According to Blackstone, the elections of all the Saxon magistrates, whether sheriffs, portreves, or others, were by the people. It must be mentioned, however, that the reve appears to have been frequently a king's officer, and that there is evidence that, in some instances at least, he was appointed by the king; but possibly the town-reve may not have been in this situation.

In the boroughs and cities, there was an assembly called the Burgmote, at which the burgesses attended, and which was held at stated periods, and sometimes convoked on extraordinary occasions 5. This court is classed along with the shiremote in the laws of Canute 6, and was of a similar nature. The latter court was attended by certain classes of the people, the bishop and the alderman presiding 7, but merely for the purpose of keeping order, and giving their opinion 8.

dierno, vulgo, the bayliff of the manor.'...Spelman voce Graphio. Tun and Ham, and the Latin villa, signified originally in England prædium........ See Spelman.

1 Vol. iv. p. 413; See also Spelman voce Folkmote.

2 West Looe Case, p. xlii. et seq.

3 Laws of Athelstan, as cited West Looe Case, p. xliii.

Burgemotus, Sax. Burgmote, Curia Burgensis, conventus burgi vel 'civitatis; burk enim et burg, oppidum civitas; mote et gemote conventus. LL. Canuti, M.S. cap. 44. Et habeatur in anno ter burgesmotus, et "schiremotus bis, nisi sæpius fit; et intersit episcopus et aldermannus, "et doceant ibi Dei rectum et sæculi.' Salicis Mallebergium,' Spelman voce Burgemotus. And again, voce Folkmote, 'Duo folkmotorum genera 'primum a civibus celebratum, quod burgemotus inde dicitur.' It may, perhaps, not be unworthy of notice, that this Saxon burgh court is ordered, by the law of Canute, to be held the same number of fimes in the year, as the ancient Scottish burgh-court, at which all the burgesses were bound to attend.-Leges Burg. c. 43.

5 See Scriven on Copyholds, ii. p. 804, where its ordinary meetings are said to have been held monthly. The laws of Canute, already quoted, (see note.), say three times a-year.

6 See note *.

7 This alderman was not a city officer. See infra, p. 438.

8 Hume's Hist. of Eng. App. i.

The port-reve, or other town-magistrate, had the same duty in the burgmote, and the right of calling extraordinary meetings by the sound of the motbell 1.

About the time of the Conquest, and subsequently to that period, some towns in England were held of the king, and others of the nobles or dignified churchmen; and were said to be possessed in dominico or demean of the sovereign or other superior 2. The king, according to Madox, had a right of absolute property in his demean towns, and in all the profits of its fairs and markets 3. The method, however, was adopted of letting out the town in firm to the burgesses, either for ever, or for a term of years, for a certain annual duty or firm 1. Thus king John made a perpetual grant in feefirm of the town of Yarmouth to the burgesses, for an annual reddendum of fifty-five pounds 5. The town of Lyme, in like manner, was granted to the burgesses by Edward III. for a reddendum of thirty-two merks 6. Dorchester was granted to the burgesses by the same king, for a reddendum of twenty pounds 7.

Occasional aids or talliages were also levied. The payment of this talliage seems to have been regarded as the condition on which the privileges were granted by the sovereigns, and a refusal to contribute it, a sufficient warrant for with

1 Scriven on Copyholds, ii. p. 804.

Brady, p. 39; Madox, p. 15. et seq.

P. 14.

Madox, p. 1, and 18,; Brady, p. 35. D. 5 Sciatis nos concessisse, et presenti carta nostra, confirmasse burgensi'bus nostris de Gernemua quod habeant burgum de Gernemua ad feodi 'firmam in perpetuum, et quod burgus ille sit liber burgus in perpetuum, 'et habeant socam et sacam tol, et theam, &c. reddend. inde annuatim 'quinquaginta et quinque libras numero,' &c.-Brady, App. No. 2.

Sciatis nos concesssisse, et hac carta nostra, confirmasse dilectis bur'gensibus nostris villæ nostræ de Lyme, in comitatu Dorsetæ, dictam vil. lam de Lyme :-Reddendo inde nobis et hæredibus nostris per annum ad 'Scaccarium nostrum triginta et duas marcas.'...Madox, Firma, p. 44. ' Madox, p. 20. 8 Brady, p. 47. D.

drawing those immunities 1. Fines were also paid by towns, at different times, to the kings, for ratifications of privileges 2.

There are some entries in Domesday-Book which appear to be not very consistent with the idea of a general state of independent jurisdiction in the towns at that period. In various burghs there are said to be burgesses, over whom the kings, both Saxon and Norman, or some lay or church superior had jurisdiction; and in the same town there appear sometimes to have been burgesses both of the king and of subjects. On the other hand, we sometimes find mention made of a very small number of burgesses in some particular town, in possession of their houses with jurisdiction.

Many charters are preserved, granted by the monarchs to different cities soon after the Conquest. The privileges conferred are generally immunity from certain duties; sometimes a mercantile gild 5, at other times a market. Nearly all of them contain clauses relative to jurisdiction or magistracy; but these are not of any uniform style; and are often expressed in the barbarous language of the day. Thus the charter sometimes granted socan and sacan, infangenthef and utfangenthef, expressions importing a right of holding courts and exercising certain kinds of jurisdiction 7; of which clauses, we

1 Brady, 47. and the cases there cited.

2 Stewart on Public Law, p. 320-1.

"See various examples of this; Brady, p. 9, 10, 11.

In Norwico de 738 burgensibus Rex et comes habent socam sacam ' et consuetudinem, de 50 Stigandus habuit socam sacam et commendation'em, de 22 Heroldus habuit socam sacam et commendationem, et unus eorum ita dominicus esset ut non potuit decedere vel homagium facere 'sine ejus licentia.'-Brady, p. 5. See an example of Church Jurisdiction over Burgesses, p. 13.

5 The grants of the mercantile gild will be afterwards more fully considered.

6 See the charters in Brady's Appendix.

See these words explained by Spelman.

have examples in the charters of John to Yarmouth', and to Dunwich 2. Sometimes, also, the privilege was granted of not litigating any where but within the burgh, except in particular cases, as in the crown pleas, and with respect to land without the town. Of this privilege we have instances in a the burgh of Helleston, and of Henry Sometimes the king's officers and justices are debarred from meddling with them, as in the charter of Henry III. to the burgh of Wallingford 5.

charter of John to III. to Norwich 1.

The charters of those times do not appear to have usually contained clauses expressly giving the right to the towns of nominating particular magistrates or judges. A few, however, are to be found of this description. The first is probably that of Henry I. to London, in which power is given to elect a vicecomes or sheriff, and a justiciary; and the earliest which appear to be quoted by Brady or Madox, conferring the right of election of the ordinary civic magistrates, are that of Richard I. giving the right of election of a præpositus to the citizens of Lincoln 7; that of the same king giving the right of electing ballivi and justiciarii to the burgesses of Colchester; that of John giving the right of choosing præpositi to Norwich, and that of Henry III. giving a like right to the same town

1 Brady, App. No. 2.

10

2 Ib. No. 3.
3 Ib. No. 8.
5 Brady, App. No. 4.

4 Madox, Firm. Burg. p. 43. 6 Ita quod ipsi cives ponent vicecomitem qualem voluerint de seipsis, et justiciarium quemcunque, vel qualem voluerint de seipsis, ad custodienda placita coronæ meæ, et ad eadem placitanda, et nullus alius justiciarius erit super ipsos homines Londoniæ, et cives non placitabunt extra muros civitatis pro ullo placito. Brady, App. No. 17.--Notwithstanding this grant of Henry I. we find from Maddox's History of the Exchequer, p. 273, that London paid a fine of 100 merks, in the 5th of Stephen, for leave to choose a sheriff.

7 Et cives Lincolnia faciant præpositum quem voluerint de se per an. 'num qui sit idoneus nobis et eis.' Brady, App. No. 20. 10 Madox, p. 43.

8 Madox, p. 28.

9 Brady, App. No. 22.

1

In several of these charters, we find mention made of the assembly or court of the inhabitants under various denominations. In the charter of Henry I. to London, the court of the folkmote is noticed as then existing in that city 2; in that of Richard I. to Lincoln, the burgwarmote is ordered to be held only once a week 1; and in that of Henry III. to Wallingford, the burgesses are declared to be bound to answer only in their own portmote 5, and mention is made of the burgesses actually exercising jurisdiction.

These courts are all evidently of the same nature, and had continued down from the Saxon times. Analogous to them in its original character, appears to have been the court leet, which, although it has been conjectured to have had its origin in the Saxon period, was better known after the Conquest. It was appendant to a hundred or to a manor 7, and also was frequently held within boroughs 8.

Whether the origin of the court leet shall be traced to the Saxon times or not, there seems some reason to suppose that it had a different source from the ordinary motes of the Saxons. Considered as connected with a hundred or manor, it appears to be viewed as the result of royal grant to the lords of these

1 From Saxon, folk, populus; and mote and gemote, conventus. 'Duo folkmotorum genera; primum a civibus celebratum, quod burgemotus inde ' dicitur, alterum a comitatensibus, quod ideo schiremote appellaverunt.' "In pleno folcmoto, (i. e. the county folkmote), elegibantur heretochii et ' vicecomites. In eo, suffragio populi, electi sunt vicecomites'—' usque ' ad annum 9 Edouardi 2, hoc est gratiæ 1315.'-Spelman, Gloss.

2 Brady, App. No. 17.- in hustengo, neque in folkesmote neque in • aliis placitis infra civitatem.'

3 From Saxon burg, burgus; ware, vir; and mote and gemote, conventus. See Spelman, vocibus burgware, burgensis; and burgemote. 4 Brady, App. No. 20.

Curia portus, Spelman; but as porte in Saxon seems to mean a town generally, see West Looe Case, p. xxxix, portmote may have as general an acceptation.

6 Scriven on Copyholds, vol. ii. p. 807. 7 Ibid. p. 813.

8 Ibid. p. 814.

Ee