KINGSTON HUNDRED 



ensuing year, 1 " but in 1835 the method had changed 

 and the gownsmen and peers elected one, while the 

 bailiffs of the present year, with the recorder and high 

 steward, chose a second. 1 * 8 The voting was by a 

 species of ballot, the names of the fifteen being 

 written out and placed aside in the council-room, 

 the vote being recorded by scratching the chosen 

 name with a pen. 199 The growth of the power of 

 the bailiffs is one of the most interesting features of 

 the borough history. Deriving their powers from 

 the bailiffs of the royal manor, they are first mentioned 

 in 1234-5 as holding a court at Kingston, 100 and in 

 1 242 were impleaded for unjust exaction of tolls. 101 

 The bailiffs and freemen had been clerks of the 

 market under the charter of 1441,*" the bailiffs only 

 in 1628.* The charter of 1603 rendering their 

 presence necessary at every meeting of the Court of 

 Assembly *" probably only ratified an ancient practice 

 and made abortive an attempt of a royalist minority 

 to hold a court in 1655.** This charter further 

 granted that the bailiffs should be ex officio justices 

 of the peace. In 1626 the Commissioners recom- 

 mended that the outgoing bailiffs should retain their 

 commission of the peace for a year after holding 

 office,' ' and this was embodied in the grant of 

 i628. w Their position may be gauged by the order 

 confirmed by the Court of Assembly in 1680 that the 

 bailiffs were not to take out of the chamber any sum 

 above zo/. without the privity and consent of the 

 whole corporation. 8 The bailiffs were empowered to 

 appoint under-bailiffs and were to be preceded by two 

 serjeants-at-mace.* 09 The office of bailiff was suspend- 

 ed shortly after the Restoration, when Charles II 

 forbade the election of bailiffs until the differences 

 between members of the town had been settled,' 10 and 

 it was only restored after a petition in September 

 1 66 1." 1 The bailiffs were abolished by the charter 

 of James II in 1685 and a mayor elected by the 

 magistrates substituted ; "' Mr. Agar the first mayor 

 complained that one of the Common Councilmen had 

 ' very much abused him,' and the offender was accord- 

 ingly discorporated.' 1 ' Restored on the resumption 

 of the charter, the bailiffs retained their office until 

 replaced by a mayor under the reconstruction of 



1835.'" 



Of the constables little is known, their office being 

 such that they are seldom mentioned. The chamber- 

 lains filled a more important office and acted as 

 treasurers.* 1 * They were elected by the Fifteens from 

 among their fellows on the charter day, and might 

 hold office for several years in succession. 816 Being 

 considered an integral part of the Court of Assembly 

 they are not expressly mentioned among the officers 

 detailed in 1628 ;"' their accounts are preserved from 

 the 1 5th century and are full of detail concerning the 



KINGSTON- 

 UPON-THAMES 



life of the town. In 1835 it was said that in 

 practice the senior chamberlain alone executed the 

 office, ' the junior only signing the accounts,' "' and 

 possibly this explains the election of a ' treasurer ' in 

 i684.' 19 In the i6th century two churchwardens 

 were also officers of the corporate body, which seems 

 to have retained its power over them for another 

 hundred years. They were answerable to the bailiffs 

 and yielded up their accounts at the Gildhall each 

 St. Luke's-tide.** The reason for " this term being 

 chosen is obscure, as St. Luke was not patron of the 

 church or its chantries, nor was it one of the recog- 

 nized quarters ;*" it probably had some connexion 

 with the borough year, which began on the Sunday 

 after Michaelmas. A meeting corresponding to the 

 vestry was first held in the church in I535, 2 "when 

 the bailiffs are expressly mentioned as being present ; 

 the vestry minute books begin a century later. 1 



It is not known when bridgewardens were first 

 appointed as custodians of the bridge and its property; ** 4 

 they were elected from among the freemen by the 

 Court of Assembly, and submitted their accounts for 

 signature by the bailiffs each Michaelmas.** 4 



The ale-tasters have been already mentioned ; it was 

 part of their duty to give a dinner to the court, and so 

 important was this considered in the 1 8th century 

 that recalcitrant ale-tasters were threatened with a 

 fine of 10 in 1 706 "'and with incorporation in 

 1721.*" 



The high officials of the corporate body were the 

 high steward, the steward of the court, and the recorder. 

 The office of high steward probably originated in the 

 1 6th century, when it was advisable to have some pro- 

 minent person at court directly interested in the 

 town's welfare. Lord Howard of Effingham is the 

 first named. The office was not purely nominal, for 

 in 1684 the corporation immediately applied to their 

 high steward, Lord Arlington, for advice as to the 

 surrender of their charter.** 8 James II under the new 

 charter appointed Lord Ailesbury to the office, which 

 still exists and has been held by Lord Liverpool and 

 other distinguished persons.' 29 The appointment was 

 for life by patent of the Court of Assembly, the pre- 

 sentation being signalized by ' a handsome treate ' ; ***' 

 the annual present consisted of eighteen sugar-loaves, 

 worth about <) in I835-' 31 The steward of the 

 Court or ' Learned Steward,' as he was more frequently- 

 called in the I yth century,* 3 ' filled an office originally- 

 much more humble in character than it afterwards 

 became. By the charter of 1628 the appointment 

 was limited to the attorney-general,*" who has always 

 held the office since that date. 



A recorder is first mentioned in the charter of 1 603 

 when he and the bailiffs were empowered to hold a 

 court of record and to be justices of the peace.* 3 * 



l " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, p. 149. 

 118 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2895. 

 199 Ibid. 



800 Maitland, Braeton't Note Bk. no. 



1122. 



801 Ablrtv. Plae. (Rec. Com.), 119. 

 808 Roots, Charters, 43. 



808 Ibid. 149. 

 " Ibid. 123. 



806 Merewether and Stephens, Hist, of 

 Boroughs (ed. 1835), 1685-6. 



808 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixvii, 27. 

 "* Roots, Charters, 179. 



* Ct. of Assembly Bk. 8 Oct. 1680. 



809 Roots, Charters, 172. 



110 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 455. 

 811 Ibid. 1661-2, p. 95. 

 818 Roots, Charters, 220. 

 818 Lansd. MS. 226, fol. 56. 

 8 " Public Act, 5 & 6 Will IV, cap. 76. 

 * Ct. of Assembly Bk. 1680-1724, 

 fol. i. 



816 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2897. 

 M 7 Roots, Chartert, 167. 

 818 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2897. 

 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 5 Nov. 1684. 



880 Doc. of Corp. Churchwardens' 

 Bks. 1523, 1575, 1578. 



881 Heales, Hist, of the Church of King- 

 iton { Surr, Arch. Coll. viii, 68. 



497 



888 Doc. of Corp. Churchwardens' Accts, 

 1585. *B Heales, op. cit. 103. 



*" fide ,upra. 



* Doc. of Corp. Bridgewardens' Accts. 

 extant from 1 508. 



Lansd. MS. 226, fol. 56. 



W Ibid. fol. 47. 



888 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 27 Nov. 1684. 



889 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 341-2. 

 880 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 7 Nov. 1683-4. 

 811 Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2896. 

 888 Ct. of Assembly Bk. I May 1682 ; 



4 Sept. 1684. 



888 Roots, Charter i, 161. 

 884 Ibid. 131, 134. 



