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for a particular purpose, viz., in aid of their farm of the

town.

Whether the Burgesses here mentioned meant a select body or the free rateable population of the place, may be sufficiently evinced by a comparison of the document with others and with itself.

The charter granting the liberty here alluded to is that of the 15th of October, in the 37th of Edward III., which is inspected and confirmed in the charter of the 12th of December, in the 5th and 6th of Richard II., which last, after reciting the distressed and depopulated state of the place, grants the liberties in question, among others, to the Burgesses, their heirs and successors, by which words it is clear no select elective corporation could have been alluded to, with which heirship is perfectly incompatible.

To compare the document with itself, we find that the profits of the liberties in question were granted to the Burgesses in aid of the payment of their farm, i. e., their feefarm rent. The Burgesses here meant, must therefore have been the persons who paid the fee-farm rent; and we have abundance of evidence to show, that these were the residents paying scot and bearing lot, and not any other selected body of persons resiants in the place or otherwise.

Among the Claus Rolls of the 6th year of the reign of King Richard II.

For the Burgesses of the Barons of the Exchequer, Greeting. THE King to his Treasurers and Town of Huntingdon. Whereas, amongst other liberties and acquittances to our beloved Burgesses of Huntyngdon, granted by the charter of our progenitors formerly Kings of England, it is granted to the same, that they may have all manner of Chattels of Felons, Fugitives, and Outlaws, of all Men, as well as of tenants and resiants, within the Town and Liberty aforesaid, as of strangers and others whomsoever, which within the Town and Liberty aforesaid, 'shall happen to be found, so that it may be lawful to the same Burgesses of

such Chattels of Felons and Fugitives to put themselves in seizin, and the same to the use of the same Burgesses in aid of their Farm of the Town aforesaid to retain without the hindrance of us, &c., as in the charter and confirmation aforesaid is more fully contained; and we, the 6th day of December, in the fifth year of our reign, learning from the grievous Complaint of our Burgesses of the Town aforesaid, that Ralph Wykes, then our Escheator in the county of Huntingdon, intended to seize into our hands the Chattels of divers Felons in the disturbance late in our kingdom, had of Insurgents in the Town aforesaid found, which to the same Burgesses by virtue of the Charter and Confirmation aforesaid ought to belong, pretending that the same Chattels ought to belong to us in such case, and not to the Burgesses aforesaid, &c. We command you that ye supersede the demand which you caused to be made by summons of the Exchequer aforesaid, of the same Burgesses, or Escheators, or Sheriffs of the county aforesaid, for such Chattels in the Town aforesaid, or the price of the same, to us to be paid until our next Parliament, in which we will such discussion to be made. Witness the King at Westminster, the 28th day of November.

The following presentation to St. John needs no observation. It is inserted merely to show, that it recognises a select body in the place as little as any other of this series of documents, unless the Bailiff and Commonalty can be considered as the Bailiffs and some of the select individuals of the place. From the Institution Book of Philip Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln.

The Hospital of St. John, THOMAS PETILYNG, Clerk, in Huntingdon. S presented by Robert Pekke and John Pekele, Bailiffs of the Liberty of the Town of Huntingdon, and the Commonalty of the same Town to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Huntingdon, vacant by the resignation of Nicholas Trappe, was admitted to the same Hospital the 26th day of the month of February, in the year of the Lord 1416, at Sleford, and Master or Warden, and was canonically instituted in the same.

The next presentation does not seem to admit of even the forced construction which may be put upon the last. This

is by the Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Commonalty; and could not therefore be a corporate act, unless Burgesses and Commonalty mean Burgesses for the Commonalty *. The amplification seems indeed unnecessary, but it is irreconcilable with a restricted right. The Burgesses represent the Commonalty or commonwealth; and the question is, who are the Burgesses, the select body or the rateable inhabitants at large? If the Commonalty meant the latter as distinguished from the Burgesses, being the former, then was the advowson of the hospital not in the corporation, but in the rateable inhabitants; and we have already adduced instances to show, that the men of a town not corporate might possess property.

From the Institution Book of Philip Repingdon,
Bishop of Lincoln.

Huntingdon Hospital.-JOHN EASTON, Clerk, presented by Robert Pekke and John Foxton, Bailiffs, and the Burgesses and Commonalty of the Town of Huntingdon, to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist is admitted, &c.

Henry IV., in the third year of his reign, also gant ed a charter to Huntingdon, which is inserted, in common with many other documents, principally for the purpose of showing a general consistency, and that no interested suppression may be suspected.

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The confirming part of this charter also grants to tne Burgesses, their heirs and successors, a continuation of their former rights, although they or their ancestors had not used them. The grant might as well have been to their executors and administrators, as to the heirs of an elective body.

* Considering the general language of documents of this description, the fair construction of these pleonastic expressions, which were introduced in later periods of our history, is, that Burgesses meant all those duly inrolled and sworn as Burgesses; and the more general term, Commonalty, was superadded, to include all those who from neglect or accident had not been inrolled and sworn, and those who could not be so, namely, minors, women, clergy, peers, &c.

Amongst the Charter Rolls of the 3rd and 4th years of the reign of King Henry IV.

Of a Confirmation

THE King to the same [Archbishops, for Huntingdon.Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Reeves, MiBishops, Abbots, Priors, Dukes, Earls, nisters, and all his Bailiffs and faithful Men] Greeting. We have inspected the Charter of Confirmation of the Lord Richard, late King of England, after the conquest, the Second, made in these words: Richard, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Dukes, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers, and all his Bailiffs, and faithful Men. We have inspected the Charter of Confirmation which we lately caused to be made to the Burgesses of Huntingdon in these words. Richard, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to all to whom the present letters shall come greetting. We have inspected the Charter of the Lord Edward, late King of England, and Grandfather, in these words, Edward, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers, and all his Bailiffs and faithful men greeting. We have inspected the Charter of the Lord John, formerly King of England, our Progenitor, in these words. John, by the Grace of God, &c. [Here follow verbatim the several Charters above quoted.] And we, the Gifts, Grants, and Confirmations aforesaid, holding firm and valid the same for us and our. Heirs as much as in us lies to our beloved the now Burgesses, of the said Town of Huntingdon and their Heirs and Successors, Burgesses of the same Town, do grant and confirm as the Charters aforesaid reasonably testify. Willing moreover to do more abundant Grace to the same Burgesses in that behalf, We have granted for us and our Heirs to the same Burgesses and by their our Charter confirmed, that although they or their Ancestors have not hitherto fully used the liberties and acquittances in the said Charters contained, or either of them, in any case arising, they nevertheless and their Heirs and Successors, Burgesses of the Town aforesaid, may hereafter for ever fully enjoy and use the liberties and acquittances aforesaid, and every of them, without the let or hinderance of us or our Heirs, the Justices, Escheators, Sheriffs, or other our Bailiffs or Ministers whomsoever. These being witnesses, the venerable Fathers Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, &c.

We now arrive at the first return to Parliament for this Borough by writ and indenture, &c., a translation of which is printed at length to show the general form-of those subsequent in date to this, only the material words will be given. The whole series of these documents is more or less opposed to the position of a close or corporate right; (and it is to this series, and not to any of them abstractedly, we refer, to make out that proposition.) By the first, it appears that six persons named, but not described as corporators, and others then present, return the members, and the Sheriff and all the others put their seals.

That the Town of Huntingdon, in common with every other municipal body corporated or not, used a common seal, long before the date of this return, is notorious; that a corporate act not under under a common seal is invalid can hardly be doubted; and therefore that these returns were not corporate acts seems a necessary consequence.

From the returns to Parliament of the 12th year of
King Henry IV.

HENRY, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to the Sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdon, Greeting. Inasmuch as with the advice of our Council, for certain arduous and urgent businesses concerning us, the estate and defence of our Kingdom of England, and of the English church, We have ordained our Parliament to be holden at Westminster, on the morrow of All Souls, next coming, and there to have conference and treaty with the Prelates, Magnates, and great men of our said Kingdom. We command and firmly enjoin you, that making Proclamation in your County Court*, to be holden next after the receipt of this Writ of the day and place aforesaid, you cause two Knights, girt with swords, the more fit and discreet of the Counties aforesaid, and from every City of those Counties, two Citizens, and from every Borough, two Burgesses, of the more discreet and most sufficient, to be freely and indifferently elected by those who shall be present at such Proclamation, according to the form

The Writs, therefore, which all run in these words, did not contemplate an election at a corporation Court, where alone a corporation could

act.

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