Section XII.
History of Wisbeach continued.
Wisbeach was formerly a parliamentary borough, and that as early as the reign of Edward I. [99] The exact time when it ceased to be so, does not appear. That privilege was afterward restored to it under the protectorate, but withdrawn again at the restoration, and never restored since; while such insignificant places as Castle-Rising and others of a similar description, still continue (absurdly and ridiculously enough, it must be said) to enjoy that privilege. Were such paltry places disfranchised, to make room for the admission of such as Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield, it would appear very reasonable; but as that is not at present to be looked for, we will here dismiss the subject.
Ever since the reign of Edward VI. Wisbeach has been a corporate town, but of a sort most singular and whimsical, and at the same time the most harmless that can well be thought of. Had all our corporations been like it, there would have been, it is presumed, not much reason to complain of them. This corporation appears to have emanated from a religious fraternity, called the Guild of the Holy Trinity, instituted in 1379, and possessed of estates for pious and charitable purposes. This establishment shared the general fate of ecclesiastical foundations in the reign of Henry VIII; but Edward VI, on his accession to the throne, having passed an act which provided for the security of those institutions that had been originally founded, either as grammar-schools, for relief of poor persons, or for the maintenance of “piers, jetties, walls, or banks against the rage of the sea, &c.” the inhabitants of Wisbeach availed themselves of the statute, and through the solicitations of Gooderich, bishop of Ely, were elevated into a corporation, on the 1st of June, 1549, and invested with all the possessions of Trinity Guild, (lying in eight different parishes, and occupied by thirty-nine tenants) the revenues of which were then estimated at 28l. 2s. 3½d. but were, undoubtedly, much greater. [100]
By king Edward’s charter the inhabitants were directed to assemble annually, and elect ten men, who were to have the direction of the business of the body-corporate: yet for the first thirty six years after the charter was obtained, they seem to have done little else than meet, once a month in the town-hall, and, “out of mutual love and amity,” immediately adjourn to a tavern, where having dined, [101] they decided petty controversies among the inhabitants. Afterwards they proceeded further than they were warranted by the charter: they took cognizance of the accounts of the churchwardens, and surveyors of the highways; they directed the application of money over which they had no right; assumed the privilege of levying an acre-tax; and moreover, during the plague, which raged here in 1588 and 1588, they summoned delinquents before them, and punished them at their own pleasure.
On the 28th of January 1610–11, the inhabitants obtained a renewal of their charter, at the great expence of 193l. 19s. 3d. They were then constituted a body-corporate, by the style of “the Burgesses of the town of Wisbeach;” but the right of election of the ten men, thenceforward named “Capital Burgesses,” was limited to the possessors of freeholds of the value of 40s. a year. From this period the said ten men, as we are informed, became objects of veneration and confidence, and were entrusted with the care of nearly all the donations for the benefit of the poor.
On the 17th of February 1669 they obtained a second renewal or confirmation of their charter; on what occasion we cannot discover. Their executive officer is the Town-Bailiff, [102] who, though a person wholly unknown to the charter, has the entire management of the estates and affairs of the corporation. He is not at liberty, however, to expend more than 5l. at one time, without an express order of the body-corporate.—These Capital Burgesses have no connection with the jurisprudence of the town, her have they any degree of civil authority, as the civil government of the town is not distinct from the general magistracy of the Isle of Ely, in which it stands: their principal business is to regulate the management of the revenues of the estates bequeathed, partly for charitable, but chiefly for public purposes. The income, of which they direct the expenditure, amounts to about 800l. annually; and to the credit and honour of the parties concerned, we are told, that it appears to be not only honestly, but even wisely expended. Part of the said sum arises from a grant made to the corporation by the Trinity House, in 1710, of one penny per ton upon all goods exported and imported, for the purpose of maintaining buoys and beacons, and keeping clear the channel of the river.
Among other improvements to which their attention has been directed, was the building of an elegant stone bridge, in the room of the old wooden one, over the great river. This was done about 1767, at the expence of nearly 2,300l. It consists of one elliptical arch, very accurately proportioned. A new Custom-House has been also erected; and the streets are cleaned, lighted, and watched, at their expence. Of late a new Jail and Shire-hall have been likewise built; and when a few more improvements are made, and especially the finishing of the circus, but few towns will be more handsome than Wisbeach. The Theatre is a commodious buildings in nearly a central situation. The Rose Inn, where balls and monthly assemblies are held, is said to have been a place of public reception from the year 1475, at which period it was known by the sign of the Horn; and on one of the out-buildings, erected in 1601, the figure of a horn is yet to be seen.
The trade of Wisbeach is said to have much increased of late years, through the improved state of the drainage and navigation of the fens, and consequent augmentation of the produce and consumption of the country: and it would, no doubt, have increased much more, but for the bad state of the harbour or river below. The average of the exports and imports amounts to 40,000 tons annually. The principal articles of traffic are coals, corn, timber, and wine. The neighbouring lands are in high cultivation, chiefly on the grazing System. The Sheep and oxen grow to a great size, and considerable numbers of them are fattened, and sent twice every week to the London market. The inhabitants are employed in commerce, there being no manufacture of any kind in the place, though the surrounding country produces immense quantities of wool, hemp, and flax. The market is abundantly supplied with poultry, fish, and butchers meat; and the trade of the town is further promoted by six small fairs, for hemp and flax, horned cattle and horses. The canal, which was completed a few years ago, extending from Wisbeach river to the river Nene at Outwell, and thence to the river Ouse at Salters-Lode Sluice, opened a communication with Norfolk, Suffolk, and other counties, and has already benefited the town considerably. [104]
The Summer Assizes, and the January and Midsummer quarter sessions for the Isle of Ely, are held at Wisbeach; where the magistrates assemble also every Wednesday and Saturday to settle the assize of bread, and for other purposes. The chief Justice of the Isle, and all other magistrates are appointed by the bishop, who is here invested with temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction. The education of youth at Wisbeach is provided for by a free school, and two charity schools, supported by voluntary contributions. The appointment of Master of the Free-School is vested in the Capital Burgesses, with the consent of any other ten inhabitants, having voices in the election of those Burgesses. It appears that the Trinity Guild used to allow the Schoolmaster the annual salary of 10l. 6s. 8d. and that they also distributed annually among the poor the sum of 3l. 15s. which last sum, as Mr. Hutchesson assures us, has been continued invariably to this day. But 3l. 15s. is now a very paltry sum, indeed, compared to what it was in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its value now is scarcely a tenth part of what it was then. [105]