Henry II granted the burgesses
their first charter in 1171, which gave "free borough" status,
specified the lands included within the town boundaries, and identified
the various customs, jurisdictions and obligations to which the townsmen
were subject or from which they were exempted (including tolls on
merchandise throughout the country). The charter made no reference
to any mechanism of local government; Henry II was wary about
encouraging too much independence in his burgesses.
A jury investigating the lordship of Maldon in 1274/75 reached the
conclusion that Henry II had turned over a share of his lordship of the
borough to a Norman supporter, Ivo Patryk, as a reward for service, and
another share to the Bishop of London; but they knew not how it had come,
in their time, into the hands of William de la Launde and Roger Baynard.
However, earlier evidence suggests Henry II had kept Maldon in the family,
allowing his brother William to hold it (for a
fee farm) for a while, and then
leasing or giving the lordship to his illegitimate son, William
Longspee, who passed it on to Oliver fitz Ernisius, whose son Eudo gave
half to Eudo Patric and half to the friars of Bosco Herebaldi; these
last gave their half to the Bishop of London.
We hear relatively little of Maldon in the thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries, when most medieval boroughs were in their heyday. The rights
of the lords of Maldon – which would not have overridden the 1171 charter
– were likely upheld by bailiffs they appointed, while the king appears
to have had two local constables
to do his bidding there. In 1287 the bishop and the king (as
guardian of the underage heir of the other lordship of the town)
were suing the townsmen for infringing various traditional lordly
rights. It seems likely that this was part of a deliberate challenge
to or evasion of those rights, during the course of which the townsmen
had set afire some of the bishop's parkland. The disputed matters
were: dues owed from each stall in the town market (4d.), from all salt
cargoes arriving by river (2 bushels of salt), and for the pasturage of
livestock in Portman Marsh on the far side
of the river (small amounts varying according to the type of animal);
and the building of extensions onto houses or the expansion of property
limits, which represented potential income, either through licence fees
before the fact, or court fines after the fact. A jury decided for the
lords, except in the case of stallage from which Henry II's charter
exempted the burgesses.
Some measure of release from overlordship came to Maldon at the beginning
of the fifteenth century, when the Bishop of London granted various
jurisdictional rights to the townsmen in return for payment of an annual
farm, reserving to himself only a few
relatively minor local sources of revenue. This grant of 1403, which the
king subsequently endorsed, gave to the
community of Maldon, in exchange
for a fee farm of £6.13s.4d, the following properties, jurisdictions,
and revenues:
holding of four General Courts each year, of which one included
view of frankpledge;
toltray, a toll on ships carrying cargoes of salt;
landchepe, a tax on the sale of any property within the borough.
Frequently, grants such as this tended to happen after the jurisdictions
involved had already been usurped by towns.
The above concessions appear to have been prompted by the townsmen using
force to express their wish for greater independence, for in 1401 we see
55 of them named in a charge of trespass brought by the Bishop of London
and Sir Walter FitzWalter (whose family had held the other half of the
lordship since 1315). The townsmen were represented in the dispute by
Robert Darcy, a Northumberland-based lawyer both of whose parents had
landed interests in Essex. The list of grantees of the episcopal charter
of 1403 is headed by Darcy's name, followed by John Welles (probably the
bishop's bailiff in the town), John Burgeys the townsmen's bailiff, 19
other named leading townsmen, and "all inhabitants of Maldon". In the
years that followed, Darcy acquired numerous properties in the town and
took up residence there; he built up a legal practice in Essex which
resulted in him being appointed a Justice of the Peace in the county for
most of the period from 1410 to his death (1448). He became a legal
advisor to Lord FitzWalter and later to his son, as well as a feoffee of
the FitzWalter estates; he similarly served the Earl of Oxford, who had
landed and commercial interests in Maldon. In 1446, Maldon's fee farm was
being paid to the Bishop of London and to Robert Darcy esq., who had
apparently taken over the FitzWalter lordship, although the FitzWalters
continued to own property there. His son followed in his footsteps and
was similarly recipient of one part of the fee farm in 1469.
The desire of the townsmen to force the issue of independence was nothing
new; in 1386 the king had ordered the arrest of one of the constables and
several other named townsmen who, with others unnamed, had besieged the
servants of FitzWalter inside a house in the town, until they paid a
ransome for their freedom. And deeds of 1331 and 1361 leasing parcels of
common soil to individuals are said to be made by "burgesses and
community". Although we should not read too much into this apparent
dichotomy, the deeds at least suggest some kind of communal decision-making
organization existed independent of the lords' officers in the town; the
same may be suggested by the group actions mentioned above.
In fact, the townsmen already had a well-shaped local government in place
by at least 1383 (the earliest date from which copies of its political
records survive). A meeting, described
as a "court" was being held each January, its business including elections,
view of frankpledge, admission of men into the franchise (see
below), and in later years auditing of financial
accounts. Borough officialdom in the 1380s comprised:
a bailiff (suggesting some rights, along
with control of the officer administering those rights, had already been
won from the non-episcopal lord of the town; this is supported by
reference, in 1406, to the town's fee farm being £12, almost twice as
much as the amount due the bishop – in the 1446 borough accounts it was
exactly twice the amount);
a council of 18 "wardemen" which had
evolved out of the leet jury; in 1401 they were chosen 6 per parish, but
it is not known if this was typical procedure;
two constables (more when there was a national tax to collect);
and a series of lesser officials:
affeerors of the court (who assessed fines on the guilty),
supervisors of the fairs, in the 1390s described as supervisors of the
market and adding to their duties in the 1430s supervision of the port,
"coroners" of bread (not coroners in the modern sense, but in that of
men policing the crown's assize of bread), renamed "bread-weighers" in the
1390s, and
ale-tasters (who supervised the quality of the local brewing industry).
We also hear of a beadle in 1389 (this may have been when the office was
created), a nightwatchman in 1406, and a clerk may be inferred from the
recording of the electoral courts; however, these officers were appointed,
not elected.
That there is no sign of community-elected officers in the deeds of 1331
and 1361 may indicate that local self-government did not take shape before
the 1370s. It is not impossible that the townsmen took advantage of the
national unrest in 1381, which found expression in Essex, to assume powers
of self-government; certainly the first written compilation of the
borough custumal – which might itself be a
reflection of acquisition of some independence – appears to have been
made at that time. This had been prefaced by obtaining in 1378 a
confirmation of the 1171 charter; although it was for most boroughs
normal procedure to obtain confirmations upon a new king coming to the
throne, Maldon had not bothered much with this, to its detriment. The
1378 confirmation may therefore be a sign of reviving ambitions.
By 1389 the borough administration had some kind of financial accounting
system in place and was enacting local ordinances (by-laws), including
that the community should hold a court each Monday in its own hall. At
the election in January 1404 we see the result of the Bishop of London's
grant the previous year, for two bailiffs were elected – the second
superseding the Bishop's administrative officer in the town. We also
first hear of chamberlains during this
year, although they may not have become a permanent element of borough
officialdom until 1413; they were responsible for supervising borough
expenditures and revenues (the latter being deposited in the community
chest known as the "pyx"), although it was the bailiffs who were held
accountable for the budget. Annual income
through most of the fifteenth century ranged between £20 and £25;
sources of income indicated in the accounts for 1446 were:
the farming out (i.e. leasing) of Portman marsh, the
Maldon bridge, the
causeways, various shops, taverns and
other properties;
Special levies might be made on townsmen to cover certain expenses, such as
the wages of town representatives to parliament or repairs to the causeways.
The Moothall was a two-storey building located in the marketplace; the
upper part was used for administrative business while at least part of
the lower level held shops leased to townsmen. The town gaol was
also located there.
In the Moothall the bailiffs held the Monday court, which had jurisdiction
over pleas involving debt (the most common type of case brought before it),
detention of goods, broken contracts, and minor transgressions. If one
burgess had a complaint against another, he was expected to bring it
before the town court, not to resort to any external legal authority. A
piepowder court, to render swift
justice to travelling merchants from outside town, was being held by at
least 1407.
Once each quarter, the General Court session was dedicated to the
presentment of offences against the community, the peace, or the
assizes of bread and ale. All
householders were required to attend the General Courts or face a
fine. Presentments were made by the appointed ale-tasters and
bread-weighers, and by a jury of townsmen specially elected each year
for this role, under the title of
"headburgesses". The headburgesses were
in fact the wardemen wearing another hat, with the result that the General
Courts combined both judicial and legislative
functions. The range of offences presented is exemplified by Simon
Gylberd who, during the General Courts held during 1448, was accused of:
failing to perform satisfactorily his duties as ale-taster the previous
year (this being a not uncommon charge against the ale-tasters); breaking
the assize of bread; regrating
ale; and hosting gambling in his residence at unreasonable hours. Simon,
whom we may guess to have been a taverner, was not happy with these
charges and cursed the wardemen to their faces.
The town's acquisition of special privileges, through grants from its
lords, necessitated a definition of who had the right to benefit from
these advantages. This was achieved by giving the status of
freeman to those residents who
agreed to share the communal obligations and responsibilities of the
town in return for a share in its privileges and benefits. Entrance
to the franchise required the taking of an oath and the payment of
a "fine" (i.e. a fee) which varied, probably according to personal
means; in the late fourteenth century it was generally between 3s.4d
and 6s.8d, although during the reign of Henry VI 20s. was the common
fee. An entrant who was born in the town was exempted from payment;
ca. 1403/04 this exemption seems to have been restricted to sons or
daughters of a freeman (if born after he had entered the franchise), or
a man who married the daughter or widow
of one. All entrances were subject to approval by the community and its
officers. As part of his oath (see the custumal,
cap.44), the freeman guaranteed that
he would uphold the liberties and customs of the town, obey the bailiffs,
not discuss with outsiders decisions made by the local government,
contribute towards communal financial obligations (such as taxes), and
attend the January court meeting at which local elections were held.
These features are fairly typical of the freeman's oath in other medieval
towns. In their public behaviour, freemen were expected to have uppermost
in their minds "the profit of the commonwealth". Failure to place the
community's interest above personal interest could result in fines or, in
extreme cases, forfeiture of the franchise. This included showing proper
respect to the town's elected officials. A fine was imposed on anyone
insulting an officer (see custumal cap.40);
a much higher fine resulted if a man assaulted or drew a weapon on a
bailiff.
A separate status was accorded to "aliens"; that is residents of the town
who had not been born in England. They were allowed to enter the franchise
with that status and took a different oath; they could not gain the
franchise by marrying a freeman's daughter. The community distrusted
them. They were not allowed to carry any weapon other than a knife for
meals, unless they were going outside the town, where more protection was
needed. They were subject to a curfew, which varied from summer to
winter, and could be arrested if found abroad later. Residents sometimes
tried to hide a foreign birth.
The 1460s saw some minor reforms in local administration that reflect
growing professionalism in government. We begin to hear of a town seal
and see greater attention to provisions to keep it – along with the
borough treasury, archives, and official seals for marking measures (see
the custumal cap.6) – secure by dividing
among several officers the keys to the chests in which they were
contained (such clavigers first being mentioned in 1416); pain was taken
to record who had custody of the keys. In 1464 we first hear of a
salaried sergeant-at-mace, whose principal duties were to oblige accused
parties to attend court sessions (by
distraining their personal
possessions) and to collect amercements imposed by the town court, if
not paid to the chamberlains immediately after judgement was handed down;
a similar office had been farmed out in previous years and may itself
have been successor to the beadle. The chamberlains took over accounting
responsibilities from the bailiffs in 1465 and in the same year Reynold
Rokes was appointed town clerk. Rokes, a lawyer, proceeded to draft a
new compilation of the borough custumal, augmenting the existing edition
with ordinances extracted from court records; to which he added a list
of the tolls leviable by the waterbailiff (apparently the officer stationed
on the town bridge) on boats, horses, carts, chapmen and particular
merchandize. In the same period the conditions for admission to the
franchise were tightened to include possession of a tenement within the
town.
Although it possessed several of the characteristics of a corporate entity
in the fifteenth century, Maldon was not
incorporated until 1554.
History of
medieval Maldon
