There was also the Bishop’s Court for questions connected with Church property and the claims of the Church.
The officers of the City consisted of the following:—
First the principal officers—
Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs.
The Court of Common Council.
The Recorder, the Chamberlain, the Common Serjeant-at-Law, the Common Clerk.
The Common Serjeant-at-Arms or the Common Crier, the Clerks of the proceedings, the Serjeants of the Mayor and the Chamberlain, the Constables, the Scavagers, the Bedels, the Brokers, the Ale-Conners, the Under-Sheriffs and the Clerks of the Sheriffs, the Sheriffs’ Serjeants, the Serjeants’ Grooms, the Bailiffs of the Market, the Wardens and Bailiffs of the Bridge, etc.
There was great jealousy as to admission to the freedom of the City.
“Also, because as well in times past, out of memory, as also in modern times, the City aforesaid is wont to be defended and governed by the aid and counsels as well of the reputable men of the trades-merchant as of the other trades-handicraft; and from of old it hath been the usage, that no strange person, native or alien, as to whose conversation and condition there is no certain knowledge, shall be admitted to the freedom of the City, unless first, the merchants or traders of the City following the trade which the person so to be admitted intends to adopt, shall be lawfully convoked; that so, by such his fellow-citizens, so convoked, the Mayor and Aldermen, aforesaid, being certified as to the condition and trustworthiness of the persons so to be admitted, may know whether such persons ought to be admitted or rejected; the whole community demands, that the form aforesaid, so far as concerns the more important trades and handicrafts, shall in future be inviolably observed, that so no person in future may against the provision aforesaid be admitted to the freedom of the City.” (Liber Albus, p. 425.)
On the post and duties of the Coroner, Dr. Reginald Sharpe (Letter Book B) furnishes valuable information.