KINGSTON HUNDRED 



corporation from this time has been the Mayor, Alder- 

 men, and Burgesses of the Borough of Kingston-upon- 

 Thames, and the town was divided into three wards 

 with six aldermen and eighteen councillors. In 1855, 

 by the Kingston-upon-Thames Improvement Act, a 

 fourth ward was added, and the corporation increased to 

 a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty-four councillors, 

 the present governing body. 



Kingston sent representatives to the Parliament of 

 1311, 1313, 1353, and 1373," but no further writs 

 have been found. It is said that the townsmen begged 

 to be excused the responsibility and obtained their 

 wish." 1 At the same time they refused, in 1378,10 

 bear a part in contributions towards the expense of 

 knights of the shire, and succeeded in upholding their 

 exemption.* 71 In 1591 they obtained a royal declar- 

 ation of indemnity, as tenants in ancient demesne, from 

 this expense and from serving as jurors. 



The first charter of King John, granted in 1 200, 

 gave to the freemen, as has already been mentioned, 

 the town with all its appurtenances, and in 1 208 this 

 was expanded by the clause ' with all the liberties and 

 free customs thereof.' >71 The prescriptive rights thus 

 obtained included not only the hundred court but 

 other liberties. One such right was that of amend- 

 ment of the assize of bread and ale ; this, though 

 recognized in 12923,*" was disputed by the Crown 

 until 1441, when Henry VI granted that the clerk of 

 the market should not exercise his office within the 

 town, but that the freemen should have correction of 

 the assize of bread and ale in the town and liberty 

 and be clerks of the market there."* The office of 

 ale-taster owed its origin to the right under which the 

 body corporate had the custody of certain standard 

 measures. As tenants in ancient demesne the freemen 

 were quit of toll throughout the kingdom and of 

 service on juries outside the manor. These rights were 

 disputed in 1581 when us. were paid 'for writin a 

 copie or note owte of the Booke of Domesdeye ' *** in 

 proof, and Queen Elizabeth confirmed these privileges 

 in 1592.*" 



It was in accordance with this prescriptive right 

 that the freemen claimed the purprestures. They 

 established their rht by I292-3, 178 though not 

 without conflict with the Crown, for in 1274 they 

 were accused of occupying and appropriating the 

 king's lands, 17 * and at a date previous to 1 3 1 2 the king 

 claimed 6"ji. l id. yearly rent from a purpresture 

 which had been inundated by the Thames.* 8 * The 

 Court of Assembly asserted their right in 1680, when 

 they proposed proceeding against one Rymer whose 

 pales encroached on the highway.* 81 



By the third charter granted to Kingston in 1256, 

 which gave the freemen that privilege from arrest 

 which was the aim of every trading town at this 

 period, no man of Kingston might be arrested for 

 debts for which he was not the surety or principal 

 debtor, unless the debtors were solvent or the men of 



KINGSTON- 

 UPON-THAMES 



the town had failed to give the aggrieved persons 

 justice. 18 * 



This charter was followed three days later by one 

 of greater importance, by which the freemen realized 

 the ambition of all mediaeval towns and succeeded in 

 ousting the sheriff and other royal officers by getting into 

 their own hands the return of Exchequer and other 

 writs, unless by default.** 3 The right to exclude the 

 sheriff was confirmed in 1628, but had fallen into abey- 

 ance fifty years later, for in 1682 the Court of Assembly 

 sought counsel's opinion ' whether an action did not 

 lie against the sheriffs who entered this liberty and 

 executed an execution without any warrant directed 

 to the bailiffs of the town ' ^ the answer being in the 

 affirmative. Six weeks later the suit had begun,* 8 * 

 and was only abandoned in November 1683 at 'the 

 request of Sir Edward Evelyn, Sir James Clarke, and 

 others of the neighbouring gentry."** By 1835 tne 

 right was no longer exercised. 187 



The charter of 1 2 5 6, confirming the freemen in their 

 gild merchant, granted that they should not lose goods 

 which they could prove their own for the trespass or 

 forfeiture of the servants who might hold them, and 

 also freedom of inheritance. 188 The charter of 1441 

 granted to the freemen all kinds of escheats and for- 

 feitures of land or chattels, with treasure trove, deo- 

 dands, goods and chattels of felons and suicides. 18 * Yet 

 in spite of this the Privy Council in 1553 demanded 

 such plate perhaps the property of the church or 

 gild as they pretended to be theirs by way of escheat, 1 *" 

 and in 1635 process was discharged in the Crown 

 office against the bailiffs for a deodand.*" 



The jurisdiction of the borough courts was very 

 complicated, and was exercised within such varying 

 boundaries that in 183; doubts as to both powers and 

 area were entertained. 1 " At that date the courts held 

 were the hundred court, court of record, court leet or 

 law-day, court baron, petty sessions, and sessions of the 

 peace. The hundred court of Kingston was a court 

 of ancient demesne, and in 1 199-1200 was said to be 

 and always to have been appurtenant to the vill, 

 rendering to the king a farm of 28 io/., to which 

 the hundred of Emleybridge contributed l6/.*" It 

 passed into the hands of the freemen as a prescriptive 

 right under the charter of 1208. Under their 

 prescriptive right of infangenthef the bailiffs would 

 hold such a court as that which in 1235 tried and 

 hanged Sarah wife of Stephen de Meudon, a villein, 

 who was arrested while cooking stolen grain.* 05 The 

 men of Kingston did not however obtain the right of 

 choosing coroners until 1256,*** the hundred being 

 amerced in 1224-5 because the bailiffs had permit- 

 ted the burial of Henry de Heandon, who had died 

 from an accident, without view of the king's coroner.* 97 

 The right of choosing two coroners was confirmed by 

 James I in 1603,*" and is still exercised. The 

 coroners were elected by the Court of Assembly from 

 its members, and in 1835 it was usual for the town- 



R,t. ofMemb. of Par 1. 

 171 Prynne, Reg. Parl. ffrits, pt. iv, 

 1176. 



Exch. Pleas, Mich, 2 Ric. II. 

 Cart. Antiq. SS, 8. 

 *< Assize R. 907, m. 5 ; 902, m. 3. 

 W* Chart. R. 19 Hen. VI, m. 31. 

 ** Hiit. AfSS. Com. Rep. iii, App. 332. 

 V! Roots, Charters, 82. 

 * Assize R. 902, m. 3. 

 f Cal. Pat. 1272-81, p. 71. 



*" Cal. Clue, 1307-13, p. 470. 



181 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 1680-1724, 

 fol. 2k. 



*" Roots, Ckarttrt, 23. * Ibid. 26. 



584 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 21 Dec. 1682. 



385 Ibid. 8 Feb. 1682-3. 



886 Ibid. 15 NOT. 1683. 



987 Munie. Corf. Cm. Rep. iv, 2899. 



188 Roots, Chartert, 



* Chart. R. 1-20 Hen. VI, no. 17, 

 m. 31. 



499 



**> Acti of P.C. (New Ser.), 1552-4, 



P- 373- 



" l Doc. of Corp. Chamberlains' Accts. 

 1635. 



JM Munie. Corp. Com. Rep. iv, 2892 n, 



Ibid. 2899, 



** Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 4, 25. 



195 Maitland, Braeton'i Note Bit. no. 

 1138. " Roots, op. cit. 17. 



997 Assize R. 863, m. 4, 8. 



288 Roots, Char ten, 122 et scq. 



