General History of Bath. 45 



"survival" from early English times, and is some evidence of 

 the continuity of the Hundred Courts. The deed of 12 18 

 we have just mentioned refers to the " Dean of Bath," and 

 the earliest document extant mentioning a mayor is of the date 

 i23o,and that of one bearing the common seal of the city, 1250. 

 These documents do not indicate the commencement of 

 the state of things to which they bear witness, but refer tO' 

 the Hundred Court, and the Mayor, and the common seal, as- 

 institutions so well known as to be matters of course. But 

 the Municipal Charters, granted by the Plantagenet Kings, 

 do not appear to bear any fixed relation to the system of 

 Local Government, in use amongst the communities to which 

 they were granted. The two streams of liberty respectively 

 enjoyed by way of survival, and granted by Charter, run for 

 many centuries in parallel courses. 

 The earliest The first Municipal Charter granted to Bath 

 City Charter. -yy-gii illustrates this. In 1 1 89, just as he was 

 embarking from Dover for the Holy Land, Richard Coeur de 

 Lion granted to Bath the same liberties of holding property, 

 settling disputes, and trading, as were expressed in a Charter 

 granted earlier in the same year to Winchester. It is granted 

 to "The Merchant Guild," an institution of which our records 

 contains no other mention.* 



King John visited Bath, certainly four times, and pro- 

 bably more. In 1 207 he sent directions to the " Bailiff of 

 Bath'' to make enquiries as to the contents of the royal 

 cellar in the house of the Bishop, and the account rolls of 

 the reign preserve a most minute record of his expenditure 

 in horses, carriages, wine, hunting, and hawking — even to 

 the loss of a few shillings at play. 



* Some companies of artificers and tradesmen are mentioned in the 

 records of the sixteenth century, but they were not " incorporated." 



