580 
M A Y 
the King's Bench. Mayors, or other magistrates of a cor¬ 
poration, who iliall voluntarily abfer.t themfelves on the 
day of eleftion, are liable to be imprifoned, and difquaii- 
fied from holding any office in the corporation. 
The powers and duties of a mayor, or other head offi¬ 
cer of a corporation, depend in general on the provifions of 
the charters, or prefcriptive ufages of the corporation, or 
the exprefs provisions of an adt of parliament. It is com¬ 
monly one of his duties, as well as of his particular privi¬ 
leges, to prelide at the corporate aflernbiies. The mayor, 
as well as the aldermen, and other feleft bodies, have no 
other powers, authorities, or privileges, than thofe which 
they poflefs by charter, prefcription, or act of parliament. 
Where the mayor’s prefence is neceffary at a corporate 
afl'embly, his departure before a bulinefs regularly begun 
be concluded will not invalidate that particular bulinefs; 
bat the afl'embly cannot proceed to any thing elfe. And 
on the death of the mayor, or during the vacation of the 
office, the corporation can do no corporate aft but that 
of choofing a new mayor. 
The authority of mayors, as to matters not relating to 
their corporation, extends to the following other parti¬ 
culars : The flat. 2 Edw. III. c. 3, gives power to mayors 
to arrelt perfons carrying oft’enfive weapons in fairs, mar¬ 
kets, Sc c. to make affrays and the difturbance of the peace. 
By flat. 28 I-Ien. VIII. c. 4, mayors, &c. have power to 
let the price of ale and beer: and they are authorifed to 
convift pei Cons felling ale without licenfe; and alfo to levy 
penalties on the offender by diflrefs, See. They are to 
caufe quart and pint pots, for the felling of ale, to be ex¬ 
amined, whether they hold their full mealure ; and to mask 
them, under the penalty of 5I. 11 £? 12 Will. III. c. 15. 
Mayors, bailiffs, and lords of leets, are to regulate the 
affile of bread, and examine into the goodnefs thereof; 
and, if bakers make unlawful bread, they may give it to 
the poor, and pillory the offenders, See. 5 Hen. III. ft. 6. 
Mayors, See. are empowered to make enquiry into of¬ 
fences committed again It flat. 1 Eliz. c. 2, which requires 
that the Common Prayer be read in churches ; and that 
the churchwardens do their duty in prefenting the names 
of fuch perfons us abfent themfelves from church on Sun¬ 
day, Sec. The head officers of corporations are to appoint 
and l'wear overfeers or fearchers to examine into defefts of 
northern cloth, &c. and the overfeers fhall fix a feal of 
lead to cloths, exprefling the length and breadth ; and, if 
they find any faulty, or fealed with a falfe feal, &c. they 
are to prefentthe fame at the next qunrter-feffions. Mayors, 
&c. neglecting their duty, are liable to a penalty of 5I. 
30 Eliz. c. 20. Mayors may determine whether coin of¬ 
fered in payment be counterfeited or not ; and tender an 
oath to determine any queftion relating to it. 9 & 10 
Will. III. c. 21. 
By flat. 23 Eliz. c. 9, mayors, See. may call before them 
and examine dyers, iufpefted to ufe logtvood in dying; 
and, if they find caufe, may bind them over to the quarter- 
fcfiions, where, on conviftion, they are liable to a for¬ 
feiture of 20!. Under various ltatutes, mayois and head 
officers of corporations are to puniflt drunkennefs. 
Mayors, See. fhall enquire into unlawful gaming, again If 
the flat. 83 Hen. VII I. e. 9. They are to feurch places fuf- 
pftted to be gaming-homes, and levy penalties, Sec. and they 
have po Ver to commit perfons playing at unlawful games. 
Hones ftolen, found in a-corporation, may be redeemed 
by. the owner, making proof before the head officer of the 
corporation ot the property, Sec. 31 Eliz. c. 12. 
Mayors and betid officers in corporate and market towns, 
and lords of liberties and their ttewards, are to appoint and 
i’wear two fkilfui perfons yearly, to be learchers and fealers 
of leather; and they are to appoint triers of iniufficient 
Bather, and of leather wares: fearchers not doing their 
duty to forfeit 40s. and triers 5I. 1 Jac. I. c. 22. 
Mayors, See. on receipt of precepts Irom (heriffs, (when 
■wilts are iffued tor elections,) requiring them to choole 
Burg tins or members of parliament, by the citizens, &c. 
art to proceed to election, ai;d make returns by indenture 
MAY 
between them and the eleftors; and, making a falfe re- 
turn, fhall forfeit 40I. to the king, and the like fum to the 
party chofen, not returned. Sec. 23 Hen. VI. c. 14. and 
a Geo. II. c. 24. 
In every city, town, Sec. there is to be a common balance 
and fealed w eights, under divers penalties: there is alfo to 
be a common bufliel fealed. ZHen.VI.c. 5. 11 Hen.Vl.'e. 8. 
And mayors, Sec. are to provide a mark for the fealing of 
weights and meafures, being allowed id. for fealing every 
bufneiand hundred-weight; and a halfpenny forevery other 
meafure and half-hundred-weight, &c. Mayors and head 
officers of corporations, Sec. fhall view all weights and mea¬ 
fures once a-year,and punifli offenders ufing falfe weights; 
and they may break or burn fuch weights and meafures, 
andinflift penalties, &c. If they permit perfons to fell by 
meafures-not fealed, they fhall forfeit 5I. Sealing weights 
not agreeable to the ftandard, is liable to the fame penalty ; 
and refufing to feal weights and meafures, fubjefts them 
to a forfeiture of 40s. 31 Geo. II. c. 17. § 9. 
For the various offences which mayois, Sec. have jurif- 
diftion to punifli, part of which are above enumerated, fee 
the titles of the offences in this work; and the ftatntes 
impofing the feveral penalties. See alfo the articles Cor¬ 
poration, Justice of Peace, Mandamus, Sec. and, as 
to what regards thejurifdiftion,and functions,of the lord- 
mayor of London in particular, and his courts, fee that 
article, vol. xiii. p. 61, 62, 591-598. We have only to 
add, that by an aft of the 55 Geo. III. which took effeft 
on the ilt of September la ft (1815), the lord-mayor and 
court of aldermen are deprived of the power of fetting 
the price of bread. The laft price fixed (Aug. 29.) was 
ui the quartern loaf. 
MnVYOR, a fmall ifland in the South Pacific Ocean, 
near the coalt of New Zealand. Lat. 36. 57.S. Ion. 183. 
31. E. Near this is a clufter of fmall iflands.and rocks, 
to which Cock gave the name of The Court of Aldennen. 
MAYO'R (Cape). See Cape Mayor, vol. iii. 
MA'YORALTY, f. The office of a mayor.—It is in¬ 
corporated with the mayoralty, and naineth burgeffes to 
the parliament. Carew. —There was a (harp profecution 
againft fir William Capel, for mifgovernment in his mayor¬ 
alty. Bacon's Henry VII. 
MA'YORESS, f. The wife of the mayor. 
MAYOR'GA, a clufter of fmall iflands in the South 
Pacific Ocean, dilcovered in 17S0 by Don FrancifcoAntonio 
Maurella, in a Spanifh frigate called the Princefla. Lat. 
1S.3S.S. Ion. 179. 52. E. 
MAYOR'GA, a town of Portugal, in Eftramadura, on 
the welt coalt, near the Atlantic: fifteen miles fouth-vveft 
of Levria, and fifty north of Lilbon. 
MAYOR'GA I'SLAND. See Majorca. 
MAYOT'f A, one of the Coinora Illands, and the molt 
foutherly of thofe fo called ; about 240 miles from the 
coalt of Africa, and 150 from the ifland of Madagascar. 
This ifland is laid to be low, cold, and damp ; to abound in 
provifions and fruits; but not inhabited near the coalt. 
L it. 13. S. Ion. 45. 16. E. 
MAY'OW (John), an ingenious phyfician and phyfio- 
logili, was born in Cornwall in 1645. He was entered a 
ftudent of Wadham-college, Oxford, and became a pro¬ 
bationer-fellow of All-Souls. He graduated in civil law 5 
but turned his ftudies to medicine, of which he became a 
practitioner. He ieems chiefly to have refided at Bath ; 
but he died at the houfe of an apothecary in York-lfreer, 
Covent-garden, in 1679, at the age of thirty-feven ; and 
thele are all the circumstances recorded ot the life of a 
man who was likely to have become a great ornament of 
his profeflion. 
Mayow puolilfied at Oxford, in 1669, “Traftatus duo, 
quorum Prior agit de Relpiratioue, Alter de Racliitice.” 
Tliele were reprinted in his “Traftatus Quinque Medico. 
Pfiyfici,’’ Oxon. 1674, 8vo. with lome additional treaties. 
Their fubjefts are, oil nitre and rntro-ae.ial fpirit ; on 
refpiration ; on the refpiration or r tier foetus in tile uterus 
and egg; on mufcular motion ; and on the rickets. The 
fir It 
