THE MAYORALTY. 75 public building. It occupied the sites of Mr. Hayman's new dwelling-houses and shops in High Street and Church Street, and probably included Miss Maunders house and shop and the London Inn in Church Street. Whether it extended also to parts of the sites of the present Bank buildings in Broad Street, and to Mr. Gillbard's houses in High Street, cannot now be determined. The gifts by way of alms to the Priory of St. Stephen and to the lepers of St. Leonard, implied that these insti- tutions, like most of the religious houses in the kingdom, were to be exempt from the feudal and other services and burthens which attached to the tenure of other lands. The Charter is silent as to the election of the Mayor. At page 39, it will be seen that Hameline Miles (or Hamelin£, the Knight, we cannot determine whether Miles was a surname or an epithet of distinction), a witness to the Gillemartin Charter, was mayor of Dunhefd in some year between 1245 and 1258. This remarkable proof of the antiquity and early dignity of the Borough is specially noticeable, from the fact that the office of mayor is said to have been unknown until 11 89. In that year Richard I. created the first mayor as chief magistrate of the City of London. John followed his example, in 1204, with refer- ence to King's Lynn. We have not discovered on what town the honour next fell. We shall incorporate in this History the short substance of some extremely valuable deeds and accounts which have recently been discovered.* Among the earliest of these
- About seventy years ago these interesting Latin and Norman-French
documents were lent to the Rev. Francis Jago Arundell for antiquarian pur- poses. He died without having returned them. In the course of time they were forgotten, but on the 7th November, 1882, they were found by Mrs. Lawrence in a storeroom of her house in Castle Street. She courteously handed them to Mr. Peter, the present Town Clerk, who has translated them for this work. It may safely be stated that a very large number of ancient muniments belonging to the Corporation of Dunheved is still missing.
