A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



trol, no police, the township constables incompetent 

 and inefficient and literally objects of ridicule. The 

 whole town lay at the mercy of the lawless labourers 

 employed in excavating the docks.' In spite of all 

 these inconveniences the inhabitants were slow to 

 move, and it w.is not until l6 January I 839, after an 

 interregnum of nearly five years, that a public meeting 

 of the inhabitants and freemen was held, and a com- 

 mittee appointed to take measures to restore corporate 

 government.'"' 



The committee consulted Sir William Follett, who 

 advised that the corporation should be revived by a 

 new charter, to be obtained from the Crown by 

 petition of the freemen, and, if necessary, of the other 

 inhabitants. He considered this course would be 

 preferable to an application for the creation of an 

 entirely new corporation under section 141 of the 

 Municipal Corporations Act,** as it was doubtful in 

 the latter case whether the new corporation would be 

 entitled to the possession of the corporate property of 

 the old, while, by obtaining a new charter to revive 

 the old corporation, its continuity would be assured.*' 

 There seems to have been a good deal of trickery in 

 connexion with the new charter, but it is difficult to 

 follow the intrigue, as the author of the Supplement to 

 Sharp's History, writing so near the time, was naturally 

 cautious. It appears that the committee drew up a 

 draft of a charter, applying the principles of the 

 Municipal Corporations Act to the new corporation 

 of Hartlepool. On 22 June 1841 this draft was 

 approved by the Attorney and Solicitor-General, who 

 directed that it should be laid before a public meeting 

 of the inhabitants of Hartlepool in order that they 

 might be able to object to any of its provisions. On 

 13 August 1841 the Lord Ch.incellor declared that 

 he was satisfied that the charter had been laid before 

 the people of Hartlepool, and that they had accepted 

 it without protest ; but it is significant that the date 

 and place of the alleged meeting are not mentioned 

 in the Supplement, and the author goes on to state 

 that much disappointment was felt, when the new 

 charter, dated 24 September 1841, appeared, that it 

 was a simple renewal of the old charter of Eliz.ibeth. 



From this it appears that the committee either 

 engineered the public meeting so that only their 

 own friends were present, or else submitted to a 

 genuine public meeting the draft charter which was 

 in accordance with the Municipal Act, and after- 

 wards substituted for it the provisions of the Eliza- 

 bethan charter. The government of the town was 

 now in the hands of the twelve men who h.id found 

 means to have their names inserted in the charter as 

 aldermen. The opponents of the charter said that 

 its only redeeming feature was the fact that the 

 mayor for the time being was also to be a justice of 

 the peace in virtue of his office ; thus order was 

 restored in the borough. °" 



The new aldermen may have acted for their own 

 advantage, but they found themselves involved in a 



"' Hist, oj HarlUpool, Supp. 68-9. 



S8 Stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV, cap. 76. 



**' Sharp, op. cit. 68-9. 



'0 Ibid. 71. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 76, App. pp. i-xiii. 



" Local Act, 46 and 47 Vict. cap. cxlix 

 (Hartlepool Borough Extension Act) ; 

 Local Act, 60 and 61 Vict. cap. cxxxviii. 

 The Throston Local Board District was 



formed in 1871 (under the provisions of 

 the Local Gov. Act of 1858) out of parts 

 of Throston and Stranton {Lond. Ga-z. 

 16 June 1871, 2798 i 15 Sept. 1871, 



397°)- 



^■' Journ. of the Home of Commons, 

 31 May 1614 and 14 March 1620. In 

 connexion with the last point it may be 

 noted that the celebrated seminary priest 

 John Host landed at Hartlepool on his 



274 



great deal of labour and trouble. They came into 

 office 'hampered with a debt of j([ 1,200, without a 

 shilling of revenue, with the corporate property in a 

 state of unequivocal confusion : and in numerous 

 instances the occupants thereof hurled defiance at the 

 corporation, disputing their rights and despising their 

 authority.'" The feeling in the town in favour of 

 reform was so strong that the aldermen soon aban- 

 doned their former policy and declared themselves 

 enthusiastic municipal reformers. In the year 1850 

 a petition for a new charter was presented, and on 

 5 December 1850 the present governing charter was 

 granted, embodying the principles of the Municipal 

 Corporations Act. The town council consisted of a 

 mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors."^ Under 

 the Hartlepool Borough Extension Act of 1883 there 

 are six aldermen and eighteen councillors. In the 

 same year the Local Board Districts of Throston and 

 Middleton were added to the borough and in 1897 

 parts of Throston Rural and Hart.'" 



A bill was introduced into the House of Commons 

 in 16 14 and again in 1620 to give Parliamentary 

 representation to the county of Durham. It was 

 proposed that, in addition to members for the county 

 and city of Durham, either the borough of Hartlepool 

 or the borough of Barnard Castle should be repre- 

 sented. The arguments in favour of Hartlepool were 

 that it was the only haven in the bishopric, for 

 Sunderland was as yet but a hamlet, and that it 

 was a pl.ice of ancient strength. In the end, how- 

 ever, it was omitted from the bill, on the grounds 

 that it belonged to a private person, not to the king, 

 th.it it was so poor a town there was no person in it 

 of sufficient wealth to sit in Parliament, and that it 

 was much given to popery.''' In 1867 Hartlepool 

 was constituted a parliamentary borough returning 

 one member."-'' 



The common lands of Hartlepool consisted of the 

 Town Moor, the Farwell Field, and certain ways to 

 these two places, which were called chares or stripes. 

 The Town Moor lies on high ground to the north- 

 east of the old town, between the town and the sea, 

 its e.nstern boundary being the cliffs of the coast. The 

 Farwell Field, as already stated, lay on the isthmus to 

 the north of the town, beyond the town wall, but 

 within the borough boundary. The chares were the 

 ways from the town to the fields used by the burgesses. 

 The early history of the town fields is unknown, as the 

 common p.isture is first mentioned in the Orders of 

 1599, when it was ordained that the mayor and 

 common council must view every horse or mare before 

 it was allowed to graze there, and must be satisfied 

 that the animal was worth at least 4 marks. It was 

 also ordained that no horse should be allowed to graze 

 there between St. Martin's Day (11 November) and 

 St. Helen's D.iy (21 May).'* 



Presentments relating to the town fields were made 

 at the borough court, where two grassmen were 

 appointed to manage the business of the pasture.'* 



missionary expedition to the north of 

 England 1580-93 (Add. MS. 75, fol. 44 ; 

 Chaloner, Missionary Priests, 312 ; cf. 

 Cat. S. P. Dom. 1611-18, p. 395; S. P. 

 Dom. Chas. I, xxxvi, 16, 17, 17(1)). 



S'a Public Act, 30 and 31 Vict. cap. 

 102. 



^^ Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, 79. 



'' Hartlepool Corp. Rec. {penes the 

 Town Clerk), ii. 



