[663] Nottingham Records, i. 363; ii. 362; iv. 43. It will be seen that in this case the word community was sometimes used; the term varied no doubt according to the exact body in which the right was vested that formed the subject of the treaty, and this again might depend partly on the date at which the right was acquired. Cf. the various styles used in Calender of Letters of London Corporation, ed. by Dr. Sharpe.
[664] Some instances of this style follow. There is a mortgage of rent of certain tolls by the “mayor and community,” 1315. Ibid. i. 84. Settlement as to common pasture by “mayor, burgesses, and community,” i. 150. Lease in 1390 by “mayor, chamberlains, and all the burgesses with the assent and will of the entire community,” iii. 425. For similar phrases in 1401 and 1416 iii. 425-6; ii. 106-8. In 1435, ii. 362. In 1443, ii. 408. In 1444, ii. 424. In 1451, iii. 408. In 1467, ii. 269. In 1479 land bequeathed to “mayor, sheriffs, burgesses, and men of Nottingham,” ii. 304-6, 307. For 1480, ii. 420. In 1482 an agreement about the Retford tolls is settled by “the mayor and his brethren and the commonalty of Nottingham,” iii. 427. There is an extreme particularity in the phrase used in 1485, ii. 353. For a lease of land in 1494, iii. 431. For 1504, iii. 325-6.
[665] We may compare this with the Council of Southampton; see pp. 308-11.
[666] In 1435 we read of the mayor, and nine, or possibly eleven, burgesses named “and many other commons in the said hall,” (Nott. Rec. ii. 362.) In 1443 there is something very like the council—the mayor, four justices of the peace named, John Orgram and other “trustworthy men” of the town, and the two chamberlains, who acted “with the assent of the whole community of the town.” (Ibid. ii. 408.) For the fine see ii. 424.
[667] Ibid. ii. 424.
[668] The editor of the Records, Mr. Stevenson, accepts this statement of Gregory, and says that “The council had no existence prior to 1446, and it was at first merely a committee appointed by the burgesses for the management of the affairs of the town.” According to him the townspeople were accustomed to assemble for the discussion of any important business, and “this was the system of government in use prior to the establishment of this committee in 1446.” (Nott. Rec. iv. ix.) He believes further that “it was, no doubt, the abuses arising from this system and the inconvenience of having to call a meeting of the whole community for the consideration of every question connected with the ruling of the town that caused the burgesses to choose the committee of 1446.” (Ibid. xi.)
[669] Ibid. iv. xi.
[670] Nott. Rec. ii. 362, 425, 420. The right of the burgesses to ask for the calling of a common hall is admitted in iii. 342.
[671] Ibid. ii. 186 et sq. There are passages in the charter which seem to convey this impression. In 1465 Elizabeth Woodville confirms a charter to “the mayor, sheriffs, burgesses, and men of the town,” by whatsoever name they might be incorporated and known (ii. 255-7).
[672] Ibid. ii. 202-4. For boundaries of wards see iv. 174.