[786] Boys’ Sandwich, 806-8.
[787] One bailiff appointed in 1415 was only ratified in 1421. (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. i. 429.) The contrast with the habit in other boroughs is very striking.
[788] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 547.
[789] Boys’ Sandwich, 806-8.
[790] For notices in Domesday on this point see Burrows’ Cinque Ports, 48.
[791] In 1412 Hythe sent two of its citizens to London to see the Archbishop and the Lord Chancellor and succeeded in winning some relief from the ancient customary services to the King. In the fifteenth century the Archbishop sometimes appointed the bailiff of Hythe, and sometimes leased out the appointment to the town for a term of years. Cranmer leased it out for ninety-nine years. It only got a mayor under Elizabeth. (Burrows’ Cinque Ports, 215, 217-218; Hist. MSS. Com. iv. i. 434, 429. Boys’ Sandwich, 811.) One man was bailiff for six years from 1389; and a wealthy publican for two years from 1421.
[792] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 531-2.
[793] Ibid. 525-6, 532, 536.
[794] In 1403 “Jurats of Lydd and Dengemarsh made account in the church of S. Nicholas at Romney before the Jurats there of all their outlays and expenses.” Ibid. 536.
[795] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 524-5.