[743] I have to thank Mr. Hudson for his kindness in giving me this information. He tells me that an assembly on October 7th, 1372, is thus described: “Prima congregatio ibidem tenta die Jovis, &c. ... quatuor Ballivis (eleven persons specially named) et aliis de com’tate presentibus.” This is the constant form in use, whenever the attendance is recorded, down to the last of these rolls in 1385. The number of persons specially named varies from eleven to seventeen. Their similarity in the course of each year suggests that they were specially bound to attend. In two years 1377-8 and 1379-80 the attendances are recorded several times, and, as in the first case the total number of persons named is twenty-five and in the other twenty-four, it seems reasonably certain that they were the actual twenty-four. This is confirmed by the fact that almost all the “committee,” as they would now be called, are appointed from their number and almost the whole burden of administration is undertaken by one or other of them in conjunction with the bailiffs.
[744] Citizens left legacies to help in these expenses. Not only was £1,000 lent to the King, but heavy bribes had to be paid all round. Blomefield, iii. 120.
[745] Town Close Evidences, 36. In considering the new style two views present themselves. We may lay the whole stress on the association of mayor and sheriffs instead of bailiffs with “the citizens and commonalty”; or, as I incline to think, we may also attach importance to the formal association in a charter of “citizens” and “commonalty,” as marking an epoch in the civic history.
[746] Mr. Hudson has been good enough to give me these dates and facts, in which he has been able to correct Blomefield’s statements, from evidence in the Norwich Conveyance Rolls, etc.
[747] Blomefield, iii. 123-124. Hudson, Mun. Org., Arch. Journ. xlvi. no. 184, 299.
[748] Town Close Evidences, 37-43.
[749] In 1354 it was ordered that London aldermen should not be elected yearly but hold office for life. (Stow’s London, 189.) A common council appears as early as 1273; and again in 1347. It was then chosen by the mayor, aldermen, and representatives from the wards. At the end of Edward’s reign the election was transferred to the trading companies, but restored to the wards in 1384; to be given back to the companies by Edward the Fourth in 1467; and restored to the wards in 1650. (Merewether and Stephens, 734-5, 1988-1992.)
[750] All that had been mayors were to ride in their cloaks whenever the mayor rode on pain of £20, each of the twenty-four on pain of 100s. The hat of the mayor cost in 1418 2s. 10d., in 1437 10s. 2d. (Rogers’ Agric. and Prices, iv. 579.)
[751] Town Close Evidences, 40-1.
[752] Conesford elected twelve councillors, Mancroft sixteen, Wymer twenty, and the Ward over the Water twelve.