THE EARLY COMMERCE OF PLYMOUTH. 297 
to make the ‘‘crosse and the vanys on the stypell.” There is 
frequent mention made in the early accounts of the town weights 
and measures, and the charges for keeping the king’s beam. 
You all know that in 1439-40 an Act of Parliament was passed 
which definitely enfranchised the whole of what was known as 
Plymouth, and brought Sutton Prior, Sutton Valletort, and Sutton 
Ralf under one government. It must be always borne in mind 
that this did not so much create a new corporation, as it extended 
the area and powers of a corporation of some sort already existing, 
Thus what Edward II. had proposed to do, moved thereto doubt- 
less by the inhabitants, Henry VI. and his parliament effected, 
and the domination of the Priory of Plympton, which on the 
whole appears to have been of the paternal order, came to an end. 
I fancy neither Priory nor town was sorry, for Plymouth must 
have been rather a formidable child for Plympton St. Mary, aye, 
and Plympton Erle to boot, to manage. At any rate the <Act- 
Charter was passed, and in the following year the mills, lands, 
markets, courts, and fairs, and in fact the manorial rights generally 
of the monks of Plympton in Sutton Prior, were transferred to 
the mayor and commonalty in consideration of a rental of £41 a 
year to the Prior and 10 marks annually to the Prior of Bath. 
This was reduced, in consequence of the “ povertye and dekaye” 
of the town, to £29 6s, 8d. in 1464, and continued at that rate 
until the dissolution of the Priory, when Henry VIII. released the 
townsfolk altogether. The royal fee farm rent, originally 40s., 
then £1 13s. 4d., continued to be paid, until it was extinguished 
by a payment of £40 to Mr. Latham, its then owner, in 1875. 
Very few have any adequate idea of the powers of a medieval 
corporation, and the authority of a medizval mayor. It is clear from 
our own municipal records that, save in great matters of imperial 
concern, Plymouth, like most other boroughs of this period, was 
in all essential respects a little republic, governed by an oligarchy, 
who went by the name of the “twelve and twenty-four,” and at 
the head of whom was a mayor, whose authority was almost as 
great and mysterious as that of a Venetian doge. The best that 
could happen to an offender was to be left to the mayor’s dis- 
cretion. I am not quite sure that his worship could hang any 
body, though there certainly are entries of persons being disposed 
of in that fashion here without the authority being very clearly 
stated. However, “ Maister Mayor” could banish an offender as 
