SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



The privileges of the borough court were also closely guarded ; the pay- 

 ment of a fine or imprisonment was the punishment for a burgess impleading 

 anyone without the borough unless permission had been obtained from the 

 mayor. 



At Aylesbury there are no records at all before the sixteenth century, 

 but no sort of incorporation was effected by the inhabitants. In 1 500 ' the 

 lord of the manor held the courts as for an ordinary manor, the court-leet 

 and view of frankpledge and the ' Curte,' no mention being made of bur- 

 gesses or of a borough court of any kind. 



Buckingham was a borough by prescription, though it never sent 

 members to Parliament until the sixteenth century. In the fourteenth * cen- 

 tury two precepts were sent to the borough by Edward III to send two 

 representatives to a council. The precepts were addressed to the mayor and 

 two bailiffs, the borough officials. In a court roll 7 in 14545 the names of 

 the courts held in the town are found. The ' Curia Burgentum ' was held 

 once in the year, the ' port mot ' once a month, but the entries are not 

 enlightening ; in the former two men made default, in the latter there were 

 frequent presentments for making and selling bread under weight, but there 

 are no entries as to the trade or government of the town, nor is there any 

 mention of the merchant gild amongst the records of the borough. 8 



Wendover, Amersham, 9 and Great Marlow 10 sent members to Parlia- 

 ment in the reigns of Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III, and in 

 consequence obtained incorporation in the seventeenth century ; but they 

 were small market towns of little importance. Colnbrook ll was another 

 market town that was incorporated from 1544 to 1653. At different times 

 markets were held in thirty-seven places in the county, besides many fairs ; 

 of these the markets of Aylesbury, Wycombe, and Buckingham were of 

 great importance. The tolls, piccage, and stallage dues of a market were part 

 of the perquisites of the lord of the manor until a town was incorporated, so 

 that only at Chepping Wycombe did the borough control and receive the 

 profits from the market. 



In the Domesday Survey the county was divided into eighteen hundreds 

 or districts for the purposes of local government, but some time before 1285'* 

 they were consolidated and formed into six groups, each containing three of 

 the old divisions, the 'Three Hundreds' of Buckingham, Newport, Cottesloe, 

 Ashendon, Aylesbury, and the Chiltern Hundreds of Desborough, Burnham, 

 and Stoke. 



It is noteworthy that in this county the king retained all the hundreds 

 in his own hand. Hence the local courts were held by the sheriff, the chief 

 royal official in the county, and through him the king received the ferm of 

 the shire and other dues. 



In spite, however, of the administrative and criminal jurisdiction being 

 thus controlled by the officers of the crown, the Hundred Rolls show that at 

 the end of the reign of Henry III, corruption, oppression, and abuse of power 

 were rampant. 



Arch. 1. 93. * Browne Willis, Hut. of Buckingham, 41 



: P.R.O. Court Rolls, ptfo. 155-6. 



1 From information kindly given by Mr. T. R. Hearn, town clerk of the borough of Buckingham. 

 ' Lipscomb, Hut. and Antiq. of Biukt. iii, 161. " Ibid. 597. " Ibid, iv, 430-1. 



" FeuJ. Aids (Rec. Com.), i, 89. 



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