A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



LuMLEY. Argent a 

 Jesse gules between three 

 parrots. 



Hart (q.v.), including the town of Hartlepool, from 

 the Earl of Cumberland. He was anxious to pro- 

 mote the welfare of his new tenants, and by his 

 assistance on 3 February 1 591-3 the burgesses of 

 Hartlepool obtained a new 

 charter from the Crown. By 

 thii charter Hartlepool was 

 constituted a free borough, and 

 the mayor and burgesses were 

 formed into a body corporate 

 with a common seal. Edmund 

 Bell was appointed the first 

 mayor, but from henceforward 

 the mayor was to be chosen on 

 the Monday after Michaelmas 

 Day every year by the common 

 council from one of themselves. 

 He was to have two serjeanis 



at mace. The council was to be composed of twelve 

 capital burgesses, the first twelve being appointed in the 

 charter, but hereafter on any vacancy occurring the 

 remaining councillors and the mayor were empowered 

 to choose the new member from among the common 

 burgesses. The unity of the organizations of town 

 and gild was recognized. The mayor and burgesses 

 were to have a court-house or gildhall, and to hold 

 a court or assembly there, where they should draw 

 up itatutes for the government of the town and the 

 regulation of its trade and enforce them by penalties. 

 These meetings were called ' gilds.' *° The weekly 

 market on Tuesday, the fair at the feast of St. 

 Lawrence, and a court of pie-powder were granted 

 to the corporation." In securing this charter for 

 the borough. Lord Lumley surrendered most of his 

 owrn privileges. It may be that the market and fair, 

 destroyed by his ancestor at the beginning of the 

 15th century, had never since been of importance. 

 Leland places Hartlepool among the market towns, 

 however, and it must have been to some extent a 

 source of revenue to its lords. It seems most probable 

 that Lord Lumley before securing the charter made 

 a bargain with the burgesses. In 1 593 the new 

 corporation granted to him and his heirs in return 

 for his aid half the fines of the court, and h.ilf the 

 fines for creating free burgesses or free merchants ; 

 they also acknowledged his right to keelage, and 

 granted to him stall.ige on market days from every 

 shop or booth \ti., and for the passage of every horse 

 on fair and market days \d. The descendants of 

 Lord Lumley sometimes leased these dues for terms 

 of years to the corporation." 



The town records begin in the i6th century, 

 at first in a few disconnected entries, but regularly 

 from 1566. On 19 October 1599 Robert Porrett, 

 the mayor and the common council, drew up a 

 series of orders for the town. Earlier books of 

 records are referred to from time to time, but they 

 are now lost." 



The list of statutes drawn up by the common 

 council in 1599 was divided into sections headed 

 Orders for the Church, Orders for the Town, 

 Orders for the Shipping, Orders for Innholders, 



Orders for Hiring and Retaining Servants, Orders 

 for Butchers, Orders for the Sands and Fishermen, 

 Orders for the Pasture.*' The most interesting of 

 these orders show that the ancient custom of parting 

 a purchase among the burgesses was still in force in 

 I 599, as it had been in 1230 : — 



Ytt yi ordeyned, yt whatioever inhabytante of this towne 

 goeth aborde of any shippe or hoyc w'thin this wycke or har- 

 borough, and biiycth anic manrr of corne, victuaUs, bcare, or 

 anic other goods, or comodytics whatsoever, bee it but 

 portage of anie value, w'thout the lycens of the maior, and 

 before there bee a pryce thereof sett down by the sayd maior 

 of the sayde corne, goodes, or other merchandysc or victuals, 

 that then hee or they soe oftendinge shall not onely paye for 

 everye tynie soe offendinge to the use of this town ten shillings, 

 but alsoe the sayd goods or comodities soe by hyme or theme 

 boughte to be taken from the partycs soe buyinge and the 

 same to be secjuestred att the discresayon of the maior, twelve 

 chiefe burgesses, comon counaell of this town, or the greater 

 parte of theme. ^'^ 



Ytt ys ordeyned, for the avoydinge of all contraversyes 

 which hereafter may growc betwixte the freemen of this town 

 and the forryners for the buying of fyshe and askinge part 

 thereof, that evrye freeman of this town buyinge a cobble of 

 fyshe shall enjoy the same, without partinge with anie forryner. 

 But if the forryner be the fyrst buyer of anie suchc cobble of 

 fyshe, and a freman being presente att the buyinge therof and 

 askinge parte of the same, the sayd freman or frcmen soe 

 askinge parte, shall enjoy [it] ; if the freman bee not the fyrst 

 yt askethe parte of such fysche, butt the seconde or the thirde, 

 then ytt ys ordeyned yt the freman shall have butt parte with 

 the others that before hyme asked parte thereof. 



Ytt ys ordeyned yt the maister or some other of evrye cobble 

 of this town shall make twoo pennye worth of fyshe to any of 

 their neighbors askinge the same for there own p'vysyon, yf 

 they have nott made foure pennye worthe foorth before, upon 

 payne to paye for evrj-e tyme nott soe doeing . . , vld.*'*' 



No mention was made in the charter of 1593 of 

 the court leet, which was apparently the court of the 

 lord of the manor. Twelve years after the charter, 

 however, a recorder appears in the town records," 

 and it appears that he and his successors held courts 

 leet and baron for the borough, the former dealing 

 with debts under 40J." These courts were said in 

 the 19th century to be held by prescription, and the 

 recorder was called the steward of the manor court." 



Two 'gilds ' were held yearly, one in April, when 

 the grand jury or jury of presentment, called the gild 

 jury, was chosen, the other in October for the election 

 of the mayor. The duty of the gild jury was to 

 present offences against the town by-laws before the 

 courts leet and baron. In 1624 the oath of the gild 

 juryman was entered in the corporation books.'" The 

 gild jury received an allowance from the corporation, 

 and also had a gild dinner once a year, which was 

 distinct from the corporation dinner. The corpora- 

 tion received ' gild essoign pence,' which were fines 

 from jurors who were absent from the gilds." In 

 1 716 the gild jury, on behalf of the inhabitants, 

 petitioned the council that the cess regularly levied 

 by the mayor for a yearly feast should be devoted to 

 the repair of the church and walls." 



Orders for the regulation of trade were made some- 

 times by the common council, sometimes by the general 

 gild. In 1626 the mayor and twelve burgesses ordered 

 that no one should give work to any foreigner or 

 stranger in any shop or chamber under penalty of 



" See below. 



" Pat. 35 Eliz. pt. ix ; Sharp, Hist, of 

 Hartlepool, 54, 7Z-3, App. pp. iv-ix. 



" Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, 74, 79 n., 

 81 n. 



" Ibid. 74-9. 



« Ibid. 77. 



" Ibid. 



«« Ibid. 178. 



" Ibid. 50, 100. 



«» Ibid. 103. 



*' Munic. Corp. Com. /;</>. (183$), xxiv, 



'533- 



272 



'" Sharp, Hitr. oj Hartlepool, 89 n., 

 90 n. ; Hartlepool Munic. Rec. (penes the 

 Town Clerk), i. 



" Mayor's Accts. penes the Town 

 Clerk ; Sharp, op. cit. 90 n. 



^' Sharp, op. cit. 89 n. 



