At the beginning of the thirteenth century, having just established
his principal residence at Gaywood, the Bishop proceeded to strengthen
the privileged commercial status of Lynn and reacquired his original
foundation (by giving the Norwich monks something else in exchange),
thus uniting central Lynn and Newland under his jurisdiction. South
Lynn, however, remaining administratively separate throughout the
medieval period; it lacked a market, or other
advantages of the enfranchised borough,
and remained largely agricultural in character.
The strengthening took place through charter
grants from both the king and the Bishop 1204 and 1205 respectively,
preceded by an enlargement of fair rights, to the fortnights surrounding
St. Margaret's and St. Nicholas' feast-days. The king's grant, at the
Bishop's request, came first with the upgrading of Lynn's status from
vill to liber burgus (free borough) and a general statement
that Lynn should have such liberties and customs as were typical of
free boroughs. The Bishop's charter then identified Oxford as the
town on which Lynn's liberties should be modelled; Oxford's liberties
were themselves modelled on those of London. The king followed this
up with a second charter, granting specific liberties, most known
from charters and customs of Oxford or London. This detailed
procedure assured the townsmen authority for their privileges from
both their immediate and their ultimate overlords, but later became
a basis for them to seek more independence from the Bishop, by
appealing to the king as a higher authority – even though the
charters specified that no grants were to be prejudicial to traditional
rights of the lords of the borough: the Bishop and, of slightly lesser
importance, the Earl of Arundel through the lordship of Rising (stemming
from a grant of estates and rights by William II to his butler,
William d'Albini).
Although the charters granted judicial self-administration in many
matters, this administration really lay in the hands of
officers appointed by the lords of the
town. Their courts were held in buildings adjacent to the
two marketplaces. The charter grants included a
Merchant Gild and, according to
local tradition, the alderman of the
Gild served as the leader of the borough initially. Even towards the
close of the thirteenth century, the gild is still seen acting as a
quasi-governmental institution; it had its own statutes, its own finances,
and its own system for resolving disputes between members – the aim
being to try to prevent them resorting to the seigneurial courts. But
within a few years of the first charters the ambitions of the citizens
for control over their internal affairs had acquired another
rallying-point: they had elected a mayor
as the chief officer of a government representing the whole community.
The first mayor was Robert fitz Sunolf, a name that reflects the
connections Lynn had with Scandinavia;
his father's prominence in Lynn society is suggested by the fact that
Millfleet was earlier known as Sunolf's
Fleet. The mayoralty became the first bone of
contention between the townsmen and the Bishop, probably because it
reflects an effort by the citizens (or at least a faction thereof) towards
self-determination and was associated with attempts to obtain greater
independence from the Bishop's officers in the areas of finance and legal
administration.
There were in fact numerous points of
conflict between the town authorities and the town's lords and
their officers as the borough government tried persistently to
broaden its powers. View of
frankpledge (to ensure all were part of the tithing system), control
of courts administering local custom
(perhaps particularly the husting
mentioned in the 1204 charter), erection of private quays without
episcopal license, local self-taxation
(both Bishop and town authorities competing in these impositions),
and right to collect tolls on trade goods, were among the matters over
which the town government battled with its seigneurs, the Bishop and the
heirs of the Earl of Arundel, during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This struggle also divided the local
populace, some supporting tradition and the Bishop, others supporting
the efforts for greater self-government. Lynn's medieval history is
punctuated by a series of "compositions" between the two sides, trying
to settle matters. The first, in 1234, found the Bishop agreeing
the recognize the mayoralty, in return for a guarantee that each
mayor after election would take oath before him to respect episcopal
rights in the town. A charter of 1305 recognized the right of the town
government to impose local taxes on the townspeople, which in fact it had
already been doing for some years. But the
1309 composition with the Bishop tried to
impose limitations on this; this composition, which reflects division
within the community, obliged the borough authorities to rein back on
their usurpations of episcopal rights, although only temporarily. The
fourteenth century saw frustration and tempers build to the point of
outright assaults on both lords – specifically,
Robert de Monthalt (1313) and
Bishop Despenser (1377). Despite some
temporary successes through appeals to the king and some minor concessions
from the Bishop, usually involving the citizens leasing jurisdictions,
medieval Lynn never entirely gained independence from episcopal
lordship – although by mid-15th century it was had taken almost all of
the Bishop's jurisdictions in the town at a
fee farm of £140. Complete freedom
from its founder and overlord had to wait for the borough's
incorporation (1525) and the
Reformation.
Despite this, Lynn's self-government exercised a variety of functions
related, among other things, to the regulation of
trade and industry, measures for public
health, safety,
security,
defence,
the management of
community property, and aspects of legal
administration, as well as the raising of
revenues to finance public activities and the associated management
of the town's budget. These things occupied the time of a mayor, a
town council, four
chamberlains, and a number of lesser
bureaucratic officers, as well as
constables (chosen from among the
leading citizens) responsible for the nightwatch
in each ward. As was not unusual in English boroughs, there were periodic
adjustments to the constitution, often the result of
political conflict within the community.
History of
medieval Lynn
