or whole council of the city, are also called by this name; and ordinances by the mayor and his "24 pares," or "compares," are not uncommon.[1]
The election of bailiffs at the Michaelmas "Burchmot" is mentioned. The municipal commissioners, who reported on this corporation in 1834-5, were informed that this was a court of criminal jurisdiction. It was confirmed by the charter of Elizabeth to Winchester, but was not in active operation, as such a court, at the time of the above inquiry. It is very evident from the earlier records extant that the Burghmote, or Boromote, was a term sometimes applied to a general corporate meeting, and many of the bye-laws were established at such motes or meetings. At Canterbury the word still designates the corporate assembly, summoned by the burghmote-horn. Portsmouth, also, had its Curia, or Burgomote. (Madox. Form. Pref. 25.)
Ordinances by the mayor and commonalty, or mayor and his "compares," at the Burghmote, occur in the Winchester register already referred to.[2] We also find there an order at a "common convocation and colloquium in common Burghmot."[3] In 53 Henry III., we find a lease of mills granted "in pleno Burghmot' de Hock;" and in 9 Henry IV., the representatives of the lessees surrendered their tenure to the mayor and commonalty at the same Burghmote of Hock.[4] In 31 Henry VIII., the "Boromote jury" perambulated the city bounds.[5] In 4 Edward VI., an order was made that two of the quarter sessions for the city should be held on the same days as the "two Boromote and Law-dayes" between Michaelmas and Christmas, and between Easter and Pentecost; and this order is noted in the margin thus,—"The two sessions to be kept at the two law-dayes."[6] Since this order the Burghmote or Lawday, evidently then identical, has become merged in the Quarter Sessions, and has consequently become practically extinct; though mentioned in the charter of Elizabeth as held twice a year.
I infer from the above facts either that certain great corporate assemblies had been always held concurrently with two great Tourns or Leets, at Hocktide and Michaelmas, and that the latter was the occasion on which, as elsewhere, the annual corporation officers were elected; or else that the functions of this Leet or Burghmote were not, originally, of an exclusively criminal or judicial character, and that the general assembly for the government of the city had its root in the Leet itself.
The term Burghmote, as applied to a regular corporate assembly, seems to have been dropped about the reign of Edward IV., at which time also the English language began to be habitually used in the ordinances promulgated by the city.
The only specimens of court rolls observed by me among the city records are headed Curia Civitatis, or Curia domini regis Civitatis suæ de W., and these contain weekly pleadings on plaints, &c. Unfortunately the earlier records of the city, extending to a period which negatives the current tradition of a recent general conflagration, are in such a state as to be practically inaccessible; not from any want of courtesy on the part of the
- ↑ See a convocation, "coram majore et paribus suis," 10 Henry V., Winchester Black Book, supra, f. 22; another by the mayor," et 24 paribus suis," 6 Henry VI. Ibid., f. 25—"comperes jurez de la cité." Ibid., f. 12, &c. In the same volume I find that even where the convocation is a general one of all the commonalty or freemen, the meeting is often styled as held "coram majore et comparibus suis."
- ↑ See fol. 8, 12, 17, &c.
- ↑ See ib., fol. 23, an ordinance, 1 Henry VI., on the watch.
- ↑ Black Book, fol. 85.
- ↑ Ib., fol. 72.
- ↑ Ib., fol. 82.
