The Story of London

by Henry B. Wheatley

Aldermen

The consideration of the actual position of the alderman in the government of London is one of great difficulty, and Mr. Round’s discovery of the Oath of the Commune in which aldermen are not mentioned has made it difficult to conjecture when it was that they took their natural place as the advisers of the Mayor.

The title ‘alderman’ is a survival of the Saxon period (as is also that of ‘sheriff’), but the duties of the holders of the office have frequently been changed.

The word ‘alderman’ was a generic term as well as the distinctive title of a special officer. King Alfred appointed an alderman over all London, and the chief officer of the various guilds was originally known as an alderman.

The various wards were each presided over by an alderman from an early period, but, as already noted, we cannot fix the date when they were united as a Court of Aldermen.

Bishop Stubbs writes: ‘The governing body of London in the thirteenth century was composed of the Mayor, twenty-five aldermen of the wards and two sheriffs. All these were elective officers.’[246]

The difficulty is, that although aldermen were undoubtedly elected as the heads of wards they are not referred to as the colleagues of the Mayor until the very end of this century.

In March 1298-1299 letters were sent from ‘the Mayor and Commune of the City of London’ to the Echevins, Jurats and Commonalty of the town of Burges’ [Bruges]; ‘to the Provost, Bailiffs and Commonalty of the town of Caen’; and ‘to the Provost, Echevins and Commonalty of the City of Comerac’ [Cambray?].[247]

Although the official form of ‘The Mayor and Commune’ was continued until the end of the thirteenth century, and it was not until early in the fourteenth century that the form ‘Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council’ came into existence, there is sufficient evidence to show that the aldermen and Common Council before that time were acting with the Mayor as governors of the city.

As already quoted from Bishop Stubbs, that authority describes the aldermen as assistants of the Mayor as early as 1249. At all events, in the record of the election of aldermen in 1293, they are specially described as elected for the government of the city.

In 1299 (27 Edw. I.) ‘it was agreed by Henry le Galeys, Mayor, and the aldermen, that Strago, the sweeper of litter in the ward of Chepe, should be taken and imprisoned until, etc., because he, the said Strago, had scandalized the aldermen by saying that they take the money of the commonalty at the Guildhall under pretext of wardship of orphans and then waste such money for their own profit.’ In consequence of these unfounded charges Strago was committed to the Tun.[248]

There are in Riley’s Memorials about this date several other references to aldermen acting with the Mayor, thus, on the 14th September 1301: ‘Walter Swan appeared before Sir Elias Russel, Mayor of London, and other aldermen then present’;[249] and in December 1310 Roger de Eure having insulted and assaulted Richard de Gloucestre, alderman, the two parties ‘appeared in the Guildhall before Sir Richer [de Refham] the Mayor, and the aldermen.’[250]

In 1311 (4 Edw. II.) the form of description of the governors was ‘The Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of the City.’[251] From this time the general form was either this or ‘The Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty.’ It is necessary, however, to mention that a congregation of Mayor and aldermen is referred to in Fitz-Ailwin’s Assize of 1189.[252]

The title of ‘echevin,’ as applied to a governor of the city, is at present only known to us as used in the Oath of the Commune, found by Mr. Round, and it may therefore have had a very short existence. It is possible that aldermen were elected on to the Mayor’s Council under the title of ‘echevins.’ This, however, is not the opinion of Mr. Round, who is inclined to believe that the body of echevins became in course of time the Court of Common Council.

The whole question is at present one of great difficulty, and I only state the facts here without venturing to express any confident opinion until more evidence is forthcoming.

We may be allowed to think that too great an importance has been ascribed to the position of the early aldermen in connection with their wards. It is generally affirmed that the aldermen were hereditary owners of the various wards, on account of the fact that the wards were named after them, an instance of which practice remains in Farringdon, Bassishaw and Basingshall. There is no evidence of this proprietorship, and it seems improbable on the face of it. Mr. Round believes that what an alderman inherited can only have been the aldermanry of his ward, like, he suggests, an hereditary sheriff.

Mr. Baddeley writes that ‘early in 1276 we find mention made of “the ward of Henry de Frowyk within the Gate” (i.e., Cripplegate), and ten years later (circ. 1285) he figures in the earliest list of aldermen extant in the city’s records as alderman of the same ward.’[253]

At the election of aldermen in 1291 (19 Edw. I.) sixteen of the wards were named after the aldermen and eight after places. The latter being the wards of Chepe, Castle Baynard, Walebroke, Douegate, Bridge, Portsoken, Vintry, and Bassieshawe.

At the election two years afterwards (1293) all the wards were named with their proper names, and not after the aldermen.

The ward of Ludgate and Neugate presented Nicholas de Farndone, it being styled in the previous list ‘the ward of William de Farndone.’ Many of the same names are found in the two lists, but they represent different individuals of the same family.

The preamble to the list of elections in 1293 is of considerable interest: ‘Be it remembered that on Tuesday before the Feast of St. Botolph, 21 Edw. I., in the presence of Sir John le Bretun, Warden of London, the whole commonalty of the city aforesaid was assembled, viz., from each ward the wealthier and wiser men, who each by their several wards elected for themselves aldermen freely, of good will and of their full consent, and the aldermen so elected, they presented to the warden aforesaid in this form, that all and singular the things which the aforesaid aldermen of their wisdom and discretion shall do and ordain for the government of the city and the maintenance of the King’s peace, in conjunction with the warden and their superiors for the time being shall be straitly observed, and shall be held ratified and confirmed before other provisions touching the commonalty without any challenge or opposition in the future; and each ward elected its aldermen, for whom it would answer as to all his acts affecting the city, the Commune (Communam) and its estate.’[254]

It will be seen from the above that the election of aldermen was only in the hands of a few of the ‘wealthier and wiser men’ of the wards, but later on the electors were freemen of the city, ‘paying scot and bearing lot.’

There was much difference of practice in the election of aldermen. Various orders were issued from time to time, and some of them fell out of use.

In 1377 it was ordered that aldermen should be elected annually, as appears from the following entry in Letter Book H (f. 58):—

‘51 Edw. III. Precept (bille) for the men of each ward to meet on Saturday, the 7th March, and elect an alderman other than the sitting alderman, and to have the name of the alderman so elected endorsed on the Bill at the Guildhall on the Feast of St. Gregory next, at eight o’clock at the latest, under penalty.’

This precept was elaborated in an Ordinance made on Friday, 6th March, 51 Edw. III., with the assent of the Mayor, aldermen and divers representations of the livery companies.

It was ordered that ‘aldermen removed for good and reasonable cause shall not be open for re-election, but that those who go out of office on St. Gregory’s Day and have not misconducted themselves may be re-elected after the interval of one year.’

In 1384 the rule was modified so as to allow an alderman to be re-elected for his ward at the expiration of his year of office without any interval (Letter Book H, f. 173).

In 1394 the Ordinance respecting annual elections was repealed by the King, and aldermen were henceforward elected for life.

6th March, 17 Ric. II., ‘and have also ordained for the honour and greater increase of the good government of our said city, that they who should be chosen aldermen of our same city should not be removed out of their offices during their lives, unless for just, reasonable and notable cause.’

Shortly after this an order of the Mayor, aldermen and commonalty was issued which took away the right of the wards of directly electing their aldermen. A ward was only allowed to nominate two persons, of whom the Mayor and aldermen were to choose one. Five years later, that is in 1402, the number of names to be nominated was raised to four, and in 1420 this order was reaffirmed.[255]

Distinct rank was accorded to aldermen; thus the Common Seal of the Corporation bears the inscription: Sigillum Baronum Londoniarum, and we are told by John Carpenter in Liber Albus, ‘it is a matter of experience that even since the year of our Lord 1350, at the sepulture of aldermen, the ancient custom of interment with baronial honours was observed; for in the church where the alderman was about to be buried a person appeared upon a caparisoned horse, arrayed in the armour of the deceased, bearing a banner in his hand, and carrying upon him his shield, helmet and the rest of his arms, along with the banner, as is still the usage at the sepulture of lords of baronial rank. But by reason of the sudden and frequent changes of the aldermen, and the repeated occurrence of pestilence, this ceremonial in London gradually died out and disappeared.’[256]

When the poll tax of 1379 was imposed the Mayor was assessed as an earl and the aldermen as barons.[257]

On August 12, 1417, a royal mandate (5 Hen. V.) was issued to the Mayor enjoining that the aldermen shall reside within the city: ‘We do therefore will, and do command and charge you that you cause your letters to be addressed unto each one of the said aldermen so absent from our said city, charging them strictly thereby on our behalf that they return unto our said city and do tarry and remain there, to support you and to administer counsel and assistance in all that may touch the preservation of the said peace and good governance of our said city.’[258] This was an irksome regulation, and in the charter of Edward IV. the aldermen were released from the obligation.

‘It is well-known and manifest that those of the said city which are elected aldermen have sustained great cost and pains for the time they make their abode and residence in the same city, and for that cause oftentimes do leave their possessions and places in the country that therefore they and every of them may without fear of unquietness or molestation peaceably abide and tarry in such their houses and possessions, when they shall return thither for comfort and recreations sake.’

It has sometimes been the fashion of the wits to gird at the aldermen and other city magnates, but although some of the names on the list may be of little account there are many which are written on the page of history, and a large number of noble families owe their origin to famous aldermen.

Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Mayor in 1457, was great-grandfather to Anne Boleyn, and therefore ancestor of Queen Elizabeth; Sir Thomas Canynge, Mayor in 1456, was ancestor of George Canning, Earl Canning, and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe; Sir William Loke, sheriff in 1548, the favourite of Henry VIII., who had a key of the King’s private chamber so that he might come whenever he would, was the ancestor of John Locke, Lord Chancellor King, and the Earl of Lovelace; John Cowper, alderman in 1551, was the ancestor of Lord Chancellor Cowper and the poet William Cowper; Sir Edward Osborne was the ancestor of the Dukes of Leeds.

Among other distinguished men descended from aldermen may be mentioned Bacon, Beckford, Byron, Cromwell, Howe, Marlborough, Newcastle, Melbourne, Nelson, Palmerston, the two William Pitts, Raglan, Salisbury, and the Walpoles.