25 
tlie city by King Kichard II. At wbat time or in what manner it 
was disposed of, I do not know. 
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth certain civic customs and cere¬ 
monies were revived, which, since the Eeformation, had been 
neglected or fallen into desuetude, and the Corporation, during the 
first mayoralty of the first Eobert Askwith, in the year 1580, 
thought fit to provide the city with a new great mace. They 
determined that it should weigh at least 40 oz. and be gilt, and 
graven with the Queen’s arms. The work was entrusted to 
Mr. William Pearson, an eminent York goldsmith, and the weight 
of the mace when completed was found to be no less than 56^ oz. 
For the silver, gilding, and workmanship, the artist was paid 
£24 4s. 3d., and for amending the old gilt mace, which then became 
distinguished by the name of the little mace, he received £1 11s. 
Several years afterwards the sum of £20 was expended in improving 
the little mace and making it larger. By this process of restoration 
most probably the original form and character of the mace given 
by King Pichard II. were altered and destroj^ed. 
The new mace had been in use more than 20 years when it was 
for the first time borne in procession before royalty itself. In 
April, 1603, James I. came to York on his way from Edinbirngh. 
As this was the only occasion on which the city had been visited by 
a sovereign prince since the reign of Kling Henry the Eighth, some 
questions arose as to matters of etiquette to be observed in the 
reception of the new monarch. It was at length determined that 
as soon as his Majesty should have passed through Micklegate Bar, 
the Lord Mayor, mounted on horseback, and attended by two 
footmen, should carry the city’s mace before the King; the honour 
of bearing the city sword before his Majesty being assigned to the 
Earl of Cumberland, who claimed to perform that duty by hered¬ 
itary right. 
When King James I. again came to York in the year 1617, and 
on several subsequent occasions, when his unfortunate successor 
King Charles I. visited the city, the same great mace was used in 
a similar manner to grace the processions. 
We should scarcely have expected that whilst the city was 
* A few years after James’s first visit to the city, both the maces appear to 
have required considerable repaii’s and alterations. In the mayoralty of the 
second Robert Askwith (1606) a sum exceeding twenty guineas was paid to 
Christopher Harrington, goldsmith, for altering and amending the great mace, 
and nearly half as much for altering and amending the little mace. 
