembly ' or 

 ' the house ' in the early days. 



Under the charter of 1 640 the common council 

 was appointed to consist of the mayor, recorder, 

 aldermen, bailiffs and sheriff, and all past holders of 

 these offices who were empowered to make such by- 

 laws, the mayor always being present, as in their 

 ' sane discretion ' should be salutary for the govern- 

 ment of the burgesses, artisans, and inhabitants, and 

 to punish the breach of them. 



This constitution of all the town council remained 

 as here provided till the alterations of 1835. At 

 the present time, under the county extension of 1895, 

 the councillors are thirty-nine in number. 230 They 

 act collectively and in eighteen committees. 



The Recorder. The earliest observed notice of 

 this officer occurs in 1457, when we find his wages 

 were ^5 a year ; he had also, as was usual, his livery 

 gown at Christmas made of five yards of ' musterdy- 

 velyg ' at y. ifd. the yard.* 31 This continued to be 

 his payment for a considerable time. It may be that 

 in the earlier period he and the town clerk were 

 identical, and that the offices were separated under 

 the pressure of town business. In 1649 he was 

 allowed 20 per annum, so long as he should live in 

 the town. In 1688 it was determined that his fee 

 should be $ per annum. But presents of wine and 

 new year's gifts of sugar, spices, and olives were fre- 

 quently made, as special and delicate attentions. 



The oath of the recorder required him to ' minister 

 common right after the common law of England, and 

 the laudable customs of this town, to every person 

 that shall duly require the same, as well to poor as 

 rich,' and give ' true counsel to the mayor and his 

 brethren,' and be in attendance when reasonably ex- 

 pected. The duties of the recorder here, as every- 

 where else, are now regulated under the Consolidating 

 Act of 1882. 



The Town Clerk must have been in existence from 

 a very early period, if not under that name. He 

 first appears in 1315, when William Fowell, 238 the 

 ' town clerk,' received a bushel of wheat from God's 

 House for professional assistance. Again, in 1321 

 John le Barbur, ' town clerk,' received a quarter of 

 wheat under the same circumstances, by the advice of 

 John le Flemyng, the late alderman. The ' wages ' 



* Liber Niger (Corp. MSS.), fol. 

 2 ?A. 



**' This parsimony went sadly against 

 the grain. But not seldom some dis- 

 interested friend would give an aid to the 

 town's good cheer. So when in Sept. 

 1761, Mr. Dawkins, M.P., presented two 

 turtles he gave more turtles the next year 



the town council quickly passed Mr, 

 Mayor's little bill of 47 14*. 6d. for 

 * dressing ' them, as also for i 6s. the hire 

 of the * Assembly Rooms ' where the 

 turtle feast was held j Journ. tub anno. 



228 Particulars from Town Journ. sub 

 anno. 



929 Earliest observed notice is 2 Oct. 



1640, when the late mayor delivered to 

 his successor the 5 gift of Mr. Andrew 

 Meyres, deceased ; Town Journ. (Corp. 

 MSS.). 



See above. 



281 Steward's Bk. 



8311 Riley, Hist. MSS. Com. Kef. ii, 137; 

 Rep. on Queen's College, Oxford. 



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